@empressofthesith
The Gozanti class cruiser had picked up a low distress signal. They weren't able to identify the vessel besides that it was an Imperial military vessel. Of course they'd take a detour from the route they were on to deliver the Nautolan Sith woman to the Emperor but they had a duty to nonetheless. What they weren't prepared for was it being an Imperial Star Destroyer or the fact that they wouldn't be able to make contact with any crew.
"Imperial Star Destroyer 359, this is the Imperial Intelligence Vessel Raider please respond. We have received your distress signal." Lavinia spoke to her console to the open line on the other ship, only to receive radio silence back. After a few more tries she came at it with another message. "Imperial Star Destroyer 359, this is the Imperial Intelligence Vessel Raider, despite repeated attempts you have made no contact, prepare to be boarded." She spoke before closing the line. Afterwards she was tasked with providing security for their guest, equipping herself with a blaster she made her way to the quarters of the Nautolan. "Ma'am, this is Senior Lieutenant Mir, I'm coming in." She spoke, giving the Nautolan a few moments before entering. "We've run into a situation, I along with two stormtroopers are to provide you with security." She spoke.
True looked abnormally serious at the moment. Up until now she'd been relaxed and teasing with the crew and Senior Lieutenant Mir, but she was now pacing her cell, stonefaced.
"You can't board that vessel, kid," she said sharply, somehow knowing about the derelict ISD, "No one can. Not if they want to live. Even I could be killed on there. It's dripping with corruption and decay, even worse than Coruscant."
Lavinia hadn't seen True look that serious on their time aboard the vessel, not when they had met on her home ISD and not in their time in this smaller Gozanti cruiser.
"They sent out a distress signal, they need help." She spoke, though something in her gut told her that something was off about the situation, they had only picked up a handful of lifesigns, something that shouldn't happen on an ISD, even with a skeleton crew unless something truly bad had happened, hence the security for True. "What do you mean, is there a creature aboard that ship that will kill us?" She asked. Though as they spoke the boarding party consisting mainly of stormtroopers with a few officers, sealed away in orange biohazard suits just in case, had sealed themselves in the dicking tube before breaking the seal on the ISD and entering it.
True turned to Lavinia, her hands behind her back. "I'll be needed my lightsabers if you want to board that ship. There's something evil on that ship, I can sense it." She looked a bit more composed, but there was a frost to the air around her now.
Lavinia wasn't about to deny her the lightsabers, she had made it very clear before that she was cooperating as a courtesy. "Are you saying its a living thing on that ship?" She inquired as the doors opened and she ushered for the woman to step out of the cell.
As the small team went searching after an hour one of the stormtroopers came back complaining of being sick.
"More like a lot of dead things, it feels like," True said, ducking through the doorway, "The Force feels sickly and cold. Keep your weapons charged and ready."
A lot of dead things ran through her head. Could it truly be what Lavinia thought it was? Lavinia had heard of another ISD that had gone radio silent a while back, it carried an Imperial bio-weapon but the Empire had covertly had it destroyed after an incident with a prison barge.
"True you may be onto something, and if you are I don't like the look of it." She spoke before hurrying to a terminal. "You stormtrooper, go to that duty station and pull up any service records for ISD 359 and any cargo it may have been carrying, use my code cylinder." She spoke tossing one from her uniform to the trooper as she herself looked up some long hidden files for Imperial projects. "Dank farrik!" She swore glaring at the screen. "How can it be above my purview I'm IntOrg I should have access." She spoke, looking up from her console. "True this is bad, this is well and truly bad." Lavinia admitted, if her suspicions were correct then they were about to have a mass catastrophe on their hands.
"We need to leave now," True ordered, "Forget the boarding party, it's too late for them. We leave now, and you can report the location of this ISD so it can be properly destroyed."
"I'm not authorized to make that call, the captain of the ship is." Lavinia spoke giving a sigh before grabbing a blaster rifle from the rack.
"There have been rumors going about the junior officers in Intelligence, we've heard about an abandoned ISD that had been carrying a bioweapon, reports stated it caused the dead to come alive. The Navy destroyed that ISD but if they made more of the virus, and if your sense in this Force that you mention is true then we have to notify the bridge." She spoke, hoping that they weren't too late but a gut feeling told her that the ship and most of its occupants were doomed.
"Then we're heading to the bridge, Lieutenant," True said simply, waiting for her to lead the way.
"Let's go." Lavinia spoke as she opened the blast doors. As they made their way to the bridge she could see troopers and officers alike starting to cough and look sick as a massiff. Soon they stopped outside the medical bay which had the medical droid working feverishly. "Droid start work on synthesizing this coding." She spoke before giving it to the droid. Who within minutes had two vials of a serum.
"True inject yourself with this from the files I could find if this is Project Blackwing this is how we survive the sickness portion." The living dead portion would be another mess but that would be a different time to deal with.
"Save it," True said, "If this is caused by what I think it is, I've already been inoculated, quite a long time ago. Someone else could use this vial."
Lavinia took the second vial and placed it in the pouch next to her code cylinder before she injected herself with the other one. "Now we make our way to the bridge, and hope that the commander is still alive." She commented, though as soon as they stepped into the hall the unmistakable smell of death hit her nose. "This is Project Blackwing, we all thought it was made up." She spoke, not necessarily to True, just in general.
