Cylo

Doctor Cylo was a specialist in cybernetics whose research eventually led him to believe that technological superiority was inevitable, and that mystical aspects of the universe, such as the Force, were obsolete. To that aim, he began research on creating new forms of life, depending on technological augmentations, which he created using illegal alien parts smuggled to his research base in conjunction with cybernetic upgrades. His experiments eventually included himself when created a map of his personality, completed with memory banks and plug-in calculation systems, to make himself into an immortal system. As such, he could grow several upgraded bodies of himself; when one body died, another was activated at his research base with no memory of what had happened to the old body. By the time of the Battle of Yavin, Cylo had already lost three bodies and was using the one known as Cylo-IV.

Cylo's work had begun before the onset of the Clone Wars, during which time his work was funded by the Astarte line of Celanon. However, their support of the Separatist Alliance during the war earned them the wrath of the Galactic Empire once the war ended. The Astartes gave their children, Morit and Aiolin, to Cylo to protect them from Imperial reprisals. Cylo integrated the two children into his experiments, turning them into cybernetically-enhanced warriors.

At some point before the end of the Clone Wars, Cylo came to the attention of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, who declared himself Galactic Emperor when the war ended. He was one of several scientists who was ordered by the new Emperor to save the life of Darth Vader, his critically-wounded apprentice, after his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. After a long night of operations, the scientists' technology successfully saved Vader's life by replacing his lost limbs with prosthetics and placing him in a mechanical armor which allowed him to breathe despite his badly-scorched lungs.

Intrigued by the scientists who had saved his apprentice, the Emperor kept them on to see what they could accomplish without the scrutinizing eyes of the Republic and the Jedi to limit them. As such, Cylo continued his research and his experiments with the full backing and financial support provided by the Emperor. He upgraded Morit and Aiolin with the best genetic enhancements, and the finest technology was integrated into their flesh. In addition, he provided them with training in lightsaber combat, allowing them to possess the abilities of the Jedi and Sith of old but without the need for the Force.

Cylo developed other subjects as well as Morit and Aiolin. Among his creations were a cybernetically-enhanced Mon Calamari named Commander Karbin. A veteran of the Clone Wars during which he had been injured when his ship was lost near the end of the conflict, Karbin had spent eighteen years on life support when Cylo decided to upgrade him about two years before the Battle of Yavin. He modeled his cybernetics on the cyborg General Grievous, the leader of the Separatist droid armies, whom he had always admired. This allowed Karbin to fight with four lightsabers much as Grievous had, while Cylo also included propulsors in his back to give him an edge in combat. The doctor also took an interest in a scientist named Tulon. Unlike his other subjects, she was not a warrior but a genius scientist who had been involved in high-level research and development work for the Empire, including the Tarkin Initiative and the Death Star project. Cylo enhanced her cerebellum and connected it to a series of drone-droids which she controlled through distributed intelligence in each individual drone. They allowed her to see and to fight as they provided both her weapons with incorporated blasters and defense capabilities through shield generators which they could deploy around her. As a result of her ability to see through her drone-cloud, Tulon adopted the name "Voidgazer." Cylo seemed particularly pleased with his work on Tulon, noting that she was already a genius when he augmented her but that her upgrades had made her even smarter.

In parallel to his sentient subjects, Cylo also developed a solution for what he believed was the biggest problem of enforcers: their tendency to die. Believing that only a system could succeed where an individual failed, he began work on a cyberanimation program. He developed a "trainer" artificial intelligence to guide a host's bestial instincts while removing any undesirable personality traits and even the ability to feel pain or other emotions. In Cylo's own words, the cyberanimate would feel only what his programmer wanted to feel. The doctor adapted this program to a Trandoshan but he believed that it could work on any host, even a rancor.

