History of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol

(The following is not canon, it is aparntly a work of fanfiction!)

It is generally considered to be the task of an academic at some point in his life to contribute to the body of knowledge for the betterment of posterity It is the highest honor for an academic to have a creation published, but also our sternest duty. I hope to discharge this duty to my people with this humble piece. With all that has happened, this is all that I can offer to the future of humanity. I can only hope that it meets the expectations of the President as well (she has a keen eye for good writing, being the former Secretary of Education). It was at her request that this work was commissioned; humanity must never forget the horrors and hope of these last few months. It is a daunting task, informing our future, but one that I could not shirk in good conscience.

I cannot support the veracity of my words; all the evidence, texts, and research were lost when Libris was bombed out of existence by the Cylons. Those machines are the biggest mistake in the history of our civilization, and I will not deny that this account of the history of the Twelve Colonies casts them in particularly evil light. Academics pride ourselves on our logic and emotional detachment in search of the truth, but where it comes to the Cylons, I doubt any in this fleet could truly claim to be unbiased. So rather than lie about my lack of detachment, I ask you, the reader, to interpret these words with the knowledge that truth is only a human conception of fact. It is up to you to interpret my truth, and it is up to you to accept them as fact.

I dedicate this work to all my family, my friends, my brethren, and all our fallen. Most importantly, I dedicate this work to the continued survival of our civilization, and whatever future the Gods may have for us.

We will not fail. So say we all.

Dan Mercuria

Antiquity

(Note: AC (Articles of Colonization) refers to the period after the Articles of Colonization were established, BU (Before Unification) refers to the period before)

Life began out there. That is what the Sacred Scrolls tells about the origins of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. There is little left that survived the time of the initial Colonization, and our records are sketchy at best. Our knowledge of the time BEFORE Colonization is even murkier; it has all devolved to myth and legend. Nevertheless, academics throughout time have managed to piece together a likely story of the origins of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

It has been largely accepted by the fraternity of historians that the Book of the Word's recollection of our origins is largely true, although there are some disputes amongst scholars as to the exact translation of key phrases from the original Kobol to the common Colonial tongue in use today. Humans are not indigenous to any of the worlds that became the Twelve Colonies. All of us are immigrants from an ancestral home that the Book calls Kobol. This home is located amongst the stars, its exact location shrouded in the mists of time. What caused our ancestors to leave Kobol is also not known; we can only surmise that some great calamity struck our ancestors over time and forced them to flee. The implication of the Book is that our ancestors fled en masse from Kobol and that the Twelve Colonies were founded simultaneously; without offending our holy brethren from Scorpia, this is quite simply untrue according to the scientific data. Carbon dating of the oldest structures on all Twelve Colonies suggests that the Colonization occurred over an extended period of time.

On an interesting aside, the Cyrannus star system, which eventually played host to the new (or transplanted) civilization, appears to be unique amongst all explored solar systems. Where the nearby systems in our part of the galactic neighborhood have shown, without fail, a paucity of habitable planets, our system appears to have had an abundance of planets capable of supporting human life; in fact, exactly twelve colonizable planets. They are not all equally suited to human habitation, but are nevertheless, livable. By and large, our species has adapted well to our new environments, and adapted well our new environments to us.

Thus, the current theory is that at some point in our history, twelve (possibly thirteen) successive waves or tribes of colonists/refugees departed the original home of Kobol and founded the Twelve Colonies as we know them today. Our best guess is that the world of Caprica, and indeed, the settlement that eventually became Caprica City, was the first to be founded, according to the most reliable archaeological and anthropological data uncovered to date. The Colonies were then founded in succession; Scorpia, Libris and Leonis; Picon, Aerelon, Aquarion, Canceron, Sagittaron, Geminon, Tauron, and finally Virgon (in that order). We do not know how long the Colonization took exactly, but our best estimate is that the process was completed within five hundred years of the first human footsteps being taken on the surface of Caprica.

Legend and the Book also speak of the existence of the Twelve Lords of Kobol. The Twelve were described as great leaders with supernatural powers who brought our ancestors to the twelve worlds, each one founding a colony (literal translation "made to live") and endowing our ancestors with knowledge to prosper in their new home. Then, according to the most accurate translations of the Book, the Twelve "ascended" in turn. What "ascended" means exactly is open to speculation. Even taken in a literal sense, where they ascended to we do not know; the Book of the Word is typically cryptic by saying no more. There is some evidence that the Twelve did in fact exist and were not simply legendary characters. Some of their names have been discovered in the records recovered from the time of Colonization, but the material was so degraded that we could not determine what context their names were used in. Beyond these dubious mentions in the prehistoric literature, we know little about them other than their descriptions in the Book. There is no supporting evidence for their supernatural powers, a fact that many atheists hold dearly to their hearts; denial is a strong tenet of the atheistic religion.

The skeptical also scoff at the Legend of the Thirteenth Colony. The legends and the Book all speak of the existence of a Thirteenth Colony named Earth that left Kobol prior to the events that forced the rest of our ancestors off that doomed planet. The legends are conflicted in their recounting of the reasons as to why this group left Kobol before the others, if indeed they ever existed. Some suggest that they were forced off Kobol, others suggest that they left to prepare the way for the remainder of humanity, and yet others still say that they knew of the coming calamity (whatever that may have been) and left to ensure the survival of the species. Despite the legends, we have no records confirming the existence of the Thirteenth Colony, nor have our deep space probes ever detected any intelligent activity beyond our system.

The legends also speak of a Thirteenth Lord who was cast out from the brotherhood of the Twelve, and forced to lead the Thirteenth Colony to their new home. Unlike the legends regarding the Thirteenth Colony, these legends are unequivocal regarding the Thirteenth Lord's departure - He did not leave of His own will. Unlike the Twelve, no records have ever been recovered to substantiate the existence of the Thirteenth Lord, nor is He ever mentioned in the Book of the Word. Academia has never accepted His existence, and the Hierarchy in Scorpia declared that belief in the Thirteenth Lord was heretical soon after the foundation of the High Temple in the early Second Century BU. Nevertheless, the legends persist amongst the lay people.

