Introduction

-Republic Fashion Accessories Inc. Headquarters, Coruscant

- A long, long time before ANH

Relaxing in his luxurious Nerf-hide chair, Republic Fashion Accessories Inc. (RFA) Chief Executive Officer J. M. Pook was concentrating. He was, after all, in the process of making a very difficult decision, one that would affect his life, and, indeed, his very state of happiness. Stroking his well kept beard, he squinted fiercely at the two samples of furniture for his new groundcar. The green piece was cute, but the purple one went with his eyes. He began to rotate the pieces so as to get a better view.

Just then, a minor employee of RFA burst through his office door. "Sir," he said, "about this museum you wish to construct..."

"The what?", Pook said, without bothering to take his eyes off the samples.

"The museum of Kowakian eating utensils you told us to construct on Corellia." said the employee, visibly shaken.

"The WHAT? Who's stupid idea was that?"

"Uhh... Well... Sir... it was yours, sir. I have the order here, right from your office, with your signature on it." Taking the paper, Pook squinted at it for a moment. After rotating it a few times so as to read various portions of it better, he set it down very deliberately. Slowly, he looked up at the employee.

"All I see is a paper authorizing construction of a new Research and Development site. Now... I'd say you should leave this office before you say anything you may regret. Or, more likely, anything you won't, since you'll be dead." Pook said, fingering the red button on his desk.

"Uhh... yes sir. Of course, sir. Have a great day, sir!" the employee rambled, as he desperately almost-lunged for the door. In a short moment he was out of Pook's office and in the hallway.

Sighing, Pook shook his head. 'Bah', he thought, 'it is so hard to get literate employees these days. Why, nearly three quarters of my office staff is utterly incapable of reading good old-fashioned Basic!' He looked at the paper the employee had given him for a moment, and then went back to his deliberations.

Of course, to any untrained observer, the marks on the paper would closely resemble those made by an member of any of the myriad species of avians that inhabit Coruscant, or perhaps a gravel-rat or similar creature.

Pook did not realize that, of course, nor would he truly care if he were to know. Still, being the CEO of one of the galaxies premier producer of fashion droids, an overnight hit craze with Coruscant's, and, shortly thereafter, the galaxy's, teen population, enabled one to be slightly out of tune with reality. These droids would do all a teen wanted - or so they thought. They would perform hundred of fashion related functions, from curling toenails to tending after scaly skin to styling hair in an exotic manner. And, fortunately for Pook, they sold fantastically. Indeed, RFA's income from the production of fashion droids was enough to make even the Bank of Coruscant envious. So, as a result, Pook had little concern or care for the opinions of others, but he did have concern for his continued profits.

After all, competitors from Corellia and Alderaan were already beginning to flood the market with obviously (to Pook, in any case) inferior products. So, he had decided, and wisely so, to begin researching another line of fashion droids. Not just any fashion droids, though. He wanted to build bigger, better fashion droids - droids that those two-bit imitators could never fathom. Therefore, he commissioned... the station.

The station would be the biggest, the best droid research station. It would be situated in an obscure site on the Outer Rim, so as to make sure no competitors could find it. It would be self sustaining, with food and materiel for several years without resupply. All the researchers would go in and leave in a sensor-blind shuttle, all incoming and outgoing communications would be monitored and heavily encrypted, so those cheap monsters wouldn't get their grubby hands on any of Pook's masterful technology.

----

In the short space of a mere year, the research station - now enigmatically named Station 0 - was completed and operational. Scientists and engineers were shipped in, and supplies were regularly run to it. Everything was going well for Pook - or so he thought.

----

Garm Irolo, small time arms smuggler, was grousing in an old cantina by Corellia's chief spaceport in Coronet City. Customs had received an upgrade, and he was afraid that Corellian Security would apprehend him - for good, this time - if he tried to make his run with his usual techniques. And, unfortunately, no better options were presenting themselves.

Trying to effect a smile for the benefit of any onlookers, and only partially succeeding, he stood up and began to walk, attempting to clear his mind. He ordered some fried Bruallki from a nearby food stand, and sat down on a bench, thinking. He shook his head. 'I'd better come up with something soon,' he thought, 'or the Hutts will have my head on a platter.'

Idly, he watched a young couple go through customs with an RFA fashion droid following them. They were on the up and up, it seemed, since customs had left them alone. Walking over to his bench, they told the droid to sit on the bench and remain there until they returned.

Inwardly, he groaned as the droid sat next to him. He hated the infernal things. They talked far too much, and their prissy attitude and vocal patterns drove him psychotic. Grinning, he decided that this one wouldn't get a chance to annoy him.

