I'm working a new backstory for the prequel era and would like some feedback about the following take on the Clone Wars.

Starting in 259 BBY, clones were produced to perform labor deemed too hazardous and unpleasant for Republic citizens. Republic law prohibited the use of clones as soldiers. These clones had lifespans of four years once released from their rapid gestation chambers. The Republic entered a golden age on the backs of its clone laborers, its citizens freed from drudgery and able to produce untold wealth and culture.

In the waning years of the golden age, a corrupt Republic minister sold cloning technology to Warlord Jaster Mereel, military dictator of the Outer Rim world Mandalore. Mereel's engineers quickly adapted the technology to a military end. On a neighboring world they built the Clone Reaper. The Reaper absorbs vital nutrients from a planet's crust and atmosphere to create a vast army of mindlessly devoted soldiers, leaving behind a drained husk of a planet.

Mereel used his new army to wage a war of conquest against the Tionese Hegemony from 43 to 38 BBY. At the same time, rumors began to emerge in the Republic Senate that there existed a Life Code, a genetic "key" capable of "unlocking" true-length lifespans for all clones. This caused clones all over the Republic to revolt against their masters, encouraged by the prospect of finding the Life Code and by the example of Warlord Mereel's clone soldiers.

The Republic's volunteer military, the Republic Defense Force, is embroiled in putting down unruly clones. The RDF, severely burdened with domestic security, all but ignores the Republic colonies that fall one by one to the Mandalorians. In the end, it is only a conscript army, the Stormtroopers, that proves large enough to simultaneously engage the Republic clones and the Mandalorian clones.

The war reaches its climax in 35 BBY. By this point the Jedi are involved, and a young pilot named Anakin Skywalker becomes a key player in the final days of the war.