Krytos virus

Following a twelve-day period of incubation, the Krytos virus initiated a debilitating one-week process of self-replication within the host. Upon saturating a cell, the virus caused it to rupture, leading to the infection of neighboring cells. The virus spread through the body via the circulatory system, systematically infecting cells. Because the virus did not affect pain receptors, the process was exceptionally agonizing for the victim, particularly in its later stages. As the symptoms intensified, a foul odor became increasingly pronounced.

The debilitating process unfolded in seven distinct stages, each corresponding to a day of the illness. Initially, the subject experienced only mild discomfort, resembling a common cold, with no significant outward signs. In the second stage, the subject grew more fatigued and passive, exhibiting a stupor-like state with a fixed, glassy gaze. The third stage brought the onset of skin discoloration, weakening, and sagging of the flesh. By the fourth stage, black boils emerged on the skin, including the tongue and feet, forming a spiderweb-like network of connecting lines. The subject typically avoided applying pressure to the boils to alleviate the associated pain. Dryness of the mouth and a lack of mucus or saliva were also experienced. In the fifth stage, the black boils ruptured, and the flesh cracked along the spiderweb-like lines. As the subject progressed to the sixth stage, the pain intensified, and dementia set in. The subject would often run uncontrollably, colliding with walls and leaving trails of blood and infectious fluids, as well as vomiting blood. Finally, in the seventh and most excruciating stage, the flesh completely disintegrated or, in the case of certain species, liquefied. The skin detached from the bones, muscles tore, and the subject ultimately succumbed to death.

While the overall process remained consistent, specific elements varied among different species. In the final stages, the skin of most species became translucent, discolored, and hung in tattered strips. However, aquatic species such as Quarren and Mon Calamari experienced a complete blackening of the skin and liquefaction of the bones, leaving the victim as little more than a sac filled with Krytos-infected fluid.

The list of species susceptible to the Krytos virus was extensive, encompassing Quarren, Mon Calamari, Gamorreans, Shistavanens, Duros, Twi'leks, Wookiees, Eloms, Gotals, Trandoshans, and Baragwin, among others. The virus was intentionally designed to infect a wide range of species, resulting in immunity for only a select few alien races, most notably Bothans.

The Krytos virus was specifically engineered to target alien species, rendering Humans immune to the disease. During its development, Evir Derricote acknowledged the remote possibility of a spontaneous mutation that could enable Human infection, but the likelihood of such an event was extremely low and would require up to 1,000 years. Over such a period, the species could develop immunity or create a vaccine, although Derricote estimated that such measures would require ten to twenty times the resources needed to design the virus.

Infection by the Krytos virus occurred through contact with bodily fluids and tissues containing the virus. A mere milliliter of blood from an infected patient could transmit the virus to an adult. Direct injection or ingestion of as little as one cubic centimeter of virus-laden liquid resulted in an almost certain infection. However, if the virus came into contact with flesh, approximately ten cubic centimeters of viral fluid were required for infection, and the infection rate decreased to 20 percent. The virus remained viable outside a host for thirty-six hours and could survive longer in warm, moist conditions.

The Krytos virus could persist in water for about one day and, due to its ability to withstand freezing and thawing without losing viability or lethality, tended to freeze into glaciers, continuing to affect bodies of water for extended periods. However, the virus was not airborne, as the genetic modifications required for airborne transmission would have significantly increased the risk of spontaneous mutations that could infect Humans. This high mutation rate also weakened the virus's defenses, ultimately contributing to its study and eradication.

The Krytos virus was engineered with a short incubation period to facilitate rapid spread, but this rapid spread proved counterproductive. Infected individuals died too quickly to spread the disease effectively, leading to a shortage of hosts that limited the virus's ability to propagate. The cross-species susceptibility of the Krytos virus also made it prone to mutations, reducing its virulence.

