Overview
Parnassus Anchorage was built in 2035 AE as a base from which Admiral Madeline Hauck and the Advanced Research and Projects Department (ARPROD) could develop their most secret of projects. Located in the Bey system — at the opposite end of the Armistice Line, the anchorage orbits the ice planet Reza, notable mostly for its toxic atmosphere than anything else.
Though the anchorage is capable of housing as many as two thousand personnel, recovered personnel records indicate that it was crewed by as few as fifteen hundred, even during its heyday. Originally designed to serve as an emergency supply station, Parnassus proved to be ideal for conducting classified weapons research and testing in a quiet, out-of-the-way location. A significant portion of ARPROD's funding was diverted to Parnassus and its affiliated projects not long after Admiral Hauck was appointed commander of ARPROD in 2034.
Rumor holds that Hauck had an extremely aggressive outlook, pushing for a massive military build-up in the event of the Cylons' return. To her, that was a question of "when," not "if" — and sometimes it really sucks to be right.
Discovery by Battlestar Cerberus
Cerberus' engineers discovered coordinates to the Bey system encoded in the navigational computer of a Raptor assigned to Battlestar Chimaera. A Raptor crewed by LTJG Evandreus "Bunny" Doe and then-ENS Marko "Flasher" Scaurus was dispatched to investigate on 22 March 2041. The full fleet arrived the next day, at which point Cerberus' Air Wing blasted away a defense field comprised of highly illegal mines and a network of stationary turrets. They also discovered the wreckage of Hauck's flagship, Battlestar Invictus, in a decaying orbit around the toxic ice planet.
Salvage Operations
Over the course of the next several weeks, away teams conducted extensive salvage operations aboard the abandoned station. The most valuable catch by far was a lightly-damaged Heavy Raider, which was disassembled for analysis by Deck and Engineering. The full tally is listed below:
Away teams also discovered significant signs of conflict throughout the station's lower levels. They recovered several wrecked centurions but found fewer than a hundred human bodies. Many of the station's bulkheads were covered by a hardened organic-seeming resin, sometimes mixed in with dried human blood and leftover shell casings from whatever battle raged here on the 26th of February.
Despite their best efforts, the away teams were unable to gain access to the research decks located at the topmost levels of the station, which were sealed off by explosions from the inside. Scans indicated a remarkable concentration of radiation on those decks. Whatever happened up there, someone went to a great deal of trouble to destroy it.
Destruction and Aftermath
A Cylon fleet returned to Parnassus on 16 April 2041 with the intention of destroying the base, deploying numerous nuclear missiles to do so. Though BSG-132 was unable to prevent the obliteration of the anchorage, it did manage to recover valuable intelligence from the station's computers before the Cylon attack.
Cerberus' engineers decrypted the Parnassus data and discovered the existence of a secret weapons program called Project Ananke. More information about Ananke was recovered when several volunteers infiltrated an underground laboratory of a biotechnology firm known to have supplied ARPROD with sample silica pathways — the technology behind Cylon "brains."
On 12 September 2041, BSG-132 encountered the experimental escort carrier Areion (CEX-300) above the skies of Sagittaron. The experimental carrier emitted radiation similar to that detected on the anchorage and temporarily disabled attacking Cylon forces, allowing the battlestar group to escape.
On 08 January 2042, BSG-132 returned to Parnassus Anchorage after discovering a Cylon manufacturing facility near Tauron, taking advantage of the place's association with the mysterious Ananke radiation to use it as a staging area for subsequent offensive operations.