Old Hob

**Old Hob** was an enigmatic figure within the Midnight Order. Hob had been a servant of the Midnight Order since its inception and had operated within the Sith Imperium before it. No one knows where Hob came from or how long it has actually been around with many believing it had existed for hundreds of years skulking in the shadows. Hob's last

known function was serving in the Honor Guard of the Empress, Si'alla Va'lenn of the Midnight Order. In addition to this role, Hob also served as an overseer at the Order's Academy on the planet, Styx.

## Biography

Hob's origins remain a mystery as do many aspects of its being. The closest thing to a history that exists for the cybernetic entity is rumor and speculation. When Hob first gained standing within the Midnight Order, it was revealed that it had been a part of the Sith Imperium for many years prior going without notice by anyone significant, living in the shadows. Questions stemmed from curiosity and evolved into rumors when answers could not be found.

Rumor has stated that Hob was once a human male, a jedi serving the Galactic Republic. Although he excelled at manipulating the force, his passion was tinkering with mechanics, an interest reflected in his unique saber design. He served the Republic for years with distinction, taking on a number of padawans during his time on Coruscant.

Eventually, Hob approached the Jedi Council announcing that he had grown restless training younglings on Coruscant and that he had received a vision calling him to a planet in the Outer Rim. Having absolute faith in their Jedi Knight and no reason to doubt the call of the Force, the Council granted his request and he departed mere hours later.

### The Will of the Force

Hob arrived on a grassy world with vast expanses of flatlands called Plooma. Upon landing on the planet's surface, he knelt to meditate allowing the Force to guide him to his destination. He remained there for many hours before feeling an overwhelming urge to travel Southeast. He followed his instinct, unloaded his speeder from his ship and took off. He traveled for many days across the grasslands, rationing his food supplies and making camp nightly, intrigued by the silence that occupied the skies when the sun set. Finally, he encountered a camp of Mercenaries and a number of people in cages. The camp was left carelessly unguarded as all of the mercenaries were crowded around the fire eating their evening meal. Hob wondered to himself what the significance of traveling here was, why the force had brought him to save a handful of slaves when entire civilizations were suffering across the cosmos.

Not one to ignore the call of the force, Hob strode into the camp and allowed himself to be noticed by a mercenary who alerted his companions of the presence of an intruder. The leader of the group, a lean man with jet black hair marked with streaks of grey stood and told Hob to get lost if he knew what was good for him. Hob smiled and asked what they intended to do with the people in the cages. "Look moron, there ain't no one for a hundred miles in any direction that will care about your spilled blood, so out of courtesy, I'll give you one last chance to turn around and forget you ever saw us." Hob did not move and moments later, the mercenaries had grabbed their weapons ready for a fight. He drew his lightsaber and sliced them down, killing each only when they had made an offensive move toward him. When they had all fallen to his blade, he turned his attention to the cages and, one by one, opened them allowing the slaves to escape. When he reached the last cage, he sliced the lock, opened the door and looked up only to notice a beautiful woman with eyes of jade staring right at him. Their eyes locked, Hob was captivated by the woman and after a minute of silence, he asked her name. "Eala," she replied, smiling brightly through the bruises and dust on her face.

Eala and the other slaves had come from a clan of gatherers native to Plooma. While not primitive, the people of Plooma chose a life independent of computers and technology, content to live off of the few blessings their planet provided them. They were nomads, traveling from water source to water source and establishing a camp until it was time to move on again. The mercenaries, she revealed, had found their planet by accident, but delighted in the fact that they had found the perfect candidates for slavery: people without the ability to truly pose a threat.

Intrigued by the way her people lived and captivated by her very being, Hob revealed that the force had directed him to her people for a reason and asked if he could join them on their journey back to camp to learn their ways. They responded positively to his request and his place among them was set.

### The Grasslands

Hob worked side by side with the people of the clan as they explored the surrounding areas for signs of food. It became quickly evident that the planet was extremely lightly populated with animals as the natives never hunted and only gathered what the ground provided naturally. They lived on exotic grasses, pools of water that had survived the sporadic downpours of rain and the occasion berry bush, a rare treat for the people. When they weren't exploring or gathering, the people of the clan spent much of their time contemplating the greater mysteries of the galaxy, but were not unfamiliar to having fun. Their nights would be spent laughing and dancing and telling stories about the planets many of them had come from.

Hob discovered that many of the people in the clan were immigrants similar to him, who had either been guided to Plooma or who had ended up there by accident and decided to stay. The more time he spent with the clan, the more he forgot about the conflicts he had left behind, the more he felt detached from his life as a jedi. There came a night after several months of living with the people when he discovered himself alone in Eala's tent, the couple unable to deny the magnetism that had been pulling them together since that moment in the mercenary camp. They made love that night and were married a few months later.

Time had lost its meaning to Hob, he had truly become one of the people and found joy in every day he spent with Eala. He found peace believing that the force had brought them together for a reason, that he had found his soulmate. They remained inseparable for many years, even through the deaths and the new finds the Clan experienced. Life was good. Life was simple.

### The Planet at the End of Galaxy

After what must've been over a decade of living with the clan, tragedy arrived in the form of an echoing boom from the skies above. The people of the clan ceased their work as they stared upward to see a massive dreadnaught plunging from above to the planet below. The crash, though miles away, shook the ground as the people anxiously gathered to decide what to do. Such a large vessel had never crashed on the planet's surface before and they could only assume that the people aboard greatly outnumbered them. Not knowing whether the newcomers were friends or foes, they decided to move away for the safety of the Clan at large. They moved away from the smoking wreckage and trekked for days until the crashed vessel was no longer in sight. They established a new camp and life went on.