Bacta, the synthetic chemical substance widely used to treat injuries and ailments throughout the galaxy, could be used to treat and cure the Krytos virus. However, vast quantities of bacta were necessary, with more severe cases requiring larger amounts. In the later stages of the virus, some organs and extremities sustained such extensive damage that cybernetic replacement became necessary, even after extensive bacta treatment. Prophylactic bacta therapy offered no protection against the Krytos virus.

Combining ryll, a weak form of spice from Ryloth, with bacta could enhance the medicine's efficiency. The impact varied depending on the ryll classification, with ryll kor, the rarest grade comprising only about three percent of the spice, containing trace elements that had the strongest effect against the virus. Combining bacta with ryll kor enhanced the alazhi component of bacta, resulting in rylca, the most effective treatment.

Ysanne Isard, Director of Imperial Intelligence, conceived a plan to destroy the New Republic by creating a deadly virus that selectively targeted non-Human species. Her strategy was to release the virus on Coruscant and then cede control of the capital planet to the New Republic, believing that the resulting tensions between Human and alien populations would ultimately lead to the New Republic's demise. She also mandated that the virus be treatable with bacta, further straining the New Republic's finances as it funded massive bacta production. Isard was impressed by the skills of General Evir Derricote, who had established a profitable Alderaan Biotics facility at his Imperial base on Borleias, and brought him to Coruscant to engineer the virus.

A laboratory was established on the lowest levels of the Imperial Palace for the production of what would become the Krytos virus. The space lacked the elegance of the rest of the palace, featuring stark white and silver surfaces, labyrinthine stainless steel corridors leading to an array of rooms including laboratories equipped with surgical droids for alien dissection, and chambers for the subjects fitted with triple-paned transparisteel windows for observation. Each room maintained negative air pressure to prevent the escape of any viruses in case of a problem.

Derricote was placed in command of a team of scientists, all of whom were Human to prevent potential contamination. Imperial Intelligence Agent Kirtan Loor, as part of his overarching mission to destroy Rogue Squadron, was assigned to provide Derricote with any necessary assistance. Isard also assigned a number of brainwashed sleeper agents to provide assistance and manual labor to the scientists, including Diric Wessiri, the husband of New Republic spy Iella Wessiri, whom Isard secretly tasked with spying on Derricote.

Derricote and his scientists began requesting test subjects, starting with Gamorreans, who provided a suitable foundation for creating a virus that could also spread to other species. Isard had subjects rounded up from the Alien Protection Zone, an area on Coruscant the Empire used to segregate aliens from the Human population. In fact, Isard considered Derricote's requests to be too conservative and demanded that more aliens be kidnapped than he requested.

Some Gamorreans were dissected to provide Derricote and his team with a better understanding of the species' biology, while others were used to test the early stages of the Krytos virus. Derricote and the scientists soon achieved their first breakthrough by creating a form of the virus with a one-month incubation period, which was contagious during the final four days of infection and fatal in 75% of cases. Despite this significant progress, Isard deemed the results unacceptable, demanding a shorter incubation period and an airborne virus, although Derricote knew the latter was impossible.

Derricote determined that the Gamorreans' metabolism was too slow and requested Quarren subjects, which had less cross-species susceptibility but a higher metabolic rate. Isard also grew impatient with the slow pace of progress and began threatening to kill everyone involved with the project, but agreed to all of Derricote's requests, provided he reduced the incubation period to one week. The Quarren subjects proved extremely valuable, 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 combined.

The scientists then transitioned to a species more similar to other races to further develop cross-species infections. Derricote initially requested Wookiees, but Kirtan Loor denied the request because he did not want to eliminate a slave labor source. Derricote instead asked for Sullustans because they could serve as a bridge race to Shistavanens and Bothans. While this species was also not preferred because its SoroSuub Corporation designed many useful weapons, droids and vehicles, Isard felt the prospect of eliminating Bothans outweighed the disadvantages.