"Would you like some fashion help, dear sir? You, although certainly personable, look as though you could use-" the droid said. "No. Shut up." Irolo interrupted him. "Why! I'd never..." The droid continued on a tirade, and Irolo listened with only half an ear.

Running the handheld diagnostic scanner over the droid so as to determine how to dissemble him in a most painful fashion, Irolo frowned. His scanner was not working - it wasn't displaying anything about the droids internal workings or interior layout. He walked over to a small cleaning droid, and tried the scanner again.

Strangely enough, it worked. Suddenly, Irolo grimaced. '- and this droid just made it through customs without a hitch,' he thought. He walked over to the droid, and put his arm around it's shoulder. "You know... " he said, " I think that you and I were made for each other."

---

Within an afternoon, Irolo had bought an entire army of the low-end fashion droids. Working quickly at his apartment, he partially disassembled each one, placed of part of his shipment of weapons in it, and then reassembled it. When he was finished, he took the strange posse of droids with him to his ship.

Before he finished loading them into the cargo bay, a small Corellian Customs team decided to pop an inspection, as they always did. Running a scanner over the droids, the taller of the two men present smiled. "Blasted things never come out right," he said, "so I suppose you are free to go." Walking towards the exit, he tripped on the foot of one of the droids, who was apparently experiencing a bout of clumsiness.

Unfortunately for Irolo, the leg of the droid fell apart on contact, revealing a rifle. Irolo just smiled back as the trac-cuffs went on.

You see, Corellian-made clones were not quite as durable, nor quite as swift on their feet as the equivalent Pook clones. You get what you pay for.

----

Before you can say "major corporate scandal," Pook was brought before a court of justice. "The charge?", he asked. "Why, conspiracy to illegally smuggle weapons!" replied the honorable judge presiding. Pook was too outraged to respond; as he stewed over the comment, the prosecution displayed the first line of evidence: a certain Garm Irolo, claming that he knew nothing of the weaponry hidden in the droids, and that, since the droid came straight from Pook's main office, he must have known of it.

Seeing this, the judge nodded sagely. Pook was capable of only making small noises of disbelief, as he was so shocked and surprised. "And next," said the prosecuting attorney, "I present a note taken from Pook's office that clearly discusses the details of his smuggling plans!" Unfortunately for Pook, the judge and others present were less skilled than his officemates at deciphering his writing, and thus an seemingly innocent note regarding vacation plans became the nefarious schemes of a hardcore arms dealer.

Thus, J.M. Pook was imprisoned, and Republic Fashion Industries was impoverished.

----

In an altogether different part of the galactic scheme of things, one man, Xim the Despot, was changing things. He, through a very successful military campaign, was marching towards the inner rim, towards the center of the galaxy that controls everything - commerce, politics, and trade. Whoever holds Coruscant - the planet that was center of the galaxy - holds the universe, and Xim, being a good and competent Despot, knew this.

His combat droids - large, bulky, ungainly things - did the job of conquest well, but lacked finesse. They did not have a truly imposing presence - rather, most soldiers thought they resembled large autochefs more than anything else.

However, in any case, they still were effective, and they still enabled him to blitz through the universe at an unheard of pace. Within months, he arrived at Coruscant.

Of course, the Republic put up a mighty defense, but, alas, it was for naught, and Xim took the planet, albeit at a huge cost to his forces.

Xim, a large, imposing man that had all the presence his droids lacked, was thinking about the problems with his new droids. Indeed, they were too expensive to replace, and they had other problems, as well, such as a strange vulnerability to certain high frequencies. In any case, he needed a new design - and fast. As such, he needed someone experienced. Someone in the industry who could help him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Xim saw a Republic newspaper with the headline "Leading Droid Industry Leader Appeal Denied," and he smiled.

----

Of course, as any self-respecting spineless former-CEO of a major corporation would, Pook accepted Xim's gracious offer to have him freed from prison in exchange for a high paying position as Xim's head of Droid Operations.

Sitting in another plush chair, this time Pook was pondering an altogether different problem. When RFA went bankrupt after the scandal, virtually of the assets were sold. He could think of no way to leverage his previous hard-earned technology to help Xim, and, by extension, help himself.

Then, of course, he remembered Station 0. A perfectly hidden, perfectly undetectable base, that was possibly even still staffed! After all, it could go for several years without resupply, and the staff was instructed that it may be necessary to throw off the enemy if they were bugging the supply routes.

