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[[Image:Humano-cylon_group.jpg|thumb|300px|Cylon copies of [[Aaron Doral]], [[Number Six]], and [[Leoben Conoy]] at [[Ragnar Anchorage]]]]
FYI: My username is Jaster1 on Galactica Fanon.
Over half a century before the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies|fall of the Twelve Colonies]], [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica |Caprican]] scientists created the first self-aware machines. Manufactured to make life easier within the [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)|Twelve Colonies]], these bipedal robots were designated "CYbernetic LabOr uNits", which was abbreviated to "[[Cylons (RDM)|Cylons]]". Eventually the Cylons revolted and decided to kill their human masters. After the long and bloody struggle that was the [[Cylon War]], an armistice was declared. The Cylons withdrew from Colonial space to a planet of their own. For some 40 years, nothing was heard of them, and no apparent attempt was made by the Colonials to keep an eye on them. The only contact expected between the two was created by the Colonial government through planned annual diplomatic meetings at [[Armistice Station]]. However, while the Colonials sent a repesentative to the station every year, the Cylons did not.


During their forty years of isolation, the Cylons developed a bioengineered ''human form'' that is indistinguishable from humans, down to human personalities (affection, jealousy, sadness, anger, sense of humor, etc.).
''There are [[User:Troyian/Archives|archived versions]] of this user page, dealing with other subjects.''


These Humanoid Cylons are primarily human in biology. The exception to this is in their entire nervous system. Simply put, Humanoid Cylons don't have any organic nerve cells at all. Instead, in the place of nerve cells, the Humanoid Cylons have billions and billions of microscopic "[[Silica Pathways|silica pathway]]" nanomachines linked together in a cohesion subroutine, which includes the Humanoid Cylon brain. All of these nanomachines are configured to mimic neurons in both function and aesthetics. They are sheathed in a bioengineered organic polymer that gives them the appearance of genuine nerve tissue, including brain matter. So essentially Humanoid Cylons are nanotechnology-based lifeforms encased in genetically engineered human bodies.
'''Battlestar Galactica: The Original Series'''


Normal human bodies can't function with a mechanical nervous system, so the Cylons perform very subtle, but specific changes to the genetic code of the humanoid models during engineering that very slightly alters the metabolic processes of the human body to a degree that is not even noticeable, but enables the body to accept the nanomachine nervous system.
Approximately 20,000 years ago, an extradimensional race that would one day be called the "Beings of Light" discovered humanity and recognized the potential of the human species. A group of Beings of Light transplanted a large number of humans to another planet tens of thousands of light-years away and 'civilized' them. Upon gaining a new language, the humans named their new home planet "Kobol" and began calling the Beings of Light, the "Lords of Kobol." They developed an entire religion around these Lords of Kobol. Over time, the humans on Kobol also developed a civilization with all the amenities of an advanced society while the humans on Earth remained in the Stone Age.


The bodies of Humanoid Cylons sometimes appear to have tremendous stamina and strength, and appear to be designed to destroy or resist commonly dangerous human diseases, although they are not immune from all contagions. In keeping with their desire to be a better human, however, the Cylons did not or could not further improve on other characteristic design flaws of the human body. However, they are heavily fortified to resist damage from intense radiation fields that would kill a human after short exposure.
As the people of Kobol developed high levels of technology, they eventually discovered a method of interstellar travel. However, they became a wasteful people, and didn't care for their planet. Waste piled up, the air and seas became polluted, and many species of animals died out. Simultaneously, the star that Kobol orbits began showing the early stages of imminent destruction. The end result was that all life on the planet would be doomed by either humanity or nature's hands. However, the people of Kobol united to act before it was too late for them. They built great space arks to transport the majority of their population to other worlds, and they set out across the galaxy in search of a new home. At some point, explorers found Earth (and gave it that name). However, they were unaware it was their original homeworld, falsely believing the presence of humans of both Earth and Kobol to be the result of parallel evolution. Some time later, other explorers found a system which had twelve habitable planets circling three stars, and it was here that the Twelve Tribes of Kobol settled, and these worlds were to become the Twelve Colonies of Man. The worlds were Aquarus, Aeries, Cancera, Caprica, Gemoni, Leonis, Libris, Picon, Sagitaria, Scorpia, Taura, and Virgon.


