- Military engagements with the Cylons push the Colonial Fleet toward an ice planet, where a vanguard discovers a Cylon weapon capable of singlehandedly destroying the Galactica.
- A special task force, made up out of mostly convicts, is dispatched to destroy a giant Cylon operated pulsar cannon on the planet Arcta directly in the Colonial Fleet's path. Having earlier lost three cadets - 2 to the pulsar and the other forced to land and captured - Starbuck is eager to join the expedition for once. Boxey and Muffit also stow away on the shuttle to join the group.—The TV Archaeologist
- The Galactica launches five Vipers, led by Starbuck and Boomer, on a deep space recon. Starbuck and Boomer are teamed with three cadets - Bo, Cree, and Shields; Cree's rawness becomes evident when he drifts too close to Boomer and is called out to get into proper formation. The recon is needed as Commander Adama is suspicious of a recent attack by Cylon raiders that disengaged too suddenly to write it off as a victory; he believes that the Cylons are squeezing the ragtag Fleet into a "safe" passage of a spatial "pocket" between unpassable space and several solar systems suspected of being under Cylon control.
Closing on a solar system, the Viper probe encounters a small moon. Starbuck requests a scan from the Galactica and Flight Officer Rigel obliges. The scan shows the spatial body to be in effect an ice planet, its environment hostile. Colonel Tigh orders the probe to stay out of the moon's gravitational pull, so Starbuck orders Cadet Bo to take charge of his fellow greenhorns while Starbuck and Boomer orbit around the moon for a closer look.
The moon possesses a breathable atmosphere but the atmosphere contains a dangerous cold gas known as di-ethene, a gas partly generated by Cylon weapon systems. Within the planet's largest mountain rampart is a Cylon garrison, headed by a golden-hued First Centurion, Vulpa. Vulpa had been exiled to this distant outpost but now has opportunity to find the Galactica as the garrison's scanners pick up the three cadet Vipers. Vulpa activates a gigantic pulse-energy laser cannon (the source of much of the di-ethene), and as it builds up energy it gives off a powerful flash of light visible from space, which attracts Bo to get a closer look. It is a fatal mistake as Vulpa orders the Cylon master gunner to fire, and the weapon fires a pulse that blasts Bo out of existence.
Starbuck orders the cadets to back off and alerts the Galactica, but Cree and Shields disobey and plunge full speed into the atmosphere. Too far away to stop them, Starbuck and Boomer record the two cadets' short range telemetry as they fly after the mountaintop pulsar. The Cylons idenify the two incoming Vipers, and Vulpa orders that one pilot be taken alive. At close range the gun fires again, blasting Shields, then a trio of Raiders appears and fires at Cree, forcing him to crash-land. Starbuck and Boomer rocket to the rescue, but there is nothing they can do; Boomer pleads with Starbuck to break off and return to the Galactica, and with furious reluctance Starbuck does just that.
With their scans from Cree and Shields' telemetry, Starbuck and Boomer return to the Galactica bridge and the weapon is identified as a pulsar whose destructive power is infinite out to very great distances; it also confirms that the Cylons are indeed squeezing the Fleet into a trap. Starbuck volunteers to lead a squadron to attack the pulsar but Commander Adama vetoes so suicidal a plan; instead he orders the assembly of a small ground unit to be infiltrated to the moon to probe into the weapon and try and destroy it with solonite charges, explosives powerful enough to do the job.
A computer search is activated for qualified personnel; as this proceeds Starbuck finagles his way into the Galactica's master computer banks, where he surreptitiously enters himself as a qualified warrior for the proposed ground infiltration; but he and others a shocked when the search turns up four ex-warriors imprisoned on the Prison Barge - "We're just handing the safety of the entire Fleet over to a bunch of murderers and cut-throats," Starbuck bitterly says.
