Zyclops

Zyclops are mysterious robotic servants of an unknown alien power 4.2 million light years from Earth, whose abandoned spaceship was commandeered by a disgruntled Space Ranger who took on the identity of Zurg.

Biology
Zyclops are large humanoid robots, standing at almost twice the size of the average Human, with especially bulky torsos. While their joints and internal components are colored black, Zyclops are mostly covered in thick yellow or red armor. Their heads are spherical, and appear somewhat sunken into their torsos, with no visible necks and no features other than a single red eye behind a dark visor. While their feet are shaped like large boots, their hands bear only three fingers in a circular arrangement, and are large enough to wrap around Human limbs. Zyclops arms are connected to their torsos by a series of screw-like components under a flap on their shoulders, and will come off if enough screws are removed. Zyclops bodies are well-armored, but not invulnerable, and are known to have what seems to be a weak point just above their visors.

In the center of Zyclops hands are powerful laser cannons, which can still fire for some time after being removed from their bodies, and tend to fire randomly if severed. Zyclops are also capable of flying with thrusters that are exposed when two flaps on their backs lift up, and fly in an upright position. Zyclops are strong enough to effortlessly pick up Humans and punch through solid metal, and can remain functional while missing limbs and sustaining damage to their heads. Additional features of Zyclops include torso components meant to clip teleportation devices onto, a scanner in their eye that emits red light, and speakers somewhere on their bodies that enable them to speak. Power and direction for the Zyclops is provided by their motherships, but they are able to continue functioning without the ship for a short amount of time, presumably possessing on-board power cells capable of retaining energy.

The sapience of Zyclops is unknown. While they follow orders with seemingly mindless behavior and have no expressions, Zyclops have acknowledged Zurg with what appears to be respect, occasionally glance at each other in seemingly quizzical ways, and at least one has displayed confusion.

Culture and society
Zyclops are soldiers of an enigmatic alien entity known as Zurg, who wore a mech suit larger than Zyclops, colored purple and with better armaments. Zyclops are loyal to the one who wears the armor, regardless of their species. It is unknown what language was used in the alien ship, but Zyclops are incapable of speaking English. Instead, the only audible words the Zyclops have ever said in front of Humans was "Zurg." As they are military robots, Zyclops will tirelessly and unquestionably follow whatever orders they are given, regardless of how much damage they take in the process, and display no emotions, making no attempts to communicate with beings other than Zurg, sometimes ignoring beings other than their target. Zyclops have their joints painted black, while their thicker outer armor is normally painted yellow with some red markings and some black alien markings resembling numbers and letters, most notably a symbol on their chests resembling the letter Z. However, a few Zyclops have been seen with red or black armor. While it is unknown what their different colors mean, the red and black-colored Zyclops were never seen outside of the mothership, and the black-colored Zyclops were only seen working computer terminals suited to their size.

While Zyclops do not create their own technology, they utilize their built-in armaments in combat, and disc-shaped teleportation devices, which are activated by force, such as being struck or by the Zyclops pressing them. When activated, Zyclops teleporters are able to teleport themselves and anything they are holding, or whatever the teleporter is stuck to, such as a spaceship. The only known location the teleporters can reach is the hangar bay of their mothership.

