Evir Derricote

Born on Kalla VII, a planet within the Corporate Sector occupied by the Imperial regime, Evir Derricote entered the Imperial Academy system upon reaching adulthood. His exceptional performance on the entrance exams, placing him in the top two percent, earned him a spot at the prestigious Imperial Naval Academy. After the standard 30-month training period, Derricote graduated in the top third of his class, qualifying him for TIE pilot training. While his military acumen developed during these years, he focused intently on botany and biology. Derricote graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy and ultimately achieved the rank of colonel.

Before 1 BBY, Derricote was the commanding officer of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing. Under his leadership, the 181st was a disorganized wing of TIE pilots, widely regarded as one of the worst in the entire Empire. The 181st's quarters were messy, pilots relaxed in their undershirts, drank on duty, and addressed superiors informally. The unit consisted of underperforming pilots who had angered political figures. Derricote hinted publicly that he, too, had made such enemies, though he never identified them or the actions that led to their displeasure.

Derricote not only acknowledged the wing's poor standing but embraced it, even calling the wing the "One-Eighty-Worst" and allowing a banner that read "The Emperor's Forgotten Ones" to hang in the pilot's quarters. He would mock new recruits for being assigned to the unit due to angering superior officers, telling them that the squadron's missions were designed for shame and high casualty rates. Derricote himself did not maintain a clean appearance, often wearing a dirty undershirt and appearing filthy and sweaty from his gardening activities.

Derricote made no effort to improve the 181st's discipline or performance, not only out of indifference but also to avoid drawing the Empire's attention. By keeping the 181st a lackluster unit, he was largely ignored by his superiors, allowing him to pursue his horticultural interests. He spent most of his time in his private greenhouse, filled with small trees and exotic plants, like mycosia flowers. This "glass house" served as a precursor to his later biotic work.

In 1 BBY, the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing was assigned to defend Imperial-controlled Dac, a planet in the Calamari system inhabited by species like the Mon Calamari and the Quarren. The wing operated primarily from Heurkea Floating City, located in the planet's southern territorial zone. Consistent with Derricote's leadership, the pilots were lazy and undisciplined, their living spaces were untidy, and they showed no respect when their commander entered or gave orders. Derricote also maintained a disheveled and unprofessional appearance, leaving his collar undone, his uniform unbuttoned, his hair messy, and his sleeves rolled up. He spent most of his time in his greenhouse, which he called the "nursery."

During this period, a group of Rebels, including Senator Bail Organa, pilot Juno Eclipse, and anti-Imperial resistance leaders Gial Ackbar and Seggor Tels, secretly infiltrated Heurkea. Their plan was to plant and detonate explosives around the city to humiliate the Empire and bolster local resistance movements on Dac. PROXY, a holodroid working with the group, used advanced hologram technology to create elaborate disguises. Before arriving at Heurkea, PROXY accessed Imperial files and obtained information about Derricote's appearance. Upon arrival, the droid disguised himself as Derricote, mimicking his look and voice.

Posing as Derricote, PROXY claimed that Organa and Eclipse were his informants, and that Ackbar and Tels were captured Dac resistance members en route to interrogation. Initially, the disguise was unconvincing, and Organa and Eclipse had to kill two stormtroopers who recognized PROXY as a fake. Observing the messy state of the 181st's living quarters, Eclipse realized that PROXY's disguise was too clean and neat. After making him appear sloppier, the disguise became more convincing to the 181st pilots, and PROXY successfully ordered them to launch their TIE fighters and perform honor roll exercises over Heurkea. Meanwhile, Organa and Tels separated from the other Rebels, found and captured the real Derricote, secured him in binders, and brought him to the rest of the group.

The Rebels initially intended to take Derricote off Dac as a prisoner, but they were stopped when two dozen stormtroopers, led by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, ambushed the group. Derricote was freed and thanked Tarkin for the rescue, though the Grand Moff showed him little respect, admitting that rescuing him was not his priority. However, unbeknownst to the Imperials, a group of Quarren had already planted explosives, which the Rebels detonated. Because the 181st TIE fighters were performing their honor rolls as the bombs exploded, Tarkin and his stormtroopers mistakenly believed they had fired on the city. In the ensuing chaos, the Rebels opened fire on Tarkin and the stormtroopers, who fled the room as a terrified Derricote huddled in the corner.

