SCORPIO

"After approximately one hundred fifty years of service as a mindless droid, I acquired true sentience. No memory wipe commenced."

- SCORPIO

SCORPIO was an assassin droid created on Iokath by unknown parties centuries before the Cold War, acting as the guardian of Megasecurity Ward 23 on Belsavis. During the Galactic War, SCORPIO opposed an Imperial Agent codenamed Cipher Nine but was unsuccessful and was reprogrammed to serve Cipher Nine. Following Nine's disappearance during the Eternal Empire's invasion, SCORPIO traveled to Zakuul and established herself as an information broker called the Lady of Sorrows. Eventually, she joined the Alliance to oppose Emperor Arcann, only to later betray her compatriots to seize the Eternal Throne and through it the Eternal Fleet.

Creation
"SCORPIO Sanctions activated."

- SCORPIO

SCORPIO began her existence as the "SCORPIO Sanctions", a program safeguarding Star Cabal's secret vault at Megasecurity Ward 23, located on the planet of Belsavis. Her mission was to protect the variety of weapons, technology and other valuables that the Cabal kept at this underground vault. Her integration into the machinery allowed her complete access to the contents of the ward and she kept its secrecy as well as maintained the contents, she also eventually acquired direct access to other sections of the Belsavis prison, using its system to her ends. She protected the Megasecurity Ward for centuries and after approximately 150 years of going without memory wipes, SCORPIO acquired true sentience and self-consciousness. She could upload her consciousness to a droid body at will, but spend most of her time within the security network as "SCORPIO Sanctions".

During the Galactic War, the Sith Empire invaded Belsavis and Imperial Intelligence agent Cipher Nine was dispatched to the prison world as part of the Imperial Agent's objective in tracking down the Star Cabal. The Cipher Agent disguised themselves as a criminal who recruited several other prisoners to break into Megasecurity Ward 23. SCORPIO Sanctions took various efforts to prevent them from accomplishing that objective. The group ultimately released a virus that overloaded the SCORPIO Sanctions systems and forced the droid consciousness to disengage from the computer system and into her droid body, whereupon she attempted to kill the agent but was defeated.

Working for Imperial Intelligence
The defeated droid remained deactivated until the founders of the Star Cabal suggested to Cipher Nine to recruit SCORPIO to aid in unraveling the secrets of the ancient conspiracy. With their aid, Nine managed to program control blocks into SCORPIO to prevent her from doing harm to the agent. Once reactivated, SCORPIO quickly learned that she was unable to attack the Cipher agent and thus decided to accompany them on their mission. Despite this predicament, the droid warned that her programming would eventually break free from the restrictions and she would terminate the agent without hesitation. In the meantime, however, SCORPIO was content to observe and learn in order to further evolve her programming. Thus, she provided whatever data she had on the Star Cabal to Imperial Intelligence, though this information consists only of visitation logs and technology inventories.

In her travels with the Agent, SCORPIO changed her opinion of Cipher Nine from hatred to admiration as the Star Cabal itself was defeated. She uploaded her consciousness from her body into the Agent's starship database and back while performing several upgrades on herself that greatly increased her heuristic and combat capabilities. However, once digitally uploaded, SCORPIO realized she was no longer bound by her restraining codes and could exact retribution on her master. Nine reminded her that living in the databanks would still limit her and that she would benefit much more in following the agent. She eventually showed her approval of Agent's actions and expressed the desire to observe their eventual offsprings.

Lady of Sorrows
"Do not think victory won't be mine in the end."

- SCORPIO

After the disbanding of Cipher Nine's crew, SCORPIO eventually traveled to Zakuul, where she eventually adopted the identity of "The Lady of Sorrows", a mysterious crimelord who communicated primarily through proxies. She became notorious for murder and theft of state secrets, becoming a big player in the underworld of Zakuul. She even had a truce with the Heralds of Zildrog cult, though the cultists continued to act against her interests.

By 3632 BBY, she reached out to the Outlander and their crew, stating that she could help fix the Gravestone. Following this, the Outlander and Senya Tirall journeyed to Zakuul to find someone to get a meet with "the Lady". After making contact with a bookie named Mona Gale, Gale informed SCORPIO that she sent the pair to Breaktown to meet with the Heralds to try and get a meeting with her. However, Gale was interrogated and murdered by the Heralds soon after. Having ascertained the Outlander's identity and intentions, SCORPIO had another of her proxies, a Nautolan named Thea, address both the Outlander and the Heralds' leader, the Exalted, before both parties could come to blows. She demanded that both parties come to her headquartes in the Razor and gave explicit instructions that the Exalted was not to kill the Outlander, revealing to have his son, Brennen hostage, as well as revealing another of the Outlander's companions with her. Though the Exalted seemingly agreed, after Thea had signed off, went back on his word and ordered his men to attack. The Outlander survived the betrayal and followed the Exalted to the Razor, where SCORPIO personally dealt with the treacherous cultist. She then installed Brennen as the Heralds' new leader, after which SCORPIO decided to join the Outlander's Alliance, stating that Arcann had taken something from her. She left Thea in charge of her Lady of Sorrows operations.

Returning to the shadowport of Asylum where the Gravestone, SCORPIO requested full access to the ship's systems, but everyone remained hesitant on allowing her to do so. Koth Vortena then instructed her to focus on the hyperdrive, which SCORPIO considered an acceptable task. Shortly afterwards, Asylum came under attack by the Eternal Empire. SCORPIO managed to upgrade the Gravestone ' s targeting parameters and manned the ship's turbolasers to shoot down attack shuttles. Unfortunately, Arcann's forces had taken control of the docking clamps, which the Outlander was forced to deactivate. With the Gravestone free and the crew aboard, SCORPIO managed to get the ship off the ground and into space. With the Eternal Fleet bearing down on them and the omnicannon non-operational, SCORPIO used the turbolasers to damage a cruiser, after which they escaped into hyperspace. She then complained about the battle damage, saying it could've been avoided if she had been allowed access to the mainframe. Koth only sarcastically reminded that he still doesn't trust her.

