X Parasites invade Star Wars

[ChosenOne54]

The basic premise of this match: during the events of Metroid Fusion, the X-infested BSL (10 SA-Xs included) happen to fall through a wormhole to the Star Wars universe, and crash on Tatooine, roughly during the events of Empire Strikes Back. The X go about their usual routine of infecting the local population, reproducing, and assimilating the technology and weaponry, before turning their sights on the rest of the universe. How does the Star Wars universe hold out, and deal with the infection? Can the X take over the universe, will will they be sterilized before they can do any significant damage?

For more info on the X:
http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/X_Parasite

Things to note:
-Their standard gelatinous form is almost invulnerable to weapon fire, including Samus' (kiloton) missiles, and can phase through walls and other solid objects (they ignore power armour and shields)
-They make perfect, identical copies of the things they infect
-They can reproduce ridiculously fast (over the course of Metroid Fusion which is maybe a day, a single Samus X-clone becomes 10)
-If their clone form is killed, they simply revert back to parasite form
-They absorb all the knowledge and memories of their victims, and are capable of strategic thinking

How does this go?

[ChosenOne54]

-snip double post-

[avatarxprime]

This is quite pointless since we don't know what it takes to kill an X Parasite. The Chozo developed the Metroids to kill them and they do so by absorbing their energy, which isn't really a quantifiable ability. If we really take draining life energy, then Dark siders can drain life energy from targets and should be suitable combatants. Still, the destruction of the space station killed off the X on it and the planet, so an upper limit is set. If need be, the Empire is certainly capable of putting that much energy into the problem.

Odds are X Parasites show up, cause a "great disturbance in the Force," as they go about assimilating stuff. Palpatine sends some forces to go check it out and Jabba calls down the Hutts to deal with the issue as well. Yoda likely senses this as well and forbids Luke from going due to his training. Before long word gets out that these thing take over people and Palpatine orders all ships that try and leave destroyed. With containment achieved, he likely moves on to order some X capture for future study. At some point the Rebels hear about everything going on at Tatooine and try to send agents there. Hilarity insues and a BDZ performed. Whether the X survive or not no longer matters as they aren't going off planet.

[ChosenOne54]

Still, the destruction of the space station killed off the X on it and the planet, so an upper limit is set. If need be, the Empire is certainly capable of putting that much energy into the problem.

I'd just like to point out, the detonation of the BSL was supposedly powerful enough to vaporize the planet below, which is pretty impressive even by Star Wars standards.

Odds are X Parasites show up, cause a "great disturbance in the Force," as they go about assimilating stuff. Palpatine sends some forces to go check it out and Jabba calls down the Hutts to deal with the issue as well. Yoda likely senses this as well and forbids Luke from going due to his training. Before long word gets out that these thing take over people and Palpatine orders all ships that try and leave destroyed.

How fast would he be able to respond? And, frankly, how would the Hutts, of all things, be of any help in containing the threat?

An X Parasite infection spreads very quickly, as is made obvious in Fusion. Unless Palpatine slams down right away, Tatooine is getting consumed in fairly short order. On top of that, as the X are perfectly capable of strategic thinking, capturing spaceships and travelling to other planets would probably be the X's biggest priority, and one of their first steps, so unless Palpatine detects the X and sends his fleet literally immediately, the X could very well manage to spread to other systems. If they manage to do this, then things could get very ugly very quickly.

[avatarxprime]

Still, the destruction of the space station killed off the X on it and the planet, so an upper limit is set. If need be, the Empire is certainly capable of putting that much energy into the problem.

I'd just like to point out, the detonation of the BSL was supposedly powerful enough to vaporize the planet below, which is pretty impressive even by Star Wars standards.

Yet it clearly did not actually get the job done. Hence why the planet is still visible in Samus' ship's sensors in this picture. The BSL self-destruct likely initiated a planetary extinction level event, but it did not vaporize the planet.

Odds are X Parasites show up, cause a "great disturbance in the Force," as they go about assimilating stuff. Palpatine sends some forces to go check it out and Jabba calls down the Hutts to deal with the issue as well. Yoda likely senses this as well and forbids Luke from going due to his training. Before long word gets out that these thing take over people and Palpatine orders all ships that try and leave destroyed.

