Division 731 (D5)

Division 731 was a unit of the Ministry of Intelligence. It was formed sometime during the Cylon War and was tasked with ‘ending the war as quickly and efficiently as possible’.

Cylon Experimentation
Because no mechanical fault with the Cylons could ever be found to explain the uprising Division 731 conducted experiments on captured Cylon Centurions to first establish what might have caused them to revolt against their creators and to try and develop unconventional methods to disable and destroy them. Several of the scientists and engineers who worked on the original project at Graystone Industries also joined Division 731 and were involved in the generally unsuccessful experiments.

Human Experimentation
Perhaps the grizzliest activities conducted by Division 731 were the attempts to develop genetically enhance the capabilities of human soldiers to fight the Cylon army as well as develop more effective ways of treating injuries sustained in battle. Much of the work was carried out under the leadership of Deputy Director Shane Ainsleigh and was based on research carried out by Dr. Angela Levinstein.

A whole host of rather horrific experiments were conducted on political and criminal prisoners donated to the Division by the Colonial Government who were desperate for results. The experiments were conducted at a secret base called Phoran on Virgon and in the Erebus Belt. Most of these experiments resulted in the death of the prisoner/patient (referred to by the members of Division 731 as "Subjects") and often these deaths were in excruciatingly painful circumstances as the Doctors and Scientists of Division 731 tried to replicate battlefield injuries in the hope of modifying the human body to better counter such damage. Despite some promising results the project was discontinued after members of the Quorom of Twelve began protesting against the unconscionable experiments.

One of the more successful and long lasting results of experimentation carried out at Phoran was the creation of anti-radiation sickness meds which saw widespread adoption by Colonial forces towards the end of the war and indeed many years after. The creation of these medications would not have been possible without the work carried out at Division 731.

2nd Generation Centurions
With their previous efforts curtailed either technically or politically Division 731 came up with its most radical option yet. They proposed fighting fire with fire by developing new Centurions to fight those that had risen up. To address the most obvious problem – how to prevent them from rising up as well – the new Centurions had less problem solving capabilities than their predecessors and had little sentient growth potential. The project was given the go ahead by the Quorom but development wasn’t complete by the time of the Armistice. With the war over Division 731 was relocated to the SS-217 space station to continue their work.

Disbandment
Ten years after the end of the war Division 731 was disbanded but the 2nd Generation Centurions they had built were stored at SS-217 until they were needed.