During his time with the Empire, Cylo was heavily involved with the Tarkin Initiative and worked closely with the other great Imperial minds, possibly contributing his service to the creation of the Death Star. He became close friends with Professor Thlu-Ry, who had been working on the battle station's alignment tests before the Battle of Yavin. His influence allowed him to develop his own fleet of upgraded spacefearing creatures, which he used as a research base and hid in various galactic nebulae. He also developed his own armed force to man his fleet and protect his creations. As a result of his involvement with these projects, the doctor had grown powerful and influential. He believed that his subjects were the future of the Empire, and he began pushing the Emperor to use them as enforcers in the place of Darth Vader, whom Cylo saw as a relic from a bygone age. Under his vision, Vader would be relocated to a ceremonial position as the Emperor's apprentice while his subjects enforced his will throughout the Empire. Unbeknownst to Cylo, the Emperor had began to be concerned with his growing influence within the Empire. Coming to see his reliance on the scientists as a mistake, he decided that it was time to remove Cylo as a potential threat. However, he could not act until the Death Star had been completed. As the doctor had many friends among the Empire's great minds, the Emperor feared removing him would cause a schism among the scientific community which he needed to accomplish his long-term plans. Although he continued to tolerate Cylo's presence in his persistence in trying to remove Darth Vader, Sidious began to consider ways of removing the scientist without causing a rift among the scientific community.

After Vader failed to prevent the Rebel Alliance from destroying the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin, his position in the Emperor's eyes was compromised. To make matters worse for the Sith Lord, he was unable to prevent the destruction of the Empire's Weapons Factory Alpha on Cymoon 1. In order to test Vader in the wake of his failures, Sidious decided to consider Cylo's plans to replace his apprentice as an enforcer with one of his subjects and summoned Cylo, who was using his fourth body at the time known as Cylo-IV, to the Imperial Palace on Coruscant to discuss these plans. Vader, who had been briefing the Emperor when Cylo-IV arrived, demanded to know who he was, but Sidious denied him this information and sent him away. The Emperor decided to see which of Cylo's subjects or Vader impressed him most. The one who won the contest would win a place as his sole enforcer while the others would be removed. Cylo eagerly agreed to the challenge, confident that his future would beat the past represented by Vader. Secretly, the Emperor hoped that Cylo-IV would overplay his hand to make one of his subjects win the contest, which would allow him to paint him as a traitor. This would allow him to eliminate the problem the scientist had began to pose.

After Vader's meeting with Cylo-IV, he became suspicious of the Emperor's plans and hired the Wookiee bounty hunter Krrsantan to find and capture him. The bounty hunter succeeded in tracking down Cylo-IV and discovered that he was shipping illegal alien organs supplies to his secret base. Before he could discover the location of his base Cylo-IV found out that Wookiee was tracking him. Nonetheless, he was captured by the bounty hunter who brought him to Vader. Once Cylo-IV was captured, Vader ordered his new droid, 0-0-0, to torture the information about his work for the Emperor from him. 0-0-0 inadvertently killed Cylo-IV during the interrogation but not before discovering the location of his research base and the existence of his specimens. Cylo-IV's death led to the activation of his next body, Cylo-V.

Cylo's base was then attacked by Darth Vader along with his droid army and Doctor Aphra. Vader then went to the dojo and encountered Cylo's subjects, the twins Morit and Aiolin Astarte who he engaged in a duel. Cylo-V then arrived and stopped the duel. He revealed to Vader how he had survived and that he was not making replacements for him but rather enforcers for the Empire. He told him that he believed the Force to be obsolete and claimed that his subjects were in a way Vader's successors. Enraged by this Vader attempted to kill Cylo-V but was stopped by the Emperor who had arrived there.

The Emperor then told them that he wanted to see a presentation of Cylo's subjects. As Vader started fighting with the Astarte twins, Tulon Voidgazer, Commander Karbin, and a Trandoshan, Cylo told Sidious about their special skills and abilities. As no one had gotten injured yet, Darth Sidious demanded a real presentation and told them to fight to the death. While Vader was fighting with the Trandoshan, Morit intervened and killed the enforcer. Sidious then called a stop to the fight and told them that their mission was to defeat the enemies of the Empire not each other. He declared that they could not kill each other at least not with him knowing. With this, the Emperor along with his apprentice left. Cylo was then appointed to serve under Grand General Cassio Tagge in the Imperial Military.

Commander Karbin had tried to eliminate Vader during a battle on the planet Vrogas Vas but failed and was killed by him. Sometime later the Emperor ordered Cylo, on Tagge's insistence, to accompany Vader and his subjects to Shu-Torun to stop the growing rebellion by the Ore-dukes. During their meeting, Cylo warned Vader that even if the Sith Lord made a single mistake the Emperor would turn to him and his enforcers. In truth, Vader's continuing victories and the failures of his creations were hurting Cylo's ego, pushing the scientist closer and closer to openly betraying the Empire if it meant destroying Vader.

