The tylium asteroid (The Hand of God)

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Overview

The fuel-rich asteroid of the 2004 series' tenth episode: with the fleet two jumps from running dry, Galactica takes a Cylon tylium refinery by a feint and a run through its mining tunnels, and the civilian mining ships gain years of fuel.

History

By the tenth episode of the reimagined series the fleet is almost out of tylium, the mined fuel its jump drives run on, and can make two more jumps at best. Raptors are scouting nearby systems when Boomer and Crashdown find an asteroid holding years' worth of ore. The Cylons have found it first and built a refinery base on it. Adama chooses to take it rather than go on searching, and turns to Starbuck, grounded by a knee injury, for a plan unconventional enough to fool machines.

The plan uses the civilian mining ships as bait on one side of the base while Galactica jumps in on the other; when the Raiders commit, a second squadron of Vipers launches from inside the mining ships with a clear run at the asteroid. Baltar, asked to pick out the containers of volatile refined precursor from reconnaissance photographs, guesses, and Apollo, dodging the base's defences by flying through the tylium mining tunnels to its centre, drops his charges on the container Baltar chose. The base goes up with the force of a three-kiloton warhead; the guess was right, and Baltar begins to believe his hand was guided. The civilian mining ships then take enough tylium from the asteroid to last the fleet several years.

Workings

Cylon mining tunnels running from the surface to the centre of the asteroid, with the refinery and its precursor tanks above; the ore, a fine powder in its raw state, is liquefied and refined into fuel by refinery ships. The base could not simply be bombarded with a nuclear weapon, since the radiation would have rendered the ore inert.

Closure

The Cylon refinery was destroyed in the attack; the ore body was not, and the fleet worked it afterwards.

What became of it

Worked by the fleet's mining ships after the episode; not seen again.

Canon & adaptations

The 1978 series has its own tylium mine, the Ovion workings on the planet Carillon, which blow up when the Colonials ignite the ore with their weapons; the two series even pronounce the word differently. This record is the 2004 asteroid.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

• With the fleet two jumps from running out of fuel, a Raptor finds an asteroid holding years' worth of tylium ore on which the Cylons have already built a refinery base. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• Apollo avoids the base's defences by flying through its tylium mining tunnels and bombs the precursor container Baltar had guessed at; the base explodes with the force of a three-kiloton warhead. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The civilian mining ships take enough tylium from the asteroid to supply the fleet for several years. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The base could not be destroyed with a nuclear weapon because the radiation would have rendered the tylium inert. (MineArchive inference) ^3,1

Sources

1. (interpretation) The Hand of God (RDM) — Battlestar Wiki — Battlestar Wiki
2. (interpretation) The Hand of God (2004 Battlestar Galactica) — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
3. (interpretation) Tylium — Battlestar Wiki — Battlestar Wiki, covering both the 1978 and 2004 series

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026