| Agro Ship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| [show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default only. | |||
| Race: | Colonial | ||
| Type: | Civilian | ||
| FTL: | |||
| Propulsion: | |||
| Crew: | |||
| Capacity: | |||
| CO: | {{{co}}} | ||
| XO: | {{{xo}}} | ||
| Role: | Agricultural ship for growing foodstuffs | ||
| Weapons: | {{{weapons}}} | ||
| Armaments: | {{{arm}}} | ||
| Defenses: | {{{def}}} | ||
| Aircraft: | {{{aircraft}}} | ||
| Aviation facilities: | {{{facilities}}} | ||
| Emblem: | [[File:{{{patch}}}|175px|Ship's patch]] | ||
| Other Images: | Gallery | ||
| Length: | {{{length}}} | ||
| Width: | {{{width}}} | ||
| Height: | {{{height}}} | ||
| Weight: | {{{weight}}} | ||
| Wingspan: | {{{wingspan}}} | ||
| Other: | {{{otherdi}}} | ||
| Cost: | {{{construction}}} | ||
| Construction Time: | {{{construction}}} | ||
| Hull Size: | {{{hull size}}} | ||
| Hull: | {{{hull}}} | ||
| FTL Cooldown: | {{{ftl cooldown}}} turns | ||
| Speed: | {{{speed}}} m/s | ||
| Turn Rate: | {{{turn rate}}}°/turn | ||
| Armor Total: | {{{armor total}}} | ||
| Armor Left: | {{{armor left}}} | ||
| Armor Right: | {{{armor right}}} | ||
| Armor Front: | {{{armor front}}} | ||
| Armor Rear: | {{{armor rear}}} | ||
| Armor Top: | {{{armor top}}} | ||
| Armor Bottom: | {{{armor bottom}}} | ||
| DRADIS Range: | {{{dradis range}}} m | ||
| Processing Power: | {{{processing power}}} | ||
| Munition Slots: | {{{munitions}}} | ||
| Munition Cooldown Period: | {{{munition cooldown}}} turns | ||
| Squadron Slots: | {{{squadrons}}} | ||
| Squadron Size: | {{{squadron size}}} | ||
| Special Abilities: | {{{special abilities}}} | ||
| Additional Information | |||

Agro Ship is the common classification for spacecraft capable of growing any edible agro foodstuffs needed in a convoy or Fleet for long periods of time. These crafts have translucent hull plates interconnected in a structural enforcement grid, which allow the plants to receive the necessary sunlight from a nearby star or some other stellar formation to achieve the state of photosynthesis. Artificial lighting is, apparently, also an important function of these agro ships. One of the crops grown aboard the agro ships is the tallon plant.
Agro ships are unarmed, but can withstand an assault for some period of time.
Galactica's Fleet has three such agro ships; two of which are destroyed by the Cylons and the third, the Agro Ship 9, experiences a hull breach via a destroyed airlock (TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors").
Count Iblis also visits the Agro Ship 9 with Lieutenant Sheba during his time with the Fleet (TOS: "War of the Gods").
Notes
edit sourceSilent Running
edit source- The agro ships are reuses of the spacecraft from Silent Running, a Universal/MCA movie that special effects guru John Dykstra worked on a few years prior to Battlestar Galactica.
- An interior shot of a Valley Forge bio-dome shows up just before the destruction of the agro ship. In the original cut of the episode, Bruce Durn as Freeman Lowell (and the planet Saturn) make their fleeting cameos due to the re-use of footage from Silent Running. Durn enters to the left of the frame briefly before the scene transitions to the ship's destruction by the Cylons. For the widescreen edit, Dern's fleeting cameo is cropped out.
-
Cameo of Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell from Silent Running, as seen in the "full screen" blu-ray release (TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors").
-
Crop of footage from Silent Running featuring the planet Saturn for the blu-ray "widescreen" formatted release, excluding Bruce Dern (TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors").
Addenda
edit source- The same shots of the agro ships destruction in "The Magnificent Warriors" were reused in the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers." This continued Battlestar's tradition of reliance on and reuse of stock footage, a necessity due to the length of time special effects shots took to prepare for and produce in that television era, in combination with the hectic shooting schedule. As a side effect of this, a continuity error is created as, by the time the Fleet heads to Earth, they should have only one agro ship left.