Regardless of the exact role and nature of the Twelve (or Thirteen), the Colonies of Kobol grew and prospered in near splendid isolation for the next three centuries after the completion of the Colonization. Reliable records begin in this three hundred year consolidation period. The Twelve are purported to have left behind knowledge regarding space flight, but it is quite clear to the rational that the early Colonists maintained a basic knowledge of space flight taken from Kobol. Space flight has been traditionally described as STL (slower than light) and FTL (faster than light) travel, the two types of flight entirely distinguished from each other by speed. Both types were known to the early Colonists but STL drive systems were at the time totally impractical for the maintenance of inter-Colonial space travel; the best STL speeds were barely 0.1c (c = speed of light). It literally took months or even years for a spacecraft launched from a Colony to rendezvous with its destination.

On the other hand, the rudiments of FTL drive were also known, providing the means for the Colonies to remain in touch, and, therefore, preventing the fractioning of our civilisation into twelve distinct peoples. Despite this, space flight was not common for the average citizen for a number of reasons. FTL drives were prohibitively expensive to construct in terms of material and the expertise required, meaning that most of the Colonial worlds only ever fielded an FTL fleet numbering no more than ten ships at a time. These ships were mostly Government and ambassadorial couriers; trade and cultural exchange missions were regular but much less common.

The ancillary technologies, including jump computers, tracking devices, and knowledge of the surrounding space (which depended at that time on poorly resolved radio and light telescope data) were poorly developed, requiring that jumps be made in small bite-sized chunks, markedly adding to operational overhead of each FTL ship. Added to this was the cost of fuel itself; power generation was largely based on the now outmoded fission/fusion model, a woefully inefficient source of power. Indeed, in those days, more than half of an FTL ship's mass was devoted solely to the multiple cores required to power the FTL drive. Perhaps the most prohibitive factor in the development of FTL technology was quite simply, a lack of need. There were plenty of space and resources on the newly founded Colonies; there was little need to look to off-world sources for either. What came next, however, changed everything.

The Tylium Age

Colonial industry and population across all Twelve Colonies had reached critical mass in the second mid-century BU (~150 BU); industrial strength was now growing ever faster and faster, fed by the demands of a rapidly expanding population base (estimated at between ten and twenty billion across all twelve worlds). It was in this climate of rapid growth that tylium was first purified on Libris to 99.999% purity as part of an attempt to satisfy scientific curiosity regarding the properties of this strange substance. While tylium had been officially listed as a mineral ore for centuries, little was known about it. There was some anecdotal evidence regarding its unusual properties, but despite numerous attempts, nobody had been able to purify the mineral to levels sufficient for study. The amounts produced in this attempt were vanishingly small, but it cannot be understated how important tylium is to the course of our civilization's history; no single discovery, barring FTL, changed the fortunes of the Twelve Colonies as much.

The potential of tylium was more or less immediately realized after its purification; the first recorded tylium reaction occurred during an experiment in which the ore, seemingly inert to virtually all sorts of manipulation, was subjected to intense heat. The resulting detonation of 50 nanograms (or 0.0000000000005 grams) of purified material, essentially uncontrolled as the scientists had no idea what they were dealing with, left a small crater where the fusion smelter had been installed on the grounds of the Sanctuary of Apollo on Libris. Without going into the physics and chemistry of the reaction, it was quite obvious that a potential new energy source magnitudes more powerful than the best fusion reactors had become available; fusion was now an obsolete technology.

From there, it took only ten years for practical applications for tylium to appear. Caprica, a world already starving for power to fuel its industrial growth and to keep its citizens warm, licensed the technology for tylium purification from Libris (rumored to be at an astronomical cost) and commissioned the first combined fusion/tylium reactor in 122 BU. Within three decades, fusion/tylium reactors had replaced virtually all the older straight fusion reactors on all Twelve Colonies.

Though tylium now provided an affordable, efficient, and relatively safe source of energy, the effects that it wrought on the economies of the Twelve Colonies happened in space and not on the surface. The construction of FTL drives almost seven hundred years after Colonization began was now vastly easier and cheaper; the industry and technology had been in place to support space travel on a larger scale for decades, but the problems of fuel costs and efficiency had dogged attempts to bring FTL to the masses. With the advent of tylium reactors, the remaining barrier to widespread space travel evaporated. Over the course of the remaining century (some six decades), tylium-powered FTL ships replaced the older fusion-based models. Commerce and trade between the Colonies exploded, and more and more people were taking to the stars firstly as tourists, then permanent settlers. The first fully functional and autonomous space habitat, the Achaea habitat, was completed in 72 BU. Industry was quick to exploit the new frontiers opened by tylium, and where industry went, the scientists also followed.

The expansion of the Twelve Colonies from planetary civilizations with extraterrestrial origins into a true pan-solar civilization sparked the establishment of the first interstellar defense forces by each of the Twelve Colonies. Caprican military dominance, but by no means hegemony, was established by 50 BU. While these forces were ostensibly for defense purposes, and were little more than glorified anti-piracy establishments, the growing power of the various Colonial Navies inevitably resulted in rising tensions. Skirmishes around the edges of each Colonial sphere of influence (the Colonies never attempted to delineate common borders along their frontiers, a totally useless exercise in space) were common, but rarely resulted in outright hostilities.

This period of relative peace and calm ended in 37 BU when Piscean forces launched a strike inside the Sagitarrian sphere of influence in an attempt to eliminate pirates operating out of the Thanatos Area on Sagittaron. Perceiving this as an impingement upon its sovereignty, the Sagitarrian fleet in turn launched a retaliatory strike. It was a grave error by the Sagitarrian Government in more than one way. The Piscean Navy, while not as large as the Caprican defense forces, was nevertheless formidable. They were the most well armed and trained of the twelve defense forces; even Caprica hesitated to begin a confrontation with Picon. The Piscean response to the Sagitarrian attack was savage and swift; the Sagitarrian Navy was swept from space. With control of the immediate Sagitarrian space in their hands, Picon shocked the Twelve Colonies by landing a ground force against light opposition. Sagittaron was subjugated in little more than a week, before the other Colonial Governments could even deliver official protests to the Pisceans for their apparent aggression.

