Guardian Corps

The Guardian Corps of the infamous pre-Republic dictator Xim the Despot were one of the earliest forms of battle droids.

Description

These war-robots were humanoid in form and dwarfed their Human counterparts. Their Human Tionese designers were influenced by ancient Rakatan droid designs, and the rarest and highest-ranking of the Guardian Corps, the Crimson Condottieres, employed Rakatan Force-energizing dynamos. Covered with thick armor plating coated with a mirrored reflective surface for deflecting enemy fire and reinforced stress points, they were dangerous foes.

Shielded apertures built into their arms and hands contained a variety of chemical and energy weapons, including ancient heat beams and particle dischargers. Their heavy cranial turrets were adorned with tiny unit insignias which carried optical lenses and a speaker. These droids were relatively mindless and were controlled from transmission horns installed on military command podiums.

Certain variants of the model including the Corps Commanders were designed with greater independence and could be distinguished by a golden death-head emblem on their breastplates in contrast to the white born by standard models. Despite being outdated by modern era standards, they were still deadly opponents in combat.

History

One of Xim's war-robots standing to attention.

During his reign from 25,130 BBY – 25,100 BBY, the Tionese dictator Xim controlled his empire through the use of the highest technology available at the time including the Guardian Corps. He used them to conquer countless worlds, creating an empire which covered much of the Tion Cluster including the Livien League and its capital Desevro and stretched from the Radama Void to the Maw.

However, his empire eventually came into contact with the Hutt Empire. Hoping to vanquish the Hutts and become the master of the entire Si'Klaata Cluster, he committed nearly all of his resources to the campaign. However, at the Third Battle of Vontor, the Hutts unleashed their new army of Klatooinian, Nikto, and Vodran mercenaries on Xim's army. These soldiers decimated his military forces, thus ending his reign.

Xim was killed at Vontor according to Tionese history, but actually died a slave in the dungeons of Kossak the Hutt on Varl. His treasure ship, the Queen of Ranroon, escaped to the planet of Dellalt. There, it would be guarded for millennia by a thousand of his surviving war-robots and a secret brotherhood known as the "Survivors," descended from the original crew and elite guards on board the ship.

Millennia later in 2 BBY, Han Solo and Chewbacca encountered the Guardian Corps during an adventure on Dellalt. These war-robots were used by the Survivors against a group of offworlders who started a semi-legal mining camp near the Survivor encampment. However, nearly all of the Corps was destroyed.^[2] Later, several archaeologists and researchers including the Ruurian S. V. Skynx began researching these ancient war-robots.

While many droids were taken as trophies by the Hutts, most assumed that they were actually just decorations for the cities the Hutts lived in. In truth, the Guardian Corps was actually a desperate failsafe which were to be activated in the event of an invasion of Hutt Space.