Krytos virus

The Krytos virus was a bioengineered virus released upon the capital world Coruscant by the Imperial leader Ysanne Isard just after the fall of the world to the Rebel Alliance in 7 BBY. The Krytos virus helped ignite the small, but important, conflict known as the Bacta War.

Scientific
The Krytos virus was a highly contagious and very deadly virus. It could spread via a number of avenues, including by water supplies and air. The virus often killed its host in less than two weeks, resulting in a painful, grizzly death.

The virus was specifically designed to be destroyed easily with bacta. While she was certainly interested in killing as many individuals as possible, Isard's primary goal was to cause discontent in the New Republic by making the demand for bacta skyrocket, then limiting its distribution, so as to make the treatment scarce and therefore very expensive. To counter this easy treatment, the virus was given a fast rate of incubation that made it kill a host very quickly, and Isard had her biomedical engineers design it so that it could spread easily, especially in the close confines of Coruscant.

The short incubation period of the virus proved to be its downfall: often times, the virus killed its host too fast to allow it to spread as desired. The use of ryll combined with bacta allowed the New Republic to produce an acceptable bacta substitute at a cheaper price than bacta; this also helped treat victims. Finally, the liberation of Thyferra by Rogue Squadron helped restore the flow of bacta to the galaxy and, most notably, the New Republic.

Political
While it seemed to the Rebels that Coruscant had legitimately fallen, the capture of the world was all a part of Isard's plan. Shortly before its fall, her biomedical engineers, including Evir Derricote (who at one time had secretly run the Alderaan Biotics facility on Borleias), designed an extremely deadly virus that attacked only non-human races. Isard hoped that this design, coupled with the Empire's subsequent capture of the bacta-producing world Thyferra, would make bacta so scarce that the virus could not be treated. Thus, discord would be sewn in the newly-formed New Republic: alien races would be unable to get proper treatment, while humans would be completely unaffected (and indeed immune) to the virus. The New Republic would face a tough choice: acquire bacta at greatly inflated prices, or do nothing. Acquiring bacta at inflated prices would rob the fledgling government of much of its budget; doing nothing would make the sickened alien population resent the New Republic. The Bacta War was one of the first true tests of the New Republic.

In the end, disaster was averted by Corran Horn and Rogue Squadron, who helped free Thyferra from the clutches of Ysanne Isard and restore a free flow of bacta to the galaxy. The virus was quickly wiped out through numerous medical techniques, most importantly the administration of bacta to diseased individuals. This quick treatment, of course, destroyed the resentment building between New Republic humans and aliens; unfortunately, by this time, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives had already been lost to the disease.

The Krytos virus marks one of the most notable and prolific uses of biological warfare in the galaxy.

Literary references

 * Stackpole, Michael A. The Bacta War. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1997. ISBN 0553568043.
 * &mdash;. The Krytos Trap. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1996. ISBN 0553568035.
 * &mdash;. Wedge's Gamble. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1996. ISBN 0553568027.