BSG Fleet Ships Overview

Ships of the fleet

The ADRIATIC

Adriatic is a civilian ship in the fleet that escaped the Cylon destruction of the Twelve Colonies.The Adriatic is one of the few ships in President Laura Roslin's refugee fleet armed with ship-to-ship missiles. It is part of Roslin's fleet that returns to the planet Kobol, and provides defense before the Galactica joins them.

Shortly after the discovery of Kobol, Roslin's fleet jumps to the planet to find the road map to Earth. It is in weapons range of Kara Thrace and her party's stolen Cylon Heavy Raider when it returns from Caprica, though it does not fire. Adriatic and other ships of Roslin's fleet are reunited with those that remained loyal to William Adama and Galactica.

After the fleet is stopped by a great star cluster that puts out immense amounts of stellar radiation, the senior staff decide that the best way to proceed is to shepherd the civilian ships to the other side by using hardened Colonial Raptors, which will be able to "see" for the blinded civilian crews. Adriatric is among the vessels chosen for outbound trip 1, along with Zephyr, Chrion, Pyxis, Cybele, Thera Sita, and Enkidu, and is escorted by Raptor 118, piloted by Brendan Costanza. After offloading non-crucial civilians to Galactica, the vessels proceed. However, Adriatic is lost when Costanza fails to locate it in the cluster and is forced to jump to the next waypoint to avoid radiation poisoning.

This is also the episode in which Kat loses the Carina, and ultimately dies from radiation poisoning. Right before her death, she is promoted to CAG by Admiral Adama.

The Adriatic is never explicitly seen on screen. It appears to be named after the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea that separates Italy from the Balkan peninsula on Earth.

In addition to the body of water, the White Star Line named two of its vessels Adriatic, one entering service in 1871 and the other in 1907.



CYLON RESURRECTION HUB AND SHIPS

The Cylon Resurrection Hub is a space-borne facility which coordinates the resurrection process among all of the Cylon resurrection ships and downloading facilities, with what appears to be a substantial operational range between itself and the rest of the Cylon fleet. It was designed by the Final Five.

Additionally, the Hub itself functions as a resurrection facility, containing resurrection tanks and a large number of spare bodies. As the control center of all resurrections, it is vital to Cylon society. As a safeguard, the Hub periodically jumps to new locations and relays its position to the baseships' Hybrids once completed. The Resurrection Hub is also where boxed Cylon consciousnesses are stored.

The fact that several Cylons such as Gina Inviere face permanent death in the absence of a Resurrection Ship before the Hub's destruction, suggests that the Resurrection Ships act as a kind of 'booster' for the Hub's downloading effect, and the Hub's range and ability to download Cylons' consciousnesses on its own is limited; otherwise no Cylon would have died permanently before this point. Indeed, after obtaining information from Inviere, Gaius Baltar stated that the Resurrection Ships were created for the purpose of extending the range of the normal downloading process.

At the start of the Cylon Civil War, Natalie plans to unbox D'Anna Biers in the hopes of learning the identities of the Final Five. However, the Cavil faction retains possession of the Hub. When Demetrius returns to the Fleet with the renegade baseship, Natalie offers Admiral Adama and President Roslin the chance to destroy the Hub in return for their help unboxing D'Anna. Before the plan is carried out, Natalie is shot by Sharon Agathon and the basestar jumps after Roslin, determined to get some answers about her visions, has the Hybrid reconnected.

The Hybrid follows the Hub, jumping ever closer to it, and eventually catches up. In the ensuing Battle of the Resurrection Hub, an uneasy alliance of Cylons and Colonials attack the Hub, with rebel humanoid Cylon pilots towing powered-down Colonial Vipers behind Heavy Raiders in order to conceal them. Once untethered, the Vipers attack the Hub's FTL drives, stranding it. As the rebel baseship and Heavy Raiders engage the two defending baseships, Karl Agathon and a Number Eight board the Hub to retrieve the restored D'Anna Biers. Once their Raptor clears the Hub, the Vipers fire nuclear missiles, destroying the Hub and at least one of the nearby basestars.

With the Hub's destruction, the Cylons can no longer resurrect and will know permanent death. The Significant Seven are unable to replace the Hub because it is the Final Five's technology and only they knew how it worked. The Cavil/Simon/Doral faction now faces extinction because they cannot resurrect or reproduce. Thanks to the destruction of the Hub and resurrection, Cavil's faction is finally destroyed by Galactica along with The Colony in the Battle of The Colony and they can't resurrect to come back for revenge. Among the confirmed dead from that battle are Cavil, Boomer, and Tory Foster. Later Samuel Anders dies as well. Those deaths are permanant due to the loss of resurrection and with Tory and Anders' deaths, there is no way for resurrection to be rebuilt. If any Cylon survived that cataclysmic battle, they eventually died out of natural causes without the Hub around to resurrect them in new bodies.