Humanoid Cylons can be programmed to believe that they are truly human. These are known as 'sleeper agents'. Sleeper agents have a low-level Cylon personality that can conduct operations while placing the human sleeper personality "on-hold." Most agent copies, particularly [[Number Five|Numbers Five]] [[Number Six|and Six]], imitate human behavior, but are fully aware of their true nature and behave more or less like a human "spy."
Kobol was ruled by thirteen tribes, but the thirteenth didn't follow the other twelve. Instead, it left Kobol before the other tribes and settled on Earth (although some subgroups settled worlds such as Terra and Paradeen). The members of the Thirteen Tribe were the forefathers of the ancient Egyptians, the Toltecs, and the Mayans. They were also the architects of the great pyramids, as well as the lost civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis. As for the other twelve tribes; once they landed on the twelve colonies, they turned on the technology that had both saved and corrupted them - destroyed it along with the great arks - and returned to a very simple life without it. Most records of the time before this were also destroyed or lost, and soon Kobol was just a legend and a myth as most elements of its civilization were lost.


[[Image:Gina catatonic.jpg|thumb|left|The emotionally scarred Number Six copy, called "Gina". Her catatonic state proves that the Cylon psyche is susceptible to the same pressures and clevages as the human psyche.]]
However, the Beings of Light had given their ancestors a capacity for genetic memory. This genetic memory does not take the form of passing on personal memories, but of an unconscious knowledge of certain invented concepts and ideas such as technology, language, engineering and even fashion and music along with various other aesthetic cultural aspects. Over a period of several thousand years, all the technological and cultural aspects from Kobol completely reconstituted within the Twelve Colonies because the genetic memory of these concepts and ideas 'leaked' into the subconscious minds of various people who gradually and collectively reinvented these aspects of Kobol society.


Humanoid Cylons are also susceptible to the same emotional traumas and clevages that their human counterparts are, further proving that personalities are a realistic part of their psyche, despite the presence of the Cylon portion of their personality. A case in point is a copy of Number Six, known as [[Gina]], who was repeatedly physically and sexually assaulted by the crew of ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]''. These repeated assaults lead to Gina's near-catatonic state at the time ''Peagsus'' discovered [[the Fleet (RDM)|the Fleet]].
Space flight was eventually rediscovered, and with it, the door was opened to establishing contact between the Twelve Colonies once more. Once cultural differences were sorted out, trade and help was forthcoming amongst the various worlds. Unfortunately, one of the 'cultural differences' would actually be the "Unification War." Up until this point, all of the Twelve Colonies had developed with their own governments, cultures and way of doing things. As such, many misunderstandings would occur before the Colonies reunited, and as a result of this, there would be many small skirmishes between the various planets. None of this could be called a war as such, and indeed most of the action would take place within the political theaters, but sometimes it spilled out, and a lot of lives would be lost before the Quorum of Twelve could be established, ending the strife and bringing on a new era of peace and prosperity.


The psychology of Humanoid Cylons is based on what they simply refer to as "projection." Essentially an enhanced form of a self-induced and controlled hallucination, it's how they choose to see the world around them. Cylons choose the see their environment in any form they wish, whenever they wish. For example, if a Cylon were standing in a hallway, they could see it as a forest filled with birds, trees, and sunlight. The aesthetics is what gives them pleasure.
Eventually, the Colonies started to launch probes and expeditions to explore the galaxy that they lived in, and it was then that the colonies established new settlements on other planets and asteroids, and made peaceful contact with intelligent life from other worlds. Some of the races that were contacted by the Colonials included the Hasaris, a peaceful amphibious race, and the Orion's, traders and merchants, making and selling goods. They used their own money but became very important to the Colonials, providing technology and luxury goods.


The majority of the Cylons follow a monotheistic religion (with the exception of the [[Cavil]] model, which appears to be an atheist).  
It was during this time that a central Colonial Government was established and that with the advent of extra outposts and trading links, piracy soon got itself wired up, which lead to the formation of the Colonial Fleet to counter this threat. The Colonials' technology became greater, and artificial intelligence was soon common place, the goal being that of robots doing all the boring and dangerous jobs that society didn't want to do. However this backfired when the computers and robots revolted against their human masters.


[[Image:Valerii_optic_input.jpg|right|thumb|[[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Caprica-Valerii]] interfaces with ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica's]]''  [[Computers|mainframe computer]] and communication systems by fiber-optic link]]
A short 'war' against the machines was instigated, and when the revolt was finally put down, the Colonial Code was passed, limiting the sort of intelligence that could be programmed into a computer, and effectively meaning the end of AI for the Colonies. While each world was free to define exactly what that meant, Caprica was the harshest in it's ruling, and had to be restrained from banning computers all together. Scorpia on the other hand, was the least firm in implementing the Code, and continued to use robots and artificial intelligence to almost the same levels as before.
Although they cannot do so remotely or wirelessly, Humanoid Cylons can interface with a computer system or computer network through subdermal physical contact with input cables connected to the devices. Caprica-Valerii connected to ''Galactica'''s computers by this method when she inserted a fiber-optic cable through her left palm and into her arm. This subdermal fiber-optical link is an interface with the nanotech nervous system. The process involves cutting an opening into the Cylon's palm. They can perform this through subdermal physical contact if required  or, preferably, through a [[Cylon data port]]. It must be noted that this is not a common method of data access.


