Mark VII experimental prototype assassin droid

The Mark VII experimental prototype assassin droid was created to be the prototype for a series of assassin droid, manufactured by the Sith Empire based on the graveyard world of Korriban. Designed specifically to hunt and exterminate Jedi, the droid proved to be more then its designers could handle and escaped their custody. Hiding itself within the burial chamber of Marka Ragnos's tomb, the droid built for itself a guard force and attacked any sentient that made noise. Eventually the amnesiac Revan found the droid and, using a sound-dapening device, managed to retune and reprogram the droid. Extremely grateful for the former Sith Lord's help, the droid left the planet for parts unknown.

Construction and escape
The droid was originally constructed to be the baseline for a series of assassin droid whose primary function was to seek out and exterminate any Jedi that could be found. However, due to its programming being of a more independent nature than was the norm, even for assassin droids of the day, this prototype somehow developed an appreciation for all life, the antithesis of its creators' intentions. Unfortunately, the droid's auditory sensors had been incorrectly tuned to be far too sensitive so that when it was first activated, the ensuing noise overload tripped its combat circuits. In hopes of quieting the excessive cacophony, it began slaughtering every sentient being it encountered before fleeing the facility in which it was built and carving out a sanctuary within the inner burial chamber of the tomb of Marka Ragnos within the Valley of the Dark Lords, where it proceeded to build and recruit a legion of battle droids into protective service. As the Sith presence on Korriban grew, culminating in the establishment of the Korriban Academy, a number of students attempted to recover or destroy the droid. None of these attempts succeeded, however.

Assistance from Revan
Some time later, Revan encountered the droid when he and the crew of the Ebon Hawk traveled to Korriban in search of that world's ancient Star Map, some time in 3,956 BBY. While attempting to gain access to the tomb of Naga Sadow that held the map, Revan entered the burial site of Marka Ragnos in order to eliminate the rogue droid. This was supposed to be just one such act in a series of deeds that were meant to gain prestige in the eyes of the Academy's headmaster, Uthar Wynn. After carving his way through the phalanx of war droids that the prototype had built to guard its place of refuge, Revan, on the advice of another Sith student and the datapad belonging to the original recovery effort, equipped a sound-dampening device before entering the final chamber to confront the droid.

Final escape
Grateful that Revan had sufficiently dampened his ambient sound output so as not to overwhelm its auditory circuits, the droid appealed to him to fix it and rid itself of its assassination protocols, which ran at odds with its desire to protect and appreciate life. Revan did so, working his way through the droid's various programming in order to initiate a complete systems shutdown; this allowed for the removal of all assassination programming. Once the droid had been reinitialized, the operation proved to be a success; as a reward, the droid offered up its now unneeded armaments and upgrades and left the planet via an internally-mounted rocket pack for parts unknown.

Behind the scenes
While the droid bears an outer resemblance to war droids seen throughout Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, it is likely that the similarity is cosmetic only, and that the upgrades were internal. This is hardly surprising, seeing as the Sith of this era were former Republic soldiers who fought under Revan during the Mandalorian Wars, and regularly used combat droids of this form during their campaigns. Additionally, many droids bearing a resemblance to the Mark VII were utilized by criminal organizations, such as the Black Vulkars swoop gang that was based on Taris; these could have been sold off as military surplus or acquired through black market organizations like The Exchange.

If the player does not equip a sound-dampening stealth unit, or lacks sufficient skill points in Repair in order to successfully reset the puzzle inherent in fixing the droid if a mistake is made, it will become hostile and attack. Alternatively, if the player decides to take the darker path, they can set the droid to self-destruct, thus destroying it without a fight.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic