Private Clone Procurement for the Ashlan Crusade

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

Location: facility on Maanan
Tags: Taa Nul

Isla looked down at the endless sea of Maanan below her as she waited on a balcony, the open spaces stirred up ferocious winds, but for someone accustomed to being in an environmentally controlled starship most of her time, the feeling of real weather was quite the rush on her skin.

After a short while an attendant came to her and informed her that the Kaminoans were ready to see her. It felt like years since she had been to a place like this, and truth be told it had been too long. She had grown up in a similar facility and as she became older she took a keen interest is the development of other modified children. This was different though, she was grown from an improved version of her parents own DNA, this was a factory producing identical humans from a strict template.

As she entered the facility she straightened her attire and opened her holo, having one final check over her details for the day. It was going to be an interesting one, the Kaminoans were as dedicated to their genetic purity as the Ashlans to their faith.

 

[Taa Nul]

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Taa had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Admiral Draelix. Finally, a major client interested in acquiring what he had to offer, he'd thought to himself. When Isla made her way inside the facility, which very much felt very Kaminoan, Taa was there waiting for her, as well as a full platoon of Clone Troopers stood proudly in parade formation in their shiny, white suits of Phase II armor. Taa politely bowed his head. "Admiral Isla. I bid you welcome to our facility. I was so pleased to hear you had an interest in paying our operations here a visit. I'm told you may be interested in acquiring an army of our magnificent soldiers?", he said politely, before gesturing for her to walk with him while they talked, strolling through the vast facility.

As they moved through the glistening white corridors and laborotories, they eventually found themselves in one of the vast cloning chambers, where thousands of clones were already gestating. "Our methods have advanced greatly since the days of the Clone Wars. Our clones are birthed from their vats as full adults, all skills already programmed into their minds due to our advanced flash memory techniques. After which, they spend six months training and drilling. You will find they are VERY capable military personnel. And they are also not weakened by rapid aging like the original Fett clones. A true marvel of our science."

Isla Draellix-Kobitana

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: facility on Maanan
Tags: Taa Nul

"It it a pleasure to meet in person finally" smiled Isla politely, "you facility is impressive." She walked with him and they made some small talk together until they came to the gestation chamber. Isla looked through the window, even though she knew what to expect, it still came as a suprise to see that face staring back at her. The clone armies of the Republic were considered some of the finest soldiers in history and many books had been written on their exploits and their techniques, even after they degenerated into to the imperial storm trooper corps.

"How close is this DNA to the original, if my history is correct, the original was a mandalorian bounty hunter?" She asked, genuinely interested. She had so many questions, on a personal level and also on a professional level. "How much have you altered them, I have seen that you openly use some kind of chip to modify their behaviour, but are they otherwise human?"

From Islas own past she had learned a lot about cloning and genetic modification and the subject fascinated her, the lengths that you could go to to change a body. But she didn't want superhuman genetic anomalies, one mistake the original Republic made that caused the empire all kinds of headaches, is not planning for integration into society. Isla did not want and army of slaves to be treated as assets, she wanted an army of viable humans that could become part of their civilisation once they had served their military purpose. And hopefully, her host, Kaminoans known for the attention to detail, will have read this in her notes.

"We have a lot to discuss, I would love to actually meet some of the troopers and interact with them, human to human."

 

[Taa Nul]

"The samples were taken from Fett clones transported to this present time due to hyperspace mishaps. As such, they are identical to the original Fett template. Our science has progressed far enough that taking a sample from cloned DNA has not posed any issues, degredation wise. And they do indeed possess control chips to ensure loyalty, but rest assured there is no Order 66 protocal or anything like that. The programming of said chips can infact be modified per your request. And unlike my forebears, I do encourage some independence amongst our clones to help foster cameraderie and good morale. The Jedi of old encouraged a great amount of such, so we felt it prudent to replicate such methods to ensure our clones are not merely mindless drones.", Taa said with a confident nod of his head, still guiding her through the facility.

They eventually reached a large mess hall, where various clones were enjoying their meals and quite casually conversing about their training and other facets of their individual days. To someone not Kaminoan, it might prove rather odd to see so many identical faces in the same room together, at least at first. A pair of ARC Troopers who'd just finished their food approached Taa and his guest, politely nodding. "Hello, Doctor Nul. Who's your new friend?", one of them asked, quite casually. Taa smiled slightly. "Ahh, ARC Trooper Rictor. This is Admiral Draellix, of the Ashlan Crusade. She's come to inquire about acquiring the skill of you and your brothers for their noble efforts against the Sith and their allies.", Taa said, casually addressing him by his chosen name rather than his assigned number. A degree of familiarity, it seemed. Rictor nodded, smiling. "Ahh! Welcome to Manaan, Admiral. Let me personally say, you won't finer soldiers anywhere else in the galaxy. Me and the boys are trained to fight whatever we need to. Sith. Draelvasier. Clankers. Doesn't make much difference to us.", he said with a nod.

Isla Draellix-Kobitana

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

​

Location: facility on Maanan
Tags: Taa Nul

"That is good trooper, your pride in you brothers is great thing to hear." She replied, smiling at the man in front of her, she was happy to hear the doctor using the soldiers name instead of a reference number "ARC? That is your term for elite troopers isn't it? Improved training and aggression, enhanced independence?"

She turned to Tul, "The changes you have described are certainly of interest to me, I take it the standard troopers also have the level of pride and self perception shown by this trooper?" She was careful to ensure her body language showed that she viewed the clone next to her that she viewed him as a person rather than a product to be discussed casually. She made short notes as they spoke, updating her own data pad.

