User:Zed42/Workbench6

The Talky was the name given to an Autonomous Translator Module, Mark II linguistics droid, or talker droid, that was thought to be the last of its kind by the time of the Galactic Empire. Thousands of years after its model had become obsolete, the talker droid was kept as an artifact in the Imperial Museum on the planet Coruscant. During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the latter intended to utilize the Talky's knowledge of the extinct Trawak language to develop a new encryption code that the Empire could not crack. The rebels stole the Talky and the protocol droid C-3PO reactivated it, but discovered it had become corrupted.

The cyborg Lobot connected with the Talky and allowed it to function, although the droid was unwilling to give up its knowledge, fearing the rebels would deactivate it once it was no longer of use. The Talky eventually agreed to translate the rebel codes in exchange for being kept functioning by Lobot, although the effort began to take a toll on the hybroid and threatened to kill him. Despite the outrage of Lobot's friend Lando Calrissian, the rebels ordered for the transmissions to continue, until the C-3PO successfully compiled the Trawak language before shutting down the shocked Talky. Calrissian would shortly conspire to sell the Talky to the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, discreetly throwing it out of the airlock of the starship Millennium Falcon while the rebels visited the planet Jekara to rescue their friend Han Solo. The Talky revealed that it could fix an issue with Lobot's implants, but Calrissian was forced to leave the droid in space, where it was collected by Jabba's people.

Biography

section 1

An ancient relic

The linguistics droid that would come to be known as the Talky was an Autonomous Translator Module, Mark II, or talker droid,^[2] that was active thousands of years prior to^[1] the time of the Galactic Empire. Eventually, the Talky became inactive,^[2] its model having been discontinued.^[7] By the time of the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the Talky, believed by the protocol droid C-3PO to be the last of its kind in the galaxy, had fallen into the hands of the curator of the Imperial Museum. The curator stored the deactivated droid in his private collection within the museum on the galactic capital planet of Coruscant.^[2]

Following the Battle of Hoth^[2] in 3 ABY,^[8] the Rebel Alliance temporarily split its fleet into divisions. However, the Empire was able to crack their encryption codes, and the Rebellion wished to devise a new method of secure communication in order to coordinate its reunification. Aware of the talker droid's existence, C-3PO suggested that the rebels use its knowledge of the long-extinct Trawak language as the basis for a new code. In order to do so, the Rebellion planned a mission to steal the droid from the Imperial Museum, dispatching a team of Pathfinders, accompanied by the cyborg Lobot and former Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian.^[2]

After learning of the droid's location within the private collection, the rebels drew the curator out and kept him distracted so that Lobot could slice the door and allow them to break in. The rebels located the talker droid, returning it aboard the starship Millennium Falcon to the combined fleet of the Fourth and Seventh Divisions. Once the Talky was aboard the rebel flagship, C-3PO reactivated the droid. However, the talker droid's speech was garbled, and C-3PO determined that its memory banks and primary cognitive functions had been corrupted, leaving the rebels without a solution to their situation.^[2]

Activation

Supervised by C-3PO and watched by several rebels, the astromech droid R2-D2 repaired the talker droid's circuits. The Talky was successfully reactivated; however, it was still malfunctioning, speaking incoherently and acting aggressively. The talker droid threw C-3PO across the room and confronted R2-D2, who attempted to shock it. Overpowering the astromech droid's charge, the Talky redirected it back at R2-D2 and continued to rampage through the room. Lobot, entering the room to face the Talky, managed to connect with the droid and reorganize its circuits, removing the corruption from within it.^[3]

Upon awakening, the Talky asked who the rebels were. C-3PO spoke with the ancient droid, informing it that it had awoken into its future and requesting that the linguistics droid prepared its Trawak language module for download. The droid refused, to C-3PO's surprise, not wishing to surrender the one reason that it had been brought back online. Interrupting C-3PO's outrage, Calrissian reminded the Talky that it was functioning solely because of Lobot, who could undo what he had done to fix the droid. Calrissian offered to have Lobot keep the droid online in return for the droid translating for the rebels. Princess Leia Organa informed the droid of the ongoing war, asking that the talker droid encode the Rebellion's communications into Trawak.^[3]

Although the Talky had little sympathy for the rebels' cause, it accepted their terms, agreeing to work for them as long as Lobot helped it work around the corruption in its processing unit. After making sure that Lobot was willing to do so, Calrissian told the talker droid that it would have to answer to him if anything went wrong. The rebels provided the Talky with the codes that they needed translated, which was given to the pilots of Starlight Squadron to be passed on to any rebel divisons they encountered. Able to see through its connection to Lobot, the Talky determined that the hybroid had a stutter in the interface between his organic and calcutronic elements, a common problem in the droid's own time. Reaching out, the droid was able to briefly make Lobot—whose mind had previously been taken over by his implants—think and speak clearly.^[3]

