| First appearance | Battlestar Galactica |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Colonial Fleet |
| General characteristics | |
| Fighters | Colonial Vipers |
| Auxiliary craft | Colonial Raptors |
| Armaments | Gun batteries Point-defense KEWs Nuclear missiles Ship to ship missiles |
| Propulsion | Sublight engines FTL drive |
A battlestar is a space battleship in the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The reimagined series' battlestars, as well as the series' other visual effects were designed and created by Zoic Studios for Battlestar Galactica.[1]
The battlestars Galactica, Atlantia, Triton, Solaria and Columbia were named in the miniseries; battlestars Pegasus and Valkyrie were seen during the subsequent television series. Initially, twelve battlestars were built at the start of the first Cylon War, one for each of the Twelve Colonies, Galactica represented the colony of Caprica.[2] The fleet had grown by the time of the miniseries, as over thirty were lost during the opening wave of the Cylon attack, a loss which Kara Thrace describes as "a quarter of the fleet".[2][3]
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A Colonial battlestar is an immense capital ship and is constructed as a series of discrete modules. The wedge-shaped fore section contains the CIC, among other facilities. The aft section contains both conventional (sublight) and FTL propulsion systems. The midsection is where the battlestar's flight pods are mounted, with large support pylons connecting them to the rest of the ship. There are internal transit corridors large enough to move Vipers (and presumably Raptors) from one flight pod to the other.[3] Thus large-scale flight operations are possible even if one flight pod is crippled or otherwise unusable: the battlestar Galactica is able on numerous occasions to hold off massive Cylon attacks, and even to conduct several offensive operations, with her entire starboard flight pod converted to a museum.
Battlestars are seen to possess two flight pods. Galactica's flight pods retract during an FTL jump, though the same is not true of Pegasus or Valkyrie. The flight pods serve as landing bays for spacecraft. Each flight pod appears somewhat as a gigantic, rounded triangular tube, with a flat deck running inside the length of the pod, completely open to space at the ends. This deck serves as a landing pad for Vipers, Raptors, and small civilian ships such as Colonial One. After touching down, Vipers and Raptors move to a side elevator lift and descend to an enclosed, pressurized lower hangar bay, where they are maintained. The launch tubes for Viper egress are also located on this lower level. Each tube has a large, reinforced airlock at the hangar end, while the other end is open to space. Once a Viper is mounted on the airlock's launch catapult, an airtight blast door closes behind the Viper and the space door opens, clearing the Viper to launch. The Mercury class battlestars, such as Pegasus, have "doubled" flight pods. There is a second landing deck running the length of each flight pod that is situated "upside down" relative to the ship and its two "regular" landing decks. Vipers on approach to these secondary decks roll 180 degrees ("on their backs") prior to landing. It is unclear whether there are two hangar and maintenance decks per flight pod as well, or whether ships landing on the second deck must be flipped over into the gravity field of a single pressurized hangar bay.
While it is possible for Galactica to jump without retracting her pods, heavy damage occurs the one time the ship is seen to jump this way. This may explain why Galactica always retracts them before a jump is initiated; though the heavy damage to Galactica following her final jump may instead be due to the advanced deterioration and decay of her structure and armor after more than forty years of service, four years of continual heavy combat, a desperate atmospheric reentry, and no access to an orbital shipyard.
Galactica was shown to possess six sub light engine pods[3] while Pegasus has eight.[4] Battlestars were highly maneuverable and were capable of docking with space stations, such as the Ragnar Anchorage.[3]
Battlestars of Galactica's class were protected by ribs covered by armored plating designed to catch and detonate incoming ordnance away from the armor and hull. Newer battlestars were covered with smooth armor plating. The miniseries shows Galactica withstanding a direct nuclear detonation with little apparent damage to its command structure and fighter bays.[3] The newer Mercury class battlestar Pegasus was apparently more resilient and withstood at least three nuclear hits during a Cylon ambush; not only did Pegasus remain operational, she inflicted heavy damage to a Cylon Basestar with her forward batteries.[4]
The battlestar Galactica was originally equipped with 80 Viper Mk. I fighters. During the First Cylon War these were replaced with the Mk. II version. In addition to improved maneuverability, the Mk. II fighters are also equipped with two light missile racks.[2]
Before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, Pegasus's fighter squadrons were flying the newer Mk. VII Vipers. Most of Galactica's Mk. VIIs had been reassigned with the battlestar's pending decommission; the Galactica's remaining squadron of Mk. VII fighters were destroyed by a pair of Raiders immediately after their avionic systems were incapacitated by the Cylon computer virus.
