Spooky Scary Technobeasts

[Caulder Dune]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

The door to the main laboratory slid open and Adekos was immediately assailed by the whirring of lab equipment. For all the noise, there was only one occupant in the room- an elderly Rodian in a tarnished labcoat. No matter how soiled or tattered that coat became, Ugoto Chivaro insisted on keeping it. As long as it didn't interfere with his work, Adekos was inclined to let him wear whatever ridiculous garments he wanted. The Umbaran marched up behind Ugoto, who was preoccupied with peering through a microscope.

"How are the tests coming along?"

"You know, I thought I was pretty good at this stuff. Pretty knowledgeable." Ugoto sniffed, leaning away from the microscope to write something down in a notepad. "But then you call me in here to look at this... Stuff, and it's like I'm back at square one."

Adekos folded his arms. "Not well, then."

"You're gonna have to tell me. This way."

Ugoto stood up from his seat and crossed the lab in long strides. He led Adekos over to a pair of polarized windows. Adekos didn't spend much time in here himself, but he did know that both of those windows looked into separate testing chambers. Adekos also knew that Ugoto had requested several specimens of Nexu to run his trials on, and he suspected those were the occupants. Ugoto tapped at a nearby control panel and the window on the right increased in transparency until it allowed for a clear view into the chamber.

"Here's our control." Ugoto indicated the lone Nexu stalking nervously back and forth across the chamber. It was a nervous, probably frantic creature. Even though it was well-fed and in good health, being cooped up in a laboratory research cell didn't do much good for its nerves. Although he couldn't hear through the wall, Adekos could see that the Nexu was breathing heavily. It was behaving as anyone would suspect a trapped animal would. "And here are the test subjects."

The window on the left followed suit, and stationed in this room were a total of four Technobeasts. They had clearly been Nexu at one point in their life, but exposure to the Technovirus had done a number on them. Their fur had fallen out completely, laying in thick clumps on the floor. Patches of their skin, the portions that weren't clearly rotting and zombified, had been replaced with tarnished metal. Their teeth were no longer bone, but sharpened bits of metal. The same went for their talons. Their legs were also largely replaced with what appeared to be well articulated, robotic joints.

Adekos also noted, with great interest, that there was a lot of dried blood coating the cell. There had been a fight.

Their tails were considerably shorter, thinner, and had also been completely metallic. They also looked like they could cut through a lightly armored human with little trouble. Nexu had a total of four eye sockets, but in each specimen three of them were completely empty. The Nexu all had one eye, but it was clearly synthetic, and gave off an eerie, crimson glow. These creatures did not walk around their cell. They did not move even in the slightest. They might have been inanimate statues for all anyone knew. Fear kept Ugoto from checking on them himself, and knowledge told Adekos that they were only waiting for orders.

"Perfect."

Ugoto balked. "Perfect? This is supposed to happen?"

"It's called the Technovirus, Ugoto." Adekos retorted. "What did you suspect it would do? Turn them into Ugnaughts?"

"You're not paying me enough to be rude about it."

Adekos rolled his eyes. "And I'm not paying you at all to ask stupid questions. How long did it take for this process to complete?"

The Rodian muttered something under his breath, taking a few steps away from Adekos to grab a clipboard that had been hanging on a nearby hook. He flipped irritably through the pages, reading off the results to Adekos. "When we exposed specimens one and two directly to the strain you provided, the transformation took only... Forty-eight hours. This is from start to finish, I mean. They inhale the strain, pass out after a few minutes, then get back up. Then they stand around, totally still, until it's... Complete."

"When we exposed specimens three and four to specimens one and two-" Ugoto paused until Adekos completed his chortle. "-the entire transformation took seventy-two hours, give or take. The initial reaction of passing out didn't take much longer, however. Just the rate at which the specimen was transformed."

Adekos nodded, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "It's a start, I suppose. Work on it. See if you can speed up the process."

"I'll need more Nexu."

"And more Nexu you will have."