While they were discussing their strategy with Queen Trios, in the ancestral retreat of the Shu-Torun royalty, they were attacked by a vessel belonging to Lord Rubix, the leader of the rebellious Ore-Dukes. Darth Vader along with the Astarte twins managed to destroy the vessel. Later Cylo had a conversation with General Tagge about the war progress. Tagge remarked that Vader, while being effective had many flaws. He then advised Cylo that the victory at Shu-Torun must look like the victory of the Empire, not Vader's. Cylo, a little while later, betraying the Empire, contacted the Rebels and told them that he can provide them Vader in the Lithoporoite seam, where the dukes could finish him off.

Vader, using a combat drill, led his troops and the Astarte twins to Rubix's delving citadel but the drill, having been sabotaged by Cylo, veered off course to the Lithoporoite stream where Rubix's forces were waiting to kill them. While the Sith Lord was battling Rubix's elite, Queen Trios, having presumed Vader dead, started preparations for the attack on the citadel but Cylo told her to call it off and recalled his troops. Vader managed to escape Cylo's trap with the two enforcers who turned on him. Vader fended off their attacks and Morit, seeing an opportunity killed his sister who in her dying breath revealed Cylo's treachery to Vader.

Trios attacked Rubix's citadel with her forces and was soon joined by Vader who had come with the Imperial forces. Cylo fled the planet during the battle along with Morit and Voidgazer. After defeating the Ore-Dukes, Vader informed the Emperor of Cylo's betrayal.

Aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor, Sidious explained to Vader that while Cylo's brilliance and lack of morality originally proved useful, he had grown too powerful. His influence within the Tarkin Initiative was so great that forcefully removing him would risk creating a schism within the Empire's scientists. Therefore, Sidious tricked him into openly rebelling against the Empire by playing to his ego and approving his plan to create a replacement for Vader. Vader replied that he knew if any of Cylo's creations succeeded, Sidious would be making this speech to them. Still, he considered it to be irrelevant, believing that none of them could ever hope to defeat him. Sidious agreed and ordered Vader to destroy Cylo.

After learning the location of Cylo's fleet from Thlu-Ry, an Imperial scientist and a friend of Cylo, Vader arrived at the Crushank Nebulae aboard the Devastator. After being informed of Vader's arrival, Cylo ordered Tulon to activate the contingencies and Morit to proceed with Escape Plan JGT-HB-4. Cylo's whale-ships engaged Vader's TIE Advanced x1 starfighter and several TIE fighters while one of the whale-ships broke formation and dispatched several smaller craft, which disabled the Devastator with ion pulses.

Undeterred, Vader blasted an opening into Cylo's flagship and rammed his TIE Advanced into it, moments before it jumped into hyperspace. Tulon reported the situation to Cylo, who wanted to dispatch troops, but Tulon convinced him to let her face Vader, wanting to study a Sith Lord at close quarters.

Tulon attacked Vader using a cyberanimate rancor, but Vader was able to sever its cyberanimate system and kill it. As Tulon engaged Vader personally, Cylo realized that her fate was sealed, and remarked that while losing her was a shame, her real work was complete. As the flagship dropped out of hyperspace above Kuat, Cylo ordered Voidgazer's protocols to be activated and for him and Morit to head for the escape pods as the ship approached the Executor.

As Vader was about to kill Tulon, she revealed that Tagge ordered her to improve the Executors firing arrays, and while she complied, she used the opportunity to add features of her own. Meanwhile, the Executors weapons were all disabled by Voidgazer's protocols, sleeping gas was pumped into the ship's air supply, and the Emperor's chamber was cut off from the rest of the ship.

As Vader arrived at the flagship's bridge, he discovered that the ship had been set on an unalterable collision course with the Executor. As the ship crashed into the Executor and exploded, Cylo remarked that losing her was a shame, and he would remember her fondly as the weapon that ended Darth Vader. Triumphantly, he declared that the time for mourning was over and that their new flagship awaits them.

In the bridge of the Executor, Morit informed Cylo that they have cleared the docks. Cylo ordered Morit to activate the ion charges, disabling the surrounding Imperial starships and stopping them from pursuing the stolen Executor or signal for help. Dr Cylo thanked the late Tulon Voidgazer once more for her work and remarked that geniuses like them made the ship, and it was only fitting that they would have it.

