Null Specter Station! Chapter Fourteen: Mutate

 

“The Blackwing file I directed you to was only a small part of the full research project. Following the incident on board the Vector, a cleanup team was dispatched to destroy the evidence, but first a sample was stored for later examination. Work on the disease continued here, at first we weren’t aware of the importance of the living organs that were originally brought to the Empire's attention. The lungs acted as some kind of controlling force. The infected creatures operate under a hive mind, but the information must be processed somewhere. Somehow the lungs were able to accomplish that task.

Without that, we were unable to achieve any success away from the Vecor. Lord Vader himself expressed his displeasure at losing the source of the infection. One of our scientists hit upon a novel way of addressing this and it proved to be key to making the disease work in our favour. Well, so we thought.

In order to create the central hive mind our scientists took a subject, a human subject of course, and infected him with the disease. With no hive mind however, the creature was completely docile. We removed the heart, lungs, spinal cord and brain, our scientists believed that by keeping the brain intact it would grant the creature’s added intelligence. They were correct of course, but more importantly, they were able to begin re-producing the virus. By removing the creatures body it was sent in to some kind of emotional state which heightened it’s appetite and caused the virus to begin reproducing in vast quantities allowing us to farm it.

Naturally, we mutated the virus again, hoping to capitalise on this increased intelligence. To begin with, the creatures we began to produce showed some promise. Controlled by the hive mind they were able to follow some basic commands. We merely had to stimulate the controlling mind with images of what we wished to have the creatures attack. It worked wonderfully! We were amazed at how easy it had been, but we grew too confident. We began to hook the controlling mind to more and more computers, aiming to give it more information and inputs in order to command our new army. We hadn’t counted on it retaining any knowledge of the original human occupant.

The subject had been a rebel spy, caught and allegedly imprisoned. His role within your organisation had been as a slicer, somehow even as an infected dead creature, that knowledge was retained. At first we thought it was all part of the process, as the hive mind began to assimilate more information we saw traces of its influence throughout our systems. Security cam feeds were directed through it, databanks opened up, environmental controls. We just saw it as an exciting new way of waging war. Star Destroyers controlled by organic brains that would also direct armies of our creatures and assimilate traitors and rebels.

Evidently our subject didn’t agree with our work, maybe it even retained some hatred towards us. One night, it opened the cells to the creatures, allowing them to roam through the station. Our personnel were locked in their rooms until the creatures were able to fall on them as they progressed through the station. The controlling hive mind was able to give them almost instant knowledge to utilise or sabotage our equipment.

A small group of us managed to get up here, but the controlling mind has managed to lock us out of our systems. We break in only to have our access removed within minutes. We’ve been able to isolate ourselves here by removing the door controls and hooking up some datapads. The generator over there has been able to keep them powered for the time being. Surprisingly, the creatures have not decided to attack this part of the tower. Perhaps they are waiting for us to starve to death, or just don’t see us as a threat.”

“Do you have no way to destroy them?” Krenyo asked, stunned by what he had heard. There were rumours of Imperial experiments on live prisoners, but he had always dismissed them.

“No. We were to succeed or die trying. Apparantly we managed to achieve both of those orders.”

“So what are they waiting for?” Benu spoke up as he rubbed his forehead trying to make the information sink in.

“Ships. They need ships to get off planet and spread the disease.”

The rebel soldiers looked at each other and in unison said, “Our transports.”