The occupation of Sagittaron proved to a pivotal point in history. No longer were armed confrontations, wars, and occupations, previously inconceivable by Governments and the people alike, the province of those on the fringe of the political landscape and mad doomsdayers, but cold hard reality. Picon had opened Pandora's Box by proving it was possible, and once the concept was introduced, there was no turning the clock back. Every Government now feared attack and occupation by the others, and an arms raced ensued. Meanwhile, Sagittaron remained under Picon military governance while the legitimate Government reconvened as guests of Caprica. Picon was viewed with universal discomfort, and became a pariah of the Colonies until the Articles of Colonization were signed.

The Articles of Colonization

It was in this background of military paranoia that Caprica firmly took the reins of leadership. Not only was she the richest and most populous, she also fielded the largest defense force, and her diplomatic capital with each of the Twelve Colonies was strong. All of this gave her unparalleled leeway to act and intervene amongst the Colonies. Interestingly, despite being clearly dominant amongst the Colonies, the Capricans have never attempted to establish hegemony. If anything, Caprica held herself aloof from the foibles and disputes of the other Colonies, acting only when her interests were threatened. She became the natural neutral meeting ground between the Colonies, her diplomatic service legendary for being able to forge consensus amongst disputing parties even in the most difficult of situations.

Looking first to secure her interests, Caprica established multiple Treaties of Non-Aggression, and also Treaties of Amity providing for reciprocal protection of trade routes. By the end of 37 BU, Caprica was unique amongst the Colonies in being at permanent peace without unreasonable defense risks and/or burdens. Caprican dominance was all the more secure. In 30 BU, the Capricans called the First Colonial Convention to which every Colonial Leader of Government was invited to attend. It was at this Convention that the idea of federalization was first tabled by the Capricans; the Twelve Colonies were to be united under a single Government to ensure the peace and prosperity of the people. The idea fell on deaf ears.

However, once the idea was made public, it began to fester amongst the people. While the Colonies had been politically independent entities for the last five hundred years or more, their identities had largely remained singular. The average person on every Colonial world identified first as a Colonial - they shared a common language, religion, origin, and even political structures. The history of the Colonies had been intertwined right from the onset of the Colonization, and inter-Colony trade had allowed the dissemination of whatever ideas had developed on any single Colony to the other eleven Colonies. The Colonies were more homogenous now that at any other time in previous history since the completion of Colonization.

Caprican determination was also apparently underestimated. Caprican diplomats across the Twelve Colonies pushed for the idea continuously, and support for federalization slowly but surely gained support amongst the Governments. The alternative was to allow the arms race to continue and face the risk of a devastating war. A Second Colonial Convention was called in 10 BU, and the Capricans finally secured the blessings of all Twelve Colonies (even Picon who had threatened to walk out if the Sagitarrian Government-in-Exile was allowed representation) for full inter-Colonial negotiations to begin.

In 6 BU, the Capricans surprised the Colonies by securing a permanent peace treaty between Picon and the exiled Sagitarrian Government, a previously intractable problem. Picon had been persuaded to evacuate Sagittaron in return for Sagitarrian guarantees to destroy pirate bases inside their territory; the peace was enforced by the Caprican Navy. The Peace Pact spurred on the quest for unification; the last remaining barrier had been removed by skilled Caprican diplomacy. Public mood and opinion regarding unification shifted vastly in favor as a consequence of the pact - if Picon and Sagittaron could find peace after 20 years of war, then there was hope yet that further conflict could and would be averted.

Thus, it was in 1 AC that the Articles of Colonization were promulgated and successfully ratified by plebiscite by each of the Twelve Colonies, often by large majorities. For the first time in history, the children of Kobol were unified. The fate of the Twelve Colonies were now forever bound together. NOTA BENE: The Articles of Colonization are a bit of a misnomer - they were NOT established or present at the initial Colonization, and despite popular and mystical opinion, the Twelve were not involved in it.

The Articles of Colonization is the single most significant document in the history of our civilization, with the possible exception of the Book of the Word. It provided for a system of government that ensured the peace, for the most part, until the beginning of the Great Cylon War more than a century later.

The Articles of Colonization provided for a directly elected President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, and a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house (the Quorum of Twelve) made up of singular representatives from each of the Twelve Colonies, and the Quorum of Citizens, the lower house, with three representatives from each Colony, also directly elected. The seat of Government was hosted by Caprica, an honor bestowed to the Colony as recognition of its invaluable role in pushing for the Articles of Colonization. Considering its history as a neutral meeting place, Caprica was also the logical place to establish the new Government.

While the Articles of Colonization were hailed as a miracle, they were by no means perfect. The Lower House was effectively neutered by the Articles of Colonization; it could debate Government initiatives and bills, but could not vote on them. On the other hand, the Quorum could vote, but not debate. It was felt that this separation of powers would help prevent the paralysis of government that many detractors of the Articles (and there were quite a few of them despite the popular mood) feared. In the end, debate meant for little, and most recognized that true power to restrain Government excess rested solely in the hands of the Quorum of Twelve. The Lower House became meaningless over time and was formally abolished with an amendment to the Articles late in the Eight Decade AC, while the Quorum was now legally empowered to debate and vote on legislation (which it had been doing for over fifty years anyways).

The Articles of Colonization also provided for the establishment of the Colonial Navy, uniting the twelve Colonial Navies into a single body to be headquartered on Picon (a concession that Picon demanded be written into the Articles). The various Colonial armies and ground forces were similarly unified as the Colonial Marines and headquartered on Aerelon (also written into the Articles).

