"A great jihad shall be gathered and trained to fight all who embrace evil. In the name of the Taj, ships shall be built to carry the holy out among the Heaven and we will spread The word of Creation to all the unbelievers. The power of the Taj will be felt far and wide and the infidels shall be vanquished."

Gand
Barren Wastes of the Ammonia Flats

The air was thick and hazy, a fog of Ammonia and other gases percieved as deadly to nearly every other species in the galaxy, except for, of course, The Gand themselves. Supporters of the Imperium since the disident portions of the population had been eliminated in the early days of the Imperiums outward expansion, Gand played host to many Imperium test beds, when unnatural enviroments might be detrimental to existing technology had to be tested.

A cluster of black shafts jutted from the cracked surface of mud and dirt, the tops obscured by the deadly mists that pervaded the air. Before them stood, looking minauture by comparison, a man of uneven build. His hands nearly draged against the ground standing at full height, his chest was rounded and nearly the size of his head. He could clearly be seen to be one of many homomorphs in the Imperium, having chosen their own size and body features for whatever reasons they desired. This one was odd, but not uncommon to be seen.

Raising two heavy fists from his sides, he arched his long arms into the air, holding them up as high as his head. Following the motion, the shafts of the missles seemed to jerk slowly from the ground, raising up into the air and hovered quietly. Lowering his head, the man nodded slightly and punched both fists skywards. The objects similarly shot forth through the mists and out of sight. Bowing his head once more, he turned and walked the opposite direction than that by which he had once been facing. His visage was being recorded now, by the Web and he began to speak to it.

"By now... many of you have seen the actions over Mon Calamari by its Disident population. No longer shall this be tolerated inside the Host of our Imperium. We have risen, my children, in furious anger over what has transpired, and have borne witness to the final ends of transgressions within our Heaven."

Looking up a moment into the mists a moment, he refocused on the mists themselves, as they moved in an invisible breeze.

"We shall wipe the unclean, the respite of evil, from this Holiest of places, our Heaven. We shall cleanse ourselves of the Wicked and all shall rejoice in their exhile. A great plague shall rise up to strike down those who bear within them false witness unto the Taj, and with them shall go to eternal damnation and suffering."

He closed his eyes and shook his head solemnly, slowly disolving himself into the mists, dissassemblers eating his physical form away as his Mysteri remerged with the Web he connected with. The transmission halted, Gand was left alone, for the time being.


Orbit: Gand

Twenty missle shaped shafts hung in the space of the cloudy planet, hovering there as if finding a place. With increasing speed, each honed in on their location, each intelligence withoin them connected to the Web itself, contacting GMP stations and probe, triangulating courses, preparing drives, weapons and armors. These were the Mysteri breed and edited for these missles, these scourges of life... These Phages. Death had been announced, and now it was on its way. One by one they vanished in a mass of light as they made their way to their intended targets.


OOC:
Missle Order
The missles will reach their targets on the following posts of mine.
Teth - Next Post
Kegan - Second Post
Kubindi - Second Post
Fwillsving - Third Post

Teth

In the absence of the Eastern fleet, the Azguard fleet had come out from the depths of their home system to protect their compatriots as they went to fight the good fight. Grim, resolved, and ever-vigilant, the grey warriors from the far edge of the galaxy were the perfect defenders of the home-front.

It was as the Azguards' signiture Claymore and Longsword warships circled Teth that Yakabe - a White Knight commander placed in charge of this force - flew through space in his Kris starfighter. The sleek, narrow ship zipped comfortably around near orbit, giving him panoramic views of the world below. Surely it was so sad that the galaxy was so touched by war, when it contained such wonderful sights.

"Sir, this is third watch checking in, nothing to report."

"Good, keep on it, gentlebeings." said Yakabe, distractedly. "I'll be back within the hour."

He looked down contentedly, trying to pick out cities and towns from so far above the ground. It was nearly impossible, for Teth - though heavily inhabited and industrialized - was no hive-city, like Coruscant. Yakabe liked it, and found it a refreshing break from the jagged mountains of his homeworld. He could see one mountain up ahead, and wondered what mysteries it held...

It would have caused him great curiosity to know that the mountain was home to a poet, artist, and writer. His home was carved into the living rock, near the cool mountain peak, and there he looked out on to the natural beauty of Teth every mornin and was inspired to create. His art and works were sold for great sums, which he then donated to charity, for all his needs were cared for.

This man was Joules, who once again looked out on Teth, and it was for a very special reason that he was looked after - that reason was on his right. A shrine, carved in stone, sat nearby, and on top was a rare jewel. The shrine was carved with intricate symbols of a strange, alien nature that Joules had never fully understood, and it was inlaid with mysterious metals and charms.

