A Modicum of Grave Robbing and Tinkering

[Onrai]

"Alright - always best to double-check." She replied as the shuttle came into view of the landscape of Malachor V. At the last piece of wit from the Zeltron, she smiled. "That's the kind of attitude I like to see when it comes to acolytes - confidence in their abilities to outperform others in whatever field they pursue. I can only hope... well, that I end up finding some other Sith like yourself." That sensation of pride, even as a youth with inexperience in the Force yet experience in their field of choice was something strange to Vanessa. She had always experienced the Dark Side first, with other skills coming secondary to it - at least that was how her path came to be.

The shuttle soon landed, and Vanessa motioned to the carcasses, the repulsorsleds traveling down its ramp. "Welcome to home for me - at least it was twenty years ago. I dusted everything off a few months ago. Here is where the magic of crafting abominations happens. Well, that, and other specialized research." She said. They would head to the main laboratory, passing a glass case with some lightsabers in it, some computers projecting holograms of various former Imperial superweapons, a machine with Artusian crystals, what appeared to be a hollow stylized statue of a woman, and a table upon which surgical and technological tools were placed. The repulsorsleds stopped next to this table as Vanessa moved to place Tavion Axmis's body on it, causing it to lie back-first.

"Now comes the part you're more suited for." She said. "we want the body to be able to move with the relative dexterity it had while alive." She passed Farah a scalpel, a drill, and a small bucket of micro-servos. "Take these micro-servos and put them in the main arm and leg joints. feel free to cut away at the tissue if you have to - all we want is for its appendages to have the kind of flexibility they had in life."

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

Farah’s eyes brightened at the prospect of cutting.

It was the same with any surgeon, really. They lived to take a blade to someone, whether it be to repair them or, well…something a little more morally ambiguous. Farah was not the only ethically dead dead medical professional and she certainly wouldn’t be the last. What mattered to her was the experience she gained along the way.

“With pleasure.” She agreed, not having to be told twice. The Zeltron produced a pair of sterile gloves from her pocket (because she would have those) and got to work.

A thin bladed durasteel scalpel was used to slice the left inner elbow vertically, clamps coming next to hold the flesh taught as she navigated her way around the veins. Vanessa had told her that she could hack the tissue if she needed to, but perfectionists would be perfectionists. Farah had been trained to cause as little damage to surrounding tissue as possible.

“How intact do you need this corpse to be, then?” She asked, eyes still wholly focused on the task at hand. “Just bones, or do you need connective tissue?” The Zeltron was still a novice when it came to what alchemy could do.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa watched Farah’s reaction to the opportunity at hand with great interest, surveying the young woman’s work as she delicately sliced through the tissue with such precision, such poise. It was the idea of Vanessa that Farah’s talents, coupled with Vanessa’s own advanced biomechanical technology, would potentially be useful for reviving the earliest stage of an ancient Imperial project, one that certainly required skilled Sith surgeons.

“Farah, the more I see you work on these constructs... the more I believe you to be the person fit to work on another project of mine. Tell me... what do you know of the Dark Trooper project?”

She thought for a moment. “Cut down to the bone, but leave some of the connecting tissue along the sides of the joint intact. We do want it to have some flexibility, after all, and the Dark Side will do what the servos cannot.”

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

Farah did as instructed, pulling the durasteel scalpel away and placing it onto the tray beside her. The hand that went for the pocket of her coat suddenly froze in place as she realized it was still gloved, still covered in human matter. She wasn’t sure how important sterility was here given that she didn’t typically operate on the dead, but that wasn’t the sort of risk she liked to take.

Nor did she like removing her gloves only to re-glove them again a moment later. Hand sweat was a thing. A plasma scalpel—a tool of her own production—drifted upwards from her pocket and into her hand. That wasn’t the sort of trick she’d pull in an operating room, at least not when someone was looking.

“I can always fuse some cartilage into the joints if they end up not being as flexible as you need.”

The slim tool was activated with the press of a button, thin beam slicing its way around the joint with generous margins. After that was done, she’d pare them down to a useful measurement that wouldn’t be as bulky.

“I can’t say that I do.” She responded. “What is that?”

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

"Ooooo. A medical tool made just for you." She said, chuckling a bit. "This reminds me of a couple of years ago, when a group of black marketeers in the Unknown Regions were trying to get me to buy a so-called 'Mandalorian mating stick.'" She thought for a moment. "They claimed the Mandalorian women hit the men over the head with it to subdue them. Or vice versa. It was the stupidest attempt at selling a... How do I put this gently... a ​hedonistic​ object that I've ever seen." She sighed. What did they expect her to believe it was? Some kind of baton? Was this an attempt to sell a fan-made prop from that Sith's Row: The Third game? How gullible did they take her for?