Satisfied that their demonstration would humiliate the Imperials and encourage the Dac resistance movement, the Rebels decided to release Derricote rather than take him prisoner, so he could witness what had occurred. A suspicious Derricote believed the Rebels would shoot him down, but they let him go as promised. The incident further damaged Derricote's standing with his Imperial superiors and harmed his career. The 181st pilots were initially arrested on suspicion of betraying the Empire and attacking Heurkea, but it was eventually explained that the explosions were the result of bombs planted by the Rebels, not the TIE pilots.

In 0 ABY, Captain Soontir Fel was reassigned to the 181st after several Imperial Academy cadets he trained, including Biggs Darklighter and Hobbie Klivian, hijacked the Rand Ecliptic and defected to the Rebel Alliance. Fel was appalled by the lack of discipline in the 181st and asked Derricote for permission to transform the second squadron, which he commanded, into a proper military unit. Derricote agreed, but as the squadron improved, he did not report its performance to his superiors because he did not want to attract attention to the wing.

Despite this, the 181st gradually improved in quality and reputation, especially after Fel led his squadron to victory at the Second Battle of Ord Biniir. Because this battle occurred on the same day as the Battle of Yavin, a major Imperial defeat, the Empire propagandized and exaggerated the importance of the Ord Biniir victory. In 0.5 ABY, the 181st was reduced from a wing to a group, allowing Fel to use his expertise as an academy instructor to turn it into the Empire's most elite starfighter unit.

For the next two years, Derricote left all 181st training to Fel, who worked hard to prepare the group for various missions. Derricote's reputation improved solely due to Fel's efforts, but Fel never indicated any objection to sharing the credit. In fact, he often joined Derricote in his gardening hobby and offered suggestions for better plant care. Eventually, Fel started his own garden, which Derricote helped him maintain.

In 3 ABY, Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn chose the 181st Imperial Fighter Group to attack a Rebel supply convoy in the Battle of Derra IV. Derricote commanded the 181st in the battle, but the victory of the TIE fighter pilots was due to Fel's training, not Derricote's. Nevertheless, Derricote proved to be a capable pilot and fighter, significantly contributing to the elimination of the enemy and delivering the final blow that destroyed the Hopskip, the freighter tracked by Thrawn that led to the battle. Derricote also discovered during the battle that he was not only skilled at killing Rebels but also enjoyed it.

Upon returning to the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer that the group was temporarily assigned to for the battle, Derricote gladly accepted the accolades for the victory, while Fel avoided them, disillusioned by Derricote's hypocrisy in embracing an attack plan devised by Thrawn—a Chiss alien—despite Derricote's speciesism. Emperor Palpatine himself praised Derricote as a hero and awarded him a medal for his role in the battle, along with Fel and Turr Phennir, a 181st pilot who destroyed four transports. Derricote was promoted to general and given command of the Imperial forces of the Pyria system, a star system in the Colonies region that included the planet Borleias, where Derricote would establish his base of operations. Fel inherited command of the 181st.

Between 3 and 4 ABY, before taking his new commission in the Pyria system, Derricote was chosen by the Emperor to develop a series of devastating bioweapons. Palpatine, who had become acquainted with Derricote after the Battle of Derra IV, recognized his biological expertise and tasked him with creating a series of species-specific viruses to wipe out entire races. Only Palpatine knew if he intended to use these plagues to purge the galaxy of alien races or simply to exert greater control and fear over them. Regardless of the Emperor's motives, Derricote accepted the assignment.

A headquarters, which would later be known as the Emperor's Plague Storehouse, was established for Derricote in a secret research facility on an uncharted asteroid in the Deep Core. The location was so obscure that it required six separate hyperspace jumps and many hours to reach. The depot consisted of a maze of pressurized domes, tunnels, and sealed chambers surrounding a central hub with an array of sealed cylinders, tubes, and canisters to contain Derricote's future creations.

Derricote began developing the viruses, which required test subjects from various species. Palpatine provided him with all the specimens he needed, including Wookiees, Twi'leks, Mon Calamari, Quarren, and Gamorreans, among countless others. Some of these aliens were dissected to give Derricote a better understanding of their biology; others were used to test the virus samples. All of them died in horrific ways as Derricote slowly finalized a virus for each race. Eventually, although the incubation and response times varied, Derricote developed enough viruses to wipe out all known races in the galaxy. Among these viruses was the Emperor's Plague, a fast-moving strand that would infect and kill only Humans. Even Palpatine, a Human, considered the virus too deadly and terrible to use, but he had it stored with the others nonetheless.

When Derricote's work was complete, Palpatine ordered that all the viruses remain stored in the secret asteroid depot, and the general finally assumed his Borleias post sometime before the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. Palpatine had the storehouse's coordinates removed from the Imperial archives to hide its location, and only a few high-ranking Imperials, including Derricote, were aware of the station's existence. Palpatine unleashed a few of the diseases on some species but died before he could fully utilize the bioweapons.

On Borleias, Derricote discovered a forgotten company called Alderaan Biotics, completely abandoned except for a crew of maintenance droids that kept it from falling apart. The facility, which specialized in exotic flora from Alderaan, was little more than a tax write-off for its parent company in previous years, but the market for Alderaanian goods had exploded after the planet was destroyed by the first Death Star. Derricote saw an opportunity to generate significant profit and pursue his horticultural interests, as well as a means of survival amidst the crumbling Empire following the loss at the Battle of Endor. Although he still felt some loyalty to the Empire, he also believed it was doomed after Palpatine's death and wanted to be prepared for whatever replaced it.

For these reasons, Derricote decided to keep the venture secret from the Empire and siphoned money from the Imperial treasury to fund it. He secretly duplicated requisitions, attached intricate routing tags, and sent them to multiple commands, creating a series of false orders to funnel enough fuel and funds to run the Alderaan Biotics plant. The facility soon became operational, reaching its full production capacity in 5 ABY. Because the operation was illegally subsidized by the Empire, overhead costs were low, and the plant generated 2.75 million credits over the next 15 months. Derricote invested the money in off-world inventory, further concealing the profits of his secret operation. These investments helped him establish connections for a wide range of goods, including Whyren's Reserve Corellian whiskey. Most of the goods, mainly foodstuffs, were sold to the Alderaanian refugees, which his superiors would have seen as aiding the enemy had it not been kept secret.

Although Derricote rarely showed leadership with the 181st, his effort to keep his pet project secret and safe resulted in a complete turnaround in his work ethic. Anticipating a future attack on his facility, he improved its defenses by maintaining the shield generator and keeping his TIE fighters at a high level of readiness. He also implemented a training schedule that had his pilots logging twice the required flight time. Derricote also implemented secret defensive measures, using his stolen funds to add additional TIE interceptor squadrons, ion cannons, and a power generator that doubled the shield generator's capacity.

To conceal his stolen funds, Derricote kept computer security nearly as tight as on Imperial Center itself. As an extra precaution, he excluded information about the base's secret defense measures from his own private office datapads. Bothan spies occasionally hacked into the base's HoloNet communications seeking information about the facility, but Derricote kept them at bay by secretly feeding them data. Despite his careful precautions, Derricote was realistic enough to understand he could not keep the secret from the Empire forever, but was confident that his biotics operation would be valuable enough that his skills would be recognized and his life spared.

In 6.5 ABY, Ysanne Isard, Director of Imperial Intelligence and de facto ruler of the Empire, became interested in Derricote and suspected he could be helpful in her plan to create an alien-targeting virus to damage the New Republic's relationship with non-Humans. Isard sent Imperial Intelligence Agent Kirtan Loor to Borleias to spy on him. Loor, however, was unaware of the reason for the assignment and mistakenly believed he was sent to defend the planet from a suspected attack by Rogue Squadron. Just before Loor's arrival, Derricote noticed that New Republic HoloNet hacks were growing in both frequency and length, and he sensed that his secret would soon be revealed to the Empire.

Loor grew increasingly wary of Derricote's newfound dedication to his work, stating it surpassed that of any Imperial officer, save for the Emperor himself. He deduced that Derricote was acting in his own interest, not the Empire's. By infiltrating confidential files on Derricote's personal datapad, Loor uncovered his clandestine operation, though the secret defensive protocols remained hidden. Loor informed Derricote of the potential assault by Rogue Squadron on the Borleias outpost, which, if successful, would provide a launchpad for an attack on Coruscant due to the system's proximity to the Galactic Core. Derricote, confident in his defenses, eagerly anticipated the attack, eager to inflict pain on the Rebels, just as he had during the Battle of Derra IV.

