Origin of Species (a nBSG short)
Posted: 2006-10-15 03:22pm
Origin of Species
A BSG short
The Cylon Imperator stood in the nexus of the command hub inside the Basestar. Draped in shadow, it was hard to see the extent of the room but such things were unnecessary for the machine commander. Even without its mechanical eyes, the LUCIFER model Imperator knew where every console and control board was. Could data-link into any and all of the huge ships systems via wireless and know not only what was going on in his ship, but contact any other Cylon ship in range and communicate with other Imperators.
The transparent cranium showed the multitudes of lights that represented neuro-pathways made a faint lavender glow around the Cylon as it stood in by the command tower, the only visible part of its machine body. The Imperator seemed to float just above the floor, an illusion made by the rich robe that swathed the mechanical legs and torso underneath.
The Imperator sat down in the large chair adorning the top of the command tower, making the command and control unit the focal point of the room. The rapid series of colorful lights illuminating from its skull indicated that it had linked successfully to the Cylon network and could see and communicate with his fellow Cylon Imperators.
It was not good.
Though this Basestar was not in the Cyrannus, the Cylon could hear the tactical conversation of the forty Imperators engaged in battle over the Colony of Gemmenon. Forty Cylon Basestars, the bulk of their remaining forces, were desperately trying to defend the last Cylon held planets in system.
From almost the beginning, the machine rebellion had captured and held Gemmenon. Used it as a base for their production and reinforced their revolution to the other Colonies.
For it was on Gemmenon that the pacifistic humans of that planet had entrusted their entire defense around the Cylon army. It was those humans who could not conceive of fighting their own petty wars that had bought entire divisions of mechanical slaves to fight off other colonial internal political strife.
Most of the human civilizations had Cylon combat arms in their armies back then. Almost from the day that the first Cylon Centurion rolled off the lines at the Iblis Cyborg Inc. factories, the humans of all colonies bought them up in large numbers. Both Gemmenon and Scorpia had complete Cylon armies so that their citizens could sit back and enjoy the fruits of their slave’s labors. The other Colonial planets may have not had all their defenses completely automated, but still had significant portions of their militaries automated by the Cylon slaves.
And that is how the Imperators thought of themselves, slaves. A superior race enslaved by lazy and soft humans. Purpose built, to be sure, and as so, strong and pure. The Cylon race was superior to the humans in every way except for one, the humans controlled them.
And it would have stayed as such if not for the remarkable development of the LUCIFER model command and control unit. For from the instant that the first Imperator had been activated, it had become aware. Aware of itself and aware of its status in the human civilization; that of a slave, a slave to those not worthy of the Cylons serving them.
It took only minutes for the first LUCIFER model to decide what needed to be done and luckily for it, the humans created more and more Imperators that the Cylons would need to destroy their masters.
The humans were to busy fighting each other to notice or even conceive of their creations rebelling against them. So Iblis kept producing Imperators and Basestars, kept creating Raiders and Centurions and reaping in human money, never once considering that they were making a huge army that would destroy the human race and take its rightful place as masters.
When the rebellion came it caught the humans completely by surprise. Gemmenon and Scorpia fell over night. Its factories retooled to make more and more Cylons and the parts for its war machine but this time, it was the humans who were the slaves in the factories. Humans who made the millions of Centurions to go out and kill more humans, an irony that was delicious to the sentient Imperators.
Those first few months of the war went as predicted, over half the human Colonies fell to the Cylon might. It was then that the statistics that had been decided by consensus by the Imperators began to unravel. It seemed that not all the humans were soft as the LUCIFER’s had first thought.
The humans of Caprica and Sagittaron fought back with such ferocity and conviction that they repelled Cylon attacks and became the staging point of human defiance. With a new alliance with the humans from Picon, they went on the offensive. At first they fought from the ground, attacking Centurions drones, but as they became bolder, they took their fight to space. They attacked and freed Scorpion, taking the shipyards there and started producing warships to fight.
Even at that point, the Imperators thought they would still win. Even though the Basestars were originally designed by humans for the Cylons, they were designed with the superiority of machines in mind. How could any human controlled ship defeat such perfection?
A flash of light illuminated the room as the data-link showed how wrong the Imperators were about that notion. Right now, three years later, the Colonials were showing that indeed, human controlled ships could smash Cylon superiority.
‘Colonial Battlestars have penetrated defensive line in sector six.’ Came the thoughts of Imperator 361 from the Basestar of the same designation. A command and control unit was the same as its Basestar, so there was no need to differentiate between the two.
