StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Yep, you heard that right!

This is the explanation why it's so long time ago I've posted a new chapter of TWW.

I've now written a prologue and a first chapter - but I should inform you that this is by no means the final work, and I am fully aware that the current material needs a lot of "polishing".

PROLOGUE:

After the clone wars, the Clonetroopers were gradually replaced by volunteers from all over the galaxy. However, as the Kaminoan economy was dependant upon their export of Clone Armies, the Empire still bought whole regiments of cloned Stormtroopers from Kamino as well as various conquered planets which had been granted to the Kaminoan government as a thanks for Kamino's role in securing Palpatine's power.

Battles on watery worlds such as Mon Calamari, Kamino, Ayzrun and Ghurashio had taught the Empire that humanity was inferior to amphibious and aquatic species at underwater fighting, and thus it was decided that the Seatroopers should in the near future be supplemented and eventually replaced by a genetically engineered amphibious species designed to be undefeatable in combat, every IQ as intelligent as a human as well as capable of using the same equipment and unflinchingly loyal to the Empire. In short - the perfect underwater soldier.

The task was given to the Kaminoans, who were known as the best genetic engineers as well as the best cloners in the known universe. Since Kamino happened to be entirely covered in water, it would also function well as testing ground for the new underwater troops. The project was codenamed "Oannes" and was embarked upon 13 years before the battle of Yavin.

Shortly before Project: Oannes started, something else significant happened on Kamino. While constructing an underwater rig on the ocean floor near Tipoca City, the Kaminoans discovered several golden tablets which turned out to be over 40.000 years in age. The inscriptions were in a "dead tongue" no longer spoken by any Kaminoan culture but still known by some linguists... and thusly, what the Kaminoans accidentally found would change their view of their own history.

At the roughly same time, the few remaining Jedi and Sith in the galaxy had detected a colossal Force disturbance in the Rishi Maze, a satellite galaxy only a few parsecs away from Kamino.

These events, seemingly unrelated to the Oannes Project, were closely related to the main reasons the project was eventually abandoned, all records of it erased, everyone involved deported to a the remote planet of Mauharnuc Quintus in order to have all memory of the program brainwashed out and why the Imperial Navy at one point considering performing a Base Delta Zero operation on Kamino.

Would you like to know why the Imperial High Command around the time of the battle of Hoth denied that "Project: Oannes" even existed? If so, dear reader... I will warn you that this is a tale of demented experiments carried out on an isolated, storm-hammered planet of thunder-wracked skies and cold seas... a tale of omnipotent and long-forgotten gods of time and space, who unleashed their ancient capriciosity and malignant cruelty upon unsuspecting mortals... a tale of supreme cosmic terror, the stuff of eon-veiled nightmares!

Chapter 1 - The First Prototype

"Howling winds keep screaming 'round
And the rain comes pouring down
Doors are locked and bolted now
As The Thing crawls into town
Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking his victim
Don't look behind you" - Judas Priest, Night Crawler

(author's note: I don't know which song quote to introduce this chapter with - this excerpt from "Night Crawler" or the chorus from Megadeth's "Hanger 18")


Facility GL21-X26/77, Planet of Kamino, Outer Rim

Moff Keramun Preimond, one of the supporters of Project Oannes, had travelled all the way to Kamino to see the first fruit of the Kaminoans' labour. These reclusive aliens had worked for three years on the project

Preimond was one of the select few who knew what the Oannes Project were, along with the two Imperial Intelligence operatives who followed him to Kamino - Chorazaim Frixos and Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug. Chorazaim Frixos was a small, golden-skinned man with dark brown eyes and jet-black hair - most likely chosen because of his remarkable patience, exceptional intelligence and most importantly his ability to maintain such a high level of secrecy as The Project required - he would be the last person the growing anti-Imperial movement would suspect to have knowledge of above-classified Imperial projects.

However, it was ambiguous why Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug was the second Imperial Intelligence agent to be selected for monitoring Project Oannes - while a skilled agent, nothing was excepitonal about her save for her unusually pallid skin which was the only aspect of her appearance preventing her moderately good looks from being down-to-earth.

The Imperial High Command had, some twelve years after the Kaminoans embarked upon Project Oannes, finally received an above-top-secret holonet message from Kamino that the first prototype specimen was ready. And here he was, along with the Imperial Intelligence agents on the planet where this top-secret experiment was conducted.

The facility was rather remote due to its secret nature - in size much smaller than a usual Kaminoan city but still in the same architectural style - sweeping domes crowned by tall spires, elevated above the roaring oceans by huge narrow pillars and bejewelled by countless windows coruscating with electric light.

Rain from above hammered against the shuttle of the three Imperial delegates as thunder roared, fierce winds howled across the ocean and skies of azure twilight crackled with forked lightnings. The usual weather for Kamino.

As the shuttle was above the research facility, an order came from it in an androgynous voice - speaking Basic with a degree of perfection surprising for a people so isolated from the rest of the galaxy: "Facility GL21-X26/77 to Imperial shuttle. Please land on pad #2."

While merciless rain poured down, the shuttle landed gently on the perfectly circular landing pad. Preimond, to protect himself agains the rain, put on a long coat made from the fur of a valrik, a ferocious ebon-furred predatory beast which stalked the verdant plains of Preimond's homeworld. Levinya Formendraug went for a form-fitting trenchcoat of imitated leather which nicely accentuated her figure while Prixos merely had a somewhat awkward-looking poncho and hat similar to those worn by fishermen.

