Soldiers of The One

The Reimagined Series
(Battlestar Galactica 2004, Caprica and Blood & Chrome)

The group's banner.

Soldiers of The One was a paramilitary organisation affiliated with the Monotheist church on Gemenon, and was considered by Caprica to be a terrorist organisation. The group's members were Monotheists, followers of the One True God, a deity in contradiction with the Twelve Worlds' orthodox teachings of the Lords of Kobol. Though the centre of Monotheism was on the planet, Gemenon, autonomous STO cells existed throughout the other worlds.

History

Early years

The Soldiers of The One developed out of self-defence on Gemenon, at a time when the mere concept of a monotheistic theology was objectionable. Under threat from polytheistic terrorist movements, the STO defended a small patch of land in the Gramadas mountain range where their church and elders resided. Over time Monotheism spread to the other worlds, and the STO moved with it. While initially founded as a means of defending the Church, by 1932 it held enough strength to go on the offensive, and launched terrorist attacks on Caprica. The STO subsequently went quiet after the police operations to uncover them.

Caprican split

All cells on Caprica fell under the control of Sister Clarice Willow, who favoured a policy of converting young people as a priority, using the Athena Academy. By this time, de facto leadership of the STO globally was Gara Singh, who had infiltrated the GDD on Caprica to protect terrorists from detection. In 1941, the STO began to fragment over their attitudes towards terrorism on Caprica, with cell leader Barnabas Greeley becoming a strong proponent of a renewed offensive. Greeley, who aided the STO through interplanetary smuggling, began recruiting and radicalising fellow Monotheists from outside his cell, including Athena Academy students. Among his first recruits taken from the school were Ben Stark and Keon Gatwick, who began producing explosives, followed by Pann and Hippolyta and finally Lacy Rand.

In 1942, Greeley's cell launched a fresh campaign of terror in Caprica City. Starting with Stark's suicide-bombing of a MagLev train that killed dozens of commuters, operations shifted to the bombing of vacant holocafés after closing time, owing to the Church's condemnation of V-World as encouraging immorality. Greeley was suspected by Willow's cell of being behind the attacks, but was ignored until evidence was uncovered he was directly engaging with other cells. This posed a threat to Willow's leadership, and after confronting Greeley about it, she was marked for dead. Seeking to go to Gemenon to re-affirm her leadership, Greeley's cell planted a bomb in her car and detonated it. By her fortune, she happened not to be in the car at the time, but continued on to Gemenon.

During Willow's absence, Greeley's cell continued to commit acts of terrorism, giving up on Holocafé bombings in favour of killing as many civilians as possible. Gatwick, Pann, Hippolyta and Rand were ordered to bomb a space-port by smuggling bombs in backpacks and hiding them under seats around the concourse. This drew the attention of security, forcing one of the members to shoot a guard. They were, ultimately, unable to hide their tracks by blowing up the bombs, as Rand had frozen in fear and taken her backpack with her. With enough surviving DNA and CCTV evidence to identify them, they chances of arrest by the GDD became high. Singh became aware of the suspect identities quickly and, aware Gemenon's command had recognised Willow's leadership, quietly handed over the relevant information to her cell. Within a day of Willow's return, Pann and Hippolyta were killed at home before the GDD could find them, Gatwick was killed by Greeley for deserting the cell, Greeley himself was strapped to one of Gatwick's bombs and detonated, and Rand was taken captive and forced to undertake STO training on Gemenon.

Gemenon

In 1942, Gemenon's STO leadership also experienced a radical change in structure. Lead by Kevin Reikle and Diego, the STO here was restricted to guard duty and the training of recruits, no longer permitted to fight against Polytheistic extremists that also made the Gramadas their home. Willow's 1942 visit to Gemenon posed a considerable threat to the Church's leadership, who feared she would trigger an STO uprising. Ironically, the Church's attempt to prevent it caused this very event, with Obal Ferras being killed by his fellow elders for plotting murder. With the STO now controlling the Church at knife-point, they quickly gained permission to begin large-scale terrorist attacks.

Soon after Willow's departure, Reikle and Diego oversaw the purchase of U-87 Cylons from Graystone Industries, who were constructing them as military-grade battle robots when it fell under the influence of the Ha'la'tha. A platoon-size body of U-87s made their way to the Gramadas, and took part in guard duties and executions. Unbeknownst to the two men, Rand, their new recruit, was a friend of the Graystone family and was familiar with the U-87 prototype the platoon were copied from. All U-87s were programmed to only follow orders from recognised 'controllers' and, unaware of Rand's history, an explanation could not be given. Fearing Willow was somehow involved in the U-87 shipment and had planted Rand on Gemenon for ulterior motives, the STO leadership agreed to have her killed. Having concluded this very eventuality, Rand partnered up with fellow recruits Odin Sinclair, Lexon and Devanna and Reikle and Diego were shot dead. Rather than steal an STO shuttle to go home, Rand led the three into the cave the U-87s were stored, activated them and sent them out to massacre the rest of the STO on Gemenon. In the aftermath of this overthrow, Sinclair took over as the leader of the STO on Gemenon, under the overall command of Rand, who took over the Church and was made Blessed Mother.

