Blackwing virus outbreak on Dathomir

The Blackwing virus was an infectious viral agent that turned its victims into flesh-craving undead creatures. It was originally created as a means of becoming immortal by the Sith Lord Darth Drear using Sith alchemy during the Old Republic.

Thousands of years later, the virus was finally recovered by Darth Vader. During the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Vader commissioned the Imperial Biological Weapons Division to re-engineer the virus and turn it into a bioweapon. His objective was to use the virus to create super soldiers. The project was secretly carried aboard the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Vector. However, in 1 BBY, the virus was accidentally unleashed aboard the Vector, and later in the Imperial prison barge Purge, turning all of the personnel into violent undeads. The sole survivors who eventually succeed in escaping the outbreak were Doctor Zahara Cody, chief medical officer of the Purge, the prisoner Trig Longo, and the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca.

After the Vector incident, the project was not canceled but relocated to a secret Imperial Research and Prison Facility on the remote planet Dathomir. The Empire recruited high profile scientists from all around the galaxy to participate in the project. Dr. Griffax Jin served as chief virologist. Other scientists included Dr. Pram Dramango, Dr. Stane Tritan, Dr. Nomi Rhane, Dr. Piodas Ray, Dr. Tare Sal, Dr. Ziris Enz, Marpo Glenfik, Skrat Horle, and Tyla Gallamby. Security personnel included Captain Lenders Ennada, Lieutenants Flinn Boster, Arwen Zherooh and Jecht Eris, stormtroopers TK-217, BT-413, DS-378, TK-108, FR-351, GT-643, KD-121 and HX-138. Other staff included Inquisitor Klex Fulgor, prison guards Torkin Doha and Derin Hans, creature handlers Tyris Santorini and Yerkys Neir, and maintenance worker Pit Cornburr.

At some point, one of the scientists involved in project provided the virus to the biologist Derg Prantis, chief-scientist of the Mos Eisley Biolab on Tatooine. The biologist therefore built a secret laboratory on the remote planet Lok to conduct his own research on the virus. However, Prantis was later betrayed by his lab assistant Bera Jeza who contacted Jabba the Hutt to sell him the super soldier drug. Nevertheless, Prantis and Jeza were assassinated, as well as the entire staff of Derg Prantis' secret lab.

In 1 ABY, an accident happened in the Imperial Research and Prison Facility and the virus escaped containment another time. Again, the virus killed most of the people in the area and turned them into hungry zombies.

In place of sterilizing the area with an orbital bombardment, the Empire promptly established a Quarantine Zone to contain the infection. The area was surrounded by a tall fortified wall and its access was defended by a contingent of stormtroopers commanded by Lieutenant Liam Waurie. Very few people who survived the initial virus outbreak managed to escape the lockdown, among them were Tyla Gallamby, stormtrooper Tk-216, and Illrian Nhagy The other survivors, mostly Imperial staff and prisoners, were trapped in the Quarantine Zone. They established five camps inside the area, Camp Alpha, Camp Beta, Camp Gamma, Camp Delta and Camp Epsilon, to try to live in safety while waiting for an evacuation. These survivors included Stephon Sprocketfire, Sergeant Mika Horn, Kyra 'Naa, Lieutenant Erlem Marh, Zsu Val, Volo Madine, TIE pilot Jeb Maris, Tripp D'jek, stormtrooper TR-522, Sogan Varga, Oona Wran, stormtroopers HX-138, KD-121 and GT-643, Nils Cridmeen, and Inquisitor Klex Fulgor. The camps all came under regular attack from the zombies. Moreover, all rescue teams were attacked upon landing in the area and their members were killed before they could find the survivors. Landing in the Quarantine Zone was eventually prohibited and Imperial authorities only tried to support the survivors with supply air drop.

The Rebel Alliance discovered the accident in the Imperial Research and Prison Facility almost as quickly as the Empire itself. Immediately after the outbreak, before the establishment of the Quarantine Zone, a small unit of Rebel troops landed near the Imperial Research and Prison Facility to investigate the place and rescue survivors. However, the Rebel forces were soon attacked by undead stormtroopers and were forced to withdraw. They suffered heavy casualties but managed to retreat to their extraction point. Nonetheless, when some Rebel soldiers started to display symptoms of the sickness, the evacuation mission was aborted and the few remaining Rebels were stuck in the Quarantine Zone.

