Why Did It Go Missing?
The Fleet, however, almost immediately faced disaster. During its maiden voyage, a Katana crew member contracted a hive virus—a deadly disease that drove the victim mad before killing them. As the virus tore through the sentient crew, in a moment of panic, the fleet activated its slave systems—which only helped to infect the command crew as well; in their own madness, they sent the fleet into blind hyperspace jumps. The entire fleet was lost, and immediately became a political embarrassment for the Republic.
Decades later, as the Clone War began, Republic Intelligence believed that the viral outbreak was in fact not an accident, but deliberate hostile action at the hands of a CIS-affiliated actor: Zeta Magnus, a mutant Arkanian geneticist, and longtime enemy of the Republic even before he allied with the Separatists at the outbreak of the war.
