Private Meeting on Eve to discuss procurement

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: Eve, capital of Scintilla
Tags: Mellifluous Magenta

Isla Draellix looked forward to this meeting with nervous anticipation, but she would not let any nerves show on her well maintained disposition, she had made sure to do her research so was well prepared. The Divine Purpose was stationed outside of the defensive cordon of this massive station and she had chosen to make the last leg of the journey in a shuttle.

She had landed at the Eve sphere and made her way along a long gantry towards another waiting craft. This whole place was a marvel, the engineer in her wondered how the forces were distributed from the heavy spheres around the relatively thin transit tubes.

Looking at her escort, two specially polished and guilded Praetorian droids she wondered whether they gave the right impression, this was a mission of peace, but any high ranking official would be foolish not to bring some form of honour guard.

The native shuttle picked up her party, her, the two droids and three beurocrats. It was quite the view from the shuttle, it was hard to imagine that all this was inside and artificial bubble floating in deep space.

Looking at her itinerary, she would meet with the company head, who should already have the basic information of her request, there would be a short meeting and then dinner. She hoped to wrap this all up in in trip, after all, the front needed her.

"Defence Minister Draellix" said one of the shuttle attendants, "if you would like to accompany us, we are about to land at the First United facility"

She nodded and smiled at them, approaching the shuttle door, she couldn't help but be curious whether any of these guards and antendents were clones themselves. Probably not she thought.

Isla entered the facility and was led to the office of Chora Asichi. There she was quickly ushered in to the empty office commanding striking views across the city.​

 

[Chora Asichi]

Location: Meeting Office, First United Astral Engineering Biosynthesis Facility, Eve - The Scintilla
Attire: Dress of Salvation - Appearance
Equipment: Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield - Hidden Within Outfit (Deactivated) │ G1 OmniLink - UltraDeluxe

Breathe.

Chora Asichi had been preparing for the meeting with the vaunted Ashlan Admiral for days, knowing that there was potential for another big contract, which her company needed with the recent fading of the Agents of Chaos from galactic prominence. The production of EVCs for the Wild Hunt and the Armada had been drastically scaled down, though so far, Chora had nevertheless managed to maintain a decent stream of revenue in signing contracts with the Eternal Empire and fulfilling discreet orders for the Brotherhood of the Maw and the now-defunct Sith Empire.

In accepting those contracts, although extremely classified and hidden beneath layers of third-party vendors, Chora had known that she was putting herself and her company at risk. While her company’s extensive cloning operations were quite public, with so much constant, seemingly never ending war, producing legions of sapient beings intended to fight and die in endless wars wasn’t so “evil” as it was once considered to be. After all, there was a finite supply of young, hale, and willing recruits, which had been demonstrated during the long Third Imperial Civil War, as the Sith Empire created their own line of strand-casts out of necessity, having drained their worlds of soldiers. With the Ashlan Crusade emerging from the ruins of the Sith Empire, they were sure to face the same issue, given their own endless wars.

However, the Ashlan Crusade’s reputation as a galactic actor was still largely unknown. For that reason, security was tight, with Chora’s advisors requesting that she wear a hidden personal energy shield device, in addition to an alchemized dress as an additional layer of protection.

Giving herself a final once-over in the mirror, Chora winced as her OmniLink vibrated, indicating the arrival of the Ashlan defense minister. Fortunately, another deep breath cleared her nerves and Chora stepped out from her personal office, through the door to the meeting area.

“Good afternoon Grand Admiral.” The Pantoran began cordially, briefly eying the two towering guard droids accompanying her guest, standing in stark contrast to Chora’s lack of apparent personal guard. “I trust that your journey went well.” She continued, before taking a seat at the table. “Would you like any refreshments before we get started? I believe we have much to discuss over the next hour or two.”

Isla Draellix-Kobitana ​

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: Eve, capital of Scintilla
Tags: Chora Asichi

Isla smiled warmly "Good afternoon Ms Asichi, it is wonderful to finally meet you. Black tea, Deychin, if you have it please"

She noted her host looking at the battle droids, she touched and authorisation code on her wrist pad and the both backed away and out of the room. "Apologies for the droids, the crusade prefer me not to go anywhere without them, fascinating machines, but somewhat conspicous"

She sat looked at the Pantoran, trying to get the measure of her. "Your techniques are very different to those I have encountered before, I am fairly familiar with cloning technology, but your variance system is new to me." Isla had never made any effort to hide that she herself was genetically engineered, and that she had kept a keen interest in other tubers. If Asichi had performed background research, she would know this.

