Chapter 17: Research

  Unsurprisingly, that Rodian and his partners on the starfighter were dead by the time the Drones arrived. Not a big deal, their Essence was still collected and catalogued. Their Biomass was broken down and turned into food for the Swarm. The parts of their ship were gathered up and brought onto the Creep. It was relatively easy for a group of Drones to use their anti-gravity fields to carry insanely heavy objects when working together.

  “The Hyperdrive seems intact. Hypermatter also seems stable and fine.” I watched the Drones take the ship apart, though it was already broken into a bunch of pieces in mid-air, then the crash did even more damage. The Engines were fucked, but that’s fine. The Hyperdrive wasn’t something we needed, but the Hypermatter was different.

  “They were communicating with someone before their demise.” Izsha whispered into my mind as a cute little Drone floated over and handed me a disk-shaped holo emitter. I pressed the buttons and looked through their recent calls. Holographic images popped up, a Twi’lek girl, a Twi’lek man, a Rodian woman, and finally the most recent one was a fatass slug.

  “Jabba?” I wasn’t totally sure, because there was no name displayed. Jabba would make the most sense though, since Gardulla had tits and… That was about it. Aside from the tits, they both looked about the same to me. Of course, if I saw them in person, I could pick up a lot more minute details. Cheap-ass holographic projectors like these didn’t even have proper coloring. Everything was just blue.

  There was no recording, just the option to call him back or not.

  “Eh, fuck it. Why not?” I pressed the button and the thing beeped a few times, finally a hologram of a Twi’lek dude appeared. He was particularly ugly, even by my generous standards.

  “Who are you? Where is Jakoli?” He asked while looking around, I guess he was expecting to see other people around me. At most, the cute Drone by my side was being picked up on his side of the projector.

  “Amon Kal.” I smirked, “Were you the dumbasses that hired that fucker to hunt me down in the first place?”

  “So you’re the Langhesi slave that bested Jango Fett and his schutta?” He sneered, “How foolish of you to come here to Tatooine. Fortunately His Excellency Jabba Desilijic Tiure of Nal Hutta is a magnanimous and generous ruler. You will do well to surrender yourself peacefully and serve your new Master well.”

  “Sure. Where’s he live? Give me a map and I’ll go there to turn myself in right now.” I snorted and couldn’t help laughing, “No, seriously, tell me where. I really wanna know.”

  “You’re not as foolish as I thought.” The moron smiled, revealing his sharp teeth, “Very well, I will send you the coordinates. His Eminence is a great and kind Master, you have made a wise decision.”

  His body transformed into a map of the planet, which was still blue. The world turned and there was a link from my location to Jabba’s Palace. He was in the mountains, but not these mountains. It was over to the east, about a couple thousand kilometers. Not that far honestly.

  “Thanks for the info.” I smirked and crushed the projector in my left palm. Tossing the fragments to the Drone to digest, I said, “Alright, pack it up. We’re moving.”

  Orbital bombardments were way too easy. Although they barely did that shit to the main characters, there are tons of examples of orbital bombardments against people with extremely low plot armor. I didn’t wanna test my luck just yet.

  “Reclaiming Creep Carpet.” Izsha started sucking up all the brown Creep that covered the blackened ground into her organs. Whether it was the giant Hatchery, the Spawning Pool, Evolution Chambers or Spore and Spine Crawlers, they were all part of her body. Part of the Swarm. They absorbed the Creep within a matter of minutes, then they all submerged underground, leaving behind some holes, but no other evidence that they were ever there.

  The Drones were still collecting pieces of wreckage from the crash at a leisurely pace though. They didn’t really have any reason to rush yet. Dragging the parts down into the holes, then heading back out to pick up more pieces of debris. Every hunk of metal could be broken down and used later. Although they weren’t particularly rare, there was also no reason to waste resources.

  I held up the lightsaber I created and smiled, extending the black blade, “Izsha. I didn’t need to create the Zerg. I could’ve chosen so many other paths, but I picked this one. Do you know why?”

