Cylon Basestar (re-imagining)

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Cylon Basestar
Cylon Basestars, one firing nuclear missiles
First appearance	Mini Series, Part 1
Affiliation	Cylons
General Characteristics
Fighters	Cylon Raiders Cylon Heavy Raiders
Armaments	Nuclear missiles Conventional missiles

The Basestar, or Baseship is the primary capital ship of the Cylons within the re-imagining of the science fiction mini-series and television series Battlestar Galactica. They are different in appearance to the original Basestars of the original 1978 television series.

Contents 1 General description 2 The Hybrid 3 Defense 4 References 5 External links

[edit] General description

The Basestar is designed to make FTL jumps, is equipped to deploy large-scale strikes with nuclear and conventional ordnance, and is of a different design to the Basestar as seen in the original series; the original design appears (in model form) in the 2003 Miniseries as a Basestar from the First Cylon War.^[1] Basestars are biomechanical entities, with fleshy "hangars" to house Raiders. Basestars are, however, capable of carrying other Cylon models within them.^[2]

The presence of a Basestar is generally enough to make the Galactica decline battle; however, in the Season 2 episode "Resurrection Ship, Part 2", with both sides' fighter groups engaged elsewhere, the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus were able to engage and destroy one Basestar in ship-to-ship combat. The second Basestar was not seen to explode onscreen, however she took massive visible damage, and it would seem unlikely that the ship survived until the Cylons jumped away at the conclusion of the battle. Robbed of their Raider fleet (which is much larger than a Battlestar's Viper complement), they appeared to be no match for the Battlestars. The Battlestars used the tactic of circling one Basestar while firing upon it until destroyed.^[3] A similar tactic was used in the battle of New Caprica in which the Galactica used diversions to occupy the Cylon Raiders elsewhere, and fought four Basestars simultaneously. With the arrival of the Pegasus, three Basestars were lost - one by direct ramming, and a second due to collateral damage from the resulting explosion and debris. Another Basestar was destroyed by direct fire from the Pegasus' main cannon batteries to the central hub.^[4]

[edit] The Hybrid

The Basestars' internal functions are controlled by a part-biological, part-machine central computer system known as the Hybrid. The biological part of the Hybrid is a female humanoid Cylon-like being, housed inside an immersion tank similar to a Cylon rebirthing tank and attached to the mechanical part of the Basestar computers by umbilicals.^[5] The Hybrids do not have a completely human body, but rather appear to be more like cyborgs, consisting of conduits and other connectors mated to, or in place of elements of their bodies. The Hybrid is not one of the "twelve models" of humanoid Cylon, but is a separate model that effectively further bridges the gap from fully mechanical Centurion, to partially biomechanical Raider, to Hybrid, to humanoid Cylon. They are similar to the autonomous biomechanical pilots within Raiders, specially constructed as living computers that manage the autonomic functions of the basestar, including navigation and FTL jumps, climate control, and the like. The Hybrids are so integrated into the basestar's functionality that they are, for all practical purposes, the basestar.

The Hybrid is revealed to be capable of having its own opinions and thoughts, but does not have a say in decisions made by the humanoid Cylon models. The humanoid Cylon models control the Basestar via "control panels" in the Basestar's Control Room that are made up of a red flowing substance that seems to take the commands to the Hybrid itself.^[5]

The Hybrid speaks strange, seemingly random phrases, which most Cylons interpret as the nonsensical babbling of a deranged mind. However, the Leoben Conoy model of Cylons believe that every word the Hybrid speaks means something, and that the Cylon god speaks through the Hybrids. The Caprica Model Six Cylon, however, has given an alternate explanation: the Hybrids do not perceive their existence in the same way as normal beings. They possess an expanded awareness of being one entity existing in space (as we perceive ourselves as one being perceiving our surroundings) as well as perceiving all activity in their interior.^[5] The hybrid may also express the state of the ship physically, as seen during an FTL jump when the Hybrid has a physical reaction, similar to an orgasm.^[5]

Example of Hybrid dialogue:

"Two protons expelled at each coupling site creates the mode of force the embryo becomes a fish that we don't enter until A-plate we're here to experience evolve the little toe atrophy don't ask me how I'll be dead in a thousand light years thank you thank you Genesis turns to its source reduction occurs stepwise though the essence is all one end of line. FTL system check diagnostic functions within parameters repeats the harlequin the agony exquisite the colors run the path of ashes fifty-two percent of heat exchanger cross-collateralized with hyperdimensional matrix upper senses repair ordered relay to zero, zero, zero, zero..."

[edit] Defense

Visually, Basestars lack the armor of Colonial Battlestars and have no visible means of propulsion. In contrast, Mercury-class Battlestars, such as the Pegasus, have been shown to sustain at least three hits from nuclear weapons and still maintain the ability to devastate Basestars with offensive batteries at close range.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Basestar at the BattlestarWiki, a Battlestar Galactica wiki.

Battlestar Galactica spaceships
Colonial Military
Battlestar (Original | Re-imagined)		Military Vessels
Galactica | Pegasus | Valkyrie		Viper | Raptor | Blackbird | Stealthstar
"The Fleet"
Astral Queen | Colonial One | Cloud 9 | other..
Cylon Vessels
Basestar | Raider | Heavy Raider | Resurrection Ship