Ragnar

Galactica in Ragnar orbit.

Ragnar is the location of the Ragnar Anchorage munitions station located in the outer reaches of the Twelve Colonies. After the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Commander Adama, assuming command of the Colonial Fleet after Admiral Nagala's death, orders all ships to Ragnar; President Laura Roslin's fleet is the only known assemblage of ships to make this rendezvous.

Ragnar appears to be either the nucleus of a giant icy comet or (less likely) a gas giant planet. Its atmosphere is wracked by violent storms. Ragnar Anchorage station appears to be located in an area of relative calm within the very tenuous upper atmosphere. If Ragnar is a giant comet in an elliptical orbit, a relatively thick atmosphere will emerge whenever it periodically passes close to its central star and ice on the surface starts to violently sublimate.

The storms themselves create a high level of electromagnetic interference in Ragnar's upper atmosphere, which interferes with a range of systems, including a ship's ability to plot FTL jumps. While this effectively hides Ragnar Anchorage from enemy scans, it also means that a ship must cross the "EM threshold" above the main bulk of the atmosphere before attempting a jump. This problem requires Commander Adama to place Galactica directly between the planet and an opposing force of Cylon basestars to provide the necessary protection for the civilian Fleet to jump away from Colonial space.

Another side effect of the storm is the emission of a form of radiation that adversely affected the Cylons' silica pathways, a technology integrated into humanoid Cylons. When Leoben Conoy appears to fall sick while trapped on the station with Adama, it gives the commander his first clue that Conoy is a Cylon construct (Miniseries).

Notes

• The name is an allusion to the tale of Ragnarok, the apocalyptic battle of the gods of Norse mythology.
• Ragnar is said to be at least three days away at sublight speed and the entire Cylon fleet is between Galactica and the Anchorage. Hence the ship has to make a hyperspace jump although Tigh warns that the Galactica could end up in the middle of the sun rather than at Ragnar if the calculations are off even by a few degrees.
• It is possible that the deleterious effects on Cylon technology became known to the Colonials during the Cylon War, prompting them to place the Anchorage within Ragnar's atmosphere.