Black Cloud

undefined The "Black Cloud" is a massive, nebulous, black formation that serves as the vehicle of Brant and is the method through which he spreads the Ghoul disease over the Edge Systems.

History
In 150,083 CMT, the Black Cloud entered the Edge Systems and eclipsed a red giant star. Vauer noticed the Black Cloud from his ship and frantically warned his allies, Haer and Yaher, that the Black Cloud was there and was consuming the system, prompting Yaher to advise Vauer to disable his ship's systems to avoid detection from the Black Cloud. Vauer followed Yaher's advice, but the Black Cloud consumed Vauer and his ship regardless. The Black Cloud then proceeded to consume the entire system before moving on to another. Brant ruminated that this devastation was merely the start of his plans while the Black Cloud eclipsed the star of the second system.

The Black Cloud then spread to an inhabited planet in this system and poisoned its atmosphere, which caused its sky to turn a dark red color before darkening further into black. As the planet's elders evacuated the population into underground caverns, the Black Cloud rained a compound that rapidly aged any matter it came into contact with to dust, then rained down hundreds of spore pods that carried the Ghoul disease. These spores infected much of the populace and transformed them into zombie-like carriers in order to spread the infection further. As the spores infected more and more beings, worldwide panic and riots caused the planet to fall into chaos.

In 150,084 CMT, the Black Cloud spread further across the Edge Systems, prompting its remaining worlds to transmit an SOS across the universe. Oquro was evacuated and interplanetary barriers were erected to stop the spread of the ghoul plague, but the Black Cloud descended on Oquro regardless and infected those who remained. Various parties then converged on Oquro for different reasons; some went to help combat the plague, while others went in pursuit of other goals.