(At 5,000 wrds of this thread Kalzon III, a made-up and hidden planet on the egde of TRS space, will belong to the Swarm. BHG will be removing certian assets from the planet)



"Cloning: The mere mention of the word in the Imperial era brings to mind terrible images of death and destruction by huge armies of unstoppable clones. For centuries it was known that cloning was possible. Once cloning of animals and creatures was not uncommon, and there were stories of wealthy individuals using clone bodies and organs to greatly extend their life span. However, as with all technology, cloning has its own terrible dark side. Many would use it to bring forth armies of darkness to terrorize and despoil the galaxy.

Extremely hard to find now, the parts and components used in the cloning process are carefully controlled by the Empire's military and intelligence sectors. The vats require huge and constant amounts of power, requiring the use of surge controllers and back-up generators, not to mention the extremely controlled environment which the clones to be are grown in. Temperature must remain at a constant 50 degrees, no more and no less, while the clones are kept suspended in a nutrient-rich bath -- a sort of artificial amniotic fluid -- until ready.

Gravity was also an important factor in the growth of the clones. Lighter gravity grew thinner, more fragile clones, that were more suited to piloting a starcraft, while heavier gravity was required to grow a clone of exceptional strength. Powerful computers and a small army of droid attendants were used to ensure that all the clones grew within the rigidly defined parameters required. Entire complexes were built by the Clone Masters specifically for the purpose of growing clones, while other complexes would provide the power, chemicals and parts needed.

Modern technology allows clones to be grown to physical adulthood in just a few weeks. However, producing clones that are mentally stable requires years: usually three to five, and one at the very minimum. There were several incidents in the last days of the Clone Wars when clone batches that were not yet "ripe" were pressed into service by their desperate masters. These insane clones ran amok, destroying friend and foe indiscriminantly.

The stability issue was actually due to how the clone mind interacted with the Force. If the body was grown too fast, the mind didn't have time to "adjust" (like a normal mind does) and went crazy. The breakthrough was to use ysalamiri around the vats, removing the interaction between the mind and the Force and thus the instability associated with quick growth."

- by Dr. Ifke Pebf. From "A Seminar of Old" given on Coruscant before a Committee on Clone Technology



Some of the best information in the galaxy came from the most unlikely sources imaginable. Dank tapcafs and hole-in-the-wall cantinas could tell the inquisitive ear more then full access to Imperial Holo-Nets could... they could also be the result of loosing said ear.

Two figures sat hunched over a grungy table in an even more grungy booth of the most grungy tapcaf the Outer-Rim could boast. Grunge was the atmosphere here.

One, an old salt of a space-captain, clutched tight a bottle of lum in a hooked appendage while the other, a moderately dressed spacer-type, easily sipped on a glass of coffine. Though both were of drastically different race, age and, past, they had one thing in common.

It was plain to see they had been sitting together a long while before the old-space-salt spoke. An age old Krevaaki who had long ago lost an eye to the dangers of the void, he spoke in a rasping grumble.

"Kalzon III... I 'meber like t'was yesder'day."

The younger man remained silent. He knew the sort and, once you got them talking, which could take long enough, it was just a matter of sitting back and listening.

...

It was early morning before the story was concluded and the younger man exited the tapcaf but, it had been worth the wait. Worth the irrelevant and bad grammar. The facts were still intact and all that was left would be to put them in order and work backwards but, the information was there. It confirmed the rumors the young man had been investigating for the past months.

Kalzon III did exist and more then just existing, the stories about it were true. There had been a secret cloning facility there and it had not been scrapped with the demise of the Imperial cadre. What had happened was still a mystery but he now had positive confirmation of its existence, he had something to move on.

More research was required, of course, as was often the case in these matters. (Only haphazard heroes went blundering around the galaxy without a map) The planet would still need to be located and, even there he already had more then a clue to go on. So much more...

Information was, and always would be, invaluable. Priceless.

The young man stopped some ways from the tapcaf, pausing in his thoughts, to retrieve a small and discrete recording/comm device.

"Did you get all of that?", he spoke into the diminutive unit.

"Aye Sir," it chirped back at him.

With a grin he spoke the words he had waited so long to. "Ready the troops. We're moving."

Beff Pike continued down the street in silence, all the while playing his mind over the information and his fingers over an ancient looking battery unit marked, 'Spaarti ENG. CORPS.'

The Planet Myrkyr-Nightfall

Under cover of darkness, the relentless hordes of Retakkenari drone workers descended on the jungles of Myrkyr. Thier aim was not to harvest the brain tissue of any humanoid, but to harvest the valuable tree dwelling creatures called Ysalamiri. Thier potent force repelling abilities would prove invaluable in thier coming work.

K'taruuk and his men had located the perfect valley in which to begin harvesting the creatures. Months of research resulted in special modifications to thier tractor beams, allowing them to almost rip the trees from thier roots in the forest floor and bring them to rest in the ships cargo bays, for if they removed the Ysalamiri manually, without due care, they would kill the animal as it was known that a Ysalamiri's claws decend deep into the branches of a tree, to draw essential nutrients from deep within.

For now, they would harvest as many as they could, and return them to the labs on the homeworld for further research and removal.


Two Aegis cruisers hovered over high above the valley, thier modified tractor beams engaged at full capacity for the widest yeild possible. A faint rumble eminated from the ground, as if it was groaning in pain at having its very fibres ripped from its skin. The planetary scale tug-o-war had begun, and the planet was losing. Slowly but surely the trees tore away from thier roots, and began to lift into the sky towards the swarm craft leaving behind craters of earth and clouds of dust.

They were working to a tight schedule. They only had fourteen hours to extract as many of the creatures as possible, then head out to deliver thier quarry at the rendevouz. Time was of the essence.



.......................


14 hours later, harvest deadline


Behind the cruisers lay a scene of violent destruction. The harvesting had placed a scar onto the valley floor, where the roots of the very earth had been ripped senslessly from thier cradle into the sky. The deadline had been reached, and almost two hundred thousand of the creatures had been accounted for, almost two thirds of which had actually survived the removal process . . .that was however, more than enough.

The President had returned to Mandalore days earlier. Two months he'd been gone investigating the rumor of a lost cloning-facility, two months that had planned to be two weeks. On the plus side, it allowed for extra preparation.

In the first hours of his arrival he'd seen none but his top security staff, then vanished into the Nexus at Guildstowne for hours more. The time was put to good use, Beff had wanted to contact his partners in the venture... He'd already left them waiting long enough.

It was not until well into the next day that Beff made public appearances in his Presidential (a word he fancied) capacity. For the most part of that day he remained in meetings with his board of advisors, agents and so on... Despite always keeping a close eye on the Guild, no matter how far away, Beff was always amazed by the sheer amount of time required to catch up to things after his long sojourns away from Guildstowne.

Hours more in the next evening were set aside to double check his lists for the upcoming journey into the wild regions of space. A journey he had undertaken before, but one he'd never do without a guide.

Piles and crates of supplies filled three of spaceports largest cargo areas. Everything for every imaginable contingency had been prepared and packed for the voyage, plus a number of gifts for their guides into the wilds.

Beff had also prepared a handpicked staff to come along. The guides would be providing most of the raw man (or not) power, and aside from providing the raw fuel (or man) power, he'd need enough people loyal to him to be safe.

Looking over the total manifests for this trip was like looking at the lay out for a hostile expedition into uncharted space. Machines, weapons, explosives, mercenaries and hunters... Sinister advisors and skilled agents. There were droids in the mix, along with countless sorts of equipment for countless sorts of tasks.

What an expedition this would be...



Kalzon III had played host to a cloning facility back during the reign of the Imperial Regiment, the nature of its functions were so top secret that its location in the wild regions was kept hidden from all but the top staff involved. Top staff who had been playing their own game of subterfuge against a deadly tyrant. So, it came as no surprise that its secrets were lost with the lives that controlled it when the tyrant got wind of such traitorous actions.

Putting the puzzle together was a mountainous task in and of itself.

Little more then rumors from old spacers and occasional Chiss or Ssi-Ruu explorers existed about the place, the few facts that there were hardly left a solid base to advance on.

The rumors said that the Kalzon system was a place of deadly hazard rivaled only by the Maw. Few had ventured near the system and survived, but there was never any confirmation as to the nature of the attacks.

Worse yet, the system didn't exist on any starmaps of the general galaxy. No Imperial maps, No Chiss maps nor any Ssi-Ruu maps left any trace of the system but, there was another... some who might.

Kalzon III herself was spoken of as being a dense jungle planet with two major continents and occasional open savannah. Kalzon III was also highly regarded as a place of nightmarish creations and hideous dangers, the sort that the Core worlds hardly know. Somehow, despite the natural dangers, a rogue Imperial cadre had established a top secret cloning facility there.

Even the nature of the facility had been argued in Outer-Rim cantinas in the late hours of a spacers life. There did seem to be, however, two commonly agreed upon possibilities

As the ships sped at high velocity through hyperspace, K'taruuk sauntered through the converted harvest rooms of his ships. Each room, at one time, the setting for the gruesome torture, and eventual processing of humanoids, were now littered with the foliage of Myrkyr's surface.

His men were hard at work, removing the valuable Ysalamiri creatures from the branches. A process which, if not done with the appropriate care and attention, could kill the animal. He made sure that every specimen was taken care of.

The process first involved heavily sedating the creatures, then a lengthy surgical process to remove thier deep rooted talons from the bark of the trees. Each animal had to be weaned off the tree's nutriants with specially made supliments intended to maintain its survival through the process.

So far everything was going according to plan.


In three days they would reach the world of Mandalore to rendevouz with the other project investors, and move into phase three.



....................................



Mandalore


The two vessels crept slowly into the system. Its gleaming star bouncing off thier black hulls back into the darkness as they came to a halt over the planet.


"Activate the beacon. Let our friends know we're here."

The Hangar was buzzing with activity. Loadlifters and techs hustled about the bay-floor doing last checks on the equipment that was to be brought along, then loading it aboard the shuttles that would ferry the supplies to the newly arrived Swarm ships.

Bounty Hunter, the Guilds flagship, was also being readied for the trip, her hand-picked crew going over final procedure checks. Above Mandalore the spacelanes were more frantic with action they usual. It would be a mission, an adventure, to remember.

While Beff was partially familiar with the Swarm, he'd never actually encountered them in person, so this would be a treat. Waiting in one of Spike Towers conference rooms, Pike was about to have his fist meeting with the Swarm mastermind, if such an understanding were possible... He only hoped he'd be able to pronounce the name...

The loud clanking of K'taruuk's talons on the durasteel deckplates echoed audibly throughout the corridor outside the conference room.

Behind him strode two gigantic Irakashee warriors, each one's armour adorned in the new crest of the Retakkenari Protectorite, the emblem of K'taruuk's new order. For this particular meeting he'd opted for a downsized entourage. Downsized by his standards anyway. Two massive soldiers were more than enough for this occasion. In front of the alien procession strode the smalles of ushers. He was a tiny diminuitive man, less than five feet in height and was dressed an even smaller uniform.

"Right this way sir." He said, while passing off the most unsettled look at K'taruuk. As he grunted back the door hissed open and K'taruuk walked in, he and his officers had to duck in order to avoid smashing thier head's off the low door frames.

K'taruuk brushed aside his long all-concealing cloak and brought his long scaley arms up to his chest, bringing them together in a universal greeting of the swarm.


"Greeting's Mr Pike, It is certainly . . .an honour to meet such a man as yourself."

The meeting had gone exactly as Beff had anticipated, yet he found it hard to shake the impression their leader had left upon him. Like something on the edge of savagry with a powerfully evolved intellect, the Retakkenari were one of those species predisposed to a brutal nature. They were the sort of folk Beff enjoyed working with on rare occasion.

It had been nothing more then a formality, a conferance for the leaders of each group to finally sit down, face-to-face. Neither spoke any more then was needed, it was clear that both were creatures of conviction and determination.

Functioning as guides on this mission, the Retakkenari would lead the BHG expidition through some of the more untamed regions of space where it was rumored the planet was located. More then rumors, they had proof. In exchange for their help, the Swarm would reap the rewards and profits of the venture and would also provide the base DNA samples for the first batch.

Everything had been discolsed to the Swarm, Beff thought it wise not to provoke the species, not when so much depended on them. They knew everything that had been gathered on the location, everything without question. He had even disclosed some of his private hopes to his partner. Hopes of more then cloning facilities... but also those predisposed to genetic manipluation.

So, with the formalities out of the way, they had made ready to leave.

Supplies and 'man'power were loaded aboard the Swarm ships, but the real question had been the compatibilities of both crews. A question that had been soon answerd. It came even before the ships could depart.

With everything stowed and quarters assigned, a small disagreement had broken out between a trio of Barbel in Beffs' crew and one of the Swarm crew. The resulting chaos had left two of the three Barabel in serious condition while hardly grazing the scales of their opponents.

After making quick substitutions in his cadre, Beff allowed his wounded men to serve as an example of the tone this voyage would be taking and, the severity of failure. This was a major undertaking, not something to be taken lightly.

The fray had hardly concered those running the mission, Beff of his reptilian partner but, both knew it would help smooth intercrew relations during the trip.

With that safely behind them, they small fleet of ships had departed Mandalorian space with Beff in the company of the command crew aboard the ship of their flagship.

It was a promising start.

(Sorry, not in position to save... Will edit later. Ignore horrible gramatical errors)

K'taruuk stood, as he found himself now and then, staring out through the transparisteel bridge viewport, onto the hyperspace tunnel ahead, in deep thought. His four-fingered claw rested up on the glass, itching to reach out, far beyond the thick hull . . .reach out into the dark and pluck a star from it's mantle, and clutch it for dear life, hanging on to all it's power, making it his own.

Long ago, in his early years he would often venture from his maturation chamber down within the bowels of Retak, and out onto the surface at night to see the great backlit canopy, pinholed with stars. The surface conditions on Retak meant that he could only remain out for a short period . . .but those fleeting moments out sitting just south of the great mercury glaciers, time itself stopped for him, almost to the point where he felt it would never end, and he could take the blanket of stars and wrap himself up, nestling in thier energy.