Treacherous translation

However, the effort of maintaining the talker droid began to take a toll on Lobot. The talker droid estimated that Lobot had only hours left before system collapse, suggesting that the rebels prepare another hybroid for it to use. Despite the potential for Lobot's death, the rebels required further translations immediately, having lost contact with Starlight Squadron and wishing to transmit emergency protocols. Calrissian objected, insisting that they save Lobot, but Kes Dameron, one of the Pathfinders who had retrieved the Talky, prevented him from intervening.^[3]

Despite Calrissian's outrage, Organa reluctantly ordered for the transmissions to continue. C-3PO provided the Talky with a new series of emergency communications, and the ancient droid complied, again recommending that another hybroid be prepared. Calrissian punched Dameron and reached for the talker droid, demanding that it disconnect from Lobot, but the Talky refused, not wishing to lose its ability to communicate. Dameron recovered and led Calrissian away, with Organa instructing C-3PO to continue.^[7]

However, C-3PO revealed that he had successfully compiled the Trawak language based on the Talky's messages, thus being able to encode further communications without its help. The Talky was incredulous, believing no droid could reconstruct Trawak due to its complexity. C-3PO informed the talker droid that he was far more advanced than it and criticized its self-interest before thanking the Talky for its service and deactivating it. With the Talky powered down and Lobot having survived the ordeal, Organa ordered for the ancient droid to be placed in storage on^[7] the rebel flagship^[9] Home One.^[10]

section 2

Sold to Jabba

Calrissian, concluding as a result of the incident that the Rebellion did not care for him or Lobot, decided to sell the Talky, and thus the key to the rebels' new communications, to the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure,^[7] to whom he owed a debt.^[3] He entered the storage room where the deactivated Talky was kept, having incapacitated a rebel trooper inside, and informed Jabba's majordomo, Bib Fortuna, that he would find a way to send the droid to him.^[7] His opportunity to deliver the droid came when the rebels intended to rescue their friend Han Solo, who was frozen in carbonite and was to be sold at an auction by the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. Calrissian stole the Talky and smuggled it aboard the Millennium Falcon before the rebels traveled to the site of the auction, the planet Jekara.^[11]

While the Falcon approached Jekara, Calrissian and Lobot discreetly brought the droid to an airlock, activating it so Jabba's people could locate its processor. Once the Talky was online, Calrissian informed it of what he intended to do, threatening that it would be acquired by Jabba and likely be tortured in his palace for the rebel codes. The Talky protested, but Calrissian, declaring he was doing so for what it had done to Lobot, opened the airlock and ejected the droid into space.^[11]

As the Talky was pulled out of the airlock, it argued that it could be useful and fix the issue with Lobot's cybernetics. Like it had done previously, the talky reached out and pushed Lobot's implants back, allowing the hybroid to communicate normally and inform Calrissian of the droid's actions. Calrissian, regretting his decision, hoped to be able to double back and bring the droid back aboard; however, the Wookiee Chewbacca, piloting the Falcon, performed a maneuver to approach the planet's surface undetected, unknowingly leaving the Talky behind. Once the droid was out of range of the Falcon, it lost its connection with Lobot and its programming reverted to its incoherent state.^[11]

The Talky was eventually collected by Jabba's subordinates,^[6] who brought it to the Hutt's palace on the planet Tatooine. Forced to act as Jabba's interpreter,^[5] the Talky had a restraining bolt placed onto it^[6] and served in the crime lord's throne room. The Talky was tasked with translating the many business transactions that Jabba participated in.^[1] However, the droid warned Jabba that, due to its outdated language databases, it may produce errors in handling modern idioms.^[5] The Talky remained in Jabba's service long enough to develop a virtual map of the palace and the surrounding area in its memory.^[12]

section 2.2

On one occasion, the Talky was required to translate in a deal between Jabba and the Black Sun organization. However, the Talky mistranslated, resulted in Jabba paying twice the amount he should have. The droid's error was reported to Jabba by his associate Ephant Mon, leading the Hutt to confront the Talky in anger, picking up the protesting Talky and throwing it across the room.^[5] As Jabba and his retinue departed to sail the Dune Sea aboard his sail barge,^[12] the translator droid was sent down to be tortured, memory wiped, and reprogrammed by the droid EV-9D9 for its failure.^[5] Two other droids held the Talky down on the table as it objected, claiming that erasing the thousands-of-years-old information in its databanks would be a waste. EV-9D9 was unconvinced, however, and continued preparing to torture the Talky, lowering a circular saw toward it.^[1]