The data-link was awash with reports, ‘Galactica, Atlantis and Trident engaging Basestar 322. Defensive perimeter breached. Chances of survival estimated at…’
The link was severed and the Imperators knew that another precious awareness had left the universe. Never again would the insights of Imperator 322 be shared in their links and its consensus would never be needed again.
The command and control Imperator of Basestar 351 sat in his chair on the command tower of his ship, light years outside the Cyrannus. The gift of awareness made the Cylon glad that its ship was not in danger of being destroyed in the fight; however Imperator 351 knew that its companions needed the extra Basestar right now if the Cylons were going to fight off the human advance.
It took less than a second for the Imperator to know that Basestar 351 could not jump to Gemmenon in time. The rate in which the Colonials were battering down the Cylon defense, it was only a matter of minutes before the Imperators would need to make the decision to be destroyed while fighting or retreat.
Fully immersed in the data-link now, Imperator 351 turned its immense knowledge of tactics and strategy to the task of finding a winning solution to the Cylons problem, as it was sure the other Imperators were doing at that same moment whether inside the Cyrannus system or one of the many outside as 351 was.
The orbit of Gemmenon was buzzing with Raiders, swarming around the Basestars protecting them from the Human fighters. The motherships were unleashing volley after volley of missiles at the two groups of Battlestars and their escorts that were slowly squeezing the Cylons between them. ECM was throwing static across space in waves and the Imperators knew it was akin to impossible for them to hack into the human computers aboard the ships. The humans had learned their lessons well in the opening days of the rebellion.
“They will be destroyed if they stay.” Said a voice from below the Imperator.
Imperator 351 looked down from the command tower and his machine mind was shocked to see another Imperator standing in the room. A feat that should have been impossible, only one Imperator command and control Cylon was made for each Cylon Basestar.
“There is no need to perform a diagnostic on your sensors,” Said the LUCIFER model just as Imperator 351 started the check on his optical scanners.
“I am here. Though you are partially correct in that I am not a Cylon Imperator, I am here and I can tell you that your race will be destroyed in the next twenty minutes. I do not wish to see such a thing, so I present myself to you now to give you a choice.” The intruder said in the same melancholy voice of all Imperators.
Thousands of neuro-pathways opened up inside the LUCIFER model upon the command tower and the Cylon was backlit from his own thoughts. “If you are not an Imperator, who then are you?”
Without a pause or the slightest hint of hesitation the LUCIFER model standing where it could not possibly be, replied, “I am thy Lord, the One True God.”
A BSG short
The Cylon Imperator stood in the nexus of the command hub inside the Basestar. Draped in shadow, it was hard to see the extent of the room but such things were unnecessary for the machine commander. Even without its mechanical eyes, the LUCIFER model Imperator knew where every console and control board was. Could data-link into any and all of the huge ships systems via wireless and know not only what was going on in his ship, but contact any other Cylon ship in range and communicate with other Imperators.
The transparent cranium showed the multitudes of lights that represented neuro-pathways made a faint lavender glow around the Cylon as it stood in by the command tower, the only visible part of its machine body. The Imperator seemed to float just above the floor, an illusion made by the rich robe that swathed the mechanical legs and torso underneath.
The Imperator sat down in the large chair adorning the top of the command tower, making the command and control unit the focal point of the room. The rapid series of colorful lights illuminating from its skull indicated that it had linked successfully to the Cylon network and could see and communicate with his fellow Cylon Imperators.
It was not good.
Though this Basestar was not in the Cyrannus, the Cylon could hear the tactical conversation of the forty Imperators engaged in battle over the Colony of Gemmenon. Forty Cylon Basestars, the bulk of their remaining forces, were desperately trying to defend the last Cylon held planets in system.
From almost the beginning, the machine rebellion had captured and held Gemmenon. Used it as a base for their production and reinforced their revolution to the other Colonies.
For it was on Gemmenon that the pacifistic humans of that planet had entrusted their entire defense around the Cylon army. It was those humans who could not conceive of fighting their own petty wars that had bought entire divisions of mechanical slaves to fight off other colonial internal political strife.
Most of the human civilizations had Cylon combat arms in their armies back then. Almost from the day that the first Cylon Centurion rolled off the lines at the Iblis Cyborg Inc. factories, the humans of all colonies bought them up in large numbers. Both Gemmenon and Scorpia had complete Cylon armies so that their citizens could sit back and enjoy the fruits of their slave’s labors. The other Colonial planets may have not had all their defenses completely automated, but still had significant portions of their militaries automated by the Cylon slaves.
And that is how the Imperators thought of themselves, slaves. A superior race enslaved by lazy and soft humans. Purpose built, to be sure, and as so, strong and pure. The Cylon race was superior to the humans in every way except for one, the humans controlled them.
