- 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).
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.
Colonization[edit]
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).
One Year Later[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).
Just over a year 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).
Cylon Occupation[edit]
380 days after settlement, a Cylon fleet slightly over one light year away from the nebula detects the explosion of the nuclear warhead detonated on Cloud 9. Upon their discovery of the planet, the Cylons jump into New Caprica's orbit with a fleet of basestars. Galactica and Pegasus, in orbit above the planet, are caught by surprise and vastly outnumbered. With both ships at half strength, commander Lee Adama pursuades admiral William Adama to jump away from New Caprica and protect the small fleet in orbit with them. Admiral Adama promises to return.
On the planet, the airspace of Caprica City is filled with Cylon Raiders, and President Baltar is confronted by a Cylon delegation consisting of Caprica Six, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and a copy of Number Five. Left with no choice, Baltar surrenders to the Cylons on behalf of what remains of the human race, now trapped on New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
The occupying forces are initially led by Caprica Six and Boomer under the sincere intention of establishing peace between the Cylons and the human race. However, they quickly lose their influence to the more militaristic Cylon models (Precipice, Exodus, Part II). The Cylons become an occupying force on New Caprica, with President Baltar and his staff reduced to a puppet administration controlled by Cylon rule. Vice President Tom Zarek refuses to cooperate and is sent to a detention center (Precipice).
A band of human resistance fighters, regarded by the Cylon-occupiers as insurgents, begins to strike back against the Cylons. The resistance is significantly aided by an unknown, inside source that passes them classified information, allowing the resistance to wreak considerable havoc on the Cylons. This leads to the formation of The New Caprica Police (NCP), humans who volunteer to work for the Cylon authority. The New Caprica Police are regarded with both disgust and disdain by the majority of the planet’s human civilization. Considered to be Cylon collaborators, the NCP are forced to wear black ski masks to hide their identies in an attempt to protect themselves from human reprisal.
The Battle of New Caprica and the Second Exodus[edit]
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Based on a contigency plan developed by Saul Tigh and William Adama a Raptor jumps regularly into orbit, trying to establish contact with the resistance movement on the planet. After contact is made, information is exchanged and Galactica and Pegasus learn that the resistance is ready to strike, but lacks the launch keys necessary to activate the grounded ships.
Admiral Adama deploys a two-Raptor team, led by newly commissioned Sharon Agathon, to form a ground link with the resistance and to retrieve the launch keys under her guise as a Cylon (Precipice).
The launch keys are successfully retrieved by Sharon Agathon and returned to their ships (Exodus, Part II). Admiral Adama then jumps Galactica to New Caprica in order to provide cover for the evacuation, while the resistance carries out ground attacks in order to occupy Cylon ground forces. Other resistance members chaperone civilians to their ships and liberate the New Caprica Detention Center. Meanwhile, Pegasus, under Commander Lee Adama, is ordered to guard the remaining ships and later rendezvous with Galactica at a pre-arranged point, or continue the search for Earth alone should the rescue fail.
Galactica's Raptors deploy decoys in order to draw the Cylons to illusory targets. Galactica then jumps directly into New Caprica’s lower atmosphere, deploying Blue Squadron to provide air cover, and then back into higher orbit. Galactica, badly damaged by its atmospheric insertion, stands off against two basestars, drawing their fire while the civilian ships get airborn and jump to the rendezvous point. When another two basestars join the battle, the odds turn against Galactica, and Adama, unable to jump to safety, resigns himself to defeat.
At this moment, 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. Galactica is able to repair its FTL drive, and upon the successful return of the ship's Viper squadron, escapes to the rendezvous point.
However, Pegasus has no fighter cover, having left its vipers to guard the escaping ships. The battlestar is mortally damaged and Commander Adama and his skeleton crew are forced to abandon the ship. The surviving Pegasus officers board Raptors and escape to the rendezvous point. Pegasus is sent on a collision course with one of the remaining basestars, destroying it. The subsequent explosion destroys another of the basestars.
Aftermath[edit]
While the rescue mission is considered a success, a number of humanity's most popular, important and infamous are not able to escape New Caprica. Those who die include Tucker "Duck" Clellan, one of Galactica's best Viper pilots who is driven to despair by the murder of his partner, Nora (Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance), and conducts a suicide-bombing attack on the NCP (Occupation); Ellen Tigh, who is poisoned by her husband for collaborating with the Cylons; and Maya, who is killed while attempting to board her escape ship with her adopted baby daughter, the Human/Cylon hybrid, Hera. The child survives, but without the protection of her mother is left behind and recovered by the Cylons. Knowing he cannot escape with the rest of the huamn population Gaius Baltar elects to leave with the Cylons, at the invitation of Number Three copy D'anna Biers.
Estimates indicate that approximately 2,000 human beings do not return to the Fleet. The exact number of those who were either injured but alive or merely forgotten during The Battle of New Caprica and left behind is not known.
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 abandon New Caprica.