Back in my Saga Edition days, I ran a particularly memorable adventure that took place in the remains of a decrepit space station being operated by a crazed droid that permeated the station in an attempt to bring the feeling of a dark session of Paranoia into the game. The look on my players’ faces when they figured out what was going on was absolutely priceless, and it is still one of the most fun I’ve even had designing or running a session at the table. So I thought I would take a little jaunt down memory lane today and introduce the rest of you to the various secrets that might be hidden inside Complex Aurek. Following the station’s history are several adventure hooks that you can use to incorporate this unique setting into your own games.
In the final years of the Clone Wars, the Separatists began experimenting with ways to deploy ground troops faster and faster, hoping to deploy entire divisions of troops in a fraction of the time that it took for Republic forces to answer. One of the experiments they had in development was a series of hyperspace-capable stations that would hold massive numbers of battle droids in reserve that could be brought into battle quickly. These stations would each be governed by powerful droid brains linked into all of the station’s controls, allowing them to be run with a minimum of sentients necessary. These droid brains could monitor incoming data from Separatist forces across the galaxy and respond where they were most badly needed. What’s more, these droid brains were given wide latitude in their decision making abilities and were able to be partitioned from the rest of the Separatist forces, meaning that if something happened to their droids in the field, they would have reinforcements.
Republic Intelligence was able to discover three of these sites being built, labeling them Complex Aurek, Complex Besh, and Complex Cresh. They were able to bring Complex Besh down from the inside, and the war was ended before Complex Cresh could proceed much further than a hollow frame. However, Complex Aurek vanished. The newly christened Imperial forces scoured the galaxy for clues as to its whereabouts, but they could find nothing.
Sensing the inevitable defeat of the CIS forces, the droid brain controlling the station took what actions it deemed were necessary to ensure its survival. It disconnected itself from the central CIS forces and plotted a course to the edge of known space, hiding in the Unknown Regions. Over the following years, the droid brain began to degrade as lack of regular maintenance caused various hiccups to appear within its programming. But still, it continued to try to serve its basic functions, even as the station fell further into disrepair every year. Eventually, the droid brain took much of the station offline in order to save power for the core functions, knowing that with only minimal processes to look after, it could continue to operate for decades, if not longer.
But by now the cracks within its programming had blossomed into full-grown fissures, and these manifested themselves in various ways. It started with the droid constantly talking to itself and the other droids it kept online, treating them as children. Then, as these droids began to break down due to age and various other issues, it began “upgrading” them, patching them together with parts of other droids that it re-purposed from the hundreds of thousands in storage, leading to a hodgepodge of various station defenders when all was said and done, with most of the battle droids barely being recognizable as such. And so the station continues to live out its dying years, protecting who knows what within its memory banks.
Scavengers’ Paradise
In this Edge of the Empire hook, the PCs find themselves offered a contract for what should be a relatively easy job – locate the whereabouts of an old Clone Wars battle station and see what can be salvaged. They’re offered a hefty sum of credits to keep the job quiet and to get it done quickly as well. Their benefactor is a wealthy noble that has ties to several families within the Separatist leadership that discovered the station in some old databanks and wants it found for their own purposes. They have been able to track the station down to a certain section of space, but needs someone to determine its current state.
As they board find and board the station, they find more than they originally bargained for. They find themselves playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an insane droid brain that takes some sick amount of pleasure in pushing them through encounter after encounter with the remains of the station’s defenders. Can the crew make it to the station’s center and shut down the central computer before they are killed? And what might they find in there? And if they survive, what happens with their employer?
The Emperor’s Vault
In this Age of Rebellion hook, it turns out that Imperial forces were able to locate this station after all. With its need for very few personnel and an ability for threat assessment and remote upkeep, they re-purposed Complex Aurek as an automated high-security vault for some of the Emperor’s personal data as well as information on various projects and doctrines that were too important to risk. However, the fractures within the station’s droid brain developed over the years as lack of regular maintenance took its toll. Eventually, the station decided that the organics on board needed to be dealt with, slaughtering the few Imperials with the droid forces and going dark. When the Empire tried to take it back, they were met with heavy resistance, and eventually abandoned the station, secure in the knowledge that it could never be found.
The Empire never planned on the Bothans. Following small breadcrumbs of clues, they believe they have found the resting place of something very important from the earliest days of the Empire – information that while outdated, could still be invaluable to the Rebellion in exposing some of the Empire’s ugliest actions during their rise to power.
Echoes of the Past
In this Force and Destiny hook, Complex Aurek wasn’t alone when it took off careering into the Unknown Regions. Instead, a Jedi strike force was on board, hoping to sabotage the station. And while they were spared the horrors of Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order, fate was no more kind to them as they were systematically hunted down and exterminated by the active security droids on board the station. With the controlling droid brain able to “see” every portion of the station, there was nowhere the Jedi Knights could hide, and they were constantly harried, separated, and eventually wiped out.
What information about the Jedi and the Force could these brave Knights have had on them when they started that fateful mission? Even the smallest scraps of such information could prove to be incredibly valuable to young Force-Sensitives trying to find their way in the galaxy. A call goes out through the Force, nudging these young students on a path that could forever alter their own destiny, as well as that of the galaxy.
Ben Erickson
Great stuff Ben! Fun backdrop for me to use.
Thank you, sir! It was a lot of fun revisiting the station.