She continued to watch, smiling as Farah quickened the place - with the plasma scalpel, her work was done at a much quicker speed than an ordinary scalpel would have allowed.

"The Dark Trooper project was an attempt to create powerful droid stormtroopers, ultimately leading to an exoskeletal suit for use by officers. It began, however, as a means of returning critically injured clone stormtroopers back to the battlefields. Up to seventy percent of their bodies were replaced with cybernetics. They received special weapons, jetpacks... and essentially became elite troopers in the first Galactic Empire. Given the casualties we've taken, and the number of critically injured stormtroopers the Sith Empire has had with these recent campaigns against the League of Voss, the Silver Jedi, and others... I believe it's time for the Phase Zeroes to return. Given your already exemplar performance with regards to this... I would like for you to be the chief medical officer behind the project, responsible for the conversion of our honorable veterans into the half-man, half-droid killing machines they will become. You will be responsible for overseeing the surgeries of the standard Dark Troopers and will personally handle the implementation of cybernetics for Dark Trooper commanders."

The opportunity was something she felt could only be given once. "So. What do you think?"

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

A vague smirk tilted her lips as she worked. “Made by me, for me.” Of course, she sold them to whoever wanted them. Money was money, and either way there was a learning curve to use it properly as either a weapon or a surgical instrument.

Any semblance of a smile faded to a look of curiosity, then mild disgust. “That’s…surely not how their courting rituals go. Right?” She glanced over at Vanessa for half a second as if to be reassured that Mandalorians didn’t knock each other out as part of their reproductive habits. To her credit, Farah didn’t know much about them other than that they liked to wear armor, yell and raid.

Farah’s hands slowed as the Sith Lady dove into certain details about the Dark Trooper project. Specifically the part where she’d be chief medical officer. Fancy surgeries? Having her name attached to something like this? There was literally no way she could decline. There was often debate in the medical community over cybernetics and ‘how much was too much’ in terms of ethics. Limbs could be replaced, but once you got into the nitty gritty of organs? Some of the procedures were incredibly painful and not as well rounded as the holoflicks would have you believe. CoreGen probably wouldn’t let her get away with doing something like this.

Sith tended to sidestep ethics.

“I…” Though her movements were slowed, they were still methodical. Better to sacrifice speed than technique on a project like this. “Would be honored, really.” Though she didn’t look at Vanessa given that preserving certain tissue structures were a delicate task, a genuine smile started to creep onto her face. “I’ve installed cybernetics before but generally not to the effect you’re describing.”

It would be a test of her skills, a real challenge for the young surgeon. Just the way she liked it.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa shrugged. "I don't know. The last time I ran into a Mandalorian, he gassed me and cooked me in an oven. It probably is given how... well, how barbaric they can be." She replied. "They are fierce warriors, but there's an innate streak of primitivism in the Mandalorians that causes them to grind up against modern society like a misaligned cog. Eventually, one of their number will do something stupid, like fly his ship in between a Sith fleet and a Silver fleet and get shot, which will give the Mandalorians whose sense of honoring deals is more flexible than others an opportunity to declare their treaties null and swap sides." She sighed, recollecting the incident with Clan Australis.

Thinking over the opportunity available to Farah, she considered the circumstances before reaching over to a shelf and grabbing a bubbling tube, within which was what appeared to for all intents and purposes be a human arm. "We're looking particularly for amputees. If they already have cybernetics, we will replace them. If they don't, and want us to actually take their limbs off... well, we'll be sure to iterate as clearly as we can that we need their express consent to do this. We'll be replacing them with prosthetics like this." She held the tube up to the light of Malachor's sun. "Biofiber prosthetics with cloned skin. Custom tailored to each Dark Trooper. We'll also be replacing most of their internal organs with biofiber replacements." She said.

"See, from my understanding, the issue with all of the original Dark Troopers was that they were forcibly converted. Apparently the forced conversion had terrible aftereffects down the line and the majority of the Phase Zero Dark Troopers were... well, they tried to kill themselves. Many did. Using the willing instead of the forced should drastically decrease such unfortunate occurrences from happening."

After all, dead soldiers were not of any real use.

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

“In an oven? Like a cake?”

It was the first thing into her mind and out of her mouth. It just sounded so…unorthodox. That was one way to deal with someone in combat, but were there typically ovens in brawls? She had to think about that one.

