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This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page. Also, if you wanted to search for the term "Drone", click here.
Communication drones on a rack in Galactica's hangar bay.
A communication drone extends or augments the range or clarity of wireless communication between ships. Communication drones apparently carry a combustible solid-fuel engine to propel itself.
Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii uses a communication drone to send a distress call to other Colonial civilian or military ships as her Raptor, carrying refugees from Caprica, begins to drift with little fuel remaining. The drone successfully glides away from Cylon communication jamming in the area, and Boomer's ship is found by Colonial One(TRS: "Miniseries").
A communication drone accidentally ignites in Galactica's port hangar deck where 19 pilots were celebrating Flat Top's 1,000th landing. The drone strikes the group, killing 13 and injuring 7 (TRS: "Act of Contrition").
Reconnaissance drones (shortened in common parlance to recon drone) are deployed as part of the armament on basestars.
The exterior appearance of the craft probably has not changed greatly over time since the Cylon War, as two detachments of them are easily identified by Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace while reconnoitering the upper limits of the atmosphere of Ragnar while Galactica re-arms herself at Ragnar Anchorage(TRS: "Miniseries").
Drones are robotic devices created by the Colonials that serve various functions without the integration of sophisticated artificial intelligence.
The most notable example of Colonial drone technology is Muffit II, a facsimile of a daggit created to replace Boxey's original pet Muffit, who was lost during the destruction of Caprica. Muffit II was built by Dr. Wilker as a prototype for future drone daggits, so as to replace the organic version that did not make it to the Fleet, given the usefulness of daggits to Colonial Warriors(TOS: "Saga of a Star World").
According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):
The dividing lines between simple tools, ordinary machines and intelligent robots or androids are not always clear ones. Even the simplest measurement or repair device contains micro-circuits that continuously monitor its function and feed back the information to its user. At the beginning of the Scientific Renaissance, human scientists developed multi-purpose machines that clearly were robots. Many looked forward to a Golden Age when all of society's boring, repetitive jobs could be done by intelligent machines. That dream was shattered in 5160, however, during the Cybernetic Revolt that paralysed (sic) the Colonial economy for over a yahren. The Colonial Code was swiftly modified to prohibit the integration of sophisticated artificial intelligence with mobile mechanical devices. Thus the humans were spared the grim fate that befell the first Cylons: destruction by their own creations. The android daggit, Muffey, was one of the first exceptions to this rule, built out of sympathy for the loss of Muffey's namesake, a real daggit lost in the destruction of Caprica. Since no biological daggits were permitted to board the fleet, Muffey provides many of the survivors with the warmth and friendship they miss from their ancient companions. [1]
A swallow is an decoy drone used to lure enemy guided missiles away from a Colonial vessel, typically it is launched by the ECO as part of a Raptor's ECM suite.
Enough swallows can mimic the electrical "footprint," or signatures of other spacecraft, even that of battlestars when programmed and grouped together (TRS: "Exodus, Part II").