The door to inside opened, and the first sight that met them was a frekish being whose gaunt, inhuman countenance was familiar to Preimond but almost made Frixos and Formendraug scream in despair. Towering above all but the tallest humans, grotesquely thin, ghastly grey in complexion and with an awkwarldy long neck topped by a small head whose main feature were those huge, almond-shaped, nebulous orbs that were the gangling quasihumanoid's eyes - what gazed balefully down upon them could only be a Kaminoan. She was escorted by two Stormtroopers, each carrying a weapon significantly different from the Stormtrooper Corps' usual blasters and clearly not an Imperial design.

Lank and almost ethereal in appearance, the Kaminoan introduced herself: "Qyu Sri, research scientist at the Oannes Project. I bid you welcome, humans - Atku Re wanted Taun We to greet you, as she's currently the Kaminoan most skilled in communication with humans - alas, she does not have clearance to visit this facility. And you are?"


"Keramun Preimond, Imperial Moff."

"Chorazaim Prixos, Imperial Intelligence Operative."

"Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug, same occupation and rank as Mr. Prixos. In case you've wondered what a human female looks like, you're looking at one now. By the way, who's Atku Re?"


Qyu Sri answered: "I have seen holograms of human females, but you're the first I've met in person. As for Atku Re - he's the geneticist in charge of the Oannes project. He's quite eccentric for one of us Kaminoans, though - he claims to have been working under "the guidance of the gods", whatever that means - and for some reason, he's babbling about connections between these project and the Plaque of Axoko, an archeologist artifact discovered recently. None of us take his claims about divine guidance seriously, but his work has certainly yielded results. Follow me - I'm supposed to guide you around to the results."

Qyu walked slowly through the corridors, followed by Preimond and the two agents.

A dry comment left Levinya's full red lips: "In other words - Atku Re's a strange mind in a strange body?"

Not sounding the slightest offended, Qyu Sri frankly replied: "Before you make more such similar comments, I would do a favour in informing you that while you humans undoubtedly find us Kaminoans strange, we find you strange too."

With a slightly sarcastic voice, Levinya remarked: "Doesn't surprise me."

After walking through some 200 metres of corridor and encountering the occassional Kaminoan also walking across, Qyu Sri and the stormtroopers suddenly stopped walking at a door with an inscription on it, written with the Kaminoans' native cuneiform alphabet. The Kaminoan pressed a well-hidden button, causing the door to slide open.

They were greeted by none other than Atku Re. He was clad in a monochromatic outfit similar to Qyu Sri's and looked exactly like her, except for a fin-like crest adorning his small head and fragile neck, the only feature marking a difference between male and female Kaminoans - as well as his greater height - at 2.5 metres Atku Re was tall even for a Kaminoan.

He replied in highly accented Basic: "Qyu might have told you of the Golden Plaque of Axoko. It was recently discovered during the construction of an underwater mining rig. What was so remarkable about it was the inscriptions on it - they unveiled previously unknown information about the mythology of yore. Shortly after work on Project: Oannes started, I had a dream wherein I was contacted by the same long-forgotten gods spoken of by the Axoco Plaque..." As Atku Re took a pause to take a breath, Qyu Sri and the two stormtroopers sighed simultaneously in disbelief.

Atku Re then continued: "The gods came to me from the galaxy you humans call the Rishi Maze... and they gave me instructions to how I should create the Oannes Prototype Specimen."

Qyu Sri observed that Preimond and the Imperial Intelligence operatives seemed disappointed with Atku Re's crazy ranting and told Preimond: "The case is that the first specimen is mature by now, and we would like to demonstrate it."

Atku Re, in a voice that sounded moonstruck to Preimond, told the Moff while unintentionally sending horrifying shivers of icy fear down the Moff's bony spine with the transfixing, inhuman gaze of his huge, atramentous eyes: "Ah, yes. The first prototype. Follow me, the prototype is in the aquarium."

As Preimond, Qyu Sri and the Imperial Intelligence operatives followed Atku Re, escorted by the Stormtroopers, he noted that many Stormtroopers were guarding this complex - obviously, this project was under a high level of security. Not only that, but the stormtroopers were armed not with the standard E-11 blasters but with long-barreled weapons of a decidedly non-Imperial design. Preimond estimated the firearms to most likely be manufactured by a local Kaminoan corporation.

The group then came to one door, three metres wide and three metres high, and Atku Re uttered: "This... is where the first prototype dwells."

The wide door then opened and inside they saw several Kaminoan scientists in uniforms like Atku's, observing a huge swimming pool clearly guarded with a barrier of transparent metal. In the pool something clearly swam around with inhuman amounts of fierce energy. Atku Re then muttered something in a Kaminoan language undecipherable to Preimond.

The prototype swimming around in the tank then headed towards the bank of the swimming pool and walked up upon the floor. It was an extraordinarily muscular humanoid with webbed feet and hands, glistening and apparently slippery greenish skin like that of a frog, an off-white belly, a scaly back and an intimidating countenance like that of a demonic predatory fish, its powerful jaws bristling with razor-sharp teeth. The very existence and purpose of it seemed like an odd pun on the slang term "Frog-man" used to describe Seatroopers... were it not for the Kaminoans' characteristic humorlessness which seemed species-wide with the apparent exception of Atku Re.

For some strange reason the sight of the Prototype was to Preimond an execrable experience of mystical terror and supernatural dread. He did not know why - he had seen wild animals throughout the galaxy which potentially were much more dangerous, such as the Shalvaran xin-k'ta as well as creatures which were much stranger in appearance, such as the very same Kaminoans who had created this batracho-ichtyoid fiend.

Atku Re asked innocently: "Well, mr. Preimond, what do you think?"

Hesitantly and all but cowering in unexplainable, esoteric fear, Preimond stammered: "You've created... a monster!"

