The eponymous Ravashol pulsar is Dr. Ravashol's creation, designed to be a peaceful but powerful communications device transmitting information through laser energy. Built into the side of Mount Hekla by Ravashol's Theta-class lifeforms, the device is captured during the Cylon Empire's occupation of Arcta.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Cimtar, the Cylons establish a garrison lead by Vulpa to guard the instrument, utilizing it as an offensive weapon that is capable of destroying Galactica in a single pulse, in addition to the other ships under her protection.
Otherwise undetectable by long range scans, Cadet Cree's scans record the pulsar's ramparts are fourteen metrons high and a destructive power infinite within a span of two hectars (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I").
Captain Apollo leads a specialized band of Colonial Warriors (including prisoners) in a successful mission to destroy the emplacement, with the assistance of Ravashol and the Thetas, thus allowing the Fleet to safely pass Arcta (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part II").
Tie-in Material Information
- According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):
- Ravishol, the brooding genius of the Physics Department of the Tauron Center for Science and the Arts, was an idealist and a pacifist whose research nearly gave the Cylons the key to intergalactic domination. Ravishol's work in intergalactic communication was fueled by an immense faith in the legendary Thirteenth Colony, Earth, which he believed had been established outside our own Cyranus Galaxy. On the lonely asteroid Arcta, he designed and constructed a supremely powerful communication device powered by the direct fusion of tritium and deuterium that he dubbed the Pulsar. The Pulsar was to transmit intense, electromagnetic waves in a simple but unmistakable ordered pattern to catch the attention of distant alien beings who were monitoring or observing deep space. Ravishol's plan was to gradually increase the complexity of his message to form a code that his unseen beings would in time decipher, eventually leading to full-fledged two-way communication. Dr. Ravishol's dream was never realized, however. The Cylon Empire seized the Arcta laboratories shortly after the Final Destruction and converted the Pulsar's vast energy-conversion systems into an Ultimate Weapon that could deliver utter destruction to any corner of the Cyranus Galaxy. The Battlestar Galactica fortunately destroyed the Pulsar, and in that raid many of Ravishol's breakthroughs in energy conversion and transmission were lost, perhaps for all time. [1]
Related Imagery
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The internal components of the Ravashol pulsar as the system activates (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I").
References
- ↑ Kraus, Bruce (1979). Encyclopedia Galactica, p. 49.