Joules was special, because he was force-sensitive. Not as some grand Jedi or Sith Emperor, but just several steps above the common man. He knew what hand his opponant had in any card game, he could guess how many fingers you had behind you back, and the art that he made was no normal art - for it carried great portents and signs. Through it, did he recieve hints of the Force.

This day, he closed his eyes, and allowed inspiration to take hold. With paint and brush, he poured his soul on to a canvas, brushing as the will took him. Strangely, he felt the rhythems of his arm become harsh and jarring - sudden movements and spasms, perhaps even pain. Sweat coalesced on his brow and he clenched his teeth. What could it be?

When he opened his eyes and saw what he had painted, he doubled over and put a hand over his mouth at the onrush of nausea.

In the image, he saw fires. Plague. Pesitlance. Clouds of green and brown poured out of the sky, and below the rough image of death and decay filled his heart with horror. It was a sign.

Teth Space
Indeterminate Location and closing

///Range to Target///
///134km and closing///

///Defensive Procedure Subset///
///Shields Raised///
///Armor Charged///
///Weapons Powered///

///Range To Target///
///76.4km and closing///

///GMP Upload///
///All Coordinates Fixed///
///Current Data Corrected///

///Range To Target///
///31km and closing///

///Scaning for Hostiles///
///Shiping Detected///

///Interlinking with Group///
///Correlating Effective Blast Spread Radius///
///Targeting Effective Planetary Coordinates///
///Coordinating Flight Path with Shipping and Group Dynamic///

///Range To Target///
///6km and closing///

The silver streaks flung themselves across the sky, barely detectable by the average eye. Zooming around asteroids and particulate matter, the grouping of four Phage missles rocketed into range of Teths defenses, blatently well within sensor range and not stopping. Spining around each other, seemingly at random, their dance heavily scripted in latent processor code and critical Mysteri intelligence.

Across incredable distances, they closed the gap between themselves and the world itself. Long before they ever reached weapons range of the defense fleet, they spun apart, breaking into first two groups of two missles, and then each individual missle following its own flight plan.

The first shot straight up, following Teths natural pole as it would seem to actually veer away from the planet to any unlucky onlooker, its path brought it furthest away from the planet while from the point they split from. Curcing down from magnetic north of the planet the missle broke into the atmosphere from above the northern pole.

The second missle preformed an almost opposite maneuver, veering off in the opposite location, to turn back up to the planets southern pole, impacting the atmosphere at the exact same moment as the first. The third and fourth missles arched out to the sides, following either side of the planets equator to curve around the upper edge of the atmosphere, dipping into it with the timing of the first and second missle.

The explosions dimpled the upper cloud layer of the planet, releasing vast amounts of a dark black substance that permeated the clouds and began to spread and fall rapidly into the planets upper trade winds, the prefered tactic for spreading the Phage. The Death Clock for Teth had begun, timer started at T Minus Thirty-Four Hours and counting.

Except... It didn't.

Smart bombs with dumb operators... Thought Yakabe, as he brought his Kris around to pursue the missiles. The defence fleet had already scrambled, and waves of Kris fighters poured into the air.

"This is Melee squadron, all wings go."

"Warrior squadron, we're a go."

"Marksman squadron, launched."

The four missiles rushed towards the planet, still out of firing range and in formation. Yakabe lead the charge, straight at them, and turned his comm over to the fleet channel.

"All right, wings." he said calmly into his comm. "Watch your formations and stay apart - we don't need any collisions. They could be armed, so keep an eye out for enemy fire. Squadron leaders, pick your missile and stay with it-"

It was a good thing he said that, for at that moment the four missiles split in four directions, and Yakabe cursed "Pursue! Bring them down!"

The fighters tore off in all directions, chasing the missiles and spitting Projector fire. In the chaos, Yakabe pulled up and chased an equator-bound missile, all by his lonesome.

He took the missile in his sights, waiting for the range counter to go down. It was then that a ray of enemy fire tore off from the missile, forcing the Knight to spin tightly into a barrel roll to avoid fire. The enemy missile began juking and sped up, but the Kris burned sky and kept in pursuit, Yakabe dedicated to keeping it from reaching atmosphere.

"This is Marksman leader - Missile has been brought down, repeat, missile destroyed. It isn't leaking anything, suspect cargo untriggered."

Yakabe held on tightly to retain control of his fighter, swinging to one side to avoid a stream of deadly enemy fire. Yakabe pumped round after round of his Projectors into the deadly missile, but damage was inadequete. The Phage kept going.

