The Fleet (TRS)

The Fleet is a term used by the members thereof to describe the convoy of ships that made an exodus from the Twelve Colonies after the Cylon Holocaust.

Re-imagined Series

In the re-imagined series, the fleet began as a convoy of about 60 refugee ships assembled by Laura Roslin in the midst of the Cylon attacks. Only about 40 of these were FTL capable, however. The fleet rendezvoused with the surviving battlestar Galactica at Ragnar Anchorage, which led the past the Red Line in search of Earth.

These figures were definitively retconned with Saul Tigh's assertion in "The Farm" that the 24 ships which departed with the Roslin Faction represented "almost a third of the fleet". We must now assume that number of ships in the fleet is meant to be in the mid-70s.

Ships

• Colonial One, President Laura Roslin's ship, previously known as Colonial Heavy 798 (Mini-Series)
• Olympic Carrier (33, destroyed)
• Gemini, FTL-capable freighter which Valerii escorts to the convoy in the Mini-Series
• Rising Star, mentioned frequently and notable for several reasons:
  • First (reported) human birth after the exodus from the Colonies (33)
  • Where Ellen Tigh was suddenly discovered three weeks after the attack (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down)
  • Where Ellen Tigh intended her husband to meet with allies of Tom Zarek (Colonial Day)
• Virgon Express (Water)
• Astral Queen, prison ship noted for carrying 1500 prisoners, including Tom Zarek (Bastille Day)
• Gemenon Traveller, a civilian ship that a copy of Leoben Conoy was captured on (Flesh and Bone)
• Aturian, a refinery ship (The Hand of God)
• Cloud Nine, meeting place of the Quorum of Twelve (Colonial Day)
• Zephyr (Fragged)
• Gideon (Resistance)
• Kimba Huta, cold storage (The Farm)
• Monarch, a mining ship that joined the Laura Roslin faction (Home, Part I)
• Adriatic, a member of the Roslin faction armed with ship-to-ship missiles (Home, Part I)
• Striker, damaged in a refuelling operation overseen by Capt. George Birch (Home, Part I)
• Unnamed fuel tanker, same incident.
• Celestra (Scifi.com)
• Space Park (Scifi.com)
• Freighter 212 (Final Cut)
• Boppa Kala, the ship from which the Blackbird gets its DDG-62 engines. (Flight of the Phoenix)

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

• 12 transports - incl. Astral Queen, Gemenon Traveller
• 7 freighters
• 3 construction platforms
• 1 private cruiser
• 1 mining ship - the Monarch.

Demographics

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 isn't a lot to go on, but it can give us a general idea of the population breakdown of the fleet if we make a few assumptions for the purpose of argument.

• First, 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.
• We can deal with the figures from the Roslin faction 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.

As for population distribution, we know the population of Galactica (2,693 as of Water), the Olympic Carrier (2,026 despite Roslin's spoken figure (33)) and Astral Queen (1,500 as of Bastille Day, retconned up from 500 in the mini-series). 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 Astral Queen each carry about 600 persons on average.
• The 23 ships that left with the Laura Roslin faction, apart from Astral Queen, would have an average population of about 720 persons per ship.

Original Series

In the original series, the fleet comprised of the last surviving battlestar, Galactica, and 220 ships. With the exception of Battlestar Galactica, the ships were not capable of lightspeed. The fleet was restricted in its speed for it had to accomodate the slowest ship within the fleet -- removing that ship (or ships) was not an option as all ships in the Fleet were filled to (or over) capacity.

Ships in the fleet include:

• Battlestar Galactica, the only military vessel capable of defensive and offensive actions
• Celestra, electronics ship (Take the Celestra)
• Prison Barge, a prison ship operated by members of Council Security
• Rising Star, a luxury liner and chancery
• Freighter Gemini

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

Re-imagined Series definition: used to signify a civilian transport vessel over a certain gross weight/mass, i.e. Colonial Heavy 798