Not sounded the slightestly infuriated, the extenuated and frail alien declared: "Humans like you... how unintentionally hilarious so sound at times. You can be presented to perfect societies only to decry them as dystopias, you have no qualms about building starships which can depopulate an entire planet in a single volley... but when an entirely new vertebrate lifeform is created from scratch, you usually react with either ridicule... or despair. What you see here is no freak... it is a bio-weapon whose existence is a result of your decision, mr. Preimond."

Preimond excused himself, nervosity clearly evident in his voice: "Sorry... I might be one of those people who sometimes cannot seperate sensation from fear."

Sounded slightly startled, Preimond then looked up and saw into Atku's colossal, tenebrous eyes and asked: "To which an extent is the Prototype fulfilling the demands the Imperial High Command set?"

Atku replied, while the anthropomorphized fish-frog abomination spoken of hushedly and revered as "The Prototype" stared with unblinking eyes towards the humans: "In intelligence tests, it has been revealed to have an IQ on par with a series-3 clone Stormtrooper and is physically stronger than said stormtrooper. It has been known to be proficient with the United Kamino Munitions Type-4/1 speargun. Oh - and the DNA is compatible with that of humans, allowing for crossbreeding. Using clone technology, we have even created a hybrid child, and it looks and acts completely human."

Suddenly, Atku Re's words triggered a fire inside Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug's mind, causing her to reply indignantly: "Atku Re, is this some sort of morbid joke?"

His voice displaying an unholy amalgam of juvenile enthusiasm and scientific curiosity, Atku Re replied: "Why not? It was not my intention nor a requirement, but the DNA which the gods gave me turned out to be remarkably interchangeable with that of a human! I had a hard time believing it myself, though... but such is the will of the Gods!"

Levinya was even more furious now, and the look in her eyes transformed into a frentic glare rivaling Atku Re's own stygian, almond-shaped projectors of otherworldliness in the sheer fright which her malignant gaze induced, while she shouted maleficiently at Atku Re: "What the hell is wrong with you? If you really are telling me the truth - that the monster which you created is capable of mixing blood with a human like me... I refuse to believe it!"

Her mind wracked by equal parts burning rage and astounding bemusement, Levinya took a breath and meanwhile looked at that loathsome, anthropoid fish-frog monster which stared through the transparent metal with its gleaming, unblinking eyes... she was utterly convinced that the Prototype was ogling her with a lustful gaze, with nothing on its mind but a blasphemous desire to lay its webbed hands upon her shapely body, to rip off her garments and defile her virginal flesh with the dark taint of blasphemous genetic corruption... a fate not only worse than the withering touch of Death, but possibly a fate worse than anything else she could think of.

Believing her worst fears to have been confirmed, Levinya was about to draw out her well-concealed blaster-pistol and fly into a whirlwind of rage, but her patience and reason restrained her to indignantly asked: "Atku Re... I think you should have asked yourself - or at least those gods of yours - why would any self-respecting human woman like to have her orifices violated by that fishy-froggy-thing over there?"

Atku Re, all but ignorant of humans' preferrence of sexual intercourse over in vitro fertilization, and asked with confusion evident in his voice - if not his face: "Orifices... violated?"

Obviously losing patience, Levinya said to herself tiredly: "This is just getting weirder..."

Then, she directed her stare boldly towards' Atku Re's own eyes, inhuman and caliginous as they were, and declared: "You apparently know enough about human genetics to create a being which can interbreed with humans despite looking more like the unholy lovechild of a Mon Calamari and a Kya-Uin than anything else - and yet you don't know how we reproduce."

Seemingly drowning in confusion, Atku Re asked: "I am aware that human genitals still are capable of the sexual functions I assume you to be referring to, but I thought you humans had long ago switched to more efficient methods such as cloning and artificial insemina..."

Annoyed to the point that she had forgotten all her skills at negotiation, Levinya arrogantly whispered: "Just because you Kaminoans can't fuck without breaking each other in half doesn't mean that the same applies to humans."

Both of the Stormtroopers drew their guns and approached Levinya with their guns aimed at her: "Watch your mouth, ms. Formendraug."

In order to calm her down, Chorazaim Frixos told her coolly: "Levinya... Atku Re didn't say that you were going to be raped by some freaky fish-man... just that the DNA of humans and the Oannes Prototype is interchangeable."

Levinya reacted with almost instinctive speed by pointing her finger at The Prototype and exclaiming: "Then why the hell is that monster over there looking at me that icky way?"

Chorazaim then turned around, directing his eyes towards the ichty-batrachian humanoid which just was standing there idly with its bulging eyes directed firmly towards Levinya. Chorazaim could not believe his own eyes... he could understand clone Stormtroopers directing lascivious gazes at the nubile Levinya Formendraug - but a lab-created creature which certainly not was human?

Awestruck, Chorazaim muttered: "By the Emperor... you're right, Levinya."

All Imperial representatives now gazed firmly and stubbornly at Atku Re's alien visage. Understanding Levinya's concerns all too well, Preimond said coolly: "Atku Re... we demand at least one change to the next Oannes... it should not be capable of interbreeding with humans and definately not have an urge to do so."

Atku Re's only defense was a speech sounding like a demented rant filled with maniacal energy: "Why are you blaming me? I only did what I was told to by the Empire... and by The Gods! How can mere mortals defy the will of The Gods?"

Choosing Levinya's side, one of the Kaminoan scientists then proclaimed in a native Kaminoan language: "The gods don't exist. You had a dream about the gods spoken of in the Axoco Plaque. That's it."

Atku Re then replied in the same language, fortunate that none of the humans present understood it: "Don't you see... the Hybrid proves that the Gods gave me that DNA code..."

The Kaminoan scientist talked to then sighed and told Levinya in an Outer Rim dialect of Basic: "No need to worry, human. We'll have those changes done."