  “Yes, Father.” Of course she did, “We chose this path because it was… Cool.”

  “Exactly.” I turned the blade off and placed it on my right hip carapace. It stuck there easily. Then I walked over to the hole and hopped down, my feet seemed to be gliding along invisible rails as I hovered down rapidly.

  “The most efficient decision isn’t always the best. It’s usually more important to pick the most enjoyable path.” Like sliding down into the abyss and avoiding various sharp rocks that occasionally fell down around me. It wasn’t necessary at all. But it was fun.

  “I see… Father, did you create me for entertainment purposes?”

  “I’d say it was more of an art project, but there’s also the practical aspect.” I quickly caught up to her hind tendrils. The bottom of her fleshy purple meat mountain was a gaping, toothy maw. It opened and a tongue shot out, wrapping around my entire body and sucking me inside. I was brought through some soft and squishy flesh rapidly. It wasn’t long before I found myself inside the Evolution Chamber with the Krayt Dragon Pearls again.

  “I’m something of an artist myself.”

  “Pft~! Hahahah~! I know you are. You’re my daughter after all.” I snickered and honestly looked forward to the ‘art project’ she was working on. It was actually something I planned to do myself, but I decided to give her the potential, knowledge and power to make decisions on her own. She was an individual, just like Prima and Lingling. The rest of the Zerg were not. But that’s probably for the best.

  Too many individuals would make things far more complicated. The Zerg Hivemind would be far too loud and chaotic. I’m not a Jedi, but I still like my fucking serenity and peace. I spent way too much time in my last life in a state of constant annoyance.

  “Anyway, let me know when we reach our destination. I’m gonna try to get some research done on Kyber usage.” Replicating them wasn’t actually that difficult. Just a matter of finding the crystals within rocks and ores, then harvesting them and inducing rapid growth. If we tried to make our own crystals from scratch it’d be a lot more convoluted and silly at this point. That’s a future research project when I don’t have so many other things on my plate.

  “We could use a Netti and a Force Sensitive Togruta.” Izsha mentioned it casually and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes.

  “Where the fuck are we gonna find a Netti on Tatooine? Togrutas aren’t as rare, but Force Sensitive ones… Where’s Shili anyway?” I couldn’t remember anymore, but that’s why I created her to have such a good fucking memory.

  “Expansion Region, Ehosiq Region, Ahsoka Tano should be one year old. A few years from when she was found by Master Plo koon. Shaak Ti is also an option.”

  “Shaak Ti should be a Knight or Master already? I can’t remember. I know she was already a Master on the council in 32 BBY.” I vaguely remember her being in the room when Anakin went there the first time.

  “Father, as far as I remember, Shaak Ti was inundated into the Jedi Council in the period of time between the Battle of Naboo and the Clone Wars.” Apparently I programmed her memories to be better than my own. To be fair though, it’s a lot more dangerous to fuck with your own brain chemistry than to design a new one that works more effectively.

  “If that’s the case, then she might still be a Jedi Knight at the moment. Definitely not a Padawan though. It usually took a long time to go from a Padawan to a Knight to a Master, though most Knights never became Masters in the first place.” I tried to remember where she might be and when, but honestly, Shaak Ti didn’t really have much of a presence in the Lore until the Clone Wars.

  “A child would make for a more useful experimental subject. Especially a baby.” Izsha said something kinda fucked up, but she wasn’t wrong. Ahsoka Tano would be a pretty useful test subject. Also much easier to mold and groom a baby or toddler than an older child. The Jedi were masters in that particular technique. Ironically, the Sith preferred targeting teenagers and adults instead.

  I wonder if that’s why Anakin killed the Younglings? Or maybe he just likes killing kids? Wasn’t the first time either. Hmmm, I might need to keep an eye on him.

  “Murder!” Speaking of which, I was distracted once again by Lingling’s telepathic shouting. I sat down on my meat-chair and leaned back, sending my consciousness across hundreds of miles of mountains and desert. I could see the little menace approaching a massive Sandcrawler. The massive 20 meter tall and 40 meter long metal land-ship was big enough to fit an entire Jawa Clan.