Doctor Zahara Cody and Trig Longo, the survivors from the Purge, soon arrived on Dathomir and were dropped in Camp Alpha from the Millennium Falcon by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Cody and Longo had decided to distribute to the survivors of the Quarantine Zone an anti-virus developed by Dr. Cody during the Vector incident from her own immunity.

In the meantime, the Zabrak slicer Cale Herron was investigating the disappearance of the scientists employed by the Empire to work on the Blackwing virus project. After the assassination of the biologists Derg Prantis and Bera Jeza in Mos Eisley, he received the support of a group of spacers who assisted him in his investigation. In Derg Prantis' lab on Lok, the spacers found the genetic sequence of the virus, but they did not realize the importance of their discovery. Nevertheless, their investigation finally led them to the discovery of the virus outbreak on Dathomir. When the spacers arrived on Dathomir, the area was already quarantined by the Empire.

Imperial operations in the Quarantine Zone were supervised by Darth Vader himself. In fact, the Dark Lord was not eager to lose the virus and the research data. He therefore ordered Captain Piett to recruit volunteers in order to enter the quarantine zone and obtain a sample of the virus in the Imperial Research and Prison Facility. In the meantime, the situation was discovered by the Rebel Alliance and the Black Sun criminal organization. Han Solo was tasked by Mon Mothma to contact Rebel agents and convince them to enter the Quarantine Zone to get the virus before the Empire. On the other hand, Guri, the lieutenant of Prince Xizor of the Black Sun, traveled to the Quarantine Zone as well and recruited unaligned adventurers to find the virus for Xizor. Both the Rebellion and the Black Sun had managed to steal Imperial authorization codes, allowing their agents to enter the Zone.

Once in the Quarantine Zone, all those spacers had to fight against an extensive amount of aggressive undeads. The undeads included Imperial soldiers and prisoners from the Imperial Research and Prison Facility as well as indigenous Dathomiri Witches. The spacers fought and killed a large number of Individuals reanimated by the virus, including Fenn Kay'lay, Vil Burren, Jawiin Danod, Salek Panaka, Snotharr, Navik Geelo, Dugo Evnul, Adol Mantid, Tal Freykaa, Kallaova, Soon Dom, Ool Awmod, Jaina Nassin, Wertsnik, Wesk Kit'pay, Ghianna Hayde, Chak Krist, Treena Moldovia, Vina Maljazara, and Pit Cornburr.

The spacers later reached the Camp Epsilon in the courtyard of the Imperial Research and Prison Facility were they found a contingent of immune stormtroopers led by HX-138. The spacers helped the stormtroopers to repair a damaged Lambda-class shuttle and therefore obtained their support in finding the virus in the Research Facility. The spacers then entered the Research Facility itself where they were attacked by the most aggressive undead creatures. They even had to fight a giant undead rancor in the depths of the Facility. Finally, the spacers found the chief virologist, Dr. Griffax Jin, who was still alive. However, the man was infected by the virus and soon turned into a zombie and attacked the spacers. After the scientist was definitely killed, one of the spacers managed to get a sample of the original virus in the lab. The spacers also encountered some survivors, including TK-217, Marpo Glenfik, Dr. Pram Dramango, Dr. Stane Tritan, Dr. Griffax Jin and Dr. Nomi Rhane. The spacers helped them to shut down the facility ventilation in order to stop the spread of the virus outside the research center. The survivors and the spacer then used an emergency escape ladder to leave the facility. The spacers escorted the survivors to Camp Epsilon nearby, where a group of refugees, including HX-138 and her troops, were awaiting them. The survivors from the research facility, the spacers and the refugees of Camp Epsilon eventually escaped the Quarantine Zone together in the repaired Lambda-class shuttle.

The Empire eventually succeed in containing the spread of the virus. Since some Witches of Dathomir were contaminated by the Blackwing virus during the crisis, Imperial forces targeted the Witches living in the neighborhood of the Quarantine Zone and exterminated most of the Howling Crag Clan. However three of the infected witches, Denkra, Naija and Thestriel Kymeri, survived by using the Force to fight off the contagion and learned to control the virus. They became known as the Sisters of the Void.

The Blackwing virus outbreak on Dathomir appeared in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011. The Blackwing virus outbreak was first mentioned in the game during the questline "Something is Obviously Wrong," released with the "Game Update 13", on September 30, 2009, introducing the upcoming "Death Troopers" content of Star Wars Galaxies. The Blackwing virus outbreak on Dathomir was the main addition of the "Game Update 14," released on October 12, 2009. This update was developed in conjunction with Joe Schreiber's novel, Death Troopers.