A Humanoid Cylon's nanomachine brain is certainly human in appearance, but is still susceptible to damage from certain types of radiation. Their program can be corrupted, thereby sending the wrong signals throughout the body's systems; causing fever and eventually death.
A little under a thousand years before the 20th century on Earth, the Colonials received a distress call from their alien allies - the peace loving Hasaris - who were under attack from a race known as the Cylons. A malevolent Being of Light known as "Count Iblis" secretly influenced the Cylons to attack the Hasaris. Under Iblis's influence, the Cylon leadership decided that the Hasaris couldn't be allowed to exist, and thus in typical fashion decided to remove them - permanently.


To operate, the nanomachines are dependent on the biochemistry of the human shells in a symbiotic connection. This means that if the body dies, the nanomachines become inert. However, the artificial intelligence software is capable of transmitting itself into another nanotech organism encased in a human body (of the appropriate model) i.e. upon the death of a Humanoid Cylon's body, it transfers its consciousness into another copy of itself. This "[[Resurrection (RDM)|resurrection]]" is limited by distance, signal integrity, and proximity to a "resurrection node" or, in space, a "[[Resurrection Ship]]."
This started out by the Cylons simply attacking civilian ships and lone warships in a pirate style series of raids, but then when the Hasaris started defending their convoys and ships, the Cylons sent in Baseships with the edict of extermination. The Hasaris tried to defend themselves as best they could, but they were simply no match for the size of the Baseships and the sheer numbers of Raiders that the Cylons could throw at them.


All Humanoid Cylons share a ''collective knowledgebase'' of data from other active or deactivated Humanoid Cylons. However, it is not of a collective consciousness "hive mind" nature.
The Colonials sent aid, in the form of a large battle fleet, to help defend the Hasaris from the robotic invaders, and were horrified to learn first hand of the brutality of the Cylon fleet and their ships capabilities. Whilst it was clear from the start, that even flying outmoded equipment, Colonial pilots were superior to their Cylon counterparts, the Cylons could employ far greater numbers than the Colonials could even dream of. And skill alone couldn't fend off the Cylon fleet.


At least one model of Cylon female has shown the capacity to bear children seeded by human males. The Cylons tested numerous methods of sexual reproduction, yet these failed due a well known flaw in the Humanoid Cylon design: a genetic quirk caused by the genetic recoding makes procreation between Cylons impossible. So in an attempt to subvert this deficiency, they try to interbreed with humans, creating hybrid offspring. "[[Farms]]" were set up across all the occupied Colonies where survivors, specifically, young fertile women of child-bearing age, were rounded up, placed under heavy sedation and turned into "baby machines" through artificial insemination (There are presumably also farms for male humans, plus in vitro experiment labs, etc.). However, this method has been unsuccessful thus far. Another drastically different approach is taken by attempting to conceive a child through a bond of love. It seems that [[Karl Agathon]] and [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Caprica-Sharon Valerii]]'s love-child is the lone success story of the relatively short history of Cylon sexual reproduction.
In the span of two years, much of the Colonial Fleet, and the entire Hasaris race, were destroyed. Humans could outfly Cylon Raiders in any battle, but they would never be able to match sheer numbers, nor the destructive power of the Cylon Baseships. Because of this intervention, the Cylons learned about humanity, and felt that it too, constituted a major threat to their well being and their order of the universe, and thus had to be removed. There could be no chance for peace or negotiation. Only the complete extermination of the human race would satisfy the Cylons. Exactly what had happened to the Hasaris. The Cylons moved on the Colonials' worlds, and the war began in earnest.