By this time, the increasing kidnappings in the Alien Protection Zone were creating an atmosphere of fear and resentment, leading to the formation of an all-alien, anti-Human group called the Alien Combine, which resorted to violence against Humans deemed suspicious. However, the Combine did little to prevent the abductions, and when Derricote grew impatient, he even began conducting his own raids on the Alien Protection Zone for Sullustans. He personally reviewed his kidnapped aliens to choose the healthiest possible specimens; during one such raid, he unknowingly took and infected Aril Nunb, an undercover Rogue Squadron pilot.

As Ysanne Isard's deadline for the Krytos virus approached, she was enraged to discover that the virus not only remained incapable of airborne transmission, but also had an incubation period of twelve days, much longer than Evir Derricote had anticipated or desired. Derricote requested four more days to develop enough of the strain to infect the entire planet, but Isard's patience had run out, and she demanded that Derricote begin replicating the current virus strains. Given that the flesh-contract was greater when the virus was ingested, rather than simply via flesh contact, she ordered the virus to be released into the water supply, where it could also freeze into glaciers for a longer effect.

Kirtan Loor also ordered Derricote, against his wishes, to release his still-experimental myriad versions because he no longer trusted the general's transmission numbers. Loor also demanded he test bacta on a few of the Sullustan subjects, a measure Derricote had argued was unnecessary; in doing so, Loor unwittingly saved the life of Aril Nunb. Shortly after the virus was released, Isard allowed the planet to fall during the Seizure of Coruscant, hoping that the New Republic would collapse under the strain of the Krytos outbreak.

Meanwhile, Isard remained hidden aboard the Lusankya, her secret Executor-class Star Dreadnought buried beneath Coruscant's surface, where she awaited the expected downfall of the newly established government. Isard also ordered Derricote imprisoned in her private prison on the Lusankya, for his failure to design the virus to her specifications.

Once the twelve-day incubation period concluded, millions of Coruscanti aliens began to perish, triggering widespread panic not only among the infected races, but also among Humans and other non-infected species who feared the Krytos virus would eventually spread to them. Resentment rapidly grew among the non-Human populations due to the Human immunity, and that resentment made any initial precautions by Human bureaucrats ineffective. Although Humans and Bothans both volunteered to treat infected citizens, their presence was yet another reminder of their apparent immunity to the disease.

The New Republic's entire supply of bacta proved insufficient to treat all Krytos cases, further fueling public panic. The price of bacta skyrocketed, and the New Republic had no choice but to pay to avoid condemning billions of aliens to death. Consequently, the newly formed government began to experience financial difficulties, nearly reaching bankruptcy. As bacta supplies dwindled, the black market flourished, despite declining medicine quality and soaring prices. Some individuals began hoarding bacta, exacerbating resentment and distrust. To address the bacta shortage, the New Republic Defense Force was forced to deplete its own supplies, leaving the military vulnerable to attacks by Ysanne Isard and Warlord Zsinj.

While low-income alien populations were disproportionately affected, even prominent aliens, such as Sian Tevv, a Sullustan member of the New Republic Provisional Council, and Rogue Squadron pilots Nawara Ven, Portha, and Riv Shiel, were exposed to the Krytos virus. Visiting Coruscant became an act of extreme bravery, and both the world and ships coming from Imperial Center were quarantined to prevent the disease from spreading, further disrupting the New Republic's fragile economy and undermining its authority. Some infected citizens, believing bacta was unattainable, failed to seek medical assistance, resulting in their deaths and hindering effective virus containment, leading to more infections. Some victims who sought help failed to do so until the virus was so far along that bacta therapy was useless, creating a sense among others that there was no hope of being cured.

These challenges were compounded by military attacks, both abroad and on Coruscant. Kirtan Loor, who led a pro-Imperial terrorist organization called the Palpatine Counter-Insurgency Front, launched attacks against public locations, bacta supplies, and medical facilities. These attacks further fueled panic, forcing citizens to choose between seeking a cure and risking terrorist attacks. Loor maintained a personal supply of bacta and sold it in small quantities to the New Republic, using the government's own money to fund an organization dedicated to its destruction.