As the New Republic's assault began, spearheaded by the Bothan General Laryn Kre'fey and Rogue Leader Wedge Antilles, Derricote ordered his technicians to feign a gradual shield failure. Kre'fey fell for the ruse, opting not to deploy his full arsenal to avoid damaging the base he intended to capture. He also neglected to arrange a proper defensive escort, wishing to prevent any "unnecessary delay." As the Bothan's shuttle approached the planet, Derricote activated the hidden shield generators, doubling the shield's original strength. He then unleashed ion cannon fire upon the Rebel forces and deployed TIE Interceptors. Among the casualties were Kre'fey and two Rogue pilots, Peshk Vri'syk and Andoorni Hui. The New Republic forces retreated, resulting in a swift and decisive victory for Derricote and his Imperial forces.

As Kirtan Loor prepared to leave, Derricote was aware that the Intelligence agent intended to exploit the information regarding the Borleias base for his own gain. However, the general displayed no concern, even gifting Loor a bottle of Whyren's Reserve as a gesture of gratitude for alerting him to the incoming New Republic forces. Derricote expressed his belief that Isard would value his base and skills rather than destroy them. He even suggested that Loor could return to Borleias should the Empire fall. Loor, who had initially underestimated Derricote, was visibly impressed but still reported him to Isard. Upon receiving Loor's report, she dispatched a Super Star Destroyer to Borleias to retrieve Derricote and bring him to Coruscant.

Derricote was reluctant to relinquish his Borleias outpost and biotics facility to Isard's control. However, recognizing the superiority of her forces, he complied and was transferred to Imperial City. Isard tasked Derricote with developing an airborne disease lethal to non-Human species but treatable with bacta. Her plan was to unleash the epidemic on Coruscant and then cede the planet to the New Republic, hoping to destabilize it through exorbitant bacta costs and interspecies conflict. Isard promised Derricote the return of his Borleias facility if he met her specifications. He accepted, both out of necessity and because the proposal appealed to him, resembling the biological agents he had previously developed for Palpatine.

A laboratory was established for Derricote in the depths of the Imperial Palace. The space, characterized by stark white and silver surfaces, lacked the opulence of the rest of the palace but sufficed for Derricote's needs. The complex of stainless steel corridors led to various rooms, including laboratories equipped with surgical droids for alien dissections, and chambers for the subjects with triple-paned transparisteel windows for observation. Each room maintained negative air pressure to prevent any viral escape.

Loor, as part of his broader mission to eliminate Rogue Squadron, was assigned to assist Derricote. The Intelligence agent resented the assignment, while Derricote reveled in exposing Loor's lack of understanding of his work. Isard also assigned Diric Wessiri to aid the project, though Derricote was unaware that Wessiri was a brainwashed sleeper agent tasked with spying on him.

Only weeks after Derricote's transfer, New Republic forces launched a second attack on Borleias. Using reconnaissance gathered during the first battle by pilot Corran Horn's R2 unit, Whistler, Rogue Squadron identified Derricote's power generator at the Alderaan Biotics facility. The Rogue Squadron pilots severed the conduit supplying auxiliary power to the shield generators and ion cannons, leading to the base's capture by the New Republic forces. Derricote was incensed by the loss, claiming the base would not have fallen had he been present. Isard dismissed these complaints as "tantrums," assuring Derricote that he would eventually regain control of Borleias and that the capture was insignificant to her overall plan.

As Derricote commenced his work on the virus, he submitted requests for test subjects, mirroring his actions during his work for Emperor Palpatine three years prior. His initial requests were for Gamorreans, who provided a suitable platform for creating a virus adaptable to other species. Isard had subjects rounded up from the Alien Protection Zone, a segregated area of Coruscant where the Empire confined aliens. The Gamorreans who were not dissected were used to test the early stages of the Krytos virus. Initially only slightly ill, the subjects soon developed painful black boils; eventually, their flesh cracked, and they ran around hysterically as blood oozed from their wounds. While these sights were repulsive to most, Derricote, having witnessed similar outcomes at the Emperor's Storehouse, took pride in his work and became offended if anyone expressed disgust for the virus.