Adekos turned on a heel, exiting the laboratory and leaving Ugoto to his work. The Rodian cast a disconcerted glance at specimens one through four, then re-polarized the window looking into their test chamber and returned to the microscope.

 

[Caulder Dune]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

By the time Adekos returned some time later, the second cell was practically jam packed with Technobeast Nexu. If the abominations were at all displeased with the enclosed living space, they did a poor job of showing it. They stood shoulder to shoulder in neat rows, totally still. It appeared they were going to need a larger space if they were going to continue transforming Nexu. They couldn't simply destroy the Technobeasts and just make new ones. If further anomalies developed (besides the whole robot-zombie thing) farther on in their lifespan, Adekos wanted to know about them in advance. He intended to station many of these in his personal hideaways. If they all went insane and no longer answered to commands after three months, he wanted to know.

Then he'd just keep paying Stormtroopers to do it.

When Adekos broached the subject of moving the Technobeasts to Ugoto, the Rodian was understandably alert.

"You can't be serious. How do you want to move them? They try to maul any living thing that walks into the room. We sent Shapiro in to try to feed subject one before we knew what was going on and they-"

"Oh, my dear friend. How little you understand." The Rodian folded his arms and remained silent as his employer launched into a patronizing explanation. "I was the one who replicated that strain of the Technovirus. And I did so with very specific instructions from the Belia Darzu Holocron. As I am told, the Technobeasts answer only to the person who developed the strain through careful manipulation of the Force. Though you've been tampering with it, it sprung from my brow. They will answer to me."

Ugoto was a Rodian of science. He had roughly the same Force Sensitivity as a toaster oven. All of this talk of Belia Darzu, Technobeasts, and Force magic was just annoying to him. Shapiro was still in quarantine while they figured out if he was carrying the Technovirus or not. If Adekos wanted to rush on in there and turn himself into one of those glorified, mechanical lobotomites... Well, who was Ugoto to stop him? He led the Umbaran around the back. Separating the testing cell from the main laboratory was a secondary chamber. The door leading from that chamber to the lab proper was usually ray shielded. The one leading into the testing cell generally was not.

The ray shield deactivated after Ugoto input something into a console, allowing Adekos into the intermediary chamber. The Umbaran cracked his knuckles, stretched a little bit, and then gave the signal. "Open the door."

The doors slid open, and Adekos was treated to a view of the rotting backsides of a score of Technobeast Nexu. Every single specimen was still facing the opposing wall, barely moving an inch. They did not react to the doors opening, nor did they seem to give any indicator of acknowledging Adekos' presence. The Umbaran frowned. He usually liked to be ignored and left to his work, but as of right now it was just rude. Adekos was not in a dramatic mood, so instead of the usual "heed me, my minions," he opted for something a little less formal.

"Excuse me..."

There was a horrible sound of metal grinding against metal as each Nexu's head whipped around to fixate their single, red eye on Adekos all at once.

A chill ran up Adekos spine.

"...CLOSE THE DOOR!"

One of the Technobeasts had already turned itself around completely, leaping through the air towards the unsuspecting Dark Jedi. Claws extended, horrible maw gaping... Adekos could see that the tongue had been replaced by an appendage similar to the tail- just a tendril that ended in a sharp point. There was now no mistaking just how horrifying a thing this Technovirus was.

Adekos tripped over his feet as he attempted to backpedal, falling hard onto his back. In that moment, however, the door slid back down, and the Nexu that almost certainly would have mauled him to death (if not infecting him at the least) crashed into the door.

Two sets of claws punched through the durasteel and now protruded into the intermediary chamber.

Adekos winced as the door came up behind him, allowing him to scrambled back into the laboratory proper. His breathing did not improve until the ray shielding was back in place, and even then it still sounded like he had run some obscene amount of distance. An amount of terror like that could exhaust any man fairly quickly. Ugoto returned from the control room over to Adekos.

"So, about the-"

"I..." Adekos wheezed. "...Miscalculated. Something is off. I will need to further inspect the strain I produced."

