The Keaira Virus Outbreak

The Keaira Virus Outbreak refers to a recorded case of a viral outbreak that began with the arrival of a woman named Keaira in the Andromisa Galaxy. The event would become one of the most devastating outbreaks recorded and is thought to be responsible for the extinction of the Zetrani race.

The Beginning
The woman named Keaira was originally born on the Bermkean home world Zolaun. There, she underwent several different kinds of experiments that turned her from a normal Zolaun into a genetic weapon. Her very genetic code housed a virus unlike any other. Those she infected not only became very sick, but Keaira was able to control the infected individuals until they finally died from the sickness she carried. With this knowledge, Keaira caused a great deal of damage to the planet Zolaun before finally being captured.

Coming to the Andromisa (49,000 BA)
After a devastating turn of events on the planet Zolaun, the Bermekans decided to depart from their wrecked home and come to the Andromisa Galaxy where other intelligent beings were developing space travel. Along the way the Bermekan convoy discovered a planet called Earth. There, they interacted with humans who had nearly destroyed Earth's atmosphere and surface with continual conflicts. During their time here, corrupt Bermekan officials released Keaira from maximum containment. She promptly escaped and began spreading her virus. The event would become known as the Earth Disaster. Thanks to quick thinking human action, Keaira was severely injured and taken back into custody. With the virus claiming billions of humans, the Bermekans helped to gather up as many uninfected as they could before abandoning the planet.

Keaira Abandoned (48,990 BA)
When they arrived in the Andromisa Galaxy, the Bermekans quickly decided that Keaira was far too dangerous to continue dragging around. They did a quick scan of what they considered to be "rim space" and dumped the prisoner off on a desolate world. It was assumed that she would either starve, kill herself, or eventually pass away of age. The Bermekans continued on without giving it a second thought.

The Infection Begins (48,970 BA)
Keaira managed to survive on the world for roughly twenty years. At some point in that time window, a Koelshan vessel, damaged during a conflict with a Zetrani convoy, came into orbit over the planet to repair. As if fate had somehow chosen to save her, Keaira acted without hesitation, attacking a group of soldiers that came to the surface to escape the confines of the damaged vessel. Keiara infected some, but killed off many more. It is assumed that Keaira killed off those who she considered too weak to handle the virus' long term damages.

When the group lost contact with the ship in orbit, several soldiers that had been sent to investiage also went missing. Then, surprisingly, the shuttle returned to the ship. However, the crew found that it was filled with infected soldiers now under Keaira's control. She used them as living shields against those who resisted her and quickly infected the crew of the vessel, taking control of it and accessing its maps to begin her own personal assault against life.

The News Hits Home (48,968 BA)
After twenty-two years, the Human survivors from Earth, known as the Terrans now, had established their new homes in the Andromisa Galaxy. Terra Prime and Terra Minor were two planets in a single system, one much larger than the other, that served as the center of their space. Still, the Terrans had worked quickly to establish two colonies, Baltor, which was a midpoint between Terra Prime and Hyla, as well as Campbell's Point, a colony that reached deep into previously unexplored space.

Not long after this colony's founding, it came under attack by several alien beings. Three Terrans were killed in the attack, as well as five alien attackers. The bodies were hard to identify and there was no knowledge of the species in Hylan records. It became apparent that there were still unidentified species living in far reaches of the galaxy. What was worse, the DNA records appeared closest to Kalctan ancestry.

The Terrans made efforts to contact this new species and they succeeded. The Koelshans formally apologized for the attack, stating that they feared the Terrans might be followers of Keaira. They were very open about the fight against Keaira and her virus and how the Koelshan Empire had been cut in half in just two years. The woman's forces would attack, overwhelm, and then destroy anything that they could muster. The Emperor had taken great care to pull his military back and attempt to hold a line against Keaira's methods of infection. When this news got back to Hyla, the Bermekans knew they were in trouble. They turned over all the information they knew about Keaira and what she had done to both Earth and their own home world to the Hylans. The Hylans then passed this to the Terrans and said that it was up to them to decide if they could trust the Koelshans. Ultimately, the Terrans did not reveal this information.

