Heretic: Genesis

[Ezra Na'chtion]

One Galactic Year Ago:

"This specimen is very damaged." The tone was unimpressed and flat; a head shake that rippled with displeasure. The corpse was laid out on a tarp on the ground, frost crystals still clinging to it's hide. The leathery mess had once been a majestic reptile quite unlike anything found in nature. It's powerful limbs, sickle claws, and jutting sharp armor plates deserved the title of dragon just as much as the beasts that inhabited his homeworld of Tatooine. It's actual name was quite simple, likely named after the hissing sounds it made when alive. Unlike this one, which was quite dead as evident by the many laser burns, holes, and cuts in the flesh. The beast must have put up quite the fight, just as he had presumed.

"Are you fucking kidding me? This thing killed almost my entire crew. You sent us on a goddamn fools errand halfway across the galaxy. I had to watch my First Mate go insane after getting scratched by the damn thing. You didn't tell us these things were practically invincible and toxic. Capture it alive if possible my ass. You're a little shit, boy. I want twice the credits, or you get nothing."

The "boy" looked from the corpse to the mercenary captain, his blank stare a mask from which all emotions hid. "You were offered a contract, which you signed, for two payouts; one at the signing and the second upon delivery of the Hssiss. I did not force you to sign the contract or fulfill my request. Any deaths in the pursuit are not my fault; I can not be held liable.. You are the one responsible for putting your crew in harm's way. Technically you did even fulfill the order with this shot up piece of meat. I requested one Hssiss, alive or dead in pristine condition. I am within my legal rights to void this contract entirely for your failure to uphold your side of the bargain, but I am not a cruel man. Full payment as promised. You'll find the chit inside on the table. Please do not disturb my things."

Bending down he examined the corpse closer, touching the rough skin, feeling the armored plates, and admiring the wicked claws. The mercenary captain had stomped into the cabin behind him with his two thugs in tow. Unfortunate, Ezra thought as he turned over one of the creature's paws; there was no payment in there. The whole thing was a ruse to get his hands on a Hssiss specimen. It was quite brilliant really. Hire a mercenary group for an obscene amount of credits that does not have the equipment or experience necessary to net the target so that the majority of them die in the process; leaving only a few to pick off upon delivery. Inside the cabin they would discover the only door was rigged to open from the outside and inside were several corpses; only these ones were animated and advancing on them. Blaster fire rung out from inside the cabin. Yelling turned into screaming; screaming turned into wet, crunching sounds and eventually everything went quiet. Dusting his hands off on his pants Ezra looked up into the starship the Mercenaries had arrived in, with it's lowered ramp and seemingly empty interior. A few crewmen were left, no doubt, but it was nothing his pets would not be able to take care of. It was his ship now, they just did not know it yet.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

"This is quite extraordinary, Ezra."

"Bringing it to you was the very first thought I had when I discovered it, Dr. Akalay."

Two men, one young and one old, and between them stretched the prized corpse. The biologist was on his knees, glasses balancing delicately on the nip of his nose. With gloved hands he poked and prodded the creature with a look of awe and fascination that could only be rivaled by the face of a child when opening a present. Ezra did his best to mirror the expression, but the fake smile was wearing at the edges of his mouth. He had not come this far, braved this much just to trade fake pleasantries with an old man.

"Hssiss, the so called 'darkside dragon' if you subscribe to that old galaxy mysticism. It has no place in science now does it Ezra my boy? I must say I was not expecting to see you again after you completed your apprenticeship, and to do so with a hssiss in tow. Tell me Ezra, where did you procure such a specimen?"

"It's best not to say Doctor. Ambria is a dangerous and out of the way. I had to exhaust many channels and resources to get it, but the result is what matters. Not the how. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to examine one of the galaxy's greatest predatory evolutions."

"You are right on that last bit, lad. Never in all my life had I thought I would ever get my hands on this. I always wanted it, you know that. You've seen my list of rare or extinct species. Any one of those could have brought the funding I needed to stay open. This is a godsend. I was about to start selling my equipment and rent out the facility with the way my funding dried up. Just look at it. It is easy to see why the Hssiss is the dominant lifeform on Umbria. The hardened scale armor, the powerful jaw for holding on to a struggling prey, and a mighty tail for balance and navigation through water. A creature like this could ravage an ecosystem."

"Have you ever heard the stories of the creature's poison? It is said that their claws and fangs are hollow and full of a toxin that is not only potent, but a product of the darkside of the force. Superstitious Nonsense has no place in science, I know, but have you ever wondered if there is any truth to the claims?"

The fang was brought down overhanded into the small of the Doctor's back, right between the shoulder blades. The man jumped up, crying out in surprise and pain, trying to reach for the offending tooth where his hands could not reach. He struggled, and screamed, but the facility was empty, his researchers laid off and sent away when his funding crumbled. They were alone. The man finally had the decency to turn around, to look look in the face even as his strength waned and knees went weak. He collapsed to the ground, barely conscious now as the poison spread through his system. One word; "Why?"

