Proteus

External view of the Proteus prison complex.

For the person using this name as a codename, see: Karibdis.

Proteus is a prison planetoid established by the Colonies circa 6642, located outside the periphery of Cyrannus. A world forgotten by Colonials by 7348, criminals and their descendants serve their time making munitions and ambrosa. When the raw goods for the manufacturing of munitions became depleted, the prisoners continue to create ambrosa, believing that they were helping the Colonies in the war effort against the Cylons.

Prisoners are named for their crime (Embezzler, Forger, Adulteress, Assault) as well as a number for identification purposes. The prisoners originally sentenced to the prison were known as the Original Sinners. Their descendants inherit the crime of their parents as their name, but increment the number, which itself is placed on a colored armband.

The prison is overseen by a line of enforcers, descendants of the staff originally charged with overseeing the Original Sinners hundreds of yahrens past ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.

Tie-in Material Information

• According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):

This prison on the asteroid Proteus was established by the Aerians in 5220. In its heyday in the 5300s, it housed over one hundred thousand. Its brutality made it infamous throughout the Colonies. The harshness of which the Aerians were once so proud eventually became an embarrassment during the enlightened days of the Long Peace. And so, early in the Cylon War, the majority of the prisoners were released. The Proteus Prison was then gradually forgotten.

Also forgotten were a few hundred prisoners and their guards, the Enforcers. Whether they chose to remain behind or whether they were simply overlooked by the evacuation teams is unknown. These men and women remained to form a strange society that lasted for generations. The children of Enforcers took their parent's place, the children of the prisoners took as names the crimes of their parents, the crimes of their ancestors.

The prisoners on Proteus manufactured Ambrosa, the finest in the Galaxy. After the asteroid was cut off from humanity by the Cylons, however, no further shipments could be made, and centuries of production piled up on the loading docks. The Enforcers, anxious to keep their power, kept up the pretense that the Ambrosa was going to the Colonies. When their lie was exposed by the arrival of Galactica, the Enforcers were quickly overthrown.

Notes

• Proteus also appears in the Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 series.