There are twelve models of Humanoid Cylons, each with many copies, probably tens or hundreds of thousands. The twelve models are based on archetypes determined by the Cylons that form what they perceived as the specific kinds of human behavior and/or personality, distilled into twelve varieties. Each Humanoid Cylon has the same face, stature, hair, eye and skin color, gender, and other biometrics as all the others of his or her model. This point technically makes each copy a twin of itself, but there are some models that choose to make cosmetic differences. As well, the copies start out with the same basic personality, but grow more distinct due to their individual experiences.
The war went badly for the Colonials. Not having learnt as much of the Cylons as the Cylons had of the Colonials, they were unprepared for the all out nature of the Cylon assaults. As the Cylons wanted the Colonials exterminated, prisoners were not taken, unless the Cylons needed information, and then the prisoners were executed afterwards. Outposts were destroyed, civilians butchered without mercy. The Colonial Fleet wasn't up to the task of stopping the Cylon might completely. While Colonial pilots fought bravely - and always outnumbered - there were simply too many Cylons, and the early ships of the line weren't up to the task of taking on the Cylon Baseships. However one thing that the Cylons hadn't counted on, was the human tenacity and refusal to bow out and allow themselves to be killed. This meant that Cylon advances were never as great as they should have been, and the Colonials hung on, something the Cylons could never understand. However the Cylons were stopped. In their arrogance, they couldn't believe that the Colonials could stop them - maybe slow them, but not stop, and they launched an all out invasion of the Colonial space. The Colonials had not only anticipated this attack, they stopped it dead and had the Cylons running.
 
The middle stages saw the most action and the least conquest. The Colonials had some initial breathing space as the Cylons decided how to react to the humans recklessness and backed off to mere probing attacks instead of all out assaults. Another reason for the Cylons pulling back, was that the Colonial destruction was not the sole plan of the Cylons. They had an empire to forge out, a galaxy to explore, other races to contact, and be ordered into the Cylon Empire or enslave or destroy. The Cylons did venture out far into the galaxy, further out then the Colonials ever imagined or did themselves. They did ally themselves to some races, and it has never been made clear what constitutes a threat to Cylon Order. It is due to this that the entire Cylon fleet was never actually employed against the Colonials, which was a good thing, as the Colonials would never have stood a chance.
 
The Colonials however, put this breathing space to good use. They overhauled their fleet, firstly building the new light cruisers to escort the aging Heavy Carriers and other ships of the line, before retiring them when the Battlestars entered service. Other ship types soon followed, as did the Viper fighter. While these designs were updated and modified over the course of their long service history, the Colonials preferred to overhaul old ships rather than design new ones, and hence the amount of ship designs over the 1,045 years of the war was pitifully small. With these new ship designs, and a better understanding of how the Cylons waged war, the Colonials conducted their own attacks, and finally brought the war back to the Cylons.
 
While the Cylons could never actually be driven back, neither could they advance, and the middle stages of the war was one of probing assaults, strikes and counter strikes into each others territories, but very little actual conquest. The current permanent combat footing and way of life for the Colonials was developed here. During this period, there were many lulls in the fighting, and these lulls sometimes lasted tens of years. To civilians growing up in this era, these lulls were often misinterpreted as separate wars of their own.
 
While this was happening, various societal ideas, concepts, and cultural aspects of Kobol's civilization were appearing on Earth as a result of genetic memory passed on from the Thirteenth Tribe.  Although they appeared only in rudimentary, modified and even fragmented forms, eventually those fragments coalesced into complete reconstitution of Kobolian aspects. For instance, the Kobolian language eventually reconstituted as the "English" language. The English language did not suddenly appear, but instead evolved through centuries of modifications along with amalgamations from numerous other languages. It was all the result of the genetic memory of the language 'leaking' into the subconscious minds of people who unconsciously directed the language toward a linguistic endpoint that is an exact replication of the dominant language of Kobol (and hence also of the Twelve Colonies).
 
Far away amongst the stars, the Colonials continued the fight against the Cylons for over a thousand years. In that fight, they never forgot their neighbors. When the Cylons attempted to attack allied planets, the Colonials always tried to help. Sometimes this worked and they freed their allies from the oppression of Cylon rule, and sometimes they lost.
 
Inevitably, the Cylons had had enough. Destroying a race was never meant to be such a slow and tedious process, and so they put their collective heads together to destroy the humans. They had an empire to manage, and the Colonials were a thorn in their side to be removed for good. Thus they started learning from their enemies, and became sneaky and treacherous, employing any sort of ambush and bait to trap and destroy the Colonials. It is in this fashion that they got their reputation for being underhand. Any trick to bait Colonials - distress calls, hostage bait, Trojan horse traps - all were deemed acceptable if the end result was the death of more Colonials.
 
One thing that never changed though, was that their tactics always involved overwhelming odds and enough firepower to make sure that the Colonials were destroyed. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The end result though, was always a drain on ever shrinking Colonial resources.
 
All the decisive battles of the war were played out in this stage of the war, and while the Colonials managed to inflict major damage on the Cylons (nearly always destroying more than they lost, even in their defeats), they were generally on the defensive just trying to stem the relentless advances of the Cylons. Despite this extra offensive state of the Cylons, no one suspected that the end was nigh and that the endgame was finally being played out.
 