"Should I-"

"Yes, keep working. Whatever breakthroughs you make can be applied later."

Ugoto offered a noncommittal shrug, apparently un-phased by the near death of his next paycheck. Bruised in ego, Adekos slunk out of the lab and back to his quarters, leaving the Rodian to his grim work.

 

[Caulder Dune]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

The dead technobeast was splayed out on a table, allowing Ugoto to poke and prod at it without risk to his person. Even though it was dead, it could have still been infectious. That was why Ugoto was completely covered in a sealed hazmat suit. This was why Ugoto was inside of an environmentally sealed room inside of a hazmat suit, which would be subjected to a thorough chemical bath once he was done here. It had been a rather extensive process making sure he was safe for this procedure. It was a process Adekos didn't really care to go through himself. That was why Adekos' voice occasionally came over the room's loudspeaker to pose a question to the Rodian.

Technobeasts were strange creatures indeed. They were essentially cyborgs, but... Well, the differences were clear. Rather than there being a distinct difference between the metal and the flesh when attached to a cyborg, the artificial parts of the technobeast were melded almost seamlessly into its remaining flesh. Ugoto would never quite understand how it happened. He knew that by way of some strange force sections of flesh, bone, and muscle were converted to metal. He knew it started on the inside and worked its way out and he also knew that nothing ever fell off of the Nexu while the process was taking place. Everything was converted from organic material perfectly. With the exception of the fur, but why that was could be anyone's guess. Ugoto barely understood the virus on a fundamental level. He couldn't make any guesses as to why it wouldn't convert fur.

When it came time to dispose of the "rogue" technobeasts as Adekos had taken to calling them, Ion weapons were used. These were greatly effective against these Nexu and upon dissection it was easy to see why. The virus replaced a great deal of the cardiovascular and nervous systems with something that looked like circuitry. These weren't full-blown circuits and wires, obviously. That would have been ridiculous (because clearly it wasn't already). But there were similarities. It looked like it, anyway. Ugoto had the sinking feeling he could run however many scans he wanted, but unless he had a PhD in whatever Shamanism Adekos engaged in to cook up this monstrous virus, he wasn't going to get it.

Speaking of the devil, the door behind Ugoto slid open with a loud hiss, and the Umbaran strolled in. Garbed in his usual light armor, Adekos tilted his head at the Rodian.

"Why are you wearing... A hazmat suit?"

"Uh, I don't want to catch it."

Adekos shook his head. "Ugoto, you're not going to catch it just by standing next to it. It has to exhale a cloud of the virus and then you have to inhale it. And it has to be alive to do that." He sounded like an impatient parent trying to explain to his child that, no, there were no monsters in the closet, under the bed, or any other area in this room or the rest of the house. How dare you wake me up at this hour to deal with such trivialities. You're an idiot.

"...Oh." Ugoto replied. Necessity or not, Ugoto made no move to remove the suit. It gave him peace of mind- something he seldom had when standing near any technobeast Nexu, dead or alive. Adekos watched Ugoto for a moment, having expected some sort of reaction or revelation. When none came, the subject returned to business as usual. Adekos produced a vial from his person, holding it up for Ugoto to see. It looked like the last Technovirus sample he had been given- a viscous grey substance.

"This is the refined strain. I'm rather confident it'll work as intended this time around."

"Are you sure?" This was a bit more incredulous than Ugoto intended, but he reasoned he had a right to be. Those technobeasts were scary, and if they couldn't be controlled... Well, some jobs just weren't worth taking. And this was coming from the guy who tried to test biological weapons on primitive civilizations. "What was the issue last time?"

The Umbaran gave a small sigh and then elaborated. "There is such a thing as following instructions too closely. Let's just say that the only person those technobeasts would answer to is Belia Darzu. For the ritual needed to create the technovirus, I had to use a different focal point for the ritual. Something more... Personal."

"Dar-who?"

