Unidentified fog-like creature

A semi-sentient black fog–like creature was created by the Galactic Empire aboard the escort frigate–turned-laboratory Imperial Research Station 13 as part of experiments aiming to tap into the dark side of the Force. The entity consisted of a part of the essence of the dark side and possessed sentient beings, feeding upon their life force. After its creation, the creature proceeded to turn on the starship's crew, who all perished.

Eventually, at one point during the Galactic Civil War, the light freighter Sidewinder arrived near Imperial Research Station 13. The dark side creature used 3PO-series protocol droids and R2-series astromech droids to draw the freighter's occupants into the interior of the frigate. It then rushed toward the starship, possessing one of the newly arrived individuals, and attempted to use the ship to escape to a region of populated planets where it could feed on millions of sentient beings. However, before it could do so, the former occupants of the Sidewinder destroyed that vessel, sacrificing their own lives in order to strand the creature. It then went on to drain those individuals of their life force over a span of months before ultimately starving to death.

Biography

Born and stranded

At some point during the reign of the Galactic Empire, experiments were carried out aboard the Imperial escort frigate–turned-laboratory Imperial Research Station 13. They aimed to tap into the dark side of the Force and resulted in the creation of a semi-sentient fog-like creature that fed upon the life force of sentient beings. The creature turned upon the crewmembers of the starship, leading them to their deaths and ultimately possessing the body of one of them. However, the last of the ship's crewmembers rendered its engines inoperative before perishing. The creature subsequently programmed the vessel's complement of 3PO-series protocol droids and R2-series astromech droids to serve as an army of enslaved soldiers.^[1]

During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the light freighter Sidewinder, which was fleeing an Imperial invasion of the planet Tegrat^[1] in the Outer Rim Territories' Koradin sector^[2] with a group of passengers aboard, was dropped out of hyperspace in the vicinity of Imperial Research Station 13. The frigate's tractor beam then drew the freighter in and made it dock with the larger vessel. The dark side creature, requiring a continuous source of life force in order to survive, planned to use the Sidewinder to escape to a region of populated planets where it could feed upon the inhabitants of world after world.^[1]

A plan to escape

To achieve that, the creature used its droid army to draw the light freighter's occupants deep into the interior of the frigate. Eventually, the passengers of the Sidewinder entered a laboratory room in which the creature lay in wait along with six droids. After the visitors to the frigate destroyed the droids in the room, the corpse inhabited by the dark side creature fell and struck its head. In a shower of dry and crusty fragments, the body's head then broke apart, and the creature emerged from its vessel to the horror of the other individuals in the room. The entity then rushed toward the Sidewinder, in the process possessing one of the ship's occupants.^[1]

Aboard the light freighter, the creature locks itself in along with a pair of its droids. It then also made a call to droids stationed in Imperial Research Station 13's tractor beam control rooms, ordering them to release the freighter, and then disengaged the Sidewinder from the frigate. The creature then set about repairing the freighter's damaged hyperdrive engines in order to escape into hyperspace. However, it was ultimately prevented from doing so when the ship's former passengers—deciding to sacrifice their own lives in order to save those of millions of others elsewhere—used the weaponry of the frigate to destroy the Sidewinder. Stranded once again, the dark side creature then proceeded to drain the individuals aboard the frigate of their life force one by one, with each of them allowing it to survive for one more month, until the creature eventually starved to death.^[1]

Personality and traits

When outside of a host body, the creature manifested itself as a black mist consisting of a part of the essence of the dark side of the Force. It needed to consume the life force of other beings, with failure to do so eventually leading to its starvation to death as it grew too weak to maintain its existence. At the time of its encounter with the passengers of the Sidewinder, the creature was inhabiting the emaciated, desiccated corpse of a tall Human.^[1]

Powers and abilities

The fog-like creature could possess sentient beings—both deceased and living—such as Humans. Furthermore, while possessing a dead body, the creature could extract knowledge from its host's brain, which it could then use to perform tasks such as programming and instructing droids.^[1]

Behind the scenes

The fog-like creature appeared in the roleplaying adventure "Imperial Research Station 13," written by Lester W. Smith and published in the October–November 1990 forty-sixth issue of the Challenge magazine for use with West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. In the adventure, the creature can possess any of the player characters—the only characters who can possibly resist it are Force-using ones who are proficient in the Control aspect of the Force or, better yet, specifically in the Force of Will ability. The only way for the player characters to destroy the entity is to starve it to death.^[1]

When the player characters first encounter the creature in its Human vessel, they can either shoot it or capture it, with the creature emerging from its host body in either case (if the Human is captured, it falls over when it is first touched). Following this, the creature proceeds to possess the character who is closest to the Sidewinder—if said character is aboard Imperial Research Station 13, they then run toward the light freighter. Alternatively, if a player character has remained aboard the freighter, the creature rushes toward the starship itself and then possesses them. Finally, "Imperial Research Station 13" also presents an alternative outcome for the scenario that is less deadly for the player characters. It involves a proficient Force-using non-player character sensing a disturbance in the Force caused by the creature and then arriving at the site aboard a Rebel Alliance starship to investigate. The Force-user then destroys the entity's physical manifestation before it has possessed its second victim. This article assumes the scenario plays out as described.^[1]

Appearances

• "Imperial Research Station 13" — Challenge 46 (Unlicensed) (First appearance)

Notes and references