Amidst the debris in the space station was a spider-droid that was an ancient intelligence merged with the Spark Eternal, and it was able to corrupt other droids into vessels of its own, beginning with a KX-series security droid that had been deployed from the Chelator as part of the recovery mission. Afterward, the Scourge spread from the security droid to astromech droids and protocol droids. The 2,518 droids were quickly corrupted, catching the humans by surprise, and killed the organic beings in various ways when the Star Destroyer was in space. The MSE-6 series repair droid Petyr, who worked undercover aboard the Chelator for the Second Revelation group of independent droids, reported the tragedy to the Colony of the Second Revelation before he too was corrupted by a Scourge spider-droid.
Having conquered the Imperial starship, the Scourge renamed it the Scourge 01 and deployed spider-droids encased in the chasis of MSE-6 units, including Petyr, throughout the galaxy in order to spread its own consciousness. The Scourge 01 gradually transformed into a monstrous vessel that was black on color and featured many irregular spikes.