The Cylons managed to convince Lord Baltar of Picon, a Quorum of Twelve member, that they would spare his world if he helped them conquer and enslave the people of the other eleven worlds. They also told him that he would rule over the Colonies as the representative of the Cylons. Baltar spoke to the Quorum of Twelve that they Cylons wished to sue for peace. This peace would be sealed at the old moon of Cimtar, a system only a short journey away from the Colonies.
 
The president of the Twelve Colonies, Adar, had had enough of war at this point, and he believed Baltar - as did most of the Quorum, a notable exception being the military Commander Adama who represented the planet Caprica in the Quorum - that the Cylons truly wanted peace. As such, he let himself be led by Baltar, and the heavy elements of the Colonial Fleet journeyed to the moon of Cimtar to seal the truce.
 
The Cylon plan was three fold. The first two parts operated together to destroy the final defenses of the Colonies, and then the third part would be the ultimate destruction of the human race. Part one was a huge trap for the Colonial Fleet. Surrounding the moon of Cimtar is a vast mist layer, and hidden within this layer were Cylon tankers. They fueled a vast armada of over a thousand raiders, which would allow them to operate without baseship support. These would destroy the Colonial Fleet. At the same time, part two of the trap consisted of three fully loaded baseships jumping into the Colonial system to attack the twelve worlds. Targets would include any Fleet elements and planetary defenses. Part of this plan was to use spies of Baltar who would attempt to disable defenses and provide information on Fleet movements. Then, when the raiders and baseships had done their jobs, they would rendezvous with the remaining Cylon fleet elements, and once refueled and rearmed, the entire fleet would then jump back to the Colonies and complete the destruction. The plan worked almost perfectly.
 
The Colonial Fleet moved to the moon of Cimtar, but a lone patrol from the Colonial battlestar ''Galactica'' discovered the massed raiders and the Cylons had to spring their trap early. Thus during the attack, the Colonials detected the presence of the baseships in their home systems, and the ''Galactica'' managed to break away from the ambush and jump back to the Colonial system. The rest of the Colonial Fleet, aside from a few vipers, was destroyed.
 
The ''Galactica'' arrived too late to save the Colonies. The first group of baseships had already arrived and left, and with the help of human saboteurs, had disabled the planetary defenses, allowing them and any Fleet elements present to be easily destroyed. Commander Adama realized that life on the Colonies had come to an end, and there was no hope of remaining there alive. So he sent word to all survivors who assembled in any ship they could find, and lead this fleet away from the remains of the Colonials and from the Cylons. Having no choice to stay, the battlestar ''Galactica'' assembled as many survivors as it could, and a space-dwelling caravan of human survivors left the Colonial system for good. This rag-tag fleet is on the search for the Thirteenth Tribe and legendary planet known as Earth, which they believe will be a new home for them.
 
Shortly afterwards, the Cylons arrived back in Colonial system, and this time they completed the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, and the extermination of all life there. All of the twelve worlds were rendered uninhabitable as a result of nuclear fallout. Despite their deal with Lord Baltar, the Cylons attacked Picon along with the other colonies. The Cylons have kept Baltar alive as a prisoner because their commander-in-chief, the Imperious Leader, believes that, to find the surviving Colonials, another human is needed that thinks as their prey does. And so Baltar aids the Cylons in their pursuit of the battlestar ''Galactica'' and its fleet.
 
Meanwhile, the people of the surviving fugitive human fleet have dedicated themselves to finding Earth; a world whose people live in complete ignorance to the fact that there are brothers of man who now fight to survive beyond the heavens.
 
[[Category:Galactipedian|Troyian]]
[[Category:Galactipedian (US)|Troyian]]

Latest revision as of 16:32, 18 February 2012

FYI: My username is Jaster1 on Galactica Fanon.

There are archived versions of this user page, dealing with other subjects.

Battlestar Galactica: The Original Series

Approximately 20,000 years ago, an extradimensional race that would one day be called the "Beings of Light" discovered humanity and recognized the potential of the human species. A group of Beings of Light transplanted a large number of humans to another planet tens of thousands of light-years away and 'civilized' them. Upon gaining a new language, the humans named their new home planet "Kobol" and began calling the Beings of Light, the "Lords of Kobol." They developed an entire religion around these Lords of Kobol. Over time, the humans on Kobol also developed a civilization with all the amenities of an advanced society while the humans on Earth remained in the Stone Age.

