The Fleet (TRS): Difference between revisions

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(Pirys --> Pixys)
(Addition of the Aurora, change of position for Chiron and addition of seen ship)
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====Civilian Vessels====
====Civilian Vessels====
* ''[[Astral Queen]]'', a prison ship carrying 1,500 prisoners, including [[Tom Zarek]] ([[Bastille Day]])
* ''[[Astral Queen]]'', a prison ship carrying 1,500 prisoners, including [[Tom Zarek]] ([[Bastille Day]])
* A [[Botanical Cruiser]]: A sublight-only version  was destroyed in the [[Miniseries]],  and at least one [[FTL]]-equipped Botanical Cruiser exists ([[The Passage]])
* [[Botanical Cruiser]]: A sublight-only vessel that was destroyed [[Miniseries]]
* At least one [[FTL]]-equipped Botanical Cruiser exists ([[The Passage]])
* ''[[Daru Mozu]]'', a [[tylium]] refinery ship. Damaged by a suicide bomber ([[Epiphanies]])
* ''[[Daru Mozu]]'', a [[tylium]] refinery ship. Damaged by a suicide bomber ([[Epiphanies]])
* ''[[Gemenon Traveller]]'', a civilian ship where a copy of [[Leoben Conoy]] is captured ([[Flesh and Bone]])
* ''[[Gemenon Traveller]]'', a civilian ship where a copy of [[Leoben Conoy]] is captured ([[Flesh and Bone]])
* [[Gemini (RDM)|''Gemini'']], a freighter ([[Miniseries]])
* [[Gemini (RDM)|''Gemini'']], a freighter ([[Miniseries]])
** At least one similar ship destroyed in the ''Cloud 9'' disaster
** At least one similar ship seen throughout the fleet
* ''[[Gideon]]'', a supply ship involved in an incident where four civilians were killed by ''Galactica'' [[marines]] ([[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]])
* ''[[Gideon]]'', a supply ship involved in an incident where four civilians were killed by ''Galactica'' [[marines]] ([[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]])
* ''[[Prometheus]]'', an "off the grid" freighter involved in the [[black market (organization)|black market]]
* ''[[Prometheus]]'', an "off the grid" freighter involved in the [[black market (organization)|black market]]
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=====[[Intersun Passenger Cruiser]]s=====
=====[[Intersun Passenger Cruiser]]s=====
* ''[[Olympic Carrier]]'', destroyed after an apparent Cylon takeover ([[33]])
* ''[[Olympic Carrier]]'', destroyed after an apparent Cylon takeover ([[33]])
* ''[[Gemenon Liner 1701]]'', found by ''Colonial One'' shortly after Laura Roslin's hasty inauguration ([[Miniseries]])
* ''[[Gemenon Liner 1701]]'', evacuated by ''Colonial One'' shortly after Laura Roslin's hasty inauguration ([[Miniseries]])
* Unnamed [[Orange Passenger Cruiser]] ([[Miniseries]])
* An Unamed ''[[Gemon Liners Passenger Cruiser]]'' [[33]]
* An Unnamed [[Orange Passenger Cruiser]] ([[Miniseries]])
* An unnamed ''[[Pan Galactic]]'' spaceliner ([[Miniseries]])
* An unnamed ''[[Pan Galactic]]'' spaceliner ([[Miniseries]])
* ''[[Chiron]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"; successfully shepherded to the [[algae planet]] ([[The Passage]])


=====Celestra Type=====
=====Celestra Type=====
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* ''[[Majahual]]'', a mining ship digging for crucial metals ([[Scar]])
* ''[[Majahual]]'', a mining ship digging for crucial metals ([[Scar]])
* ''[[Monarch]]'', a mining ship that joined the [[Laura Roslin faction]] ([[Home, Part I]]), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Monarch]]'', a mining ship that joined the [[Laura Roslin faction]] ([[Home, Part I]]), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
*four other mining ships seen throughout the fleet


