cylon basestars
The original Cylons were a technologically advanced reptilian race from
a far corner of the galaxy. As they died out many millennia ago,
little is known of their society. They must have been warlike and
imperialistic
since at the time of their extinction they had
already conquered hundreds of other worlds. The key to the success
of the early Cylon's conquests was their development, first of sophisticated
robots, and then of fully
intelligent androids. These machines were
build to withstand enormous stress and to have great strength and powerful
computational capacity. Armies of them swept through sector after sector
of the galaxy. But ultimately, the machines became the superiors
of their creators, and the Cylons themselves were destroyed by their own
machines.
The Cylon androids, reptilian in form like their masters, continued the
mission of destruction to which they had been assigned. Machines
that they were, they swept through the galaxy even more ruthlessly than
their
creators. The directives of their programming
crystallized into a single Edit of Extermination, that called for the destruction
of all intelligent life forms in the galaxy.
Modern Cylons are basically human form. The most common type is the
Centurion, a heavily armored soldier capable of operation a Raider and
piloting a Baseship or Dreadnought, and also adaptable to planetary
invasion and extermination. They are not
o f high intelligence, but can be cheaply mass-produced. A common
Cylon strategy, therefore, is to overwhelm the enemy with large number
of Centurions, many of whom will be
destroyed, leaving a sufficient number of survivors
to carry the day.
The most advanced Cylons are from the I-L Series. Both Lucifer, aide
to Commander Baltar, and the Imperious Leader itself are of this type.
I-L series Cylons have acute reasoning abilities, and can directly monitor
electronic telemetry from up to fifty sources simultaneously. Much
more than simple automatons, the I-L's at times exhibit human like drives
for power. Human cylonologists speculate that this ambition response
was deliberately programmed into the I-L's to insure prompt replacement
of incompetent leadership.
The first human-Cylon contact occurred in yahren 5547, when combined human
forces came to the defense of their amphibious allies, the Hasaris.
The humans were unprepared for the massive Cylon offensive, and their fleet
was soon forced back to the outer defense perimeters of their own Colonies.
This was the beginning of the thousand-yahren Great Cylon War.
The Humans proved to be the most formidable foes the Cylons had ever faced.
Lacking imagination to respond to human advances creatively, the Cylons
adapted in the only way they could: by imitation.
The Centurions were designed to resemble Humans more and more, and their
weapons were redesigned accordingly. Human weapons advances were
quickly met by Cylon copies, so that the war remained in stalemate for
hundreds of yahren. The Colonial Unification Movement and the military
genius of Commander Cain had pushed the Cylons to the breaking point, when
the treachery of Baltar led to the near-final destruction of humanity.
An I-L series Cylon known as the Imperious Leader commands the vast Cylon
Empire. Although the other I-L series Cylons treat the Imperious
Leader with great respect, all secretly aspire to its role. No orderly
means of
succession has been developed ; if an Imperious
Leader shows weakness, it is replaced by whatever Cylon unit has the power
to eliminate it.
The first Imperious Leader engineered the overthrow of the reptilian Cylons.
Today, of all Cylons, only the Imperious Leader retains reptilian form.
Cylon attack force including basestars (double
saucers) and cylon raiders