Battlestars are capital ships from the science fiction universe of Battlestar Galactica, depicted in the original Battlestar Galactica movie and series, the Galactica 1980 spinoff, and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.
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Battlestars are the premier capital ships, effectively the space equivalent of aircraft carriers, of the 12 Colonies of Man; Battlestars have fought for at least five hundred yahren in the Thousand Yahren War against the Cylon Alliance.
The hull is divided into the main hull with the bridge and propulsion systems, and winged hangar bays on the port and starboard sides. Each hangar bay typically carries many Viper Starfighters and several shuttles. Given the large dimensions of the ship design there is an internal rail car system to transport personnel, especially in the event of a battle alert.
The fuel for a Battlestar and its Vipers is called tylium, a mysterious material that can be found only on certain planets.[1] The Marvel Comic version listed several capabilities not seen in the tv series such as the Wall-a huge corridor, where technicians in huge floating chairs listed with headphones, by way of the Battlestars' sensors, everything from distant quasars, pulsars, super nova remnants and so forth, as a means to keep surveillance on possible Cylon activity or the true location of Earth.
The laser turrets are essentially the same weapon as a Viper's laser cannon based on appearances alone. There are several known types of turret. One, the anti-ship type, is a slow-tracking heavy turret found along the outer edge of both hangar bays. They have longer barrels than other turrets. Above each anti-ship turret is an anti-fighter turret. They are flatter and thinner in appearance and track much faster. Their barrels are smaller and closer together. These weapons however lack the power to significantly damage capital ships.[2]
The forward lasers have only been seen in The Living Legend Part 2 and The Hand of God and are often confused with anti-ship missiles. They are powerful, orange-colored beam weapons solely for capital ship use.[2]
These heavy missiles give a Battlestar enough firepower to utterly destroy at least two Basestars. The only example of their use is in The Living Legend, Part 2, where they are fired at the same time as, and often confused with, the forward lasers.[2]
Eight Battlestars were seen or mentioned by name during the TV series. Of these, five were known to have survived by the time the original movie took place.[1]
A sixth Battlestar (the Pegasus) was thought to have been lost, but reappeared during the series.[2][3]
A Battlestar in the re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica combines the functions of battleship and aircraft carrier. The re-imagined series' Battlestars, as well as the series' other visual effects are designed and created by Zoic Studios for Battlestar Galactica.[6]
Used for defense against incoming missiles and fighters, the flak gun fires a round which appears to work in a similar manner to modern day anti aircraft artillery; a round is fired towards then enemy, detonating and spraying shrapnel in all directions as it reaches them. Both Galactica and Pegasus use their anti-ship cannons to fire flak rounds when not attacking capital ships.
Similar in function to the gun armament carried by fighters, the Galactica's light guns apparently fire simple bullets at the enemy at a high rate of fire.
With dozens or even hundreds of light gun and flak gun emplacements, a Battlestar like Galactica is able to pour a very heavy volume of fire into space, creating a zone which is difficult, though not impossible, for attackers to penetrate.
Galactica style Battlestars carry 20 larger dual-barrel cannons for use against enemy capital ships. Mercury class Battlestars carry 28 and also 4 mounted forward heavy cannons. Such cannon have proven to be able to inflict significant damage upon Cylon Basestars.
Out of about 120 battlestars (Kara Thrace described a loss of thirty as being "almost a quarter of the fleet"), relatively few are known. The Galactica is a model from the Galactica class of battlestar. The Pegasus is from the newer Mercury class of battlestar.
Of these the first Columbia was destroyed during Operation Raptor Talon at the close of the First Cylon war. Yashuman was disabled by the CNP backdoor in the first minutes of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and was presumably destroyed along with most of the rest of the Fleet (these events occurred off screen). The Pegasus just escaped the Fall of the Scorpion Ship yards by a blind jump and was destroyed around two years later at the Battle of New Caprica. The Galactica escaped the Fall and spent the next four or so years protecting the civilian fleet. Badly crippled while destroying the Cylon colony, Galactica and its fleet were piloted into the Sun after the survivors landed on Earth.
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