Alpha Leader's faction

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Alpha Leader's faction was a revolutionary Cylon movement led by Alpha Leader, a three-brained Cylon who commanded forces of genetically purified reptilian Cylons during the Cylon civil war.

Origins

The faction emerged from a clandestine movement that began when a damaged genetic program destroyed the Iblis programming in certain two-brained Cylons. This virus fundamentally altered their perspective on the Cylon race's purpose and identity.

The affected two-brained Cylons rejected the original vision of Count Iblis, who had created the Cylons millennia earlier by combining human DNA with the native reptilian species of the planet Cylon. These revolutionaries concluded that the human element was a weakness that prevented the Cylons from achieving their true destiny as conquerors of the universe.

Ideology

A new religion emerged to challenge the orthodoxy of the Iblis Faith. The core tenets of this belief system held that purely reptilian Cylons were superior to those containing human DNA, and that all human elements—both external and internal to the Cylon race—must be eradicated.

The movement advocated that two-brained Cylons with human DNA should be treated identically to pure humans and targeted for extermination. Only after the complete removal of all human genetic material from the universe would the Cylons achieve their ultimate evolutionary destiny.

Centurions were viewed as pseudo-machines and therefore presented no ideological problem to the movement, except when programmed to oppose the revolutionaries.

Leadership

The reptilian Cylons recognized that Imperious Leader—the three-brained Cylon who led the traditional Cylon Empire—represented their greatest obstacle. His abilities could not be underestimated, and he was the only force that genuinely frightened the reptilian two-brained Cylons.

To combat Imperious Leader, the revolutionaries undertook the extraordinary task of creating their own three-brained leader. This proved exceptionally difficult, as three-brained Cylons were the most closely guarded secret of the Cylon Empire, and the selection and transformation process was deliberately complex. The revolutionaries were forced to steal heavy, unmovable equipment and operate in absolute secrecy to accomplish their goal.

When their efforts succeeded, it marked the first time in Cylon history that two three-brained Cylons existed simultaneously. The reptilian Cylons named their leader Alpha Leader, while some derisively referred to Imperious Leader as "Omega Leader," signifying their intention that he be the last of his kind.

Military Operations

Weapons of War

Alpha Leader's forces employed horrific biological weapons during their assault on the Cylon homeworld. Pale-green pulsating sacs of unarticulated liquid flesh flopped through the streets, leaving yellowish ichor behind. These creatures possessed metal arms that would brush aside Centurions but capture two-brained Cylons to perform a gruesome operation: needles sank into victims' spinal columns, extracting fluids and removing all human DNA, leaving desiccated mummies in their wake.

The faction also deployed massive force fields as scoops to capture and neutralize enemy weapons fire during space combat.

Paradis Campaign

Following their victory in the Cylon civil war, Alpha Leader sent a sardonic message to the defeated Imperious Leader, granting him a temporary respite from destruction while the new Cylons focused on exterminating the Colonial fleet in the Paradis system.

Alpha Leader's forces assembled a gigantic expeditionary armada to attack the Colonials. However, despite their overwhelming numbers and advanced weapons, the campaign ended in defeat when Baltar triggered a massive explosion that devastated the attacking force.

Tactical Doctrine

The reptilian Cylons' strategy and tactics were driven primarily by hatred and characterized by headlong rushes at human targets, lacking the patience and calculated approach of Imperious Leader's forces. This emotional approach to warfare ultimately proved to be a weakness, as an enraged opponent lacked the strategic patience necessary for complex military operations.

Technology

Alpha Leader's faction employed advanced biotech experiments that combined human and Cylon DNA, despite their ideological opposition to such mixing. They also developed a long-range weapon capable of destroying entire planets, which Imperious Leader revealed had been used to obliterate Paradis.

The faction created hybrid Centurions that demonstrated greater behavioral range than traditional robotic Centurions, though they retained vulnerabilities to explosive decompression.

Impact on Humanity

According to Imperious Leader's warnings to Baltar, the methods of execution employed by Alpha Leader's faction were far more terrible than those used by traditional Cylons. The reptilian Cylons' single-minded hatred and willingness to employ biological weapons made them an even greater threat to human survival than the original Cylon Empire.

The faction's defeat at Paradis provided Imperious Leader with grim satisfaction, though he remained aware that Alpha Leader's forces still posed a significant threat both to his own depleted forces and to the Colonial fleet.