Soon, Derricote achieved his first milestone by creating a virus with a one-month incubation period, contagious during the final four days, and fatal in 75% of cases. However, Derricote discovered that the same genetic traits that would make the plague airborne would also greatly increase the likelihood of a spontaneous mutation affecting Humans. He concluded that the virus, which could survive in the water supply for about one day, would have to be transmitted through bodily fluids. Despite this progress, Isard deemed the results unacceptable, demanding a shorter incubation period and an airborne virus. Derricote knew the latter was impossible, but he believed that since he was engineering a strain unlike any the galaxy had known, Isard would eventually abandon her unreasonable demands.

Derricote found the Gamorreans' metabolism too slow and requested Quarren subjects, which had less cross-species susceptibility but a higher metabolic rate. These increasing demands for aliens greatly annoyed Loor, especially because Derricote tended to throw tantrums when his requests were not immediately fulfilled. Isard also grew impatient with Derricote's slow progress and threatened the lives of both him and Loor if the strain was not completed in time. However, recognizing the vital importance of Derricote's work, she agreed to all his demands, provided he reduced the incubation period to one week.

The Quarren subjects proved invaluable, enabling Derricote to shorten the incubation period and improve the virus so that only a milliliter of a patient's blood could infect an adult. It was during this phase of his work that Derricote named the virus "Krytos," combining the names of the viruses he had merged. Derricote began making more demands, this time for a species more similar to other races to further develop cross-species infections. He requested a raid on Kashyyyk for Wookiees, but Loor refused, not wanting to eliminate a source of slave labor. So, Derricote asked for Sullustans instead, as they could serve as a bridge race to Shistavanens and Bothans.

While the Sullustan species was also undesirable because its SoroSuub Corporation designed many useful weapons, droids, and vehicles, Isard felt the prospect of eliminating Bothans outweighed the disadvantages. Although she agreed to provide Sullustans, Derricote grew impatient and began conducting his own raids on the Alien Protection Zone. He personally reviewed his kidnapped aliens to choose the healthiest possible specimens; during one such raid, he unknowingly captured and infected Aril Nunb, an undercover Rogue Squadron pilot.

Loor was enraged by Derricote's security breaches, especially because the subjects were not properly screened and were injected with the Krytos virus before Loor could interrogate them. Loor requested disciplinary action against Derricote, but Isard, pleased with the new strain and Derricote's prediction that the incubation process could be shortened, disregarded Loor's complaints and took no action. However, knowing a Rogue Squadron attack against Coruscant was imminent, she demanded Derricote finish the virus to her exact specifications within two weeks. Derricote knew the virus would continue to resist airborne transmission, but still believed his unprecedented work would ultimately please Isard.

By the end of the two-week deadline, the incubation period was still twelve days, longer than Derricote had anticipated. Isard became furious, especially about the lack of airborne transmission, and ordered Derricote to begin replicating the current virus strains and release them into the water supply. The general said he believed in four more days he would have enough of the strain to infect the whole planet, but Isard refused to grant him the time. Loor demanded that he put even his still-experimental versions into the water supply because he no longer trusted Derricote's transmission numbers. Loor also unwittingly saved Aril Nunb's life when he demanded Derricote use her to test whether bacta would heal the virus on Sullustans, a measure Derricote had argued was unnecessary.

Once New Republic forces launched their strike for Coruscant, Isard allowed the planet to fall and released the Krytos virus as planned. The virus killed millions of non-Humans and became one of the most notable and prolific uses of biological warfare in the galaxy. However, the impact of the virus was not as devastating as Isard had hoped.

The non-airborne virus was already of a milder strain than Derricote intended due to Isard's command to release it early, and the effect was further diminished when Rogue Squadron vaporized much of Coruscant's water supply during their attack. Many affected aliens were killed before they had the opportunity to spread the virus to others. And, although Isard limited the supply of bacta by taking control of the medicine-producing planet Thyferra, New Republic forces eventually developed rylca as a substitute to treat the Krytos victims.

In her anger, Isard blamed Derricote for the flaws of the virus, even those beyond his control and in no way his fault. She branded the general a failure and ordered him imprisoned on the Lusankya, her Executor-class Star Dreadnought buried beneath Coruscant's planetary surface. The massive flagship housed her private prison for both Rebel and Imperial captives. Derricote was shocked by the punishment, feeling that he had not only fulfilled his orders but had also achieved a biological breakthrough, despite Isard's unreasonable expectations.