A few days later, the inhabitants of the vessel revealed themselves. A large mass of figures appeared on the horizon moving straight for the camp early in the morning and an hour later, the camp was surrounded by nearly a thousand soldiers in jet black armor. A path opened through the orderly lines made up by soldiers as an imposing Sith Pureblood, adorned in an ancient set of armor and a headdress emerged, sizing up the camp and the people within. He smiled revealing jagged yellow teeth and stated "One of you has great power in the force." Hob stepped forward and made his presence clear, making eye contact with the pureblood who seemed surprised at the direct approach taken by the man.

"You moved away from our wreckage, that indicates you had no desire to aid me or my people. What does that make you?" Hob replied, "I once served the Republic, but those days are long behind me. These people have taught me a new way, we were merely being cautious." The pureblood laughed at his response declaring him a weak-willed jedi. Announcing that the planetary lifeform scans had yielded nothing but boredom, the Sith turned and, as he walked away, ordered his soldiers to exterminate the camp before returning to the downed ship.

Hob roared with a fury he had never felt in his life before and drew his lightsaber standing in a defensive position between his adopted people and the armored soldiers. In a blur, he charged the frontlines, his saber moving faster than they could react, taking down the first dozen within seconds. While many of them staggered backward in surprise, no one could deny that fighting against such odds was an impossible feat. The soldiers at a greater distance from Hob raised their firearms and executed the clan in a single volley of shots. Hob tore through the lines of soldiers until his veins turned to ice and time seemed to slow down. He turned to see Eala fall to the ground with a number of smoking blaster wounds on her body. The ice turned to fire as he screamed to the heavens above sending a massive shockwave through the maw of soldiers. They tumbled to the ground, the closest soldiers dying immediately while those further away were spared death's embrace. Hob again charged, but the distance between him and the nearest soldiers allowed them to pepper him with blasterfire and eventually, he fell to his injuries.

He remained there for days, bleeding out until his veins dried. The pain was intolerable, the thirst, the hunger, the heartbreak. His body was broken and with bloodshot eyes and sandy, pale skin, he stared up just long enough to see the final rescue shuttle delivering the soldiers and the sith to the cruiser waiting above to take them home. Hob dragged his cracked, dry, dying for miles until he reached the location of the mercenaries camp where his new life had started. It had become overgrown beneath tall plumes of dry grass, but his speeder was still there waiting for him. He clawed his way onto it and returned to his ship. With all his remaining strength, his pain and rage providing the sustenance his body desperately needed, he pulled himself into the vessels kolto tank where he remained for weeks.

When his wounds were finally healed, he leapt out of the tank and sat down in the cockpit, his eyes reddened with grief and anger. The ship lifted off, sending up a cloud of dust as it took to the skies, never to return to the planet below.

### Not One of Us

Hob returned to Coruscant and marched into the Jedi Council's chambers, recognizing only three faces among them from his time away. Before he could speak, the Grand Master of the Order's voice sounded off "You have no business being here. You have fallen. You have not one of us anymore." Anger brimmed to the surface as Hob clenched his fists preparing to argue. Instead, he turned and, as he left the chamber, he stated "Peace is a lie, there is only pain."

He dropped his saber and walked out of the chamber. When he left the Jedi Temple, he made his way to the lower levels of Coruscant and slaughtered anyone who looked at him the wrong way. He lived on the streets for nearly a year before discovering a secluded black market laboratory on one of the deepest levels of the Underworld. He entered the complex without giving the weapons trained on him an ounce of care. He looked around and, deciding the facilities would suffice, lifted his hand as the weapons all turned on their owners and shot them dead. Within the hour, he had cleared the building and taken over its systems.

He spent the next few weeks automating new security systems and masking the power signature of the lab from the grid. He was keen on having his work go unnoticed. He would venture outside of the lab only to find supplies when it was necessary for his experimentation. In his seclusion, he began to go mad. He would utter the words "Not strong enough. Not one of you," to himself over and over again as he went about his work. In his insanity, he began punishing himself, first ripping at his flesh and escalating to severing limbs in the company of hysterical laughter. His would replace the severed limbs with sophisticated, but scrappy mechanical replacements that he polished and engraved in his calmest moments. The more machine he became, the less pain he felt and removing his agony became an obsession. He continued replacing the flawed parts that had failed to safe his love until his affliction evolved to a level where he was creating artificial organs to replace his natural ones with.

He eventually created a clockwork heart that he imbued with darkside energy before allowing himself to be put under while his droids replaced his broken heart with one incapable of entertaining such mortal emotions. When he awoke, he examined his artificial body and decided that he only required one more thing before leaving Coruscant behind him: Armor. He constructed a blood red armor suit to contain his mechanical body and departed the capital of the Republic for destinations unknown.

### Myths and Reality

How Hob eventually ended up in the Imperium and later the Midnight Order remained a mystery. No one remembers Hob arriving, but it claims to have been around since the beginning. It now serves Empress Si'alla Va'lenn as an esteemed member of her honor guard and the students of the Styx Academy as one of their overseers. Hob became known for being impartial, but being merciless in the assignments given to acolytes that find themselves in its group.