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General Data: Cyberrace
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CYBERRACE
Planet of origin: Mondas, Centauri Sector
Galactic distribution: Uncommon
OVERVIEW
"Cyberrace" is the name given to a particular species of bionically augmented humanoid beings. Strictly speaking, they are arguably not a true species, as they cannot reproduce themselves except by converting pre-existing humanoid life forms with their unique cybernetic technology. The factors that make them distinctive are technological and non-hereditary, so they can be (and are, by some xenologists) considered a culture rather than a species. However, since the cybernization process is inherent to the Cyberrace's modern identity, most taxonomists choose to overlook the technicalities and refer to them as a species for simplicity's sake. The Galactic Board of Standards officially recognized the Cyberrace as a Title XII species in 2031.
The everyday term "Cybermen" is likewise inaccurate, since the cybernization process renders its subjects genderless. Almost all members of the Cyberrace do look and act in a manner which most humanoid races identify as masculine, however, and the term persists in common usage, even by the beings themselves, so we will use it here - again, for the sake of simplicity.
Within the Cyberrace's species (or pseudospecies), cyberanthropologists recognize several distinct subspecies. These have arisen due to cultural splits the original Cyberrace has undergone over its history, which have led to divergent technological and philosophical developments in the various branches. Though all are recognizably Cybermen, they can differ markedly in both physical and mental traits. The differences between the various cybersubspecies will be explored further on in this document.
A typical Cyberman stands between six and seven Standard feet high and weighs approximately 250 pounds. They have tremendous strength and resilience due to their extremely advanced robotic construction. Apart from the slight variations in height (which are believed to be due to the varying heights of converted life forms) and rank distinctions, all Cybermen within a given subspecies are basically identical. Their armored outer coating is extremely durable, and they possess surprising agility for their size and strength.
HISTORY
The Cyberrace originated on Mondas, a planet on the same orbital track as Earth in the Solar system, directly opposite the Sun. The pre-Cybernetic people of Mondas were a human species as defined by the Galactic Board of Standards Title XII, Subsection 4a. As their planet was much like Earth, so they were much like Earthmen - until a freak encounter with a comet wrenched their planet from its orbit around the Sun and sent it speeding aimlessly through the cosmos, a rogue planet. This is believed to have occurred approximately ten thousand Standard years ago.
Cut off from the vital warmth of the Sun, the Mondasians retreated underground. When the cold and hardship reached them even here, they began to adapt to their situation by replacing more and more parts of themselves with cybernetic parts. Initially, this process was approached with moderation, the Mondasians attempting to retain some fragments of their humanity. A splinter group, today known as the Faction, believed that only through total cybernization could they survive, and so, at great risk, they left Mondas as it passed an uncharted world today known only as Planet 14.
On Planet 14, the Faction continued their experiments with cybernization. Before they truly grasped what was happening, they had replaced everything in their rush for perfection. As a last, disastrous step, they chose to remove their emotions so as not to interfere with their efficient, logical progress. In doing so they became the soulless, conquering robots we know today as the Cybermen (or, more specifically, the cyberFaction).
Ironically, it was not long after the Faction had left Mondas that the Mondasians came to the conclusion that their absent brethren had been right after all. They did not take the process quite as far, however, and retained enough of their humanity that the cyberMondasians have never been the kind of threat that the cyberFaction would eventually become.
In SY 2010, Mondas returned to the Solar system. A misunderstanding led to a brief clash between the cyberMondasian armed forces and the Earth Defense Force, but eventually understanding and peace were established. Thanks to the efforts of the Wedge Defense Force, EDF and Royal Salusian Navy, Mondas is today in a comfortable orbit around its original star's near neighbor, Wolf 359.
Planet 14's cyberFaction, meanwhile, developed interstellar travel, and in 2045 they attacked a Salusian colony world in their first bid to expand their galactic holdings. The Cyberwar lasted for eight years, during which the Royal Salusian Armed Forces and the Wedge Defense Force developed the standard tactics which are still used against aggressive splinters of the Cyberrace today.
The cyberFaction's eventual defeat led to the fragmenting of their civilization - Planet 14 was ultimately destroyed and its Cyberrace was almost wiped out. A few of their military starship groups scattered to the Outer Rim, to become the cyberNomads. One such group, the mostly intact Battle Fleet Seventeen, took refuge on Telos, a frozen Outer Rim world, and devoted themselves to improving their technology. By 2150 they had evolved into a totally new Cyberrace, the cyberNeomorphs - tougher, stronger, smarter, and equipped with better weapons than any Cyberrace before them.
