[3 BBY]
[Dreadnaught-Four, Outbound Flight Project - Taskforce Vigilant Wanderer, Imperial Fifth Fleet, Unnamed System, Nearing Wreck-site Outbound Flight, Utegetu Nebula, Unknown Regions]

I knew…no, I strongly suspected what that just was. Just what was occurring here. But that in fact made retreat from this site even more problematic. The Yuuzhan Vong were masters of biomancy, and the fact neither I nor Tionne sensed activity within the Force despite there clearly been life…well, it could be written off in not looking for such things. But I'd spell-cast, seeking out life activity even that of an insect as I just seen…

'And it does not come up. A magic blank, or, well Force Null' I though calmly, analysing the situation as more directed scans from the boarding teams took place. We'd already been watchful for pathogens and other dangers, but now we had visual confirmation of at least small lifeforms still surviving in gas areas, or in vacuum, opened up other levels of watchfulness. Now though…this was possibly a tripwire or a trap if the Vong had come here in the recent past. But it made matters clearer in needing to know why they had been here, as if there were nefarious reasons, I needed some reason to destroy this wreck completely. That and hopefully capture of these lifeforms for study.

I touched my comms "Send in secondary droid support units, clean and sweep potential organic infestation"

"Copy Alpha Squad. Deploying as per request" came back over the comm-link, nothing more as sent a coded command to all squads to deploy slightly differently than before. These were the best of my Huscarls, my personal guard, and of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps, so there were no issues as organic and synthetics repositioned. Hundreds of 'small' droids were now dropped by gunship, deploying cleaning and anti-vermin droids into the breach as I stood waiting with my otherwise silent and watching soldiers; - scanning droids ahead mapping every nock and crevice in the surrounding decks of the abandoned hull. Also aggressively 'pining' for bio-signatures…

'So' I said to myself as the maps updated into a three-dimensional image of the various decks, flickers of energy and faintest heat hinting at a few, small, clusters of the bugs. Made clear as the first spot of such was hit by the arrival cleaning droids, tiny Roomba like droids that sparked and sprayed at the creatures…

"Power spikes from the insects" I stated, to my squads as much as myself, watching as there was a flicker on the holo-images where the hot-spot got hit "It's miniscule, but there may be issues if they are as energy active for such tiny creatures"

"Master?"

"We'll proceed towards the bridge as we planned" I answered Tionne's spoken, and the squad's unspoken, question "We just allow the scrubbers to proceed us. Private Javuj, you are on scan-watch for this squad. All other squads to maintain bio-watch alongside standard scans. We do not want to miss damage due to an infestation of unknown creatures, nor to have them get aboard another vessel"

'If I'm correct then this is a warning system' was my first concern, followed by the second 'And did the Chiss know about it?'

Because it would fit in with their modus operandi of not striking first as we were doing so. Perhaps, or I was just being paranoid. Regardless of if they had or not…I had to pretend they had not, for the alliance was rather important to maintain. Digging further in that direction wouldn't help anyone. No, what mattered now was ascertaining how bad a problem I had on my hands. Because the Emperor and the Chiss wouldn't be happy with my kneejerk reaction of 'throw it into the sun!' as an acceptable course of action in response to encountering some weird-ass space bugs.

So forward we went, just as planned, while tiny droids hunted for alien bugs, and we passed skeletons and frozen bodies as pressure was equalised at various pockets. Or removed rather, with fractures and fissures in the maintenance shafts it seemed, sealed by the insects it was analysed by my shipboard team as we neared the bridge proper. Getting reports as I wrenched open the final security blast doors, then waiting as the rotten atmosphere was drained out of what was actually a properly sealed command bridge. Benefits of having the force as I listened to reports.

"…aggressive little creatures. They're dying when we capture them though Sir?"

"Still, see what can be learned from them. But on the Dark Aurora alone…" I said, ordered, back, referring to one of her larger logistics transports, one that served as medical transport if needed. Not now, and I did not want a single one of those 'dead' things aboard "…we've just accessed what seems to be an expanded bridge for a dreadnaught. No breaches or bio-signs detected here so far. Feed the power cables down to my teams. Sooner we restore power the sooner we can check attempt to slice them"

Then switched channels, gesturing forward "Alpha-One, sweep and secure. Check and scan the bodies. Alpha-Two maintain guard here till the cables come through"

Quick, simple, affirmatives came back, the first squad breaching through the shield barrier, stepping over the cables that had cleared out the atmosphere. I was sure the smell of death would have been inside, or rather in my mind and that of my troops as the squad did as I'd asked with quiet professionalism. The bridge of this dreadnaught was not the usual cramped affair of the class, but larger and probably filled with more screens and displays…