  “Should I care?” I’ll be honest, whether it was the Sand People or the Jawas, I didn’t have much empathy or sympathy for them. The Jawas weren’t quite as bad as the Tusken of course. But they weren’t much better either. They would capture and enslave a human just as easily as they would a Droid. They generally didn’t attack Moisture Farmers and shit like that but it’s not because they were ‘nicer’, it was just that they were more interested in trade most of the time.

  Ugh, I’m too fucking soft-hearted. But it is important to have some boundaries and limits, otherwise it’s way too easy to fall completely to the Dark Side and get manipulated like a puppet.

  “Lingling, don’t kill the kids.” In other words, I didn’t care if she slaughtered everyone else.

  “Kill the kids!” And of course she conveniently misinterpreted what I said.

  “Goddamn it.” I sighed dramatically and ‘zoomed out’ to a more strategic perspective. A bird’s eye view of sorts. I could see dozens of Zerglings kicking up sand and dust as they sprinted across the dunes. Those tiny crickets had grown to the size of large dogs, not much smaller than their big sister.

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  “Master, I’ve discovered something interesting.” I heard another voice, deeper, feminine and much more mature than Lingling’s childish thoughts.

  “What’s up, Prima?” I turned my vision towards the Primal Zergling and her Pack. They were stealthily lurking on a cliff across from a small cavern. I could see a huge Krayt Dragon sleeping soundly in the warm sun. It honestly looked like a giant tan lizard with horns. The size was enormous though. Thirty meters long, essentially the length of a full-grown blue whale, just not quite as bulky. It was still ridiculously large for a land animal though.

  “I’ve located the Canyon Krayt Dragon. I was going to attack, but I noticed that we aren’t the only hunters here.” She marked a location on the psionic map. It was within her vision, so I could see it as well. A group of several dozen Tusken. They had blasters and their usual heavy metal sticks with a blunt and a pointy end. I didn’t really see how the fuck they’d be able to even come close to dealing with a Krayt Dragon…

  “Wait, that’s…” I could feel something obscuring my vision. The Force didn’t want me to see them. Unfortunately for the Force, our Psionic Network was more than just the Force. It also included more conventional methods, everything from radio waves and pheromones to quantum data transmission. If I relied entirely on the Force, I’d be an idiot.

  “Or a Jedi.” Izsha added to my own thoughts.

  I focused on the area that was obscured before and it cleared up rapidly. I could see them clearly. A group of Tusken. Nothing strange at first, but two of them in particular were sending out ripples in the Force. An adolescent boy… And his father.

  “Sharad Hett.” Izsha pulled the name from my own distant and vague memories, “Father of Darth Krayt.”

  “A’Sharad Hett.” I smirked and focused more on the kid than the adult. The boy was holding a Tusken stick weapon, rather than a lightsaber hilt like his father. They were both humans, but their Essence would definitely be very useful. Especially the boy. I can compare them against Anakin, who is also a ‘normal human’ on Tatooine and maybe glean some secrets from the Chosen One by comparison.

  “What are your orders, Master?” Unlike Lingling, Prima was far more cautious and honestly a lot more reasonable.

  “If I had to guess, Sharad is probably trying to get a Krayt Dragon Pearl to use in a lightsaber for his son. Either that, or maybe just as a feat of strength as the leader of a Tusken Clan.” I don’t know whether he lives nearby though. If their clan is in the mountains, then he’d have a reason to deal with the Krayt Dragon as well. A lizard that large would need to eat a lot, and aside from the Sand People, they also kept Banthas and other large beasts around that might attract attention.

  “Father, we’re surfacing.” Izsha warned me right before the whole room shook and I was snapped out of my bird’s eye view for a moment. I closed my eyes again and watched as the blackened ground burst open in a different valley that looked almost identical to the other. The purple meaty mountain that is my daughter was the first to emerge. Then around her as the core, there was a Spawning Pool that looked like a closed toothy mouth that opened extremely wide to reveal the pretty green ooze inside, followed by the Evolution Chambers and the many Spore Crawlers and Spine Crawlers.

