RX-3081

RX-3081 was a human male who served in the First Order as a Specialized Stormtrooper of the Second Expeditionary Squad. He specialized in solo missions where the First Order preferred to avoid implication. His preferred weapon was a heavily modified Tusken cycler railgun until it was dismantled for evidence by JN-1301.

## Biography

#### Early Life

RX-3081 was discovered on Kalepa around the age of five years old as part of a slave purchase to acquire children for the Stormtrooper program. As a child he showed an aptitude for mathematics and displayed a dangerous talent for concentration. He was recommended for sniper training by Captain Cardinal and given specialized training in shadowing and secrecy, including accompanying Cardinal on questionably legal missions to acquire children from situations like his own.

At the approximate age of fifteen he was graduated from his creche into the RX Cadre, Cardinal's personal legion, where he gained a reputation for causing trouble. In 21 ABY there was an incident reported on the *Eclipse* and the RX Cadre was implicated. For this, the Cadre came to the attention of Generals Brendol Hux and Enric Pryde.

#### The Expeditionary Squads

> You have impressed me with your inventiveness, with your skills for improvisation, for your resiliency in the face of all sane odds. You have proven yourselves to be valuable assets to the Order. And for that, each and every one of you will be reconditioned.
>
> Brendol Hux announcing the dissolution of the RX Cadre

Using the incident on the *Eclipse* as an excuse, the entire RX Cadre was reconditioned under the order of General Brendol Hux. RX-3081 proved to be immune to the process, as did several of his Cadre mates. These troopers, and others chosen for their own acts of insubordination, were chosen for a special project developed in secret by Brendol, Pryde, and Dr Calla Katsuo, a Client of the Grysk Hegemony. The Expeditionary Squads were created.

As a stormtrooper assigned to the Expeditionary Squads, RX-3081 was implanted with a Grysk control implant. Externally, the implant consisted of a 3 centimeter diameter gold disk on the right side of his neck. Internally, the implant slowly grew to replace the white matter of his central nervous system. The only outward signs were increased reflexes and an increased affinity for droids. Inwardly, the Expeditionary Squads had begun to form a hivemind as their implants all interfaced to create one single computer-like network. This network resembled the hivemind of a Grysk Client world in miniature, proving capable of the same control over its subjects.

To cover the true nature of his project, Brendol had the stormtroopers fitted with specialized raid armor, black armor altered to encourage their implants to continue their growth. The troopers were stripped of the regulations that kept them acting as stormtroopers within the First Order hierarchy. RX-3081 was then allowed to continue his training as a sniper. He came to excel as a sniper, the implant performing the complex calculations necessary for long distance marksmanship.

Meanwhile, experimentation continued with the hivemind and its extent. It was discovered that if allowed to maintain in close contact with one another, each member of the hive began to lose their sense of individual self. Memories were observed being shared between members of the hive and it became difficult for those involved to determine which memories belonged to whom. It was determined that training and orders could be transferred across the hive in this manner, though how to maintain control over those orders remained a mystery. The chaos of the hivemind prevented many orders from maintaining cohesion unless those orders aligned with the desires of the hivemind itself. Brendol developed a working hypothesis based on the idea that hives require queens to keep them in line. He planned on having his second, Captain Cardinal, implanted to act as his hive queen but he never had the chance implement his idea.

#### The Hive Separated

> The group of them had formed a frelling hivemind. They weren't even people anymore! I separated them to break the hive apart. To make them human again.
>
> Cardinal, during interrogation by Field Agent Nil

When Brendol died, control of the Expeditionary Squads passed to his second, Captain Cardinal. Cardinal found the program distasteful, arguing that the implants had stripped the humanity from these troopers. He made the decision to break apart the hivemind in an attempt to preserve some semblance of individuality in the troopers. He split the Expeditionary Squads into groups of two to four, scattered around the First Order fleet. Each group was left to their own devices, left without orders or a clear command structure.

Without the hive to keep them connected, the members of the Expeditionary Squads began to regain some semblance of their individuality. In some cases this individuality was related to their original personalities but not exact. To hide this fact, Cardinal had the groups shuffled every second year. This kept smaller hives from developing among the threes and fours and kept their personalities from blending too much. Still, the enforced isolation proved too much for many of them and reports of insanity plagued the Expeditionary Squads.