That prompted a response from Atku Re, slightly angered but most of all sounding silly: "You don't know what consequences it will have... to oppose the Gods! The Axoco find was a sign that the gods will return... and they have chosen me to carry out their will!"

While Atku Re continued his argument, Qyu Sri - who had remained almost silent on this subject - thought to herself that Atku Re should have been locked up in an asylum long ago while she asked the three human visitors: "Should we hand over control of the project to another scientist?"

Preimond stammered, understanding Levinya's concerns all too well: Yes, definately.

Qyu Sri said then: "We'll do what we can. Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug, I understand your concerns. Moff Preimond, your demands will be met."

Atku Re, sounding like a villain from those Zuquanian stage plays which Preimond relished for their unintentional comedy value, proclaime: "Do you worst! But be warned... if you awaken the wrath of The Gods, do not say you weren't prepared!"

Still wondering how a maniac like Atku Re at all could exist among the Kaminoans, a species thought to have been eugenically cleansed for mental diseases, Qyu Sri asked the humans: "Have you seen what you desired... and are the discussions regarding Project: Oannes complete?"

Moff Preimond, losing patience with Atku Re's moonstruck mumblings about ancient gods, nodded in agreement. So did Chorazaim and Levinya.

While Atku Re's quixotic ravings went on, ignored by all but himself, Qyu Sri guided the human visitors back to the landing pad.


It felt like a relief for all of the humans as they boarded their shuttle while Qyu Sri almost ethereally waved them goodbye. Though Preimond was impressed by the first prototype which he had been presented with, he was embarassed by the Kaminoans' choice of project leader. Not only was Atku Re's religious fanaticism was a most peculiar anomaly among societies as secular as Kamino, but his preposterous claims about genetic intercapability between the Oannes Prototype and humans were, to put it bluntly, idiotic.

As the shuttle ascended to the Imperial Frigate Torchbearer orbiting Kamino, aboard it Preimond told Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug: "Formendraug, we forgot to tell Atku Re one thing - though that's not a problem now."

Levinya asked: "And that is?"

Coolly, Preimond explained: "Those claims of his about the Prototype being genetically compatible with baseline humans. He runs quite a risk by indirectly defying Imperial bans on intermarriage between humans and quasihumans, much less those between humans and fishy-frogs."

The Moff then took a breath and commented shiftily: "... and that law's already hard enough to reinforce."

Somewhat puzzled, Chorazaim Frixos asked: "What do you mean, sir? Please provide me with examples."

Preimond answered: "You're both in Imperial Intelligence, right?"

Levinya and Chorazaim both nodded.

Continuing with his characteristic calm voice, Preimond continued: "Well, I thus suppose you at least have heard of Ysanne, the 22-year old daughter of Director Armand Isard?"

Chorazaim then asked: "I've seen her and she's quite hot... but why do you think she's not human, sir?"

Smirking, Preimond said: "That's not why I think she's not human... but as you probably know, her left eye is red rather than blue, and she had unusually even white streaks in her hair. Incidentally enough, the quasi-human species known as the Chiss is characterized by blue skin, red eyes and raven-black hair with white streaks. It's quite possible that one of Ysanne's maternal ancestors was a Chiss."

Levinya, about to find Preimond's hypothesis unintentionally humorous, aksed: "You're sure her hair isn't dyed and that she used red-eye contact lenses?"

Chorazaim added: "Yes, I thought that about her too."

While the shuttle landed in Torchbearer's docking bay, Preimond uttered: "You could be right about that... but one could never be too sure."

As the two Imperial Intelligence agents left the shuttle to take up residence on their quarters above the ship and Moff Preimond headed for the bridge, Chorazaim Frixos didn't know what to make of the experience, Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug was equal parts confused and shocked while Preimond still was simultaneously disappointed by Atku Re's evident lunacy and impressed that the next prototype would only need one correction.

Imperial Star Frigate Torchbearer, orbiting the planet Kamino, Outer Rim

By the moment the Torchbearer, a frigate of the now-discontinued Protector-class manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards during the height of the Clone Wars, entered hyperdrive, noone involved with Project Oannes was even remotely aware that the project would not only be a failure but also trigger one of the most horrific incidents to be unleashed upon the galaxy, only to be covered up by the Imperial authorities and then fade away into the deepest twilight of oblivion...

ASSKICKING!!!

It's odd. It has a weird mystic tint to it. Plus it has a Star Wars-ishness to it (I just watched some Clone Wars cartoons). It also has an X-files/Area 51 secrecy tinge to it. And that Frog thing was a bit creepy too!

I love it!

Please don't make the frog creature rape Levinya.

Shroom Man 777 wrote:It also has an X-files/Area 51 secrecy tinge to it.

Considering what Kaminoans look like, it's no surprise that it made you think of Area 51.

And that Frog thing was a bit creepy too!

I love it!

Please don't make the frog creature rape Levinya.

A question: Have you read The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft?

If so, you will probably recognize a lot from that particular short story in "Project: Oannes".

Peregrin Toker wrote: Considering what Kaminoans look like, it's no surprise that it made you think of Area 51.

Well, yeah. But I'm talking about the atmosphere. The secrecy gives it an atmosphere of Area 51 or some CIA thing with a lot of intrigue. Plus the title sounds CIA-ish too.

A question: Have you read The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft?

If so, you will probably recognize a lot from that particular short story in "Project: Oannes".

Nope, never read Lovecraft. Heard he kicked ass though. And I heard he's scared of aquatic lifeforms, hence making an evil satanic squid monster.

Shroom Man 777 wrote:

Peregrin Toker wrote: A question: Have you read The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft?

If so, you will probably recognize a lot from that particular short story in "Project: Oannes".