  The massive Hatchery spewed out massive amounts of brownish purple Creep that rapidly expanded across the black dirt and rocks. The other buildings, even the Spore and Spine Crawlers were also able to spray plenty of Creep everywhere. The roots dug deep into the earth, even that entire partially collapsed tunnel we came here from was infested by the Zerg superorganism. It was a combination of various types of fungi, lichen, moss, mold, bacteria and fuckloads of microbes that were beneficial to the Zerg and terrifyingly dangerous to unassimilated or prepared creatures. It could even eat the rocks, sand and dirt if necessary, if not necessary, it would just coat the surface and digest things slowly.

  The Zerg Creep carpet I created could photosynthesize with a pretty high efficiency as well. Just like all the Zerg. It’s one of the reasons why we’re above ground instead of staying safely hidden underground. The other reason is because it’s easier to breathe. And while my Zerg can survive for a while in an anaerobic environment, they can’t survive there very easily. Something I need to work on in the future.

  “Keep observing for now, Prima. Let me know what they end up doing. If they fight and if they look like they’re losing, try to save Sharad and A’Sharad. They’re the two-”

  “I know who they are, Master. I will make sure to keep them relatively safe…” Prima told me that and cut off the communication. Well, we were still connected, but the connection wasn’t as intense unless we were actively focused on each other.

  “Carnage!” Lingling screamed and I had to turn my attention back to the troublemaker. The swarm of winged Zerglings buzzed through the air and latched onto the outside of the reddish-brown Sandcrawler! The huge metal beast was even bigger than the Canyon Krayt Dragon by a lot. The Zerglings looked so tiny in comparison.

  But it wasn’t long before they ripped through the aged metal plating on the outside and started pouring into the labyrinth of chaotic compartments and corridors inside. Lingling found an unsuspecting Jawa that was torturing a random Protocol Droid. Before the poor bastard could react, he was ripped in half!

  They weren’t defenseless though. Within a few seconds, I could feel a horrible agonizing pain shooting through the Swarm! Turning my attention that way, there were three Zerglings that were being burned alive in the upper decks! Not together, but spread apart. There were multiple booby traps set up to deal with intruders, even a few mines and some Jawas managed to throw grenades before getting ripped to shreds!

  “Fuck.” I know they were just Zerglings, but it still felt like shit to actually lose them. Their deaths reverberated through the Swarm, enraging and cautioning the other Zerglings who were fighting within the Sandcrawler. Except for Lingling, the others were more careful.

  *Boom~!* A deafening explosion erupted near the core of the giant vehicle, as several more Zerglings were ripped from the Psionic Network. Lingling jumped up towards the ceiling to avoid the molten floor that was threatening to engulf her whole body. It was like time slowed down as she punched a hole through the metal ceiling, buzzed her wings, darted down the corridor, then avoided a gout of fire from a vent. She was so damn fast, it was pretty impressive to be honest.

  “Retreat!” She actually gave the order to run away. The dozen or so survivors were already escaping though. They drilled through the holes they entered from and then kept flying away from the Sandcrawler before it exploded into a massive fireball. Almost like a damn tactical nuke went off, well, maybe more like a mini-nuke from Fallout.

  “Goddamn it.” I sighed dramatically and gave out the order, “Lingling, get your fucking sisters back to base. Now. You’re grounded.”

  “Returning.” She didn’t argue. Just started jumping and flying back towards the mountains that were hundreds of kilometers away. The other Zerglings followed along at a similar speed. I’d say they’d be back here in under an hour if they maintained that speed and didn’t get distracted.

  “Father, we need Overseers.” Izsha complained about that again.

  “I know, I know.” I smiled wryly and shook my head, “I wanna work on Overlords too, but we’re just not there yet. We need more research on creatures like Mynocks… Okay, I know, it’s not really necessary to make them spaceworthy or capable of hyperspace travel with only their own bodies.”