Those days were long gone, but every now and then he would stand, talons pressed against the plexiglass on the Bridge of a starship, and gaze out into the great beyond, contemplating and dreaming. His mind would drift from thoughts of conflict and war, hate and anger, and be relpaced with a sort of higher serenity, in essence, calming the beast inside.

On one of those nights, K'taruuk stumbled upon a great fissure in a glacier, and decided to explore. He was only sixty three at the time, and an adolescant by all accounts who's sense of adventure set him out from the rest of the swarm, a trait which would later garner the attention of the Hive Imperius Keldanod, and grant K'taruuk his position as High Eldar.
So, braving the freezing temperatures and noxious gases of the outer surface, K'taruuk descended into the fissure alone, in one hazardous effort to satisfy his sense of curiosity. However, halfway in his descent, the canyon walls proved less stable than he'd hoped, and his climbing aparatus gave way, sending him hurtling downwards.

During his fall, K'taruuk became stranded on a ledge, halfway down the steep precipice, in the freezing cold night. His breathing equipment would last him for little less than two days, and after that, his lungs had to make do on thier own, battling against the progressively toxic fumes eradiating from the frozen mercury glacier.

The young Retakkenari would stay, stranded on his perch in the ice canyon for nearly five days before he was discovered by a search party. The hive shamens and medics were utterly perplexed at how a Retakkenari, let alone one not fully matured, could survive for five full days on the outer surface and in the freezing conditions.

To K'taruuk the answer was simple. Deep down in that week in the canyon, he'd lived by staring at the stars above, drawing on thier energy, keeping him from freezing and succumbing to the deadly gases. One week after he'd recovered, he was called upon by Imperius Keldanod, who showed the young Retakkenari exactly what he was capable of. He showed him the force, and showed him that what he did in the canyon was no feat of his own will, but of the mystic energy field which he'd drawn upon.

Seeing the obviously glimmering potential in K'taruuk, the Imperius promoted the youngling to the Eldar Council, the elite, but now defunct unit that oversaw the day to day hive activities, the most trusted of all swarm subjects.


So to this day, K'taruuk has prayed to the stars, feeding on thier energies and inturn, giving them his devotion, his reverance.

Day seven.

The end of the first standard week had passed and still no signs of Kalzon III. It didn't bother Beff perticularly but, some of the crew were gettin ansty... Both among the BHG group and the Swarm's soldiers. Things would only get worse before they got better.

They were days beyond the fringes of Swarm space and moving further from known space with each passing moment. Soon, the real trials and adventures would begin.

It was early in the hours of the second shift that Beff sat down to discuss things with KTaruuk, the Swarm leader. They stayed in private conferance for hours.

The dangers had to be known.

So far beyond the galactic core, all manner of danger and unknown wonder exist in relative obscurity. Whole species had been seperated from the galaxy at large by the dangers of the space they were travelling through.

Spacial rifts, giant vacuume breathing creatures, lost bands of raiders and things even harder to imagine... All of these would be a very real concerns to be faced and, that was to say nothing of the hazards of Kalzon III.

Still in meeting, KTaruuk and Beff had both been caught off gaurd by the sudden blaring of emergency sirens and the blinking of red hazard lighting.

Ahh. Perhaps the first danger had arrived...

The pair bounded onto the busy bridge and were instantly swept into the rumble of panic in the air, thier eyes being drawn to the central viewport in a state of suspended awe.

Swirling, or more likely slithering towards them at breakneck speed was a pack of space slugs.


"Shields?!" Yelled K'taruuk.


"How many of those things are there?"

"I count seventeen sir, each roughly one thousand m. . .meters in length." Stuttered the crew member.

"Our weapon's have little chance of penetrating thier hides, we'll have to outmanouver them. Initiate evasive manouvers, full speed!!."


The cruiser rocked as it veered off course in an attempt to steer away from the massive slithering beasts.

"Turn the fleet around, get us out of here." Yelled Beff at an already terrified helmsman as he fidgeted wildly with the controls.

The cruiser, which began at the forefront of the fleet was now, trailing behind with it's engines set in high gear, trying in vain to speed away from the pursuing oversized worms.

"Their closing fast!." Bawled another officer.

"Instruct the other ships to get out of here, jump to lightspeed. There's no sense in them being destroyed as well."


As K'taruuk's order was executed, the looming jaws of the space slug flew towards the cruiser, gaping wide, and enveloping the ship into it's shadowy innards. It's teeth were like the pillars of the senate, strong and firm, piercing into the hull, bite after bite, shorting out the main power systems, as the cruiser disappeared into the belly of the beast.