The Zetrani Assistance (48,967 BA)
The Keaira Outbreak was worse than ever before. Keaira had started to push harder and faster than she had at any point, sometimes taking two complete systems in just under a month. Refugees were rushing to the safety of the Koelshan capital and some even pushed further, running to the Terrans for help. By now, General Nevin Campbell had been working with the Koelshans to help halt Keaira's advances. He knew the information the Bermekans had revealed and was concerned that if they could not stop the virus soon, Keaira would eventually bring the fight into the Collective. In his pursuit of a way to stop the virus, Nevin met with the remnants of the Zetrani Order, a nomadic people that had once lived peacefully within the Kaltan Empire. These people had suffered much under the Koelshan rule and now the last of their race clung to survival within an enormous nebula that gave them great protection. Though the Zetrani were against war, their technology required for nomadic space travel had led to amazing advances in both space flight and mining equipment that could easily be used for weapon applications. Campbell informed the Zetrani of what was occurring beyond their private nebula and they too were concerned for their future. They agreed to help stop the Virus from spreading but offered Campbell words of advice regarding the Koelshans. These words were simple. Do not trust them.

The Omegas (48,965 BA)
Utterly crippled by the relentless attacks that Keaira offered, most of the Koelshan Empire was falling apart. The Terrans had tried to help in any way that they could, even trying to locate another race the Zetrani had once known, called the Medizians, but had discovered their home utterly destroyed by either Keaira or the civilization's own reckless use of technology. Campbell knew that unless something happened fast, the Koelshan capital would fall by the end of the year. The Janolian Realm, an independent government that the Terrans had also discovered and befriended in uncharted space, were taking in as many Koelshan refugees as possible but many millions more had poured into Campbell's Point or Baltor. With the destruction of the Koelshan capital imminent, Campbell was already preparing his notes for a meeting with the Collective Counsel to discuss Keaira's first attacks on Terran Space. Then, something unexpected happened. Keaira's forward advances halted and the fighting finally paused. Surprisingly, Campbell had come into almost total control of the Koelshan military during his time in unexplored space. He had bolstered their numbers with Hylan and Terran ships but he saw this break in conflict as a chance to strengthen the lines and prepare for the next onslaught. However, this attack never came. Instead, Keaira diverted her attention to the Zetrani Nebula and appeared to be preparing for an assault against the remaining Zetrani people. When Campbell reported this to the Emperor, he praised the Zetrani for their assistance and asked him to report to their space to see what they could do to help finish Keaira off. Nevin gladly accepted this chance to thank his new allies and traveled to the Nebula. When he arrived, he was taken in by the Zetrani and debriefed on five ships that the Zetrani had made that were very effective against Keaira's forces. They were five ships run entirely by machines. There was no one to infect, no ship to board and control. The only way to defeat them was through old fashioned space combat, something that Keaira's weakened crew members couldn't do well enough to destroy these fine machines. The Omegas, as Campbell called them, were so well designed and so well built that he was glad the Zetran were not a war faring people for they'd have control of the galaxy in no time. The Zetrani admitted that Keaira had them trumped at the moment as the Omegas had been chipping away at her numbers but were not strong enough to last through a full scale assault.

The Zetrani Dreadnaught (48,964 BA)
Campbell was shown a ship so massive, it had landing bays for all five of the Omegas, as well as two more for smaller vessels. The mining tools that had once been used to sustain the Zetrani had been converted to devastating energy cannons that were strong enough to blow ships apart with a single blast. Indeed, the Dreadnaught was a weapon unlike anything Campbell had ever seen before. The Zetrani revealed that the ship was being built as a safety protocol in the case the Keaira Virus could not be stopped. It was automated enough to take in the Omegas, reload them, and release them for combat again. With automated weapons producing machinery on board, the Omegas could continue the fight for centuries without any organic life forms around.

