GeneTech Syndicate

The GeneTech Syndicate was present on Talus during the Galactic Civil War. It was known known to have an intermittent business relationship with the Galactic Empire. The company owned a laboratory, located just outside the city of Dearic. Although it was listed as engaging in legitimate genetic manipulation on animals, the GeneTech Syndicate used this lab to conduct illegal experiments.

By the time of the Battle of Yavin, the GeneTech Syndicate conducted an illegal and dangerous bioengineering project in its Talusian lab. Dubbed Parasophic Arachne program, the objective was to create an intelligent and powerful form of arachnes for the use of the Empire. The project was led by Doctor Vigh, the chief scientist of the GeneTech Syndicate.

The scientists of the Parasophic Arachne successfully managed to bioengineer deadly and intelligent creatures. Doctor Vigh thus ordered to transport several specimens to the Imperial research facility on Nubia. However, the transport carrying the creatures crashed in the Talusian mountains near the city of Nashal just after its departure. Moreover, the arachnes in the lab escaped containment and overwhelmed their creators, slaughtering most of the staff of the GeneTech Syndicate Lab. All the surviving scientists quickly fled and went into hiding to avoid being charged with illegal biological experiments by the CorSec. Jana T'bayr was the sole scientist to remain in the lab. She initially wanted to save the project but she then tried to find a way to prevent the parasophic arachnes from destroying the planet Talus.

The Parasophic Arachne program was exposed after the ship carrying engineered arachnes crashed in the mountains near Nashal, in 1 ABY. CorSec Agent Taarna dispatched a spacer to investigate the crash site and rescue any survivors. However, the spacer discovered that Captain Narl and all the other survivors were killed while trying to prevent the arachnes from escaping in the wilderness.

The CorSec later traced the flight trajectory of the crashed ship and found that it took off from Dearic. A CorSec scout team then discovered that the GeneTech Syndicate Lab was undergoing an emergency evacuation. Agent Taarna recruited spacers who headed to the lab and discovered that the building was completely overwhelmed by the bioengineered creatures. The spacers first located the directory terminal and downloaded evidences and details about the project known as Parasophic Arachne. Taarna therefore ordered his CorSec crew to clear the lab. With the help of 6-POC, the project manager's protocol droid, the spacers managed to delete all scientific data that could be used to restart the program. They also retrieved a self-destruct intron virus, a virus designed specifically by the GeneTech Syndicate scientists to kill the arachnes. The spacers applied this virus to every arachne eggs they found in the lab. The CorSec crew later eliminated the arachne queen, the huge arachne responsible for breeding the parasophic arachne species. Eventually, the spacers destroyed the queen's mate, the largest and strongest bioengineered arachne. The destruction of all the breeding arachnes and eggs definitely eliminated the Parasophic Arachne threat.

After the planet Talus was saved from the bioenineered arachnes, the CorSec targeted the escaped Genetech Syndicate scientists. The CorSec also filed a complaint with the Imperial Research Division against the GeneTech Syndicate for carrying out class 5 biological experiments on an inhabited world. Nevertheless, Agent Taarna was very pessimistic about the chances of success of this investigation.

The GeneTech Syndicate appeared in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011. The GeneTech Syndicate was added to the game as part of the "Deifying Decisions" arcs with the release of "Chapter 2: The Talus Incident," on August 1, 2006.