Stone Mites Claim Ord Tiddell

LAGABEE, ORD TIDDELL – The state capital of Ord Tiddell now lies in ruins, its foundation having been repeatedly perforated by the voracious appetites of thousands of stone mites. Much of Ord Tiddell’s capital city of Lagabee has been abandoned, and the planet’s population of four million is in the midst of a mass exodus.

Ord Tiddell is the largest casualty in a bizarre series of stone mites infestations spreading throughout the Colonies and Mid Rim. Worlds as spread apart as Havricus, Sermeria, Tynna, Nar Bo Sholla and Deylerax have reported damage from stone mites, though nothing on Ord Tiddell’s scale.

A stone mite is an aggressive arthropod with wire-cutting jaws and acidic digestive juices that feed off of silicates and complex metals. Electrolytic reactions fuel their metabolism and harden their exoskeletons. The mites merge into symbiotic trionts, excreting a common globular shell and more than tripling their destructive potential.

“A look at its genome strongly suggests the creature is engineered,” says University of Sanbra’s Hall of Biological Research Director Saris Uli. “The patterning is too artificial, too signature to have evolved purely by chance. The big question is who created this pest, and why?”

On Coruscant, where stone mites were first discovered among the lower levels of the Southern Underground, the arthropod population was kept in check by predators such as duracrete slugs and dianogas. On other worlds, which lack such predators, the mites have flourished.

Some suspect that the mites are a biological weapon, the result of intentional military genetic engineering, though Uli cautions that no evidence backs such theories. “That is a possibility, though we have nothing tangible to suggest that. It may have also been an experiment that has gone awry,” he says.

What is tangible are the costs of damages inflicted by the mites. Ord Tiddell itself has lost billions of credits in capital assets and business revenue. The Judiciary Department and the Jedi order are investigating the matter, but many feel it’s too late.

“We don’t need Jedi,” said Lagabeean Mayor Siolu Sporipri, “We need an exterminator.”