However, before she could begin, EV-9D9 was interrupted by a number of droids that had fallen to the unifying intelligence^[1] known as the Scourge.^[13] As the Scourge-corrupted droids assimilated EV-9D9 and Jabba's other droids, the confused Talky stood up from the table, knocking away a spider-droid that attempted to infect it. The Talky overturned a cauldron of molten liquid onto EV-9D9 and the other infected droids before fleeing the torture room. Encountering a pair of Gamorrean guards, the Talky informed them of the issue with the palace's droids and escaped as the Gamorreans were overrun by the Scourge-infected droids. The Talky eventually made its way into the rancor pit beneath the throne room, where it hid from the corrupted droids.^[1]

At the same time as the Scourge infected the palace's droids, Calrissian had come to Tatooine to find the Talky and force it to fix Lobot's implants,^[1] which were degrading and would soon kill him.^[5] The Talky, noticing Calrissian and Lobot being approached by corrupted droids in the throne room above, opened the door to the pit and dropped the two inside. The droid revealed itself to the outraged Calrissian, urging him not to wake Jabba's rancor, who was sleeping nearby. The Talky recognized the poor condition of Lobot's implants, but despite being threatened at blaster-point by Calrissian, refused to help unless it benefited from the act. Instead, the Talky proposed to help Lobot only after Calrissian assisted it in escaping the palace; however, it agreed to push back the effects of the implants so that their escape would be easier. The infected droids soon made their way into the pit as the rancor awoke, leaving the trio caught between the two.^[1]

section 2.3

As Calrissian fended off their pursuers, the Talky told him to cover his ears before producing a frequency that rendered the rancor unconscious for ten seconds. While the rancor was incapacitated, the trio climbed back up to the throne room, leaving the furious creature tearing apart the infected droids behind them. The Talky informed Calrissian that they were not yet safe, however, as Jabba's palace contained many other droids that would likely have fallen to the Scourge. The droid explained the little it knew of the Scourge, but was more concerned with Calrissian honoring his deal to rescue it from the palace, particularly before an enraged Jabba returned. Although the Talky stressed the urgency of escaping the infected droids, Calrissian took a moment to speak to Solo's carbonite block, which was on display in Jabba's throne room.^[12]

A group of droids shortly interrupted the reunion, and the Talky fled, urging Calrissian to shoot their pursuers as it led the way through the palace. The Talky shut a door behind the group, but it did little to hold back the infected droids; instead, the protocol droid ushered Calrissian and Lobot into the passages used by the palace's servants. However, a group of corrupted droids emerged from another passage, restraining Lobot and dragging the cyborg away. Confronted by Calrissian, the Talky claimed it was not at fault for what had occurred. Calrissian shot off the droid's right hand, threatening to damage the Talky further unless it helped him find Lobot. As Calrissian fought through a horde of droids, the Talky reluctantly led him to the torture chamber, where they discovered that the Scourge had been experimenting on combining organic and mechanical parts. Lobot, infected by the Scourge, hinted at its plans to infect everything, but the arrival of Jabba prompted the cyborg and the corrupted droids to depart. The Talky and Calrissian escaped the palace themselves, leaving Tatooine in the Millennium Falcon.^[12]

Aboard the Falcon, the droid asked Calrissian whether he intended to destroy it, but the latter merely declared that he intended to save Lobot.^[12] While in hyperspace on the way back to the rebel fleet, the Talky recounted the recent events, noting that Calrissian had ended up saving it instead of his friend. The Talky emphasized the conflict that Calrissian faced—to rescue Lobot, he was forced to return to the Rebel Alliance, whom he had stolen the droid from to begin with, but also could not destroy the Talky without risking his friend's life. Calrissian, however, was unimpressed by the Talky's enjoyment of his dilemma, deactivating the droid. After returning to the fleet^[13] with the inactive Talky stored on the Falcon,^[10] Calrissian recruited Organa, the Jedi Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca to rescue Lobot, who he had tracked to the world Epikonia, a galactic communications hub where the Scourge had continued to experiment on organics.^[13]

section 2.4

After the Scourge was destroyed by the droid Ajax Sigma, those under its control were released and the rebels successfully rescued Lobot. With the help of Chewbacca, Calrissian brought Lobot back to the Falcon, opening the storage unit that contained the Talky and reactivating the droid. Upon awakening, the Talky noted that Calrissian had made the situation worse, greeting Chewbacca. The droid was still reluctant to heal Lobot without assurance of its own safety, and Calrissian aimed a blaster at the Talky, threatening to remove its core and wire it into a simulator that would make its existence agony. With no leverage of its own or guarantee that Calrissian would keep his word if it helped Lobot, the Talky was despondent.^[10]

