Arannis Crane's page

Species: Replica Droid [+2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha; bonus equipment, droid traits, Skill Focus (Deception) as conditional bonus feat; Basic, copied species language]
Background: Taris (Deception, Stealth; Sy Bisti)

Level 1 (Soldier 1)
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 19, Con -, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 11
Languages: Basic, Binary, Mando'a, Sy Bisti
Talents (Soldier): Hammerblow
Feats: Martial Arts I
Feats (Soldier): Armor Proficiency (Light), Armor Proficiency (Medium), Weapon Proficiency (Pistols), Weapon Proficiency (Rifles), Weapon Proficiency (Simple Weapons)
Skills: Deception, Initiative, Mechanics, Perception, Use Computer

Level 2 (Scout 1/Soldier 1)
Abilities: No change
Languages: No change
Talents (Scout): Evasion
Feats: No change
Feats (Scout): No change
Skills: No change

Level 3 (Scoundrel 1/Scout 1/Soldier 1)
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 19, Con -, Int 17, Wis 10, Cha 11 [+2 Int]
Languages: Bocce
Talents (Scoundrel): Fool's Luck
Feats: Echani Training
Feats (Scoundrel): Point Blank Shot
Skills: Knowledge (Social Sciences)
Other: Enhanced Intelligence

Level 4 (Scoundrel 1/Scout 1/Soldier 2)
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 19, Con -, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 11 [+1 Int, +1 Wis]
Languages: Huttese
Talents (Soldier): No change
Feats: No change
Feats (Soldier): Rapid Strike
Skills: Acrobatics

Arannis was "born" on Taris, the creation of a team of roboticists and bioengineers led by Morvan Crane, a brilliant scientist. He and his colleagues had been commissioned by the Mandalorians, whose rivalry with the Echani was at its peak at the time, to create a droid that would be nigh indistinguishable in both form and function from an organic being. Having chosen Taris as their base of operations, the main reason behind it that the planet was not only located in the Outer Rim but also on the Mandalorian Road which led to Madalore itself, the team's men and women set about their task, a task which took them years to complete. But complete it they did, giving the prototype the designation R1-S. Before disbanding, they did remain on the planet for a time, testing the droid and making sure it did indeed pass for something other than what it truly was. Once satisfied and with thei goal reached and their payment collected they left, all but Morvan, who handled the final task of bringing R1-S to Mandalore. And considering what the droid looked like, it was a simple enough task, as well as one final test, a test easily passed.

Once on Mandalore, the droid's first role was to be used in the training of the young Mandalorian warriors, both as a test run for the R1-S droid itself before seeing what other applications it could have and as a way to teach the youths to fight without hesitation an opponent with a human face in relative safety before their real battles would begin. For that purpose the prototype was fitted with various systems and programming designed for combat, specifically close quarters hand-to-hand combat. But at some point Morvan, who had been so instrumental in its creation, started believing it had potential beyond combat. Opting to remain on Mandalore, he continued working on the droid, sometimes simply tweaking or upgrading its combat-relevant hardware and software and others adding other different routines and subroutines. That along with the its heuristic processor, a necessary system for it to learn and improvise during training sessions, had a most interesting result, interesting at least in the eyes of its creator. R1-S, or Arannis as Morvan had started calling it, started developing a personality and perhaps the first hints of independence, of free will. And though it was able to hide it at first, it could only get away with it for so long, even with Morvan's help.

The man knew what he had to do. He had to preserve his life's work, as he knew that once the prototype's "flaw" was discovered, it would be deemed a failure and either destroyed or at the very least have its memory wiped and along with it its personality. So one night he put Arannis in a ship and programmed a course into its computer. The idea was to take the droid as far away from Mandalore as possible, somewhere where it could continue its existence until Morvan himself was able to leave and find it, or him as it were. Arannis had certainly been modified enough and programmed with skills to make him able to sustain himself independently of his creator if needed, but even so it was not the scientist's plan to cast him to the winds. But plans rarely survive their execution. The ship Arannis was on malfunctioned and it never reached its destination, instead crushing on some planet in the Outer Rim, a world that had little in the way of resources to make it worthwhile for ships to stop by.

Arannis needed neither food nor water, that much was true, but the conditions on that world were harsh and the crash had not left him unscathed. And even though it took years, eventually he sustained enough damage he could not repair himself, lacking the means to do so. And thus he "slept", deactivating himself. Morvan Crane never found him, as the droid lacked a tracking device, or rather it had been removed so as to make it impossible for the Mandalorians to find and retrieve him, a fact that also proved the undoing of his creator's efforts to do the same. And he never again attempted making another such as him.

Time passed and circumstances in the galaxy changed and at some point a scavenger ship did land on that planet. And the R1-S prototype was found. He was kept deactivated, yet the ones who found him had him repaired, perhaps even upgraded a little. After all, they knew they had in their possession a very valuable item, an item they were sure to find a buyer for.

Perhaps the Empire? They do have a use for replica droids after all.