Case Orange
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The Colonial Government did institute measures to ensure a working government in the chance of a catastrophic event.
In the latter part of the Cylon genocidal destruction of the Twelve Colonies in the re-imagined Mini-Series, Education Secretary Laura Roslin receives an radio message in the cockpit of her transport, Colonial 798:
"This is an official Colonial Government broadcast. All ministers and officials should now go to Case Orange. Repeat: This is an official Colonial Government broadcast. All ministers and officials should now go to Case Orange."
Roslin explains that this automated message is designed to be broadcast should the President of the Twelve Colonies, the Vice President and most of the Colonial Cabinet are killed or incapacitated. She instucts the captain of the ship to acknowledge the message by sending her government ID code on the same frequency as the message: D-456-345-A. Roslin leaves the cockpit and awaits the return response. Presumably, the Case Orange system gathers the IDs of all government officials, then determines who becomes the new President and where to contact him/her and any remaining officials.
Captain Adama, on board Colonial 798, asks Roslin how far down she ranks in the government secession order. She replies she is 43rd in succession. She says with sadness that she personally knew all 42 individuals from the President on down, most having served with President Adar in his past administration and when he was a mayor.
The ship's captain returns to Roslin with the printed response. Out of the 42 other government officials above her, apparently only she has responded to the automated message.
It is not stated whether there were other officials lower in the succession order than Roslin, but it can be presumed from the Case Orange result that they are unable to respond as well, effectively removing them from consideration. It may be presumed that the Case Orange beacon had been running for some time after the attacks began, yet no others had responded to its message, since Roslin receives a response fairly quickly. The Case Orange system may determine that assignment of a President is conditional to the length of time since its activation. The longer the beacon is seeking out officials without response, the quicker it responds and assigns a President to ensure a working government.
After the ship's captain retrieves a priest on board, Elosha, Roslin is sworn in as the new President of the Twelve Colonies, surrounded by reporters that accompanied her to the Battlestar Galactica on her tour of the education facilities of the new museum there, shortly before the Cylon attack began. The mood and the appearance of the ceremony appeared to deliberately remind the viewer of the swearing-in ceremony of President Lyndon Johnson after the assassination of President Kennedy in November, 1963.
As Roslin's first act as President, she begins the task of locating other stranded civilian and military ships in the sector. The ship's captain changes the ship's call sign to Colonial One in recognition of the presence of the new President on board.