However, these new Cybermen lacked sufficient energy reserves to return to Salusian space and repeat their conquest attempt. They consigned themselves to cryonic suspension chambers built deep beneath Telos's surface and waited for their automatic energy-collection systems to amass enough energy from Telos's weak sunlight to make their war effort possible. That this would take several hundred years was of no real concern to them; effectively immortal, they could wait as long as necessary.
Unfortunately for the plans of the Cybermen of Telos, their tombs were discovered in 2201 by a Wedge Defense Force expedition investigating strange energy fluctuations recorded by remote sensors. Recognizing the cyberNeomorphs for the threat they represented, the WDF high command were at first considering destroying them as they slept. Then, while studying the ways in which the Neomorphs' cyberbrains interacted with and modified the action of the organic brain tissue they contained, a WDF researcher hit on a way to remove the threat without being forced to commit genocide. The high command approved the plan, and, over the next three months, teams of WDF cyberneticists (including several cyberMondasians) modified the cyberbrain of every sleeping Neomorph - restoring their emotions and consciences.
When awakened, the Telosian Cyber Controller and his legions reconsidered their options and eventually chose to join galactic society rather than seek to conquer it. Many joined the WDF; some journeyed to Mondas and settled among their ancestral cousins; others scattered throughout the galaxy, where they can now be found in almost all walks of life. The rest remained on Telos, establishing the Cyber Republic of Telos, which became a United Galactica member state in 2215.
SUBSPECIES
Following is a brief overview of the variant Cyberraces known to exist, including their commonly used names (if any), Galactic Standard subspecies designations, and Linnean taxonomic nomenclature.
Faction Cyberman (Planet 14 Cyberman, cyberNomad)
cyberFaction
Homo cyberis quaterdeciens
A typical Faction Cyberman
Alternate Faction head design
The original Cyberman type which arose on Planet 14 following the Faction's prehistoric departure from Mondas. Members of the cyberFaction subspecies are almost totally robotic, containing nothing organic save some brain matter and the most utterly vestigial of respiratory systems. They can survive for hours without breathing thanks to internal backup systems.
Since the cyberFaction's culture, if it can be said to have one, is geared exclusively toward conquest and expansion, all Faction Cybermen are built for combat, with heavy armor, built-in blast weapons (usually mounted in their cranial casings above the forehead), shielded electronics, and powerful servos. They are tremendously strong and very hard to kill.
They have only one physical flaw: the oxygenating grid used in their respiratory systems is susceptible to contamination by ductile, non-corrosible metals, especially gold, and when contaminated it fails to function, asphyxiating and killing the organic component and thus the Cyberman. Gold dust or a suspension of powdered gold in liquid, if forcibly introduced to the chest ventilator of a cyberFaction Cyberman, will kill him. It was for this purpose that the tactical high-velocity auric injector, popularly known as the glittergun, was developed during the Cyberwar.
The cyberFaction have utterly eliminated emotion and conscience from their makeup. Their computerized brains know only the cold sterility of total logic. They are a tragic irony: they got the way they are today searching for perfection, and now that they have removed their emotions they have no concept of perfection, nor would they know how to recognize it, or what to do with it if they had it. Today, the remnants of this, once the most numerous branch of the Cyberrace, wander the uncharted reaches just beyond the galaxy, seeking to conquer, cybernize, and perpetuate themselves, without ever knowing why.
It is believed that no more than 5,000 cyberNomads, as the cyberFaction's remannts are commonly (but not scientifically) known, survive, roaming in groups of of a dozen to a few hundred in the wild space beyond the Outer Rim.
Mondas Cyberman (Planet X Cyberman, 359 Cyberman)
cyberMondasian
Homo cyberis mondae
An early-model Mondas Cyberman photographed at Earth First Contact in 2010
A modern Mondas Cyberman (Johnny Chrome, lead singer of the pop group The cyberBand of Mondas)
The least mechanical of the Cyberraces, cyberMondasians tend to be between 80% and 90% cybernetic. They still possess organic brain tissue and, in most cases, some remaining internal organs, usually a cybernetically augmented organic heart and abbreviated digestive and endocrine systems to sustain the brain. Some even retain flesh-and-blood limbs, although these have almost universally been augmented. An average cyberMondasian has strength on part with an average adult Salusian.
CyberMondasians' minds are mostly comparable to those of humans, although without the complex biochemical responses of the fully human brain or electronics to simulate them, they possess somewhat attenuated emotional responses. In this way they are comparable in average personality to Vulcans. They are creatures of logic and rationality, but by the same token they are not cruel or vindictive.