Nope, never read Lovecraft. Heard he kicked ass though. And I heard he's scared of aquatic lifeforms, hence making an evil satanic squid monster.

Well, if you've read The Shadow Over Innsmouth you'll notice that I've done my best to imitate Lovecraft's writing style... and that The Prototype is stunningly similar to a Deep One.

Peregrin Toker wrote: Well, if you've read The Shadow Over Innsmouth you'll notice that I've done my best to imitate Lovecraft's writing style... and that The Prototype is stunningly similar to a Deep One.

Um... okay. WRITE MORE!!!

Chapter 2 - Black Clouds Gather


"The dreaming is over,
now let the vengeance begin!" - Bal-Sagoth, The Voyagers Beneath The Mare Imbrium


Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug's apartment, Coruscant, Galactic Empire

Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug was sleeping in her Coruscant apartment. It went without saying that she was emotionally scarred by the experience of witnessing a lab-created monstrosity staring peculiarly at her after its Kaminoan creator telling her it was capable of interbreeding with humans. Afterwards she started to feel increasingly embarassed by even getting the idea that The Prototype had any sexual interest in her, and now she was certain that it was caused by a twisted combination of wishful thinking as well as suppressed memories and other vileness lurking in the dark depths of her mind's subconsciousness. She had thought of consulting a psychiatrist, but that would require her to give away information more secret than even the Death Star Project.

Now, she lay seemingly dormant in her bed while exploring the lands beyond the gates of deeper slumber...

What Levinya experienced there, however, was not pleasant. In the dream, she was walking in a forest and heard something approaching. Silent noise rattled around her, shock overwhelmed her and she nervously looked around to locate the source of the discomforting sound.

Levinya's greenish-brown eyes spotted something in the shade between the trees, though the creature moved so swiftly that she could not get a clear view of it. She could, however, see that its shape was somewhat humanoid. Its features were obscured by the clothing it was wearing as well as the shadows of the forest.

The noise grew louder.

Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by a group of ...people... clad entirely in animal skins. She was not sure whether they were human, as their heads were obscured by grotesque masks supposedly depicting the horrific visages of horned, fanged beasts which Levinya could not identify due to the quasi-abstract artistic style of the masks and the irregular shape of their surface.

A surge of adrenalin ran through her veins, empowering her with energy fuelled by her fear and anger.

From behind, one of the masked savages threw a net over Levinya, which she quickly tore apart with all her strength. Then she swiftly dealt an unarmed strike to one of the mask-men. The dumbstruck mental state of the disguised barbarian was used by Levinya to her advantage as she incapacitated him with a series of kicks.

As another of the masked people approached her, she noticed that this one was carrying some sort of wooden staff and wore some odd headgear which she could not identify either, before he with amazing speed landed a blow upon Levinya which struck her unconscious.

When she woke up, she was absolutely terrified... hogtied on the dirt-encrusted ground of a benighted glade. From what she could see, gazing up upon a dark nightsky illuminated only dimly by the disk of the full moon gleaming silvern... and the fiery torches held by some members of the crowd surrounding her.

The crowd surrounding her happened to be the same beast-masked, fur-clad humanoids she had confronted in the forest. Two of them were apparently some sort of shamen - they both carried long quarterstaffs topped by flayed animal heads and wore, in addition to their masks, spiked golden crowns of highly irregular shape.

Both of the shamen were accompanied by some sort of ceremonial guards, armed with strange and awkward-looking pole-arms. The armed wild-men and the shamen were guarding some sort of wicked parody of a pagan shrine - a group of stones and dead trees carved into the hideous countenances of vile deities, as well as a great wooden X-shaped thing large enough to be used for crucifixion.

Levinya's heartbeats accelerated stupendously, as she speculated what sort of things the skin-wearing barbarians would do to her, and whether it would involve crucifying her, or something even worse. Then, a shaman shouted out towards the crowd in a bellowing voice, speaking in a language Levinya could not identify. A language unpleasant to listen to. It only became more coarse as the second shaman joined in, starting some sort of chant which whipped the lesser wild-men into a frenzy.

A monotone, ritualistic chant was then repeated... one that sounded almost unpronounceable.

The ceremonial guards approached Levinya then, two of them pointing their wicked-looking weapons intimidatingly towards her. One of them untied her feet with the edge of his crude glaive's head. Evilly they goaded her towards walking up to the collection of obscene effigies and the X-shaped cross. The blasphemous incantations travelling through their air grew louder, and the wild-men were enraptured by sadistic ecstacy.

Prodding her carefully yet brutally with polearms shaped like twisted mockeries of medieval glaives or halberds, whose heads were made of a material which Levinya never had seen before, they directed her towards the X-shaped thing... which was, as she feared, some sort of sacrificial scaffold.

One of the shamen yelled out words again in the masked people's indecipherable language. Levinya did not comprehend fully what the masked priest of the wild was saying, but she nonetheless understood that she would soon somehow be sacrificed to a group of vile deities whose unhallowed names were the incantation previously shouted. She did not know why she could tell this, but she was sure that it was so.

She thought of escape, but was too tired to even try... but she could at least resist.

A disturbing silence fell upon the assembly of arboreal savages, and one of the shamen untied her hands while one of the ceremonial guards gripped her with his crude hands to keep her from escaping. Levinya undoubtedly felt herself violated, but due to her exhaustion all she could do was to writhe like a fish caught in a net.

Then, two of the guards forced her arms and legs from each other with overwhelming strength and placed her upon the X-shaped cross while others brought forth primitive rope and tied her to the wooden construct by her hands and feet.