Following the outbreak of the Second Cylon War, the Vipers in the ship's starboard hangar museum were aging Mk. II's which were pressed back into service. These fighters, supplemented by a small number of retrofitted Mk. VII's, gave Galactica an effective air group of roughly forty Vipers. Attrition over the following months reduced this number as the ship and her fleet of civilian craft were pursued by the Cylons.[9] The arrival of Pegasus with her mostly intact squadrons and Viper production facilities were a huge boost to Galactica's dwindling air group. With the destruction of the Pegasus her squadrons were subsequently transferred to Galactica, giving the latter a full complement of fighters that were largely Mk VII Vipers.[10]
Galactica was also equipped with numerous FTL jump capable Raptors, multi-role spacecraft used for transportation, reconnaissance, scouting, and electronic countermeasures.
Galactica's crew complement prior to its scheduled decommissioning was around 2,000.[2] This figure would be much higher for a fully equipped battlestar, exceeding the 5,000 mark. After the Cylon attack, Galactica's crew complement rose to over 2,500 as civilians joined the service.
After the settlement of New Caprica, Galactica's crew was gradually reduced as personnel left the ship to join the civilians on the planet surface.[11] When the Cylons returned after the colonization of New Caprica, Galactica was manned by a skeleton crew.[11]
After the rescue of the civilian population from New Caprica, Galactica's crew was bolstered by the return of the retired crew members from the planet as well as the survivors of Pegasus. It is implied that most if not all the Pegasus crew escaped the loss of their ship, bringing Galactica's crew close to full strength.
A battlestar's crew, aside from the Colonial Marines component present aboard the vessel, consisted of Colonial Fleet personnel. As such, the crew falls into a common, hierarchical, military rank structure. This hierarchy was divided into two broad groups: commissioned officers who exercise command oversight; and enlisted personnel (including non-commissioned officers) who performed technical duties or exercise first line supervisory authority.
When separated from their Raider groups, Cylon basestars appear to be no match for Colonial battlestars in ship to ship combat. Indeed throughout the series Colonial battlestars demonstrate a marked superiority over their Cylon counterparts in this area. In the season two episode "Resurrection Ship, Part II", with both sides' fighter groups engaged elsewhere, the battlestars Galactica and Pegasus successfully engaged and destroyed at least one basestar and at least heavily damaged a second. The battlestars used the tactic of isolating and circling one basestar at a time and maintaining a constant barrage of gunfire until it was destroyed. A similar tactic of having Cylon Raiders occupied elsewhere was used in the battle of New Caprica. Galactica was able to fight four basestars simultaneously (albeit with heavy damage). With the later arrival of Pegasus, three of the four basestars were destroyed, although with the loss of Pegasus as well.
The role and performance of the basestars indicate that they are not nearly as well armored or armed as battlestars. Their offensive and defensive capabilities are dependent mainly on their Raiders. Although basestars possess missile silos that can be used in ship to ship combat and in orbital bombardment, once deprived of their Raiders, basestars are vulnerable because they have no heavy guns and virtually no armor. In contrast, while Colonial battlestars are dependent on their Viper squadrons for offense and defense, they are also heavily armored against both nuclear and conventional weapons, and possess an array of both light and heavy gun batteries. Battlestar heavy gunfire and missiles have proven very effective in ship to ship engagements. Moreover, the high volume and rate of gunfire permitted a battlestar to establish and maintain a defensive perimeter, shielding it from both Raider and missile attacks.
Additionally, a basestar appeared to be much less maneuverable than a battlestar. It is possible to surmise that the design of a basestar is intended to exchange armor, firepower and maneuverability for additional space in which to store Raiders. Battlestars, conversely, trade size and hangar space for increased maneuverability, firepower and armor.
One exemplar of a battlestar's toughness is Galactica. Though fifty years old and scheduled for decommissioning, she proved remarkably resilient. Galactica successfully engaged in battle after battle, continually taking damage and only able to perform makeshift, ad hoc repairs before the next attack. During the Battle of New Caprica, Galactica took serious structural damage, enough for Colonel Tigh to remark that it would take six weeks in dry dock "just to bang out the dents", indicating it would likely take months of work to repair her completely. After these events, Galactica was still capable of defending the fleet against a major Cylon attack at the end of the third season. Towards the end of the fourth season, it was revealed that the ship was slowly falling apart due to stress fractures, presumably a result of cumulative battle damage and the fact that the original builders 'cut corners' during the ship's construction. Despite her weakened condition, Galactica was able to engage the much larger Cylon Colony. The ship took an enormous amount of fire from the colony and was further damaged when she was deliberately rammed into her Cylon adversary. Galactica managed to jump away from the destroyed colony, but without proper preparation (her flight pods were extended) and sustained severe structural damage. This was enough to 'break her back' - the battlestar would never be able to jump again. Despite this, the ship remained operable, with sublight engines and life support still intact, and was even able to resume limited flight operations during the colonization of the world the Colonials dubbed Earth.
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