Basestar (TRS)

This article is about the Re-imagined Series Basestar. For the original version, see Basestar (TOS).

A Cylon basestar

Description

In the re-imagined series, Cylon basestars (also referred to as "baseships" or "Cylon battlestars") are by far the most prominent example of Cylon presence. They easily dwarf a Colonial battlestar and appear to be technologically superior in every way, including no visible means of sublight propulsion as well as being able to release wings of hundreds of Cylon Raiders at the same time (according to the number of launch "slots" located along each of the spires the basestar. A basestar can release as many as 792 Raiders as seen in the following images: 1, 2, and 3).

Beyond this, not much is known about the interior operations or command structure of a basestar. A basestar's size would suggest that they have a large crew complement, although there is ample evidence to suggest their operations are largely automated, or that the basestar itself is a Cylon. There has also been no evidence to suggest that a basestar has a central autonomous commander as done on battlestars and their command hierarchy.

A basestar's weapons complement indicates missiles on a similar principle to the United States' VLS system, which is capable of launching coventional or nuclear missiles. In "scream and leap" ambushes commonly used by basestars, the use of nuclear attacks against capital targets such as Galactica appears prohibited to minimize capital fighter losses to the Cylons or damage to the basestar itself.

Two basestars were torn apart by the kinetic guns of battlestars Pegasus and Galactica in a joint mission to destroy a Cylon Resurrection Ship. It would seem that that basestars rely heavily on their Raiders for close-range defense through sheer numbers of fighters. Since a basestar does not appear to have batteries (the primary offensive/defensive weapons on battlestars), basestars appear quite vulnerable to battlestars in close-range combat (Resurrection Ship, Part II).

A basestar under attack

Encounters with the Colonial Fleet

• As part of an annual offering of diplomacy, the Colonial Fleet staffs the Armistice Station in the hopes that the Cylons will attend, but it goes unfulfilled for forty years. Suddenly, without any warning or detection, a Cylon basestar arrives over the station, and dispatches a Cylon agent to the station. This agent says nothing, but accosts the Armistice Officer as the basestar launches a salvo of missiles and obliterates the station.

• Days later, the Cylons begin their genocidal campaign against the Twelve Colonies. In all likelihood, several basestars and their support craft arrived at each Colonial world and deployed nuclear missiles, airbursting them to annihilate the populace. Several basestars are seen orbitting the ruined planet of Caprica as Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii guided her Raptor to an emergency landing on the planet during the attack. The shattered hulk of a battlestar is also seen (Miniseries).

• A substantial Cylon force consisting of no less than two basestars and several hundred fighters and other small craft converge on Ragnar Anchorage in an attempt to flush out and destroy the fugitive ships led by the battlestar Galactica. After transferring as many armaments and supplies as possible from the munitions depot, Galactica departs the station's surrounding EM storm and presents itself as a shield, allowing the fleet to slip out and make Jumps away. The entire contingent of civilian ships escapes, as does Galactica after she and her Vipers endure a thorough pounding (Miniseries).

• Basestars pursue Galactica and the Colonial Fleet for five full days after the escape from Ragnar. Galactica spurs the Fleet to stay on the move, executing FTL Jump after Jump, only to see the Cylons reappear at each location 33 minutes later (33). The Cylons had apparently infiltrated the Olympic Carrier, a civilian starliner, and were able to track it through each successive Jump. Following the 239th Jump, the Olympic Carrier doesn't immediately rendevous at the jump coordinates, and it is feared the ship is lost. She reappears later, but several indications hint that she has been overtaken by Cylon forces, and the Colonials have no recourse but to destroy the liner. As soon as the liner is destroyed by Galactica's Vipers, the basestars arrive on the scene, and the Colonial Fleet executes their 240th Jump. The Cylons do not follow.