How fast would he be able to respond? And, frankly, how would the Hutts, of all things, be of any help in containing the threat?

Given this is SW, the Emperor can have a flotilla of ISDs in orbit around Tatooine within a day.

As to the Hutts, they are a regional power and would most likely be the first responders in this situation since Jabba is under threat. They do have a space navy, however small it might be. They certainly would be able to maintain enough firepower to kill any individual ship (not saying they couldn't be overwhelmed by the number of ships trying to leave) that tries to leave the planet. There is also the fact that they do have ties to the Imperials and could likely get a faster response should Palpatine, for whatever reason, not sense them or choose not to respond immediately.

An X Parasite infection spreads very quickly, as is made obvious in Fusion. Unless Palpatine slams down right away, Tatooine is getting consumed in fairly short order. On top of that, as the X are perfectly capable of strategic thinking, capturing spaceships and travelling to other planets would probably be the X's biggest priority, and one of their first steps, so unless Palpatine detects the X and sends his fleet literally immediately, the X could very well manage to spread to other systems. If they manage to do this, then things could get very ugly very quickly.

I'm aware, but there is still a very big difference between a planet and a space station. Also, Tatooine appears to be mostly desolate desert land so, population wise, the X will be running around for a while looking for new hosts. Also I doubt there are multiple space ports on a planet like Tatooine, and the one space port we did see, people like their guns and are likely to just shoot someone suspicious. You would have been better off sticking the X on a more developed planet than an Outer Rim world that can be blasted with the DS II, or BDZ'ed, or have any number of other terrible things happen to it and no one really caring.

[StarSword]

Also I doubt there are multiple space ports on a planet like Tatooine, and the one space port we did see, people like their guns and are likely to just shoot someone suspicious.

Can't argue with the "shoot anyone weird" part, but Tatooine has at least three canon spaceports. Mos Eisley and Mos Espa are both spaceports in the movies, and Anchorhead is shown to be a spaceport in Knights of the Old Republic. (Though KotOR is set in 4,000 BBY, Anchorhead is mentioned by name in ANH, and I rather doubt its spaceport was bulldozed.)

Plus, TPM shows that even civilian-model starships don't necessarily need to land at a spaceport. (Amidala's star yacht lands in the desert, what looks like about a kilometer and a half outside of Mos Espa.) In fact, on a near-lawless world like Tatooine, ships landing out in the desert to trade with the Jawas, or to make exchanges of contraband far from the eyes of Imperial authorities*, seems somewhat more likely. Darth Maul landing the Scimitar atop a butte** also comes to mind.

* A decidedly non-canon example of this setup is the opening scene of the Firefly episode "Trash," where Mal meets a fellow Browncoat-turned-smuggler on an uninhabited moon. (I cite this merely because I can't think of any such instances in SW canon off the top of my head.)

** I say "butte" because when he heads into Mos Espa on his speeder bike, he drops off a cliff shortly after leaving the Scimitar's landing site.

[ChosenOne54]

Yet it clearly did not actually get the job done. Hence why the planet is still visible in Samus' ship's sensors in this picture. The BSL self-destruct likely initiated a planetary extinction level event, but it did not vaporize the planet.

Should we really take that image literally? I mean, for all we know that orange circle might mean that the planet was turned into a cloud of vapour the size of the planet or somesuch.

Given this is SW, the Emperor can have a flotilla of ISDs in orbit around Tatooine within a day.

In a day, if Fusion is any indication, the X may already have taken over large portions of tatooine and sent ships into space. Notice how, every time you release security in an area, the X literally immediately swarm in and infect everything in the entire sector.

As to the Hutts, they are a regional power and would most likely be the first responders in this situation since Jabba is under threat. They do have a space navy, however small it might be. They certainly would be able to maintain enough firepower to kill any individual ship (not saying they couldn't be overwhelmed by the number of ships trying to leave) that tries to leave the planet. There is also the fact that they do have ties to the Imperials and could likely get a faster response should Palpatine, for whatever reason, not sense them or choose not to respond immediately.

