Fall of the Twelve Colonies
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| Fall of the Twelve Colonies | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | Zero Hour | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Twelve Colonies of Kobol | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive Cylon victory, occupation of the Twelve Colonies | ||||||||||||||||
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This article details the destruction of the Twelve Colonies in the Re-imagined Series. For information on the fall of the Twelve Colonies in the Original Series, see Battle of Cimtar.
The devastating opening wave of the Cylon Attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol (initiating what would technically be the "Second Cylon War") in which the Cylons used a programming backdoor to infiltrate and shut down Colonial Fleet avionics. Practically all Colonial ships that tried to engage the forces of the Cylon surprise attack suffered immediate and total power failure, as if "someone turned off a switch". As a result, the Cylon fleet suffered almost no losses and effortlessly destroyed practically all opposition.
Picon Fleet Headquarters is destroyed in the opening wave of the attack, as are 30 battlestars, noted to be "a quarter of the Fleet" according to Kara Thrace's comment to Commander William Adama in the opening events of the attack. Admiral Nagala subsequently takes command of the Colonial Fleet aboard battlestar Atlantia. The primary Colonial effort at mounting a stand against the Cylons centers around the orbit of Virgon, according to a tactical plot of all military ships by Lieutenant Felix Gaeta as Galactica prepared for possible incoming enemies.
Battlestar Galactica is the only Colonial ship unaffected by the Cylon's computer infiltration, because it's computer systems were never networked--an anti-infiltration tactic used in the First Cylon War that Adama adhered to on Galactica, even in peacetime and despite the advances in Colonial technology. Although Galactica loses her last squadron of Viper Mark VII's in their first sortie against two Cylon Raiders because their networked computers were vulnerable to infiltration, the battlestar also held 40 Viper Mark II's board as part of its recent decommissioning ceremony. The Viper Mark II's were an old but robust design that were resistant to infiltration and were never equipped to use the Command Navigation Program that doomed other Colonial fighters. Unaffected by the Cylon computer infiltation and the backdoor commands or viruses they could spread, Galactica is able to re-arm and deploy its Mark II's, repelling several attacking squadrons of Cylon Raiders, even surviving a direct hit from a Cylon tactical nuclear warhead, but not without a loss of 85 of its ship's crew in the port flight pod and some internal damage.
Soon after, Galactica receives word that battlestar Atlantia, as well as many more battlestars, are lost in the fighting. Commander Adama assumes command of whatever was left of the Colonial military fleet, and sends a wireless transmission to any surviving Colonial forces to rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage to prepare for a counterattack. Ragnar Station also held desperately needed munitions for the battlestar's gun batteries and her fighters. Galactica had destroyed its own munitions as part of its decommissioning earlier. Galactica successfully Jumps to Ragnar, skipping past the bulk of the Cylon fleet that stands in her way.
The Cylons bombard each of the Twelve Colonies' population and strategic centers with nuclear bombs, including Caprica. After Picon is nuked, the Colonial government broadcasts an unconditional surrender, which is completely ignored by the Cylons. President Richard Adar and all senior Colonial government officials, save for spacebound Secretary of Education Laura Roslin, are presumed killed or missing. The Case Orange contingency mechanism activates to seek out any remaining government officials, a signal of which only Roslin apparently acknowledges. Sworn in on the government-chartered passenger liner Colonial Heavy 798, Roslin becomes the new President of the Twelve Colonies. With all civilian traffic suspended by the Colonial government before its collapse, Roslin immediately begins locating other stranded Colonial civilian and military vessels to form a convoy. Several ships without faster-than-light ability are left behind to their fate by the other FTL ships of the convoy when Cylons locate the convoy. The sublight ships and their passengers are destroyed by Cylons while the remaining ships join Galactica at her new location.
Battlestar Pegasus, commanded by Admiral Helena Cain, also escapes certain destruction by the Cylons at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards by a making a blind jump into space. Most of the battlestar's networked computer systems were offline for an overhaul except for her navigation computer, which fortunately could execute a Jump. With the "fog of war" and the desperate manner of their escape, Pegasus is apparently unaware of Galactica's survival and proceeds to conduct attacks on Cylon forces it encounters as it, too, leaves the solar system of the Colonies. Galactica has no knowledge of this other battlestar as the Colonies disintegrated and communications between other Colonial forces faded into static.