"How genetically unique are they? Are we talking discreet unique individuals or simply minor deviations off of a standard template?"

She had recently concluded negotiations procuring a test batch lf fett clones, they were apparently an improvement on the original kaminoan versions, but were still created in largely the same manner.

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[Chora Asichi]

Location: Meeting Office, First United Astral Engineering Biosynthesis Facility, Eve - The Scintilla
Attire: Dress of Salvation - Appearance
Equipment: Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield - Hidden Within Outfit (Deactivated) │ G1 OmniLink - UltraDeluxe

After a short moment, one of the attendants in the room set a cup of black deychin tea in front of the Grand Admiral and a cup of water for Chora, synthesized from one of the food replicators within the room. Then, with a respectful nod, the attendant departed, leaving the two women to their business, after the battle droids departed as well.

“They seem well designed and I am sure that they serve you well, Admiral.” Chora began with a soft, cordial smile, before pulling a datapad out from a compartment within the table, locking eyes with the defense minister as the woman began to speak. Knowing that the woman was genetically engineered herself, Chora took it as a compliment that an individual with such a deep interest in bioengineering viewed her bio-synthesis techniques as different and novel. While it wasn’t the assurance that Chora needed, it did set her at ease, knowing that her guest already viewed her technologies in such a positive light.

After all, when it came to cloning, it was hard to be original.

“Thank you, Ms. Draellix.” The Pantoran replied, eyes going wide at the compliment. “So the word….variance cloning in a sense, belies what the technique really is. In truth, that terminology was chosen only to make it easier to digest. The subjects that we create are not clones, but rather, to use more proper terms, bio-synthetics or strand-casts.” Chora began. “I should also note that we did...debate calling them biots, but that term was rejected as some kinds of biots utilize both organic and inorganic material, while ours are solely organic.” She paused.

“In a sense, it is easy to...muddle the terms, as there is quite a bit of overlap with each of them. That said, as our subjects are not clones, each one is genetically unique, bearing different and diverse phenotypes. The only ‘templates’ that we use are the donors, of which there are thousands, who contribute their DNA to a pool, which is then spliced from via complex processes, algorithms, and artificial intelligences, to create our subjects.” The Pantoran finished, taking a slight breath as she did.

“Naturally, each of our donors are heavily screened, largely to prevent the intrusion of hybrid DNA and for the detection of deleterious abnormalities. It wouldn’t do for one of our subjects to develop an uninduced cancer a year after they step out of the vat, due to a flaw in their DNA. We guarantee good health for our subjects up until the natural limits of their species’ lifespan, including long-lived races such as Qilin, Aetharians, or Morellians.”

Isla Draellix-Kobitana ​

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: Eve, capital of Scintilla
Tags: Chora Asichi

This was fantastic, Isla thought, already excited by the project but speaking to the knowledgeable and confident pantoran woman enhanced this.

"Your process appeals to me for a number of reasons, firstly, genetically identical soldiers offer a weakness to biological attack." She sipped her tea, perfect, "secondly, genetically individuals would be significantly easier to integrate into society once their military service is complete or should the requirements of the crusade lessen. My history tells me that the Fett clones, cause quite a few headaches and genetic repercussions for society after the clone wars"

She took more tea as she scrolled to the correct section on her own pad, she had specific requirements to discuss for the soldiers.

"So, although I value individuals, physical uniformity is important for a military efficiency perspective. Only the basics, like height, muscle distribution and sex though. Let them have natural hair, skin, eye colour and facial variation." She showed her some concept images of the battle sisters armour that her technicians are working on, She laughed politely, "you might have to humour my focus on the aesthetic specifics, I have found it often undervalued, battles can be won without a shot being fired simply because one side brought soldiers that LOOKED the part"

She continued to discuss the armour and the aesthetics, answering any questions unless they strayed into sensitive military topics.

"Regards the sex, I am interested primarily in female soldiers, but would like to know how your female's physical performace compares to your male's?" She smiled again, looking at the woman in front of her, she had respect for any women in positions of power, "our hearts and minds are more than a match for any male, but physically we are unfortunately on average weaker. I would like to correct that" she was aware it was possible, her own genetic code had improved muscle mass and stamina built in. But on a mass scale it may be more intensive.