Unfortunately, time was running short. The Zetrani had diverted too much energy to building this dreadnaught to halt Keaira's advance. Unless the Koelshans came to their aide, the nebula would be overrun. Campbell swore to bring help but the Zetrani made him swear not to reveal any information regarding the Dreadnaught.

The Koelshan Denial (48,964 BA)
When Nevin returned to the Koelshans and reported the news of Keaira's impending attack, the Koelshan Emperor turned his back to the Zetrani, acknowledging that they would die and in doing so buy the rest of the galaxy the extra time they needed to rebuild their defenses. Shocked by what he had just heard, Campbell tore into the Koelshan Emperor about honor and duty and then stormed away. Taking control of the Hylan and Terran ships he had, Campbell relinquished his command of the Koelshan forces and headed to the Zetran Nebula.

Keaira's Defeat at the Nebula's Rim (48,964 BA)
Though Nevin was outnumbered 10 to 1 by Keaira's forces, the Zetrani set the Omegas loose on Keaira's fleet, creating chaos and tricking Keaira into hiding within the nebula, assuming it might keep her safe from the Omega's attacks. When Campbell learned that Keaira herself had attended this monumental battle, he turned to the Zetrani and told them that they could end this conflict here and now. The Dreadnaught was not complete and only a few Zetrani knew how to operate it. Their stance against war meant anyone who used it would be outcast from their brethren. Still, knowing the danger and the risk that the Terrans were taking to protect their people, those that knew how to operate the deadly ship took up the controls and ambushed Keaira's forces. The Dreadnaught performed perfectly and drove back the attackers in a stunning display of destructive power. Keaira tried to retreat but her ship was heavily damaged by Campbell, who had claimed her for himself. She abandoned her crew and used an escape pod to try and escape to the surface of a planet below. No doubt her plan was to hide on the surface and infect anyone who came to find her. Unfortunately, the planet was in a heavily clouded part of the Nebula. The sun's light was blocked here and the planet was nothing more than ice and snow. Keaira was likely flash frozen when she hit what little atmosphere the planet had.

Purging the Galaxy (48,964-48,829 BBT)
The Virus had been halted and the Dreadnaught had not been revealed in battle outside of the Nebula. The Zetrani people decided that they would encase the ship in a disguise to hide it from any Koelshans who may wander into their Nebula. The Zetrani who had been disgraced by fighting were entrusted with the duty of keeping the Dreadnaught hidden and safe. The Omegas were set to seek out any Keaira cells and destroy them before returning to the Dreadnaught and shutting down. They performed their action dutifully, being spotted by Koelshan military or citizens every once in a while. They became part of Koelshan legend. Campbell left the Zetrani Nebula after the virus was stopped. He stayed in contact with the Zetrani throughout the process but eventually had to return to Terra Prime for other missions. When he did manage to return to the Zetrani Nebula, he was shocked to find that they were gone. The remnants of the Zetrani people had vanished and with them it seemed the Dreadnaught had vanished too. Saddened by this news, Campbell went to Hyla and directly voiced his opposition to allowing the Koelshan Empire into the Collective. He cited the Zetrani vanishing and blamed it on both the Keaira Virus and the Koelshans. It was Nevin Campbell's voice of opposition that finally tilted the Hylans toward retracting their invitation to the Koelshan Empire.

Consequences of the Virus
The Keaira Virus Outbreak took a toll on the Terrans, Janolians, and Hylans throughout the years that it lasted. However, no one was as greatly damaged by the outbreak as the Koelshan Empire. Their numbers were nearly cut in half and their control over dozens of systems had completely fallen apart. With a failing infrastructure and billions of refugees spilled across several other governments, the Koelshan Empire spent many years after Keaira's defeat simply trying to regain control of themselves. They had forged what could have been a lasting friendship with the Terrans but their actions toward the Zetrani had created a divide between Nevin and the Emperor that would continue to drive the two species further and further apart. Still, because of the set backs and downturns, the Koelshans seemed to retreat back into the darkness that they had appeared from. The Terrans created a border that no one was allowed to pass and this section of the galaxy became known as Dark Territory.