Unit 8311

"Who am I? People call me many things. A relic from another age. A crime lord. A weapons dealer. A warlord. But one thing's for sure. I'm going to kick your sorry ass."

- 8311 to a Yuuzhan Vong warrior Unit 8311 was a rogue CIS battle droid who survived the Clone Wars and would go on to form a major criminal organisation, the Steel Legion. Due to a programming glitch in his production, he was intelligent, had a free will, and had emotions.

8311 would later voluntarily relinquish control of the Legion, and in the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong War, he would take control of some systems devastated by the war, expanding his influence.

Over the course of his life, he woud have many bodies and forms, being a droid, and was intelligent and scheming. He also possessed superfast reflexes, enabling him to destroy all but the most powerful opponents within a matter of seconds.

Creation
"Something's not right with that droid there."

- A Geonosian engineer

Unit 8311, designated UN-8311, was a super battle droid produced by the CIS on the foundry world of Hypori. A programming glitch granted him a rebellious, impish personality, but made him more intelligent than the average battle droid. He resisted several attempts to have his memory wiped and reprogrammed, but his masters decided that it would be best to leave him. 8311 tried to supervise the creation of battle droids on his foundry home by improving them, but his efforts were thwarted. Frustrated, he decided to accept it. Being a droid, he was long-lived, and able to have the long view.

Clone Wars
"That can't be a droid. That must be some sorta demon."

- A clone trooper in reaction to one of 8311's massacres



8311 served at the Battle of Hypori, and later on was moved, along with billions of his fellow battle droids, was moved to serve in theatres like Muunilist, Kashyyyk, Fyir Xan and Felucia. In the service of the CIS, 8311 killed roughly 456 clone troopers, destroyed 54 vehicles, killed two teams of ARC troopers, and smashed the skull of a clone commando on Koorivar. General Grievous took an interest in him, as did Count Dooku, as 8311's kill count increased. Estimates put him at being approximately 123.7% more efficient than standard battle droids. He also proved adept at piloting all CIS vehicles, and also learned to drive Republic ones as well. However, most CIS commanders disliked having him under their command, as he frequently talked back, questioned or disobeyed orders, and openly voiced his dislike of being ordered around.

During a battle near the Terax Nebula, 8311 noticed a strange ship, which escaped as soon as he tried to investigate. 8311 would ponder the nature of the ship for a long time afterwards.

Towards the end of the Clone Wars, 8311 upgraded himself with electronic pincers and molecular shielding, all created by himself. He was so succesfull in his new incarnation that the Grapple droid model was based on him. However, 8311 could now tell that the war was turning against the CIS, and after the battle of Coruscant, he left the Confederacy, and arrivied at Nar Shadda literally as the the droid armies were deactivated. When he first heard of the Confederacy's defeat, he was so enraged and saddened that he killed everyone he saw in a alley, just after arriving on the moon.

In the Service of The Empire
"Oh well, it could have been worse. They could have called it the 'New Republic' or something."

- 8311 upon learning of the new Empire.

For some months, 8311 was employed by a Hutt on Nar Shadda as a hit-droid, and killed fifteen people in the service of the Hutt. Soon, however, he grew tired, and as he was obviously a CIS droid many disliked and distrusted him. 8311 decided to leave the service of the Hutt, but was forced to stay by the Hutt's thugs. Getting desperate, he infiltrated the Hutt's penthouse, murdered the Hutt and, having done that, activated his personal bank account. Using his expert hacking skills, he transferred all the 123,022,212 credits in the Hutt's account to his own. To get a reputation, he decided, was to become filthy stinking rich. With that in mind, he downloaded billions of credits from other accounts to his own, and was the richest, albeit also most unknown, figure on Nar Shadda. However, 8311 was finding his body impractical, so he upgraded again.



This time, 8311 purchased parts from an old, 4000-year old Hunter-Killer droid, but still incorporated elements of his first upgrade and original super battle droid design, and also upgraded the HK body with extra armour and moleculor shielding. With that, he began recruiting various thugs off the streets of Nar Shadda and Nal Hutta, using a foolish Twi'lek called Rafgh that he had met whilst in the employment of the Hutt as a puppet to do so. Soon, 8311 was a powerful crime lord, and dealt with the shipping of illegal spice, drugs, gambling, bank robberies, and established multiple brothels. Soon, he was so powerful that even Jabba the Hutt and Black Sun feared him, but he was generally unknown outside criminal groups, and he gave his criminal syndicate the name of the Steel Legion.