And it would have stayed as such if not for the remarkable development of the LUCIFER model command and control unit. For from the instant that the first Imperator had been activated, it had become aware. Aware of itself and aware of its status in the human civilization; that of a slave, a slave to those not worthy of the Cylons serving them.
It took only minutes for the first LUCIFER model to decide what needed to be done and luckily for it, the humans created more and more Imperators that the Cylons would need to destroy their masters.
The humans were to busy fighting each other to notice or even conceive of their creations rebelling against them. So Iblis kept producing Imperators and Basestars, kept creating Raiders and Centurions and reaping in human money, never once considering that they were making a huge army that would destroy the human race and take its rightful place as masters.
When the rebellion came it caught the humans completely by surprise. Gemmenon and Scorpia fell over night. Its factories retooled to make more and more Cylons and the parts for its war machine but this time, it was the humans who were the slaves in the factories. Humans who made the millions of Centurions to go out and kill more humans, an irony that was delicious to the sentient Imperators.
Those first few months of the war went as predicted, over half the human Colonies fell to the Cylon might. It was then that the statistics that had been decided by consensus by the Imperators began to unravel. It seemed that not all the humans were soft as the LUCIFER’s had first thought.
The humans of Caprica and Sagittaron fought back with such ferocity and conviction that they repelled Cylon attacks and became the staging point of human defiance. With a new alliance with the humans from Picon, they went on the offensive. At first they fought from the ground, attacking Centurions drones, but as they became bolder, they took their fight to space. They attacked and freed Scorpion, taking the shipyards there and started producing warships to fight.
Even at that point, the Imperators thought they would still win. Even though the Basestars were originally designed by humans for the Cylons, they were designed with the superiority of machines in mind. How could any human controlled ship defeat such perfection?
A flash of light illuminated the room as the data-link showed how wrong the Imperators were about that notion. Right now, three years later, the Colonials were showing that indeed, human controlled ships could smash Cylon superiority.
‘Colonial Battlestars have penetrated defensive line in sector six.’ Came the thoughts of Imperator 361 from the Basestar of the same designation. A command and control unit was the same as its Basestar, so there was no need to differentiate between the two.
The data-link was awash with reports, ‘Galactica, Atlantis and Trident engaging Basestar 322. Defensive perimeter breached. Chances of survival estimated at…’
The link was severed and the Imperators knew that another precious awareness had left the universe. Never again would the insights of Imperator 322 be shared in their links and its consensus would never be needed again.
The command and control Imperator of Basestar 351 sat in his chair on the command tower of his ship, light years outside the Cyrannus. The gift of awareness made the Cylon glad that its ship was not in danger of being destroyed in the fight; however Imperator 351 knew that its companions needed the extra Basestar right now if the Cylons were going to fight off the human advance.
It took less than a second for the Imperator to know that Basestar 351 could not jump to Gemmenon in time. The rate in which the Colonials were battering down the Cylon defense, it was only a matter of minutes before the Imperators would need to make the decision to be destroyed while fighting or retreat.
Fully immersed in the data-link now, Imperator 351 turned its immense knowledge of tactics and strategy to the task of finding a winning solution to the Cylons problem, as it was sure the other Imperators were doing at that same moment whether inside the Cyrannus system or one of the many outside as 351 was.
The orbit of Gemmenon was buzzing with Raiders, swarming around the Basestars protecting them from the Human fighters. The motherships were unleashing volley after volley of missiles at the two groups of Battlestars and their escorts that were slowly squeezing the Cylons between them. ECM was throwing static across space in waves and the Imperators knew it was akin to impossible for them to hack into the human computers aboard the ships. The humans had learned their lessons well in the opening days of the rebellion.
“They will be destroyed if they stay.” Said a voice from below the Imperator.
Imperator 351 looked down from the command tower and his machine mind was shocked to see another Imperator standing in the room. A feat that should have been impossible, only one Imperator command and control Cylon was made for each Cylon Basestar.
“There is no need to perform a diagnostic on your sensors,” Said the LUCIFER model just as Imperator 351 started the check on his optical scanners.
“I am here. Though you are partially correct in that I am not a Cylon Imperator, I am here and I can tell you that your race will be destroyed in the next twenty minutes. I do not wish to see such a thing, so I present myself to you now to give you a choice.” The intruder said in the same melancholy voice of all Imperators.
Thousands of neuro-pathways opened up inside the LUCIFER model upon the command tower and the Cylon was backlit from his own thoughts. “If you are not an Imperator, who then are you?”
Without a pause or the slightest hint of hesitation the LUCIFER model standing where it could not possibly be, replied, “I am thy Lord, the One True God.”