Julius Braveheart.
· Recent System Acquisitions:
1. Sergeant Todd's DNA: The archetype of the hardened and dedicated soldier from the movie Soldier. His memories and combat experience were also acquired to refine military doctrines.
2. "Black Troopers" Clones: A first batch of clones, based on Todd's DNA, destined to be an elite force undergoing extreme training.
3. "Tier 0 Bastion Class Suit" Armor: State-of-the-art armor to equip these elite soldiers.
· New Project on Kamino: The creation of a second specialized unit, the "Helldivers".
· Goal: Exploration, colonization of new planets, and peaceful first contact with alien races for trade.
· Genetic Modifications: Enhanced via the G-Serum (without side effects) to grant them superhuman physical abilities.
· Equipment: The Powered Armor from the Starship Troopers film, which they will have the right to personalize.
· Current Mission: Using a hostile planet as a training ground to forge these two units.
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The sterile, silent atmosphere of the observation room was broken only by the faint hum of the station's life support systems. On the other side of the transparisteel viewport, a spectacle of primitive violence unfolded. The planet, which the Kaminoans had cataloged as P-3X-447, but which Julius had already named "Behemoth," was a jungle world where everything tried to eat everything else. Rain lashed down in gusts, whipping a canopy so dense it only let through a sickly, twilight-green glow.
Julius watched, arms crossed, the shaky video feed from one of the Black Troopers on exercise. The image showed a Todd-Unit, his Bastion Class armor already smeared with mud, engaging in close combat with a three-meter-tall bipedal creature covered in scales and armed with claws that screeched against the armor's metal. The soldier didn't give an inch, using the sheer mass of his suit to bulldoze the beast before firing a point-blank plasma burst into it.
"Efficient. Brutal. Limited," Julius murmured to himself.
The contrast with the parallel project was striking. On another screen, theoretical simulations of the future Helldivers' operations scrolled by. Instead of scenes of carnage, there were schematics of first-contact protocols, analyses of non-hostile bio-organic signals, and models for deploying colonization beacons. They would be the pioneers, the diplomats in armor. An approach the Black Troopers, by their very nature, could never embody.
The room's door slid open without a sound. Taun We, the long-necked Kaminoan with her graceful gait, entered, her immaculate coat seeming to repel the very concept of the outside world's filth.
"Master Braveheart. The preliminary data from the Behemoth training exercises aligns with your projections. The survival rate of the Todd units is 98.7% after the first week. A remarkable success."
"Their conditioning is excellent," Julius agreed without turning from the screens. "But efficiency has a cost. Their psyche is... rigid. They are the perfect sword, but a sword cannot build an empire, only conquer it."
Taun We tilted her head, a gesture of cold curiosity. "This is the rationale for your second lineage, the 'Helldivers.' Their accelerated growth matrices are already in place. The integration of the modified genetic profile with the 'G-Serum' is underway. The first units will be ready for mnemonic base implantation in seventy rotations."
"Good. And the equipment?"
"The specifications for the powered armor have been integrated into our fabrication systems. The concept of 'personalization' is... unusual for us. Standardization is the key to quality."
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Julius's lips. "Standardization produces soldiers. Personalization forges individuals. The Helldivers will need to improvise, to adapt to unknown ecosystems, not just follow a protocol. Their armor must be a reflection of their operational personality. That's an order."
Taun We did not argue. "As you wish. The first armor units will be available for personalization testing phases once the clones reach physical maturity."
His gaze returned to the Black Troopers' screen. Another Todd was neutralizing a nest of burrowing creatures with a thermite charge. Methodical. Relentless.
Then he looked at the Helldivers'schematics, already imagining their Powered Armor painted in their squad's colors, covered in engravings and custom field modifications.
Julius Braveheart was looking forward to seeing what this would yield in just a few months. On one side, the perfect, unbreakable blade. On the other, the versatile and adaptable tool. The future of his budding empire was being forged here, in the pristine labs of Kamino and on the bloody mud fields of Behemoth. And he was eager to see which of his two tools would prove to be the sharpest.