RX-3081 survived in this environment, resorting to acts of petty chaos to keep himself sane during his isolation. While stationed on the *Absolution* his skills at sniping enabled him to acquire a Tusken cycler railgun during one mission to procure children for the Stormtrooper Program. He began tinkering with the weapon, his Grysk implant driving him to alter and add to the weapon until its inner workings were unrecognizable. This became his signature weapon in the field. Reports justified it as a disguise, no First Order sniper would use a slugthrower therefore any mission he completed would look like a bandit attack. In reality, his implant allowed him to calculate the trajectories necessary to expand his effective range beyond the physical limits of plasma.

After serving on the *Absolution* RX-3081 served on the *Fellfire*, the *Impetus*, the *Maletrix*, and the *Finalizer*.

#### The Finalizer

RX-3081's last transfer was to the *Finalizer*. It was there that he was reintroduced to Dr. Katsuo. She took over as his primary doctor, repairing the damage caused by the splitting of the Hive, guiding the stunted development of his implant, and discretely sharing memories of her homeworld Kayaman.

He continued taking missions from various sources. As a member of the Second Expeditionary Squad, he was sent on solo missions without backup or an extraction plan, expected to make his own way back from a mission or to just not come back. He had never questioned the practice, assuming it was part of his deep cover but the shared memories of Kayaman lurked in the back of his mind. He began to question the practice, seeing the inherent unfairness of being sent from the fleet with no official orders and no extraction plan. The only answers he received were unsatisfactory or insulting or ended with him spending time in the brig alone with his thougnts.

Toward the end of 34 ABY he was sent on a mission to a planet near strategic hyperspace routes through the Unknown Regions, known in reports only as [redacted]. He was assigned to the FOSD *Endless* for the duration of the mission. During the week he stayed on the *Endless* he grew bored, used a BB-3 exploit to spy on Colonel duLandis, got caught, endured torture, and talked his way off the ship through the use of an aged Imperial TIE Scout. From there he was able to make his way to the planet [redacted] where he found the remains of Dagger Squadron under the command of Iolo Arana. Dagger Squadron was destroyed and Arana was interrogated and beheaded. RX-3081 escaped [redacted] in a Resistance T-85 X-Wing and returned to the fleet to present the head to Grand Marshal Armitage Hux as a gift.

After the mission to [redacted] RX-3081 was grounded by Dr. Katsuo for medical reasons. LS-9809 found him around the kilometer range and put him to work instructing an Advanced Sniping class. Teaching was not enough of a distraction to keep him out of trouble and Grand Marshal Hux sent RX-3081 on a mission to Mygeeto with the Knights of Ren. The official mission was to gather ores of interest to the First Order but the Grand Marshal also hoped to determine if joint missions between the Expeditionary Squads and the Knights of Ren might prove useful tactically or socially. The mission was a marginal success as RX-3081 and the Knights of Ren were both more interested in target practice and in salvage than in a scientific mission. RX-3081 returned to the *Finalizer* with the parts of a B-1 Battle Droid and an amicable relationship with the Knights of Ren.

With the battle droid in tow, RX-3081 was granted official laboratory space on the *Finalizer*. With the official sanction came problems as a mysterious enemy began to annoy RX-3081. See the available incident reports on TC-0460, on Corridor E-17, and on Corridor B-86.

LS-9809 took advantage of RX-3081's situation and submitted official paperwork to have him transferred off of the Expeditionary Squads and into the Instructor Cadre. As Cardinal was no longer available to put a stop to these transfers it seemed he would be taken off of mission rotation entirely. RX-3081 reacted poorly to the news and begged the Grand Marshal himself to be sent on a mission, a desperate attempt to find information on the missing and presumed dead Captain Cardinal.

#### Finding Cardinal

The mission to find Cardinal began before RX-3081 left the fleet. In order to blend in with the unsavory aspects of the galaxy, RX-3081 needed to match certain expectations. He was starved before the mission, his diet card altered to a basic subsistence diet. He was granted access to captured pirates and prisoners of war for the purposes of using their equipment. He was granted access to a droid, BE-7, and the T-85 X-Wing he had used to escape the planet [redacted]. In addition, he insisted on being roughed up before leaving in order to appear less like a well cared for Stormtrooper. This backfired as he was tossed into the T-85 unconscious with BE-7 and awoke with no memory.

