- For information on the Video Game's "New Caprica", see New Caprica (Video Game). For information on the failed Singer/DeSanto continuation series colony, see New Caprica (SDS).
The Discovery[edit]
Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson discovers the planet later known as New Caprica after her Raptor accidently Jumps to the wrong coordinates while on a rescue mission to Caprica. Excited by her discovery, Edmondson returns to the battlestar Pegasus with information and sensor readings on the planet.
The solar system is surrounded by a dense nebula that renders DRADIS all but useless, which is strategically appealing, as it promises to protect the planet from Cylon detection. Ground surveys reveal that New Caprica is a cold world with a harsh climate, and that only a small temperate band around the equator covering about 20% of the surface is habitable.
President Laura Roslin immediately writes off colonization as unrealistic, given the harsh climate. However, the mere prospect of setting foot on a planet is enough to cause excitement within the Fleet, and civilians immediately begin to request shore leave, and the discovery happens to have coincided with an impending presidential election (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I).
Presidential candidate Gaius Baltar and running mate Tom Zarek seize upon colonization as their wedge issue, offering the Fleet the prospect of settlement under the presumption that Cylon technology will be unable to penetrate the nebula. Roslin disagrees with this assessment, but the majority of the travel- and war-weary survivors of the Fleet find the idea of colonizing the planet enticing. Baltar and Zarek win a decisive mandate, and Laura Roslin is voted out of office.
Shortly after Baltar's inauguration, in an unrelated incident, a nuclear warhead smuggled off of Galactica is detonated aboard luxury liner Cloud 9, destroying it and several surrounding ships, and killing many thousands of civilians. Despite the tragedy, Baltar's first executive order is to begin settlement, bringing an end to the Fleet's search for the planet Earth (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
The Colonization[edit]
The population of New Caprica is concentrated in a small settlement called New Caprica City. The climate proves unforgiving, and there are major shortages of basic living materials and medical supplies. Most of the population continue to live in canvas tents more than a year after settlement, with a small number of grounded ships serving as larger buildings. Many among the population of New Caprica City, including Galen Tyrol and the workers' union which he leads, blame President Baltar and his lack of leadership for the vast majority of the economic and social problems facing the settlers on New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
380 days after colonization, the population of New Caprica City is 39,192 (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). A small group of around 2,000 civilians remain in orbit in those ships incapable of making planetfall (Occupation).
On the 380th day of New Caprica's colonization, the Cylons discover the planet by tracing the energy signature caused by the detonation of the nuclear warhead that had destoyed the luxury spaceliner Cloud 9, a ship that had been orbiting New Caprica prior to the colonization. Upon their discovery of the planet, the Cylons jump into New Caprica's orbit with a fleet of basestars. The remains of the Fleet that had not permanently stationed their vehicles on New Caprica, including the battlestars Galactica and Pegasus, orbiting the planet and unable to mount any kind of defense against the superiorally armed invading Cylons, are forced to jump away. Feeling he has no choice, President Baltar surrenders to the Cylons on behalf of what remains of the human race, now trapped on New Caprica. Those left behind on New Caprica include former President Laura Roslin, Vice President Tom Zarek, Colonel Saul Tigh and his wife Ellen, Major Cottle, Captain Kara Thrace and her husband Samuel Anders, Chief Galen Tyrol and his wife Cally, Presidential aide Felix Gaeta, Maya and her adopted daughter, the Cylon-human hybrid Isis.
The Occupation[edit]
Under the guise of trying to establish co-existence with the human race, the Cylons instead become an occupying force on New Caprica; President Baltar and his staff are reduced to nothing more than a puppet administration controlled by Cylon rule.
Because the Cylon occupation lead to numerous security restrictions and heightened levels of control and repression on the planet, a band of human resistance fighters, regard by the Cylon-occupiers as insurgents, begin to strike back against the occupying army. This leads to the formation of The New Caprica Police, humans who either volunteer or are coerced into working for the Cylon authority. Wearing black ski masks, blue body armor, and green uniforms with white armbands, The New Caprica Police are regarded with both disgust and disdain by the majority of the planet’s human civilization.
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Led by Colonel Tigh, the human resistance begins construction of a hidden, underground wireless communications center. Unknown to most of the human population on the planet, prior to the colonization Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh had developed a contingency plan in the event that the battlestars Galactica, Pegasus and the rest of the orbiting Fleet were forced to abandon the colony. Each day, a Raptor protected from Cylon detection by the planet’s nebula, jumps from Galactica into the far orbit of New Caprica, scanning for any contact from those left behind on the planet. Once the communications center is completed, the resistance is able to successfully contact this Raptor, which returns to Galactica with the news that the remaining human survivors on New Caprica are ready to begin organizing for an evacuation. Admiral Adama deployes a two-Raptor team, led by Sharon Agathon, to aid the resistance (Precipice). Though Sharon is a Cylon, Admiral Adama has grown to trust her while she was imprisoned on Galactica. He assigns her the rescue attempt’s most important mission: to retrieve the launch keys for those ships "parked" on New Caprica. Once retrieved these keys, which had been removed from their respective ships by the Cylons, would allow the ships trapped on New Caprica to successfully execute FTL jumps to safety.
The Battle of New Caprica and The Second Exodus[edit]
The launch keys are successfully retrieved by Sharon Agathon and returned to their ships (Exodus, Part II). Admiral Adama then launches a full scale rescue mission with Galactica. Prior to the start of the rescue mission, Admiral Adama ordered his son, Commander Lee Adama to jump away with Pegasus and the remaining ships to a pre-arranged rendezvous point.
As the Battle of New Caprica begins with numerous divisionary attacks on the ground, Admiral Adama jumps Galactica into New Caprica’s lower atmosphere, successfully launches the ship’s squadron of Vipers, and then jumps back into a higher orbit. Attacking strategic targets and barriers that prevent the human population from reaching their assigned escape ships to evacuate the planet, the Vipers give the grounded ships enough time to execute their own intra-atmosphere jumps to the rendezvous point. While rescue operations are conducted on the ground, Galactica tries to stave off an attack by four Cylon basestars. Just before Galactica is about to be destroyed, Commander Lee Adama , ignoring his father's order, arrives with Pegasus and is able to divert the Cylon attack on Galactica to his own ship. Thus, upon the successful return of the ship's Viper squadron, Galactica is able to escape by jumping to the rendezvous point. However, Pegasus is mortally damaged and Commander Adama and his crew are forced to abandon the ship. The surviving Pegasus officers escape from the damaged battlestar in a small fleet of Raptors. When Pegasus finally explodes, it destroyes three of the four remaining basestars. With the remains of the Fleet now safely reunited at the rendezvous point, the search for Earth continues.
While the rescue mission is considered a success, not everyone was able to escape the planet. Ellen Tigh was poisoned and killed by her husband, resistance leader Colonel Saul Tigh, for collaborating with the Cylons. Maya was killed while attempting to make it to her assigned escape ship. Gaius Baltar was left behind.
With the humans gone, and with their possession and control of the hybrid-child finally realized, the Cylons see no strategic or logical reason to remain on the planet. It is assumed, that like the humans, they abandoned New Caprica.