New Caprica

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This television-related article or section describes an aspect of the series in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective.

New Caprica is the fictional name given to a relatively desolate but habitable planet in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. The capital of New Caprica is New Caprica City, the same name as the capital of the eponymous original colony.

New Caprica is named in honor of Caprica, one of the original Twelve Colonies. It is located in a region of space whose electromagnetic radiation makes surveying difficult.

Contents 1 Settlement History 1.1 Discovery 1.2 Colonization 1.3 Cylon Occupation 1.3.1 New Caprica Police 1.3.2 New Caprica resistance 1.4 The Battle over New Caprica 1.5 Post-Exodus 2 Locations on New Caprica 2.1 New Caprica City 2.2 Breeders Canyon 2.3 Pergamus Flats 3 External links

[edit] Settlement History

[edit] Discovery

New Caprica is discovered by an off-course Raptor, part of a mission to rescue Samuel T. Anders' Caprican Resistance. The planet is a harsh place to live and barely habitable. It is located in a nebula that causes severe interference with Colonial and Cylon sensor systems. This leads to the belief that the planet is safe from Cylons, as it could only be discovered by chance.

[edit] Colonization

The planet is settled by the civilian population of the fleet under the leadership of President Gaius Baltar. It becomes the key issue during the election. Although many people in the military and incumbent government have reservations about doing so, the civilian population desire to land. Baltar uses this to win the election.

Although things appear to be going well at first, problems begin to develop as time goes by. There are medicine shortages, and many are growing sick. There are labour problems, and strikes. Baltar becomes depressed and resorts to alcoholism and womanizing.

Just over one year after settlement, a Cylon fleet jumps in over New Caprica, after having detected signs of the nuclear explosion that destroyed the Colonial fleet's Cloud Nine vessel in a Cylon suicide attack. The Cylon fleet lands on New Caprica and promptly occupies the planet. The Colonial military forces guarding New Caprica, partially demobilized and de-skilled due to twelve months of low staff and inactivity, choose to jump away rather than attempt a suicidal defense.

Baltar surrenders to the Cylon forces, which dominate the human settlements with a strong military presence.

[edit] Cylon Occupation

[edit] New Caprica Police

After the Cylon occupation is well established The New Caprica Police (NCP) Academy is organized by the Cylons, ostensibly to train human Colonists to police other fellow Colonial humans as a means of keeping civil order and reducing civil disobedience to Cylon occupation. Cylon leadership believes that the human populace will accept fellow human police better than Cylon police. However, the police actually take orders from the Cylon leadership, are widely despised by the human populace as traitors, and resort to oppressive tactics including mass arrests. Owing to this, members of the NCP must hide their identities when dealing with fellow humans. The parallel, both storywise and pictorially in the officers' uniforms, is akin to the use of the Nazi military using local recruits as domestic police forces in occupied countries during World War II. Other parallels have been drawn to the U.S. occupation in Iraq and the use of Iraqi security forces. The NCP police recruit program is infiltrated by a Resistance fighter, Duck, who turns into suicide bomber and kills 30 recruits.

The captain of the NCP, Jammer, is actually a member of the New Caprica Resistance and hides his collaborationist activities from both the Resistance and the NCP.

[edit] New Caprica resistance

The Resistance is led by Colonel Saul Tigh. Tigh's most important lieutenants are Galen Tyrol and Samuel Anders, who personally oversee the planning and execution of strikes against the Cylons.

After Tigh's release from a Cylon detention facility, he has ordered an increase in violence against the Cylons in the form of suicide-bombings. Among the most notable of these bombers is Duck, a resistance fighter who successfully infiltrates the New Caprica Police.

The Resistance also routinely performs strikes against the Cylons with the hopes of destroying supply chains, damaging Cylon spacecraft, and killing as many Humanoid and Centurions as possible.