His implant took over the higher functions of his brain, puppeting RX-3081 with enough skill that BE-7 believed RX-3081 to be insane but in control of himself. The implant first took them to Randaan and then to Kalepa as these places invoked strong memories in RX-3081. Randaan was relatively uneventful but on Kalepa RX-3081 had the opportunity to confront and kill the slaver who had sold him to the First Order. After that his memories began to return in dreams and flashes and he grew distrustful of his own implant. As a result the implant brought up the memories supplied by Dr. Katsuo. They ended up on Kayaman where RX-3081 sought out a biocyberneticist who might be able to explain the implant and its extent. RX-3081 received an answer he did not like, that it was a Grysk control implant and that everyone on Kayaman carried the same implant. But he didn't leave, instead becoming incorporated into the Hive.

After an indeterminate amount of time, RX-3081's connection to the Hive was disrupted. Whether he broke free or was allowed to leave remains a matter of debate; it was possible he was allowed to leave as the Grysk wished to see what the First Order would do with new information. RX-3081 fought his way out of the Hive, the Clients refusing to let him leave easily. He was forced to kill a Grysk Warrior, shocking the Hive into a moment of indecision, before fleeing to the spaceport and the T-85 with BE-7. He escaped Kayaman after causing damage to one of the pressure domes of the colony.

Time and medical care on Kayaman had restored RX-3081's memory and he was able to continue the mission. He traveled to Batuu and Black Spire Outpost where he found Cardinal working with the Resistance. He attempted to subdue Cardinal for the purposes of bringing him back alive but Cardinal escaped with the aid of his accomplice Vi Moradi.

#### The Hive Revealed

RX-3081 was picked up by the *Maletrix* and transferred to the *Finalizer* to be interrogated about his mission by Agent Nil Teysi. Unbeknownst to RX-3081, the agent was being blackmailed into discrediting his entire mission and Cardinal's continued survival. RX-3081 ended up breaking under interrogation when Agent Nil made him doubt his escape from Kayaman. He ended up confined to quarters in medical quarantine. Plagued by strange dreams, RX-3081 stretched the orders of his quarantine by spending time in the medical labs. He spoke to Dr Leta Weyland who involved Grand Marshal Hux to confront Dr Katsuo.

The true extent of Brendol's project was brought to light, as was the damage done by Cardinal's actions. Splitting the Hive had each stormtrooper of the Expeditionary Squads slowly going insane. Mitigation was possible by exploiting the nature of the Grysk implants and Dr Katsuo recommended implantation with secondary implants to maintain RX-3081's sanity, starting with the hands. He agreed and with Dr Weyland assisting, the surgery was a success.

Through it all, what RX-3081 thought he wanted most was to be alone. Thoughts of Kayaman plagued him and he found himself longing to again feel what Dr Katsuo called 'the touch of Hive'. But over time he grew to accept that he could never be alone again, not in the way a human might understand it, and he slowly lost the will to fight it. He spoke to Grand Marshal Hux about bringing the others of the Expeditionary Squads back to the *Finalizer*. Hux revealed the request had already been made of him by Drs Weyland and Katsuo and that he'd agreed.

#### Recapturing Cardinal

When Agent Nil sent the message from Batuu to announce they'd captured Cardinal alive, the *Finalizer* jumped to the planet to block any Resistance escape. RX-3081 was ordered down to the planet below to provide backup to Agent Nil and to force a reconciliation between the two of them. RX-3081 did not easily forgive, blaming Nil for the revelations of the past several months. Nil offered Cardinal's own DC-15 as an apology present and admitted they had been blackmailed. Nil revealed themself as an Uvie, a species native to the planet Uven, brought into the First Order under the Multi-Species Inclusion Program. RX-3081 did not accept Nil's apology, instead forcing them to realize how their actions had put everyone they knew at risk. The captive Cardinal was then secured and Nil and RX-3081 began their assault on the Resistance base. The base was destroyed and valuable intelligence secured. In addition RX-3081 made it a priority to steal the Resistance's entire food supply. However, during comm contact with the Resistance, RX-3081 was Force-interrogated by Leia Organa.