The Resurrection Ship is a long, slim vessel composed of a large glass facade underneath a large metal superstructure sectioned off into individual frames. Underneath the glass, are stored the extra Cylon bodies the ship carries, maintained by artificial means until its ready for a new "host" consciousness. The aft end of the ship contains a large antenna, the FTL and sublight engines.

The interior matches with the Cylon basestar: Spartan metallic rooms with square, dim, light fixtures placed on the walls and ceilings. The rooms are occupied by rebirthing tanks, in which a spare body is placed, thus beginning the downloading and resurrection process.

The ship carries no offensive or defensive armaments of any kind, and must rely on the bulk of the Cylon fleet for defense. If left alone, Resurrections Ships are completely vulnerable to even the smallest of attacks to the point that Vipers firing through its windows can destroy it.

While Resurrection Ships perform resurrection duties, its the Resurrection Hub that actually controls resurrection. Destroy that and the Resurrection Ships become useless.

The Resurrection Ship bears a strong resemblance to the United States Air Force Academy chapel.

Given that without a Resurrection Ship the Cylons face permanent death even before the Hub's destruction (The Hub), it seems that the Resurrection ships work as a kind of 'booster' for the range of the Resurrection Hub, suggesting that the Hub's effective download range is limited without its accompanying ships. Given that the Hub contains birthing tanks, it acts as a kind of Resurrection Ship itself also.

Before Baltar briefs Adama and Cain on its true function, Cain speculates that it might be a command ship, while Adama states that it might be a Raider factory. While it is not stated how Raider personalities are resurrected, the caution that the Cylons exhibit after the destruction of the Resurrection Ship suggests that they support the Raiders in some fashion.

BOTANICAL CRUISERS

Botanical Cruisers are ships with bio domes that serve as civilian transports, possible vacation spots, or are used as greenhouses for specialty food or plant-matter production.

They come in sublight and FTL capable versions, as we learned when discussing the colony of Aquaria, most botanical and Agro ships are controlled or owned by Aquarians.

Sublight Cruiser

Newly-inaugurated President Laura Roslin visited the sublight-capable Botanical Cruiser while gathering a caravan from surviving civilian ships surrounding the colony of Caprica. There she meets with the ship's captain and crew to determine their needs, and also meets a young girl named Cami and her grandmother who are traveling on the ship with many others, bound for Caprica City. However, the ship that Roslin visits lacks an FTL drive, and the FTL capable part of President Roslin's caravan of refugee ships are forced to leave Botanical Cruiser and many other sublight ships behind when Cylon Raiders discover and attack the caravan. It is destroyed along with the other left behind sublight ships.

FTL Cruiser

Another Botanical Cruiser, this one equipped with an FTL drive, survives the attacks and joins Galactica's Fleet.

Several months following the escape from New Caprica, it is successfully escorted to the algae planet through a dangerous star cluster on the fifth and final jump, although it appears the biota did not fare so well in the presence of so much ionizing radiation.

It would survive the Battle of the Ionian Nebula and later jumped away when the Rebel baseship jumped in ahead of the sewage recycling freighter Demetrius.

The vessel would still remain with the fleet until the finding of Earth, where it, along with the other remaining vessels in the fleet would be sent into the sun. It is the last vessel seen by Adama as his Viper exits the launch tube.

Also called "Agro Ships", these vessels are nothing more than massive greenhouses filled with all varieties of plants and animals from the colonies. These vessels carry geodesic glass bio-domes. Each dome has an "environmental theme" simulating arid deserts to tropical jungles.

They are sometimes used as a type of smaller and slightly less luxurious cruise liner type ship. The Agro Ships were designed for long and leisurely trips through space and provided simulated environments for guests. They are equipped with up to 15 bio-domes.

The Botanical Cruisers are among the best places to live in the Fleet.

Whatever extra utility visiting members of other ships might have enjoyed has instead thus been converted for more practical purposes. Instead of providing vast gardens of flowers in the bio-domes, orchards and fields of crops have been planted. Thus the "Agro-ships" have really been living up to their names. Although most ships have some form of hydroponic operations aboard, the vast majority of fleet-grown food comes from these vessels.





The ZEPHYR

Zephyr is a FTL-capable civilian passenger liner that manages to escape the destruction of the Twelve Colonies to join the Fleet of surviving Colonial ships. After the destruction of Cloud 9, it acts as the Fleet's rest and recreation vessel.

The Zephyr has many features that set it apart from other Fleet ships.

The most notable of these is the ship's ring. Spinning counter-clockwise to create centrifugal force for a sensation of gravity, the ring is home to a biological habitat, populated with trees, water, and buildings for visiting Colonials to utilize and enjoy. The habitat is enclosed by a glass facade, which leaves views of the aft end of the ship and of the opposite side of the ring to anyone looking up. The ring is supported by four main pylons that connect the ring to the rest of the vessel.