Conspiracy theories rapidly emerged surrounding the virus. Despite the New Republic's efforts to inform citizens that the Krytos virus was an Imperial creation, many began to believe that New Republic Humans were encouraging infected aliens to return to their homeworlds to spread the disease and eliminate entire planetary populations. Citizens who witnessed unsuccessful attempts to treat the virus became convinced that medevac units were actually disguised extermination units that removed the sick and destroyed them.

Others accused the New Republic of withholding bacta from those who needed it most, and rumors circulated that members of the Provisional Council were engaging in favoritism by securing bacta for themselves and their chosen constituents. Given that the Zaltin and Xucphra Corporations, the two bacta-producing combines on Thyferra, were managed by Humans, any batches of substandard bacta risked fueling accusations of another Human conspiracy.

As the Provisional Council deliberated on treatment programs that would be fair to all Krytos virus victims, debates intensified over the most effective methods for healing and preventing the disease. Virtually the entire public bacta supply was allocated to treating infected individuals, a strategy that public health officials argued could limit the disease's spread. However, others, primarily members of uninfected species, contended that prophylactic bacta use to prevent the illness from spreading to new populations was the optimal approach.

Bothan Councilor Borsk Fey'lya, seeking to enhance his political standing and appeal to his constituents, who were unaffected by the Krytos virus, became the leading advocate for this argument. He cited unsubstantiated reports claiming that a few hours of mist therapy per week would be sufficient to eradicate the virus before it could incubate. Fey'lya proposed establishing preventative therapy centers to halt the disease's spread.

However, public health officials countered that there was no evidence that pre-exposure bacta therapy could prevent infections. Councilor Leia Organa argued that Fey'lya's approach would simply waste critically needed bacta. Admiral Gial Ackbar further argued that it would concentrate large numbers of people in an environment where contact with infectious fluids was likely, and that overexposure to bacta could lead to the development of a bacta-resistant strain of the Krytos virus, potentially devastating the entire galaxy.

Instead, the Provisional Council adopted Ackbar's proposed strategy, which involved securing the water supply where the virus originated, removing infected glaciers that had not yet melted, and continuing intensive treatment for infected citizens. The Council also approved Ackbar's proposal to project the image that the Krytos threat could be overcome and to treat the virus as an enemy against which everyone was enlisted. This morale-boosting technique mirrored those employed by the Rebel Alliance following devastating losses at the battles of Derra IV and Hoth.

Despite the rejection of his proposed solution, Fey'lya persisted in his efforts to bolster his political influence amidst the Krytos plague. Ackbar even pondered if Isard had strategically engineered the virus to spare Bothans, intending for them to sow discord within the New Republic. Fey'lya made thinly disguised accusations of Humanocentrism and speciesism toward Human council members, including Organa and Doman Beruss.

Privately, Fey'lya attributed the virus's creation to Human overreach. He also unsuccessfully lobbied Asyr Sei'lar, a Bothan pilot in Rogue Squadron, to falsely implicate her Human squadron colleagues in military defeats. Although Fey'lya ultimately failed to achieve the level of power he sought during the Krytos crisis, his political maneuvering fueled further instability within both the Provisional Council and the Coruscant populace.

To divert public attention from the Krytos epidemic, the Provisional Council also exploited the trial of Tycho Celchu, the Rogue Squadron pilot wrongly accused of spying for Ysanne Isard and murdering Corran Horn. New Republic leaders feared that showing leniency towards Celchu would be perceived as pro-Human favoritism, and they hoped his alleged Imperial ties would redirect some of the public's anger on Coruscant toward the Empire. However, Nawara Ven, his defense attorney and fellow Rogue, delivered a compelling defense that exposed the case's weaknesses, further damaging the government's reputation in the eyes of the public.