=====Mentioned Only=====
=====Mentioned Only=====
* ''[[Adriana]]''(?), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Adriatria]]''(?), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Adriatic]]'', a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles ([[Home, Part I]]); lost in transit in a star cluster ([[The Passage]])
* ''[[Adriatic]]'', a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles ([[Home, Part I]]); lost in transit in a star cluster ([[The Passage]])
* ''[[Argo Navis]], visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Argo Navis]], visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Aururoa]], visible on the vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Azmerack]]''(?), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Azmerack]]''(?), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Baah Pakal]]'', a ship carrying unused [[DDG-62]] engines onboard ([[Flight of the Phoenix]]), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Baah Pakal]]'', a ship carrying unused [[DDG-62]] engines onboard ([[Flight of the Phoenix]]), visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
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* ''[[Carillian Trader]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Carillian Trader]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Cassandra]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Cassandra]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
*''[[Chiron]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"; successfully shepherded to the [[algae planet]] ([[The Passage]])
* ''[[Coronis]]'' ([[Litmus]])
* ''[[Coronis]]'' ([[Litmus]])
* ''[[Cybele]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
* ''[[Cybele]]'', visible on vote tally boards in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
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* ''[[Five-engined vessel]]'', seen above [[Caprica City]] and during the escape from [[New Caprica]] ([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]])
* ''[[Five-engined vessel]]'', seen above [[Caprica City]] and during the escape from [[New Caprica]] ([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]])
* ''[[Wedge-shaped vessel]]'', seen briefly during the end of [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]
* ''[[Wedge-shaped vessel]]'', seen briefly during the end of [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]
It is possible that these vessels could be one of the mentioned-only ships but as yet it is not possible to confirm this.  
* ''[[Six tubed vessel]]'', seen throughout the fleet and jumping away from [[New Caprica]] at the end of "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]"
It is possible that these vessels could be one of the mentioned-only ships but as yet it is not possible to confirm this.


In the episode "[[The Farm]]" 24 ships leave the Fleet to return to Kobol. [[Anastasia Dualla|Dualla]] provides the following breakdown:
In the episode "[[The Farm]]" 24 ships leave the Fleet to return to Kobol. [[Anastasia Dualla|Dualla]] provides the following breakdown:

Revision as of 00:20, 15 February 2007

This article involves the caravan of faster-than-light-capable civilian ships in the Re-imagined Series. For information on its sublight counterpart in the Original Series, see The Fleet (TOS). For information on the military ships that protected the Twelve Colonies before their demise, see Colonial Fleet.

The Fleet is the convoy of ships that contain what is effectively the last survivors of humanity after the Cylon Attack. The Fleet forms the backdrop of the drama of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.

Unofficially, many viewers refer to the Fleet as the "RTF"; "Rag Tag Fleet", or more fully, "RTFF." These nicknames come from the term "Rag Tag Fugitive Fleet," a name used in the opening credits voiceover (performed by Lorne Greene) describing the civilian refugee fleet from the Original Series.

The Fleet in formation (Miniseries).

Overview[edit]

"The Fleet" begins as a convoy of about sixty stranded commercial and civilian ships around the area of Caprica, located and brought together by Raptor pilot Sharon Valerii at the behest of new president Laura Roslin in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon Attack (Miniseries). Of these ships, only a handful were Colonial military craft, such as Raptor 478 and three Viper Mark VII fighters. One ECO, Crashdown, is called a "refugee from Triton," suggesting that he escaped that battlestar's destruction with Roslin's convoy.

Twenty ships of the convoy are abandoned to an imminent Cylon attack because they lacked FTL drives. The remainder of the Fleet joins with battlestar Galactica, the only known surviving warship in the first months after the events of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. The Fleet represents the last vestige of humanity. The political and social troubles of the Fleet as it wanders through space function as a metaphor for all of humanity, since the Fleet literally is what is left of humanity in the television series.

The phrase "the Fleet" functions not only as a signifier for the actual ships of the convoy, but as a substitute for the people on board, and therefore for mankind. Usage of the term "the Fleet" has not gained more than an informal acceptance, as can be seen by President Roslin's continued use of the term President of the Twelve Colonies. This may be interpreted as either an expression of hope that eventually the people on board the ships of the Fleet will reestablish themselves on a new colony permanently, or a psychological inability to confront that the Fleet may be the only home that humanity knows for a very long time.

Saul Tigh's assertion in "The Farm" that the twenty four ships which departed with the Laura Roslin faction during her insurrection represented "almost a third of the fleet" imply that the number of ships in the Fleet is approximately in the mid-70's.

Ships[edit]

  • Colonial ships use launch keys to activate the ship's systems (Precipice). The keys are unique to each vessel and are extremely difficult to copy.

Military Vessels[edit]

Government Vessels[edit]

Civilian Vessels[edit]

Intersun Passenger Cruisers[edit]
Celestra Type[edit]
Kimba Huta type[edit]
Flattop Type[edit]
Mining Ships[edit]
Mentioned Only[edit]
Seen but unnamed[edit]

It is possible that these vessels could be one of the mentioned-only ships but as yet it is not possible to confirm this.

