Project Necromancer

"There are many, even within our own ranks, who would consider much of your work an abomination. But they lack the vision that we possess."

―Emperor Palpatine to Dr. Royce Hemlock^[1]

Project Necromancer was a secret clone research project. During the Imperial Era, the research involved M-count transfer, spearheaded by Chief Scientist Doctor Royce Hemlock in the secret base in Mount Tantiss on the planet Wayland. The Emperor of the Galactic Empire, Darth Sidious, considered Project Necromancer to be of great importance to the longevity of the Empire. Later, during the New Republic Era, the remnants of the Empire continued work on the project, with Commandant Brendol Hux working on the project.

Description[]

"As you know, M-count cannot be directly replicated from the source. However, Nala Se found another way which is why she aided in Omega's escape. The young clone's blood is the only binder that's proven to be compatible with their DNA to recreate their M-count levels."

―Royce Hemlock, explaining Omega's significance to Project Necromancer^[4]

Project Necromancer was a biological research^[5] and cloning^[6] program conducted by the Imperial Advanced Science Division.^[5] Its main goal was to achieve the enrichment of an individual's blood with midi-chlorians^[4] amid the cloning process.^[6] Those midi-chlorians were sourced from an M-count rich source while retaining the subject's DNA intact. Due to the impossibility of directly replicating an M-count from the source, a transfer binder was needed.^[4]

History[]

Imperial Era[]

"My work will never belong to you or the Empire. It will always be Kaminoan."

―Nala Se^[6]

Through the cloning program used in the Republic Era, Project Necromancer was a major asset during the age of the Galactic Empire. Approved by Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine himself, the secret clone research project was spearheaded by Chief Scientist Doctor Royce Hemlock of the Advanced Science Division in the secret base in Mount Tantiss on Wayland. The Emperor considered Project Necromancer to be of great importance to the future of the Empire and gave Hemlock full resources at his disposal.^[1] The Kaminoan Chief Medical Scientist Doctor Nala Se was taken from Kamino following the destruction of Tipoca City^[7] to use her skill in service to the Empire. To ensure her cooperation, Hemlock captured her medical assistant Omega to use as leverage against her.^[8]

Over the course of six months, Hemlock began taking blood samples from clone prisoners, including Omega, to test their viability to transfer midi-chlorians from their original hosts. Nala Se was secretly aware that Omega's blood would help enhance Project Necromancer and surreptitiously destroyed her samples to keep Hemlock from finding out.^[9] Eventually, when Emperor Palpatine came to visit Tantiss, Hemlock's assistant Doctor Emerie Karr was assigned to test Omega's sample in Se's place. Knowing Omega would be in danger, Se urged her to escape. She also tried to tell Omega about Project Necromancer but was called away by Hemlock before she could disclose it.^[1]

While Omega was helping break Crosshair out of prison, Hemlock and Se showed Palpatine a series of specimen tanks in the vault. With Hemlock's assurances that they would have a successful M-count replication with more time and resources, Palpatine promised his full support for Project Necromancer. As he was being escorted back to his shuttle, Palpatine stressed the importance of keeping Tantiss Base secret and secure for fear of his enemies, including those in the Imperial hierarchy, condemning Hemlock's work as an abomination.^[1]

As soon as Palpatine, Hemlock soon discovered Omega and Crosshair's escape and sent a squadron of V-wings to pursue their hijacked Rho-class shuttle as well as imprisoned Se for aiding in their escape. By then, Omega's blood sample had tested positive for M-count transfer with no degradation, which Karr informed Hemlock of, forcing him to call off the squadron, allowing the two clones to jump into hyperspace. Now knowing of Omega's invaluable importance to his work, Hemlock made it his mission to recapture her.^[1]

As a result of Nala Se's imprisonment, progress in the Tantiss laboratory had stalled. Not trusting the Kaminoan, Hemlock promoted Karr to Se's former position before showing her the Tantiss vault, where he was keeping several Force-sensitive children captured by bounty hunters to use for blood sampling. As a result, Karr became increasingly disillusioned with the Empire after witnessing the cruel treatment her colleagues imposed on the children.^[4]

Meanwhile, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin became aware that Hemlock had diverted additional funding to his operation on Tantiss and contacted him via hologram. Hemlock claimed it was for a classified yet personal project for the Emperor and deflected Tarkin's offer of personal assistance. Tarkin then signed off, forewarning that if Hemlock's project failed to yield the proper result, it would not bold well for his operation or the doctor himself.^[4]

Later on, clone assassin CX-2 managed to recapture Omega after invading Pabu with an entire Imperial division to force her surrender.^[10] Omega was subsequently returned to Tantiss, where Karr had her blood re-tested. Upon its confirmation, Hemlock transferred Omega to the vault with the other children.^[11]

Project Necromancer was later threatened as Omega and the children managed to escape the vault through a weak point in the walls, releasing Tantiss' captive Zillo Beast in the process. Around the same time, Clone Force 99 arrived at Tantiss to rescue Omega, and in the resulting infiltration, successfully rescued her while killing a number of personnel, including Hemlock. Karr also turned against the Empire, helping transport the children offworld. Former Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart, who wondered why Hemlock's project was so important to the Emperor, aimed a blaster at Nala Se and forced the Kaminoan to tell him about the project, downloading the information from the databanks and planning to ransom it back to the Empire. When he eventually killed Se, she dropped a thermal detonator in the process, killing Rampart and blowing up the databanks and blood samples. After the facility's destruction, Tarkin arrived and was informed that the project's databanks were lost. He then ordered Captain Bragg to have the Tantiss Base shuttered indefinitely and all of Hemlock's requested funds and assets be redistributed to Project Stardust.^[6]

New Republic Era[]

"Grand Admiral Thrawn's return will herald in the reemergence of our military, and provide Commandant Hux enough time to deliver on Project Necromancer."

―Captain Pellaeon^[2]

During the time of the New Republic, the remnants of the Empire resumed the work on the defunct project. Captain Gilad Pellaeon spoke of the project in a meeting with the Shadow Council. Commandant Brendol Hux was working on the project in place of Hemlock and discussed how its old aim of cloning will introduce new leadership to the Imperial remnants.^[2]