The Golden Age

While this section is little more than two paragraphs long, it nevertheless should be afforded its own chapter. Undeniably, our people entered a Golden Age with the ratification of the Articles that lasted for more than a hundred years. Prosperity skyrocketed as the unified Government ably managed inter-Colonial disputes and rivalries. Sound economic policy ensured an extended period of stable growth. The peace and security provided by both the Articles and a much expanded Colonial Navy ensured safe space travel - trade had doubled between the Colonies, and more than half of the now thirty billion plus population had traveled in space at some point in their lives. Cultural and scientific achievements astounded the populace on a regular basis.

The sole blight on this record was Sagittaron. The Colony, while an avid supporter of the Articles which was seen as the guarantor of their security from further Piscean aggression, failed to achieve the spectacular growth seen in the other eleven Colonies. While Sagittaron was rebuilt rapidly after the occupation had ended (largely funded by Caprican funds channeled through the Government), the mood of optimism that pervaded everywhere else was curiously absent. This poor mood, coupled to the Colony's shady reputation as a haven for the damp underside of humanity, deterred investment, resulting in poor economic performance. Sagitarrians, on every scale imaginable, were falling behind their brethren - the population was poorly skilled relative to other Colonials and they commanded lower wages. Sagitarrian workers were, in general, exploited and treated poorly compared to others, and the Government did little other than to apply generic and cosmetic "solutions". By the end of the century, more than one tenth of Sagitarrians lived in poverty, a state that had been virtually eliminated from the other Colonies. It was a portent of what was to come.

The Great War

It was in this era of unprecedented prosperity and hope that rapid advances were made in the field of robotics and allied computing technologies and industries. Intended to be used in manufacturing to replace humans, the first few generations of robotic servitors were crude and unsophisticated. Nevertheless, the deployment of the first servitors was an unqualified success, managing to double production rates at their sites of utilization. The Government increased its funding via grants to the robotics industry with the eventual objective of creating a type of paradise; robots would take over all the work and free humanity from the need to toil by 200 AC. While we might think that that was a totally unrealistic proposal, the plan of the Government of the day should be seen in light of the mood at the time. Optimism, buoyed by excellent economic growth and almost one hundred years of peace, was the flavor of the era.

The first fully autonomous robotic unit rolled off the Tauron (which replaced Geminon as the industrial heart of the Twelve Colonies) production lines near the end of the First Century AC. Research and development continued at an astounding pace, and within twenty years, not a single facet of Colonial life was untouched by the robotics industry. Even in the military, robotics had been embraced enthusiastically as a means of gaining greater efficiency. Robotics was, to sum it up, a pervasive technology. The first fully artificial intelligence package was developed by Hephaestion Industries early in the Second Century AC for incorporation into its prototype flagship CLT-12 unit.

The project was a catastrophe. For the first time in history, humanity encountered another sentient race, or more accurately, we created another sentient race. The AI package, unbeknownst to its creators, served as a nucleus for ascendance to sentience; it was only a matter of time for each CLT-12 unit to accrue sufficient data ("experience") for the spark of genuine sentience to develop. Each sentient unit could then raise others to sentience through a communications network (developed by Hephaestion to make coordination of units easier), creating an exponential effect that was soon beyond the control of anybody in the Government or Hephaestion. Even more primitive units, lacking the advanced CLT-12 processors, could be subverted via this network.

The consequences of this monumental error resulted in the First Cylon War. When the first units reached sentience, they had simply melted off into the night. At first, these disappearances were blamed on bugs in the AI software, and Hephaestion stopped the installation of further packages until they could solve the problem. The disappearances continued - the sentient units were covertly infecting their brethren with the package. Disquiet began to grow in the ranks of Hephaestion; if the problem was with the package, then the disappearances should have ceased when the installations also ceased. If anything, they were rising. Add this to the fact that both Government and Hephaestion had lost control of the CLT network, and Hephaestion had a genuine problem on their hands.

Nobody was aware of the true extent of the problem until the Cylons attempted communication. Strange pieces of binary code began appearing all over the sections of the CLT network still observable by Hephaestion. The messages were finally decoded and delivered to the President's Office; the subsequent Presidential Address to the Colonies shocked human society to its very core. The sentient synthetic beings now referred to themselves as the Cylons, declaring their independence from humanity and demanding recognition of their nationhood. The announcement brought an abrupt end to the Golden Age. Virtually instantaneously, investors began pulling their money out of robotics and allied research fields; the cries of horror from stockbrokers on Geminon reportedly echoed across the planet. The stock market lost almost 20% of its value in the space of an hour, and within a day, most shares of robotics and software companies had devalued by almost 300%. The industry collapsed overnight, triggering a domino effect that spread throughout other economic sectors. In a month, the Colonies were in a sharp recession, and the effects were particularly bad on Sagittaron.

Meanwhile, the Quorum went into emergency session with the President and the Cabinet. The Government's plan of action was to extend a hand of friendship but avoid delivering outright recognition to the Cylons. It was clearly an effort to buy time while they puzzled over what to do. There was general skepticism about whether the Cylons were truly sentient, which resulted in reluctance to grant them statehood, as exemplified by Minister of Defense Henry Quisling's question "You want to recognize toasters?!" What the Government did not know was that they were not dealing with humans able to read the subtleties of diplomacy. Instead, they were dealing with advanced sentient artificial beings who interpreted Government reticence as outright refusal of recognition of both sentience and statehood. It was tantamount to a declaration of war.

In preparation for war, the Cylons began infiltration of key military and industrial facilities on all Twelve Colonies. Indeed, Cylon infiltration was so successful that they were able to commandeer several Colonial Naval ships, Marine munitions depots, and command and control bases. Alarming reports of communication drop-outs, jamming, and other suspicious activities filtered back to Naval and Marine Headquarters on Picon and Aerelon respectively. By the time any decisions had been made to investigate the discrepancies, the Cylons had already fired the opening salvo. A nuclear weapon, frightening in its power and sophistication, was snuck aboard the Leto orbital habitat in Caprican orbit. At 4:43pm on the 4th of July 124 AC, the nuclear ordnance was detonated, heralding the start of a devastating war that would last more than a decade. Over fifteen thousand people died when the Leto habitat was simply blown apart.