"Melee squadron reporting in. Missile destroyed, reporting no known contamination."

Sweat was forming on Yakabe's forehead and hands as he emptied round after round into the Phage, tearing and gouging holes into the armor - his rapid fighter and the rapid missile burning up the space between atmosphere and the planet fast. things were about to go very wrong, if he didn't think of something.

"Warrior squadron here - third missile destroyed. Knocked off course and tore up its' engine-section in a spiral. Subduing it and holding position."

The Phage was going to make it. He didn't have the firepower. It was too late, too late, too late, too late, too late -

The missile crashed. The shield strummed.

Suddenly Yakabe realized what was going on and yanked back on the stick. The Kris almost skimmed the shimmering sea of silver and gold light that had formed over the planet. The Phage was splattered, like a model rocket gone awry, on the glimmering light of the protective barrier. It would have interested Yakabe to know that just below the shield was a mountain, and at the peak of that mountain a hermit artist had just lifted a jewel and dropped it back in place. With this tiny act, the spirit of the people of Teth had been focused through crystal shrines and sent forth to encapsulate Teth in a protective barrier made of raw spirit. Yakabe started breathing again.

"Orders, sir?" said a voice in Yakabe's ear. He recovered quickly.

"Get emergency hazard clean-up crews to the missiles immediately. Make sure they're disabled, especially weapons and the engines, and have them taken in. Get them to clean up this mess on the shields on the double, too, before they lose power. Also, send out an alert with full records and images of what happened - if they're launching bioweapons, people have to know to be on the lookout."

Teth - Moments before the Shield being raised

The missle had activated its Ionic Pulsar in anticipation of typical shielding before it had made its dive into the atmosphere. It had been a full minute now since hyperspace reversion, calcuable timings indicated they had enough time to detect any of the missles but would still be forced to scramble to defend themselves. Interlinking with the other missles to interface for synchronous detonation, transmissions were become less and less focused, and the Mysteri onboard abandoned it for secondary timing.

While the other missles came under attack, they had put up a well enough fight on their own. Acting as any other small craft in a dogfight situation, they swung themselves about to evade pursuint fire as they returned their own. Three out of four missles fell under the fighter barrage, not without inflicting minimal casualties of their own, taking out a near fifth of the fighters sent after them. Playing dead was a fairly good way to let your enemy close the distance with you in order to open a decimating blow of fire on them. Two missles had played this gambit, and were utterly destroyed in a wave of return fire for it.

The fourth missle had cleared the distance with the enemy fire, using its single fusion beam cannon to swipe the space behind it not to attack the enemy fighters but to target as many incoming missles as possible, absorbing as much direct energy fire it couldn't dodge. Diving straight for the planets equator as plotted it breached the upper atmosphere. That is to say, halfway, the momentum it had brought with it took the front half of the missle down like a burning spear across Teths skyline as it fell, a thick trail of brown and black behind it.

Detonation was no longer possible, its power source lay drifting just in space, leaking out its own murky black and brown cloud against a rather solid looking white shield. An explosion would no longer become necessary to spread the Phage any longer, have cracked the seal that held it in, the virus was now being spread across the upper atmosphere and all the way down by trade winds that played on the Equatorial region of the planet.

The death clock had not been stopped, merely delayed. T minus 96H and counting.


Kegan
Indeterminate Location and closing

///Range to Target///
///126km and closing///

///Defensive Procedure Subset///
///Shields Raised///
///Armor Charged///
///Weapons Powered///

///Range To Target///
///92km and closing///

///GMP Upload///
///All Coordinates Fixed///
///Current Data Corrected///

///Range To Target///
///26km and closing///

///Scaning for Hostiles///
///Shiping Detected///

///Interlinking with Group///
///Correlating Effective Blast Spread Radius///
///Targeting Effective Planetary Coordinates///
///Coordinating Flight Path with Shipping and Group Dynamic///

///Range To Target///
///5km and closing///

Using the same tactic as before, four missles sprung fro hyperspace just before the planet, using the zero point energy fields to push the gravity around them forwards, thrusting themselves towards the planet at incredible speed. Taking up a center V formation, three of the missles surrounded the other on opposite sides, slowly spining as they pressed forwards, defending the center missle with themselves.

Aiming straight for the planets equator they ploted a corse to avoid any hostile shipping their sensor linkup with the GMP had discovered. The Intelligence web had told of the previous detected failure of Teth. As the Mysteri of the last missle had not reported its penetration, it merely stoped transmitting once its power had been destroyed.