- The Botanical Cruiser in the Re-imagined Series is an homage to this ship.
- According to Encyclopedia Galactica, a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979:
- Agro ships were created by Aeries and are capable of converting "artificial sunlight into raw foodstuffs at an average efficiency of eighty-four percent". Converting the food to "add variety and taste appeal" reduces the overall efficiency of food, such as hydronic mushies to sixty-two percent. Agro ships are capable of recycling and reprocessing nutrients and water.
- To create the artificial sunlight, the ship gets its energy from the "reburning of solium wastes from the main drive engines of [ships in] the fleet". In addition, agro ships are equipped with foodstuffs that have been created to process the "solium light spectrum" efficiently and grow in the weightlessness of space.[1]
References
edit source- ↑ Kraus, Bruce (1979). Encyclopedia Galactica, p. 11-12.
| |||||
Agro-3 is an Agro Ship within the Fleet, along with its sister ship, Agro-2. The ship is essentially an enormous greenhouse floating in space, with the ship's primary bulk dedicated to soil deposits where plant life is cultivated for food. The remaining space is allocated to basic ship requirements, including a control center, engine room, and crew quarters.[1]
A vast transparent shell covers the garden areas, its many panes absorbing and storing stellar light, which radiates down upon the cultivated areas in alternating patches of illumination. This makes viewing the stars from inside the agro-ship difficult, though the stellar projectors provide warmth throughout the vessel.[1]
Cultivated crops
edit sourceThe vegetation aboard Agro-3 grows lush throughout the ship, displaying greens and reds in varying shades, with orange and blue coloration appearing in certain areas. The ship produces common delicacies such as heffala berries and fallaga, which are vital to the fleet's food supply.[1]
Public access areas
edit sourceDuring the eighteen yahren the fleet spends fleeing from the Cylons, Agro-3 becomes socially important beyond its capacity to generate foodstuffs. The vegetation produces oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, making the air aboard exceptionally fresh. Sections of Agro-3 are opened to fleet citizens, who may partake in the delights of fresh air along pre-ordained garden paths. The ship is frequented by the fleet's population not merely for the garden's beauty, but for the wonderfully fresh atmosphere it provides.[1]
History
edit sourceMurder investigation
edit sourceFollowing the passing of Commander Adama by natural causes in 7360, a murder occurs aboard Agro-3. The victim is killed by the powers of a disembodied Count Iblis, who causes the body to spontaneously combust in an unnatural flame. The murder takes place along the Garden Path, a public area of the ship, with stellar light showering down from the dome above.[2]
The remains are discovered by passing civilians in the tall mange grass off the garden path. The corpse is burned beyond recognition, making identification extremely difficult. Mugjapes burrow in the empty eye sockets, foraging for whatever remains of the victim's brain tissue. The flesh is burned to the bone in some places, and white bone fragments jut from the belly. The victim appears to have been crushed to death before being burned, and the corpse's gender is initially impossible to determine.[3]
Lieutenant Troy and Ensign Dalton are the investigating officers who initially examine the scene. When Paris, a blackshirt security chief, attempts to assert jurisdiction over the investigation, Dalton reminds him that under the fleet's martial law, military authorities must pursue murder investigations.[3]
The remains are recovered for examination by Cassiopeia, who struggles extensively with identification due to the extreme damage to the body and unusual genetic testing results.[4] The investigation leads Troy and Dalton to search for Terence, an agro-worker on duty at the suspected time of the murder.[5]
The agro-supervisor aboard Agro-3 confirms that Terence was on duty at the estimated time of death, providing a crucial lead for the investigation. However, when Troy and Dalton locate Terence on Ursus, they discover he has been murdered by Tybalt and his cult of Ambassador Puck followers, who are attempting to prevent the investigation from revealing Iblis's deception.[6]
Cassiopeia eventually determines that the murdered individual is Ambassador Puck himself, revealing that Count Iblis murdered the real Puck and assumed his identity to manipulate fleet politics (RH: Armageddon).
