Mercury class battlestar

Wide shot of a Mercury class battlestar

Pegasus from fore and below, with the Fleet in the background

Mark VII Vipers landing in Pegasus' port flight pod

Mercury class battlestar

Some of Pegasus' batteries

Comparison of original series battlestar and Mercury class

The Mercury class battlestar is an advanced warship introduced into the Colonial Fleet sometime after the First Cylon War. For the unnamed original class, to which Galactica belongs, see Original Battlestar (RDM).

Overview

Following the end of the Cylon War, the original battlestars remained in service, and other battlestars were built. Their numbers steadily increased to a grand total of 120 ships in the Colonial Fleet. New models employed technologies, such as networked computers, which had been prohibited during the war (Miniseries). A Mercury class battlestar therefore sports several features not found aboard Galactica such as automated sliding doorways and basic computer recognition stations at vital areas. At the time of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, a Mercury class battlestar was a top-of-the-line craft.

The physical appearance of the Mercury class is different than that of the original battlestar. The "neck" section is smaller, and the Mercury class is equipped with eight sublight engine pods, compared the older class's four. These are also more "boxy" in appearance than those of the original. The flight pods also appear to have two entrances each, above and below the midline. Combined with computer assisted landing, this gives the Mercury a higher rate of Viper recovery than the Galactica. Unlike Galactica, Pegasus appears to have a full armor "skin", but in Galactica's case this may have been deliberately removed prior to its decommissioning.

The gun batteries on the Mercury class are arranged very differently from the Galactica's. Where as Galactica's large guns are clustered along her top side, with secondary batteries concentrated along the flight pods, the guns of the Mercury class are found all over the ship "The Captain's Hand". The greatest concentration of large turrets are found along the side of the ship, within the valley created by the upper and lower halves of the hull, including the flight pods. Four are mounted on the underside of the upper hull on the ship's bow, below which sits four non-turreted large guns; these form the main forward batteries. Two more turrets are mounted on the front and back of each flight pod. The Mercury's secondary guns are distributed all over the ship and do not clearly emerge from the hull like Galactica's.

Based on figures from the episode "Pegasus", the standard crew complement of a Mercury class battlestar is in excess of 2,500.

Also, in addition to having better armament and weapons than the Galactica the Mercury class battlestar is known to known to have the production means to build new Vipers from basic resources (Scar).

Known Mercury class Battlestars

• Battlestar Mercury (for which it is presumed the class is named)
• Battlestar Pegasus

Notes

The shape of the Mercury class resembles the original series battlestar more than the re-imagined Galactica. Its engine pods number eight, compared to the Galactica's six, and appear more directly integrated with its rear section, and its flight pods share the original's angular shape.

The visual effects artist of the re-imagined Pegasus, Jose A. Perez, has commented that, "The new design was somewhat of a cross between the look of the old class battlestars, and yet with elements of the new one. Aside from that, it has mostly hull plating (to absorb more damage) , as opposed to the Galactica which has more ribbing." Mr. Perez also commented that, "The harder edges [ of the Pegasus ] were intentional as well, to match the interior style of the sets more." Template:Source

Re-imagined Series definition: initial skills training; can refer to basic military indoctrination, and arms and ground training ^{(TRS: "Fragged")}; and basic flight training ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}

Original Series definition: a Cylon outpost ^{(TOS: "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I")}