///Range To Target///
///1km and closing///


Kubindi System
Kubindi Second

///Hyperspace Reversion Successfull///
///Unable to Contact others///
///Continue Mission on course///

Having emerged from hyperspace facing the solar side of the second planted in the Kubindi system, the missles intended to shield their presence from scanning by hiding themselves in the suns own temperate flar outs, the Mysteri thought proccess was an easy to tell tactic, but would be very efficent with modern sensors technology. They followed simple paths, the four of them, darting around intermediate debries and crossing the distance between world orbits to make their way to Kubindi itself.

Kubindi Third was at the moment, on the other side of the system, so the quad of missles set course for solar side of Kubindi Fourth, and made speed. There was no formation to this group, instead they remained seperate, hoping to mask their group signature by keeping themselves individualized instead of defensively packed.

The plague that fell upon Teth washed up on the mountain-top. The struck missile flew for a little while longer before colliding with a peak, causing an explosion that sent clouds of dust, gas, and smoke into the air. As the winds pushed the plague acoss and into the rocks, Yakabe looked down and cursed.

"One got through! Immediate quarentine needs to be called in on the affected area."

"Sir, that will take time to -" began a subordinate through his comm, before being cut off.

"I don't care about authorization codes or government permission! This is an emergency situation, beyond such things! I'm ordering an immediate quarentine of the mountain region, get suited haz-mat teams all over that area - call the head of Teth's emergency services and response unit, have them moving now."

This was going to be big. Yakabe knew they'd have to move fast - but could he move fast enough?



At Kegan, the commander of planetary defence put down his comm-unit, and turned to his staff. "Sensors - what have we got?"

"Four missiles, incoming!" he said, nervously "A tight formation!"

The old commander scowled. So the Azguard had been right - biological weapons! That an enemy would stoop that low showed they deserved to die, but that would come later, if any of them survived the attack. "Have our convoy escorts open fire! I want someone on the tower to drop the rock - now."

He picked his comm back up as his crew rushed off to follow orders, and sent a priority message to Kegan's governor "Sir - no time to explain. Biological weapons inbound. Prepare for immediate fallout!"

"What?" replied a craggy old voice on the line "The Dragons'd dare attack us here, of all places?"

"It seems so, sir." said the commander, impatiently "We haven't got time, sir. Get to the emergency protocols! I've already got someone dropping the rock, so sound the sirens, whatever it is you're supposed to do while we do what we can up here!"

The commander threw down his comm and turned back to space. This planet wasn't heavily defended, but it did have a Haven Light Cruiser and some support gunships. "Fire! Fire everything we've got at the center of the missile formation!"

The guns of the Haven came alive, firing its' turbolasers up at the missiles. One of the missiles caught alight, and veered off course - smashing into a second, and causing both to crumple around each other and explode. The other two missiles, however, screeched past the defenders and headed for the planet.

Goddamnit! Where the hell is that kid?

The kid in question was an arts' student, living atop the most ominous part of architecture on Kegan. A tower that once served as the dark heart of a cruel religion that exploited the people of Kegan for millenia had been converted after the arrival of Azguard explorers into a historical museum and arts house. Its' crowning (literally) exhibit was an Azguard shrine, tended by a scrawny, bespeckled arts student. I'm sure, if we had the time, and there was a more flexible focus to this story I could detail him more, and regale you for hours with the stories of his mischievious exploits and misadventures. However, as we're on a schedual here, his only purpose in this story is to (rather melodramatically) lift and drop a shimmering jewel from a faraway world back onto its' pedastle.

The impact of gem on stone echoed through the force, like a whisper through a loudspeaker, touching every mind. People's spirits were lifted, and in turn the flow of their courage was like a golden syrup, rising to the air and coalescing (as good syrup does) into a shield that fended off yet another missile attack by the Black Dragons.

Relieved that this attack was avoided, the commander slouched back into his chair. "Make sure those missiles are good and dead before we pick 'em up! There'll be boys in labcoats no doubt who'll want to take a look how these things work."



As for Kubindi, however, things were not so grand. They had no highly evolved defence system. What they did have, was goggles.

The Kubaz are highly sensitive to the red spectrum of light, and thus wear special goggles at all times when out from their subterranian homes. This filters out much of the glare of excess light, making visible much that would be hidden. There was no shield for Kubindi, nor a grand fleet. They were out of the way, and mostly only had transports for goods and a few Defender-class gunships and fighter support.

It was lucky, then, that the missiles were so far out by comparison. The Kubindi captain was a serious-minded Kubaz, and knew that their main line of defence would be him.