'And bodies' I thought coldly entering, see the death that had occurred here 'So many…dying at their stations it seems'

The place was, well, disgusting, but I'd seen worse. Done worse. My concerns being on enemy infestation alone as the darkness was only illuminated by the light of our combat suits and those of hovering scan-droids. Silence staying till the briefest exchanges on the comm-net as large, solid, cables were filtered down from the breach, then small ones 'plugged' into the dead machinery. Then the situation got a whole lot uglier look as power began to flow, the darkness flickering with surges of energy as the dead warship's bridge began to thrum with life once more. Everywhere was death, Tionne unbalanced by the corpses till I reached out in the Force to steady her, unused to such things as my huscarls or the stormtroopers were.

"It's always worse in the light" I said to her quietly over the comms, seeing the rot and decade, but also horrid way that the decay had been stopped in its track by the bitter cold "Stand strong, we shall get through this"

"Yes Master" she managed to get back, calming herself as she ill at ease with the rather dreadful nature of necropolis. We were lucky we couldn't smell anything.

I squatted down, picking up and studying the lightsaber of a corpse….the lights of the bridge hissing and crackling in their illumination as holo-displays activated after decades of inactivity. No fires started, as there was no atmosphere, but the ice flash melted and created misty fogs that were sucked out as I glanced at the slashes in the two bodies nearby. Studied the cracked case of the saber, damage indicating it had been on…

'Well, that and the gouges in the floor'

I resisted a sigh, turning the switch to 'off' just to be safe, the skeleton and frozen tatters of flesh not recognisable as male or female, or even the exact species. The tattered Jedi robes hinted at a padawan, and what might have been a metal or similar material that might have been in a padawan's braid. Or that was just pattern recognition seeing things that weren't there as I stood back up. It seemed radiation hadn't been the only killer here, or the most likely as the light showed the true horror of a madness induced deaths. But I couldn't dwell on it, tapping comms again "Lt. Gavik, Private Yen'wu'nah, you attempt to slice the command systems. Utilise supplied codes"

"Yes Sir" and "Affirmative Admiral" came back as I stepped towards the remains of the captain…

'No, another Jedi' I say, as the corpse, remains of it, was in old robes and the skeleton with bits of flesh here was clearly a human in robes of some sort…and the damage to the screens and consoles in front of the seat was indicative of lightning damage. Force Lightning damage 'It seems they did go off their rockers when the Battle Meditation went wrong'

The vessel rumbled faintly beneath my feet, power likely spreading further than the bridge and beginning to reactivate secondary relays. My fingers tabbed comms again "All Seeing Eye, this Alpha-One, Confirm Status of wreck? Dreadnaught powering up?"

"Confirm Alpha-One, we are detecting power surges rippling out from the bridge. Perimeter teams report emergency lighting active. Doors and other systems are activating"

"Thank you All Seeing Eye, prepare for Phase Three" I changed to the team "Slice-attempt?"

"Linked Admiral, systems seem intact" came the reply as I moved to intact command circuits "Command links look good, codes are working. Access…should be functional the consoles"

I cleared away the ice and dust with a motion of my right hand, stepping in close, over a body, and pressing armoured fingers to old buttons. Familiar in design and responding to my commands now they were powered and the damage, somehow, wasn't too severe. Say what you will about Core shipbuilding being overcharging jackasses when they set about making high quality equipment they made high quality equipment. Even after being dead for decades, and power just now restored, the systems responded, albeit sluggishly, and in their lowest level settings to those commands.

Screens flickered to life, static, but then turning to bad quality images with black splotches or icy sheens, or maybe rust and dirt, as camera systems activated once more. More, the command bridge's monitoring systems were alive once again, giving overviews of any intact, powered, and not-blocked security system camera. The internal sensors too, but that was more 'in theory' than in practice as there was simply no power for that function. The internal cameras required very little draw, and had redundancies for resisting boarding efforts, so our supplied power was enough for now; just as there was enough to bring up the logs, and, most importantly of all…

"We have the designs specs it seems" I stated, codes working as hoped now my slicers had gotten the original systems reboot functional. Now a holographic image of the entire ship, not just this warship part of it, was flickering wildly. It wasn't truly legible, but it was something, especially if we could read the data from the All Seeing Eye.

More concerningly, there was feed from a camera or two in the true cylinder of the vessel. I tried to clarify where, and from what feed, images static and shaky on the damaged main screen as I adjusted "All squads. Be advised we have unknown organisms, half the size of a humanoid, active deeper in the vessels. Powering on seems to be waking them"

I held my gaze on the screens 'Well Daron, you may have found proof of the Vong. Because they've left an ambush for unwary scavengers to test against'