**Black-Site 34**
**Scene 1: Primary Republic R&D Complex – Secure Briefing Room**
Dagon Marek stood in the dimly lit briefing room, arms crossed, durasteel mask back in place. The holo-display showed fragmented data recovered from an ancient Sith relay station his scouts had raided near the Hydian Way.
Miaria lounged in a nearby chair, tail flicking. Atroxa and Talon stood on either side of him, while Aubrie observed quietly from the corner.
"This is old," Atroxa murmured, golden eyes narrowing at the decaying Imperial markings. "Very old. Pre-dates even my time in stasis."
"Black-Site 34," Dagon said. "A secret bioweapons facility from the days of the old Sith Empire. Four thousand years ago. The records are fragmented, but what's here is… disturbing."
Talon leaned closer. "They created something that terrified even the Sith. A virus. Enhanced by science *and* Sith alchemy. It was designed to be undetectable for a week, then spread like wildfire."
Dagon's gloved hand tightened. "Valkorion — Vitiate — personally oversaw the final stages. Whatever they made was so horrific that the Empire chose to bury the entire project. The scientist who helped create it begged them to purge the site before he died."
Miaria's ears flattened. "And now?"
"Automated systems are waking up," Dagon replied. "Our probe droids picked up anomalous energy signatures on a frozen planetoid in a dead system. Gravitational anomalies, black hole nearby, perfect isolation. The facility is still running on matter-annihilation reactors. And something inside the stasis tanks is… stirring."
**Scene 2: Black-Site 34 – Frozen Planetoid**
The *Devastation* battle group remained in high orbit while a small strike team descended through the thin atmosphere. Dagon led it personally, Wrath Shield in Strength mode, flanked by Atroxa, Talon, Miaria, and a squad of elite Purge Troopers in their new black-and-crimson armor.
The surface was a barren wasteland of ice and jagged rock. No wind. No life. Just perpetual freezing darkness.
They found the entrance — a buried blast door half-covered by millennia of ice. Talon's lightsaber made short work of the ancient mechanism.
Inside, the corridors were eerily pristine. Emergency lighting flickered to life as they moved deeper. Ancient battle droids — long deactivated — began powering up one by one, only to be cut down by precise blaster fire and lightsaber strikes.
"Ventilation systems just activated," one of the troopers reported. "Airflow increasing."
Dagon's masked gaze swept the walls. "It senses us. Keep moving. We're heading to the primary containment labs."
Deeper they went. The temperature remained freezing, but the air grew heavier, thick with something unnatural. Atroxa's tattoos began to glow faintly.
"This place reeks of Vitiate's work," she growled. "Old. Hungry."
They reached Lab 3 — the central bioweapons chamber. Massive stasis tanks lined the walls, humming with malignant energy. In the largest tank, something dark and amorphous shifted slowly, pressing against the transparisteel as if aware of their presence.
**Voice Log Playback – Recovered Archive:**
*Voice 1 (Scientist, coughing wetly):* "It was meant to gut the Republic in a week… undetectable at first… then it would rewrite the host from the inside. The Sith alchemist made it worse. Made it *alive*. It doesn't just kill. It learns. It adapts. It remembers."
*Voice 2 (Imperial Officer):* "We purged the site. The samples are contained."
*Voice 1:* "No… it can't be contained. It's waiting…"
The recording ended in static.
Talon stepped closer to the main tank. "It's still alive. After four thousand years."
Dagon raised his hand. Blue Force energy crackled around his palm as he prepared to purge the entire facility.
Before he could act, every stasis tank in the room shattered simultaneously.
**Scene 3: Containment Breach**
The organism erupted — a black, writhing mass of viral tendrils and living shadow. It moved with horrifying intelligence, splitting into multiple streams that lunged toward the strike team.
"Fall back!" Dagon roared, igniting his lightsaber. "Atroxa, Talon — contain it! Miaria, get the troopers clear!"
Atroxa unleashed torrents of crimson lightning while Talon carved through the tendrils with her dual blades. Miaria's claws extended as she partially beastified, tearing apart smaller offshoots that tried to flank them.
Dagon stepped forward, Wrath Shield shifting into Nova-Flame mode. Dark fire erupted from his arms, incinerating swathes of the virus. But the organism adapted almost instantly — portions of it hardening into crystalline armor against the flames, other sections flowing like liquid to avoid the heat.
"It's learning," Dagon growled. "Just like the records said."
One tendril managed to latch onto a Purge Trooper. The soldier screamed as black veins rapidly spread across his armor. Within seconds, he turned on his comrades, eyes glowing with unnatural hunger.
"Purge protocol!" Dagon ordered. "Burn everything!"
The team fought a desperate retreat toward the surface while Dagon held the line. He channeled a wide-spread purification wave, similar to what he had used on Dathomir, but the virus resisted — ancient Sith alchemy woven into its very DNA fought back against the light.
A massive central mass coalesced in the center of the lab — a grotesque, ever-shifting abomination that roared with a thousand stolen voices.
Dagon slammed both hands into the floor. "Wide-spread purification — maximum output!"
Blue-white energy exploded outward, clashing violently with the black mass. The facility shook as the two forces fought for dominance. Cracks spread across the ceiling as ice and rock above began to collapse.
Atroxa grabbed his arm. "We need to leave! Now! This thing is too unstable — even for you!"
Dagon hesitated for one second, staring into the heart of the abomination. For a brief moment, he sensed something ancient and familiar within it.
*Vitiate's final joke.*
They barely made it to the surface before the entire Black-Site 34 detonated in a controlled nuclear purge, triggered by Dagon's remote command. The frozen planetoid cracked but held, the facility buried once more under millions of tons of ice and radiation.
**Scene 4: Aboard the Devastation – Briefing Room**
Back on the bridge, Dagon removed his mask, scarred face grim.
"It's not dead," he said quietly. "We burned the main site, but samples could have been stored elsewhere. Vitiate was too careful."
Miaria's tail lashed. "Then we hunt down every remnant."
Atroxa nodded. "And we accelerate Project Rebirth. If that thing ever gets loose in the Core during *Spear of Light*…"
Talon finished the thought. "The galaxy burns."
Dagon looked out at the stars. The war had just gained a new, invisible enemy — one that had waited four thousand years for fresh meat.
The Dragon's gaze hardened.
"Let it come. We'll be ready."