In the episode "The Farm" 24 ships leave the Fleet to return to Kobol. Dualla provides the following breakdown:

  • Twelve transports - incl. the Astral Queen, and the Gemenon Traveller
  • Seven freighters
  • Three construction platforms
  • One private cruiser
  • One mining ship - the Monarch.

Demographics[edit]

A few points of information are available concerning the demographics of the Fleet. In "33", before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, there were 5,251 survivors from Sagittaron and 49,998 total survivors. In "Home, Part I", the Laura Roslin faction left the Fleet with 18,000 individuals, of which 9,500 were Gemenons and 6,250 were Capricans. At that time the total population of the fleet was 47,857.

This information is sparse, but it gives a general idea of the population breakdown of the Fleet if a few assumptions are made for the sake of argument.

  • Note that Gemenon and Caprica had more citizens in the Roslin faction alone than Sagittaron had in the entire Fleet. The Twelve Colonies are clearly not represented in equal proportion.
  • Before the destruction of the Olympic Carrier, Sagittaron natives made up 10.50% of the fleet. Solely for the purpose of argument, we assume that the Olympic Carrier's population breakdown was identical to the rest of the fleet's and that Sagittaron continues to make up 10.50% of the Fleet's total population.
  • The figures from the Roslin faction can be viewed in several ways:
  • ASSUMPTION 1: All Gemenons and Capricans jumped to Kobol with the Roslin faction.
  • Caprica: 6,250 persons (13.06%)
  • Gemenon: 9,500 persons (19.85%)
  • Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
  • Others: 27,081 (56.59%)
  • ASSUMPTION 2: All Gemenons jumped to Kobol with the Roslin faction, lured by the "religion card", but Caprican portion of the Roslin faction was representative of the Fleet.
  • Caprica: 28,204 persons (58.93%)
  • Gemenon: 9,500 persons (19.85%)
  • Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
  • Others: 5,127 persons (10.72%)
  • ASSUMPTION 3: Caprican and Gemenon portions of the Roslin faction were representative of the fleet.
  • Caprica: 16,617 persons (34.72%)
  • Gemenon: 25,258 persons (52.78%)
  • Sagittaron: 5,026 persons (10.50%)
  • Others: 956 (2.00%)
  • Although it is plausible that the Caprican population is substantially larger than the other colonies, as Colonial Heavy 798 was in the vicinity when the attack began, and was the nucleus around which the fleet rallied, it is unlikely that the populations of each colony are grossly unequal, or else the Quorum of Twelve would be a very poor system of government. The likeliest scenario is therefore probably somewhere in between Assumptions 1 and 2, with nearly all of the Gemenon population (drawn by the "religion card") and a large portion of the Caprican population leaving with Roslin.
  • Alternatively, it is in fact possible that the populations of the colonies were grossly unequal. Though the structure of the Quorum of Twelve appears to maintain at least a fiction that the colonies were roughly equal, we know next to nothing about how the governmental system of the colonies was established or evolved over time. Indeed, the United States Senate, for example, by design expressly assumes that the various states constituting it are 'equal' even though this is clearly not the case in terms of their respective populations. Furthermore, the fact that a system of government is 'poor' or else not representatively proportional does not mean it cannot actually be implemented and even survive for long periods of time.

As for population distribution, we know the population of Galactica (2,693 as of Water), the Olympic Carrier (1,345 as of 33) and Astral Queen (1,500 as of Bastille Day, retconned up from 500 in the Miniseries). There are 176 civillians in the cargo hold of Colonial One in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". The fleet is stated at about 75 ships in "Resistance", retconned up from 40 in the mini.

  • Going by the 75 ship count, the remaining ships besides Galactica and the Astral Queen each carry about 600 persons on average.
  • The 23 ships that left with the Laura Roslin faction, apart from the Astral Queen, would have an average population of about 720 persons per ship.

Notes[edit]

In the Miniseries, astute viewers may recognize three spacecraft with notable resemblances of ships from other SF universes. The first two of these ships aren't considered a canonical part of the series or the Fleet, but their appearance adds a bit of humor and pays homage to other notable science fiction and their creative staff.

  • The original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the original Star Trek TV series makes a cameo in the last shot of the Fleet as Elosha chants a prayer in the memorial service near the end of the Miniseries. Look to the upper right corner for the ship in a still frame. All season 1 opening credits use this shot, so Enterprise makes a very quick appearance with each of the first 13 episodes (This is best viewed from the Season 1 DVD set).

See Also[edit]