Agro-2 loss
edit sourceFollowing the battle with the Chitain, the fleet suffers the loss of Agro-2, making Agro-3 even more critical to the fleet's survival. Thirty-seven fleet vessels are obliterated in the battle, including Agro-2, Scorpius Ascending, and Valkyrior. The loss of Agro-2 is felt profoundly as the fleet desperately needs food production capacity and somewhere to grow crops (RH: Warhawk).[7]
Notes
edit source- Given that Agro Ship 9 was the sole surviving Agro Ship during a Cylon attack in Original Series' "The Magnificent Warriors", it can be assumed that Agro-3 is a new breed of agro ship constructed on or after 7352.
References
edit source- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 66-67.
- ↑ Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 69-70.
- ↑ Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 89.
- ↑ Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 135.
- ↑ Hatch, Richard; Golden, Christopher (May 2005). Armageddon. ibooks, inc., p. 142-143.
- ↑ Hatch, Richard; Linaweaver, Brad (December 1998). Warhawk. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, p. 271.
| Agro Ship 9 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| [[File:|275px|Agro Ship 9]] | |||
| [show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default only. | |||
| Race: | Colonial | ||
| Type: | Civilian | ||
| FTL: | |||
| Propulsion: | |||
| Crew: | |||
| Capacity: | |||
| CO: | {{{co}}} | ||
| XO: | {{{xo}}} | ||
| Role: | Agricultural ship for growing foodstuffs | ||
| Weapons: | {{{weapons}}} | ||
| Armaments: | {{{arm}}} | ||
| Defenses: | {{{def}}} | ||
| Aircraft: | {{{aircraft}}} | ||
| Aviation facilities: | {{{facilities}}} | ||
| Emblem: | [[File:{{{patch}}}|175px|Ship's patch]] | ||
| Other Images: | Gallery | ||
| Length: | {{{length}}} | ||
| Width: | {{{width}}} | ||
| Height: | {{{height}}} | ||
| Weight: | {{{weight}}} | ||
| Wingspan: | {{{wingspan}}} | ||
| Other: | {{{otherdi}}} | ||
| Cost: | {{{construction}}} | ||
| Construction Time: | {{{construction}}} | ||
| Hull Size: | {{{hull size}}} | ||
| Hull: | {{{hull}}} | ||
| FTL Cooldown: | {{{ftl cooldown}}} turns | ||
| Speed: | {{{speed}}} m/s | ||
| Turn Rate: | {{{turn rate}}}°/turn | ||
| Armor Total: | {{{armor total}}} | ||
| Armor Left: | {{{armor left}}} | ||
| Armor Right: | {{{armor right}}} | ||
| Armor Front: | {{{armor front}}} | ||
| Armor Rear: | {{{armor rear}}} | ||
| Armor Top: | {{{armor top}}} | ||
| Armor Bottom: | {{{armor bottom}}} | ||
| DRADIS Range: | {{{dradis range}}} m | ||
| Processing Power: | {{{processing power}}} | ||
| Munition Slots: | {{{munitions}}} | ||
| Munition Cooldown Period: | {{{munition cooldown}}} turns | ||
| Squadron Slots: | {{{squadrons}}} | ||
| Squadron Size: | {{{squadron size}}} | ||
| Special Abilities: | {{{special abilities}}} | ||
| Additional Information | |||
Agro Ship 9 is the last remaining Agro Ship within the fleet, after her other two sister ships are destroyed by a Cylons task force.
Lead Agro Specialist Carmichael oversaw this agro ship; Carmichael later informs Colonel Tigh that the ship could produce agro supplies but was in need of new seedlings.
Apparently seedlings are not kept aboard or not in enough quantity to meet the bare-minimum needs of the Fleet's members. This ship obtains seedlings from Sectar by the efforts of Adama, Starbuck, Apollo, Boomer and Siress Belloby (TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors").
During his time with the Fleet, Count Iblis makes way to this ship many times, thanks to Lieutenant Sheba. As proof of his alleged miracles, he manages to accelerate the growth of the plants making fruits larger and the food plentiful in his bid for power. Carmichael calls this a "miracle," however Doctor Wilker disproves this belief when he discovers that a form of radiation accelerated the growth of the crops (TOS: "War of the Gods, Part I", "War of the Gods, Part II").