Is their fleet constantly in orbit, or is it docked on the planet most of the time? Because if they are docked, then they could be infected just as easily as anything else. Even so, do they really monitor the entire planet at once? Like you said, if the X get enough ships they could easily be overwhelmed, especially if the X make getting away from the planet their main priority. If a big enough swarm of ships fly away, it would be difficult to shoot them all down. It could also be possible to escape from a not-so-heavily-guarded side of the planet.

I'm aware, but there is still a very big difference between a planet and a space station. Also, Tatooine appears to be mostly desolate desert land so, population wise, the X will be running around for a while looking for new hosts. Also I doubt there are multiple space ports on a planet like Tatooine, and the one space port we did see, people like their guns and are likely to just shoot someone suspicious. You would have been better off sticking the X on a more developed planet than an Outer Rim world that can be blasted with the DS II, or BDZ'ed, or have any number of other terrible things happen to it and no one really caring.

True, a lot of this depends of where the X start out.

[avatarxprime]

Also I doubt there are multiple space ports on a planet like Tatooine, and the one space port we did see, people like their guns and are likely to just shoot someone suspicious.

Can't argue with the "shoot anyone weird" part, but Tatooine has at least three canon spaceports. Mos Eisley and Mos Espa are both spaceports in the movies, and Anchorhead is shown to be a spaceport in Knights of the Old Republic. (Though KotOR is set in 4,000 BBY, Anchorhead is mentioned by name in ANH, and I rather doubt its spaceport was bulldozed.)

Plus, TPM shows that even civilian-model starships don't necessarily need to land at a spaceport. (Amidala's star yacht lands in the desert, what looks like about a kilometer and a half outside of Mos Espa.) In fact, on a near-lawless world like Tatooine, ships landing out in the desert to trade with the Jawas, or to make exchanges of contraband far from the eyes of Imperial authorities*, seems somewhat more likely. Darth Maul landing the Scimitar atop a butte** also comes to mind.

Checking in at Wookieepedia, Anchorhead has lost prominence over the years with the rise of Mos Eisley and Mos Espa. It has a docking bays, but isn't considered a major spaceport on the planet (that's again Mos Eisley and Mos Espa) and is described as mostly servicing the moisture farmers in the local area. Likely its a place for industrial transport coming in and out dropping off parts and equipment. As to the ships landing away from ports, yeah I know, but that doesn't change anything. For the X to have that as an option they'd need to find a ship out there. As Tatooine is already a criminal world, you don't need to have criminals avoiding the known spaceports. Both Amidala and Maul were avoiding the cities for a reason.

Yet it clearly did not actually get the job done. Hence why the planet is still visible in Samus' ship's sensors in this picture. The BSL self-destruct likely initiated a planetary extinction level event, but it did not vaporize the planet.

Should we really take that image literally? I mean, for all we know that orange circle might mean that the planet was turned into a cloud of vapour the size of the planet or somesuch.

It's possible, but considering they also have the other overlays, which likely represent the size of the explosion, it's doubtful. Beside, this is Metroid, we've seen planets go up in big flashes of light and still be there later, like the first time Zebes went up.

Given this is SW, the Emperor can have a flotilla of ISDs in orbit around Tatooine within a day.

In a day, if Fusion is any indication, the X may already have taken over large portions of tatooine and sent ships into space. Notice how, every time you release security in an area, the X literally immediately swarm in and infect everything in the entire sector.

Again, a space station is far smaller than a planet. Look at the ending of Fusion, note how small the BSL is compared to SR388. Also note that during this big exploration of SR388 in the beginning of Fusion to capture native fauna and flora that they did not run into a swarm of X. Also, Tatooine has an estimated population of 200,000 distributed over the planet, so there will be few areas with any degree of population density. Likely the X will have problems finding a sufficient number of hosts, which will limit their ability to spread and multiply.

As to the Hutts, they are a regional power and would most likely be the first responders in this situation since Jabba is under threat. They do have a space navy, however small it might be. They certainly would be able to maintain enough firepower to kill any individual ship (not saying they couldn't be overwhelmed by the number of ships trying to leave) that tries to leave the planet. There is also the fact that they do have ties to the Imperials and could likely get a faster response should Palpatine, for whatever reason, not sense them or choose not to respond immediately.