History
At an unknown point in time, an unidentified alien power located somewhere 4.2 million light years from Earth created at least one large spaceship that held Zyclops, commanded by a figure known as Zurg. For an unknown reason, the ship was left abandoned, drifting aimlessly through space. The ship was eventually found by a Human named Buzz Lightyear, a former Space Ranger of Star Command, the military arm of the Earth-based Galactic Alliance. He had arrived on the Zyclops mothership, accompanied by his robotic feline companion Sox, after traveling faster than light for what equated to centuries due to time dilation. Lightyear had been testing artificially created hyperspace crystals for a marooned Galactic Alliance colony on planet T'Kani Prime, becoming obsessed with achieving FTL travel to return the colonists to Earth, especially after his final test, which, while successful, nearly got him arrested for stealing the experimental XL-15 spacecraft and drove him off the planet. On the Zyclops mothership, Lightyear assumed the identity of Zurg, and activated Zyclops, who accepted him as Zurg, even when he wasn't wearing the Zurg mech suit. Modifying the Zyclops mothership with some Human tech from his ship, such as an I.V.A.N. autopilot and engine controls modeled after that of the colony's Star Command cruiser, Lightyear used the advanced alien technology in conjunction with his hyperspace crystal to find a way to go back in time and prevent the colony from ever being marooned. After 50 years of testing, which wore out the crystal, his body, and Sox, the technology was finally perfected, using the last of the crystal's charge to send the elderly Lightyear, as Zurg, along with the ship and all Zyclops in it, to a week before his past self was to return from the final test flight, intent on acquiring the past crystal to go back to before the colony arrived.

Arriving in orbit over T'Kani Prime, Zurg diverted the course of the timeline by sending a Zyclops invasion force to T'Kani Prime, quickly overwhelming Human resistance and forcing all civilians and Star Command personnel to take refuge within a protective laser shield over the colony's only city. Zyclops surrounded the city, preventing anyone from leaving and cutting off all communications in or out of the shield, constantly firing at it. With no one to arrest him, the younger Lightyear landed in a clearing in the woods near the colony, where a Zyclops was sent to retrieve him and the XL-15. However, while the Zyclops retrieved the ship, Lightyear himself had already exited it with the Sox and the crystal, and was quickly shoved behind cover by a Human survivor. Regardless, the Zyclops returned to Zurg, who was resting in a stasis pod, and showed him the craft. Seeing that his younger self and the crystal were missing, Zurg ordered more Zyclops to retrieve them. One Zyclops soon located Lightyear in an abandoned Star Command outpost, alongside Izzy Hawthorne, the survivor that saved him, Mo Morrison, a recruit who was on the verge of quitting before the invasion, and Darby Steel, an elderly paroled convict conscripted into the Junior ZAP Patrol.

While the Humans were going over a plan to use a military spacecraft in the outpost to destroy the Zyclops mothership, the Zyclops then punched through a wall and grabbed Lightyear, pulling him outside. Izzy tried to shoot the Zyclops in the back, but accidentally used harmless training ammunition instead, allowing the Zyclops to fire at her, although she was able to dodge, making the shot destroy the spacecraft instead. The Zyclops then drew a teleporter to return to the mothership, only for Mo to shoot it with a harpoon gun, making the harpoon teleport away instead. Unfazed, the Zyclops fired at Mo, destroying a satellite dish on the base, and drew its second teleporter, only to have that get knocked away as well. As the Zyclops walked to retrieve its teleporter, Sox managed to climb onto the Zyclops and remove a shoulder covering, quickly ripping out a few components that made its arm start to fall off, but the Zyclops kept moving, throwing Sox off. Lightyear managed to pull out the last few components, causing the robot's arm that was holding him to release him and detach, its laser cannon going haywire. Managing to outrun the Zyclops, Lightyear grabbed its arm and aimed it at the Zyclops, but it deactivated before it could blast the Zyclops. Just before the Zyclops could get away with him, Mo managed to fire a harpoon into the Zyclops' head, shutting the Zyclops down.

