Cylon Spacecraft (RDM)

First Cylon War-Era

"More of an animal, maybe, than the human models... like a pet."

The Cylons have employed various craft over the course of the First Cylon War, and the armistice afterwards.

Main articles: First War Basestars, First War Raider

Older craft were purely mechanical, and easily gave the largely unprepared Colonials a run for their cubits. At this time the Cylons are known to have employed basestars of various design, and Raider support ships capable of carrying a crew of three Centurions. These designs were retired sometime at the end of the War, however, a few raiders from this era survived, and were placed aboard the Cylon Colony after the arrival of the Final Five.

Script Version Details

The pre-production script for Blood and Chrome provides additional information about First War Raider capabilities, describing advanced models that could transform for atmospheric flight. These Raiders were capable of sprouting "ailerons and flaps, transforming from a familiar type of ship into something brand new" when transitioning from space to atmospheric combat. This atmospheric adaptation capability allowed them to effectively engage Colonial forces in planetary environments, demonstrating greater versatility than previously understood about First War Cylon spacecraft.

Second Cylon War-Era

Main articles: Modern Basestar, Modern Raider, Heavy Raider, Cylon Reconnaissance Drone, Freighter, Resurrection Ship, Resurrection Hub, The Colony

Modern Cylon craft are a mixture of mechanical and organic parts, and with the inclusion of a brain in the raiders, and hybrids in the larger capital ships, they can be considered separate models in their own right. Generally, these modern ships are weaker than their First War counterparts, and can easily be out gunned with as little as two battlestars ^{(TRS: "Resurrection Ship, Part I")}, however Cylon resurrection allowed them to attack without fear of attrition.

This marriage of mechanical and organic parts allowed most Cylon craft to operate individually of any pilot or controller, especially the smaller raiders. It is not known if the Heavy Raider can operate on it's own, and was never seen to operate on its own. The basestar, Hub, and Colony all were usually under the control of a group of humanoids, who would feed sets of instructions to the ship's hybrid or hybrids. While hybrids rarely function autonomously, one erratic hybrid was seen jumping its baseship on its own will without instruction from any controllers ^{(TRS: "The Hub")}.

While there are many strengths to this, their organic parts proved to be the fleet's undoing. Organic Cylon parts are not immune to sickness, and in one such case, a virus picked up from a homing beacon killed an entire basestar, its crew, and raider compliment. This basestar was abandoned by the Cylons for fear of the virus following them through the resurrection process ^{(TRS: "Torn")}. The next knock against their organic parts came after attacking raiders detected the presence of the Final Five in the Colonial fleet. They broke off their attack, and refused further orders as a result. It was ordered that the raiders undergo lobotomies, so they would attack the fleet again, however this action split the Cylon fleet up into civil war ^{(TRS: "Six of One")}.