The Virus

Out in space, far above Korriban, came 2 ships from orbit. They were Harrow-class star destroyers, and aboad one was Darth Taral. As she had entered an escape pod and launched it at Korriban, it was a matter of minutes in which she landed. When she landed, crash landed, next to the Alpha base in which the transmissions to Tarn came from, she kicked the door open and stepped out onto the side of a rocky mountain. Her pod was wedged in the side of the mountain, between a large crack it had made. Taral, laying back in her pod, realized she's looking towards the sky. Not surprised, she jumped out fueled with the Force, and landed on the side of the pod, which would mean she's standing upwards.

She shot her hilt from her sleeve and stabbed the rock in front of her, and then jumped on the hilt, and very quickly jumped to the top of the mountain before she could push the blade down too far. She used the Force to call her hilt back to her, and as it flung into her hand, she deactivated it and put it where it belonged. She turned around to see a series of rock slabs, large enough to be called a hill, on top of eachother with a large, high-tech base sitting atop it. Each slab recessed a little farther back, making large step-like slabs. They went 4-feet high, so Taral had to jump on top of each one. And so she did. As she approached the base, looking down as she went, staring at the lifeless bodies before her, she took out her hilt ready for something. And, as she approached the hill-side entrance, the door immediately opened and there were about 20 soldiers, kneeling in the door way, with guns pointed at Darth Taral. One person behind them, their leader, was wearing a breath mask, along with all the soldiers. As all 20 men started to fire at Taral, she did a back flip and deflected about 3 lasers as she landed.

To be done...

The Soldiers stopped firing immediately afterwords, deeply ashamed.

"We're sorry M'lady, we didn't think anybody would still be alive" the commanding soldier said, bowing before Taral.

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" And at that command, some soldiers looked at Taral and back at the commanding soldier, and nodded, a little pissed that they had to kill their friend. As he freaked out, flailing his arms in the air and running back to Taral's pod, the soldiers shot him 7 times in the back, and he fell to the ground. He was spamming all over the place, randomly flinching. 3 soldiers stood over him, and shot him in the head, knee, and face. He was then dead. "Now, all of you, get in the building and lock down as I enter," Darth Taral said forcibly, making sure they obeyed immediately. As they put their weapons at rest and ran in the door, Angeline slowly walked to Taral, in attention, and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Lady Taral, but under unfortunate circumstances. Follow me ma'am, and I'll take you to the command center." As Angeline had a breath mask on, he voice was a little muffled and was slightly altered. Angeline bowed before her master, and she turned to go to the top floor. As she led Taral, the Dark Lady noticed many dead people laying across the halls. "As you can see, ma'am, a virus had crippled all of Korriban, as there are not many survivors. In fact, I believe the only survivors are in this base." Angeline had paused to enter an elevator, and pressed a button on the side as Taral entered, and they were enroute to the top floor. At the top, Angeline walked to a computer terminal, and on the green screen lay the status of Korriban.

Intelligent Population: 56
Other Population: 0
Total Life: 56
Percent Of Previous Life: .000000001%
Planet Inhabitability: 0%

"Ma'am, all of Korriban's inhabitants are dead. This virus has rendered the planet uninhabitable. I had immediately evacuated all survivors to Kashyyyk, and that was only 1.3% of the total population." "Quite unfortunate," Taral said, unthoughtfully. She cared little for life. She turned around, only to see some men watching Taral and Angeline Foxtrot, and some others working on terminals.

"Ma'am, we have no idea where this virus came from. We follow proper protocol here" Angeline said. "We only have one lead," Angeline led Taral to a computer terminal, "we picked up an encrypted transmission approximately one week ago. Naturally we pick up a lot of encrypted messages here so we took our time deciphering it, it was sent by an Empire researcher by the name of Marro Dayre. We still have yet to decipher the entire message but from what we gather, they experienced this virus first." Angeline looked over at Taral who was for the first time since she knew the dark lord, interested in what Angeline was saying.
"After the message was received, they locked down several Empire planets, no one in or out."
Angeline took Taral aside so that the other wouldn't hear.
"Taral, nobody knows this yet...the Empire has been destroyed. This virus has wiped out all Empire planets and ships, even their leader Ta'u has been killed by this virus. And we have word other planets may be infected. This has been only about a week or so, at this rate, the entire galactic population could be reduced to a mere handful. I know you have no care for life, but this extreme a loss could have a devastating effect, even on the force sensitives. No more economy, transportation, everything would crumble. And we haven't much time. The Empire transmission originated from Nal' Hutta, I suggest we go there"

"Hmm, well, Angeline, this is probably the most interesting I've been through yet," Taral slyly replied. "You, Angeline, shall accompany me, but when we arrive, you must be wearing a breath mask and air-tight suit. Understand?" Taral turned around once again, and saw a couple of people looking at Taral and Angeline intently, but turned to their work as soon as Taral looked. She turned back to Angeline slowly, and looked at her soft and bouncy brown hair... Like a cloud, it made her feel comforted. "If you comply to my offer, then you should organize a medical and research team."

For the first time in Taral's life, she actually cared about something other than herself and family.

( Darkwing? )

sorry, was at work mostly, I back now!

And Angeline, after a long pause of thought, replied, "Yes, Milady."