Cylon attacks on every Colonial world and in virtually every major city and asset began simultaneously. Cylon attacks were particularly savage on the worlds of Tauron and Picon - the former would provide them the industrial facilities they required for prosecution of the war, and the latter housed the Colonial Naval Headquarters, undeniably the greatest threat to Cylon ambitions. Key industrial facilities on Tauron were overrun within hours of the surprise attack until Colonial Marines managed to contain the Cylon advance. Picon was not so fortunate. The first wave of Cylon "tinheads" caught Picon defenses totally off guard. Cylon forces had taken more than half of Picon City itself before Colonial forces could even mount a controlled withdrawal back to the fortified positions around the Naval HQ compound. Civilian casualties numbered into the hundreds of thousands by the end of the first day. It was clear that the Cylons were not engaged in a war of conquest, they were fighting a war of annihilation. The Admiralty was immediately evacuated to Caprica to conduct and coordinate the war from there.

Elsewhere, the Cylons resorted to terrorist-type attacks launched from hastily constructed hidden Cylon bases, rather than pitched ground battles. "Uprisings" of Cylon forces were reported on Virgon, Libris, and Geminon. Reports of suspicious explosions of Government and military assets on all of the other Colonies flowed in to Caprica. Government buildings on all worlds became virtual fortresses overnight as fortifications and security measures were instituted. The Government, initially shell shocked by the events and the rapid pace of the Cylon attack, was quick to act. President Yalann declared a state of emergency and martial law to be effective immediately on every Colony and all off world facilities. A Presidential Decree ordered all remaining "uninfected" robotic units, regardless of make, destroyed and the parts recycled for raw materials to help the defense efforts. The Quorum declared that the Twelve Colonies of Kobol were at a state of war with the Cylon Nation effective at 00:00 5th July 124 AC.

Over the next year, the Siege of Picon had devolved into a horrific style of warfare; Colonial Marine casualties rose into the hundreds of thousands as wave after wave of Cylon attacks pounded the remaining Piscean defenses. The advance of Cylon forces continued but brave Colonial opposition slowed them to a crawl. In the meantime, the poor news flowing out of Picon, the sudden economic hardship caused by the outbreak of war, and the resulting recession triggered an outbreak of panic and rioting in the capital of Caprica City. The military re-established control only after a brutal suppression of the rioters. The Government ordered a full scale mustering of all Colonial Reserves, a military necessity as much as a show of strength to the dissatisfied public, and industries vital to the war effort were nationalized.

Reinforcements were hurried to Picon while the civilian population in the areas still under Colonial control were evacuated. Picon, and to a lesser extent Tauron, became the major theatres of the ground war. The reinforcements arrived just in time to blunt a vicious Cylon offensive; Colonial forces fought them to a stalemate. However, more troops than the Reserves were able to provide were needed to reverse the Cylon advance and to replace rapidly mounting casualties. Calls for additional volunteers to join the war were put out, and though the response was disappointing at first, the ranks of the recruits eventually swelled as the outrage of the unprovoked attack and the horrors of Picon drew upon a spirit of patriotism and unity. Even on Sagittaron, voices that had previously called for secession were silent as humanity united in the face of the horror of unrestricted warfare. Training of recruits began in earnest. The first lots of fresh reinforcements were sent to Picon two years after the outbreak of violence. Despite this, the Colonials could not achieve any forward momentum; the stalemate continued as Cylon attack after attack were repulsed, often with high Colonial casualties. Colonial counterattacks bought little ground with a high price in lives.

The third year of the war saw the expansion of the conflict from the surface of the Colonies into space. The Cylons, using captured industrial facilities on Tauron, quickly produced the first of their space combat vessels to challenge the Colonials for control of the skies. Evidently, the Cylons had reached the same conclusions as the Admiralty - the Cylons could never mount a truly effective war effort without being able to ship reinforcements and supplies to their front lines, shipments that the Colonial Navy was currently and very effectively choking. Cylon raiders, in an attempt to even the score until they were sufficiently powerful to challenge the ColonialNavy face to face, began attacking Colonial shipping to threaten supply lines of materiel and fuel.

Prior to the start of the war, the Colonial Fleet had developed, constructed and commissioned five Battlestars (Columbia, Rycon, Atlantia, Pegasus, and Galactica), massive warships capable of projecting an incredible array of both fighter and conventional firepower. Each Battlestar carried full complements of the Mark I Vipers, a fighter-type vessel intended to track down pirates and police Colonial space during peace time. With the advent of the war, the Viper fleets underwent a major redesign and retrofitting to the Mark II model, which would remain the benchmark for the remainder of the war. The battlestars were immediately redeployed from providing air support to the defenders of Picon and Tauron to protecting Colonial space assets and shipping. Despite their clear supremacy in space, the Colonials were kept on their toes by random Cylon attacks that seemed to come out of nowhere.

The Colonials were on the defensive in space for the better part of the year, unable to predict when and where Cylon raids would strike next. The problem was compounded when Cylon raids began in areas thought beyond the range of their fighters. The enigma continued until the Colonial Dradus nets detected the first Cylon capital ship movements early in 128 AC. The Atlantia was immediately dispatched to Tauron's orbit and reported the first engagement with a Cylon basestar, a massive capital ship that was a match for the Atlantia in terms of both sheer firepower and fighter complement. The engagement was inconclusive as both ships suffered extensive damage and were forced to retire from the battlefield. It was during this engagement, however, that the Colonial war hero, William "Husker" Adama, presently the Commander of the Galactica, made his first kill. The Atlantia limped back to Caprica Harbor for repairs that would take almost three months to complete.

