Red Harvest ( novel ) Red Harvest is a novel written by Joe Schreiber , and a prequel to his earlier work , " Death Troopers " . Originally titled Black Orchid , the book was released on December 28 , 2010 . A hardcover horror novel , it reveals the origin of the virus from the original book . On April 23 , Sue Rostoni posted on the official site forums that the novel was re - titled due to internal concerns that the title " Black Orchid " sounded too much like a romance novel . The book was released in paperback on February 28 , 2012 . Narration for the audio version was performed by John Glover . Publisher ' s summary . " The era of the Old Republic is a dark and dangerous time , as Jedi Knights valiantly battle the Sith Lords and their ruthless armies . But the Sith have disturbing plans — and none more so than the fulfillment of Darth Scabrous ’ s fanatical dream , which is about to become nightmarish reality . " " Unlike those other Jedi sidelined to the Agricultural Corps — young Jedi whose abilities have not proved up to snuff — Hestizo Trace possesses one extraordinary Force talent : a gift with plants . Suddenly her quiet existence among greenhouse and garden specimens is violently destroyed by the arrival of an emissary from Darth Scabrous . For the rare black orchid that she has nurtured and bonded with is the final ingredient in an ancient Sith formula that promises to grant Darth Scabrous his greatest desire . " " But at the heart of the formula is a never - before - seen virus that ’ s worse than fatal — it doesn ’ t just kill , it transforms . Now the rotting , ravenous dead are rising , driven by a bloodthirsty hunger for all things living — and commanded by a Sith Master with an insatiable lust for power and the ultimate prize : immortality . . . no matter the cost . " Plot summary . Darth Scabrous , leader of the Odacer - Faustin Sith Academy , secretly hires the Whiphid bounty hunter Tulkh to steal the Murakami orchid from the Jedi Agricultural Corps facility on the planet Marfa . When Tulkh steals the orchid , however , he finds that he cannot take it back to Scabrous alive without the plant ' s handler , Padawan Hestizo Trace . Taking them both back to the academy , the Sith Lord mixes the orchid in a strange device hooked up to Sith apprentice Wim Nickter , who had been taken by Scabrous for his purposes . Nickter dies , but comes back as a zombie . His infection quickly spreads throughout the academy in a single night , infecting even Scabrous himself . Hestizo soon finds herself trapped with Tulkh in trying to fight off hordes of zombies . Meanwhile , Scabrous preoccupies himself with finding a way to become immortal without the side effect of becoming a mindless monster . To do so , he infects the Neti librarian , Dail ' Liss , and commanding him to lure Hestizo to the library by mimicking the voice of the orchid , still alive amidst the infection known as the Sickness . The plan works after she and Tulkh part ways . Scabrous straps Hestizo down on a sacrificial altar , plotting to cut out her heart with a traditional Sith sword and become truly immortal ; by consuming Hestizo ' s heart , Scabrous hopes to negate the decaying effects of the Sickness while retaining his eternal life . Meanwhile , as Tulkh does his best to survive and find a way off of Odacer - Faustin himself , he comes into contact with Scabrous ' s personal HK - series assassin droid and modifies it to combat the zombies . Together , the two of them make it back towards Tulkh ' s ship , the " Mirocaw " , where they find a stowaway named Pergus Frode on board . Frode was the mechanic for the previous crew hired by Scabrous for the purpose of retrieving a black orchid ; when that crew was killed by Scabrous for their failure , Frode had been stranded , left to survive the zombie epidemic . Back at the base of the Sith library , Hestizo is able to free herself from Scabrous ' s sacrifice , but before Scabrous can outright kill her , Hestizo ' s brother , Rojo , arrives and briefly duels the Sith Lord . Scabrous wins and kills Rojo , but Hestizo is able to kill him by telepathically convincing the orchid to sprout itself outward from his head , severely weakening him . She is then able to finish off Scabrous , now a complete zombie , by using his own Sith sword against him . Hestizo escapes infection from the remaining Sith zombies when the " Mirocaw " , piloted by Pergus Frode , flies in to save her . The ship manages to evade Scabrous ' s perimeter defenses long enough to reach the roof of Scabrous ' s personal tower . There , the HK manages to manipulate the perimeter defenses to destroy the tower instead of the " Mirocaw " as zombies invade the roof and the ship flies away . The tower is destroyed , along with all the remaining zombies and the droid , while the ship flies off into space . However , Hestizo finds that the Sickness still has a chance of infecting the rest of the galaxy - Tulkh was infected back on the planet when an infected tauntaun ' s spittle dribbled into his eye . Knowing that his time is limited , Tulkh asks Hestizo to open up the wall he chained himself to so that he will be blown out into the vacuum of space . Before she can do so , however , an infected apprentice from the academy , Rance Lussk , attacks , but Hestizo is able to avoid his attack and send both Tulkh and Lussk out into space . She seals the room from they were blown out of , and rests assured that the Sickness is over . Hestizo returns to Marfa , where a new black orchid is waiting for her care . However , she instead decides to return to Coruscant where she can resume her proper Jedi studies . Behind the scenes . The first draft of the novel contained a character named Middish Sunblade , modeled after Holden Caulfield , but Sunblade was removed from the rewrite because he was whiny and nobody could stand him . The character of Rojo Trace is based on Liam Neeson ' s character from " " , and even utters a line almost identical to that character near the beginning of his story arc . The snow planet Odacer - Faustin where the Sith Academy exists is based on a combination of Hoth and the snowy terrain of " " . Toward the end of the novel , Hestizo Trace mentions returning to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in order to further her education and training . This is an error , as the Temple was destroyed during the Sacking of Coruscant , eight years before the setting of the novel . Red Harvest was originally called Black Orchid . It was a reference to the Murakami orchid at the bloody heart of the " Sickness " . The final title Red Harvest is a nod to " " ' s code name Blue Harvest : Horror Beyond Imagination . For the German edition published by " Blanvalet " , the novel was re - titled " Darth Scabrous " .