Under 8311's command, the Legion quickly gained power, and within a few years it easily rivalled the Hutt Cartel, the Zann Consortium, and others. During this period, 8311 gained much respect, pleasing him, but he also gained several enemies, such as the Imperial moff Deras, and Prince Xizor.

However, he attracted the attention of the Empire. Darth Vader, in person, gave him a proposition: work with the Empire and manipulate the criminal underworld for the Empire, but still carry on with your own activities. 8311, knowing better than to argue with a Sith, agreed, despite knowing that he was becoming another puppet of the Empire.

However, Darth Vader sensed that 8311 would do better than being a mere puppet crime lord. He gave 8311 a job in Imperial Intelligence. Imperial officers were amazed by 8311's effeciency, and soon he was given a job as the first droid general of the Imperial Army.

From Imperial to Rebel
"Who says droids can't get rich?"

- 8311 to a doubtful aide

By now 8311 was perhaps the most influential droid in the galaxy. He doubled Imperial Intelligence's effeciency rate, won several battles on Cato Neimoidia and Drongar, and was increasingly richer from his illegal doings. However, 8311 was becoming increasingly power-hungry, even going as far as to murder a Moff to promote himself. Meanwhile, under the guidence of 8311, the Steel Legion continued to expand and grow more and more powerful. The Emperor was becoming aware of the threat that 8311 was starting to present, and ordered 8311 destroyed. However, just before Imperial Stormtroopers were about to attack his palace on Nar Shadda, 8311 copied his consciousness and memories into the shell of an astromech droid. Then, in the shell of his new body, 8311 escaped, just as stormtroopers destroyed his previous body, mistakingly thinking that he was dead.



8311 managed to escape the Imperial assassins, who mistakedly believed him to be just another astromech, and proceeded to join the Rebel Alliance. To do so, he let himself be captured by Jawas and sold to some prospecting rebel leaders. Once in the ownership of the Rebellion, he proved himself to be more than just another maintenance droid by hacking into an Imperial computer network, amazing his rebel masters. He offered further help in exchange for a new body.

Civil War
"Yay! A war! Just what I was built for!"

- 8311



The Rebels kept their promise and granted 8311 the body of a captured IT-0 droid, which, although the rebels didn't tell him, was the only droid body they would give him. With that, 8311 managed to unblock his bank accounts, which had been frozen by the Empire, and began funding Rebel operations. Soon, after the Battle of Yavin, he was moved to Hoth, a place he disliked immensely due to the cold. From Hoth, 8311 discreetly advised and funded the rebels, trying to stay out of the way of main leaders such as Princess Leia, not desiring to get a memory wipe.

Soon enough, 8311 was caught up in the Battle of Hoth as Imperial forces attacked, and he managed to escape by stowing aboard a transport, which was critically damaged by fire from an star destroyer during its escape. Life support was destroyed, so the crew suffocated, leaving only 8311 alive.

Return Home
"Ah, my beloved home Hypori. How much I missed you."

- 8311

The striken transport drifted through space for a few weeks before finally crash-landing on Hypori, with the droid factory were 8311 had been born still standing. Overjoyed, 8311 transferred himself to the body of a modified droideka and resumed production. He re-opened the mines on the planet and put the deactivated mining droids to work again. Using advanced production methods that he had come up with, 8311 made sure production went smoothly.

Soon, 8311 had assembled an immense army numbering over eighty-two billion droids, and began plotting his re-ascent to power. Some time later, with his army, he travelled to a Rebel rendevous place, only to find the Battle of Endor won and the Empire in disarray. Overjoyed, 8311 re-positioned his army at Hypori, and offered to start producing munitions for the newly-formed New Republic to help defeat the Imperial Remnant. The rebel leaders agreed. As the galaxy celebrated, however, they were unaware that the worst was yet to come...

New Republic era
"Yay! Another war!"

- 8311



For the next twenty-odd years 8311 continued to fund and assist the growing New Republic, whilst also subtely re-establishing his Nar Shadda criminal empire, and continuing to upgrade his droideka form. During the Thrawn crisis, having encountered Thrawn during the Clone Wars, 8311 used his own droid and Legion forces to resist reunifed Imperial attacks. Not wishing to see the Empire return, 8311 was also responsible for the sabotage of some of Thrawn's supply convoys, which Thrawn attributed to New Republic spies. Afterwards, his forces would frequently raid Remnant territory, even when the New Republic and Remnant made peace.

Around this time, 8311 decided to voluntarily relinquish control of the Steel Legion, and handed control of it to Ferd Swqaru, although 8311 still often got involved with the Legion.

Yuuzhan Vong war
Now that the effects of the Clone Wars were safely in the past, 8311 was no longer attacked for his Confederacy-related origins or his droideka appearance. However, in 25 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong War began, and 8311 began to fight for the New Republic, using his immense droid army to hold off Vong forces. 8311 detested the Vong for their overuse of organic technology, and also recognised that if they won, droids like him would become extinct. Even when news that famous New Republic figures such as Chewbacca were killed, 8311 still continued to fight, even as the war turned against the galaxy.

During the course of the war, 8311 was severly damaged and repaired several times, so by 29 ABY he was so repaired and upgraded that he was fairly different in terms of appearance than he was before the start of the war, and had also upgraded his droideka body with a Density projector, seismic blasts, and the ability to release a gas that disintegrated all organic matter, which proved highly effective against the Vong.



However, once Coruscant fell, 8311 feared the worst. He retreated back to Hypori, the sight of several attacks by the Yuuzhan Vong, and remained there for some time, awaiting news. However, once word came to him of that the New Republic was triumphant, he began touring the galaxy, mopping up Yuuzhan Vong remnants and helping rebuild the galaxy. During this time, 8311 took the opportunity to take control of some planets devastated by the war in exchange for supplying them with aid, effectively granting himself a small empire. Once that was done, he returned to Hypori, to be ready should the newly-formed Galactic Federation of Free Alliances need him.

Further Conflict
"Note to self: never make a deal with temparamental Imperial admirals."

- 8311

At some point around the Dark Nest Crisis, 8311 ended up getting into conflict with Admiral J. Nebulax when a weapons deal went badly wrong. 8311 used his personal ships manufuctured at Hypori and some Steel Legion ships to combat the Admiral's forces, and several skirmishes broke out between the two factions, at locations such as Naboo, Thule, and some old dustball. 8311's forces, although outdated, had the numerical advantage, and soon the conflict developed into a stalemate.

Both sides attempted to break the stalemate. 8311 hired a bounty hunter to destroy a weapons dump belonging to the Admiral, who retaliated by destroying an orbital defence platform of 8311's above Hypori. Afterwards, with both factions battered, they both sued for peace, and a treaty was signed. Some entertaiment companies released holo-games based on the brief conflict, much to the bemusement of both sides.

Afterwards, 8311 would go on to witness the events of the Legacy era, and would go on to watch galactic events for a long time to come.

Personality
"Judging by the limited observations we have, we have decided that 8311 is sadistic, anti-organic, meglomaniancal, and power-hungry. From what we know, however, he denies this, and apparently seems to believe that he 'only seeks respect'. In short, we have come to the conclusion that he is a threat."

- Excerpt from a moff report from around 15 BBY

8311 had a sardonic--and sometimes somewhat sadistic--personality, reflected in his battle droid origins. He almost always knew what he wanted, and he was often prepared to get it through manipulation, persuasion, or sometimes just brute force. He was also highly intelligent, and despite being slightly cocky, knew when he was beaten and when to retreat. He detested being told what to do and having an authority higher than him, and enjoyed being in complete control. He rarely displayed too much concern for others, unless they were very close to him or had helped in him some way. However, he was nearly always displayed concern for his fellow droids, regardless of origins or purpose, and often donated money to droid charities and despised those who mistreated droids. The only droids he hated were human replica droids, such as Guri.

8311 was also not afraid of change, as reflected in his varying bodies over the ages. At some point, 8311 managed to collect all his old previous bodies and had them specially displayed in his home, despite the fact that some of them were crumbling. He was, however, sensitive to change in his lifestyle, and found his attempted arrest by the Empire somewhat jarring.

What 8311 desired most was respect. During his time as a droid in the CIS droid armies, he was constantly ordered around and treated like a disposable object. This he despised. By setting up the Steel Legion, 8311 intended to gain respect.

Appearances

 * Forces of Corruption:The Empire's Beggining
 * Star Wars: Legion Commando