Perfectly Imperfect
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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a lethal basis virus for several effective products and compounds to be based on
- Image Credit: [X]
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
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- Scientific Name: Blackwing strain 71 marker T1
- Abbreviation: BW71-T1
- Common Name: Thanatos Virus
- Virus Family: Blackwing strain, macrophage T-alpha
- Origins:
- Other Locations: Samples are present on Eriadu, Bescane, the Redoubt, Schesa, Coruscant and other undisclosed locations, usually in private vaults and in the hands of high ranking members of the N&Z or Section C due to the confidentiality attached to the existence of this virus and the ramifications should these samples ever end up in the wrong hands.
- Description: The Thanatos virus differs from the standard Blackwing virus in the fact that when the virus attacks a cell and rewrites its rna and takes over its functions, the cell will be gaining two rather prominent bulges which give it a T-shape, hence the T-marker denomination. These bulges will essentially act as the new birthing pods for the macrophage which when the bulges burst are released to further infect and contaminate the host in which it has begun its rampant take over. The macrophage itself has been described as a tripod with a pyramid-shaped dispenser which unleashes the virus's own genome code upon settling on suitable cells.
- Morphology: The virus itself as a macrophage looks like a tripod with a pyramid-like head, though the clusters in which they operate and the subsequent infected cells all have a distinct T-shape. The color is somewhere between teal and cyan.
- Size: As a macrophage or macrovirus, the Thanatos virus is larger than usual, with a uniform size of between 750nm and 800 nm.
- Color: between teal and cyan
- Distinctions: The thanatos virus itself is in fact very much a living thing, though like all viruses that concept is to be taken with a grain of salt due to its parasitic nature and lack of several key markers which stand at the basis of 'life'. However, once it enters a host's cell, unlike many other viruses, it will not kill the cell after rewriting the rna, instead adding on to the cell and keeping the cell active for as long as it can reproduce the macrophages necessary for the spread of the virus. Clusters of these macrophages and the eventually infected cells all have one thing in common: a distinctive T shape under the microscope, hence having been given the T-marker and the subsequent Thanatos name.
- Source: Synthetic with natural occurance
- Host Species: N/A (there is no specific host species, as it can technically infect all fauna, with some flora also being receptive to the virus)
- Host Range: Broad (Many Species).
- Viability: It can infect any hosts in any given climate, as long as the host's own physical status is functional upon infection, the virus can activate, spread and reconstitute itself.
- Lethality: High While in general the thanatos virus would have a very high mortality rate, it is calculated that around ten percent of all living beings that can be affected by the virus have a natural immunity due to earlier exposure to other strains or simply by having extremely compatible markers. In the latter case though, they become carriers and can still cause the virus to spread.
- Severity: Extreme. The virus begins with its work from the very moment it has been ingested, injected or transferred, its spread will cause dizziness and fever, coupled with bouts of profuse sweating and blurry vision. However, while lethal, death is not where the virus ends, but where its true nature reveals itself, as it shows its origin as part of pharmaceutical trials and thus forcefully reanimates the host body, flooding it with its own rna and macrophages to stimulate the host's need for sustenance, thus turning the host into a violent, hungry beast with little to no actual sentience.
- Infectivity: High
- Modes of Transmission: Can be transmitted through transference of bodily fluids or water
- Incubation Period: it can reach anywhere between several minutes to several hours depending on the amount of the virus initially introduced to the bloodstream.
- Re-Infection: generally not if it is the same strain. Meaning that anyone with immunity to another strain of Blackwing can effectively still be infected, though they WILL have an extended incubation period and may or may not still build up an immunity within this incubation period.
- Vaccine/Cure:
- Yes, a cure does exist, but is extremely rare and stored in small quantities in secure locations. These are obviously made solely with those utilizing the virus in mind, not the victims of the virus. However, the current cure may only be truly be effective for those who have yet to go past stage 3 of the virus’ progression.
- No, a vaccine does not exist, but vaccines against other Blackwing Virus strains and anti-viral suppressants can delay and extend the incubation period.
- Stage 1 Introduction of the virus: Right after the initial contraction of the virus, depending on the method of ingestion or contraction, the most common thing one would feel is a weakening physical fitness, comparable to the general malaise one could feel when they have the flu.
- Stage 2 Infection spreading: Coughing up blood and sweating combined with furthering dizziness, blurry vision and heartburn begin to wreak havoc on the infected’s physical body, slowly but surely, their immune system is being flooded and shutting down.
- Stage 3 rapid decline: As the immune system has been shut down, the Thanatos Virus can do its work unchecked and unopposed, gradually starting to infiltrate major organs through the bloodstream, adjusting and corrupting synapses and hormone balances within the brain and the hypothalamus, rapidly rewriting the body’s functions to best suit itself and create a viable environment for itself.
- Stage 4 DEATH: not much needs to be said in this case, the entire body shuts down, with most of its critical functions having been rewritten and thus no longer supporting the standard systems and laws of life.
- Stage 5 Full Thanatos carrier: The Thanatos virus, having accomplished rewriting the infected body’s functions, essentially reboots the dead body, granting it an overflow of adrenaline and boosting the standard predatory instincts that come with the need to feed and spread the infection.
Strengths:
- The Thanatos virus has the advantage of looking mainly like the common flu, a sickness the entire galaxy knows in its first two stages, making it quite a stealthy virus in terms of recognition in the open. By stage 3, the disease’s progression is generally so fast it is already too late to reverse the progression and the endresult.
- Highly infectious: Even though it does not have an airborne transmission, the Thanatos virus is infectious and effective enough that a single droplet of blood, spit or other bodily fluids from a carrier or stage two infected [and above] managing to enter the bloodstream is enough for infection to occur.
- The Thanatos virus seems to have problems surviving in highly irradiated areas, thus it can not sustain itself in areas such as rhodium or coaxium mines, and can effectively be eradicated from a person’s body with enough extreme radiation…though this is not exactly a recommended treatment.
- It can essentially be burned away, the Thanathos virus, when exposed to extreme heat can be destroyed, which is generally a common method of disposing of infected material…
The Thanatos Virus or the BW71-T1 strain, is generally considered one of the greatest research projects conducted by the N&Z or more specifically Section C. Created out of a mutated Blackwing Strain found within the Section C’s possession, the Thanatos Virus was originally meant to be a means to regenerate wounds, retain cognitive function in the braindead people, etc…alas this was all but a ruse, for once the real effects of the strain manifested themselves, the more pressing matter was the virus’ infection rate, its mutational properties and lastly: their end result.
Most Blackwing strains tended to end up with slow, lumbering carriers with little mobility, but the strain unleashed on Atrisia decades ago, which is considered the origin of all of the company’s own strains, brought a new type of carrier; swift and speedy, volatile and predatory in nature. It was this aspect which had to be researched and understood, perhaps even evolved under the right circumstances. For if these carriers evolved to become something much stronger, much more powerful, the next step would be figuring out a way to control them.
By 867 ABY, seven years after the start of the project, the Thanatos project was only one among many research projects with Blackwing strains. On the one hand there was the militaristic research in the mobius tyrants, the idea of having the blackwing strain evolve through splicing and other attempts, yet unlike those, the Thanatos project sought to solely evolve the virus itself and as such the final stage of the virus’ infection.
Having gone dormant, the project had been restarted in 900ABY, alongside the resurgence of Section C, which would act as the root for all the new secret and amoral research projects which were not allowed to see the light of day.