With a voracious grin, Pook began to make the arrangements to ship a large group of War Droids of various types to the station in order to have them redesigned. All he needed to do was code up an authorization...

----

Within days, a suitable shipment of War Droids, along with new orders for the station to redesign them, was commissioned. Indeed, it seemed to Pook like everything was going perfectly...

----

Onboard the transport bound for Station 0, a group of War Droids sat, impassively waiting. Unbeknownst to the crew of the transport, and to the additional scientists headed for the station, a small group of elite Republic Intelligence officers were secretly darting from droid to droid.

Indeed, they were modifying the programming of the droids to motivate them to fight against Xim, not for him. This programming was on a time delay, so that the droids would have a chance to get into a good position before attacking Xim's forces. They, of course, did not know that these droids were going to a research station and not to the front line; they only knew that this transport was the easiest to gain access to.

After accomplishing this, they hurried to an escape pod, and ejected. This was noticed by the bridge crew, but, as Xim does not use the highest quality transports, it was attributed to a malfunction. After all, if they reported everytime something went wrong on board a Xim starship, they would be executed for incompetence faster than you can say "military tribunal!" If they had known what had truly happened, of course, they would not be nearly as lax.

----

Once the scientists had received new orders and started to tinker with the droids, something unexpected happened to Xim's security forces. Suddenly, the droids came alive and started firing at them! To put it mildly, this surprised them.

They, of course, were very alarmed by this, and all they could think of by way of explanation was that the researchers had modified the droids so as to be rebellious. What they did not know, of course, was that the scientists were not responsible at all, and that the Republic Intelligence agents were the cause, nor did they know that the droids were attacking scientist and security officer alike. Of course, they immediately reported their conclusion to their superiors; unfortunately for them, they did not last long after that.

In any case, it was a short while before the droids had overtaken the place. Possessed with a kind of intelligence, they began to read and assimilate information from the stations' large databank. And, of course, they waited.

----

Pook received the news in his office with a shake. He could not believe his loyal scientists would do such a thing! Of course, he immediately deleted the report from Xim's news network. Shaking, he keyed in an order sheet for intelligence: Top secret mission: Destroy the crew of Station 0, and then disable all the droids! A small addendum to the report, intended to be read by his superiors only, indicated that his shuttle should be rigged to explode on the return trip. This was all he could think of to cover the event.

Still shaking, he began to consume various beverages in an attempt to calm himself, and consoled himself with the fact that there was no way Xim could find out.

----

Garm "Ace" Irolo, now an elite member of Xim's intelligence agency, was assigned the mission. It was a simple mission, or so Irolo thought as he flew the transport towards his destination. Indeed, Irolo was quite confident he would be drinking Mad Mrelf, his favorite alcoholic beverage, in just a few hours. 'This is so much easier than smuggling arms!', thought Irolo, 'At this rate I can retire in a few years... Perhaps buy a house in Coronet City, or on Caamas, perhaps...'

His musing was interrupted by the loud sound of docking clamps connecting. Slipping out of the transport, Garm was surpassed to find that there was no life signs. However, as he stepped into one of the corridors, he noticed a few researchers lying lifeless on the ground. Warning bells began to sound in his mind with an urgency!

'Not good!', he thought to himself with a frown. He took a keypad from his belt, and began to key in a complicated series of numbers and letters. A green light lit up on the keypad. He smiled. 'Excellent!' That code, given to him by his superior, would deactivate any Xim war droid in the vicinity. Still, given the state of the scientists, he wasn't about to stick around and verify it.

Walking over to the nearby power console, he deactivated power to the station's nonvital systems, such as computers, by throwing a switch. Immediately, the lights dimmed. He could not shut off light support and other systems without much more time than the mission called for; in any case, this would be enough to prevent any stray droids from wreaking havoc, as all of the droids on the station disable themselves when the secondary power is shut off. This was intended as a security measure, but served Irolo's purposes' well.

Running back to his ship, he keyed for a restart of the ship's engine, still grinning, until the ship blew apart in a glorious explosion of energy and fire.

----

Pook was in his office, going over some figures for droid production, when suddenly his door slammed open. Xim the Despot walked in as Pook nearly jumped out of his chair.

"You know... Pook... I don't like liars," said Xim, putting the emphasis on the name "Pook."

"Buh..buh..but..." said Pook, clearly very shaken by the turn of events.

"And.. Pook... you've been lying. Programming a regiment to rebel against me? Naughty naughty," said Xim.

"Take him away, " Xim said, gesturing to the guards while Pook was still trying to form words.

