Ardent Virtue

The ''Ardent Virtue was a Republic-funded survey ship.

History
In 90 BBY, the Virtue was sent along with the survey ship Locus to the Luire system, to carry out observations on the systems five gas giants for five years. However, in 87 BBY, the Locus crashed while surveying the planet Nyriaan. The Virtue attempted to carry out a rescue, but was unsucesssful and was unable to contact the Locus, and only succeeded in losing two of it's own planetary shuttles.

The crew of the Virtue persisted at trying to find the Locus and in 86 BBY, were able to travel to the surface of Nyriaan, in a gondola that was tethered to the Ardent Virtue and lowered to the ground. The crew located the remains of the Locus and carried out a survey of the planet, then constructed a laser comm array, so that they could communicate with the Virtue

The following year, the crew of the Virtue discovered traces of madilon in soil samples taken from Nyriaan. Although they attempted to keep this information secret, a Corporate Sector Authority outpost on the nearby planet Caillte learned of the discovery after intercepting transmissions from the ship. Several members of the Virtue's crew also attempted to sell the information.