Starbuck and Boomer bring the four traitors to the Galactica - Croft, a former commander who was jailed with his three compatriots for plundering a Cylon platinium mine and refusing to surrender his booty to Colonial forces; Wolf, a vicious demolitions expert extremely strong; Thane, an environmental specialist who can lead anyone through anything - even murder; and Leda, a med-tech with the supreme indignity of being married to Croft. Apollo is commander of the entire unit (this after an argument with his father, who'd initially vetoed Apollo's involvement), with Starbuck and Boomer as his seconds and three ground warriors - Haals, Voight, and Vickers - providing additional help.
Boomer is shocked that Starbuck was picked for the mission and becomes more suspicious when Starbuck interrupts Giles, who is packing away Cree's belongings; Starbuck angrilly stops him and Boomer realizes Starbuck got himself programmed onto the mission when the emotional warrior insincerely denies it. Apollo, meanwhile, greets his adopted son Boxey and tells him he has to go on a mission to an ice planet; Boxey wants to see snow but his adopted father quietly dissuades him - or so he thinks.
The assemblege of warriors onto a shuttle immediately gets to a bad beginning when Thane and Wolf immediately attack Haals, Voight, and Vickers; Thane subdues one with a paralyzing smelling substance while Apollo breaks up the fight, then chews out the ex-cons that their lives depend on defeating the Cylons, not each other. With a Viper escort, flown by warrior Killian, the shuttle launches to the ice planet. Upon arriving they are attacked; Killian shoots down a Cylon Raider but is then slaughtered by the pulsar, while another Raider shoots down the shuttle; Starbuck manages to crash-land but they now have to go via snow-ram vehicle, but not before the Raider attacks the crippled shuttle and is shot down by Starbuck manning the snow-ram's laser battery - and they all now have to put up with a pair of stowaways in Boxey and his drone daggit Muffit.
With temperatures dropping to unsurvivable (by humans; the cybernaut Cylons are immune to the cold) levels, the snow-ram is loaded and starts through the snow toward the mountain. Thane and Wolf are plotting to escape, but Croft insist they complete the mission; this only angers Thane more as he believes Croft cares more about getting his rank back than actual freedom. As the ram proceeds another fight erupts between Wolf and Haals; Wolf produces a laser gun and his shot smashes the ram's power cells. The temperatures are now plummeting to levels where the air's di-ethene can turn the atmosphere into liquid.
With the team trapped in the disabled ram, Muffit suddenly bolts into the wilderness; as a machine he can survive the cold, and Apollo only hopes he doesn't inadvertently bring Cylon centurions with him - as indeed Centurions have found the wrecked shuttle and immediately deduce Colonial warriors are starting toward the plateau with the mountaintop pulsar. Muffit is thus going one way, Centurions another, and the robot daggit spots what seem to be Centurions...............except the Cylons find the snow-ram abandoned on the unsurvivable plateau.
The reason it is abandoned becomes clear when the warriors awaken in a cave filled with Cylon laser rifles and armored husks, and much-needed warmth. The cave is the territory of a race of clones - heavily-bearded males and slim, blonde females. One of the females pointedly states they prefer to be known as Theta-class life forms. The clone leader, known as Series Five Culture Nine - Ser 5-9 in shorthand - explains the pulsar is the creation of a human, Doctor Ravoshol, held in reverence as The Father-Creator by the Thetas. Ravoshol works for the Cylons as payment for being kept alive, and other Thetas work within a larger community within the pulsar. Ser 5-9 agrees to take the uninjured members of the team to Ravoshol - but they must maneuver through a ground aperture, with a Cylon patrol marching past above them - and one Centurion stopping as though he has heard a disturbance.
In command of the Cylon force is Baltar, pleased when Lucifer reports the encounter at the ice planet, Arcta. Baltar orders a call for additional base stars, as his own attack force has been thinned by costly battles with the Galactica; Adama, though, does not know Baltar's base star as well as the pulsar garrison are seriously understrength, and the arrival of additional base stars will certainly keep him on edge. Thus does Baltar await the consummation of his strategy.........
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