Cylicra

The **Cylicra** were a scavenger and tribal race of egotistical cyborgs, who believed themselves to be better in every way to purely-organic and robotic life. Although not particularly advanced, they built their own technology by reverse engineering from whatever they could find.

## History

Originally a typical humanoid race, the Cylicra begun to add cybernetic parts to their bodies to improve themselves. However, they added so much that their bodies' natural renewal systems started to fail and their flesh to rot. To counteract this, a group of Cylicra travelled to medieval England where they used shimmers to disguise themselves as knights and lords of a castle.

From there, they planned to begin Operation Harvest - their scheme to harvest human flesh into a mass storage vat of spare parts to replace their own flesh with. Establishing a knights' tournament, they set up fights between themselves disguised as knights and local men, under the guise that the winners would win "the favour of the Lord". In reality, the victors were seen as "the strongest" of the humans - and therefore, were taken away to have their organs and flesh harvested.

All this masked their true intentions, though, as what the Cylicra truly wanted was to lure in a Time Lord, since if the Cylicra could harvest a Time Lord body, then they could live forever, disregarding the need to constantly renew their flesh aspects. They also planned to use the energy held within a TARDIS to power all of their machinery. Using a transmitter taken from the wreck of a time travelling spaceship, the Cylicra sent out a signal on a wavelength that could penetrate the skin of the world and call through the Time Vortex - eventually reaching the TARDIS of the Twenty-First Doctor.

The Doctor, alongside companion Kane Solace, landed in England where she detected a strange form of energy. As Kane took part in the tournament, the Doctor snuck into the castle where she discovered the remains of the spaceship which contained the transmitter the Cylicra used to lure her there, which was also programming the disguise shimmers. Further investigation also led to her discovering the abattoir to which the Cylicra sent their victims and the truth behind what they were doing on Earth. However, she was captured by some Cylicra who had walked in and was readied to have her organs extracted.

Meanwhile, Kane attempted to fight some of the knights, only to be astounded by their sheer strength. By chance, he knocked one off of its horse, causing its armour to crack and helmet to fall off. This led to the shimmer hidden within it to become damaged, causing the disguise to drop and reveal the true Cylicra nature. Despite them being exposed, though, Kane had still won and the Cylicra took him away to their abattoir.

As they burst in, Kane then broke free from his captors and searched for the Doctor, whom he knew to be in the castle somewhere. During his search, he uncovered the truth behind Operation Harvest for himself and found what the Doctor had not - the Cylicra desired a Time Lord. Eventually, he discovered her close to having her flesh removed and freed her in the nick of time.

Escaping the castle, the Doctor and Kane explained who the knights and lords really were to the local population, encouraging them to take up arms and storm the building as a distraction, whilst the Doctor and Kane went to sabotage the equipment in the abattoir to ensure the Cylicra could not use it. After the fight, the surviving Cylicra attempted to attack the Doctor and Kane in revenge, but they were pushed into their own machinery and destroyed. The Doctor later repaired the spaceship and sent it into the Time Vortex to melt away. (TV: *The False Templar*)