Benjamin Tanner

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Benjamin "Ben" Tanner
Tanner during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	{{{age}}}
Colony	Caprica
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	{{{birthname}}}
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	{{{callsign}}}
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 1
Death
Parents	Eliza Tanner (mother), John Tanner (father)
Siblings	Greg Tanner (brother), Tim Tanner (brother), Melissa Tanner (sister)
Children	{{{children}}}
Marital Status	{{{marital status}}}
Family Tree	View
Role	Officer, Colonial Fleet
Rank	Admiral
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	{{{actor}}}
Benjamin "Ben" Tanner is a Cylon
Benjamin "Ben" Tanner is a Final Five Cylon
Benjamin "Ben" Tanner is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Benjamin "Ben" Tanner is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
Tanner as a teenager circa 52 BCH

Benjamin "Ben" Tanner is an Admiral in the Colonial Fleet, and involved in the militarization of the Cylons created by the Tanner Robogenics Production Facility during the conflict between Caprica and Sagittaron circa 52 BCH.

Pre-First Cylon War

Tanner was the youngest of four children (Melissa, Tim, and Greg), residing in the Tanner Estate on Oasis on Caprica that he had enjoyed as a result of the success of Tanner Robogenics.

During his youth, his guardian was an AK series robot named Isak, who also joined Tanner in military life (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 1).

The Caprica-Sagittaron Conflict

Following Sagittaron's violent actions against Caprican interests, escalations lead to a conflict between the two colonies. Following Tim's footsteps, Tanner enlisted in Colonial Fleet and first saw action at the Battle of Abraxus. As a result of his actions that day, then-Commander Tanner was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Given Sagittaron's 3-to-1 margin for sheer manpower, Admiral Jennings tasked Tanner the task of converting civilian robots into both a military workforce as well as a fighting force. Given hardwired robotic limitations on taking human life, this posed a challenge. Working from the Tanner Robogenics Production Facility in Cameronis, Tanner and his team of scientists execute the initial round of conversions of the civilian robots, however they are attacked by unknown forces. Isak and Tanner are able to save the progress of the work, including the head unit of a Centurion (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 1), although continued work on this approach fails despite various exercises due to issues relating to "logic stalls" in Chipsector 4BXG.

It takes Isak being forced to kill to protect Tanner during fierce battle aboard Akins Transluminal Orbital Manufacturing Facility to cement this milestone in fighting robots. However, this action has unintended consequences that transpired unbeknownst to Tanner, leading to the First Cylon War (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 2).

The escalation lead to the deployment of nuclear weapons, demonstrating humanity's lack of willingness to pursue other alternatives to Isak. In turn, Isak lead the Cylons against their creators at the Battle of the Sagittaron Bellarias. That battle ended the Caprica-Sagittaron Conflict and segued into the First Cylon War (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 3).

First Cylon War

Under a new unified force of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Tanner is assigned as Caprican representative to the War Council of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Promoted to Admiral of the Caprican Armed Forces, he became the Council's chief strategist against the Cylons threat.

Having assumed command of Galactica, the first of the battlestar class, his leadership of the Battle at Maximus-Delta netted the unified Colonial victory against the Cylons. However, given the Cylons ability to exploit resources normally inaccessible to humans, the tide of the war turned to Cylon favor. Tanner elected to attack those resources and seize them to bolster Colonial war efforts.

During this effort, Tanner and his task force encountered a new threat—the Cylon basestar, a planet killer. After giving this new tactical advantage consideration, Tanner plead to Isak for peace. The Cylon leader agreed, and the Armistice was born (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 4).

Aftermath

During the intervening peace, Tanner retired from the military for a time with the belief that the peace in question was false, and was a sign of merely "giving up."

He is later brought out of retirement by the Admiralty, who provide Tanner with intel on a new Cylon construct of unknown purpose. On the assumption that the construct was a staging ground for a first strike, Tanner and the Admiralty commissioned a clandestine mission to search behind the Armistice Line. This mission was assigned to Valkyrie's pilot, Daniel Novacek, who piloted a new stealthstar reconnaissance craft to acquire further details. However, this mission turned badly, and the stealthstar was destroyed at William Adama's order — Novacek survived and was captured by the Cylons (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 4).

Fall of the Colonies

During the Fall of the Colonies, Tanner and Colonel Gerard lead an ad hoc militia during a ground battle with the Cylons on Caprica (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 1) against forces lead by Isak.

Despite his pleas of understanding what Isak had discussed about other options before the First Cylon War broke out, Isak and the other Centurions execute both Tanner and the militia (Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War 4).