As the people of Kobol developed high levels of technology, they eventually discovered a method of interstellar travel. However, they became a wasteful people, and didn't care for their planet. Waste piled up, the air and seas became polluted, and many species of animals died out. Simultaneously, the star that Kobol orbits began showing the early stages of imminent destruction. The end result was that all life on the planet would be doomed by either humanity or nature's hands. However, the people of Kobol united to act before it was too late for them. They built great space arks to transport the majority of their population to other worlds, and they set out across the galaxy in search of a new home. At some point, explorers found Earth (and gave it that name). However, they were unaware it was their original homeworld, falsely believing the presence of humans of both Earth and Kobol to be the result of parallel evolution. Some time later, other explorers found a system which had twelve habitable planets circling three stars, and it was here that the Twelve Tribes of Kobol settled, and these worlds were to become the Twelve Colonies of Man. The worlds were Aquarus, Aeries, Cancera, Caprica, Gemoni, Leonis, Libris, Picon, Sagitaria, Scorpia, Taura, and Virgon.

Kobol was ruled by thirteen tribes, but the thirteenth didn't follow the other twelve. Instead, it left Kobol before the other tribes and settled on Earth (although some subgroups settled worlds such as Terra and Paradeen). The members of the Thirteen Tribe were the forefathers of the ancient Egyptians, the Toltecs, and the Mayans. They were also the architects of the great pyramids, as well as the lost civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis. As for the other twelve tribes; once they landed on the twelve colonies, they turned on the technology that had both saved and corrupted them - destroyed it along with the great arks - and returned to a very simple life without it. Most records of the time before this were also destroyed or lost, and soon Kobol was just a legend and a myth as most elements of its civilization were lost.

However, the Beings of Light had given their ancestors a capacity for genetic memory. This genetic memory does not take the form of passing on personal memories, but of an unconscious knowledge of certain invented concepts and ideas such as technology, language, engineering and even fashion and music along with various other aesthetic cultural aspects. Over a period of several thousand years, all the technological and cultural aspects from Kobol completely reconstituted within the Twelve Colonies because the genetic memory of these concepts and ideas 'leaked' into the subconscious minds of various people who gradually and collectively reinvented these aspects of Kobol society.

Space flight was eventually rediscovered, and with it, the door was opened to establishing contact between the Twelve Colonies once more. Once cultural differences were sorted out, trade and help was forthcoming amongst the various worlds. Unfortunately, one of the 'cultural differences' would actually be the "Unification War." Up until this point, all of the Twelve Colonies had developed with their own governments, cultures and way of doing things. As such, many misunderstandings would occur before the Colonies reunited, and as a result of this, there would be many small skirmishes between the various planets. None of this could be called a war as such, and indeed most of the action would take place within the political theaters, but sometimes it spilled out, and a lot of lives would be lost before the Quorum of Twelve could be established, ending the strife and bringing on a new era of peace and prosperity.

Eventually, the Colonies started to launch probes and expeditions to explore the galaxy that they lived in, and it was then that the colonies established new settlements on other planets and asteroids, and made peaceful contact with intelligent life from other worlds. Some of the races that were contacted by the Colonials included the Hasaris, a peaceful amphibious race, and the Orion's, traders and merchants, making and selling goods. They used their own money but became very important to the Colonials, providing technology and luxury goods.

It was during this time that a central Colonial Government was established and that with the advent of extra outposts and trading links, piracy soon got itself wired up, which lead to the formation of the Colonial Fleet to counter this threat. The Colonials' technology became greater, and artificial intelligence was soon common place, the goal being that of robots doing all the boring and dangerous jobs that society didn't want to do. However this backfired when the computers and robots revolted against their human masters.

A short 'war' against the machines was instigated, and when the revolt was finally put down, the Colonial Code was passed, limiting the sort of intelligence that could be programmed into a computer, and effectively meaning the end of AI for the Colonies. While each world was free to define exactly what that meant, Caprica was the harshest in it's ruling, and had to be restrained from banning computers all together. Scorpia on the other hand, was the least firm in implementing the Code, and continued to use robots and artificial intelligence to almost the same levels as before.

A little under a thousand years before the 20th century on Earth, the Colonials received a distress call from their alien allies - the peace loving Hasaris - who were under attack from a race known as the Cylons. A malevolent Being of Light known as "Count Iblis" secretly influenced the Cylons to attack the Hasaris. Under Iblis's influence, the Cylon leadership decided that the Hasaris couldn't be allowed to exist, and thus in typical fashion decided to remove them - permanently.

This started out by the Cylons simply attacking civilian ships and lone warships in a pirate style series of raids, but then when the Hasaris started defending their convoys and ships, the Cylons sent in Baseships with the edict of extermination. The Hasaris tried to defend themselves as best they could, but they were simply no match for the size of the Baseships and the sheer numbers of Raiders that the Cylons could throw at them.

