Sagittaron (alternate)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Dynamite Comics separate continuity, which is related to the Re-imagined Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

Sagittaron is one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and is abundant in natural resources, in addition to being the primary exporter of nitrassium. The colony is viewed by some as a slave labor camp for the Colonies, which has brewed a violence, particularly at the hands of the Sagittaron Freedom Movement, lead by Tom Zarek.

The capital of Sagittaron is Sagittaron City (Battlestar Galactica: Zarek).

Sagittaron has several moons, an outermost one being capable of sustaining a human-survivable atmosphere. Kara Thrace and Karl Agathon crashland on one after pursuing Darja Purat's Raptor-like ship (Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero 4).

History

Prior to the First Cylon War, Sagittaron was a great provider to its fellow colonies, with its citizens and workers taking pride in their accomplishments. A change occurs when politicians and lawmakers turn the colony's output from necessity into profiteering. Under this, agricultural workers (agri-techs) and laborers became slaves, as Sagittaron is turned into a work camp where "once those duties were supervised by armed guards doling out punishment for underachievement, the morale [of Sagittaron's laboring citizens] faded and then vanished completely". These changes do not occur overnight, as they take many generations of slow and steady erosion.

During the generation of Karen and Jerome Zarek, the government of Sagittaron began finding ways to address the situation of Sagittaron status as a work camp, however they did not wish to accept responsibility for the current condition of the colony. This lead, in part, to the creation of the Cylons, machines that would allegedly lessen the burden on the workers and free them. However, while the Cylons did lessen the work for some humans -- mainly the economically privileged -- the "newly-freed slaves found they had few options that didn't involve going right back to their old jobs".

The Cylon War brings some changes to Sagittaron, namely discontent and labor strikes which affect the colony's output, in addition to various Cylon attacks. All of these factors bring an increased military presence to Sagittaron, including Colonial Marines and curfews.

Much of the negative portions of Sagittaron's history are repressed or deliberately glossed over by the local government; abridged histories are taught to young Sagittarons in institutions such as Perseus Village Academy, much to the castigation of Tom Zarek who is expelled for questioning the edited history, in addition to vandalism.

Roughly 12 years into the Cylon War, a Sagittaron named Karen Zarek creates a labor union and activist group called the Citizens for Sagittaron Labor Reform. Such was this group's eventual sway on the local population that the Labor Ministry hires a gun-for-hire, Nixon Kinlow, to eliminate Zarek in the hopes of destroying the effort (Battlestar Galactica: Zarek 1).

Culture & Economy

Sagittaron's culture is based around its work force, which occurs due to the natural erosion of other vocations during its pre-Cylon War conversion into a forced labor camp. Due to this, the Sagittaron Labor Ministry became increasingly powerful and was able to control the lives of Sagittaron workers, even in spite of the introduction of the Cylons as a workforce -- which only the wealthy took advantage of.

The culture is not as sophisticated as Caprica; there is very little evidence of Sagittaron being a mecca of art and literature, outside of various Roman-Greco statues and modernistic architecture.

The economy is purely driven by providing its fellow colonies with agricultural and natural resource refinement, however the wealth from these exports is taken by the Labor Ministry, local government, and likely the corporations operating factories and processing centers on Sagittaron.

Social services

Sagittaron consists of various transportation services, including roads and monorails, in addition to a news network called the Sagittaron News Network that broadcasts news and information to its citizens.

Additionally, a civil defense system was repeatedly utilized during Cylon attacks to assist in evacuating non-combatants from the war zone, likely maintained by members of Sagittaron Civil Defense.

Military base

Two years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Sagittaron is home of a Colonial Military Complex that Julian DiMarco targets for a nuclear attack. However, this attack is averted by the efforts of Commander William Adama (Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero 6).