R5-D4

**R5-D4**, **Arfive-Deefour**, or **Red** as Luke Skywalker called him, was a white and red striped R5-series astromech droid on Tatooine. Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, the Jawas attempted to sell him to Owen Lars, but the droid purposely malfunctioned his motivator at the advice of R2-D2, so that Lars could purchase R2-D2 in R5-D4's place. The droid survived an Imperial attack on the sandcrawler soon after, and went out to find the Rebellion. R5 was still active by the time of the New Republic Era, and eventually came into the service of Mos Eisley hangar manager Peli Motto. He was later sold to the Mandalorian Din Djarin for his mission to the Living Waters of Mandalore.

## History

The Galactic Civil War came to its end in 5 ABY. After his service to the Rebellion, and after suffering a tragedy R5 ended up back on Tatooine, where R5 found himself wandering aimlessly across the dunes. After many days of this, R5 made it to the Mos Eisley spaceport on the planet right before a sandstorm hit. He eventually ended up at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in the spaceport and wheeled randomly by its garbage masher until he was discovered by EV-9D9, a former torture droid who worked as a bartender at the cantina. He then started working at the cantina as EV-9D9's trainee, the bartender liking that he was nervous and understated instead of snippy like newer droids. However, R5-D4 still hoped for a permanent home.

Around 9 ABY, when the Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin entered the cantina in search of work. R5 strolled by him and later bumped into one of the patrons by the counter.

One day, R5 ran into the bar during his shift, earning a reprimand from EV-9D9 but promising to fix the scratch it made. When R5 retreated into a memory echo state that EV-9D9 thought was a result of undergoing many memory wipes in the past, EV-9D9 offered to take him to a droidsmith after their shift. When a rowdy Trandoshan entered the bar and disparaged it for being only run by droids, EV-9D9 reminded R5 that all sentients were equal. When the Trandoshan then kicked R5, EV-9D9, believing the patron had crossed a line, poisoned the Trandoshan's drink and quickly left with R5.

   After the incident with the Trandoshan, R5 was walked to Hanger 3-5 at dusk by EV-9D9, who had suggested that he might be useful to the hangar's patron, Peli Motto. On the way, R5 offered to tell her the story of his service in the Rebellion and asked her why she always held a restraining bolt, EV-9D9 explaining that she did it to remember she could make choices and urged him to remember he could make choices too. At the hangar, he was acquired by Peli Motto, and eventually once again crossed paths with Din Djarin in Mos Eisley. R5 projected an old map of Tatooine at the request of Motto, who thought that he took an unacceptably long time to do so. The map revealed the location of Mos Pelgo.

R5 accompanied Motto to the Mos Eisley Cantina when she helped Din Djarin find someone who knew of the location of Mandalorians. Later, BD-72 was attacked by a womp rat. Motto asked R5 and her other droids to assist, but they refused. Eventually Djarin rescued Motto and her BD unit by killing the rat. While Motto helped Djarin to modify his N-1 starfighter, she asked R5 to check if Jawas were still in the area.

After Djarin left with his new ship, R5 was reunited with R2-D2, as he was present at Motto's hangar when R2-D2 arrived with Grogu on a X-wing starfighter.

After reuniting with Grogu, Din Djarin visited Motto looking for a replacement for IG-11's memory circuit. Motto questioned some Jawas, but they did not have the part Djarin was looking for. Instead, Motto offered to sell R5 to Djarin, who was in need of a droid to aid him on his quest to find the Mines of Mandalore and bathe in the Living Waters. R5 was hesitant to go with Djarin, but was eventually convinced to join him on the mission after Motto threatened to sell him back to the Jawas. Djarin acquired R5 at a discount of half the price Motto would have supposedly sold him for.

When they arrived on Mandalore, R5 was sent out to retrieve an air sample of the ruins beneath the planet's surface. After R5 disappeared from Djarin's scope, the Mandalorian went in search of the missing droid. Djarin was ambushed by a group of Alamites but defeated them and rescued R5, and they both returned to their ship. R5's sample revealed that the air on Mandalore was in fact breathable, so Djarin and Grogu ventured further into the mines.

Later, Djarin had become captured by a cyborg, so Grogu and R5 visited Bo-Katan Kryze on Kalevala in search of help. The three of them then returned to Mandalore in Kryze's Gauntlet starfighter to save Djarin. R5 remained with the ship while Kryze and Grogu went back underground for Djarin.

Kryze successfully rescued Djarin and, following Djarin completing his mission to the Living Waters, the group departed the planet on Kryze's starfighter. However, they were pursued by a swarm of TIE interceptors. In the resulting dogfight over Kalevala, R5 was thrown around in the starfighter's cockpit. Kryze and Djarin escaped to an unidentified planet where the Children of the Watch's covert is based, and R5 stayed aboard Kryze's starfighter as she, Djarin, and Grogu disembarked. R5 was later contacted by Adelphi Rangers Captain Carson Teva. He revealed the location of the Covert to Teva, who wanted to Djarin's help in fighting the Pirate Nation at Nevaro. He continued as Djarin's co-pilot when fought Gorian Shard's Corsair and as Kryze's when she found the Mandalorian fleet at Plazir-15.

R5 later accompanied Djarin, Kryze and their volunteers as they went to Mandalore's surface and met with more survivors on a langskib. Together, they traveled to the Great Forge. He then assisted Djarin and Kryze's forces in fighting Moff Gideon's Imperial remnant's Beskar-armored commandos at the Imperial base. R5 was able to get past several MSE-6 series repair droids. He was able to transmit the base's schematics to Djarin from a terminal. R5 then deactivated the base's first, second, third and fourth shield on Djarin's command. He was then found by a mouse droid, but was able to push it over the edge. He then escaped before the base was destroyed by Wove's light cruiser.

## Characteristics

R5-D4 was an R5 unit with a white and red chassis. As R5 faced the same problems that plagued his line of astromech droids, he became frustrated over time as a result. R5 was once part of the rebellion but was captured by Jawas who wiped his memories. For the next four years, R5 longed to be sold so that he could find a new master and escape the sandcrawler, which had become his prison. R5 was angry when R2 tried to sabotage him to ensure that he could continue his mission for the Rebellion. R5 regarded the well-maintained R2 unit as snobbish initially. However, R5 became sympathetic to R2's cause when the other droid explained that the fate of the galaxy depended on him being sold. This led R5 to make the difficult decision to sacrifice his own opportunity of being sold by blowing off his own head plate. R5 kept a low profile while the stormtroopers killed his Jawa captors, allowing him to escape and find a new master. R5 had a holoprojector which could be used to project a map of Tatooine. While working for Peli Motto, the woman commented that R5 was slow and ancient, apologizing to Djarin for R5's performance.