• The fleet eludes further contact with the Cylon forces for several weeks. The planet Kobol is discovered by a single Raptor on a probing reconnaissance mission, and a follow-up mission is planned. This team of three Raptors is surprised to see a basestar now in orbit over Kobol, and the screening Cylon Raiders obliterate one Raptor while shooting down another and forcing it to crash land on the planet below. The remaining Raptor escapes back to battlestar Galactica, relaying the shocking news. Commander Adama devises a plan to eliminate the basestar, using a Raptor fitted with a Cylon Transponder to stealthily deploy a nuclear warhead inside. Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is asked to undertake the mission, accompanied by new ECO Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson. En route, the transponder works exactly as it is designed to, and despite high anxiety at being found out, the pair infiltrate the basestar. The view they are afforded is overwhelming, with a basestar's interior as a vast, cavernous void of bio-mechanical componentry lacking a distinctive floor or ceiling. Surfaces appear organic – fleshy if they were to be touched – resembling the interiors of a Raider. During the deployment of the nuclear warhead, Boomer exits the Raptor and removes her helmet, indicating that the interior space is indeed pressurized and oxygenated, more than likely controlled by ventricle-like airlocks evident during the Raptor's entrance. The pair extricate themselves from inside the basestar, and once outside, detonate the warhead. The annihilation of this basestar represents the first time since the Cylon Attack that Colonial forces had successfully destroyed a basestar (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

• Scant moments after this victory, another basestar ambushes Galactica, causing the crew to perform yet another immediate FTL Jump. This haphazard Jump separates the battlestar from the rest of the Fleet, and a few hours are spent developing a course of action. The decision is made to jump back to Kobol to recalculate the Jump coordinates, and upon doing so, the battlestar and the basestar square off in a vicious engagement. During the recalculation, a Cylon Heavy Raider manages to crash-land on Galactica's starboard flight pod (Scattered). After the battlestar jumps away, the basestar too departs the area after sending a detachment of Centurions to Kobol.

• Upon the reunion of the Colonial Fleet with the assumed-lost battlestar Pegasus, Admiral Helena Cain reveals that a Cylon fleet, consisting of two basestars and a mysterious unknown ship, has been following Galactica (Pegasus). By way of a bold reconnaissance mission in the Colonial Blackbird, the commanding officers discover the identity of the mysterious vessel to be the Cylon Resurrection Ship (Resurrection Ship, Part I). The Colonials concoct an aggressive, intricate plan using stealth, deception, and sheer brute force to eradicate the Resurrection Ship, as well as its escorting basestars. In a brilliant display of firepower, the two battlestars make short work of the two basestars, suffering minimal damage in return (Resurrection Ship, Part II).

• Over a month later, and now devoid of their Resurrection Ship, the Cylons begin employing basestars in new tactical fashion. Two Raptors from Pegasus are lured away from their reconnaissance training mission near a binary star cluster, the crews dispatched, and then set adrift. In his zeal to retrieve the Raptors, newly-promoted Commander Barry Garner disregards both Admiral Adama's orders and Major Lee Adama's advisement and Jumps to the last known location of the missing craft. Pegasus deploys two more Raptors which scan the drifting craft and report that the crews are indeed already dead. Seconds later, three basestars pounce upon the Colonials and immediately engage by launching salvos of nuclear missiles — the first time they've done so since the destruction of the Colonies. Pegasus reels under heavy damage, and only through the heroic self-sacrifice of Commander Garner, the sound direction of Major Adama, and the unwavering support of Pegasus's Vipers (led by Captain "Starbuck" Thrace) the battlestar survives. As a means of buying time until the disabled FTL drive was repaired, Adama directs the battlestar's forward gun batteries to barrage the closest basestar, focusing on the core of it until it is forced to withdraw. Pegasus indeed survived this encounter, albeit with a substantial amount of damage, but it heralded a less brashly aggressive, more subversively calculative approach by the Cylons (The Captain's Hand).

• The most recent appearance of basestars comes at the fall of New Caprica to Cylon occupation. Several basestars emerge from the planet's shrouding nebula, and in the face of overwhelming strength and numbers, an understaffed Colonial Fleet makes a reluctant Jump away, and the Cylons take the planet without firing a shot.

See also

• Basestar launching missiles

Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another

crew member handling electronic countermeasures of a craft; ECOs are standard crew aboard Raptors (see: ECO)

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL