Operation Dark Disease was the code name for a military operation carried out by the Dark Order of Korr, a faction of the Imperial Remnant. It was mostly a psychological weapon used by Jaden Korr in an attempt to regain lost influence in his organization. As the Dark Order War went on, Jaden had seen his supporters and influence, never great to begin with, slipping away. As his accomplishments were steadily eclipsed by his underlings, most notably General Persia, his power base was visibly failing and aligning with one of the various power blocs being formed within his organization.
Seeing a potentially impressive victory as his chance to rally back lost support, Jaden planned and carried out Operation Dark Disease personally. He hoped to pull off a superlative success that would solidify his power. Unfortunately, the campaign turned into a costly failure, further strengthening the growing image of him as simply a Dark Jedi with more anger and talk than talent.
History
During the Dark Order War, Imperial forces under the Dark Order of Korr captured the shipyards of the planet Kuat. By chance, there was an Imperial factory ship being constructed there at the time, of the same class as that of the Arc Hammer, which was a mobile factory for Imperial battle droids known as Dark troopers. Jaden Korr ordered the vessel's completion, as well as the production of Dark troopers aboard the ship as soon as it was finished.
The factory ship, christened the Infector by Jaden, was almost completed a few days before the New Republic sent a fleet to regain Kuat from the Imperial forces. In the resulting battle, Kuat's shipyards were completely destroyed, but the Infector escaped. A short time later, the ship's construction was completed over Bakura. Jaden was quick to think of a purpose for it, with his grip on the control of his organization slipping over time. He engineered Operation Dark Disease, hoping to win back lose support and set himself above the military commanders, who were beginning to overshadow his accomplishments.
Operation Dark Disease, as directed by Jaden, was designed as a weapon of psychological warfare. For each attack of the Operation, the Infector would exit hyperspace over a heavily populated Republic planet, escorted by various support and battleships. This small battle group was dubbed the "Plague Fleet". The Infector would then launch hundreds of Dark troopers onto the surface to cause as much destruction as possible, resulting in massive civilian casualties, severely denting New Republic moral, and weakening the economy. Although the Infector had its own Dark trooper production facilities, it used up resources fairly quickly, and would need regular trips back to Imperial worlds for additional resources. In order to increase the rate of Dark trooper production, Jaden ordered the construction of several Dark trooper factories on Bakura to support the Infector's work. The premise of Operation Dark Disease sounded promising to Jaden's underlings, but they remained skeptical of whether or not it would be worth the assets required.
The Infector over Coruscant.
In the year 15 ABY, the first attack of Operation Dark Disease was carried out, over the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant. Once they were launched, the Dark troopers infested several sectors of the planet, killing many thousands before they were all finally eliminated several weeks later by Republic security forces. Jaden's underlings were impressed by the success of the attack on Coruscant. Hoping to compact their slowly returning confidence in him, Jaden executed an attack on Taris with equal success.
After these acts of terrorism, the New Republic was desperate to put a stop to Operation Dark Disease. Fortunately for them, crucial intelligence was gathered when Republic Operatives captured an Imperial Communications facility on Bakura. They discovered that the Infector and its escorting vessels were preparing to ambush Coruscant again. The Republic defenses were still weak after the first raid, so a large fleet was sent to an asteroid field near the Imperial planet Byss to destroy the Infector. In the resulting battle, the entire Plague fleet was destroyed, putting an end to Operation Dark Disease. The failure of the Operation outraged Jaden and lost him even more support from the other members of the Dark Order. It turned out to be quite costly for the Imperials, due to the vast amount of resources required for the project. Nevertheless, the Bakura Dark Trooper Factories were still active for a short time, until they were destroyed in the Second Battle of Bakura.