As Levinya now was tied to the X with ropes to strong for her to breach, she now gave up struggling but still felt like in hell come alive. It only became worse as one of the shamen approached her to tear open the sheeveless dress she was wearing in the dream and throw its remains upon the ground. The freezing wind of the icy night touched her naked body, filling her with frightful awareness of her own vulnerability, as she now as surrounded by maleficent degenerates.

While they shifted their chant to yet another incantation, she felt the shaman's hand using woad to crudely paint grotesque runes upon her milky-white skin. The sheer severity of this violation of her pristinity made her writhe in an effort to break free - but the furclad guards arrived to restrain her further. As all the woad was applied, the shaman walked away and again faced the baying crowd of base, maleficent degenerates.

Again silence fell upon the massed wild-men, though they continued their ferally ritualistic dance, swirling around empowered by bloodlust. The two shamen now started another incantation, this one particularly elaborate - and for some reason it was particularly eerie and haunting in the ears of Levinya... it sounded like unintelligible, random howling and mumbling very loudly... among the coarse howls, two words was recognizable... "Cthulhu", seemingly the name of the god she was to be sacrificed to, and the word "Iä!" continuously shouted over and over again as crimson blood dripped down her supple, shapely form...

She then, hoping that she would survive the grotesque ritual, closed her eyes and sighed... only to feel her eyes getting concealed by a blindfold which a ceremonial guard bound around her head.

Levinya almost wished she was dead. She was naked, blindfolded, cold and unable to move.

The words of the incantation grew louder as the wild-men screamed.... as the bestial sorcerous fury around her reached its blasphemous climax, Levinya sensed something... as if something materialized supernaturally in front of her. She then heard a voice not even remotely human... a fierce, deafening grunt which her trained ears could not activate...

The terror which overwhelmed her at this point paled to the following surge of pain which blocked her senses, as if something slime-drenched and unnatural invaded her body, tearing it apart. The terrifying uncertainty that this blasphemous something which shouldn't be was currently wreaking utter havoc and damnation upon Levinya was too much for her to bear.

Her lips were about to unleash an ear-piercing scream as she awakened and hit the floor. No longer in the cold, squamous grasp of nightmares, she got to her feet and switched on the lamp and gazed out upon the night sky of Coruscant, dotted by thousands of gleaming airspeeders racing across the obsidian heavens.

She was sure that many of those airspeeders carried human females just like herself... who physically were as fit as her, but nowhere as emotionally disfigured by the rigors of work in Imperial Intelligence and the horrors that came as being featured as the main course in the sexual fantasies of a creature resembling the unhallowed degenerate bastard-changeling spawn of a Trandoshan and a Mon Calamari, created by even more bizarre creatures... as Levinya thought to herself: "It's all the fault of those filthy Kaminoans. These lanky freaks, marked by their ghastly complexion of greyish white tinged with blue, stick-like physique and unsettling darksome gaze... these abominations, arrogantly misanthropic of mind and indescribably repulsive of flesh... they look down upon us humans like were we lab-rats to be toyed with... they look down upon us humans literally with their hypnotizing black ocular orbs placed solidly in almond-shaped eyesockets in their inhuman skulls... as they dwell and plot and scheme from their isolated backwater homeworld placed conveniently a few parsecs south of the Rishi Maze... they made possible the Clone Wars with their tinkering with nature, so that the other civilizations of the galaxy could batter each other into dust while these skeletally thin, porcelain-skinned aberrations laughed at us, counting their credits... and now, these arrogant, disgusting mantis-like pinnipedic monstrous quasihumanoids, as their crowning offense against unspoilt humanity, have decided to unleash a plague of slavering chtyo-batrachian filth in vaguely anthropoid form to defile elegant human women like me... these miserable excuses for sentient life had even fewer redeeming qualities aestethically and morally than the storm-hammered world of raging weather and unforgiving oceans they called home... fierce thunderstorms, always willing to lash down a lightning-whip against the unsuspecting... moonless deep seas of pure malice, their waves ready to lash against a shore to drag an unlucky surface-dweller beneath, to be consumed by the evil sea-monsters who dwell beneath, squamous jaws blistering with glittering teeth of purest while... razor-sharp teeth to be stained vermilion with blood!"

Too, Levinya's mind also wondered how beings as tragicomically frail as the Kaminoans could have evolved towards such an unmuscular, gaunt form on this aquatic death-world... perhaps they had isolated themselves in their morbidly splendourous surface-cities... these evil majestic domes crowned by malevolently brooding spires, thin and towering like their inhabitants. Perhaps once they had consolidated their total isolation from the world around them in their metropolises, the Kaminoans became so reliant upon technology that they unwillingly let themselves be partially enslaved by the technological hand which fed them, leaving them to do the thinking but the droids to do the actual work as the musculature of the Kaminoan anatomy withered away over the generations... leaving only a vestigial rest. Then, Levinya gazed upon her well-trained musculature, proud that she was a human, who kept herself in shape, not letting her species degenerate into what the Kaminoans had become...

Desperately fighting the paranoia building up inside her, she cried "STOP!!"

It was like a mental cage was building up around her...


Almost exhausted of fanning these crimson flames of hatred against the creators of The Prototype, she now went to her bed again, attempting to clear her mind.

The next morning, while Coruscant's sun coloured the skyline with glittering golden hues, she interestedly stood before the mirror, beholding herself.

Her face was crowned by shoulder-long mocca-brown hair and her eyes were symmetrically oval and green with a slight brownish tinge... as opposed to the hideous visages of the bald Kaminoans, whose eyes were almond-shaped jet-black orbs of dread.

Contently, Levinya stared upon her body - supple, athletic and averagely curvaceous... unlike the muscleless, twig-like and awkwardly frail frames of these gaunt inhabitants of Kamino, this wind-haunted aquatic sphere in an isolated Outer Rim system.