The Colonials sent aid, in the form of a large battle fleet, to help defend the Hasaris from the robotic invaders, and were horrified to learn first hand of the brutality of the Cylon fleet and their ships capabilities. Whilst it was clear from the start, that even flying outmoded equipment, Colonial pilots were superior to their Cylon counterparts, the Cylons could employ far greater numbers than the Colonials could even dream of. And skill alone couldn't fend off the Cylon fleet.

In the span of two years, much of the Colonial Fleet, and the entire Hasaris race, were destroyed. Humans could outfly Cylon Raiders in any battle, but they would never be able to match sheer numbers, nor the destructive power of the Cylon Baseships. Because of this intervention, the Cylons learned about humanity, and felt that it too, constituted a major threat to their well being and their order of the universe, and thus had to be removed. There could be no chance for peace or negotiation. Only the complete extermination of the human race would satisfy the Cylons. Exactly what had happened to the Hasaris. The Cylons moved on the Colonials' worlds, and the war began in earnest.

The war went badly for the Colonials. Not having learnt as much of the Cylons as the Cylons had of the Colonials, they were unprepared for the all out nature of the Cylon assaults. As the Cylons wanted the Colonials exterminated, prisoners were not taken, unless the Cylons needed information, and then the prisoners were executed afterwards. Outposts were destroyed, civilians butchered without mercy. The Colonial Fleet wasn't up to the task of stopping the Cylon might completely. While Colonial pilots fought bravely - and always outnumbered - there were simply too many Cylons, and the early ships of the line weren't up to the task of taking on the Cylon Baseships. However one thing that the Cylons hadn't counted on, was the human tenacity and refusal to bow out and allow themselves to be killed. This meant that Cylon advances were never as great as they should have been, and the Colonials hung on, something the Cylons could never understand. However the Cylons were stopped. In their arrogance, they couldn't believe that the Colonials could stop them - maybe slow them, but not stop, and they launched an all out invasion of the Colonial space. The Colonials had not only anticipated this attack, they stopped it dead and had the Cylons running.

The middle stages saw the most action and the least conquest. The Colonials had some initial breathing space as the Cylons decided how to react to the humans recklessness and backed off to mere probing attacks instead of all out assaults. Another reason for the Cylons pulling back, was that the Colonial destruction was not the sole plan of the Cylons. They had an empire to forge out, a galaxy to explore, other races to contact, and be ordered into the Cylon Empire or enslave or destroy. The Cylons did venture out far into the galaxy, further out then the Colonials ever imagined or did themselves. They did ally themselves to some races, and it has never been made clear what constitutes a threat to Cylon Order. It is due to this that the entire Cylon fleet was never actually employed against the Colonials, which was a good thing, as the Colonials would never have stood a chance.

The Colonials however, put this breathing space to good use. They overhauled their fleet, firstly building the new light cruisers to escort the aging Heavy Carriers and other ships of the line, before retiring them when the Battlestars entered service. Other ship types soon followed, as did the Viper fighter. While these designs were updated and modified over the course of their long service history, the Colonials preferred to overhaul old ships rather than design new ones, and hence the amount of ship designs over the 1,045 years of the war was pitifully small. With these new ship designs, and a better understanding of how the Cylons waged war, the Colonials conducted their own attacks, and finally brought the war back to the Cylons.

While the Cylons could never actually be driven back, neither could they advance, and the middle stages of the war was one of probing assaults, strikes and counter strikes into each others territories, but very little actual conquest. The current permanent combat footing and way of life for the Colonials was developed here. During this period, there were many lulls in the fighting, and these lulls sometimes lasted tens of years. To civilians growing up in this era, these lulls were often misinterpreted as separate wars of their own.

While this was happening, various societal ideas, concepts, and cultural aspects of Kobol's civilization were appearing on Earth as a result of genetic memory passed on from the Thirteenth Tribe. Although they appeared only in rudimentary, modified and even fragmented forms, eventually those fragments coalesced into complete reconstitution of Kobolian aspects. For instance, the Kobolian language eventually reconstituted as the "English" language. The English language did not suddenly appear, but instead evolved through centuries of modifications along with amalgamations from numerous other languages. It was all the result of the genetic memory of the language 'leaking' into the subconscious minds of people who unconsciously directed the language toward a linguistic endpoint that is an exact replication of the dominant language of Kobol (and hence also of the Twelve Colonies).

Far away amongst the stars, the Colonials continued the fight against the Cylons for over a thousand years. In that fight, they never forgot their neighbors. When the Cylons attempted to attack allied planets, the Colonials always tried to help. Sometimes this worked and they freed their allies from the oppression of Cylon rule, and sometimes they lost.