"The levels of behavioural control i require would be minimal for the most part, an instilled sense of hierarchy, and minor loyalty enhancements are enough, blind loyalty and an unwillingness to question orders is dangerous." A good leader would be followed by her troops without them being forced, and orders not being questioned could easily make you beleive you are always correct.

Once they move down the corridor away from the ears of the clones Isla spoke again, "Obviously my low level of behavioural control increases the risk of betrayal, theoretically they should still be more loyal than my current marines, but I would like to discuss contingency orders. Nothing that would harm their health, but more just a few safeguards. For the time being at least, your clones will likely outnumber the rest of the Ashlan military significantly."

 

[Taa Nul]

Taa gently nodded his head, beckoning Isla to continue following him on their tour through the vast facilities, the duo of ARCs following behind them. "Of course, of course. This is all easily done. Contingency orders are more than a reasonable request. Though I will say, our clones are immensely superior to droids and recruited personnel. They are bred for military service. You will not find any finer soldiers elsewhere in the galaxy, as I stated before. They are perfect warriors.", Taa said rather proudly.

As they continued walking, they passed through various training areas, where Clone troopers and other cloned personnel were honing their skills and practicing. Infantry, naval personnel and many other specialties were on display. "When you purchase a cloned military from Kamigen, we see to it they come fully pre-equipped with weapons, armaments, vehicles and ships. We will happily also provide resupplying of such necessary war material at more than reasonable price, due to our generous arrangements with various manufacturers."

Isla Draellix-Kobitana

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

​

Location: facility on Maanan
Tags: Taa Nul
Isla smiled as she watched the rows of clones being put through their paces, it was something that had always drawn her to the military, the discipline and moulding of people into warriors.

"I understand what you mean, your clones seem of exceptional quality, myself I value some of the intangibles provided by a recruited force, it makes the army part of the populous rather than risking creating a them and us situation, so my intention is an integrated force, once we start capturing more heavily populated worlds."

She handed Taa a data slate with a list of preexisting equipment on it "I would love to see some technical information on the equipment you are suggesting, this is a list of what we currently have in our armory," it was mostly starships, transports and basic personal armaments "as you can see, we have plenty of ships and starfighters, but not enough personnel, and our ground equipment is still in its infancy, so primarily I would be looking at infantry equipment and support vehicles."

Her technicians had already compiled records of the combat characteristics of existing Ashlan equipment and vehicles for addition to the clone flash training schedules. This was classified information but as the Kaminoans were famed for their discretion, she had authorisation to share.

She continued on her tour, watching closely the clones around her, trying to get a good feel for their capabilities. She expressed her interest at watching some of the performance trials at some point.

 

[Taa Nul]

Taa nodded at one of his Kaminoan assistants who'd been following the duo, who handed a datapad with the relevent tech manifest to the Admiral. "Our equipment is produced at a high quality and uses time tested, efficient designs. Clone armor is perfectly formed for their physiques, given they all share the same measurements. It is far superior to whatever the Ashlan Crusade can presently produce with it's limited production capabilities. No offense intended, of course. Buying a military from us means it will come full equipped and armed, and we can negotiate contracts to ensure the continual supply of military equipment and ships, ecetera."

The group eventually reached one of the facility's vast training areas, where numerous Clone squads in training were undergoing realistic exercises against specially programmed Battle Droids and holographic organic foes. One training arena seemed to have the Clones going up against expensive training droids built to replicate combat with an armed Jedi or Sith opponent, wielding training lightsabers. "We ensure our Clones are trained to fight a wide variety of opponents depending on the individual needs of our clientele, force sensitive or otherwise. Such training is handled by our trainers, a mixture of experienced Mandalorian warriors, as well as some of the galaxy's top bounty hunters and mercenaries. We have even begun live fire exercises against cloned feral Draelvasier made from samples taken from dead Bryn'adul troops. Those tests do have a.....mortality rate for our clones, but they know the risk and the result is troops better equipped to face Bryn'adul in combat when the time comes."

Isla Draellix-Kobitana

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: facility on Maanan
Tags: Taa Nul

Isla briefly skimmed the tech manifest, it was well laid out, and easy to digest. She smiled at the Kaminoans comments, taking now offence, the Crusade was still in its infancy and had grown faster than it could produce armaments, every death weighing heavily on their resources.

"Like I said, we have sufficient space assets, ships are easy to build as long as you can get a space port to built them, which our contractor has. Its the crew inside that we dearly need. And ground assets, well the army has only recently been added to my portfolio, so that is in a sorry state relying on the old stock from the Sons of Ession."

She looked more closely at one of the clones, the armour was impressive, as was the man inside it. "I have heard about the exploits of the progenitors of your lines and I am very excited."

She did more sums, "we will obviously need to make a smaller order, before we commit to an entire army to ensure they fit our needs, something along these lines." She swiped and a procurement document appeared on Nul's screen. It was for around a quarter of a million clones and associated transports, ground units and gear.

"I would then like to see how they perform before potentially increasing that above a million and beyond."

She gave him time to read the order sheet and understand exactly what was requested at this time.

"regards," and she paused "contingency orders. This is a list of what I would like, it goes without saying that this is highly sensitive."

Most of orders were very standard, return home stand down, fall back to base. There was a few that were more specific, such as orders around members of the Ashlan Crusade falling to the Dark Side, and several of them gave failsafes to specific named individuals in the Ashlan Council such as Isla herself. Thankfully though, very few of them mentioned anything like wholesale death, with the main sanctions relating to capture and returning for trial.