Though heterosexual, Levinya developed a strange fixation with her bosom, as her eyes rolled down from the neck and below, her milky-white mammary glands as well as their vermilion nipples were not as exceptional in size as in their shape, which Levinya herself considered perfect - while wistfully reflecting upon her high school days. Perhaps this particular aspect of her anatomy was why she often was the focus of much attention from the male students... and unfortunately for Levinya, also those girls who happened to feel a sexual attraction to their own sex. Nonetheless, Levinya always welcomed appreciation back then - even if it was of an occassionally embarrassing nature. Then, she compared her own chest to the thin, bland torsoes of all Kaminoans - male and female - and almost wistfully thought of these strange aliens with a sadistic mixture of loathing, derision and sarcastic pity. Their overreliance upon biotechnology and artificial insemination - perhaps with a fear of actual sexual intercourse -
had turned this species into androgynous, mantis-like grotesques. It was almost like in those highschool days, when she used to mock those girls who were less well-endowed than her.

While she was at it, she also paid some amount of attention to her neck - neither too short nor too long... literally worlds apart from those inflexible, minaret-like columns which held aloft the anomalous countenances of them, elevated aloft from their gangling bodies.

As Levinya's green eyes continued their autosatisfactory voyage, she noticed how her body elegantly curved, tapering inwards until, at its narrowest point, then reverting to gradually becoming wider until her figure reached its widest around her hips before parting into her two well-trained, streamlined legs. It could not be described with mere mortal words how much lovelier her limbs were than their ghastly, skeletal appendages, which ended in strange hands with only two fingers to be supported by a thumb, in total an unholy trinity of elongated digits.

It was moments like this which only consolidated Levinya-Vanadis' pride in that she was a female human, not some androgynous alien, repellent in appearance, hairrasing to lay sight upon and heteroclite of mind.

Yet deep inside her, a fear still brooded like a venomous cancer, like a corrupting parasite in the mind. It was the fear of not the Kaminoans, but what they had created - The Prototype. More specifically, the fear that the same Prototype which Levinya was sure lusted after her in order to carry out a most blasphemous deed, the sexual union which hybridized the pristine and human with the unwholesome and unhallowed. Levinya's fear was not as much for the Prototype itself, but what it wanted to do. To defile, to corrupt, to taint the impeccant with the pernicious seed of unnatural genetic techno-sorcery woven by the unhinged alien bedlamite that went by the name of Atku Re.

A mystery it indeed was... whether she should hate Atku Re, or his creation. However, Levinya then reminded herself that she had to carry on and couldn't stand there in front of the mirror all day.


Locale 18, a very secret place in a vast labyrinth of underground tunnels 'neath Imperial High Command HQ

Moff Keramun Preimond was discussing the situation with the other Imperial military members belonging to the select few who had knowledge of Project Oannes - as well as the Director of Imperial Intelligence, who had also chosen to come to this meeting: "The prototype Oannes was presented to me and the two Imperial Intelligence folks by Atku Re, who had something... uhm, interesting to say."

Another Moff, Eboleth Murion, who noted a concerned look upon Preimond's brow, asked: "That was?"

Preimond calmly answered: "Well, Kaminoans usually don't exhibit much of a sense of humour - but Atku Re claimed that the creature - which otherwise met all of our requirements - was capable of interbreeding with humans. It looked more like a crossbreed between a Herybakian and a Mon Cal than anything else, so I assume it's genetically not even remotely human - but Atku Re went the full nine yards and also told us that he had already created a hybrid clone which looked perfectly human."

Moff Murion, while barely respressing his urge to laugh, asked: "You took any of this talk seriously?"

More solemnly, Preimond continued: "Well... I'm not sure myself. However, the two Imperial Intelligence agents, Levinya-Vanadis Formendraug and Chorazaim Prixos - did."

A third Moff, Octar Zarach, could barely restrain himself from laughing as he posed a further question: "How?"

In seriosity Preimond's voice increased, as he became aggravated by the lack of seriousness with which Zarach seemed to regard the subject: "Mr. Zarach, I advise you to strongly take this situation seriously. Agent Formendraug found that the Prototype looked at her in a funny way, and somehow got afraid that the Prototype wanted to..."

Murion, with a look of total dumbfoundedness upon his grizzled countenance, entered a state of total disbelief: "What the Force is wrong with that lady?"

Preimond replied: "She could be right. Despite the ban on "crossbreeding"..."

Having almost forgotten that Intelligence Director Armand Isard happened to be present, Preimond was met with an energetic warning from the leader of Imperial Intelligence: "I don't care what you say, my daughter is not a Chiss!"

Puzzled and slightly aggravated, Preimond explained to Isard: "Dear Intelligence Director - I didn't even mention that. Case is, I'm sure I've seen people who appear to be hybrids between humans and quasihuman species. As that ban's not completely enforced now, Atku Re's decision to make a fishy-frog capable of crossbreeding with humans is simply insult to injury. It goes without saying that the Kaminoans transferred control of the project over to somebody else than Atku Re, and promised to make a Prototype not capable of producing half-human offspring..."

Zarach was quick to ask: "You're sure you're not just giving in to Ms. Formendraug's own paranoid phobias?"

Before Preimond could respond, Armand Isard answered: "Unlikely - as Director of Intelligence I know a bit about Levinya-Vanadis Formendaug, and you could call her many things - but paranoid is not one of them."

Preimond, a little frustrated by Armand Isard's apparent attempt to hijack the discussionm, added: "Agent Prixos also believed that the Prototype... ahem, had plans for doing various nasty things to Levinya. It's also notable that Atku Re drew connections between the Oannes Project and a recently discovered archeological artifact, a golden plaque which is of great importance to the Kaminoans, as it tells something about the mythology of ancient Kamino."

