Cylon War
Encyclopedia
The Cylon War is a fictional interstellar war
Interstellar war
In fiction, an interstellar war is a war between combatants whose respective headquarters lie in different planetary systems. It is a popular plot device in science fiction, especially in the space opera subgenre. An intergalactic war refers to war between combatants of different galaxies...

 that occurred in the Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...

universe. Both the original 1978
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....

 Battlestar Galactica
Saga of a Star World
"Saga of a Star World" is the pilot for the American science fiction television series of Battlestar Galactica which was produced in 1978 by Glen A. Larson...

movie and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (TV miniseries)
Battlestar Galactica is a three-hour miniseries written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, and served as a backdoor pilot for the 2004 television series...

miniseries are set shortly after that conflict.

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

In the original series, the Cylon war is also known as the Thousand Yahren War, the Thousand Year War and the Great Cylon Conflict.

The Cylon War began when the Twelve Colonies of Man
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...

 came to the aid of an alien species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 called the Hasaris
Hasaris
The Hasaris are an alien civilization in the Battlestar Galactica video game, They are never seen in the original 1978 series. They are an amphibious species from the world Hasari Prime. Thet are depicted as a whale-like species...

. This small and militarily-weak civilization was under attack by the Cylon
Cylon (Battlestar Galactica)
The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, the 2004 reimagining, as well as the spin-off prequel series, Caprica...

 army. The reasons for the Cylon-Hasaris war are never made clear; however, given the Hasaris' peace-loving nature, it is unlikely they were the aggressor. It is more likely that the Cylon picked them as a target. The Cylons were designed as war robots, and they needed a new enemy after they had destroyed their biological masters. Having never been commanded to cease fire, these warrior robots continued to wage war.

Despite the Colonies' help, the Hasaris civilization was eventually destroyed by the Cylons. Following their victory, the Cylons set their aim on destroying the Twelve Colonies, who had helped their enemies.

The war itself has never been discussed in detail. The few facts that are known are that the Colonial Battlestars were constructed shortly after the war had begun, that a large number of battles of all kinds took place, and that, at some point near the end of the war, Count Baltar
Count Baltar
In the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, Count Baltar was a leading antagonist character who betrayed the human race to its enemy, the robot race of Cylons...

 was chosen to act as a liaison between both sides.

The Cylon War ended nearly a thousand yahrens after it had begun. The Cylons made an unexpected overture for peace through their agent, Count Baltar. The Colonials, weary of the war, accepted. However, the Cylons had no real intention to negotiate peace. Baltar had betrayed the Colonials, and the whole thing was a ruse to catch the Colonials off-guard. It worked almost perfectly, and in one sudden attack, the Twelve Colonies and all but one of the Battlestars were destroyed.

Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies
The Destruction of the Twelve Colonies
The Destruction of the Twelve Colonies is a fictitious interstellar holocaust first depicted in the 1978 motion picture Battlestar Galactica, which set the stage for the subsequent television series...

, the last Battlestar, Galactica, gathered the few survivors into a rag-tag fugitive fleet, and set a course for unexplored space, away from the Cylons. Their goal was to reach a mythical Thirteenth Colony, called Earth, in the hopes it had achieved a technological level high enough to protect them from Cylon tyranny.

First War

Always seeking new and better technology, the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...

 created the Cylons — highly intelligent robots designed to make human lives easier; however, the Cylons rebelled against their human masters, causing war to break out between man and their creations.

The war itself has never been discussed in detail. What little is known is that Humans fought using the Colonial Battlestars and Vipers
Colonial Viper
The Colonial Viper is the primary fighter spacecraft type used by the human protagonists in the Battlestar Galactica fictional universe. Appearing in both the 1978 original series and the 2003 reimagined series, as well as various derivative works, the single-pilot spacecraft are carried aboard...

, against the first generation of Cylons. Given the Cylons' artificial nature, they had the ability to infect computer network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....

s. This caused the Humans to shun large computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 networks in favor of isolated computer systems.

The war ended after twelve and a half years, when a peace accord was signed between the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons. The reason for this accord, unbeknownst to the humans, was the arrival of the Final Five.

Following the peace accord, the Cylons retreated from Colonial space and cut all contact with the Colonies. The Colonials, hoping to prevent another war through diplomatic means, built Armistice Station as a place for Humans and Cylons to meet in order to maintain a peaceful dialogue between both races. Each year for 40 years, the Humans sent a representative to Armistice Station; the Cylons sent no one.