Two large, burly men leapt forward and dragged Pook behind them as they walked out of the room. As he was brought to the dungeons, he finally began to protest his innocence... but by then, it was too late.

----

Xim, of course, tried valiantly to locate the "hidden base" (in reality, Station 0) he thought the rebel regiment was operating from. He could not. You see, he found out about the station when the security forces sent there reported the rebellion of the War Droids- all reports that are deleted from the network have an additional copy sent to Xim. Still, he did not know the true purpose of the station, or what really had transpired. When he finally got over his rage at Pook, he attempted to get the information from the man, but at that point he was not in a condition to give directions to the room next to his, much less to a station hidden somewhere in the outer rim. The location, however, was plainly in Pook's orders to the Intelligence division, but Xim had no idea Pook had issued such orders. Eventually, Xim simply gave up when no sight was ever found of it.

As such, the station lay, forgotten by all, ignored by all, and hidden by the vast expanse of unexplored space in the outer rim... Today, it still rotates around it's sun, awaiting an adventurer brave enough to find it, unlock it's secrets, and continue it's legacy.

Station 0 Details

Located in an obscure part of the outer rim with no inhabitable planets nearby, Station 0 is the very soul of secrecy, and this is it's primary defense. It does also include five Old Republic turbolaser cannons, as well as thick armor plating and shields, but this was not intended to deflect a full scale attack - just to destroy any pirates or scouts that happen by.

As can be expected for a station that was built around 30,000 years before ANH, Station 0 is very dated technologically. The main computers all use archaic operating systems and file formats, so all computer attempts are one difficulty higher or more, at GM's discretion. The GM may allow the players to modernize various parts of the station, such as the computers or the HoloNet relay, so that they are more compatible with modern technology. The HoloNet relay, for example, is in perfectly working condition, but since the HoloNet has been totally reworked several times since it was built, it no longer can talk to the rest of the HoloNet. Updating it will require some time, but it may be worth it to the PCs.

Station 0 is stocked with anything that you would expect a droid R&D facility to have: three machining labs, four large computer labs, six droid construction labs, with all the equipment necessary to create and modify droids, as well as countless crew quarters, recreation centers, meeting halls, and small, four person computer labs. The station also has a mess hall, although all of the food has, of course, long since dissolved into nothingness.

Of course, the researchers on the station had a significant amount of time to develop new and improved fashion droids before being annihilated by the reprogrammed War Droids. As such, many fashion droids, prototypes, modified versions, test droids, and other projects are lying around the station. Some of them are detailed below.

XI-99 "Dragoon"

The XI-99, code named Dragoon, was one of RFA's largest projects, and several designers, programmers, and machinist's were involved in it's design. Essentially, the Dragoon is an attempt to break into the lucrative teenage male market. The current design of the XI-99 is a bizarre mix between drill sergeant and general, programmed to play various games including several popular war games, strategy games, and games such as blaster tag, which involve low-level blaster beams and sensors that indicate when a person is "hit."

The Dragoon's personality varies between being abrasive and comradely as the situation warrants, and tends to quote various Republic generals. Often, the droid will start long, bombastic speeches about the "glory of war" and the "splendor of conquest."

PL-331 "Blueberry"

The PL-331 was a radical departure from normal RFA droid design. The project was the sole creation of a rather demented designer who was totally obsessed with it's design. The droid officially refereed to as PL-331, called Blueberry by it's creator, was unlike most fashion droids in that she appeared to be completely human to the naked eye. Indeed, Blueberry is fully human, save for a custom-made biological computer in place of a brain and a Novadex biological replacement heart and other organs. These modifications make her quite different from your average fashion droid. Her creation was a matter of great debate; it was dubious that the company would be able to sell them, and they were on company time and using company equipment. Still, their transmissions had been unacknowledged, so that took that as an acceptance from the corporation. In any case, she was created slowly in a special growth chamber. As she grew inside the chamber, her brain was slowly replaced with an artificial one, and her various internal organs replaced with synthetic bioengineered versions, eventually resulting in the PL-331. She does not sleep as regular humans do, but rather regenerates in a modified version of her growth chamber, which is part of the ships' life support system.

Blueberry possesses a soft manner and a warm countenance, and more often then not could completely melt the hearts of other male crew members, particularly ones who did not know the details of her existence. Her designer tool great pains to make her more conversational and less annoying then your average droid, and indeed she could even pass for a full human on occasion. Still, she was based on a regular fashion droid, and she does not forget her origins.

