The following Manifesto, written in pencil with cross-outs and erasures and generally looking like it was composed in a Brig cell is slowly leaked in strategically placed photocopies throughout Cerberus and Elpis.
My name is Tyr Bannik and I collaborated with Cylons.
Let me back up a bit. During the chaos of 15 April, I was dispatched with Sawyer Averies to reset a router in a repair bay. While there, I found Cerberus personnel sabotaging our ship to assist Areion. In their clutches was Trevor McQueen, who was trying to stop them. We did stop them and in what followed, McQueen ushered me and Sawyer into a Raptor. He told us it was because he knew how to attack Areion. The truth was much better; he knew the way forward for humanity.
Trevor McQueen is a skinjob; a humanoid Cylon; a Two; a saboteur. But there's only one thing: He's not a saboteur. McQueen - as a Cylon he uses his middle name, Cairn, as his given name - turned on his programming. When the orders came for him to "take out" any non-cooperating Colonial vessels, he didn't do it. He chose to ally with us. I challenge the Military Police to link any act of sabotage on this vessel back to Cairn. I'll bet all my drink vouchers that they won't be able to do it.
Cairn took us to Gemenon, where we met with representatives of the Twos and the Elevens, the models that have refused to try to destroy us. All that you've heard in the leaked recon and after-action reports is true. There are humans on Gemenon; they are living in harmony with Cylons; they have found drawings that are from the time of the Exodus.
While we were on Gemenon, the Twos and Elevens shared with us incredible news: They believe that what lies inside the Temple of Aphrodite may point the way towards a place where humans can live, separate from Cylons. They want to work with us. With their help, they think we can stop running. We can find a place to call Home once more and lay down our burdens, no longer fight. But to decipher what lies inside the Temple, they need our help. And they asked us, when we came back, to share that news with you. That is what I am doing now.
I don't believe that Gemenon is a trap; I don't believe this is an elaborate ploy. I believe that the Twos and the Elevens, Cairn and Sarah - the Eleven that flew us back to Cerberus and knew it might well be a one-way trip, which it was — truly do believe the way forward is through Cylon-Human cooperation.
I know people are mad at what the Cylons did to the Colonies; I know I am. Mad is hardly a word to do it justice. But the War isn't still going; it's over. We lost. The question is what we do now, and I think the Twos and the Elevens have presented the best hope possible for the human race; cooperation, not destruction.
Rudy Kepner showed us what that untamed, unbridled hatred leads to. As the Twos and Elevens overcame their programming and refused to harm humans, so we too must overcome our base instincts if we are to work with them and lead the way forward. I cannot say that all the answers lie on Gemenon; but I can say that Hope lies there, and Hope is what we need.
I believe that we are all players in a story that has happened before and that will happen again. But while the story's beginning and end are foretold in the Scrolls, what happens while it takes place is for us to decide. We need to decide to go to Gemenon.
So my name is Tyr Bannik and I collaborated with Cylons. I collaborated with them when I asked how we could help them and how they can help us. I collaborated with them when I prayed with the humans they lived with. I collaborated with them when I brought tales of Cerberus - a ship they speak of like a god — and Hope to them. I am a Cylon collaborator and I pray our Fleet will be too.