The JK-13 security droid, unofficially known as the "Jedi Killer," was a JK-series security droid manufactured on the planet Ord Cestus. These droids rose to prominence during a time when they were threatened to be converted into combat droids.
The JK-Thirteen appeared chest-high and divided into sections, giving it a spider-like appearance in its attack mode. So much so that the cave spiders, who used to rule Cestus, thought of them a natural enemy and defeated them allowing Obi-Wan Kenobi and many Desert Wind members to escape from the surprise attack. Its primary weapon was a set of stun tentacles extending from virtually every point on its body: these tentacles could be used to cut an opponent or deliver a disabling charge. Its primary defense was a deflector shield generator-like technology that allowed it to absorb blaster bolts and presumably other weapons fire before it even came into contact with the droid itself.
A "Jedi Killer".
Like all Cestus Cybernetics droids of its period, the JK-13 was unusually ornate and flexible, with a golden finish and enormous articulation of its tentacles, which could become a fine strand or thicker rope or cable as needed.
The JK-13s were bio-droids: they used a living circuit design incorporating organics into the core processor, which was actually a life-support unit for a creature known as a dashta eel. Because the eels were Force-sensitive, they granted the droid some measure of precognitive abilities. This, in turn, granted it great combat ability; a JK-13 was able to defeat both a destroyer droid and even an ARC trooper nicknamed Sirty, but was defeated by Jedi Master Kit Fisto, though not with ease. Also, it took Obi-Wan Kenobi two energy weapons (his lightsaber and a lightwhip) to defeat it. It was later revealed that the Dashta eels could not kill another sentient being without going insane, meaning that the droids could never be deployed as combat units.
They sold faster than they could be produced, and cost 80,000 credits during the Clone Wars. They were assembled by Clandes Industrial in the city of Clandes.
Early in the Clone Wars, the mad geneticist Zeta Magnus granted Count Dooku access to his laboratory facility on Wayland. Dooku used these facilities to experiment with the dashta eel tissue that would be incorporated in the droid's design. The droids became important when Count Dooku employed them in a devious trap for the Galactic Republic. He circulated rumors that he planned to buy tens of thousands of the droids, clearly a grave threat to the Republic. He even sent out a prototype to attack Jedi Master Devan For'deschel, who lost an arm to the droid. The Republic responded by sending Jedi Generals Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Ord Cestus to resolve the issue, because had the JK participated in the war, it would have been one of the most dangerous droids in the army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. However, it was later revealed that the droids could neither be modified for lethality nor produced in great numbers, and that Dooku, in fact, had no real plans to do so.
- The New Essential Chronology
- The New Essential Guide to Droids
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Clone Wars Campaign Guide
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Reader's Companion