"This... I am sure of it. Yakabe told us the missiles would come. I am sure this is it. Right! Redirect all escorts in the area - our new target is the missiles."

Three Defender gunships, seven SSFs, and five Saber bombers quickly gathered around the captain, who pulled anxiously at his trunk. "They're moving fast... We don't have long! All ahead full, we'll face them the old fashioned way! We can do this! For Kubindi!"

Passionately stirred, the small Coalition force roared towards where the missiles were coming from. Their high vigilance had paid off, for it was true - phage was coming to Kubindi.

He remembered to grab his comm, though, and as the ships moved forwards he sent his message to the clan-council of Kubindi "...This is a disaster of the highest order. I beg of you - I have no time to explain! Trust me in this, send the clans back under. What comes will make the time of the stars' flaring seem like a picnic if we do not evacuate now." He didn't even wait for a reply, he just grimly looked ahead as the two forces came together...

Teth

The missle head itself slammed into the mountain tops, its frame cuasing it upwards explosion of snow and rock, but little more. What little phage that remained with the missle began to spread outwards from this position, gathering from the snow and minute lifeforms therein (From algea to moss to lichens) it infected and it disassembled, creating more and more copies of itself from which to spread. The entire mountain would be contamined soon enough, torn down to the elemental rock it was, unless something were done very soon.

In the tradewinds above, it was a different story to be heard. The virus fell to earth slowly, seeding itself into clouds along the way, everything the Phage touched, it infected, tearing apart what could be used to spawn more of itself and destroying what life it came across, down to the bacteria. it reacted as a number, spreading expodentially as it multiplied itself with each build.

Already particulate matter had reached the oceans, the most likely landing spot for any of the Phage as winds were more likely to carry over the vast and often unpredicatable heating and cooling cycles of deep waters. Sinking in, the water quickly went from blue to an inky blackish brown around where the Phage touched down. Not an actual sign of infection itself, but a marker of its spread, a dark blob against the water with brown tendrils spreading down into the waters inky blackness to destroy the ecosystem wherever it went.


Kegan

Im sure you could, but this is not his story, but the story of his world, and how it was to be crushed before the Imperium. Though the missles slammed against the shield, they were hardly dead. Floating in the midst of space, they still floated in a midst of their former formation. Though, not actively controling their own movement, they were floating in a motion which reflected ricocheting off the shield.

Rather than being destroyed, the mallieable framework of the missles themselves acted more like putty against an impact, flattening the front ends of the missles into short and squant pushed out mushroom heads. It was not for lack of damage though, as the engine connections of each missle had become severed by the exact same design flaw that had been unpercievied in a shock of impact scenario. Almost needless to say, the shield emitters and the ablative armor of the front ends were also destroyed on impact.

Floating in midspace, they slowly, almost undetectably began to make repairs. The lattice work of the malliable hull restructured themselves, pressing back out against the original form the missles had had, like a shaped ballon becoming reinflatted after some time. It was a slow process and not one easily detected visually.


Kubindi

Darting from behind the fourth planet in the system, the missles split up into three distinct paths, each one taking them on a different arc through the system. The plan was to divide the small amount of planetary defenders into such low portions that no single array of oposition could readiliy stop a single missle, and if they attempted to form up to take a missle with enough force to stop it, they would be leaving themselves open to another missle elsewhere.

Each attack came from three easy to descern paths, one shot up above the ecliptical plane of the system, coming back down at the pole of the planet and the opposite was true for the next, which went below the ecliptic and shot up at the exact other pole. As if to be a tempting target, the other missle shot straight for the planet with the solar winds to its back, an off hand attempt to block itself from detection as it flew towards the planetart defenders.


OOC: was runing to work, sorry for the short post

The story of the missiles at Kegan ended abruptly. With a nod, the guns of the Coalition pounded each missile into a twisted mess. Only once satisfied that the missiles were wrecked for function entirely would he consent to their capture. What happens at Kegan ends here. What happens elsewhere, however, was still going.

At Kubindi, the battle rolled. As the missiles broke, so did the defenders in pursuit. The missile that charged right at it met a Defender-class gunship head-on, and regretted the encounter. Going head to head saw the Phage destroyed, but it allowed the other two missiles to fly around that Defender, leaving it in the dust.

In pursuit of the other two were a couple dozen fighters and a Defender apiece - one of which was the Kubindi's captain.

"Keep on it! Keep firing! Just don't lose it!" There was really little else to say. Helplessly, he looked on, putting his faith in gunners and fighters. They hounded and fired away.

True to form, they managed to bring it down. The captain sighed in relief. "We did it!" He exclaimed, overjoyed.

