“There is nothing so patient, in this world or any other, as a virus searching for a host.”
― Mira Grant
The story went that the Old Empire once set up shop here. The space station, floating above a verdant moon, was once slave quarters for workers on the first Death Star—most of them Wookiees kidnapped from Kashyyyk. The corridors of the place still smelled like them too, even through the filter on Ten's mask. But there was another stench beneath the heavy, musty odor of wet Wookiee fur. It was the offensive scent of rot and decay, strong, pungent, and sour, which made his face pinch beneath his helmet.
A smell like death.
Whispers had reached the Unknown Regions, where the Sith Eternal lurked, of a virulent strain of bacteria that rapidly killed its victim and repurposed their bodies into a vessel of rotting flesh ravenous in its hunger. Such reports weren't entirely bizarre. Ten was taught the history of the Sith as a child and knew that such abominations were possible. But the Sith were dead, and their magics went to the Void with them. So, what were these creatures, if they truly existed? That was his mission. A mission he was beginning to regret.
In the days since the Empire, the old slave station had served as a prison for the First Order and later for a band of Imperial loyalists operating off of the nearby Sentinel Moon. According to the records Ten found on Geonosis, the strain that wiped out some of the last remaining Geonosian hives had come from this station. Perhaps Imperial sympathizers antagonizing the locals? Ten couldn't be sure. But, judging from the look of the place (and the smell), there was nobody alive on this station—which was strange. He had picked up an interesting distress signal coming from the station on his way into the system. That had to mean someone was alive.
...Right?
The inside of the station was dark. So dark, he was forced to switch to low-light mode on his helmets HUD. Dread coiled in his belly like fingers into a fist. He had found nothing on Geonosis; but he strongly suspected that would not be the case here. @Feng Mian
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