The Cylon occupation of Caprica was a ten month long operation conducted by the Centurions and Humanoid Cylons to establish a colony on Caprica following the genocide of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. While other colonies may have endured weeks-long fighting, only the fighting on Caprica is known of and, due to the importance of Samuel T. Anders to the Cylons, was almost certainly the longest operation.
History[]
During the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, a massive invasion force consisting of Centurions landed on Caprica to ensure the eradication of humans that had survived the nuclear bombardment, aided by Cylon raider strikes.[1] It was not expected there would be any survivors, with the exception of human captives taken to Farms for experimentation, and Humanoid Cylons began settling in the cities.
Initial weeks[]
In the first days after the Cylon occupation, armed survivalists converged in Caprica's woodland for safety, and met with the Caprica Buccaneers, the national Pyramid team which in training at the time of the Fall. The Buccaneers, led by a Cylon named Samuel T. Anders, had armed themselves with Centurion hand weapons and adapted to guerrilla warfare tactics, inspired by war films such as The Tauron Line.[1] Under Anders' initial leadership the resistance grew to over fifty people and based itself in abandoned buildings in the highlands, which were less-severely irradiated than the cities. The resistance was quickly made aware of the Humanoid Cylon presence, and by the first month had identified Number Twos and Number Fives. They did not, however, encounter multiple copies of the Number Ones, and as Cylon taking the guise of a Priest joined the resistance as a spy. A Number Four also worked as the Buccaneers' medic, and made efforts to poison the resistance fighters by giving people overdoses of Morpha.
Several weeks into the occupation, the resistance made contact with Colonial officers Lieutenant Kara Thrace and Lieutenant Karl Agathon of the Galactica. Lieutenant Thrace was shot and captured by Centurions on the order of the resistance's Number One, and taken to a Farm where she and other captives were to be experimented on. The resistance was able to rescue her and, in the process, identified the Number Fours and Number Sixes as Cylons; their medic was summarily executed. A short alliance was also made with a pregnant Number Eight, who provided a stolen Heavy Raider for the attack.
Later occupation[]
Though Galactica was aware of the resistance thanks to Lieutenant Thrace, rescue efforts were repeatedly delayed for political and logistical reasons. In the subsequent nine months it took for the SAR mission to take place, the resistance began a long deterioration. Running low on supplies, they were forced to expand their operations into the cities, where they began bombing buildings with a large Cylon presence, such as restaurants. By this point, all Humanoid Cylon models bar the Number Ones had been identified. The resistance nonetheless continued to exist on the insistence of the Number Ones, who wanted to convince Anders of the moral superiority of the Cylons before his eventual death.
Meanwhile, the Humanoid Cylons began serious political debate over the Fall and subsequent occupation. Inspired by a Number Six and Eight as an individual-centred movement running antithetical to the Cylon culture of nonidentity, open dispute as to the moral value of the genocide grew. Ultimately, it was agreed that the genocide was morally indefensible, and any survivors were to be moved to Picon and provided with non-irradiated food as reparations. This agreement was opposed by the Number Ones, and the Priest within Anders' resistance prepared a Centurion strike on the resistance compound. Those who believed in the Picon offer were gunned down as they departed with the Six and Eight. In the hours after this ambush, the resistance encountered the SAR team sent by Galactica and Pegasus. Soon after, the Centurion force was ordered back following a vote to completely abandon the colonies. Due to Anders' relationship with the Number One, it is likely that his resistance was at this point all that remained of mankind in the star system and, therefore, Picon's re-settlement is unlikely to have happened even if an honest agreement.