Locura
Sarna News
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The Locura was a Star League Defense Force computer virus that was being studied at Castle Nautilus on Artru. At some point in the past it was recognized as too dangerous and research was abandoned, leaving it stored on the base's computer. The code's original purpose is unclear, but it appears to be at least tangentially related to the SLDF's Space Defense System program, as the code was designed to turn ships against their own crew and spread from ship to ship, disabling entire fleets. Its nickname was derived from a folktale told by the mining teams operating on the inhospitable planet Artru. According to them, "the Locura" was an ill wind that howled through the canyons, killing engines and scrambling computers, often blamed for accidents that got miners killed.[1]
History
When Kamea Arano and her mercenaries landed on Artu while raiding Castle Nautilus, she entrusted Farah Murad to hack into the castle. While hacking into the base's computer to search for its access codes, Farah accidentally released the virus, which attacked the Argo and crippled the ship's systems. Farah and the crew managed to prevent disaster by physically disconnecting the ship's computers and isolating the virus in the Argo's secondary storage, although this temporarily left the ship dead in space. The code was nicknamed the "Locura" and later utilized as a weapon. It would see its use against the Fortress-class Dropship Iberia on Coromodir during Samuel Ostergaard's attack. The virus, transmitted from a captured allied communication relay station, disabled the engines of the Iberia as it was on approach to the planet to commence an orbital bombardment. Unable to slow down, the ship entered the atmosphere at high speed and impacted the ground in a cataclysmic explosion, killing Samuel and all remaining hands instantly.[1]