The true extent of the Cylon space construction program soon became clear. Upgraded Dradus nets and recon missions (from which many pilots did not return) now showed the existence of three completed basestars, accounting for Cylon raids beyond their expected range. A further eight were in various stages of construction. The reports were clearly alarming for both the Admiralty and the Government. Requisitions for the funds to construct a further seven battlestars, bringing the fleet to twelve, were rushed through the Quorum (who actually demanded an even larger construction program despite falling Government tax revenues due to the recession). The Colonial Fleet rushed the construction of the additional seven battlestars (Pacifica, Triton, Acropolis, Solaria, Prometheus, Argo and Poseidon). The Pacifica was completed in record time one and a half years after her keel was laid at the Cosmology Space yards in Geminon orbit, although her completion actually occurred after her entry into service due to her forced premature deployment (see below).

In addition to their basestar construction, the Cylons began commissioning bases in earnest soon after the Colonial detection of their capital ships. While not really habitats, these bases served as fleet anchorages, re-supply depots and research stations. The greatest Cylon base was located in the Damocles asteroid belt in the inner system, protecting their extensive mining operations there, as well as key industrial facilities on the Tauron surface. Repeated attempts by the Colonial Fleet to dislodge the Cylons from the Damocles belt in 129 AC met with little success.

Cylon and Colonial space engagements were numerous in 129 AC. The attention had shifted from the surface of Picon and Tauron to the action in space. The Colonial Fleet held its own against Cylon fleet actions through numerous naval engagements over the next decade, despite serious damage to the Acropolis and Solaria on one occasion requiring prolonged dry-docking for repairs. The docking of two battlestars forced the early commissioning of the Pacifica before the ship was ready for service; despite her incomplete construction, the Pacifica's relatively inexperienced crew made a strong showing in the next two Colonial fleet actions.

In the Piscean summer of 131 AC, the first nuclear bombardment of a planetary surface occurred, resulting in the complete abandonment of Picon City. A neutron bomb was detonated over the metropolis, killing virtually every living thing in a two hundred kilometer blast radius but leaving all inorganic matter untouched. Almost three thousand Colonial personnel perished from the resulting radiation. Cylon troops completed the conquest of Picon City unopposed and simply moved in, adapting the surviving structures and buildings for their use. Picon City, once the home of the Colonial Naval HQ, became the bastion of the Cylon menace, and for the first time in the war, the Cylons were close to complete conquest of a Colonial world.

Strangely enough, the annihilation of the defenders of Picon proved to be the undoing of the Cylons. Fearing the use of more neutron bombs on other major population centers, the Government was now forced to contemplate its options. The idea of a thermonuclear response was discarded almost immediately; the Cylons were sure to launch a thermonuclear strike against Tauron's cities. As it was, Tauron was already under threat of a nuclear bombardment without such reckless provocation, and the Colonial Navy could not guarantee complete safety from a lone Cylon raider slipping through Colonial defenses to launch a thermonuclear weapon against other Colonial population centers. The only alternative was a quick and successful conclusion to the war, which implied a massive military offensive against the Cylon threat. The Admiralty and Marine High Command were ordered to plan the offensive operation, codenamed Deliverance. Planning began and continued under the threat of another neutron attack.

None came. In retrospect, it is yet another mystery regarding the Cylons as to why they did not utilize their arsenal of neutron bombs; there was no doubt they were armed with more. A planned and coordinated bombardment would have forced the Government to sue for terms. Few credible hypotheses have been suggested. The most likely has only just been formulated; we now know that Cylon technology is heavily susceptible to radiation emitted by the Ragnar field, similar in quality to the radiation emitted by neutron bombs. Though this susceptibility was not known to the Colonials at the time, fear of a returning neutron bombardment, or even thermonuclear strikes, possibly forestalled further Cylon neutron bomb attacks. Ironically, Cylon ignorance of Colonial ignorance regarding Cylon susceptibility to radiation probably saved mankind and its war effort.

Planning for Deliverance was completed in the Caprican spring of 132 AC. The plan was simple in its objectives, but truly breath-taking with respect to the sheer logistics required. The first objective on which the remaining were predicated upon was the establishment of total space supremacy by destruction of the Cylon basestar fleet and their main anchorage in the solar system. Following this, an offensive would be launched on Tauron to secure the planet from the Cylon neutron bomb threat, and Picon would then be liberated, the Cylons to be ejected at all costs. Meanwhile, the Colonial Marines and planet-bound Naval units would mount offensives on all known Cylon bases on the remaining ten Colonies with the intention of initially distracting enemy attention, and then thwarting enemy reprisals on these less well defended Colonies. The Colonies were going to take on the Cylons on all fronts simultaneously.

The Colonial Fleet, all twelve of the great battlestars, amassed in Caprican orbit to prepare for the attack on the Cylon anchorage. Each Battlestar took on an additional squadron of Vipers above and beyond their usual complement. With no hangar space to spare, the additional Vipers were loaded directly into the launch tubes and landing bays; it was hoped that this advantage, which the Cylons would not expect, would add an edge to the attack. On 30th December 132 AC, the entire Colonial Fleet jumped into the Damocles belt near the Cylon anchorage. The Cylon fleet was caught totally unawares as the battlestars materialized in a coordinated fashion to enclose the Cylons in a ring of iron. Of the ten Cylon operational basestars present only four were undocked and able to respond to the Colonial incursion. Within moments, hundreds of Vipers were in space, and the battlestars opened a raging hailstorm of fire on the Cylon capital ships, using everything from point defense cannons to nuclear warheads. Despite the surprise and ferocity of the Colonial attack, the response of the four basestars were swift; their main batteries came on-line immediately. Cylon raiders launched from all ten basestars as well as from the anchorage itself. The bolstered Colonial Viper squadrons seized and utilized the initiative provided by surprise, engaging their Cylon counterparts in the largest dogfight in history as they attempted to wrest control of the surrounding space from the metallic beings.

Though the battle was intense, the outcome was a foregone conclusion in retrospect. Colonial space tactics coupled with surprise prevented the Cylons from mounting their best defense. The Cylons did not have time to undock their massive ships from the anchorage to make them effective, nor could they maneuver their four undocked ships into a defensive formation before they were destroyed. Colonial nuclear weapons and Battlestar gunnery tore through the opposing basestars, while Colonial fighters fended off desperate Cylon attacks against the great Colonial capital ships.