It lasted about a second, before he looked out the window and saw the last missile escape his forces and explode over the planet.

"Oh. Fuck."



The Teth infection could indeed have begun spreading quickly, but there was still hope. Even with the trade winds blowing, the advanced society that lived on Teth was quick to respond to Yakabe's orders, and was prepared to stop the Phage before it met the water or escaped the mountains.

"Sir?" said an aide, as the Azguard knight leapt from his fighter and landed on the hangar-bay floor. "We're getting the reports now. The spray is currently in the mountains - it isn't spreading, not that we know of."

The Knight grabbed the report, and marched towards the command nexus of the station in orbit. It would serve as the main contact point between Teth and space, but with the shield up it meant Yakabe couldn't be down there personally to direct efforts. he scanned the papers over, and said "We've got air-scrubbers launched, good. Medical-evac of surrounding regions, good. Who're these guys?" He pointed to a name on the list.

"The ECU, sir, they usually handle tanker spills but some have training with dealing with biological fallout. They're setting up pylons around the area that'll keep the contaminants in - probably."

Yakabe kept reading the list, before stopping so suddenly the man behind him almost collided with him. "Wait - why aren't we getting any reports from the civil protection? Police, firefighters, what're they doing?"


"They... They say you don't have the authority to - "

"Damn what they say!" bellowed the knight "Tell them I'm giving them an order - and if they don't like it they can take it up with the plague coming their way!"

"Y-yes, sir."

Yakabe marched sourly all the way to the command nexus.

On the planet, men and women in full emergency gear were quickly trying to contain the disease - the mountains were hit with all sorts of neutralizing agents, and air-scrubber ships flew through the sky ahead, sucking in phage into containment cells. Every minute, at the bellowing of an Azguard in orbit, more came to fight this battle against a serious threat, keeping the spread in check.

What they didn't know was that the greatest battle of all was taking place on the peak of the mountain.

His art untended, his pedastle still, Joules writhed painfully on his simple bunk. The pain was great, but what he didn't know, was that it could be oh, so worse.

What we know, though, is that inside of him a battle was being fought that could well decide the fate of billions - nay, maybe even the galaxy. It was fought by warriors too small to see. For the first time, anywhere, Phage and Panacea met. Two sets of artificial warriors fighting for dominance over a single body.

The Panacea proved resistant to Phage, undamaged by its' attacks. However, the Phage spread rapidly, and Panacea droids were working as fast as they could already to stem the spread. Would it be enough? Only time would tell.

The young art student would surely have felt the thirst, a ravenous thing, which ate at him from the inside out. His lips parched and skin drying from the lack of it. Panacea was doing its best in his body to stop the invading nanophage, but it was improperly designed to handle such a threat. Where the Panacea was made to hold back, resist and destroy invading organisms in a host body even down to the nanoscopic level it was forced to face a fundamental flaw that the Nanophage exploited.

Its only source of replenishment was continous inoculations from outside the body. Or simply put, without constant supervision, a patients defending Panacea would fail against the nanophage, and the number of patients being infected would only server to increase dramatically, making this sort of treatment impractical in all but a triage situation. In short, the Panacea would fail, becuase of its unwillingness to do what the Phage would do by design.

The Phage did not just break apart organics and energy sources, they used them converting them into more and more versions of the Phage itself, at the cost of their hosts. The Panacea would go at the Phage in the body, waging a war that only served to clutter the victims body with billions of broken nano-sized vessels, and the losses the Phage would suffer would only then be bolstered by the losses the patient would suffer.

Liquids, cells the very atoms that made up the victims themselves fueled the Phage, and were used to produce more. The phage was nothing more than a grey goo problem on an Ecophagic level. All meterials from the oceans in the sea to the grass on the land to the people in the cities, it would all be used as fuel and materials for the creation of more Phage, which would spread further and further. The art student could surely feel it coming, things inside him were getting worse and fast.

In the Oceans, one could barely hope to see the full contamination, let alone contain it. Unlike an oil slick there was no cohesive nature to keep the Phage stuck to itself, whatever drifted away did so of its own accord to replicate itself and drift then on its own course to repeat the process. The Ocean would fast become a stew of death as the brunt of the infection was cought by the lower food chain of the world.

The natural swell of the Phage would be to drift down to the seabeds, gathering from the carbon and methane that radiated from the oceans floor. This would in turn spread to those oceanic creatures which would gain sustinance from these depths. Phytoplankton, feeding from methane vents would become infected, and eaten by other predators, which in turn would either spread it to other areas or be eaten by others, spreading the phage as actively as it could then spread itself.