Sublight Engines

The second noteworthy feature is the ship's sublight engines. Compared to the more traditional chemical thruster boosters of other Fleet ships, Zephyr has an engine assembly that closely resembles that of an electric powered drive.

During the attack on the Colonies, Zephyr is one of the first vessels to be found and shepherded by the newly sworn-in president, Laura Roslin. Having an FTL system, it escapes to Ragnar Anchorage to rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica, where it enters the upper atmosphere of Ragnar and waits with other surviving ships. Commander William Adama is prepared to leave the civilians at Ragnar while Galactica goes to fight, but Roslin convinces him to take Zephyr and the rest of the civilian ships and flee the Colonies.

Zephyr is involved in important political events in the early history of the Fleet. Weeks after the Fall, following President Roslin's incarceration, Zephyr hosts the Quorum of Twelve after Galactica's executive officer, Saul Tigh, declares martial law. Months later, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta discovers fraudulent ballots for President Roslin in Zephyr's ballot box during her ill-fated election campaign against Vice President Gaius Baltar; the ballots are later rejected and Baltar is declared the winner.

After the settlement of New Caprica, Zephyr remains in orbit of the planet, its configuration possibly making atmospheric entry impossible. It escapes with Galactica, Pegasus, and the rest of the Colonial vessels that remain in space when the Cylons make an unexpected appearance.

Zephyr is among the first Fleet ships taken through a massive star cluster towards the so-called algae planet.

The ship is home to Baltar's first lawyer in his treason trial, Alan Hughes.

Zephyr, along with the rest of the Fleet, momentarily loses power after jumping to the Ionian Nebula, disabling its FTL drive. As the Fleet attempts to recover, it is discovered by a Cylon task force. The Cylons strike at the civilian vessels, launching two missiles at Zephyr from aft and obliterating a large section of the ring. Zephyr continues to leak oxygen and other debris even after the battle. The damage is eventually repaired, the ring becomes habitable once more, and Zephyr continues on with the Fleet toward Earth.

Several days after leaving Earth, Lieutenant Gaeta is on his way to Zephyr for rest and relaxation along with two Number Eights, Specialist Brooks, Lt. J. "Shark" Finnegan and "Easy" Esrin when an emergency jump and a malfunction separate their Raptor from the rest of the Fleet.

Zephyr eventually makes its way with the remaining Fleet to a planet that would become the Colonials' new home. After the population is offloaded, the ship is guided by Samuel T. Anders into Sol and destroyed.

Zephyr, also referred to as the Space Park, is of Libran registry.

Its enormous ring section was designed in the days when artificial gravity was too expensive to utilize on a commercial ship of that size. This passenger liner design was so successful that it was adapted for scientific and military uses by replacing passenger accommodation with laboratories, auxiliary power generators, and computer cores.

The ship is likely named after the Greek god of the western wind, Zephyrus.

The repair of Zephyr is the first time that large scale repair operations to the outside of a ship within the Fleet can be seen on screen.





Cloud 9


Cloud 9 is a massive, FTL-capable luxury liner within the Fleet. Extensively damaged during the Cylon attack, it had to be evacuated while repairs were made. Following the repairs, it is returned to full service within the Fleet, and provides a venue for the first sitting of the interim Quorum of Twelve convened by President Roslin.

The ship is unique in that as well as traditional living and working space on board, Cloud 9 incorporates a huge pressurized dome, that provides a realistic simulation of a planetary surface, including gardens, buildings, trees, and even an artificial holographic sky. Not only does the dome make this ship more luxurious, but the comfortable hotel rooms, as well as the enjoyable lounges and bars, make this ship popular and well-known to the survivors.

Cloud 9 is also unique in the fact that it is one of the few fleet ships with an asymmetrical design. The ship is split into a long, slim main section that houses the ship's landing bay, numerous hotel suites, and the sublight engines, while the massive dome is connected off the starboard side via a small connecting walkway. This design makes it impossible for Cloud 9 to attain atmospheric flight, as the forces involved would tear the ship apart.

Cloud 9 contains a five-star restaurant, theater, casino, several bars, and numerous hotel rooms and luxury suites.

The dome is mounted to the starboard side of the ship's main hull by a "V" shaped pylon structure which supports a spoon-shaped bow that contains the hotel. Behind the hotel section is a separately attached crew module which also contains the ship's hangar bay, command bridge, engineering, and sub-light/FTL drive engines. Directly under the saucer dome is another set of drive engines.

Inside the dome, many varieties of trees and plants from the Twelve Colonies are grown on the grounds and are cared for by a dedicated gardening staff. The dome also contains an artificial lake used for swimming. At the center of the park is a large auditorium structure used for gatherings and festivals.

The ship has an "open port" policy and does not keep track of those who come and go, which causes numerous security problems and allowed members of the terrorist group "Demand Peace" to use it as a base of operations. Even President Roslin herself fled to Cloud 9 during Commander Adama's military coup.