Ezra dropped to a knee; "Do not misunderstand Dr. Akalay. It is nothing personal. You are merely a stepping stone. I have need of your facility, your equipment, and the stores of bio material you have in storage. You said the Hssiss could devastate an ecosystem, and you are right. Now imagine that a large number of them were released onto a planet; Dantooine. Coruscant. Mon Calamari. Ossus." The man's face curled into a mask of realization, of horror, his mouth gaping, tongue lashing, but no words escaped. Finally he stopped, the last twitch of a finger marking the death of the prestigious Doctor Erro Akalay, Galactic Biologist, holder of many awards and once upon a time much revered by the scientific community. Gone. But his legacy would live on.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

The tarp was pulled aside and from beneath it was revealed a droid, covered in dust despite the tarp. Ezra had seen the droid during his apprenticeship, and had even inquired about it. With it's multiple jointed four arm design, the droid was everything a biologist could ask for in an assistant for an animal autopsy. Dr. Akalay did not agree. He claimed the droid was a thing of the past back when they could not afford a pair of human hands to assist the biologist. It had no place in the realm of science. Droids are for farms and war, not science. The joy of discovery, the pain of mistake, and the revelations that came with would all be lost on the programmed mind of a droid.

"Droid, activate."

There came the whirl of cooling fans, choking on dust; the grinding of dirty micro servos as the limbs lifted from the sides of the chassis. Finally it's eyes lit up and it stood straighter. Ezra took a step back, marveling at the droid. It greatly resembled a Codru-ji with it's four arms and narrow frame. Each limb ended in a human-like hand capable of gripping and handling any tool.

"XX7 Advance Medical droid, designation Xeven, is ready for service. It has been three thousand, two hundred, and twenty-one galactic days since this unit was last activated. At your earliest convenience please plug this unit into the holonet to check for firmware updates."

"Delay firmware updates. Begin dissection program at Table Three. Extract tissue samples from limb muscles, exterior carapace, as well as claws and fangs. All samples must be prepared for reproduction."

"Reproduction? This facility has never performed such an operation before. This unit does not have that information in it's databank."

"I'll show you how."

[Ezra Na'chtion]

"Bring the light closer."

Overhead the droid, Xeven, manipulated one of it's hands to angle the overhead light to better illuminate the subject. The Hssiss had been rendered down to it's essential parts a month ago. It had been a slow, agonizing process but the reward was well worth the effort. The muscle tissue and carapace samples, along with all it's other parts, were stored away on ice or sitting in the biological synthesizer where the cells would be replicated slowly over time. He only had the one specimen, and it was an absolute must to stretch the materials are far as possible should be ever achieve his goal.

On the table was not the Hssiss but rather a Vanx from Vendaxa. Another alpha predator from a planet full of alpha predators. On it's own it was not the most impressive subject but it had many qualities to be desired among all predators. Low sitting bodies that relied on speed and numbers to be effective. In the density of the forest they lost their edge, but in the open they were unstoppable. The Vanx had been part of a study done in this facility years ago, and the samples were still in the freezer as he had anticipated. Scientists do not just throw away good samples even if they do not need them immediately. The funding required to get them alone was enough incentive to keep them around just in case they could serve some purpose, even if just to mount the heads on the walls.

The Vanx had weaknesses. It's how hanging bodies were too heavy to achieve any kind of altitude. Stepping up on a steep rock or climbing a tree was enough to escape them. Their bodies could be cut away, with superfluous material shed and their entire body systems reworked. While it was possible he could graft wings to the bodies he would rather focus on increasing their strengths than covering weaknesses. With material from the Hssiss even stronger jaws could be crafted, with sharper teeth. The muscle systems could be further enhanced, giving the Vanx greater speed in the open and combined with a lower body weight and longer limbs would allow it to leap and dive. The Hssiss could also aid with sharper claws and stronger carapace to make the Vanx deadlier and harder to kill. Yes. It was all coming together so nicely. The scalpel cut again, and Xeven removed the unwanted material.

All the while he dictated his actions, the droid recording his every word. He would need it later when he conducted this same graphing process on a living Vanx. The dead were of no use but practice and additional material that would be needed to make sure the graphs were successful. There was much to learn at this level, such as how best to graft the flesh of the Hssiss to the Vanx; testing out various organ compatibility drugs used for organ transfers between sentient species, as well as the effect of his darkside powers upon the subject. He would have to hire more mercenaries to get the live Vanx, and with so little credits left over from paying the rent on the building he was unsure how he would finance such an operation.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he would have to part with one of the few sith artifacts to raise the credits.