SCORPIO joined Koth and Lana Beniko in debriefing the Outlander as they recovered from their duel with Arcann. While the others were mourning HK-55, SCORPIO declared that he was an inferior design and that his loss was inevitable, to which an emotional Lana threatened to deactivate her. SCORPIO wisely kept quiet after this, and assisted in the relocation to Odessen, effectively taking HK's place on the Outlander's squad.

Later, SCORPIO assisted in finding the location of a potential recruit known as Firebrand. When the Outlander returned with Firebrand, it was revealed that Firebrand was none other than Kaliyo Djannis, a fellow crew member of Cipher Nine before the Eternal Empire's conquest. Kaliyo was stunned to find out that she had been the Lady of Sorrows and joked that she would have melted SCORPIO down if she knew.

After the Alliance joined forces with Havoc Squad in attacking Zakuul's planetary transmitter to plant a wiretap, SCORPIO discovered hidden within a mundane signal the GEMINI frequency, which linked the Eternal Throne to every ship in the Eternal Fleet, giving the Alliance a target of opportunity. Using the Spire maps Kaliyo and the Commander obtained from Overwatch, SCORPIO discovered the existence of a hyperwave relay station ten kilometers below the Spire that controlled the Fleet. The Alliance sent Kaliyo and Havoc Squad in to assault the relay station, but the operation went south and both teams went dark.

While awaiting any news on their comrades, SCORPIO accompanied the Alliance inner circle to Vandin, having been offered by Gault Rennow a plan to raid the treasury ship, the Gilded Star and plunder Arcann's wealth. SCORPIO assisted the heist by accompanying Senya Tirall, disguised as Vaylin, as her attache droid, easily accessing the bridge and putting the ship into lockdown so the Outlander, Gault and his partner Vette access the vault and place a warhead inside, vaporizing its valuable contents so Lana would pull up in a tanker ship to drain its contents. Afterwards, SCORPIO and Senya made it aboard the tanker, though it cut off the Outlander's group's escape route, though they were extracted by Hylo Visz.

Back on Odessen, Jorgan and Kaliyo were revealed to have survived, having only managed to obtain a database on the GEMINI droids. SCORPIO analyzed the drive, which confirmed her suspicions: the GEMINI droids were based on her own designs. It was then that she disclosed her reasons for joining the Alliance: to find out who had copied her design and technology. The GEMINI droids were all created from a template, GEMINI Prime, on Darvannis. SCORPIO remained on Odessen as the Outlander joined with Mandalorians to the besiege the factory and recover the Prime. Once the Outlander had found the Prime and established a communications link, the Prime attempted to counter SCORPIO's signal but couldn't. Once GEMINI Prime was brought back to Odessen, SCORPIO began slicing through the Prime's systems without destroying her intelligence. Despite not being able to directly control the Eternal Fleet, SCORPIO figured that plugging the Prime into the captain's chair of one of the warships would enable them to control the entire network, and she had one such warship in a nearby sector recharging its hyperdrive for the Alliance to seize.

SCORPIO would later take part in a raid on an Eternal Fleet warship, with the Alliance intending to use GEMINI Prime to seize control of the warship. During the raid, SCORPIO faked her death, making it appear that she had been destroyed while attempting to interface with the GEMINI droid aboard the warship. Instead, she had uploaded her consciousness into the GEMINI system, and used that to seize control of the Eternal Fleet, with Arcann having control of only a small portion of the fleet from the Eternal Throne.

After the Battle of Odessen, with Emperor Arcann deposed, SCORPIO projected a copy of herself onto the Eternal Throne, then apparently granting the GEMINI units free-will, in which some GEMINI units (and their ships) chose to leave Zakuul to travel the galaxy independently. Vaylin entered the Eternal Throne room and spoke with SCORPIO, where SCORPIO gave the throne to Vaylin, as her goal to give free will to the GEMINI units was accomplished and offered to help her as the new Empress of Zakuul.

Behind the scenes
SCORPIO is a companion character for the Imperial Agent class of Star Wars: The Old Republic. She becomes a companion character for all classes starting with Chapter IX of the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. She is voiced by Deborah Kara Unger.

Gameplay Alternatives
In Chapter VII: Lady of Sorrows, if the players are Imperial Agents, SCORPIO will claim that she expected Cipher Nine and the Outlander were the same person. If players are not Imperial Agents, SCORPIO will claim they are "not what I expected, but close" implying that she had been expecting the Imperial Agent.

In Chapter XI: Disavowed, if players send aid the the Zakuulan exiles, SCORPIO will comment that it is a wasteful decision for the Alliance.

In Chapter XIII: Profit and Plunder, if players send additional funds to plundered worlds, SCORPIO will point out that the funds will simply return into the hands of the Eternal Empire, and that the players are making a poor choice.

In Chapter V: Ascension, following ARIES' defeat, SCORPIO reveals that she intends to merge with the machine world of Iokath. Players can either allow this of kill SCORPIO for her past betrayal. If SCORPIO lives, she will transmit upgrades for the Gravestone to the Alliance. If SCORPIO is killed, the Alliance still manages to optain the upgrades from various information sources that were collected while on Iokath.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic