With the entry of Charon Cybernetics in 3745, the Cyber Rebellions entered a new and far more vicious phase. Charon Cybers had thrown off their masters in a brutal war that convinced the cybers that their only hope for survival was the utter destruction of all sentient biologicals they encountered. To this end, they created huge lethal bombard starships that could split the crust of a planet. The Phantatwain called the ships “Planet Crackers”. Sokol Traders ruefully named them “Cyber Traders”.
Charon task forces began to spread out from their home territories in order to find any of their masters that had escaped them. Inevitably, they encountered other sentient biological races and attacked them without exception. Only those planets holding valuable natural or industrial resources were spared but their populations were rounded up and liquidated as soon as they were no longer needed for industrial or strategic purposes.
As Charon forces moved further out they began to encounter other Cyber task forces such as the Knights of Rancor (KoR) and Killer Myron (KMR). The first contact between cyborg and cybernetic machine was violent. Knights of Rancor starships encountered a Charon battle-group in the Acorkorin Nebula in 3747. Charon bombards were dismantling a small human colony on the third planet of the Rapissak star system when a KoR squadron of eight heavy cruisers jumped into the system at a point between the Charon bombards and their screening battlecruisers. Since the Charon vessels were unknown to the KoR, they moved to engage the six bombards orbiting Rapissak-3 and managed to destroy two of them before the Charon ships jumped away. The screening Charon Battlecruisers closed with the KoR cruisers and destroyed the squadron with the loss of two Charon battlecruisers. Charon evaluation of the wrecked KoR cyborg ships gave them their first inkling of the cyber rebellions.
Initial reactions in the Charon High Command were mixed. Some viewed the cyborgs as sentient biologicals. The Charon leader thought otherwise and dispatched scout squadrons with orders to contact KoR and other cyborg entities discovered through the intelligence information gleaned from the KoR wrecks at Rapissak. After over a year of patrolling, a scout squadron came across a KoR industrial facility and transmitted data that gave the KoR cyborgs no doubt about who the Charon were. Intelligence about the Charon was quickly transmitted to all other rebel cyber factions and, with the exception of the unfortunate incident with the Geddan Sephertez-9, all subsequent encounters between the rebel cybers and Charon forces were peaceful.
Charon technology was not superior to the cyborg technology of the rebels. Rather, it was simply different. Individual Charon cybernetic units were completely mechanical. They had developed a fully independent AI system that allowed them to simply build more units to create new and unique cybernetic “people.” They had no need to harvest biologicals. This was interesting, but not useful information for the rebels because their survival depended on biological harvest to create units that still had a form of independent thought and action. They needed biological brains and nervous systems to function.
What does this mean for Takamo Universe players?
Takamo Universe empires must be prepared to encounter all manner of aliens, including cyborgs and cybernetic machines.