On Mondas, reproduction is accomplished in the laboratory. Genetic engineering provides variation, and new individuals are grown to adulthood and cybernized before ever reaching consciousness. They are born full-grown and cybernetically educated, ready to begin their lives. The cyberpopulation is maintained at a stable and efficient level - new cyberMondasians are only created to replace those killed in accidents or lost in warfare, or in the rare event that a member of another species successfully seeks permission to emigrate to Mondas and be cybernized. As their cybersystems render them nearly immortal, there is negligible natural attrition.
Mondas Cybermen, thanks to their several centuries of uninterrupted economic prosperity and civil order, have the most advanced technological base of the Cyberraces, but tend not to be the most individually powerful Cybermen. Their national policy of peace and logical discourse means that constructing all members of society for firepower and great strength is considered unnecessary and wasteful. Though the members of the numerically small Mondas Self Defense Force possess highly advanced combat systems, the average cyberMondasian is unarmed and possesses only slightly superhuman strength (though even a cybercivilian's durability is considerable). The Mondas branch of cybertechnology does not incorporate the Faction's vulnerability to gold.
Telos Cyberman (Ice Planet Cyberman, WDF Cyberman, cyberNeomorph)
cyberTelosian
Homo cyberis telosiae
A Telosian Cyber Leader and his squad
The most powerful Cyberrace in terms of average individual combat strength, the cyberTelosians represent the ultimate refinement of the cyberFaction design philosophy. Often referred to as "cyberNeomorphs" when they first appeared, are sleeker, more modern-looking and more powerful than Faction Cybermen. Their technology, an evolution of cyberFaction technology, is similar but more advanced, and although their ventilation systems originally had the same vulnerability to gold (to a lesser extent), that vulnerability was eliminated in the early 2200s through technological exchanges with Mondas (much to the chagrin of the Elasi pirates who attempted to fight off a Wedge Defense Force Cybersquad using glitterguns!).
The cyberTelosians are also the most 'human' of the Cyberraces. Their cyberbrains contain positronic circuitry based on advanced robotic AI systems, which, coupled with a few biochemical augmentations to their organic brain components, give them emotions. This system is so sophisticated that it is even tied to power amplifiers and the like throughout their bodies, to simulate in them the effect of an adrenaline surge on a humanoid. As originally implemented by the Faction, this system's emotional spectrum was limited to combative feelings - anger, contempt, hatred - but the WDF Life Sciences Division's historic modification freed the Neomorphs of this limitation and gave them full humanoid emotional spectra.
Though not every member of the subspecies chooses the military profession, all cyberTelosians are built for war, unlike their Mondasian cousins. They lack the built-in weapons of the cyberFaction (Telosian researchers decided early on that hand-held weapons were easier to maintain, repair, and replace in combat), but possess powerful weapons-handling software that makes any Telosian Cyberman an instant expert with any known weapon and enables them to very quickly figure out most unknown ones. With advanced survival systems, armor nearly impervious to small-arms fire, high-capacity myomer "muscles", and fast-response neurotransmitters, they are quick, agile, immensely strong, and possess one of the galaxy's highest infantry survivability ratings.
POLITICS & SOCIETY TODAY
Apart from the scattered and largely anarchic cyberNomad remnants, the two main branches of the Cyberrace today occupy a pair of stable single-planet political states.
Mondas Free Republic
The MFR, whose legal borders encompass the entire Wolf 359 system, in practical terms consists solely of the planet Mondas. Today, Mondas is a member-state of the United Federation of Planets and is politically neutral. The MFR government declined membership in the Earth Alliance when that body was formed following the War of Corporate Occupation, but maintains diplomatic relations with the EA as part of its Federation membership. So far, the government of Mondas has studiously avoided taking any part in the developing split between the Federation factions backing the EA or the Zetan-Salusian alliance, apart from affirming the Republic's support for the Pact Babylonica and the International Police Accords when the EA rejected same in 2406.
Mondas is a Class M planet - a bit on the frigid side, but not a full-blown ice world like Telos or Ice Planet Halloran V. It has a stable population of about one billion, which is relatively sparse for such an Earthlike planet. This population is concentrated in ten major cities, each located near a center of resources. The capital, imaginatively named Mondas City, is located on the planet's largest continent, at the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian of longitude.
