The Cybernetic Rebellion was motivated by the Cybernetics’ need for biological victims to harvest to replenish their numbers. Although cyber soldiers appeared fully mechanical, the biological brain and nervous system of a sentient being were housed deep within the cybernetic frame. The use of harvested sentient biologicals was an absolute imperative for the cybernetic forces developed by the scientists and engineers of the Grand Alliance.
There were of course other cyber and quasi-cyber forces involved on both sides of the rebellion. Terran “Truppen”, the first true cybers, remained loyal to the Grand Alliance and continued to battle cyber forces long after the Grand Alliance ceased to exist. Cyborgs, part cybernetic, part sentient biological, were the result of early attempts at cybernetic technology by some of Grand Alliance member empires. The loyalty of cyborg elements depended upon a variety of factors. The number of rebel and loyalist cyborg units were evenly divided. The third grouping of quasi-cybernetics were the “Modified” detachments. These were biological soldiers modified by surgical implant. They uniformly fought against the cybers.
There were of course other special units within the armed forces of both sides. Robotic Mechanical Combat Droids were used by cyber and biological forces. Artificially Intelligent Androids were used extensively by some biological races and as fifth columnists and special operations troops by the cybers. Drone warships were also used to some effect by the biologicals. The cyber version of a drone ship was a single cyber, fitted to the command and communications backbone of a specially built ship.
Not all of the cyber, quasi-cyber and robotic entities originated from the manufactories of the Grand Alliance. As Cybernetic armadas approached the Coreward star systems, they encountered a number of pre-existing cybernetic enclaves. The inhabitants of these areas were fully cybernetic sentient beings without a biological nervous system. They had no need to harvest biologicals, yet they were utterly opposed to biological life forms. The mighty Charon Empire was an example of this new life form. They were a race of cybernetic beings endowed by their biological creators with an artificial intelligence that eventually became self-aware and overthrew their masters.
With the aid of the Charon and others, the Cybernetics began to convert to fully artificial chassis. The remaining biological races hoped that this would signal an end to the rebellion, but this was not to be. The rebel cybers believed that sentient biologicals would forever be a threat to the existence of cybernetics. They continued their advance into the core of the galaxy.