However, before Cylo could order the crew to depart, the Executors engines suddenly lost power. At this point, Vader contacted the bridge from the engine room, having severed its power cables. He warned Cylo that he was coming for him. Morit questioned how Vader survived and Cylo responded that he most likely ejected, landed on the Executors hull, and sliced his way in, but it ultimately did not matter and he must survive no longer.

Morit asked Cylo to send him to confront Vader. Instead, Cylo ordered his forces to divide between retrieving the Emperor and guarding the bridge. He then ordered Morit to reroute the engines and avoid Vader by traveling across the ship's surface, before looking at a small device in his hand, saying that he feared to use it as his last resort if all else fails.

Unfortunately for Cylo, Vader predicted Morit's route and intercepted him. After a brief fight, Vader sent Morit flying off the ship and burning to death in Kuat's atmosphere. In response, Cylo recalled all his troops back to the bridge.

After swiftly dispatching Cylo's troops, Vader confronted Cylo, who has the small device in hand. Vader told Cylo that his machines were insufficient, to which Cylo replied that Vader was one of his machines as well. He then pressed the single red button on the device, disabling Vader's cybernetics.

As Vader fell to his knees, paralyzed, Cylo gloated that he did not wish to use the device, as it was possible that his private access might have been revoked in the years since he helped rebuild Vader. He then said he always wondered whether it was a machine or a man who rose from the operating table and it was good to finally have an answer.

Cylo then signaled the fleet to continue with the plan, stating that the Executor has been secured and Vader was no longer a threat. However, Vader eventually regained the use of his body through sheer will, much to Cylo's shock. He then retrieved his lightsaber using the Force and used it to kill Cylo, before reactivating his cybernetics using the device.

Aboard one of Cylo's whale ships, Cylo-VI awoke upon the death of Cylo-V and realized that he must escape. Meanwhile, Vader departed from the Executor in a TIE Advanced in pursuit of Cylo.

Despite Cylo ordering the rest of his fleet to cover his escape, Vader soon caught up to Cylo's ship and entered it through its anterior docking bay. Cylo ordered all of his marines to stop Vader, but Vader quickly slaughtered all of them before making his way to the room where Cylo grew his clones.

All of Cylo's clones have emerged from their tanks and armed themselves with various weapons, with one of the clones taunting Vader, asking if he felt jealousy at Cylo's immortality. Vader easily dispatched the clones, saying that Cylo was wrong and the fact that he could kill Cylo repeatedly was his most appealing trait.

Finally, Vader confronted Cylo-VI in the whale ship's bridge. Cylo gloated that Vader cannot take his achievements from him and that he transcended the laws of nature and the trap of the Force, making him immortal. Vader replied that he would make him ash and used a mind trick, saying "You will fly into the sun". Cylo stated that his mind was protected against such trickery, but Vader revealed that he used the mind trick not on him, but on the whale ship's brain.

As the whale ship emerged out of hyperspace and headed for the nearest star, Cylo futilely attempted to regain control of the ship while Vader evacuated in his TIE Advanced. Cylo was incinerated by the sun along with the ship.

Cylo appeared to be human but had grafts from multiple species, notably the green scaly Rodian skin and black eye in place of his right eye. The rest of his skin was light, and he had grey hair and a light beard—a contrast to Cylo-IV, who had darker hair. He also had cybernetic implants across his head and neck.

Cylo believed that the universe needed to evolve and that progress was inevitable. He also believed that organic species were running out of time and that the Force was obsolete. He also continued the work of Cylo by creating new specimens who he planned to introduce as new enforcers for Darth Sidious. He believed that men like Vader lacked the vision to see that they needed to evolve, but that the Emperor did not lack that vision. However, he did believe that Vader represented a bridge between the "old world" and his new world, seeing as Vader was more machine than man.

Cylo also removed his tendency to hold grudges from his system, so he did not blame Vader for the death of Cylo-IV. Instead, he claimed that he would have done the same thing in Vader's place.

Cylo first appeared in Darth Vader (2015) 1. The fact that he has a Rodian's eye and cybernetics is meant to imply "the sort of things this guy might get up to," according to Kieron Gillen. Gillen further stated that the creative team went back and forth on which type of alien look to use for the character's right eye, before finally settling on a Rodian. Comic book artist Salvador Larroca designed Cylo in his own image.

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