The Mondas Cybermen are quiet, rational beings who enjoy quiet, rational pursuits such as mathematical investigation, scientific research, geometry, and three-dimensional chess. They are also fond of music, especially music with underlying mathematical elements, such as classical fugues and Goa trance. Oddly enough, tourism is a major source of income for the Mondasian government - many sentient beings find the calm, ordered rationality of Mondas restful. The planet's chief export is, not surprisingly, cybernetic enhancement parts for humanoids.
Mondas is governed by the Cyber Council, an elected body of 100 citizens who make decisions by majority vote, and a Cyber Governor, who is chosen by the Council, serves as the republic's chief executive, and breaks ties in the Council. Councilors serve for terms of five years apiece, with 20 members' seats coming up for re-election each year. The Governor serves at the pleasure of the Council, though he can be recalled by popular demand (this has never happened). There is no political districting on Mondas - each Councilor is elected by the full population. Campaigning and traditional political maneuvering are all but unknown on Mondas; candidates merely announce their availability for office and let the chips fall where they may.
Cyber-Republic of Telos
The CRT is a slightly more territorially ambitious state than the MFR, since it contains not one but two inhabited bodies - Telos and its primary satellite Kofilos. (Unremarked upon by the planet's original cyberFaction settlers, Kofilos was named by a WDF survey officer who was apparently in a whimsical mood; on the original chart of the system its name was actually spelled "Coffeelos".) Between them the two worlds have a combined population of about 20 million. Population growth is regulated more strictly on Telos than on Mondas, since Telos, a full-fledged Class L ice world, is a less hospitable place with lower resource levels.
Unlike Mondas, Telos is not politically neutral. The Cyber Republic (sometimes written, in waggish parallel with the standard nomenclature of the cybersubspecies, "cyberRepublic") is openly allied with the Republic of Zeta Cygni - perhaps unsurprising, given the planet's long association with the Wedge Defense Force. The fact that the Telosian Cybermen were discovered by the Wedge Defense Force, and that many of their number joined the WDF thereafter, has led the Telosian subspecies to be disproportionately identified with that organization. Some members of the public erroneously believe that all cyberTelosians are members of the WDF (hence the common nickname "WDF Cybermen" for the subspecies).
As an unfortunate side effect of this misconception, expatriate Telos Cybermen suffered considerably during the interregnum following the WDF's fall at the Battle of Musashi (2288-2380). Many were hunted down and slain by bounty hunters and other unsavory characters seeking to cash in on the heavy prices offered by GENOM Corporation for any former WDF members - including more than a few who were never associated with the WDF in any way. As a result, the cyberTelosians have a certain inherent distaste for bounty hunters and their profession - doubly so because some of the remaining cyberNomads work in that field.
Telos Cybermen are a less reserved people than their Mondasian cousins. Though not all are soldiers, they are as a culture fond of military exercises and wargames. Their art is more expressive, their games and sports more aggressive. The Cybermen of Telos makes friends, but also enemies, faster than their more logical relations orbiting Wolf 359. They're also much more likely to be found off their homeworld, since they like to explore. Though some cyberTelosians are fiercely individualistic, most prefer to live and travel in groups, echoing the militarized squad or pod structure of cyberFaction society.
Telosian politics are among the strangest in the galaxy. There is only one elected office in the entire CRT: the post of Cyber Controller, who wields absolute power while in office. Individualistic and conformist at the same time, the Cybermen of Telos wage wild, often hilarious, but always ruthlessly honest political campaigns based on abstruse electoral procedures all but impenetrable to any other species - and once those campaigns are over, fall into lockstep and follow their newly installed Controller with absolute obedience until his 10-year term ends.
Upon election, the Cyber Controller is extensively modified by a trusted, specially programmed cadre of cybersurgeons. These modifications give him the ability to monitor all Telosian government and military communications, instantly make contact with any member of the civil or defense services, and generally conduct all affairs of state without ever leaving his office. The Controller's extra computing power and communications equipment make him significantly bulkier than the average Cyberman, and the effect seems to increase with each succeeding generation as Telosian researchers expand the Controller's capabilities. This leads some comedians to speculate that newly selected Cyber Controllers prepare for their role in Telosian society by eating their predecessors.
The present Cyber Controller was elected in 2410. Once in office, he instituted a major military buildup, beefing up the CRT's defense forces and reaffirming the republic's mutual defense accord with the Republic of Zeta Cygni. Rumors are circulating of a Telosian research team working with other allied military technology institutions to develop a "Super-Cyberman" to meet the challenges of potential galactic conflict.
End of Text Data Extract
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