CyberNomad

The CyberNomads, also known simply as the Nomads, were a nomadic race of Cybermen identified by ArcHivist Hegelia. They had at least two distinct points of origin.

According to Hegelia, one race of CyberNomads was one of the two distinct groups of Cybermen which broke away from the CyberFaction on Planet 14, itself an offshot of the original CyberMondans. Whilst the other group of Cybermen settled on the planet Telos, becoming the CyberTelosians, the CyberNomads travelled the galaxy of Mutter's Spiral, and eventually fought against the Vogans in the Vogan War during the 22nd century, which brought them to the edge of extinction; during the war, the CyberNomads enslaved the planet Agora as a breeding colony to produce a steady supply of humans for conversion during the Vogan War, although they lost control of the planet in 2191. Hegelia, however, believed that a number of CyberNomads survived the Vogan War and found Telos, where they combined their Cyber-Technology with the CyberTelosians hibernating on the planet to form a combined Cyber-subspcies, the CyberNeomorphs. (PROSE: Killing Ground)

Meanwhile, according to the Sixth Doctor, the Cybermen of the "Early" CyberFaction evolved into a race of CyberNomads following the death of the Super Controller at the end of the Great Cyber War; the Sixth Doctor recounted to Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot, following the war's final battle, that the Super Controller's death would leave the Cybermen more susceptible to emotions, such as a desire for revenge. (AUDIO: Last of the Cyberman) At any rate, Cybermen were an example of parallel evolution, meaning that multiple origins for a Cyber-subspecies could all be true, as it was simply a matter of different groups coming to the same end point. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Vulnerabilities
The most notable weakness of the CyberNomads was the element gold, which, being non-corrosive, choked their respiratory systems, a property exploited by the glittergun used during the Cyber-Wars. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen) Gold also blocked their sensors. (PROSE: The Revenge of the Cybermen)

Hierarchy
CyberNomads were typically led by Cyber-Leaders, who were distinguished by black Cyber-helmets. On some occasions, Nomad Cyber-Leaders were accompanied by a standard CyberNomad, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, PROSE: Killing Ground) who served in a similar role to the Cyber-Lieutenants that often accompanied Neomorph (TV: Earthshock et al.) and Isomorph (TV: Silver Nemesis) Cyber-Leaders. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Killing Ground)

Weaponry
The CyberNomads had their weapons built into their Cyber-helmets, which resembled those of the CyberFaction. Like other Cybermen, they had portable cyber-bombs capable of devastating a planet. They also made use of Cybermats, which were made to spread viruses amongst humanoids. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)

Origin
According to the ArcHivist Hegelia, the CyberNomads were the Cybermen who travelled out into Mutter's Spiral from Planet 14, a planet which had been used as a base (PROSE: Killing Ground) by the early CyberFaction (PROSE: Iceberg) and a race of native Cybermen (TV: The Doctor Falls) during numerous attempted invasions of Earth following the destruction of Mondas. (PROSE: Killing Ground) The Cybermen involved in the pursuit of Voga, agreed by many accounts to be CyberNomads, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, et. al) indeed had records of the Doctor from "hundreds of Earth centuries" prior about how he had defeated them, (PROSE: The Revenge of the Cybermen) as the Second Doctor had been a frequent enemy to the Cybermen's conquests. (TV: The Invasion, et. al) Whilst they recongised the Doctor to be a "traditional enemy" of their species, the Cybermen believed him to be a human and thus failed to recongise the Fourth Doctor to be the man who had bested them. (PROSE: The Revenge of the Cybermen)

Later Cybermen managed to confirm the Doctor was in fact a Time Lord and thus capable of changing his appearance, thus realising that the Fourth Doctor and Second Doctor had been different incarnations of the same enemy. (TV: Earthshock) Additionally, the Cybermen were a product of parallel evolution, meaning the "same" Cyber-subspecies could arise from different cultures to the same end result; (TV: The Doctor Falls) agreeing that the CyberNomads had arisen from the early CyberFaction, the Sixth Doctor explained that Cybermen who emerged from the Great Cyber War had endured the destruction of the Super Controller, with that loss leaving them more susceptible to emotions like revenge, (AUDIO: Last of the Cyberman) explaining the somewhat emotional behavior sometimes seen in CyberNomads. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)

Early history
Hegelia suggested that the CyberNomads had spent roughly two hundred years, from around 1990 to 2190, proliferating throughout Mutter's Spiral. (AUDIO: The Cyber Nomads)The Ninth Doctor, accompanied by Rose Tyler, found that a Nomad's Cyber-helmet was among the exhibits on display within Henry van Statten's vault in 2012. (TV: Dalek) Years later, Adam Mitchell used the Nomad Cyber-helmet to send out a sub-ether signal in order to lure out a Time Agent. (COMIC: Mystery Date)

22nd century
By the 2150s, the CyberNomads were involved in the Vogan War with Voga. In order to expand their numbers, the Nomads invaded the human colony Agora and used the threat of total destruction to turn the planet into a self-renewing source of physically healthy humans. For the next few decades, the Nomads returned to Agora every three years to collect 500 ready-to-convert humans. In 2176, the CyberNomads stopped an attempted rebellion on Agora. (PROSE: Killing Ground)

The CyberNomads eventually managed to destroy most of Voga, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen) but not without severely weakening themselves. At this time, the Nomads had more organic components than any other previous model except the original Mondans. They were forced to use a stolen Selachian ship as their ship.