In the air, while a good effort, there was no way to effectively collect all of something based on the nano scale, it was simply impossible to get them all. En masse though, they would appear as a grey dust, which would be the only things to aim for by collectors. So while the Phage spread in the air, there was some gaurantee that where it spread to any large degree it would be captured and contained.

This did not stop it from spreading though, as it gained energy from the sunlight pouring down on it, it would use atmospheric resources to collect and build more of itself, replicating here too as wind currents took it all and swept it across the globe in matters of hours to days. If left to their devices, a grey cloud would form over the world, eating away at the atmosphere itself and blotting out the sun with its mass.

It was the ground where things happened worse, where from outside appearances, that mountain top looked contained and unspreading, the opposite was true. Under the snow the phage had sopread down the mountainside eating at the soil underneath, striping it of its base bacteria and elements in the soil. Replicating here as it did everywhere else, it made for something even worse than scorched earth. The Phage would eventually use up the snow resting on it, but for the time it worked in the direction of less power loss and that was the direction gravity took it, down.

The mountain was not the only area infected by the phage landwise though, as the phage had been airborne for sometime, and not all of it had been able to reach the atmosphere and the ocean was a large target, the land was equally opprotune as it rained from the sky bit by bit. Grey patches of land were a sure sign of infection where one could see it, Phage massing across the land like a Lichen and devouring everything in its path. Fortunatly for the planets inhabitants, nothing on the land had massed to such a degree yet, except for the mountain, which seemed contained for now from above.

OOC: Ill move the Kubindi hit to the Kubindi Thread

Teth Crisis - Day One

So it began. Worst case scenario.

It had always been more or less known the Dragons were too weak to win in a direct war with the Coalition. Militarily, there were no doubts that the Coalition - which had seen a years-long period of renewal and rebuilding, and honing of skills - had grown to match the complacent Black Dragons. Where the New Order constantly fought to become stronger, more efficient, more worthy, creating a lean meritocracy, the Dragons had rested on their laurels.

Thus, it had been supposed that they would instead try to frustrate, block, and otherwise blunt the Coalition, seeking to defeat them without having to submit to battle. It was rumoured that it'd almost worked, too, when the plans for war had been discussed. Closed-door sessions and whispered conferences had shaken the foundations many times, with words such as "Disaster", "Destruction", and "Holy crap, they're going to dump viruses on us!" being thrown around a few times.

In the end, however, there had been resolve. The military had been itching to go. The civilian populations were furious over incursions into Coalition space, and seemed prepared to endure hardship. Eventually, it became clear that only those who had to actually make the decision to go to war were still reluctant. So, they had gone to war, all the while in the back of their mind knowing that there was going to be hell coming their way - an enemy that didn't form up in ranks, or wear uniforms, or lay down and died when you shot at it.

Plague. It was a sign of just how corrupt the Dragon regime was, how manipulative and deceitful. At this time, word had not yet gotten to Teth in general about what had happened at Mon Calamari, but if it had, it would not have surprised. There was a true disconnect between the people who believed in the Daemun Church and the Church itself, a backlog of deceit and hypocricy that held it together.

All of this Yakabe had reflected on as he stood in his new command center - not on the bridge of a warship, not in the cockpit of a fighter, but a converted medical center office. Prepared to wage a new war, he looked out at the city which he had been posted to.

"It's a terrible shame, really..." he began, speaking to the shadows "That such dark days fall upon so scarred a world. But I ask, who else in this galaxy are more suited to this hardship than those of Teth?"

Out of the aforementioned shadows stepped the White Knights' aide, and chief contact point between the emergency personnel and the Knight who would be directing them. "We're a tad short-handed, sir. The military's out, meaning there's less manpower to go around, but it has also reduced exposure rates. It appears preliminary containment failed, and despite our best efforts the plague is spreading.

"It'd be too damn easy if we'd just stopped it there and then, eh?" said Yakabe, sighing. "This is a one-sided war, you know. We can only lose. Even if we dominate this battle against disease, and cure many, driving it out of the world, we cannot strike them. It's... it's so..." He struggled to find a word.

"Unfair, sir?" supposed the aide.

Yakabe hung his head, and waved vaguely "Yes, I guess that will do. With their one weapon, they force us to waste so much effort and time, with nothing to gain on our part and with no appreciable or strategic goal. They seem to think the plague will just wipe the world clean, which I sincerely doubt. Even if it did, they won't gain anything. The armies of our people will still lay low their Church and exact all the more punishment for their sins, wether or not they wound us here.