Is their fleet constantly in orbit, or is it docked on the planet most of the time? Because if they are docked, then they could be infected just as easily as anything else. Even so, do they really monitor the entire planet at once? Like you said, if the X get enough ships they could easily be overwhelmed, especially if the X make getting away from the planet their main priority. If a big enough swarm of ships fly away, it would be difficult to shoot them all down. It could also be possible to escape from a not-so-heavily-guarded side of the planet.

Tatooine is within Hutt Space, that's an entire region of space that the Hutts essentially control and have ships distributed throughout. The ships would be coming in from all over Hutt Space should Jabba consider this to be a sufficiently large enough issue.

Oh, and one other thing I found interesting. Following the events of ANH, the Imperials began having a stronger presence on Tatooine and began pacifying large chunks of the planet. It's likely the X will end up running into Imperial resistance right off the bat, meaning Imperial reinforcements will be called in with or without Palpatine sensing the X. The Empire apparently even had a war droid facility on the planet post-ANH.

[ChosenOne54]

Conceded. Though, how would this go if the X landed on, say, Coruscant?

[StarSword]

Checking in at Wookieepedia, Anchorhead has lost prominence over the years with the rise of Mos Eisley and Mos Espa. It has a docking bays, but isn't considered a major spaceport on the planet (that's again Mos Eisley and Mos Espa) and is described as mostly servicing the moisture farmers in the local area. Likely its a place for industrial transport coming in and out dropping off parts and equipment. As to the ships landing away from ports, yeah I know, but that doesn't change anything. For the X to have that as an option they'd need to find a ship out there. As Tatooine is already a criminal world, you don't need to have criminals avoiding the known spaceports. Both Amidala and Maul were avoiding the cities for a reason.

Okay, I'll buy that.

Conceded. Though, how would this go if the X landed on, say, Coruscant?

Hard to say. On the one hand, Coruscant's population density is ridiculous, and they have unusual fauna that may or may not make for interesting combat forms. On the other hand, Coruscant can quarantine itself quite easily, given that it has the most complex and powerful planetary deflector grid in the galaxy. (X-Wing: Rogue Squadron makes mention of a two-layer shield in an early chapter, and most of the plot of Wedge's Gamble consists of the Rogues' searching for a way to bring this deflector shield down.)

[avatarxprime]

Conceded. Though, how would this go if the X landed on, say, Coruscant?

Hard to say. On the one hand, Coruscant's population density is ridiculous, and they have unusual fauna that may or may not make for interesting combat forms. On the other hand, Coruscant can quarantine itself quite easily, given that it has the most complex and powerful planetary deflector grid in the galaxy. (X-Wing: Rogue Squadron makes mention of a two-layer shield in an early chapter, and most of the plot of Wedge's Gamble consists of the Rogues' searching for a way to bring this deflector shield down.)

Actually it's likely nothing at all happens other than fireworks in the sky. The OP description is a wormhole opens and the BSL station falls through and crashes on the planet. If the wormhole spits it out above Coruscant the planetary shield engages and the Golan defense platforms blow the station apart. If it appears even farther out the mines that surround Coruscant as a defense against capital ships engage and blow it apart. If it should get spit out below the shield, the rooftop turbolasers start blasting it apart while the various rescue ships move to tractor the station and try to keep it from impacting the planet and give the turbolasers more time to blow it apart.

For the X to have the best chance of success you need to pick a planet important and developed enough to have a large population, multiple spaceports, and a large volume of ships coming and going that do not need a lot of clearance or checks to come and go. At the same time though, said planet cannot be important enough or developed enough to have strong planetary defenses, a large Imperial military presence on site, or sufficient political pull to call down an Imperial naval fleet in short order.

[Molyneux]

The best description of the X parasites are "That critter from The Thing, but on steroids".
If the Empire doesn't know about how the X work when the situation starts out, I don't think there's much of a chance for long-term defense against the X.

Star Wars has a largely lawless universe - yes, the Empire has a lot of ships, but there are plenty of minor settlements and empires around the fringes. The Emperor is unlikely to call a BDZ over anything not obviously an extreme threat - and I think there's a damned good chance of the X spreading far enough to be pretty much secure before it comes to that.

[ChosenOne54]

Actually it's likely nothing at all happens other than fireworks in the sky. The OP description is a wormhole opens and the BSL station falls through and crashes on the planet. If the wormhole spits it out above Coruscant the planetary shield engages and the Golan defense platforms blow the station apart. If it appears even farther out the mines that surround Coruscant as a defense against capital ships engage and blow it apart. If it should get spit out below the shield, the rooftop turbolasers start blasting it apart while the various rescue ships move to tractor the station and try to keep it from impacting the planet and give the turbolasers more time to blow it apart.

Let's not get caught up over something like that. The point is, X arrive on the planet. The whole 'BSL arrives in a wormhole' thing was so I could make their arrival semi-interesting.

Anyway, would the Empire really jump to BDZing planets so quickly, right off the bat? I mean, the X are technically a parasite, and the Empire doesn't really know how they function at all.

[Stark]

The best description of the X parasites are "That critter from The Thing, but on steroids".
If the Empire doesn't know about how the X work when the situation starts out, I don't think there's much of a chance for long-term defense against the X.

Do you want to explain the logic connecting these two statements, or is it just more 'the flood are a sector-level threat in 3 days' stuff?

[ChosenOne54]

Think of the X as kind of, 'what the Flood want to be when they grow up.'

[Stark]

That's not a very good answer.

Wanking villains is pretty common, but serious statements like 'ONCE IT GETS TO SPACEPORT UNIVERSE OVER' need a bit of actual evidence to back them up.

[Molyneux]

The best description of the X parasites are "That critter from The Thing, but on steroids".
If the Empire doesn't know about how the X work when the situation starts out, I don't think there's much of a chance for long-term defense against the X.

Do you want to explain the logic connecting these two statements, or is it just more 'the flood are a sector-level threat in 3 days' stuff?

The Thing can infect unsuspecting victims with a touch (theoretically, anyway), and an infectee becomes a perfect copy of the original, right down to thought processes and specific knowledge - an infected pilot would remember how to pilot a starship, etc. They don't actively attack other creatures in the open if possible, being generally intelligent enough to avoid confrontations except when they're about to be injured. Bullets don't harm it beyond simply disrupting its body, it takes cellular-level damage to really hurt it (like, say, flamethrowers).

The X has all that, except standard flamethrowers won't work - it requires something on the level of vaporization to harm it. Star Wars blasters would probably be able to do a damned good amount of damage to X parasites, but given that they tend to be bolt-based rather than spread-effect, I can't be sure.

The big advantage that the cast of The Thing had was advance warning. The big advantage that Samus had was the Metroid injection. Star Wars has neither of those. Given that Tatooine is fairly backwoods, I can't think that anyone would even notice anything odd until most of the planet was infected - I can't think that Palpatine would be able to feel the mere presence of the parasite through the Force from half a galaxy away, certainly not until it had already reached planet-depopulation levels.

At that point, even if a BDZ were ordered on Tatooine, I doubt that they'd be able to contain all the starships on the planet heading off towards every inhabited place they could find - and keep in mind that the Imperials wouldn't know specifically what the X could do, only that for some reason or other, the planet's communications had gone silent. They probably wouldn't know that it could infect other organisms, so wouldn't take appropriate precautions, at least at first.

It might not be a galaxy-ending event - but it certainly wouldn't be good news for intelligent life in general, or the Empire specifically.

[Stark]

Putting the Thing aside as irrelevant, do you have any actual evidence around these capabilities? Saying Palps can't pick something up is fine (because Palps knowing everything is lame) but where do you get this idea that he 'might' once a planet is taken over? Do you have some force-detection slide-rule?

It's good that you'd scaled back from 'impossible' to 'extremely difficult', but since SW has those silly biosensors and doubtless deals with the hyperdrive implications for disease all the time, vague handwaving doesn't impress me.

And man, people taking everything a drunk lunatic said about the Thing as gospel is fucking hilarious.

[Molyneux]

Putting the Thing aside as irrelevant, do you have any actual evidence around these capabilities? Saying Palps can't pick something up is fine (because Palps knowing everything is lame) but where do you get this idea that he 'might' once a planet is taken over? Do you have some force-detection slide-rule?

It's good that you'd scaled back from 'impossible' to 'extremely difficult', but since SW has those silly biosensors and doubtless deals with the hyperdrive implications for disease all the time, vague handwaving doesn't impress me.

And man, people taking everything a drunk lunatic said about the Thing as gospel is fucking hilarious.

Because you have so much better to go on?
Anyway: whether or not the Thing can do those things, the X can. It's seen throughout the game.

Presumably, Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn't get a constant low-level irritation from people dying all over the galaxy - if he does, he never mentions it. Blow up an inhabited planet, though, and there's "a great disturbance in the Force". It seems reasonable to assume that a lot of deaths over a short period of time might tip Palpy off that something was up.

How do Star Wars biosensors work, exactly? Why do you think that they could detect an X infestation? A galaxy that "doubtless" deals with the cross-world transmission of disease may not be able to easily handle an infection that acts intelligently, spreads like every plague in history put together, is nigh-invulnerable and has a head start.

[avatarxprime]

Actually it's likely nothing at all happens other than fireworks in the sky. The OP description is a wormhole opens and the BSL station falls through and crashes on the planet. If the wormhole spits it out above Coruscant the planetary shield engages and the Golan defense platforms blow the station apart. If it appears even farther out the mines that surround Coruscant as a defense against capital ships engage and blow it apart. If it should get spit out below the shield, the rooftop turbolasers start blasting it apart while the various rescue ships move to tractor the station and try to keep it from impacting the planet and give the turbolasers more time to blow it apart.

Let's not get caught up over something like that. The point is, X arrive on the planet. The whole 'BSL arrives in a wormhole' thing was so I could make their arrival semi-interesting.

Anyway, would the Empire really jump to BDZing planets so quickly, right off the bat? I mean, the X are technically a parasite, and the Empire doesn't really know how they function at all.

How they show up matters, having the BSL magically pop-in planetside is definately going to attract attention from the local authorities. If instead they pop-in near the planet or just in system pretty much any SW world has the sensors necessary to detect something the size of BSL appearing and again, it will attract attention.

The big advantage that the cast of The Thing had was advance warning. The big advantage that Samus had was the Metroid injection. Star Wars has neither of those. Given that Tatooine is fairly backwoods, I can't think that anyone would even notice anything odd until most of the planet was infected - I can't think that Palpatine would be able to feel the mere presence of the parasite through the Force from half a galaxy away, certainly not until it had already reached planet-depopulation levels.

Sorry but that's not a valid point. I already stated that following ANH the Empire stepped up their presence on Tatooine and even went so far as having a secret war droid factory built on it at some point between ANH and RotJ. Tatooine at least is a bad choice for trying to get in under Imperial noses, and whether Palpatine can detect them or not, Imperials will be made aware.

Putting the Thing aside as irrelevant, do you have any actual evidence around these capabilities? Saying Palps can't pick something up is fine (because Palps knowing everything is lame) but where do you get this idea that he 'might' once a planet is taken over? Do you have some force-detection slide-rule?

It's good that you'd scaled back from 'impossible' to 'extremely difficult', but since SW has those silly biosensors and doubtless deals with the hyperdrive implications for disease all the time, vague handwaving doesn't impress me.

And man, people taking everything a drunk lunatic said about the Thing as gospel is fucking hilarious.

The X appear in both Metroid Fusion and the Metroid manga, and from there their abilities can be surmised. So the X are communicative, intelligent, and reproduce asexually. They "eat" by infecting a host organism and absorbing its genetic material, replacing it with a copy that is simply more X biomass. During this absorption process they also copy all knowledge belonging to the host. The process itself can take varying amounts of time. Creatures absorbed this way can have new abilities added to them taken from other organisms that X have already absorbed. It should be noted that the X cannot absorb or copy non-organic material. SA-X's armor or the human scientist's clothes are simply look-a-likes of the real thing made of more X biomass. X are capable of absorbing and channeling energy and can use this ability to interact with computers. They can also be influenced by their surroundings as seen in the Blue X from the frozen areas of BSL that are larger than normal X and can actually be effected (stunned but not killed) by Samus' weaponry.

The X do seem to establish some kind of hive mind within local populations, which becomes more intelligent as more sapient organisms are absorbed. However, this is only in the most general sense (no Gravemind or Borg Queen action) as individual X retain the bulk of the intellectual capability of those that they absorbed. This is also reflected in their normal forms. X that have become more powerful/intelligent gain more defensive and offensive abilities in their natural form. When damaged, an X that has taken on the form of some other creature will revert to its natural state and seek out a new host. Some X are capable of regaining the form they had previously. In their natural state an X is largely immune to damage, physical and energy weapons tend to simply pass through their bodies.

I think that's a good run down on their abilities as displayed in the game and manga.

[Darth Tedious]

It's good that you'd scaled back from 'impossible' to 'extremely difficult', but since SW has those silly biosensors and doubtless deals with the hyperdrive implications for disease all the time, vague handwaving doesn't impress me.

Actually, quarantine measures are virtually nonexistant in the GFFA, and when they have been employed, it has been after the fact.

The only definite examples of such I can find are in 1ABY (from Death Troopers) and 13ABY (Planet of Twilight).

Are there any examples of preemptive quarantine procedures ever being used?

[Molyneux]

Actually it's likely nothing at all happens other than fireworks in the sky. The OP description is a wormhole opens and the BSL station falls through and crashes on the planet. If the wormhole spits it out above Coruscant the planetary shield engages and the Golan defense platforms blow the station apart. If it appears even farther out the mines that surround Coruscant as a defense against capital ships engage and blow it apart. If it should get spit out below the shield, the rooftop turbolasers start blasting it apart while the various rescue ships move to tractor the station and try to keep it from impacting the planet and give the turbolasers more time to blow it apart.

Let's not get caught up over something like that. The point is, X arrive on the planet. The whole 'BSL arrives in a wormhole' thing was so I could make their arrival semi-interesting.

Anyway, would the Empire really jump to BDZing planets so quickly, right off the bat? I mean, the X are technically a parasite, and the Empire doesn't really know how they function at all.

How they show up matters, having the BSL magically pop-in planetside is definately going to attract attention from the local authorities. If instead they pop-in near the planet or just in system pretty much any SW world has the sensors necessary to detect something the size of BSL appearing and again, it will attract attention.

...attention that is likely to be almost immediately assimilated by the X, mind you. Stormtrooper armor is unlikely to be much better protection against X infection than Samus' armor originally was. Droids would be immune to X infiltration, but the ESB-era Empire didn't seem much for droid-only forces (except for probing unexplored worlds).

I'd say that they'd be far more likely to send in some stormtroopers rather than a probe, when it's an inhabited planet.

The big advantage that the cast of The Thing had was advance warning. The big advantage that Samus had was the Metroid injection. Star Wars has neither of those. Given that Tatooine is fairly backwoods, I can't think that anyone would even notice anything odd until most of the planet was infected - I can't think that Palpatine would be able to feel the mere presence of the parasite through the Force from half a galaxy away, certainly not until it had already reached planet-depopulation levels.

Sorry but that's not a valid point. I already stated that following ANH the Empire stepped up their presence on Tatooine and even went so far as having a secret war droid factory built on it at some point between ANH and RotJ. Tatooine at least is a bad choice for trying to get in under Imperial noses, and whether Palpatine can detect them or not, Imperials will be made aware.

Source needed on that.
I tend to doubt that anyone would flag it as being really in need of attention at first - there's another crashed spaceship in the middle of Mos Eisley, and it gets used as apartments, for crying out loud. If the BSL crashes in the desert somewhere, I can't see there being an immediate panic, just maybe a patrol sent out to check the crash site. And I highly doubt that everything spotted by any back-of-beyond garrison is immediately relayed up the chain of Imperial command; they might not even find out about it for a few days, at the inside.