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[Chora Asichi]

Location: Meeting Office, First United Astral Engineering Biosynthesis Facility, Eve - The Scintilla
Attire: Dress of Salvation - Appearance
Equipment: Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield - Hidden Within Outfit (Deactivated) │ G1 OmniLink - UltraDeluxe

"Your process appeals to me for a number of reasons, firstly, genetically identical soldiers offer a weakness to biological attack." She sipped her tea, perfect, "secondly, genetically individuals would be significantly easier to integrate into society once their military service is complete or should the requirements of the crusade lessen. My history tells me that the Fett clones, cause quite a few headaches and genetic repercussions for society after the clone wars"

Fett clones.

Chora winced at the thought. Ever since the Clone Wars, the Fett lineage had been continually reproduced by various warlords, factions, and nations, seeking to replicate the legendary prowess of the original Clone Army fielded during the Clone Wars. Even to this day, Fett clones were still being cast into existence by many factions, most recently (that she knew of) by the Silver Jedi Concord in their efforts to fight off the omnicidal Bryn'adûl, then before that the Fett clones produced by the now-defunct Core Imperial Confederation to fill out their Stormtrooper Corps. And yet, those two examples merely only scratched the surface of the true scale of Fett clone production, which was yet still ongoing owing to various ambitious warlords.

However, while the Pantoran despised the fact that Jango Fett was being milked like a cow, she knew why they did it. For one, Fett clones were cheaper than ever, far cheaper than they had been during the first years of the Galactic Empire, their high cost at the time having led to their phasing out in favor of natural-born recruits. Now, they could be produced at a fraction of the cost, owing to numerous advancements in bioengineering which had occurred over the 900 years since the end of the Clone Wars. In addition, the Fett genome had been studied up and down. Thousands of studies had been published on their health and the health of their potential offspring, which fortunately, was almost universally extremely good, even for the now-uncommon “half-life” clones which while ultra-cheap to the point where large street gangs could feasibly create them, possessed accelerated aging, meaning that they could expect good health only up until they reached ~40-44 years of age.

Nevertheless, it was something that even Chora considered to be a tragic fate.

Chora had done her part in helping them, having donated much of her personal fortune to charities which offered free life extension treatments to such unfortunate individuals, so that they could live the full and rich lives they were entitled to after serving whatever power-hungry Imperialist warlord had cast them into existence.

Fortunately, her creations would never meet the same fate, if they managed to survive their periods of service.

"So, although I value individuals, physical uniformity is important for a military efficiency perspective. Only the basics, like height, muscle distribution and sex though. Let them have natural hair, skin, eye colour and facial variation." She showed her some concept images of the battle sisters armour that her technicians are working on, She laughed politely, "you might have to humour my focus on the aesthetic specifics, I have found it often undervalued, battles can be won without a shot being fired simply because one side brought soldiers that LOOKED the part"

“I understand the need to ease logistics.” Chora said as she glanced at the pad, taking in the details of the armour with well-trained eyes. “Our armoring facilities utilize laser measurements to account for the different sizes of our subjects and customers. That said, I will admit that we have never set restrictions on the physical dimensions of our creations, but we are very much capable of doing so, if requested.” She continued.

“It seems that your technicians are producing a heavy power armor, if my eyes are correct?” The Pantoran spoke. “If needed, we are also willing to provide our expertise to assist in filling out the design.” She offered. “There are many experienced armorers in my team.”

"Regards the sex, I am interested primarily in female soldiers, but would like to know how your female's physical performace compares to your male's?" She smiled again, looking at the woman in front of her, she had respect for any women in positions of power, "our hearts and minds are more than a match for any male, but physically we are unfortunately on average weaker. I would like to correct that"

“While we do mass-produce optimized subjects, in terms of general health and fitness, we have never mass-produced enhanced subjects, those that go beyond the limits of their species.” Chora clarified with an understanding nod. “We find that there are difficulties that come with enhancement. They are not insurmountable by any means, but they do complicate the process under conditions of mass production.” She continued. “However, in order to fulfill your request within the range of our capabilities, I can present a counter offer, which might satisfy your needs. We are capable of mass producing female Firrerreo, Dantari, Epicanthix, and Arsenians, species which naturally produce stronger females than what optimized humans are capable of. It is always easier to work from the templates that evolution has already provided than it is to try and improve nature's design ourselves." Chora added with a slight smile.