Zarach, more serious in tone this time, asked: "Exactly what connection did Atku Re draw?"

"Atku Re raved and ranted about the DNA structure of the Prototype was dictated by the gods or something... I'm not sure how serious he was about it."

Intrigued, Murion asked: "Did Atku Re tell you anything about said Kaminoan religion?"

Preimond commented, sounding slightly dolorous: "Sadly, no. Perhaps it is worth checking out. It's my day off tomorrow if I recall correctly - I'm renting a starship and going to Kamino to investigate this dead religion of theirs."


Next day - Rent-A-Starship, Coruscant

Preimond entered the Rent-A-Starship store. Hideously garish from inside it was, with a checkboard floor, walls of lime green and furniture in various shades of purple.

He asked the protocol droid clerk: "I'm looking for a starship which can do one thing: Travel to the Outer Rim in little time and perhaps carry a little cargo. Shouldn't be too expensive to rent. I only need it for a day or so."

The protocol droid answered: "Why, yes, sir? We currently have a Namali RS-79, one of the smallest and cheapest hyperdrive-capable vessels. You'll just have to sign this form and pay the fee listed."

Preimond was handed a form from the droid, which he then signed with a ballpen while he asked: "Do you accept credit cards?"

Sounding overjoyed as protocol droids usually were, the clerk-droid answered: "Why, of course!"

The protocol droid handed Preimond some dusty old device which apparently had a slit for running a credit card through and a keyboard for typing in an ID code.

Preimond then typed in his ID, ran his credit card through it while thinking: "Rent-A-Starship really isn't the epitome of professionalism... but it'll do. It seems quite cheap - less than 500 credits for a day's rent."

Attempting to sound humble but in reality seeming more annoying than anything else, the protocol droid now said: "It's down in the hangar, ship #1."

Preimond, with a symbolic "Thank you!" headed down a door with the words "HANGAR" crudely painted on them and went down a metallic stair.

The hangar was fairly large, but he could only see one ship - 25 metres in length, and shaped like a black arrowhead with two huge engines on top of the rear. Preimond spotted a stair leading up in to a place just behind the spacecraft's cockpit, and went up that stair.

As soon as he was up in the ships cramped cockpit, he sat himself in the single seat, that of the pilot, put on the helmet that he found in front of the seat, and fastened his seatbelt.

Then, he pressed the button which pulled up the stair entrance to the aircraft - closed and sealed it.

Shortly after, Preimond zipped out from the hangar and up into the crowded skies in his recently rented arrowhead spacecraft, its mighty sublight engines emitting a hair-raising scream.

Catching the attention of the many people in their airspeeders which filled the glittering skyline, the RS-79 ascended through the clouds like a crepuscular thunderbolt lancing from the ground.

Within what seemed like the blink of an eye to him, Coruscant was for Preimond a glittering metallic orb in the darksome sea of stars, as the maneuvred the sleek starship in position for its hyperspace jump.

Preimond then reached for a piece of paper he had in his pocket - upon it scribbled the hyperspace coordinates for the obscure planet whose eon-veiled mythology he would now be curious to investigate. The lonesome cerulean sphere Kamino.

Little would Preimond know that he would be about to unlock unwholesome lore which the Kaminoans should have forgotten in blissful ignorance, and which humanity was never meant to devote any misguided curiosity towards.

Awesome! Although maybe you could've made Lavinya sound hotter, make her more sexy and her torture more sadistic and maybe erotic. And maybe also add the prespective of Prixos. And why the heck is the project more secret than the Death Star? And why do they have ballpens and credit cards? Although the pen and cards might've added to the atmosphere of the Rent-A-Starship. And I do like the touch of the Rent-A-Starship.

More stuff please!

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Awesome! Although maybe you could've made Lavinya sound hotter, make her more sexy and her torture more sadistic and maybe erotic.

Well, this is actually the first version of the story. It'll probably go through a couple of reivions.

And Levinya's supposed to be attractive in a somewhat down-to-earth, girl-next-door way.

And why do they have ballpens and credit cards?

Hey, what else should they use?

Quote:
And why do they have ballpens and credit cards?

Hey, what else should they use?

Hey, JRR Tolkien, in a supposedly mediaeval Middle-Earth had fireworks and matches, not to mention tea and tobacco... why not have ballpoints and credit cards in Star Wars?

A credit card, additionally, would be convenient for disposable accounts usable by covert operations-- once the card's detected, you toss it and use another after the account is closed. Smart cards are just a bit more expensive. Also, credit cards are easier to whip up on the go (at least for people on the level of Star Wars)-- it's simple information encoded magnetically on a plastic card. Faking one would be a good way to give yourself some "legitimacy". So I don't see it as being an unreasonable addition.

And the story's good... just how does it feature Cthulhu though? that's the only thing that feels slightly out of place... of course, I haven't read the Cthulhu stories or "The Shadow over Innsmouth", so I don't know for sure.

Fireworks did exist during the middle ages. You have Chinese people launching them every lunar eclipse to give the dragons constipation so they'd shit out the moon in a nasty way and learn never again to eat the moon. Tea also did exist by then. And I'm sure the Aztecs and so forth were smoking weed and tobacco and chocolate (I'm not sure of this last one, but I heard it from a documentary in the Simpsons, starring Troy McLure).

Elheru Aran wrote:And the story's good... just how does it feature Cthulhu though? that's the only thing that feels slightly out of place... of course, I haven't read the Cthulhu stories or "The Shadow over Innsmouth", so I don't know for sure.

Cthulhu Mythos is just a catchphrase for the mythology developed by Lovecraft, whether or not the story actually features ol' Squidhead.