Sliding the miroseveros into place, she cauterized some of the flesh around it to conceal the device and seal it in, keeping it fixated better to the joint. “That would make sense.” She agreed absently. “I’ve seen patients spiral after getting a single limb replaced with cybernetics. It can be a lot to handle.” She didn’t speak from personal experience or a place of empathy, this was all observation. “I can imagine that multiple bio-replacements would be even worse.” There was quite a bit of psychological and physical trauma to deal with during what could often be a long recovery phase.

“Are there enough willing subjects for this sort of project?” They’d need properly injured individuals with an iron will that actually wanted to become this sort of thing.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Farah"]

"You could say that." Vanessa elaborated. "the Mandalorians have a potent weapon - well, had​ a potent weapon known as a Forcebreaker Grenade. Exudes the same substance used in Force Collars. It nullifies one's powers in the Dark Side. I was... unable to really resist in an effective manner." She sighed. Traumatic memories were resurfacing, but she quickly suppressed them.

"There are enough willing subjects." She affirmed. "I am currently unsure as to how many we can expect to adequately function once the initial rounds of surgeries have begun. The selection process for candidates will be rigorous, with the most maimed of our former soldiers at the top of the list for conversion and rehabilitation. I expect this to be, to say the least, a violent experience. But those who survive the trauma will serve as some of the most capable troops within the galaxy. Troops worthy of service under the Sith."

She looked at Farah. "And you will be the one at the forefront of this project's development. They will have mechanical contemporaries, that I assure you, but they will be a step above the machines."

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

“I see.” A Force nullifying grenade? She could see how that would be dangerous, certainly. And of course, she wanted to get her hands on one. But Farah was more of a bio-engineer rather than a mechanical one. With her drive and ability, she’d probably end up permanently disabling her own Force affinity.

She decided not to push further. Though cold, the Zeltron was still capable of reading emotional signals.

Talk of the trooper project was enticing enough. Furthermore, Vanessa seemed to be aware of the trial’s potential pitfalls and difficulties. That would make things a lot easier—easier than if she was working for someone with no scientific background who demanded that she make something happen like magic. That was how scientists turned up in a river with a bullet in their head.

“Violent indeed.” She didn’t sound deterred in the slightest. “This will certainly be a test of their willpower. See how far they can be pushed with only the most capable surviving the project with any measure of success.”

Her lips tilted, curving into the smallest hint of a smile. “Yes, useful indeed.” She didn’t care so much about the Sith Empire as she did gaining her own experience. If the Empire were to benefit? Then it would make her look better, sure. But that was secondary to building up her skillset.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa nodded. "And here we are. Allied with the Mandalorians. It would be funny if it weren't so sad." She replied. "Then again, my entire life's full of that sort of thing." She watched as the Zeltron woman proceeded with her work. Her cold, calculating attitude reminded Vanessa of something she had long forgotten about - yet here Farah seemed far more competent and personally skilled than Aurna Vern, the woman she herself had gone through the trouble of handling after her mind was wiped.

"If they go into the project understanding what the risks are and what they'll have to undergo, I believe that they will be far more capable of surviving past the initial integration portion of things." She sighed. "The work is getting more and more complex as things go by. At least they won't be fully integrated into their armor - they can remove it, though they will be able to interface with it. Should help them retain their sense of humanity." She looked at Farah, smiling.

"You truly are something special."

[member="Farah"]

 

[Farah]

Farah continued to work as Vanessa explained the procedure to her. Soon, she had applied micro-servos into each of the major joints while allowing some cartilage and tissue to be retained for flexibility. The last comment made her head raise, fully away from her work for the first time to face the Sith Lady.

“I’m a surgeon.” Her voice was flat. Sure, she was good at what she did but Farah still had a ways to go. “I’m nothing special yet.”

The Zeltron thought she was aware of her own potential. She had resources on her side and little else to stand in her way—no heavy emotional ties, no leashes, no family. Well, the last two could be contained to the Zambrano brood, though they didn’t seem to care what she did so long as she did not turn against them.

“When do we start on this project?”

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

"You have potential, are sane, and are willing to learn. The rarity of coming across someone like yourself is beyond reasonable calculation." Vanessa pondered for a bit before considering the last question of Farah. "After we finish gestating this abomination, I will start scouring the Imperial Veterans Network for injured war heroes who wish to be returned to the battlefield. We will gather them and you will be responsible for selecting those you wish to personally operate on - I have come across a small cache of refurbished A-series Medical Droids that will serve quite usefully as your assistants in augmenting the veterans with the biofiber prosthetics and other, more mechanical implants."

Vanessa eagerly awaited the opportunity to see the firstfruits of her labor. Once the Dark Trooper project had begun, she would have a loyal army, one that could be dedicated to the purpose of crushing the enemies of the Sith - and that would serve her well in the event the Empire ever collapsed.

[member="Farah"]