The Disease / DDZS

Origins

The clan known as “The Disease” originated as a small criminal organisation based in the city of San Paro, Earth. Having reached the top of their chosen profession, the members fell weary of the city and longed for the freedom of the stars. Investing their ill gotten gains in a fleet of starships, they abandoned the Earth to carve out a niche for their organisation. Each member was free to pursue any career they chose, so long as it contributed to the overall power of the group. Inevitably, given their origins, many chose a life of combat, and for some piracy.
fade out

The Raid

Fade in on a Cutlass slowly rocking as it floats in space

In the small confines of the Cutlass, Clymidia was all too aware of Onty’s constant fapping in the copilots seat behind her.
“I swear to God, Onty; if any of that goes on my head again I will kill you!”.
“Sheesh Cly, chill out. We’ve been sat in Stanton for hours and not seen a single target. I’m bored, this is supposed to be a busy system!”
Cly was probably joking but all the same Onty thought it best to zip his flight suit up.
“You are right though” she said, “I’ve never seen Stanton this quiet, it’s like nobody wants to move any freight.”
Joey’s voice came in over the intercom “You nearly jinxed us there Cly, I’ve just spotted a blip on the scanner, looks like a big ship has just jumped in to system, its running hot!”.
“He was bound to spot it before us” thought Cly “we only upgraded the caterpillars sensors the other week and he has Jacko and Hexenritter, with him.”
Both ships fired up their engines and sped off after their prey.
Hexenritters voice was barely audible over the radio due to the distance “Cly you guys need to slow down, we can’t keep up with you.”
“Relax” said Onty “look its a Starfarer it doesn’t stand a chance, lets have some fun!”
“You’re starting to sound like Pipo, and you remember what happened to him?” said Clymidia.
“Look we’re here now are you gonna shoot or not?”
A message appeared on Clymidias MobiGlass “Accept incoming transmission?”, and without thinking Cly clicked yes.
“Attention intercepting ships, this is Starfarer Carebear of the MLP Corp. Please go away and leave us alone or we will report you!”
“I’ve told you before Cly” said Onty “always decline, there’s no reasoning with these people”.
“Sorry Onty”, and Clymidia opened fire.
The Starfarer started dumping cargo in an attempt to distract the pirates whilst it made it’s escape.
“Ha ha, you noobs it’s too late, a bounty hunter is near!” came the message from the freighter.
Jacko’s voice came over the radio “We’re still too far out to help you guys, just pick up some of the cargo and get out of there before the bounty hunter arrives.”
Clymidia maneuvered the Cutlass into position whilst Onty used the tractor beam to load the cargo onboard.
“Come on Cly, lets go, the bounty hunter is nearly here.” said Onty.
“Just a few more…”
Over the radio came the bounty hunters voice “Whats up guys?”.
“Ah Gr0m, it’s you, we didn’t know you were hunting in this sector.”
Gr0m pulled his Avenger up alongside the Cutlass “Yeah well I saw a few warrants for Stanton and I thought I’d pick them up so that I was around in case you needed me. Where’s Jules anyway?”
“He’s off in a Connie smuggling those pleasure bots we picked up a while ago with some other clan members.”
At that moment the Caterpillar grew from a tiny spec in the darkness of space to a huge monster speeding towards them at full speed.
“Don’t worry Cly, we will save you.” cried Joey.
“No Joey, wai….” and at that moment Joey opened fire on his strafing run.
Luckily the shots all narrowly missed Gr0m and his Avenger, unfortunately impacting the side of the Cutlass for huge amounts of damage.
“Stop guys, it’s me Gr0m, everythings cool. There’s no other bounty hunters here.”
“Oh man” said Onty “You’ve killed Cly again. She’s got a massive hole in her chest. When the docs repair her I wouldn’t want to be you! I’ll take her to the docs in Stanton now and the rest of you guys pick up the remaining freight.”
“Quick Joey, we’ve been here too long now, lets start loading up.” said Jacko.
A few minutes passed.
“Bad news.” said Hexenritter “I’ve just popped the first crate and its a load of food. But it does taste pretty good!”
“Oh well you might as well take it. Save me a crate though, it’s a long journey to Nemo. Where are you guys off to next?” said Gr0m
“I guess we’ll see if we can off load some of it in Goss” said Jacko.
With that the two ships parted company.

Fade out

The Aftermath

And that’s the story of how pirates came to be in possession of food contaminated with the Lynch Fever virus. Of course it was reported somewhat differently in Kaizen (link) and Showdown (link). All the remaining food that they didn’t sell in Stanton, Nemo and Goss was consumed at a clan hangar party. The stomach cramps caused by the virus quickly took affect. Unfortunately, the clan only had 3 Constellations, and the on board toilets quickly buckled under the load. Clymidia (who was out of hospital by this point) had a bit more to worry about getting on her than just Ontys “special sauce”. All the clan became infected. The meningitis like phase of Lynch Fever took hold, causing their brains to swell, damaging critical sections and driving them all insane/r.

After hours of “it coming out of both ends!” the repair bots finally hosed down the hangar and all of the Clannies. One by one they started to come around.

“Best party ever!” shouted one.

“Yeah lets go make everyone else eat contaminated food, it’s like Day Z!” said another.

And with that The Disease went out into the Verse to make everyone sick.