Despite its damage, the harpooned Zyclops later reactivated, and saw that the Humans had left, but left a trail from a truck they used to get to a Star Command storage depot. Following the trail, the Zyclops found the aftermath of a skirmish between the Humans and a swarm of insectoid creatures, although the Humans had all managed to escape in a Star Command gunship. Later, Zurg himself went to the surface of T'Kani Prime, moving by his Zyclops soldiers as he walked to his personal starfighter, two of the Zyclops glancing at each other as he passed. Zurg nearly cornered his younger self in an abandoned mine, but the Humans escaped in their gunship, which was only able to hover after its engines were disabled by Zurg's starfighter. With the Humans escaping, Zurg deployed more Zyclops in drop pods, where they used their own hover capabilities to follow the ship, seeking to forcefully teleport it to their mothership. While Izzy and Buzz flew the ship, Mo and Darby used missiles and grenades to destroy two Zyclops, while rock spires broken by both blasts and the ship ramming through them hit Zyclops in the chest, teleporting them back to the mothership. The damaged Zyclops that had been tracking Lightyear also found him, attempting to take the ship head-on, but was knocked aside, as a teleporter disc was placed on the gunship's side. Before the teleporter could be activated by its Zyclops, Lightyear blasted the Zyclops away with a laser armgun, clearing all Zyclops aside from the harpooned one. However, Izzy accidentally ejected the hyperspace crystal, which was used to power the ship. Both the harpooned Zyclops and Lightyear raced for the crystal, and even after getting one of its legs blasted off, the Zyclops managed to grab the crystal and use its remaining teleporter disc to return to the mothership.

Back on the mothership, the younger Lightyear was soon taken aboard by Zurg, who revealed his identity and backstory to his younger self, and both Lightyears came across the harpooned Zyclops, who was still missing a leg. While the younger Lightyear was startled by the robot, the Zyclops did not display hostility, merely giving the crystal to Zurg, while also acknowledging to the younger Lightyear as Zurg. However, when Zurg prepared to complete his plan, the younger Lightyear realized that preventing the colony's crash would erase the generations that came on the planet, and refused to continue. When he tried to take the crystal, Zurg summoned two red Zyclops to restrain him, dismissed after strapping Lightyear to the railings of the ship's core. Just after they left, Zurg was about to go back in time once more, but then, Zurg's Sox, who was with him, turned on him and shot Zurg in the back with a tranquilizer, as he preferred the younger and more heroic Lightyear. Future Sox then freed Lightyear and led him to the bridge, the pair escaping unseen by black-colored Zyclops working at nearby computer terminals.

While Lightyear and future Sox began the ship's self-destruct sequence, before being interrupted by an awoken and now-armored Zurg, who destroyed future Sox, Izzy and the other Humans used the teleporter disc still on the gunship's side to teleport into the mothership, crushing the Zyclops previously teleported to the hangar during the chase. Izzy and current Sox went to help Lightyear while Mo and Darby were left to keep the hangar secure, but Darby accidentally alerted a squad of Zyclops to their location by removing a wall panel. When the Zyclops arrived, Mo and Darby had already hidden atop a heavy piece of machinery on the hallway's roof. The lead Zyclops noticed a land mine-like bomb fashioned from a teleporter disc left by Darby, almost stepping on it. Above them, Mo and Darby, anticipating the Zyclops not stepping on the bomb, worked to make the machinery fall on it, but a Zyclops looked up and saw Mo. Before the Zyclops could blast them, Mo activated the "surrender" button on Darby's suit, expanding its airbags and throwing the machinery right on top of the bomb, detonating it and destroying the Zyclops.

Soon afterwards, the mothership self-destructed, destroying all Zyclops aboard as the Humans, Sox, and Zurg escaped. With the mothership gone, the Zyclops on the ground began to lose power, but the harpooned Zyclops had also managed to escape, presumably in a drop ship, and retain some power. In space, Zurg was seemingly destroyed by Lightyear at the cost of the hyperspace crystal, and on T'Kani Prime, Star Command soldiers were able to destroy the depowered Zyclops, but the harpooned Zyclops cornered Lightyear and his companions when they landed. Lightyear, stripped of his armgun, was unable to fight back, but the Zyclops was shot in the back and permanently deactivated by Star Command officer Commander Burnside and a ZAP Patrol squadron. It is unknown if other Zyclops exist elsewhere in space, or if Zurg, who survived the final battle and was blasted into space, ever made more of them.

Appearances

 * Lightyear (2022)