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The Basestar is the primary Cylon capital ship identified in the series, comparable to a colonial Battlestar. Basestars are about 5,100 feet long and designed to make FTL jumps and equipped to deploy large-scale strikes with high yield nuclear and conventional ordnance. Basestars carry at least 250 Raiders on exterior service pods, with an unknown number of additional fighters inside. Basestars are biomechanical entities, with fleshy "hangars" to house Raiders. Basestars are, however, capable of carrying other Cylon models within them.
The presence of a Basestar is generally enough to make Galactica decline battle, however, in the Season 2 episode "Resurrection Ship, Part 2", with both sides' fighter fleets engaged elsewhere, the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus are able to engage and destroy at least one Basestar in ship to ship combat. Robbed of their Raider fleet (which is much larger than a Battlestar's viper complement), they appeared to be no match for the Battlestars. The Battlestars used the tactic of circling one Basestar while firing upon it, until destroyed. A similar tactic was used in "Exodus, Part 2" in which the Galactica used diversions to occupy the Cylon Raiders elsewhere and fought four Basestars simultaneously. With the arrival of the Pegasus, three Basestars were lost - one to direct fire from the Pegasus to the central hub, one by ramming, and one by collateral damage from the resulting explosion and debris.
The Basestars internal functions are controlled by a part biological part machine central computer system known as the Hybrid. The biological part of the Hybrid is a female humanoid Cylon-like being located in a pool of liquid, and attached to the mechanical part of the Basestars computers by umbilicals. The Hybrid is revealed to be capable of having its own opinions and thoughts, but does not have a say in decisions made by the humanoid Cylon models. The humanoid Cylon models control the Basestar via "control panels" in the Basestar's Control Room that are made up of a red flowing substance that seems to take the commands to the Hybrid itself. It is also revealed that the Hybrid has something to do with the operation of the Centurions.
The Hybrid speaks strange seemingly random phrases, most Cylons believe that the speech of the Hybrid is just random and is the result of the Hybrids personal consciousness going mad. However, the Leoben Conoy model of Cylons believe that every word the Hybrid speaks means something, and that the Cylon God speaks through the Hybrids. The Caprica model six Cylon gave an alternate explanation. The hybrids do not perceive their existence in the same way as normal humanoids. They posses an expanded awareness of being one entity existing in space (as we perceive ourselves as one being perceiving our surroundings) as well as perceiving all activity on their interior. The hybrid my also express the state of the ship physically as they have a physical reaction similar to orgasm to FTL jumps.
Visually, Basestars lack the armor of Colonial Battlestars and have no visible means of propulsion. In contrast, Mercury class battlestars, such as the Pegasus, have been shown to sustain at least three hits from nuclear weapons and still maintain the ability to devastate Basestars with its offensive batteries at close range.
The considerably different Basestar form seen below (from the Original Series) is featured briefly in the first portion of the Miniseries, as the camera pans past a series of museum displays aboard the Galactica. A pair of miniature original series Basestars are shown in one of the displays.•
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