Also See:- https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/ring-of-steel---cyborg-crime-fighters/2771033/?p Galahad was the name chosen by “First” the prototype creation of Dr Pierre Mercier. The scientist had long considered the idea of augmenting humans with machine parts. He was considering the process could be the solution for accident victims. However he was unable to get funding from normal channels to try out his radical work. One person with a lot of money and interest in Mercier’s work was the dictator of the Eastern European country Polvania, Azem Dushku. Azem thought that Mercier could use his idea to build a cyborg army for him in which to bolster his strength against his own people and the growing resistance against his own rule. Mercier though was not interested in working for the dictator so Azem had his kidnapped after which Mercier was subjected to torture that lasted months and included the use of drugs to bend his mind. Eventually Mercier was broken and after being conditioned by Azem’s people became only too willing to serve the dictator. Setting to work Mercier drew up plans for his cyborg idea. He needed a human test subject and one was duly “supplied” in the form of a mercenary that had been working for the resistance and had been taken prisoner. Having had his humanity expunged, Mercier was not interested in the facts and did not even bother to find out the test subject’s name. What mattered to him was the results. In a relatively short period of time Mercier had completed his prototype which he showed off to Azem. Named “First” all that remained of the human host was the hands head and torso the latter of which was encased in metal armour. Having been warped by Azem’s brainwashing Mercier had been so driven in pleasing the dictator he had overlooked one problem, First’s human host retained all his memories and was certainly not going to willingly serve the people that had turned him into a machine. If it was not for safeguards put in place in the programming First would have perhaps killed Mercier or Azem upon first sight. However all that happened was his mechanical body shut down. Though this was something of a failure, Mercier promised to solve the problem but thought it would take time. Azem though presented a possible solution and had his own doctors attempt the same brainwashing technique that had been so successful on Mercier. Progress was slow for the hybrid human/machine was far more resilient to the drugs and after several months all the doctors had managed was to remove First’s human memories. They could not however remove First’s human drives and reasoning. Though First had no idea who or what he was he somehow knew that Azem and those that served him were wrong and needed to be stopped. This was another setback and when the doctors suggested they never be able to make First loyal, Azem grew impatient. He looked for outside help and found it in Janice Langham (who like Mercier would be forced to co-operate and later become the creator/leader of the Raiders). Before Langham arrived Mercier placed First in suspended animation since the cyborg had tried on more than one occasion to be aggressive to the scientist. It was therefore easier to shut him down and wait for Langham’s solution to become available to solve the problem. Whilst in “storage” the rebels opposing Azem’s rule heard the dictator was building a “super soldier”. To prevent that from happening they mounted a daring raid and were successful in stealing First’s pod. Upon getting back to their base the rebels considered the idea of getting the cyborg to work for them. However without Mercier’s access codes they could not wake First from his hibernation mode. Unable to use First to their advantage the rebels considered simply destroying the cyborg but their leader decided that they should keep the unit secure until they found a way of breaking Mercier’s encryption. Years would pass inside the pod for First during which Azem with Mercier and Langham’s help would succeed in building a small cyborg army. Whilst Mercier had been brainwashed, Langham had only co-operated because she was told Azem had her daughter. Only when Azem revealed that her daughter had co-operated willingly out of hatred for her mother did Langham realised she had been duped. At this point Azem had his guards escort Langham away and subject the scientist to her own mind reprogramming machine. Langham though suspected that this might happen and so had made sure she could not be altered. She therefore faked the fact she had been changed to become a loyal servant. In keeping this a secret Langham had to allow Mercier to turn her into a cyborg. Biding her time Langham waited to get her revenge and when that came she became the one to kill Azem and his regime after first taking care of Mercier. During the battle in the palace Langham in her rage accidentally killed her own daughter and this caused her to lose her sanity. She took the other cyborgs and formed the violent mercenary unit known as the Raiders which she used to attack her supposed enemies. With Langham gone the rebel forces seized their opportunity to take power. The country then went into a period of continual instability as rival factions then began fighting each other. Always aware that such conflicts could spill over into neighbouring countries, CLEA elected to place agents undercover to monitor the ongoing situation. It was one of these agents that learned of the existence of First. Having seen the Raiders cause so much trouble in the civilised world CLEA thought that the last thing the world needed would be one of Polvania’s factions to activate another “Raider” and set it loose on the world. Thought some Raiders had broken free of Langham’s control and fought for justice there was no guarantee that First could do the same. CLEA top brass therefore thought the best solution would be to remove the problem altogether. The problem for CLEA though was Polvania did not recognise the organisation during Azem’s time and those in power since took the same view. To take a direct action and get caught would at best lead to a political incident and at worst get agents killed for acting as “spies”. To get around the politics CLEA therefore turned to the Knight’s Forge. Since the organisation stole tech from villains to prevent such people having an advantage over those that fought for justice the Knight’s Forge seemed ideal for the job. Aware that they were being used by CLEA but recognising the danger First presented, the Forge did as asked and were successful in stealing the prototype cyborg. Though CLEA was keen the unit should remain shut down when the close associates of the Forge, Ring of Steel learned about First they considered leaving the cyborg in suspended animation was wrong. Most of the group had in some way been transformed against their will and forced to act against their own desires in the past and they believed First needed to at least be given a chance of freedom. Breaking past Mercier’s encryption took time but the combined talents of CLARA, Agent Alpha and Hawk succeeded. Once First awoke apart from being confused he did not present the danger that he was supposed to be. He still had no memories but a strong desire to do what was right. The others explained what had happened during his long sleep and he learned for the first time that Azem had been killed and so any hope of revenge was long gone. First also learned of the Raiders and the work the Ring of Steel did and became intrigued. Unable to return to his old life due to the fact he had been “changed” and more importantly had no recollection of what his old life was, First felt that the only way to give himself a purpose was by helping those that had given his freedom. However before formerly joining the Ring of Steel he decided he did not want to keep using the name “First”. Being, arguably the precursor of the Raiders and the least “organic” of all the cyborgs, First had heard his body armour being liked to that of a medieval knight. Working on this idea he decided to call himself Galahad because that at least sounded a lot better to him and everyone else than “First”. In time DNA tests on Galahad's body would enable the team to discover that he was once a mercenary and his real name was Jayden Miller. However since he remembered nothing of that life he saw little point in visiting the past and learning anything more since as far as he was concerned, Mr Miller was dead.