Battlestar Galactica is set in a distant star system, where a civilization of humans live on a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies. In the past, the Colonies had been at war with a cybernetic race of their own creation, known as the Cylons. With the unwitting help of a human scientist named Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden sneak attack on the Colonies, laying waste to the planets and devastating their populations. Out of a population numbering in the billions, only approximately 50,000 humans survive, most of whom were aboard civilian ships that avoided destruction. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the eponymous Battlestar Galactica appears to be the only military capital ship that survived the attack. Under the leadership of Colonial Fleet officer Commander William "Bill" Adama and President Laura Roslin, the Galactica and its crew take up the task of leading the small fugitive fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled refuge known as Earth.
Canceron has a large multitude of diverse dialects, religions, epic poems, cuisines, music, theater, and literature, yet Canceron's own people rarely know much outside their own subculture. The government, due to its massive population, proclaims itself the largest democracy of all the colonies. At its planetary Congress, it has more than 2,300 representatives from 88 states that speak at least 19 distinct dialects, that are answerable to the 88 state congresses. Terrorism is a basic fact of life for young Cancerons