  Technically, if you have shields, hypermatter, hyperdrive, inertial dampeners and all that other shit cybernetically attached to a biological creature, you can achieve Hyperspace travel pretty easily enough. That’s what they do in normal Langhesi Forging.

  “Father, we don’t need the Overlords to fly. In fact, flying would make them easy targets and attract unnecessary attention.” Izsha telepathically sighed, “We need Overseers to oversee the Zerg within the Swarm so that we can focus on research.”

  “I know.” I smiled wryly, “Okay, fine. I’ll focus on making Overseers first. When Lingling gets back, we’ll put her on house arrest. Can’t have her running around and distracting us. I just hope Prima is able to handle things on her own initiative.”

  “What about Anakin and Midnight?” She asked curiously, “The Chosen One needs more protection.”

  “He’ll be fine.” I stopped playing with my lightsaber and pulled up a meaty brown desk from the floor. A sphincter opened up on the ceiling and spewed out several pulsating red maggots filled with various blood samples. Humans, Twi’leks, Rancors, Krayt Dragons, Sarlaccs, I needed to study them all to a certain extent.

  I focused on one maggot in particular. I picked it up and smiled as I felt the genetic strands inside those blood cells revealing their mysteries to me. The Force tried to stop me. It tried to obscure the truth, but the fact that it was trying to hide shit was only making me more curious.

  A few more maggots fell down. I picked up a few more that belonged to the same test subject. Inside were everything from brain and heart cells to egg and uterus cells. I needed to know why… What was so special about Mommy Skywalker that made her the perfect vessel for the Force itself to impregnate?

  Was it spiritual? She was a virgin. There was some symbolism there. Ritual significance perhaps. The Sith do love their fucking rituals.

  But I think it's more than just metaphysical. Anakin is physically extremely attuned to the Force due to his Midichlorian Count being outrageously high. The little microscopic fucks generally didn’t like cramming together in such tight, confined spaces. Why was Anakin such an outlier?

  Why was his Mom so weak in the Force in comparison? She would barely even make it as a Jedi. Not that her aptitude was nonexistent. It was just way too low for this Era of Jedi to even consider training. And that’s if she was an easily malleable child, not a 37 year old woman.

  “Unless her Force Sensitivity was much higher in the past.” I couldn’t help thinking about the other Skywalkers. The child navigators of the Chiss. They were all women. All extremely Force Sensitive as children, but would lose their powers as they got older, until they were just normal Chiss by the time they were adults.

  “Only one way to find out the truth.” I snickered and picked up the maggot with Shmi’s blood inside. It squirted out a tiny droplet. Then a black larva fell from the ceiling, only the size of my hand, I fed the droplet to the adorable Larva and within a few seconds, it formed a pinkish cocoon round itself.

  I felt around inside and made sure it was morphing in the right direction. I fed some more blood cells, then also added in some nutrients and helped tweak some gene chains here and there. I didn’t do anything too dramatic though. Just allowed nature to take its course.

  “The midichlorian count is growing rapidly.” It was normal. When a child is conceived, the Midichlorians inside will be lower at first and ramp up as the embryo grows. At least that’s the case most of the time.

  “Hmmm, weird.” I noticed a steep drop-off almost immediately. The Midichlorians were still reproducing, but they were just spreading into the new cells, not filling them to the brim. This was common. I usually had to manually force the Midichlorians to crowd inside the cells and have little orgies constantly. Or whatever the fuck you’d call their reproductive methods. They didn’t have genders. They just reproduced through mitosis and cytokinesis. Just like amoebas for the most part.

  “Wait a second.” Why the fuck didn’t I think of something so goddamn simple and obvious?!

  I took out Anakin’s blood sample and quickly took a droplet out. Then I narrowed my eyes. I narrowed again. Looking deeper and closer. I could see the cells. Then inside the cells. I ignored the bacteria, viruses and all the other shit squirming around, focusing entirely on the Midiclorians.