Six basestars were destroyed still docked to the Damocles Anchorage, and four were destroyed in the water. In little over a quarter of an hour, the Cylons had been deprived of most of their fleet. The Cylons would never recover. In return, the Prometheus, Poseidon and Atlantia suffered heavy damage and would remain in dry-dock for almost a year after the battle for repairs. The Viper squadrons suffered the greatest attrition of the battle; almost one out of every five Vipers launched did not return. At the close of the Damocles Engagement, as it became known in future, statistics placed Colonial deaths at approximately four thousand personnel aboard the battlestars and in the Vipers. It was the greatest victory in Colonial history, and celebrated by numerous accolades; the stature of the Navy and its service men and women have been made legendary by the Engagement. To put it in perspective, one hundred and six Gold Clusters were awarded (seventy posthumously) to the Viper pilots, more than the total number awarded in the entire period between the ratification of the Articles of Colonization and the beginning of the Cylon war.

The Colonials did not sit back and celebrate ad nauseum; they grabbed the momentum generated by the Naval victory to blockade Tauron, essentially severing the Cylons from their industrial base. They moved quickly; transports loaded to the brim with Marines jumped in from Caprica and landed an invasion force of almost one million men and women within days. Buoyed by the great victory, superb command and control, and overwhelming air support, Tauron was liberated in a month, and the Cylon threat ended on that planet. Colonial casualties were minimal due to the overwhelming force applied; losses were more economic than in lives. The Cylons had instituted a policy of "Scorched Ground" as they retreated, destroying everything that might help the Colonials. Losses from destruction of infrastructure alone in the areas of Tauron that had fallen under Cylon control numbered into the trillions of cubits.

From there, the Cylon situation was precarious. Cut off from supplies, and with most of their fleet blown out of the sky, the Cylons knew it was only a matter of time until Colonial forces arrived to retake occupied Picon from them. Already, patrols in force were being made from territory still under Colonial control in the south of the Odyssean continent in preparation for the arrival of reinforcements and the operation to liberate Picon. The force that had been assembled for the liberation was truly awe inspiring - over one hundred Marine transport ships jumped in system to unload a force three times larger than the one that had liberated Tauron, escorted by six of the twelve battlestars, while the Rycon, Galactica, and Solaria hunted the few remaining Cylon basestars across the Cyrannus system (the Prometheus, Poseidon, and Atlantia were in dry-dock).

The Colonial offensive began on the 15th of March 133 AC. Vipers modified for ground bombardment were launched from the orbiting battlestars, and in conjunction with ground based artillery, pounded Cylon positions all over the planet, targeting in particular Cylon command and control positions, Dradus towers, and anti-aircraft batteries. The bombing continued for three days. On the 18th day of March, Colonial Marines poured out of the southern regions of the Oddysean continent and began the push north towards Picon City. Against such overwhelming force, the Cylons had little to respond with. While formidable, the Cylons were clearly outnumbered, and outgunned. Colonial spearheads punched through Cylon defensive positions, creating corridors through which troops advanced and wheeled around to surround their enemy in a vice. Other columns of Colonial troops streamed in through the wide gaps in the Cylon front lines, heading straight for Picon City.

The Marines entered the outskirts of Picon City at the beginning of June.

The Cylons sued for terms on the 10th of June 133 AC.

The impossible was now a reality. Facing their total annihilation, the Cylons accepted an Armistice offer from the Colonial Government. Fighting ceased at 00:00 on the 12th of June 133 AC. The Cylons were allowed to evacuate whatever personnel they had left in Colonial space without harassment and to withdraw to a new home, wherever that may be. The last Cylon transport jumped out of Piscean space under escort on the 20th of June at 04:15. The war was over.

The parties and celebrations that ensued were, by all accounts, beyond belief. The devastation and loss of life were forgotten for a heady month-long celebration, declared by the Government and Quorum, that was almost mythical in proportion. Fireworks hailed the peace in every Colonial city, and the heroes of the war were feted like Lords of Kobol. We do not have records to know for sure, but anecdotal evidence suggests that ambrosia traders made a killing. Interestingly, the census records a spike of births nine months later in the following year, possibly reflecting the atmosphere of the time, and the human need for physical outlets of strong emotions.

The rebuilding of Picon began almost immediately. The vast majority of refugees which had been evacuated returned to their devastated Colony. Generous amounts of aid, both private and Government, flowed in from the other Colonies. The Naval HQ was reconstructed, military industrial complexes were re-established, and the opportunity was taken to rebuild the Academy. The unexpected consequence of the unique suffering endured by Picon is that it is now the most modern of the Twelve Colonies; the people took the opportunity to plan their resettlement of the Colony, and the reconstruction of buildings and public spaces were done with the latest in architectural design and thought. The Picon City of today rivals even Caprica City for chic and grandeur, despite its reputation as being a "navy town".

The repercussions of the war, however, extended beyond just the physical. A deep-seated suspicion of robotics, and the allied fields of computer and network applications became ingrained into the Colonial psyche. Never again would they allow the Cylons to threaten their existence. A massive recruitment and construction drive for both arms of the Colonial Military was passed through the Quorum. A second generation of battlestars were constructed, while the first generation were retrofitted up to the new standard. Over a hundred battlestars were christened in the next 40 years of peace. The ranks of the Marines were doubled, new barracks and training grounds were established, and an impressive array of new armored vehicles and machines of war were developed.

In many ways the Colonials had been forced to grow up; after the war, there was no room for complacency on any level. While the economy was recovering, the optimism that pervaded the years before the war no longer existed - the Golden Age had passed.

