Through already with legions of stormtroopers and a dozen superweapons, the Empire still continued developing chemical weapons to strengthen its tyrannical rule.
Vira 606, Emperor's Plague, Nano-destroyers, these unfamiliar word would led us to explore a little-known history…
(In case you missed it, check out part one ,part two and part three of Germ,Viruse, Disease and War:A history of Imperial chemical warfare)
The "Sickness" and Blackwing Project
Some time during post-Manderon period, an ancient Sith Lord created a disease later known as the "Sickness".
Hoping it would grant immortality to himself, but his plan was just partly successful.
Because the infectious viral agent created through the powers of Sith alchemy only would transformed its victims into undead monsters. And the Sith lord himself likely fell victim to his own creation.
Around a millennium later, another Sith lord recreate the virus as an attempt to achieve immortality, believing he could avoid recommitting mistakes of last Sith lord, but only suffered the same fate of the creator of the virus.
Then the "Sickness" was lost in the history, utill the Imperial Era. The other Sith lord,Darth Vader learnt the existence of the "Sickness unlike last two Sith lord,Vader saw its potential as a weapon and believed it would be a method for the Empire to eradicate revolutionaries and freedom fighters.
The Sith Lord ordered the Imperial Biological Weapons Division to recreate the virus and weaponize it.The scientists of the Biological Weapons Division operated the Project Blackwing in secrecy to fulfill Vader's mandate,working on the Imperial star destroyer Vector as it toured the galaxy.
The "Sickness" initially appeared to be easily containable and imperial scientists even successful collected the virus sample and examine these specimens.However,during a critical malfunction of Vector's engines , a small amount of airborne Blackwing virus was leaked,then quickly infected the hundreds of Imperials aboard the star destroyer.
The Blackwing virus outbreak on the star destroyer VectorThough the crews and scientists tried their best,the undead still quickly overran the whole star destroyer.After all,only a little handle of crews and stormtroopers boarded a landing shuttle and barely escaped from Vector.
Ten weeks later,the "Sickness" quickly spread on Purge,an Imperial prison barge which its engines were damaged by Vector earlier. The "Sickness" killed off the most crews of Purge,and transformed them into the undeads.
After the whole outbreak,only four crews of two vessels barely survived.And then both of Vector and Purge aimless floating across the galaxy.
It seems that the Empire learnt nothing from the Blackwing virus outbreak.Instead of giving up the project,the Empire simply relocated to a secret research lab on Dathomir, a remote planet which blockad by the Empire shortly after the Battle of Yavin.
Around one year after destruction of the first Death Star, an outbreak happened in the research lab and Blackwing Virus escaped containment another time. Then the "Sickness" swept across the whole area,turned the infected into hungry zombies.
Not eager to lose the virus and the research data,Darth Vader dispatched Captain Piett to recruit volunteers in order to obtain an original sample of the Blackwing virus in the research center which located in the undeads haunting quarantine zone.And then both the Rebel Alliance and the Black Sun sent their own agents,possibly groups of spacers to find the virus.
The undeads on Dathomiri,ranging from imperial soldiers to Dathomiri WitchesOnly know a little details about what truly happened on Dathomiri later,it seems that spacers successful complete their mission.And it likely is the end of the "Sickness" .