The main source of information to The Resistance is someone deep within the Cylon infrastructure. Unknown to them, this informant is revealed to be Felix Gaeta, another former officer aboard the Galactica. He provides useful information that leads to critical strikes against the Cylons. Most importantly, however, Gaeta provides The Resistance with information that enabled them to make contact with the Colonial Fleet led by Admiral Adama and his son Lee Adama.

With their goals in mind, The Resistance successfully rendezvous with marines from the Colonial Fleet.

In the episode "Exodus Part II", the Resistance successfully oversees the evacuation of New Caprica. They initiate fire-fights and explosions across the city, distracting the Cylons and giving pilots time to get their ships off the ground and escape.

[edit] The Battle over New Caprica

Battle over New Caprica
Date — Location New Caprica Result Colonial victory
Belligerents
Twelve Colonies	Cylons
Strength
2 Battlestars	4 Basestars
Casualties and losses
1 Battlestar	3 Basestars

The Battle of New Caprica was fought by the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus to rescue the 39,000 human survivors that had settled on New Caprica and later fallen under Cylon occupation during the episode "Exodus, Part 2".

The battle began as Colonial Raptors launched decoy drones to simulate the appearance of the Battlestars on DRADIS to draw Cylon forces away from New Caprica. At this point the Galactica performed an intra-atmospheric FTL jump in order to launch Viper squadrons to fight Cylon Raiders and eliminate ground targets. The Galactica fell for several thousand feet before performing another FTL jump into low orbit and began to engage the two Cylon Basestars. Their chances at winning were dashed, however when two more Basestars unexpectedly jumped into the system. Added to this, the strain of the drop had damaged the Galactica's FTL and conventional engines.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of New Caprica, having recovered the launch keys to their spacecraft, boarded them and began to lift off and performed FTL jumps to pre-arranged coordinates.

All four Basestars began bombarding the Galactica with missiles, seriously damaging it, but damage to its FTL drive and the fact that several of the civilian vessels on New Caprica had yet to jump to safety, forced the ship to remain. The Galactica was saved from destruction by the intervention of the Pegasus (its commander, Lee Adama, having defied an order to stay with the Fleet), which turned the tide of battle. The Pegasus engaged the attacking Basestars, destroying one with its forward batteries. The Pegasus then put itself in between the Cylon ships, diverting their attention and buying the Galactica precious time to recover its Vipers, bring its FTL online and jump to safety. The Pegasus, having left its own fighters behind to guard the civilian fleet, began to take serious damage. Commander Adama then had the ship locked onto a collision course with a Basestar and its main guns set to auto-fire, while the skeleton crew abandoned ship on several Raptors. After the Pegasus' main engines exploded, the starboard flight pod was thrown by the blast into a nearby basestar, destroying it.

[edit] Post-Exodus

Some 5,197 people were left behind when the fleet left. This includes those who are known to have died and those who went missing.

[edit] Locations on New Caprica

[edit] New Caprica City

New Caprica City is the capital of the barely habitable New Caprica.

Colonial One is the executive mansion of the New Caprica government, located in New Caprica City. The Headquarters of the New Caprica Police and its New Caprica Police Academy are also located in the city, as is the New Caprica Cylon occupation headquarters with its New Caprica Detention Center.

Some of the cells in the detention centre are designed for psychological warfare, and simulate a typical Colonial home.

The grain storage tank is located next to the hospital. The space underneath the grain storage tank is used by the New Caprica Resistance as their bomb-making location.

[edit] Breeders Canyon

Breeder's Canyon is a dell with a stream running through it. It was chosen as the rendezvous location for the New Caprica Resistance to meet up with the Fleet forces under command of Sharon Agathon.

[edit] Pergamus Flats

Pergamus Flats is a plain near some cliffs, where the Cylon Occupation Forces decided to execute some suspected resistance members, sympathizers and troublemakers. The New Caprica Resistance rescues the condemned from the Cylon Forces under Brother Cavil's command.

[edit] External links

• New Caprica at the Battlestar Wiki