During this period, the Vratix, an insectoid species from Thyferra known for producing bacta, sought representation in the New Republic government. This ambition was thwarted by the risk it posed to the Republic's bacta supply, as it threatened to upset the Zaltin and Xucphra Corporations. These corporations possessed a bacta market monopoly, and the financially strained New Republic could not bear the initial expenses of producing its own bacta. The Ashern Circle, a Vratix faction dissatisfied with the Human-dominated bacta cartels, believed that discovering a cure for the Krytos virus would provide their people with the chance to join the New Republic.

Qlaern Hirf, an Ashern representative, informed the New Republic about the location of a sizable bacta shipment and convoy stored at a space station under Zsinj's control, which Rogue Squadron subsequently seized. Rumors began circulating that the government now possessed enough bacta to treat all its citizens, which, while untrue, boosted morale and lowered black market bacta prices. Having gained the confidence of Rogue Leader Wedge Antilles, Hirf requested that the commander agree to advocate for the Vratix before the New Republic in exchange for their help in developing a Krytos virus cure. Antilles accepted, particularly impressed by the Vratix's willingness to risk infection to provide assistance.

General Airen Cracken aided the Vratix in establishing their clandestine research at a New Republic outpost on Borleias, a planet within the Pyria system, a secret kept even from Mon Mothma. Hirf and the Vratix analyzed the virus and concluded that ryll had some effect on the virus, and that the ryll kor classification of the spice could be combined with bacta to form rylca, a medicine strong enough to defeat the virus. Ryll kor was the rarest of the ryll classifications, and in turn Ryloth merchants rarely exported it, but Antilles was able to secure a significant amount during an expedition to the Twi'lek planet with the help of Tal'dira, a warrior who eventually joined Rogue Squadron. Word of the trip spread quickly and the Zaltin and Xucphra Corporations became angry, with some even proposing to cut off the Republic's bacta supply altogether, although neither corporation made good on their threats.

The Xucphra faction consented to provide the New Republic with a substantial amount of bacta, on the condition that the transaction be disguised as a private deal with Mirax Terrik, a smuggler secretly affiliated with Rogue Squadron. This was done to allow Xucphra to maintain a facade of neutrality, enabling them to sell to both sides. However, Erisi Dlarit, Isard's spy within Rogue Squadron, exposed the clandestine exchange to Ysanne Isard. Isard then leaked this information to Warlord Zsinj, who destroyed the bacta and presumably killed Terrik. Zsinj broadcast a HoloNet message to Coruscant, urging citizens to rally to his cause and claiming he destroyed the bacta because it was deliberately tainted by the New Republic to exterminate the Coruscanti alien population. Rogue Squadron thwarted his attempt by transmitting evidence of the truth behind the attack, but the loss of the bacta nonetheless dealt a blow to public morale.

Terrik secretly survived the attack because her ship, the Pulsar Skate, was not present at the bacta transaction, but instead had been ordered by General Airen Cracken to bring the ryll kor to Borleias and allow the Vratix to develop rylca. Her mission was a secret to everyone in the New Republic except for Cracken, Antilles and the Vratix themselves, and they allowed the public to continue to believe Terrik was dead so she could conduct her mission covertly. The ryll kor was synthesized at the planet's Alderaan Biotics facility, a hydroponics factory used by Evir Derricote before New Republic forces took control of the planet during the Second Battle of Borleias. Soon, the Vratix were able to use the ryll kor to enhance the alazhi component of bacta, thus creating enough rylca to cure all cases of the Krytos virus.