"What is their reason? What is the point, Godsdamn it? Just to spite us? Just to piss us off and waste our time? To get back at us because they haven't the strength or the balls to do it in a fight?"

The aide gave it a second more thought, and said "Were they just and reasonable to begin with, would we be fighting with them?"

Yakabe considered this, and heavily fell to his seat. "You are right, of course. It is because of acts like this that we chose to destroy them in the first place. All right, we cannot waste any more time. Take me to patient zero."

"Right away, sir." said the aide, more grimly.



Joules, or 'Patient zero', writhed upon his bed in a sealed biochamber, being carefully monitored. It was possible he hadn't stopped since the moment of infection. It was even possible he didn't know he was doing it any more, his mind retreated to a private world where thought only came in shades of pain.

"How is he, doctors?" asked Yakabe, as he appraised the young man.

A doctor quick-stepped over the stone floor, in the vaunted and steralized medical center being rapidly established to deal with new cases. Right now, it rang hollow, with hardly any figures within. Darkly, Yakabe knew that it would soon be filling up. The doctor returned with a fistfull of medical reports and test results.

"Only initial diagnoses have began." she said, passing to Yakabe some of the images and documents. "We can tell, however, that the Phage is being slowed down considerably by Panacea - but only slowed. It grows at a steady pace, but that pace has been reduced. We've tried any and all conventional antidotes, but they've had only limited effect. He's more or less stable now, but he won't last forever."

The doctor's voice was filled with concern, causing Yakabe to turn and look at the young man again. He continued to twist and turn, as the battle within raged. Yakabe felt a pang of anger and regret - what was he doing leading this effort? He was a Knight, trained to lead battle and soldiers to victory over the enemy.

Already, however, his twin brains were providing the counter-argument. He was trained to lead, plain and simple. He was meant to lead people in any kind of battle against any type of enemy, to whatever victory they sought. Inspiration, courage, and willpower were his weapons, and they were not solely weapons of war.

"All right... keep him under lock and key, and continue to try everything you can think of. Our objective here is a holding action - If you must choose beyond prolonging his survival or reducing it to bring him greater comfort, you must choose prolongment, even if it brings greater pain. I know it is a difficult decision to make, but I will not allow a single man, woman, or child to fall to this disease while we have the means.

"I will go back upstairs now and make arrangements for this to be the primary treatment center. Even if we can't contain it, we can weaken it, and limit its' effects. The longer we last, the more likely a cure will come. Get to it! I will handle this from here on."

As the medical staff rushed off to get to work, Yakabe dashed back up the stairs to his office.



"So this is the estimated infection zone?" said Yakabe, examining a 3D display of the original mountains and surrounding area.

"Yes, sir." said the aide "Although the Phage may get out from that area, the more Phage we destroy, the slower it will spread. We've got every air-scrubber, emergency-cleanup, and Ion operator working double shifts to keep up the pressure on - "

"Wait, wait... Ion operator?"

"Yes, sir. It appears Ion emissions are devastating to the Phage, sir. Admittedly, they're damaging to most organic beings, but since the Phage wipes them out anyways there is only Phage to kill. It wouldn't work as a cure, sir, we've already thought of that."

"Damn - well, what about weaponized Ion? I've still got ships in orbit, they could soak the mountains pretty damn fast."

"Er... we're not sure if that's wise, sir. It appears the domestic solutions are working better for now, and also prolonged exposure to weaponized Ion might have unknown side-effects on both the Phage and surrounding region."

Yakabe leaned back on his chair. He was a commander - this was still a command, just a new type of enemy and a different type of soldier. "All right... I want immediate collection and production orders for hazmat clothing and gear. Everyone who's within fifty kilometers of the region has to be evacuated, and anyone who enters that area HAS to be in hazmat gear.

"We'll have transport arranged around the edge of the infected zone - they're to bring back anyone infected. Anyone and everyone involved is going to have to wear the necessary gear, including the doctors. No visitors, no coming and going, this is a state of emergency, so I'm going to throw in a curfew and encourage everyone to be extra-careful, okay?

"What about the rightful parliament of Teth? Won't they want a word?"

"Funny you should mention that, I spoke to the assembly earlier today. Tell me, how far are we from ground zero?"

"Not that far, sir. Indeed, here would surely be hit first if the disease spread to urban centers."

"Indeed. And how far is the parliament building? The one with all the Members of Parliament in?"

"Uh... also not far, sir. It's within the very city."

"Yes, it is. Now you can see why they're giving me free reign around here." He rubbed his hands together, and said "Put some caf on, I've got to make a few calls up the chain of command - and one to Kubindi..."