Clone Infantry
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The Infantry Clone
Clone Infantry use specially design Combat Clones for ground combat. Generally, combat clones are designed to be disposable and often lack the cosmetic features that humans assume as their identity, such as hair, eye color, skin pigmentation, and other genetic factors. The clones are made from biomass that accumulates, constructs, and activates from within a Clone Reanimation Unit (CRU). The CRU switches on the brain's mechanism for self-awareness and self-sustained organ operation. However, the process is not started until personality and memory data has been uploaded into a clone's brain. The transfer of consciousness to another clone occurs at the exact moment of death through an implant within the brain itself. This advantageous process allows a clone solder to retain key information of the battlefield beyond death and act accordingly.
Origins
Infantry clone technology saw its earliest origins through the use of Sleeper implants. These implants were harvested by Sleepers in stasis, primarily by Capsuleers. (Due to the sheer quantity of technological harvests reaped by Capsuleers, it is often speculated that the Capsuleers are committing genocide against the Sleepers.) The recovered implants are repurposed by the empires for transferring the consciousness of infantry to their next clones.
This became problematic as the fragmented Sleeper consciousness was still within the implant itself and would occasionally compete for control of the host body the implant was assigned to. The psychological conflict would result in psychosis and violent, often self-mutilating behavior with the inclusion of the number '514' frequently written in blood. Accompanying the psychosis was visions of blood-red skies and strange beings. Originally considered an isolated case among soldiers from the same barracks, the instances of psychosis became more frequent across the entire strata of those who were implanted with the Sleeper implants from all four of the empire factions.
The Templar Project, instituted by the Emperor Family, ultimately saw the first successful uses of the first generation infantry clone implants at the Battle of Pike's Landing on Amamake II when a team of Templars were sent to test the capabilities of infantry clone technology in live combat. The battle was costly, resulting in the destruction of a Revelation Dreadnaught and its entire crew when the Dreadnaught had been shot down by planetary cannons after it had warped into low orbit to deploy the Templars on the ground.
Many of the Templars had fallen victim to the Sleeper-laden implants and were therefore destroyed. A single Templar, Templar One, survived unscathed by the events and became an important target between all factions who sought to gain control of the new technology. As naval forces gathered in orbit above the planet, special forces teams were dispatched to the planet's surface, causing skirmishes to develop. Mordu's Legion forces eventually wrestled control of the planet and retrieved Templar One, with Muryia Mordu welcoming and eager to utilize the new technology.
After the events on Amamake II, Empress Jamyl I, in a secret meeting with the other faction leaders, offered an alternative solution to the Sleeper implants that was free of the fragmented Sleeper consciousness. Though skeptical at first, the other faction leader dubiously agreed to use the alternative method provided by Jamyl. The result instituted widespread use from all factions, including the notorious pirate factions, and war began to rage across the entirety of New Eden.
Mordus Private Trials
As early as YC114, Muryia Mordu instituted his Private Trials which pit the new immortal infantry against one another to test the combat capabilities of the technology. The well known pirate factions of the Archangels, Blood Raiders, Guristas, and Serpentis all dispatched newly immortal soldiers to the trials, as well as the Amarr Templars, Mordu's own mercenaries, and the extremist Templis Dragonaurs. Joining the fray was the splinter group of disillusioned clone soldiers from all four of the major factions, Arkombine, who sought a way out of the mercenary life after they were betrayed by the nations they swore to serve.