[StarSword]

Sorry but that's not a valid point. I already stated that following ANH the Empire stepped up their presence on Tatooine and even went so far as having a secret war droid factory built on it at some point between ANH and RotJ. Tatooine at least is a bad choice for trying to get in under Imperial noses, and whether Palpatine can detect them or not, Imperials will be made aware.

Source needed on that.

Looked it up on Wookieepedia. They mention the droid factory (though not with a citation), and cite Tatooine Sojourn as a source for the Empire increasing its military presence on Tatooine. I would surmise they did so because they had several incidents involving Rebels and Rebel sympathizers happen at roughly the same time in 0 ABY. At one point, the Empire ordered a curfew, then proceeded to summarily fry anyone violating it.

Unfortunately, the whole "Galactic Empire" section is only sparingly citationed.

[avatarxprime]

How they show up matters, having the BSL magically pop-in planetside is definately going to attract attention from the local authorities. If instead they pop-in near the planet or just in system pretty much any SW world has the sensors necessary to detect something the size of BSL appearing and again, it will attract attention.

...attention that is likely to be almost immediately assimilated by the X, mind you. Stormtrooper armor is unlikely to be much better protection against X infection than Samus' armor originally was. Droids would be immune to X infiltration, but the ESB-era Empire didn't seem much for droid-only forces (except for probing unexplored worlds).

I'd say that they'd be far more likely to send in some stormtroopers rather than a probe, when it's an inhabited planet.

The initial troopers probably would end up being eaten by the X, but they would be able to send back some warning, and if they arrived via repulsor craft troop transport then likely the pilot would be able to get away and report back. The X certainly cannot move as quick as a speeder.

Source needed on that.
I tend to doubt that anyone would flag it as being really in need of attention at first - there's another crashed spaceship in the middle of Mos Eisley, and it gets used as apartments, for crying out loud. If the BSL crashes in the desert somewhere, I can't see there being an immediate panic, just maybe a patrol sent out to check the crash site. And I highly doubt that everything spotted by any back-of-beyond garrison is immediately relayed up the chain of Imperial command; they might not even find out about it for a few days, at the inside.

StarSword already supplied the source for me (thanks StarSword), so I'll comment on the rest of it. The BSL is pretty huge, certainly it would appear to be bigger than the wrecks we see in Mos Eisley from the old colony ships. Something that big crashing on the planet is going to attract interest, at the very least the Jawa community is going to be crawling all over the thing. Besides, it's an entirely unknown ship that all of a sudden appeared above the planet and crashed on it, I'd wager that gets more attention then "Oh look, another wreck, send a patrol out." Also, again the Empire started tightening the reins on Tatooine given all the Rebel activity, something as strange as the BSL showing up is probably going to warrant a report to a higher up.

[StarSword]

StarSword already supplied the source for me (thanks StarSword), so I'll comment on the rest of it. The BSL is pretty huge, certainly it would appear to be bigger than the wrecks we see in Mos Eisley from the old colony ships. Something that big crashing on the planet is going to attract interest, at the very least the Jawa community is going to be crawling all over the thing. Besides, it's an entirely unknown ship that all of a sudden appeared above the planet and crashed on it, I'd wager that gets more attention then "Oh look, another wreck, send a patrol out." Also, again the Empire started tightening the reins on Tatooine given all the Rebel activity, something as strange as the BSL showing up is probably going to warrant a report to a higher up.

You're welcome.

But I just realized a problem with the whole scenario: the size of the space station, and thus the energy and chemical release of the crash. We've already seen that an uncontrolled starship crash can cause a planet to become uninhabitable: Honoghr in Dark Force Rising suffered biosphere destruction when a Rebel capital ship was shot down in orbit, though that was more due to the resulting chemical spills than the crash itself.

Tatooine barely has a biosphere to contaminate, but if I remember Metroid Fusion's cinematics correctly, the BSL was hollowed out of a large asteroid. The K-T extinction event on Earth is believed to have been caused by the collision of a 10 km asteroid, causing an estimated 96 teraton blast. I doubt the X would survive the impact of the BSL, and anyone within several dozen kilometers of the crash site will probably be killed instantly. And that doesn't even begin to cover the total effects.