Alpha Leader (TOS-RH)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Richard Hatch Novelizations separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

Alpha Leader was a three-brained Cylon who led the reptilian Cylon faction during the Cylon civil war. Emerging as the leader of a revolutionary movement that sought to purge all human DNA from the Cylon race, Alpha Leader represented the first challenge to Imperious Leader's authority in Cylon history.

Biography

Rise to Power

Alpha Leader's creation was an extraordinary undertaking by the reptilian Cylon revolutionaries who sought to overthrow Imperious Leader. The process of creating a three-brained Cylon was exceptionally difficult and represented the most closely guarded secret of the Cylon Empire. The selection and transformation process from a two-brained Cylon to a three-brained leader was deliberately complex and methodical.

To accomplish their goal, the revolutionaries were forced to steal heavy, unmovable equipment and operate in absolute secrecy. Their success marked an unprecedented moment in Cylon history: for the first time, two three-brained Cylons existed simultaneously, making civil war an inevitable necessity.

Some enemies of Imperious Leader sarcastically referred to him as "Omega Leader," signifying their belief that he would be the last of his kind, while they called their own champion Alpha Leader—the first of a new order.

Ideology and Motivation

Alpha Leader embodied the revolutionary ideology that rejected the legacy of Count Iblis and the hybrid nature of traditional Cylons. His followers believed that human DNA was a weakness that prevented the Cylon race from achieving true greatness, and that purely reptilian Cylons represented the superior evolutionary path.

Unlike Imperious Leader, who operated through cold logic and calculation, Alpha Leader and his forces were driven primarily by a single emotion: hatred. This emotional approach fundamentally distinguished the reptilian Cylons from the machine logic that had driven the First Cylon Empire. According to Imperious Leader's analysis, the reptilian Cylons behaved as if they possessed what humans called a "reptilian brain," despite actual reptiles carrying no such emotional burden.

The ferocious reptiles leading the rebellion under Alpha Leader proved to be the only force that genuinely frightened Imperious Leader. They represented a threat far greater than any Colonial forces could muster.

Victory in the Civil War

Alpha Leader's forces achieved victory in the Cylon civil war, reducing Imperious Leader's empire to a mere handful of followers. The civil war devastated the Cylon homeworld, with Alpha Leader's forces employing biological weapons that extracted human DNA from victims' spinal columns, leaving desiccated corpses in their wake.

Following his triumph, Alpha Leader sent a sardonic message to the defeated Imperious Leader, granting him a temporary respite from destruction while the new Cylons focused on what they considered "old business"—the complete extermination of the Colonial fleet.

The Paradis Campaign

Victorious in the civil war and convinced of his supremacy, Alpha Leader assembled a gigantic expeditionary force to destroy the Colonial fleet in the Paradis system. He imagined that his overwhelming numbers and advanced weapons would make short work of what he considered "human vermin."

However, Alpha Leader's confidence proved misplaced. Despite the massive armada at his disposal, the campaign ended in catastrophic defeat when Baltar triggered a gigantic explosion that devastated the attacking forces. This defeat demonstrated a fundamental weakness in Alpha Leader's approach: his forces' hatred-driven tactics lacked the strategic patience necessary for complex military operations.

The loss at Paradis provided Imperious Leader with grim satisfaction, though Alpha Leader's forces remained a significant threat to both the remnants of the traditional Cylon Empire and the Colonial fleet.

Personality and Character

Alpha Leader operated with a sense of absolute confidence in his supremacy, convinced that he was master of all he surveyed following his victory in the civil war. This arrogance was reflected in his sardonic communication style and his treatment of Imperious Leader as an already-defeated relic of the past.

Unlike Imperious Leader, who had developed a complex understanding of human psychology through his interactions with Baltar, Alpha Leader reduced strategy and tactics to headlong rushes at targets, driven by rage rather than calculation. This lack of patience and overreliance on emotional hatred represented a significant tactical weakness, despite the superior numbers and technology at his command.

Military Capabilities

Alpha Leader commanded vast military resources following his victory in the civil war. His forces employed:

• Hybrid Centurions that demonstrated greater behavioral range than traditional robotic units
• Biological weapons capable of extracting human DNA from living victims
• Long-range weapons of planetary destruction
• Advanced biotech experiments combining human and Cylon DNA, despite the ideological contradiction

His tactical doctrine favored overwhelming force and aggressive assault, but lacked the sophisticated strategic planning that characterized Imperious Leader's campaigns.

Threat to Humanity

According to warnings from Imperious Leader to Baltar, Alpha Leader's methods of execution were far more terrible than those employed by traditional Cylons. The reptilian Cylons under Alpha Leader's command represented an existential threat not only to humanity's survival, but to the manner of their potential demise.

The existence of Alpha Leader served as potential propaganda against Imperious Leader, particularly if the reptilian faction suspected that Baltar had influenced the leader of what they termed "impure Cylons." Such suspicions could have further strengthened Alpha Leader's position among those who viewed any human influence as contamination.