When a small party of CyberNomads came to Agora in 2191, they were destroyed by the Bronze Knights, cybernetic warriors created by the Agorans using Cyber-Technology. The main Cyber-ship came to Agora to destroy the rebellion, but instead it was infiltrated by the Sixth Doctor and flooded with radiation, killing the CyberNomads.

By the end of the 22nd century, the Cybermen were believed to be extinct. In actuality, most of the Cybermen were hibernating on Telos. A few small, isolated groups still existed. (PROSE: Killing Ground)

Later history
During the 2260s, a group of CyberNomads, led by a Cyber-Leader, made an incursion into the Federation universe, where they infiltrated a Federation facility on the planet Aprilia III. They mind-controlled the researchers, making them unemotional and docile. The USS Enterprise was sent to investigate on stardate 3368.5. Captain James T. Kirk, Mister Spock, Doctor Leonard McCoy and Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott travelled to the planet's surface in the shuttlecraft Galileo; they were later interrupted by the Fourth Doctor, who was visiting the planet in his TARDIS. He helped them break the lock and together they infiltrated the facility. There, they discovered the archaeologists under the control of the CyberNomads and tried to free them. A battle ensued and the CyberNomads were destroyed with the Doctor's aid, while the researchers were liberated. (COMIC: Assimilation²)

Following the Cyber-Wars, three centuries after their defeat in the Vogan War, a ship of CyberNomads caught up to Voga, now in orbit around Jupiter. Their attempt to destroy it was defeated due to the involvement of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan. The CyberNomads and their ship were destroyed by the Vogan missile Skystriker. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen) Records of this defeat were consulted by some CyberNeomorphs in 2526. (TV: Earthshock)

During the "Late Expansion Era", the CyberNomads sought to invade the station Poseidon, intending to use it as a beachhead for a later invasion of Ultima Tarsus, only to fall victim to the Void energy sent out by a rogue Type 1 TARDIS. Being driven to proceed in invading the station, the CyberNomads were destroyed when the Tenth Doctor activated Poseidon's self-destruct. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)

Hegelia hypothesised that another group of CyberNomads might have reopened the Telosian tombs and helped to forge the new race of Cybermen, the CyberNeomorphs, which proliferated during the 26th century. (PROSE: Killing Ground)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline where Rassilon gave a colony of Cybermen at the end of the universe the means to conquer all of history, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) a time distortion interrupted a confrontation between the Third Doctor and, resulting in the latter being converted into a CyberNomad. (COMIC: Prologue: The Third Doctor)

Elsewhere, a Nomad Cyber-Leader commanded a CyberIsomorph on Skaro, where the Cybermen had erased the Daleks from history. When the Fifth Doctor and Peri Brown arrived on the planet, the Cyber-Leader identified the Doctor and ordered the CyberIsomorph to kill him. (COMIC: Prologue: The Fifth Doctor)

Ultimately, this timeline was negated when, on Gallifrey at the end of the universe, the Twelfth Doctor and a betrayed Rassilon used the regeneration energy within the Eye of Harmony to regenerate the universe. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Other references
The Nomad Cyber-Leader that led the Cybermen's attack on Nerva Beacon was among the foes whom the Fourth Doctor saw call out to him in his mind shortly before his fall from the Pharos Project radio telescope, which resulted in his regeneration to his next incarnation. (TV: Logopolis)

Behind the scenes
The term "CyberNomad", used in PROSE: Killing Ground has its origins in the non-narrative encyclopaedic book, Doctor Who: Cybermen, by David Banks. Among the terms and theories invented by Banks to explain the variations in the Cyberman, "CyberNomad" referred to the Cybermen originally seen in TV: Revenge of the Cybermen.

The CyberNomads were groups of Cybermen that split off from the CyberFaction in the Second Cyberman Divergence some time after the destruction of Mondas. While the CyberFaction stayed within the Sol system, the CyberNomads ventured out into the Mutter's Spiral. (REF: Doctor Who: Cybermen)

Sometime before the 26th century, a group of CyberNomads discovered frozen CyberTelosians, resulting in the CyberNeomorphs. (REF: Doctor Who: Cybermen)