Adekos stared angrily at his Rodian employee. His face was obscured by the mask, but Ugoto could still feel spite rolling off the Umbaran in waves. "I see the more arcane aspects of this thing continue to elude you." He tossed the vial at Ugoto, who fumbled but successfully caught it nonetheless. Adekos gave a derisive chortle and then left. A baser Sithling would have executed Ugoto for such impudence, but Adekos had need for his skills yet. There was still much to accomplish. So much more...

 

[Caulder Dune]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

The Yuuzhan-Vong warrior squirmed incessantly in his restraints. It hissed and growled in that guttural language of theirs, likely leveling all manner of profane words towards Darth Adekos. For his part, Adekos payed the beast no mind. He didn't speak their language, if it could be called that. The warrior snapped his jaws and tried spitting at Adekos. Again. And the glob of saliva fell short of Adekos' back. Again. These blighted creatures never learned, did they? The Sithling rolled his eyes without turning away from the table, gingerly turning the page in the tome he was examining. "I'm sure you're very uncomfortable, but I must ask for your patience." Adekos continued to trace his finger along the line of ancient Sith writing. His own mastery of the language was rusty at best. His helmet's software handled most of the translation for him.

Seeing as Ugoto still couldn't come to grips with the mystical aspects involved in this line of work, Adekos had begun his own trials separate of the Rodian's. In this matter he was consulting ancient Sith tomes and scrolls rather than medical journals. Adekos had two goals in mind: synthesize a strain of the Technovirus that only afflicted Yuuzhan-Vong and a strain that left the brain tissue of technobeasts intact. Adekos had plans, after all. Two separate plans. The former strain would be used to terrorize the universe's most infamous extragalactic squatters and barbarians. The latter would be used in the production of Adekos' own Metanecron, modeled after the Sith Knights that served the fearsome Darth Mekhis.

Unsurprisingly, the Vong strapped to the operating table was anything but patient. It continued to thrash (mindlessly, by Adekos' perceptions). These Legion of Yun'do types were really no different from the other Vong trash floating around the galaxy. They all did basically the same thing- fight and die, die and fight. They certainly behaved no differently in the laboratory. Couldn't they just go placidly? Accept their wretched fates? Hardly. Combat was all they knew. It was why they were a culturally bankrupt species. At least there were occasionally Mandalorians who made something of themselves. The same could not be said for Vong, who almost always died in combat. Either at the behest of their Sith overlords or the trivial, barbaric gods they dreamed up on the ride over from the galaxy they ruined.

Eventually a spider droid he had sent out slowly walked back into the room, a syringe filled with a ghastly grey liquid resting in the stand on its head. Adekos gently closed the tome he had been perusing and acquired the vial. "This is it, then?"

An affirmative beep from the spider droid.

"Splendid." He gave the syringe a test squirt before gliding on over to the Vong. The squirming intensified. "Well, mister... Ah, what was your name?"

Snarling noises. How eloquent.

"Right; Bethany! How could I forget? Well, Bethany, this can go one of two ways. You'll either die instantly or this horde of synthetic microbes will rapidly devour your brain and other tissue, turning you into a sort of technobeast servitor bound to my will. I've read the process is quite painful. I also understand it's a fate that your... Kind... Would find particularly displeasing. I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance for either scenario. Science is fun like that, but I don't suspect you'd know."

Thrashing intensified. Time to make this quick. "On the count of three... And, thr-"

The doors abruptly burst open, forcing Adekos to turn his back on the Yuuzhan-Vong, which had now begun to fight so violently against its restraints it almost made Adekos nervous. Ugoto was the culprit. There was a wild look in the Rodian's eyes, even if they were pitch black and utterly featureless. "There's been a development."

"A... Pardon me, Ugoto, but I'm kind of-"

"You're going to want to see this now." Ugoto wasted no further time, turning from the door and bolting back down the hallway he had come from.

Adekos was left there for a moment in stunned silence. He looked at the syringe, then glared at the struggling Vong. Despite everything, his curiosity got the better of him, and set the syringe on the same table he had left the closed tome. "Be a dear and watch him for me." Adekos instructed the spider droid. "I apparently have business to attend to."