Apotheosis

In spite of the bloodbath on Gemenon, the STO cells on Caprica continued with their final act of terror. One of the MagLev bombing victims was Zoe Graystone, a student convert at Athena Academy and an STO member within Willow's cell. Under the guidance of the One True God's Messengers, Graystone had created a sophisticated computer program capable of creating sentient AI with the memories and personality of real people. Viewing this as Resurrection and the ultimate proof of the power of the One True God, Willow sought to demonstrate the 'Avatar Program' - dubbed Apotheosis by Willow herself - to the Twelve Worlds to usher in a new generation of mass-conversion.

All planned by Willow's command cell, including her husbands Olaf and Nestor Willow, a significant portion of Caprica's STO members were to make their way into Atlas Arena during a Pyramid game, sit across the seats to form a ring, then detonate suicide vests at the conclusion of the national anthem. These detonations were then to set off further charges placed across the building by STO infiltrators posing as the maintenance team, with the security guards also infiltrated to allow the suicide-bombers to clear their bombs through standard checks. Projected to destroy the entire stadium at the cost of around ten thousand lives, the dead bombers' pre-created Avatar Programs would then be activated upon the halt of brain activity. After a month of mourning for the victims, these Avatars were then to be revealed to the Twelve Worlds.

While planning for the attack went accordingly, the Willow household had been infiltrated by a mole - Amanda Graystone - working unofficially on-behalf of GDD agent Jordan Duram, who was unable to get a warrant to search the Willow household directly due to the interference of Singh. Limited evidence presented to Duram suggested an attack was to happen soon, but not when. In order to use the evidence in the investigation, Duram was forced to out his mole to Singh, though misidentified the mole as Mar-beth Willow - wife of Sister Clarice Willow - who was then killed, dismembered and disposed of by the household after Singh presented the name to them. Duram himself was shot on Singh's orders soon after he obtained Willow's Holoband, which contained CG footage of their very plan. When the Willow household realised who had stolen the band, Clarice, Olaf and Nestor launched an attack on the Graystone residence to get it back, fearing they would release the footage mere hours ahead of the attack. Nestor was killed at the house by the U-87 prototype, under the control of the "Zoe-A" Avatar, who had been until then unaware of the recent STO plans.

In the final day of preparation for the attacks, Singh made personal assurances to the surviving Willows that they would succeed. Using the GDD as his private army, he planted a list of known STO members at the Graystone residence while investigating Nestor's death, implicating Amanda and Daniel Graystone not only in STO membership but being high-ranking members responsible for the MagLev bombing. Though the two went on the run, searching for the Holoband which Duram dropped when shot, Singh made sure that the police not only alert him to any phone calls about the Graystones and Atlas Arena, but that the police ignore any bomb reports under the deception the GDD handle it. Well aware he would be under suspicion of aiding the attack, Singh himself made plans to abandon Caprica immediately after the bombing.

In the final minutes of preparation, the bombs were set and the suicide-bombers successfully entering the arena in spite of the bomb threat. Relevant data to create the Avatars out of each bomber was complete, and stored at the Willows' computer server per the plan to only create and upload the Avatars upon their deaths. Olaf Willow himself was one of the bombers, with Nestor having failed to create data for a Clarice Avatar before his death; she instead remained at the household and awaited the Avatars' arrivals in V-World.

During the national anthem, the Graystone parents forced their way into a private room at Atlas Arena, having found the Holoband and learnt the entire plot. Using laptop with a wireless connection to his company servers, Daniel Graystone ordered a platoon of U-87s to fly into the stadium in four Caprica Marines tiltrotors. Given orders to scan the stadium's attendees for explosive substances, they correctly identified all bombers. They were then ordered to shoot the bombers in the head with sniper rifles. This caused a panic at the stadium, with the stadium's real security staff capturing and detaining the Graystones. Olaf Willow was the last bomber to be killed; knocked over in the panic, the U-87s initially lost sight of him, and several sacrificed themselves jumping on him to cover the explosion. In V-World, Zoe-A uncovered the Willows' plan independently. Seeing their plan to create Avatars out of martyrs as antithetical to the very nature of Heaven - that being a decent person is now irrelevant to an afterlife - Zoe-A overloaded the Willow residents' servers. The STO Avatars were all killed, either by only existing in the destroyed servers or because they had not finished loading.

Aftermath

In the years after the attack, Sister Clarice Willow continued to support terrorism while serving in secret as a Monotheist priestess, though her association with the STO may have been unofficial at this point. Recognising the emerging Cylon race as sentient beings, a belief shared by Rand as Blessed Mother, Willow began inviting Cylons her V-World sermons, where she prophecised a violent slave rebellion. Support for extremism among the Cylons - themselves Monotheists - continued, and by 1947 Caprica's military was actively suppressing rebellious Cylons. The following year, a large-scale uprising took place, too big to contain, beginning the Cylon War.