“If you do not care for them being near-human or resembling of humanity, we are capable of producing female Wookiees and Houks, as well.” The Pantoran finished.

Isla Draellix-Kobitana ​

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

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Location: Eve, capital of Scintilla
Tags: Chora Asichi

Isla listened intently, including the list of alternative species, "no, optimised humans will be perfectly acceptable, with training the differences become less pronounced anyway. Using another species would potentially complicate plans for their long term health and social well being as none of those species are particularly prevelant in our territory."

She looked down at the armour plans herself, "a collaboration between our teams would be very useful to ensure compatibility, and also comfort, I doubt precise control over physical characteristics would be absolutely necessary, more limiting the range of heights to within an inch or two, for example."

She sipped her tea and made some notes regards Chora's answers. She had noticed the wince in her face at the mention of Fett clones, not the first time she had seen this response. She wondered whether the first fett knew whether his dnd would one day be handed around as if it was a desert recipe. She had been given assurance from her own potential Fett contractor that they were healthy and stable, but the idea of genetically novel individuals seemed so much safer.

"Regards the armour, it will have two layers, an underlay that is airtight and attaches to the helmet for vacuum protection, the underlay will act as an environmental suit, whilst also doubling as a relay to the outer armoured layer. We intend on using lightweight alloys in the armour if we can, but some power assistance will be present to reduce the load on the user."

Isla took a bit of a breath now, this part always made her feel uncomfortable, as much as she was used to dealing with hundreds of thousands of sailors and military personnel, actually describing them en masse brought it home the scale of her responsibility.

"So we obviously need to discuss numbers, and production times, what she the limits on your capacities at this time, I had a discussion with one contractor who only had capacity for two thousand a year and had hoped our funds would allow him to scale up without us noticing." She laughed, judging by her surrounding this was a huge operation, but she had been approached by a few much smaller contractors hoping for their big break.

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[Chora Asichi]

Location: Meeting Office, First United Astral Engineering Biosynthesis Facility, Eve - The Scintilla
Attire: Dress of Salvation - Appearance
Equipment: Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield - Hidden Within Outfit (Deactivated) │ G1 OmniLink - UltraDeluxe

Isla listened intently, including the list of alternative species, "no, optimised humans will be perfectly acceptable, with training the differences become less pronounced anyway. Using another species would potentially complicate plans for their long term health and social well being as none of those species are particularly prevelant in our territory."

“Understood. I empathize with the need to ensure that my creations are capable of integrating with society upon the conclusion of their service.” She replied. “Your focus on social responsibility is commendable.” The Pantoran added. Indeed, Chora prided herself on being an ‘ethical cloner’, if there ever was such a thing. She was glad to meet a kindred spirit in the Ashlan Grand Admiral. In spite of the fact that she held no such qualms in discreetly selling weapons to oppressive, genocidal regimes, the idea of spamming legions of identical, brainwashed thugs was quite distasteful to her.

Even a businesswoman needed some standards.

She looked down at the armour plans herself, "a collaboration between our teams would be very useful to ensure compatibility, and also comfort, I doubt precise control over physical characteristics would be absolutely necessary, more limiting the range of heights to within an inch or two, for example."

“We are capable of fulfilling that directive.” Chora continued, tapping a few times on the screen of her datapad as she did. “Keeping the heights and if requested, healthy weights within a certain range will be of no issue to me and my engineers.” Chora only rarely regulated the heights and physical characteristics of her creations. Her labs had produced subjects on both extremes of diminutive and statuesque, with more than a few subjects standing far below five feet in stature, who had nevertheless went on to have successful careers. However, she could understand the need for uniformity, especially to ease logistics.

“For the armor itself, we offer a number of utility systems, including a sensor suite and a propulsion module which can both be integrated into the design, if you would like.”

"So we obviously need to discuss numbers, and production times, what she the limits on your capacities at this time, I had a discussion with one contractor who only had capacity for two thousand a year and had hoped our funds would allow him to scale up without us noticing."

“While we are processing another large order at present, I can confirm that we are capable of full-scale production, however many units you need.” The Pantoran replied. “If you would like, I can offer you a tour of the facilities, including the labs. I think you quickly find that we are well-versed in the art of creating female soldiers.” Chora added with a soft, playful smile.

Isla Draellix-Kobitana ​