Once RX-3081 returned to the *Finalizer* he began a romantic relationship with Dr. Weyland. He appealed to her Zeltron nature through gifts of food, drink, and trinkets raided from the Resistance base. He also began to modify the DC-15 gifted to him, attempting to convert it into a slugthrower per his specialty in the field. He involved himself in his normal shenanigans in an attempt to regain some sense of normalcy. This normalcy was disrupted when RX-0967 was captured while attempting to assassinate Cardinal.

## Personality and Traits

RX-3081 was a human male who was bought from slavers at an early age and raised within the Stormtrooper program. His entire education and identity had been built around the idea of warfare, though his talents tended to separate him from the rank and file. This separation did not go unnoticed and he was chosen by Cardinal personally for extra training as a sniper and tactician. He displayed the focus necessary to lay in wait for hours but also displayed an intense aversion to boredom. If left to his own devices RX-3081 invariably found trouble, often being caught in the middle of modifying droids or their components without authorization. Cardinal often held RX-3081 up as the exact reason why Stormtrooper's lives were so carefully controlled with rules and regulations.

Once RX-3081 was incorporated into the Expeditionary Squads and those same rules and regulations no longer applied to him, that boredom proved dangerous. As a result he was often chosen first for solo missions that took him out of the fleet. Time away from the fleet gave him the opportunity to develop his skills of self-sufficiency as well as experiencing the ways of the wider galaxy. This experience always had him fleeing back to the First Order after a completed mission despite everything, because he felt that at least the First Order made sense, even cared for him. This faith was shaken only twice: first when Cardinal split apart the Expeditionary Squads and again after his exposure to the Hive on Kayaman.

## Skills and Abilities

As a member of the Expeditionary Squads, RX-3081 operated with an understanding of his place within the First Order hierarchy. He was a 'deniable asset'. He had no opportunity for advancement, no right to a name, no expectation of promotion. If ever he was captured there would be no admission that the First Order knew who or what he was. His missions did not include a plan for extraction, which meant he was forced to find his own way back to the fleet. Because most official missions from First Order Intelligence included some sort of extraction plan or cover for the agent, this meant that his missions were usually unofficial. In order to be allowed back into the fleet after a mission, he would be forced to demonstrate his identity by cracking a sample of a personal code.

As such, RX-3081 was forced to develop self-sufficiency to an art. He was skilled in the art of ship theft and improvisation. A common tactic for him was to extract a droid core or hyperdrive computer and use it to hotwire the ship's computer, flying semi-blind through hyperspace while performing calculations manually.

RX-3081 was a skilled sniper. His implant network allowed him to calculate trajectories beyond the approximate 2000 meter limit of plasma. Because of these limits he preferred to use a slugthrower, which added complexity to the calculations. Even so, over time he was able to expand his effective range to just beyond 5000 meters on a planet with space standard gravity.

RX-3081 was also skilled in survival situations, in improvised explosives, in field first aid, and in dirty poetry. He was fluent in Basic, Sy Bisti, and in written Cheunh. He also had a passing familiarity with Huttese and Ancient Sith. His preferred personal code involved a substitution cypher of Sy Bisti lettering replacing visually similar yet entirely different-meaning Cheunh lettering, with mirrored letters interspersed throughout. When properly decoded into Basic, the decoded messages tended to rhyme in a limerick pattern.

## Equipment

RX-3081 was implanted with a Grysk control implant, effectively turning him into an uncontrolled Client. By 35 ABY this implant had replaced the white matter in his nervous system, increasing the speed and complexity of his reflexes as well as increasing his weight by 12 kilograms. The implant also handled complex calculations on a subconscious level, the solutions manifesting as flashes of insight.

RX-3081 wore a suit of black raid armor specially modified with internal electronics to mimic the effects of a personal network of secondary implants. In particular, his HUD interfaced directly with the primary implant to give a visual representation of the activities of the otherwise subconscious implant. He carried a combat utiliblade with a 27 cm blade strapped to his left thigh. This was the only weapon he was allowed to carry on board a Star Destroyer.

In the field RX-3081 also carried basic survivalist gear, multiple unlocked datapads, and a desert cloak. He used a heavily modified Tusken cycler slugthrower with a double-scoped Regency barrel. This rifle was his signature weapon for 12 years until it was dismantled as evidence. In 35 ABY he was able to replace the dismantled railgun with a heavily modified Grand Army of the Republic DC-15 that had formerly been Cardinal's primary weapon while in the Resistance.