Inter-War

Meanwhile, after decades, voices in the Colonies started calling for a lift on the ban on sophisticated computer networks, which had been instituted during the Cylon War. Chief among them was Dr. Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...

, one of the Colonies' most brilliant scientists and an important member of the military's defense research team.

Unknown to the Colonies, the Cylons were using this time to prepare a new offensive. They were building an army of new, superior Cylon Centurions, researching organic-based technologies, and bioengineering an army of Cylons who appeared human, down to the cellular level.

Near the end of the inter-war period about a year before the Cylon surprise attack and subsequent nuclear holocaust
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...

, the Admiralty of the Colonial Fleet sent a scouting mission into Cylon territory which resulted in the capture of the scout pilot (and the effective ending of William Adama's military career). (In the podcasts, series creator Ron Moore said that this did not impact the Cylon decision to renew hostilities, as the Colonies were already infiltrated by sleeper cells of Cylon agents by that point).

Second War

Forty years after the end of the Cylon War, the Cylons were ready to strike at the Colonies again. Their humanoid models had infiltrated the Colonies, most notably Number Six
Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)
Number Six is a family of fictional characters from the reimagined science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. She is portrayed by Canadian actress and model Tricia Helfer. Of the twelve known Cylon models, she is the sixth of the "Significant Seven"...

, who had seduced Baltar and through him had obtained access to the Colonies' defense network. The Cylons paid their first and only visit to Armistice Station, and destroyed it. They then launched a surprise attack on the Colonies
The Destruction of the Twelve Colonies
The Destruction of the Twelve Colonies is a fictitious interstellar holocaust first depicted in the 1978 motion picture Battlestar Galactica, which set the stage for the subsequent television series...

, which were unprepared and, thanks to infiltration, undefended. The Cylon plan was effective, and in one day, the Twelve Colonies were destroyed with nuclear bombardment and Cylon occupation.

Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, the last known Battlestar, Galactica, gathered the few survivors into a rag-tag fugitive fleet, and set a course for unexplored space, away from the Cylons. The Fleet embarked on a search for the mythological 13th Colony of Man, which legend has it settled in some distant part of the galaxy on a planet they named Earth. Later on, Galactica and the fleet were discovered by the Battlestar Pegasus
Battlestar Pegasus
Battlestar Pegasus is a fictional spacecraft that appears in the both the original and the reimagined television series Battlestar Galactica.- Battlestar Galactica :...

 which had also survived the Cylon attack. Pegasus joined the fleet in its search for Earth. The remnants of the Colonial Military protect the civilian ships that managed to escape and launch attacks on Cylon targets of opportunity.

The refugee fleet discovers a harsh planet in a nebula and, believing it will hide them from the Cylons, they settle on the surface. It is named New Caprica. During the initial phases of populating the planet the Gina Number Six detonates a nuclear warhead
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

 aboard Cloud Nine, the largest civilian ship in the fleet, destroying the ship (and an undetermined, though small, number of other ships). A year after settlement, the light and energy signatures from the blast reach a Cylon fleet stationed a light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...

 away. The Cylon Fleet discovers and invades New Caprica, putting the planet and the people on the surface under occupation. The Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus, each having been depleted by personnel moving to the planet, manage to escape New Caprica with civilian ships orbiting the planet before the Cylons can attack them. On New Caprica, the humans organize a resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...

 and begin attacking Cylon facilities, even using humans as suicide bombers
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...

. The Cylons attempt to crush the resistance by imprisoning, torturing, and even executing humans who are active in the resistance. Eventually, the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus return to New Caprica to rescue the humans on the planet, and after a fierce battle in which the Pegasus is destroyed and numerous Cylons and humans are killed, humanity escapes, and resumes the course towards Earth.

Four years after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, the Rag-Tag fleet forms an alliance with the Rebel Cylon Faction consisting of the Sixes, Twos and Eights, after the Hybrid child Hera Agathon is captured by Boomer and taken to the Cylon Colony which was in control of it, Galactica launches a suicide attack against the Colony, A Raptor accidentally fires the remaining nukes from the Galactica and the Pegasus and destroys the Colony, Adama orders Starbuck to jump the ship, she accidentally jumps the Galactica near the planet which is now called Earth, the Rag-Tag fleet and the remaining Rebel Cylons settled on the planet and abandoned the remaining ships, the Rebel Baseship jumped away to parts unknown, the fleet and Galactica were flown into the Sun, leaving the Colonials to start fresh anew on a new world.

External links

  • The Cylon War entry in the Battlestar Wiki
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