The newly created rylca was secretly transported to Coruscant and administered to those infected. Initial tensions among the population were not immediately eased because a governmental accounting office report indicated that less ryll was available than previously expected, leading to rumors that the supply had been stolen. Although New Republic officials assured the public that the shortage was actually due to the fact that the medicine was being well distributed to the people, the Coruscanti citizens were suspicious of governmental lies after years of living under the Empire. Nevertheless, the rylca was circulated rapidly and, within a matter of weeks, the Krytos virus was eradicated. The quick treatment helped end the resentment building between the New Republic Human and non-Human population, but the Krytos virus had already claimed millions of alien lives by this time.

As rylca was being generated to eradicate the Krytos virus, Ysanne Isard committed her forces to support a revolution on Thyferra that placed the Xucphra Corporation in charge of the entire bacta cartel and effectively gave Isard control of both the planet and bacta distribution for the entire galaxy. Although Mon Mothma assured Coruscanti citizens that the New Republic was generating enough rylca to destroy the Krytos virus, Isard incorrectly dismissed this as Rebel propaganda and believed cutting off the supply of New Republic bacta would allow the virus to ravage Coruscant.

The Provisional Council could not order military action against Isard because the revolution was considered an internal Thyferran conflict, and interfering could frighten other potential member states from joining the New Republic. Wedge Antilles and his fellow Rogue Squadron pilots, however, resigned from the New Republic in order to launch a private assault against Isard, thus launching what would later become known as the Bacta War.

During this conflict, Rogue Squadron launched several hit-and-run attacks against Thyferran bacta convoys and refineries. Although they used the stolen bacta to finance their war, they also donated a great deal of it to the New Republic to help fight the Krytos virus. This bacta was used along with the rylca, and was helpful in speeding up the treatment of the final Krytos cases. Eventually, Rogue Squadron overthrew Isard and restored the New Republic's bacta supply.

Some aliens species that were hit hard by the Krytos virus, like the Baragwin, threw their support behind the New Republic in response to the Imperial-crafted bioweapon. However, the virus also had a long-term effect of increasing an anti-Humanism sentiment among many alien factions. The Alien Combine movement on Coruscant during the virus outbreak was a precursor for the much more violent Diversity Alliance in 24 ABY, seventeen years after the Krytos virus was eradicated. Nolaa Tarkona, the Twi'lek leader of the anti-Human terrorist group, often referred to the Krytos virus in recruiting aliens and denouncing Humans.

The same year the Diversity Alliance was formed, an alien scavenger named Fonterrat discovered the Emperor's plague storehouse, an uncharted asteroid in the Deep Core where Evir Derricote worked between 3 ABY and 4 ABY to develop a series of species-specific viruses for Emperor Palpatine. Fonterrat sold the information to Tarkona, who planned to use the Human-targeting Emperor's Plague to wipe out the Human race, in an ironic inversion of the Krytos virus. Tarkona ultimately failed when the Emperor's plague storehouse was destroyed by explosives planted by the young Jedi trainees Lowbacca, Jacen Solo and Jaina Solo.

Michael A. Stackpole conceived the Krytos virus for his X-Wing series of novels. The plague drew significant inspiration from the Ebola and Marburg viruses. After submitting an outline for X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble that included a bioweapon virus, Stackpole read The Hot Zone, a nonfiction bio-thriller by Richard Preston that detailed instances of hemorrhagic fevers caused by Ebola and Marburg found in a Reston, Virginia monkey storage facility. Stackpole admitted that the book "scared the hell out of me," leading him to adapt its most impactful elements into the Krytos virus. Stackpole also stated that the speciesist tensions caused by the Krytos virus outbreak were influenced by race relations in the real world, and he compared the xenophobic and misogynistic Empire to previous real-life states such as Germany or South Africa.

In Young Jedi Knights: The Emperor's Plague, a novel co-authored by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, Lowbacca discovers a slow-acting, multiple-species targeting virus labeled the "Krytos Plague." Evir Derricote developed the plagues featured in this novel more than two years before engineering the Krytos virus that was unleashed upon Coruscant. This is most likely a consistency error, although it is possible 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.