  “It can’t be that fucking simple, right?” It was so stupidly obvious that I couldn’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. Or that other people didn’t figure it out already.

  “Father, maybe they did know. But the Jedi and Sith purposefully obscured the information.” The Galactic Republic and later the Empire, or technically the Sith Empires that came before them, and the New Republic that eventually emerged in the end… They must’ve known, right?

  “Unless Anakin is actually unique. I need more Jedi to test the theory. But if this is the case, then things become much, much easier and simpler. Fuck, now I’m getting a little scared.” I looked around anxiously, not just inside the room, but my ‘sight’ spread to the surroundings outside the Evolution Chamber.

  I could sense the Force getting a little anxious too. But I’m not sure if that was my own fear creating a feedback loop. After all, the Force was often just a mirror. Not like an inanimate object, but more like an autistic person.

  Okay, I’m talking about myself. But the point is that the Force is likely just fucking with me because I’m fucking with myself. I need more test subjects to find out whether this is unique to Anakin and whether it’s actually replicable at all.

  *Plackgh~!* The cocoon burst and splattered goop all over my face. I looked over and saw the tiny human baby sitting there quietly. She stared at me blankly for a few seconds before asking, “Orders, Master?”

  I looked into her dark brown eyes for a few seconds, before narrowing mine. My vision zoomed in until I could see inside of her ocular cells. The Midichlorians were still replicating and separating as they did before. Little fuckers refused to stay with more than three thousand of their relatives. They reproduced asexually. Just like amoebas, they split into two daughter cells, then again, and again. When they reach a certain capacity, they find it way too cramped and decide to spread out a lot more. More hunting grounds; they ate bacteria, actual amoebae and other microbes. It was pretty natural and normal. Understandable.

  Then I looked deeper into the genes of her cells. Checking for abnormalities. I zoomed out and back inside the Midichlorian cells, checking their DNA as well. It was obviously heavily linked and similar to the Cloned human girl. But different enough in certain areas that one of them formed a human and the others were merely little single-celled organisms. Yet those single-celled organisms were able to allow their host to manipulate something like the Force.

  “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “We have checked the air and soil, although Midichlorians are everywhere, they do seem to be merely conduits to assist in accessing the Force. They are likely not the Force itself.” Izsha whispered into my mind, “The Force does seem to be metaphysical by our current biological and technological knowledge.”

  “It could easily involve Higher Dimensional fuckery. Then there’s no real point in even bothering with figuring anything out.” I mean, the World Between Worlds, Multiverses, all kinds of shit existed in both Canon and Legends. So many different crazy technologies that make no sense by standard logic and science. Hyperdrives work by transporting you into another dimension where you can travel faster than light easily, then you transition back to reality and miraculously lose all that inertia and avoid growing to the size of infinity while also not really using that much energy for the most part. That other dimension isn’t necessarily a higher or lower dimension though, just a dimension that exists within the Star Wars Universe.

  The Force is also intertwined with Hyperspace. There are other Dimensions as well, but I don’t know much about them. Even Izsha doesn’t remember much, because I wasn’t that much of a Star Wars loremaster in my last life. A lot of what I know is from Fanfics or researching nonsense in Fanfics to try to figure out what in the actual fuck was happening and why…

  “Master, Orders?” The tiny human baby asked again. Her telepathic voice was high pitched and childish. Almost like a toddler or small child.

  “Your genes are stable. Your body is healthy and growing properly.” I blinked a few times and my vision returned to normal. I caressed the infant as gently as I could with my clawed hands and then tossed her aside. She bounced on the squishy floor a few times, before getting sucked through a tube. Then she was sent straight out into the Spawning Pool, where she would finish her maturation process.

  “Can you believe it took nine whole years for a civilization of professional cloners to create and train only three million human clone soldiers?” I shook my head, “Anyway, Prima, I need samples from those two. Don’t need to fight or capture them, but I need their cells for research purposes.”

  It took a while, but eventually she answered me.

  “I will retrieve the Essence, Master.”