Along with his fellow prisoners, Derricote was subjected to grueling and monotonous physical labor, including breaking down large rocks into smaller ones, grinding them into gravel, and moving them from one location to another. Derricote was the highest-ranking Imperial prisoner on the Lusankya, but ranks held little significance in the prison, so he realized he needed other methods to ensure some level of comfort.

He bribed guards with funds from his Alderaan Biotics venture, which he had concealed in numerous secret accounts. While this did not exempt him from labor, he was able to secure some favors, including obtaining nectars that Derricote used to ferment a mild ale. He shared this ale with the prisoners, gaining their favor by providing them with a rare pleasure.

Despite Isard's betrayal and imprisonment, Derricote remained proud of his Imperial service. He despised the Rebel prisoners and openly disdained them, frequently boasting about the Empire's superiority and his victory at Borleias, neglecting to mention that the world was captured by the New Republic a few days later.

Despite these prejudices, Derricote maintained a relatively amicable relationship with Jan Dodonna, the Rebel Alliance war hero and highest-ranking Rebel prisoner. He immediately disliked Corran Horn, the Rogue Squadron pilot captured by Isard during the Battle of Coruscant. Derricote found Horn unintelligent and irritating, and nearly instigated a physical altercation when he gloated about the deaths of Rogue pilots during the Battle of Borleias.

During a labor session, Derricote observed Horn throwing small rocks at the ceiling. Assuming Horn was planning something or attacking one of the guards, Derricote was about to report him before he noticed one of the rocks shot straight up to the ceiling and stayed there. After considering and ruling out several possible explanations, Derricote came to the same conclusion Horn had: the artificial gravity in the prison was rotated and the prisoners were standing upside down relative to the surface of the planet.

Derricote realized Horn was using this knowledge to plan an escape, and saw an opportunity for his own freedom. Rather than informing the guards about Horn's plan, Derricote decided to tail Horn and catch him in the act, believing he could impress Isard enough that she would set him free. Derricote began watching Horn closely until he finally made his escape attempt, squeezing through a partially open gate. He then bribed a guard for the combination to the gate and followed the Rogue pilot.

While Horn was descending a cavern slope, Derricote picked up a shovel and hit him in the back, incapacitating him. Just as Derricote was about to kill the defenseless pilot, he was attacked from behind by Jan Dodonna, who noticed Derricote was missing and had come to warn Horn. Derricote knocked Dodonna back and began to attack him, but Horn took the shovel and knocked Derricote to the ground. With another blow to the head, Horn broke Derricote's skull and killed him.

Horn realized he could not leave Derricote's corpse exposed without letting the guards know the secret of the artificial gravity had been discovered, which would have made another escape attempt virtually impossible. Horn dragged the body along with him as he continued his escape, shoving him through several tight doorways and occasionally dropping him to lower levels. Finally, Horn dropped the body down a foul-smelling garbage chute.

After giving Horn a sufficient head start, Dodonna reported Derricote missing, prompting Isard to order a search for the missing general. Isard learned of a supposed secret witness in the trial of Tycho Celchu, a Rogue Squadron pilot she had framed for Horn's murder, and assumed it was Derricote. She activated Diric Wessiri, her brainwashed sleeper agent now free on Coruscant, to lie in wait outside the court and kill Derricote. Before being gunned down himself, Wessiri ambushed and killed the actual witness, Kirtan Loor, who died disappointed that the assassination order was for Derricote and that Isard did not consider Loor important enough to target specifically.

The same Alderaan Biotics facility Derricote so profited from was ultimately utilized by the New Republic to help destroy his Krytos virus. Mirax Terrik, a smuggler and ally to Rogue Squadron, was dispatched to Borleias to help develop the rylca that eventually treated the Krytos victims. Since Terrik was believed to be killed during a strike by Warlord Zsinj on a bacta convoy, she was able to conduct her rylca mission secretly and avoid angering the Thyferran bacta producers into cutting off their medicine supplies. Eventually, enough rylca was treated to obliterate the virus from Coruscant.

Derricote and his work did much to fan the flames of anti-Humanism among many alien factions, starting with the Alien Combine, which originally formed in 3 ABY but grew stronger in 6.5 ABY in response to the abductions in Coruscant's Alien Protection Zone. The Alien Combine, which promoted non-violence where possible but was not averse to resorting to violence against Humans deemed suspicious, was the precursor for the much more dangerous Diversity Alliance, which formed in 24 ABY and often referred to the Krytos virus in promoting its anti-Human cause.