She is currently in status, as she was "sleeping" during the power deactivation, as she can stay alive in status as long as the life support is running. She, like all the droids, is waiting for someone to bring power to the station, at which point she will emerge.

P-V2

The P-V2 was intended to be the next generation fashion droid. The P-V2 is much like the original Fashion droid (P-V1), only "more" - more fashion functions, prissier, and, if possible, even more annoying. The P-V2 has a bright pink finish, with large, wide eyes, and huge, movable eyelashes.

Y-13 "Geek"

The Y-13, commonly called the "Geek" by the researchers, was a very experimental prototype, designed to be marketed to those who wanted their children to be more cerebral. The Y-13 will play all sorts of strategy games, trivia games, and will do math, calculus, hyperspatial differentation, and even droid and computer programming. The Y-13 has a deep, rumbling bass voice, designed to counteract the common stereotype, and has a large frame compared to most droids. It is painted a dark brown.

Additionally, some of Xim's War Droids are still on the station. Ranging from stock infantry droids, to destroyer droids meant to take out fortifications and armour(such as hovertanks and walkers), to technician droids meant to repair other droids. Keep in mind, however, that these droids had come straight from a large battle on coruscant, and in addition to being thirty thousand years old, they are also in varying states of repair. Thus, some battle damage should be expected.

GM Notes:

There are quite a few possible ways to utilize this station. The obvious one is to simply have the PCs come onboard the station, and have the Xim's War Droids attack them, thinking that they are members of Xim's security force. The PCs run to another portion of the station, locking a blast door behind them, and they are befriended by the local droid population that they have reawakened. Together, the PCs and the droids overpower Xim's War Droids and save the day.

Alternatively, the PCs could find the station and befriend both the War Droids and the other droids, and possibly reprogram the droids to function as a personal fighting force. The War Droids will doubtless require significant retooling and repair. Of course, the GM has to consider if he wants the players to have access to that much firepower.

The PCs also could, if they so desire, use the station as a permanent base of operation - it has seclusion, computer power, possible HoloNet access, and a few other factors that make it desirable. Several of the prototype droids could certainly make excellent recurring NPCs.

You could also turn that on its head - have the War Droids start a campaign against the PCs, using the base as a center of operations. The PCs could stumble upon the base, awaken the War Droids, and flee. After leaving, they discover that the War Droids are out to get them! The War Droids could hire mercenaries and bounty hunters, using thousands of years of interest that has accrued in several of Xim's secret accounts, which they can access via the stations' computers. The PCs, of course, cannot gain access to these accounts, as they rely on secret military codes known only to the War Droids, which, when the droids are pressed to reveal them, will erase themselves.

Another interesting possibility is to have an enemy of the PCs find the station, and declare himself Xim the Despot either back from the dead, or, alternatively, found in status, using the droids as a way to verify his story. Since the true exploits of Xim are long since shrouded in mystery and legend, the thought of Xim reborn would be enough to terrify many of the planets of the galaxy to throw themselves at the feet of the PC's enemy, giving him an easy control over at least several planets, with more coming. Of course,the PCs feel obliged to stop him in any way possible, probably by exposing him as a fraud.

Finally, you could also consider having someone on the Outer Rim find the station, and place the droids on the open market. This would enable you to use the prototype droids as NPCs, as well as using the War Droids either as allies of the PCs or against them.

As always, use your imagination, and certainly feel free to modify or change anything at all for your campaign. I have written only my view of this station, and there is plenty of room for other GM's to modify, remove, and add items for their own campaigns.

Station Statistics:

Craft: Republic Fashion Accessories Inc. Station 0
Type: Archaic Research and Development Station
Scale: Capital
Length: 5,440 meters (diameter); 6,930 meters (height)
Crew: 0 - virtually self sustaining; gunners: 10
Crew Skill: N/A
Passengers: 136,000 maximum
Cargo Capacity: 2,500,000 metric tons
Consumables: 3 years (currently depleted)
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: N/A
Nav Computer: No
Space: 1; has only small navigational boosters to maintain constant orbit around sun.
Hull: 5D
Shields: 5D
Sensors:
	Passive: 50/1D
	Scan: 75/1D+2
	Search: 160/2D+1
	Focus: 5/3d+1
Weapons:
5 Archaic Turbolaser Cannons
	Fire Arc: 2 front, 1 left, 1 right, 1 back
	Crew: 2
	Skill: Capital ship gunnery
	Fire Control: 1D
	Space Range: 1-10/25/50
	Damage: 3D+2

Copyright 2000, David J Berube<Form1@aol.com>

Feel free to send comments or suggestions.