Inevitably, the Cylons had had enough. Destroying a race was never meant to be such a slow and tedious process, and so they put their collective heads together to destroy the humans. They had an empire to manage, and the Colonials were a thorn in their side to be removed for good. Thus they started learning from their enemies, and became sneaky and treacherous, employing any sort of ambush and bait to trap and destroy the Colonials. It is in this fashion that they got their reputation for being underhand. Any trick to bait Colonials - distress calls, hostage bait, Trojan horse traps - all were deemed acceptable if the end result was the death of more Colonials.

One thing that never changed though, was that their tactics always involved overwhelming odds and enough firepower to make sure that the Colonials were destroyed. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The end result though, was always a drain on ever shrinking Colonial resources.

All the decisive battles of the war were played out in this stage of the war, and while the Colonials managed to inflict major damage on the Cylons (nearly always destroying more than they lost, even in their defeats), they were generally on the defensive just trying to stem the relentless advances of the Cylons. Despite this extra offensive state of the Cylons, no one suspected that the end was nigh and that the endgame was finally being played out.

The Cylons managed to convince Lord Baltar of Picon, a Quorum of Twelve member, that they would spare his world if he helped them conquer and enslave the people of the other eleven worlds. They also told him that he would rule over the Colonies as the representative of the Cylons. Baltar spoke to the Quorum of Twelve that they Cylons wished to sue for peace. This peace would be sealed at the old moon of Cimtar, a system only a short journey away from the Colonies.

The president of the Twelve Colonies, Adar, had had enough of war at this point, and he believed Baltar - as did most of the Quorum, a notable exception being the military Commander Adama who represented the planet Caprica in the Quorum - that the Cylons truly wanted peace. As such, he let himself be led by Baltar, and the heavy elements of the Colonial Fleet journeyed to the moon of Cimtar to seal the truce.

The Cylon plan was three fold. The first two parts operated together to destroy the final defenses of the Colonies, and then the third part would be the ultimate destruction of the human race. Part one was a huge trap for the Colonial Fleet. Surrounding the moon of Cimtar is a vast mist layer, and hidden within this layer were Cylon tankers. They fueled a vast armada of over a thousand raiders, which would allow them to operate without baseship support. These would destroy the Colonial Fleet. At the same time, part two of the trap consisted of three fully loaded baseships jumping into the Colonial system to attack the twelve worlds. Targets would include any Fleet elements and planetary defenses. Part of this plan was to use spies of Baltar who would attempt to disable defenses and provide information on Fleet movements. Then, when the raiders and baseships had done their jobs, they would rendezvous with the remaining Cylon fleet elements, and once refueled and rearmed, the entire fleet would then jump back to the Colonies and complete the destruction. The plan worked almost perfectly.

The Colonial Fleet moved to the moon of Cimtar, but a lone patrol from the Colonial battlestar Galactica discovered the massed raiders and the Cylons had to spring their trap early. Thus during the attack, the Colonials detected the presence of the baseships in their home systems, and the Galactica managed to break away from the ambush and jump back to the Colonial system. The rest of the Colonial Fleet, aside from a few vipers, was destroyed.

The Galactica arrived too late to save the Colonies. The first group of baseships had already arrived and left, and with the help of human saboteurs, had disabled the planetary defenses, allowing them and any Fleet elements present to be easily destroyed. Commander Adama realized that life on the Colonies had come to an end, and there was no hope of remaining there alive. So he sent word to all survivors who assembled in any ship they could find, and lead this fleet away from the remains of the Colonials and from the Cylons. Having no choice to stay, the battlestar Galactica assembled as many survivors as it could, and a space-dwelling caravan of human survivors left the Colonial system for good. This rag-tag fleet is on the search for the Thirteenth Tribe and legendary planet known as Earth, which they believe will be a new home for them.

Shortly afterwards, the Cylons arrived back in Colonial system, and this time they completed the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, and the extermination of all life there. All of the twelve worlds were rendered uninhabitable as a result of nuclear fallout. Despite their deal with Lord Baltar, the Cylons attacked Picon along with the other colonies. The Cylons have kept Baltar alive as a prisoner because their commander-in-chief, the Imperious Leader, believes that, to find the surviving Colonials, another human is needed that thinks as their prey does. And so Baltar aids the Cylons in their pursuit of the battlestar Galactica and its fleet.

Meanwhile, the people of the surviving fugitive human fleet have dedicated themselves to finding Earth; a world whose people live in complete ignorance to the fact that there are brothers of man who now fight to survive beyond the heavens.