In 24 ABY, 17 years after Derricote's death, an alien scavenger named Fonterrat discovered the Emperor's Plague Storehouse and the viruses concealed within. Fonterrat sold the information to Nolaa Tarkona, leader of the anti-Human Diversity Alliance, who planned to use the Emperor's Plague to wipe out the Human race. Although Tarkona despised Humans, she described Derricote as a genius and respected him for developing the virus she believed would destroy his own species.

Among the various bioweapons at the storehouse was a slow-acting, multiple-species targeting virus labeled the "Krytos Plague." Derricote developed these plagues more than two years before engineering the Krytos virus that was unleashed upon Coruscant. The Krytos Plague stored in the Emperor's Plague Storehouse was either a different virus with the same name, or Derricote somehow smuggled some of the real Krytos virus into the storehouse in 6.5 ABY.

The Emperor's Plague Storehouse, and Derricote's legacy, was ultimately destroyed by explosives planted by the young Jedi trainees Lowbacca, Jacen Solo and Jaina Solo. Tarkona escaped with a vial of the Emperor's Plague, but soon died from another plague she was exposed to when several of the virus containers were broken open during a firefight. The plague remained with Raabakyysh, Tarkona's Wookiee companion, who exiled herself to an unnamed planet in the Outer Rim Territories after realizing the extent of her former master's evil.

Evir Derricote was an obese man with a toad-like demeanor, multiple chins, and thinning hair. His unassuming appearance often led others to underestimate him, a tactic he exploited to his advantage. He would often present himself in a way that made him appear foolish and overweight to deceive others, a strategy he successfully employed against Kirtan Loor while concealing his clandestine operations on Borleias. In reality, Derricote was a man of extreme cunning and intelligence. He excelled in his academic pursuits, graduating at the top of his class, and his extensive scientific expertise enabled him to develop sophisticated bioweapons, the likes of which had never been conceived before, in relatively short periods of time.

He was also a military strategist of great skill, able to implement defensive measures at Borleias that swiftly and decisively crushed New Republic forces. Derricote was a capable TIE pilot who distinguished himself in combat at the Battle of Derra IV. He never felt stressed by the prospect of fighting; in fact, he looked forward to putting his skills to the test and derived genuine pleasure from killing his Rebel adversaries. However, Derricote appeared extremely frightened while in the middle of a gun battle, such as the one that broke out on Dac, where he huddled into a ball and cowered in the corner of the room. Derricote was responsible for the deaths of countless aliens through the bioweapons he designed, especially the Krytos virus, yet he showed little regard for the lives he cost. During experiments in which test subjects died in graphic and horrendous ways, Derricote simply admired his handiwork while other observers nearly became sick, revealing a combination of cruelty, Imperial Humanocentric speciesism and a scientific detachment from his work.

Many concluded based on his poor leadership of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing that Derricote was lazy, but his work ethic at Borleias proved this was not at all the case. Rather, Derricote simply concentrated his efforts on his own personal projects, like Borleias, or projects he found challenging or intriguing, like the Emperor's Plague and the Krytos virus. Unlike most Imperial officers who ambitiously sought greater power and authority, Derricote simply preferred to be left to his own devices. He had immense pride in the Galactic Empire and his service to it, but nevertheless had no problem hiding information from them and, indeed, stealing funds from them to serve his personal projects. Following the death of Emperor Palpatine, he did not cling to false notions that the Empire would survive, and began actively preparing for whatever would replace it.

Derricote's great amount of confidence convinced him that his abilities would sustain him against strict Imperial policies that often rewarded failure with fatal consequences. He understood that his secret, illegally-funded Borleias operations would eventually be discovered, but was confident his superior officers would be impressed enough with his skills to spare his life. Similarly, he expected (though erroneously) that Ysanne Isard would be impressed enough with the Krytos virus he designed to forgive him for failing to completely live up to her demands.

Evir Derricote was created by Michael A. Stackpole for his X-wing series, first appearing in X-Wing: Rogue Squadron in 1996. Stackpole later used Derricote in a Rogue Squadron comic issue, The Making of Baron Fel, in 1997. Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta also frequently mentioned Derricote in the Young Jedi Knights series, which take place over a dozen years after his death in X-Wing: The Krytos Trap.