However, the Talky was saved from the dilemma by the return of Skywalker and Organa, the latter demanding to know why the droid that was crucial to the Rebellion was no longer locked aboard Home One. The Talky—recognizing that the threat it posed to Calrissian due to possessing information of his treachery made it equally likely that he would destroy the droid whether or not it healed Lobot—explained that it would do what Calrissian asked if it knew that he valued his friend's life over harm to himself. Unconvinced by Skywalker's argument that it was the right thing to do, the Talky instead put forth a suggestion: it would save Lobot if Calrissian surrendered his weapon and confessed. Calrissian reluctantly did so, and the Talky watched his confession alongside the shocked rebels. With Calrissian's actions brought to light, the Talky agreed to heal Lobot. After the Falcon had returned to the rebel fleet, Calrissian was arrested and put on trial by the Rebellion.^[10]

section 3

Calrissian's trial was to take place some time later, aboard the Home One. In preparation for the trial, the rebel legal representative, Captain Darrien Muskray, selected the Talky as a witness, viewing images from the droid's memory banks in order to verify its testimony. The trial commenced, with General Crix Madine, Admiral Gial Ackbar, and rebel leader Mon Mothma—the latter of whom was attending remotely via hologram—as magistrates. Muskray brought forth the Talky as the first witness, and the droid explained its function at the request of the captain, who had entered its bit-code into the record to validate its memory banks. The Talky gave an account of its part in the creation of the Trawak rebel code and noted that it could easily be broken by anyone who could access its memory, leading Muskray to assert that the droid was one of the Rebellion's most crucial assets.^[9]

At Muskray's query, the Talky described the events of its reawakening after the creation of the Trawak code, playing a recording of his words that confirmed Calrissian's intent in giving the droid to Jabba. The Talky was questioned by Calrissian's lawyer, Salli Georgio, who claimed that the droid had not spoken of the reason behind her client's actions. Georgio suggested that Calrissian may have been influenced by the power of the Jedi mind trick and was thus not responsible for any of the described charges; the droid was speechless, but Skywalker explained that Georgio's suggestion was not possible. Muskray continued their argument, explaining that the Talky possessed a recording of Calrissian's confession as witnessed by other rebels. However, before Muskray could call another witness, the trial was interrupted when Mothma was kidnapped^[9] by Scarabi mercenaries.^[14]

The Talky waited in the courtroom while the rebel leadership convened to discuss Mothma's kidnapping and activate a contingency to temporarily scatter the fleet. Once the Home One had entered hyperspace, the leaders returned, and the remaining magistrates elected to continue the trial. Muskray called forth their next witness, Organa, who explained her first meeting with Calrissian, and the day's proceedings subsequently concluded.^[14]

Characteristics

Behind the scenes

The Talky first appeared in the ninth issue of the 2020 Star Wars comic series, written by Charles Soule, illustrated by Jan Bazaldua, and published by Marvel Comics^[2] on December 9 of that year.^[15]

Appearances

• Star Wars (2020) 9 (First appearance)
• Star Wars (2020) 10
• Star Wars (2020) 11
• Star Wars (2020) 14
• Star Wars (2020) 18 (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars (2020) 30 (Mentioned only)
• Dark Droids 1
• Star Wars (2020) 37
• Dark Droids: D-Squad 4 (Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars (2020) 38
• Star Wars (2020) 39
• Star Wars (2020) 40
• Star Wars (2020) 41
• Star Wars (2020) 44
• Star Wars (2020) 45

Sources

• "Protocol and Service Droids" — Star Wars Encyclopedia
• SWCE 2023: Marvel Reveals Star Wars: Dark Droids Horror Event and More on StarWars.com (backup link) (Picture only)
• Star Wars: Timelines
• SDCC 2023: 10 Reveals from the Lucasfilm Publishing Panel on StarWars.com (backup link)
• An Ancient Evil Awakens in Marvel's Star Wars: Dark Droids #1 – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
• "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 222 (Indirect mention only)

Notes and references

Category:Alliance to Restore the Republic droids Category:Desilijic servants Category:Droids with he/him pronouns Category:Droids with it/its pronouns Category:Droids of the Hutt Clan Category:Droids with unspecified gender programming Category:Protocol droids