Art virus

The Art virus was a mechu-deru technovirus developed by the former Emperor's Hand Cronal. Following Cronal's defeat at Mindor, he embraced the Sith art of mechu-deru and blended it with Sith alchemy to create Stygian art. After fleeing to the planet Andooweel, Cronal developed his Art virus to transform the galaxy into an Empire of Art. The virus functioned similarly to Belia Darzu's nanogene technovirus. Fueled by living flesh, Cronal's mechu-deru nanodroids were capable of transmuting both organic beings and droids into Stygian technobeasts. Cronal infected remnant Imperials, Jawas, and their symbiotic insects with his virus. When the New Republic discovered his operations in 15 ABY, C-3PO and R2-D2 were infected with the Art virus by insects that had been transformed into micro-droids. These micro-droids also infected the circuitry of Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand. Luke was able to cut off his arm before the virus spread to the rest of his body, and Han Solo was able to short circuit Cronal's technobeasts with a Corellian spark grenade.

Text and facts from the “Art virus” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.