Here is a Brood I Arachne.
Here is a Brood X Arachne.
The Parasophic Arachne initiative represents an unlawful undertaking in bioengineering, orchestrated by the GeneTech Syndicate during the period of the Galactic Civil War.
The GeneTech Syndicate company executed the Parasophic Arachne program as a class 5 biological research and development endeavor. The program's central objective was the development of an intelligent arachnes species, intended for deployment by the Galactic Empire. The Empire could release these arachnes on a world where they didn't want to commit troops, but also wanted to deny its use to enemies. While these creatures would devastate the indigenous ecosystem, the planet would be rendered effectively uninhabitable.
This project was secretly advanced within a laboratory situated just outside Dearic, a city on the planet Talus. Publicly, the lab was registered as a legitimate animal genetic manipulation facility. The Parasophic Arachne program, inherently dangerous, was rendered even more illicit by its execution on an inhabited planet. The project's leadership was under the direction of Doctor Vigh, who served as the chief scientist for the GeneTech Syndicate.
Initially, the scientific aspects of the Parasophic Arachne program could be viewed as a success, as the GeneTech Syndicate's scientists ultimately succeeded in engineering deadly and intelligent lifeforms. Sometime after the Battle of Yavin, Doctor Vigh gave the order to move several specimens to the Imperial research facility located on Nubia. However, the transport vessel carrying these creatures met with disaster, crashing in the mountains close to the city of Nashal shortly after takeoff. Moreover, the arachnes broke free from their confinement within the lab, overwhelming their creators and causing a massacre among most of the staff, including the project's manager. The surviving scientists quickly dispersed and went into hiding to evade capture by the CorSec and potential charges for conducting unlawful biological experiments. Jana T'bayr was the only scientist who stayed at the lab. She initially hoped to salvage the project, but then dedicated herself to finding a way to stop the parasophic arachnes from destroying Talus.
The exposure of the Parasophic Arachne program occurred after the engineered arachnes' transport ship crashed near Nashal in the mountains, specifically in 1 ABY. Taarna, a CorSec Agent, sent a spacer to look into the crash and rescue any survivors. The spacer discovered that Captain Narl and the other survivors had been killed while attempting to prevent the arachnes' escape into the wilderness.
CorSec later determined the flight path of the crashed ship and found that it had departed from Dearic. Subsequently, a CorSec scout team discovered that the GeneTech Syndicate Lab near Dearic was in the midst of an emergency evacuation. Agent Taarna enlisted the help of spacers, who then went to the lab and found that the building was completely overrun by the bioengineered creatures. The spacers first found the directory terminal and downloaded evidence and details about the project, which was known as Parasophic Arachne. Taarna then ordered his CorSec crew to clear the lab. With the help of 6-POC, the project manager's protocol droid, the spacers were able to erase all scientific data that could be used to restart the program. They also found a self-destruct intron virus, which was a virus that GeneTech Syndicate scientists had specifically designed to kill the arachnes. The spacers used this virus on every arachne eggs they found in the lab. In the meantime, they fought and killed many arachnes in the lab. Agent Taarna later tasked the spacer to eliminate the arachne queen, the arachne responsible for breeding the parasophic arachnes. The spacers found the queen, a gigantic arachne, at the lowest level of the lab and finally killed her. Taarna believed that the new arachne species was doomed with the death of the queen. However, Jana T'bayr revealed that another arachne, the queen's mate, was still posing a threat. The queen's mate was much larger and stronger than other arachnes and designed to be exceptionally durable. While much of the queen mass was dedicated to reproductive functions, her mate however was almost entirely devoted to combat. Furthermore, if the queen's mate was the only arachne left, he could morph into a breeder and could repopulate the species by himself. A group of spacers found the queen's mate in another part of the lab and, after an intense fight, managed to kill the dreadful creature. The destruction of all the breeding arachnes and eggs eliminated the Parasophic Arachne threat.
With the planet Talus now free from the bioengineered arachnes, CorSec shifted its focus to apprehending the fleeing Genetech Syndicate scientists. CorSec also lodged a formal complaint with the Imperial Research Division against the GeneTech Syndicate, citing their execution of class 5 biological experiments on an inhabited world. Despite these actions, Agent Taarna remained pessimistic, anticipating a protracted and intricate investigation before any legal proceedings could commence. Regardless, the spacers who participated in the battle against the arachnes received a substantial reward from the Talusian government.
The Parasophic Arachne program made its debut in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was developed by Sony Online Entertainment, and published by LucasArts. The game was shut down on December 15, 2011. The Parasophic Arachne program was integrated into the game through the "Genetic Potential" and "Deifying Decisions" story arcs, with the release of "Chapter 2: The Talus Incident," on August 1, 2006.