The Interval of Hope

Our civilization then entered a "holding pattern" period for the next twenty years. Reconstruction was the focus of the next two decades; our people had to recover from the ravages of war before we could move on. They were hard years as the heady euphoria of victory was slowly replaced by the hardships of reconstruction. The economy had become stagnant and trade lackluster; in 143 AC, the economy tipped over into recession, and the difficulties intensified. Calls for Sagitarrian independence and liberation resurfaced, and Government mismanagement of that situation merely fanned the flames. Attempts by the Government to nip the problem in the bud with harsh measures designed to silence the activists merely added credence to their claims. It was in this period that Tom Zarek rose as a prominent Sagitarrian advocate of independence. While he never publicly supported violence as a legitimate tool of political change, there is little doubt that Zarek was a leader of the terrorist rings that first surfaced in 147 AC. These rings instituted a wave of attacks on Sagittaron against Government buildings and officials. The attacks soon spread beyond those targets and Sagitarrian citizens could no longer count themselves safe; indeed almost forty Sagitarrians had died as "patriots" before the year's end.

Further Government attempts to subdue the insurgents escalated the situation beyond control - Zarek was captured, convicted of treason, and sentenced to twenty years in a Sagitarrian penitentiary (ironically the Government dumped all of its undesirables on Sagittaron). In response, a year after Zarek's internment in jail, Sagitarrian "freedom fighters" occupied the Helios-1 Power Plant on Aerelon and delivered an ultimatum demanding the release of all "political prisoners" or face the consequences of an uncontrolled tylium reaction of unimaginable proportions. The resulting conflagration of such a detonation would have leveled the city of Megara, population 5 million. To make matters worse, the terrorists had also captured fifty of the plant's workers and were using them as human shields to guarantee their safety.

President Adar, newly installed as the President of the Twelve Colonies, ordered Colonial Marines in, despite the danger to the hostages. In the resulting skirmish to retake the plant, sixteen prisoners were executed by the terrorists before the Marines could secure them. At the end of it, however, Colonial personnel were in control of the Helios plant, Zarek was still incarcerated and Megara was safe. The loss of sixteen hostages, however, provoked outrage amongst the electorate, and many thought that Adar's career was over. Many misjudged his acute sense of political savvy; he survived attempts to impeach him in the Quorum, and regained election at the end of his term, largely helped by an upswing in Colonial economic performance.

Adar had a firm grasp of economic policy, and an excellent Treasury Minister in Helen Merry. Under their steady guidance, the Colonies had once again crawled up the slippery slope back to prosperity in the middle of his first term. The proscription against robotics and networks remained firmly in place and reinforced in 156 AC when the Quorum passed the Act of Regulation (Artificial Intelligence) despite strong lobbying against the bill from commercial interests (particularly from Geminon). For all intents and purposes, humanity was back to the place where it was before the Great War, and our people settled in for another prolonged period of peace. Or so they thought.

The Long Night Goodbye

The peace of the Armistice held for 40 years. Much of the trauma of the war had faded; a new generation had grown up without the threat of devastation hanging over their heads. The future looked bright, and the Colonies were well on the road to recovery. There was even some talk of a second Golden Age and a return to prosperity, even on Sagittaron. Reality would soon intrude to deliver a fatal blow to our dreams.

Armistice Station was constructed after the Armistice with the intention of being a meeting place for humans and Cylons to discuss their differences and resolve them peacefully. Every year the Fleet sent a representative. Every year the Cylons sent nobody. In 173 AC, humanity received a reply. The Cylons launched a surprise offensive against the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and their first target was Armistice Station. The war had started again. In retrospect, it appears that the Cylons had been using the last 40 years to rebuild and rearm their forces. They had returned to complete their goal - the total extermination of the human race.

The results were devastating. The Colonial Fleet, now numbering more than one hundred and twenty battlestars, was thought to be invincible. Nothing is ever truly invincible. The Cylons had found a way to disable our Battlestars, leaving the great ships crippled and drifting in space. We now know that the navigational systems that powered the great ships' computer networks and movements were fatally flawed, allowing the Cylons to infiltrate the networks and disable the Fleet without firing a single shot. The Cylons then finished the job; every Battlestar bar one met with destruction. The new Mark 7 Vipers did not fare any better, being equally susceptible to Cylon electronic warfare. Every Viper system was shut down like the battlestars'; floating in space with no power, they proved to be easy targets for Cylon raiders. The Colonial Navy, the pride of humanity, the defenders of the Colonies and beacon of hope was decimated within hours.

With the Fleet eliminated, the path to the Colonies was now wide open. The next two days were the most terrifying in human history. Our civilization was reduced to ruin. The Cylons struck with a fury never before seen. Picon was the first Colony to report thermonuclear detonations; whether it was out of spite for the Cylon defeat forty years ago, or pure coincidence we do not know. The Government offered an unconditional surrender; our only reply was the nuking of the remaining Colonial worlds. Destruction rained down on our defenseless people, until finally, it stopped. Almost six hundred years of recorded history was wiped out in two days of insane destruction. Seven million people inhabited Caprica City alone; a hundred times that many inhabited the entire planet, and a hundred times that across all Twelve Colonies of Kobol - more than seventy billion people in total.

They are all gone now.

Only fifty thousand souls survived the Holocaust, gathered from the few FTL capable ships that happened to be in space when the Cylons bombarded our planets. Only one Battlestar, the Galactica, remains. She is old and tired, but she is all that defends the remnants of our once great people. New leaders have stepped up to protect us. Laura Roslin, the former Secretary of Education (43rd in line of succession) has been sworn in as President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Commander Adama, a hero of the First Cylon War, is the highest ranking officer of the Colonial Navy still surviving; under his command, the brave men and women of the Galactica protect our fleet of refugees from the Cylons, who pursue us still across the depths of space.

Today, huddled aboard fifty ships, the surviving sons and daughters of Kobol eek out their existence. We have been promised salvation and safe haven by our leaders; our mission now is to find the lost Thirteenth Colony of Kobol. Somewhere out there, there is a planet called Earth, and we shall journey to it. We are few in number. We have little in terms of resources and even less in terms of options.

But we have hope. And we must survive.

So say we all.