Switch

Switch was a protocol droid with masculine programming who, at some point prior to 17 BBY, set himself up as an information broker and crime lord on Sel Zonn Station, an XQ2 Platform that orbited the planet Brentaal IV. He founded a criminal organization and assembled a group of Gamorrean thugs to work for him, as well as hiring a Twi'lek to serve as his majordomo, and engaging the services of the astromech droid R5-B8. Switch established a base of operations for himself in Deep Storage Bay V14, on a level of the station that had restricted access.

Although he soon became well-known on the station, Switch was able to keep the location of his headquarters secret from most of the inhabitants of Sel Zonn Station, because V14 was quarantined due to some exhaust conduits that passed through the bay. To further ensure that Switch's use of V14 remained secret, the droid had his majordomo bring monthly bribes to the station's manager, to ensure that the bay remained off-limits. He allowed the bay to fall into disrepair and had an expensive japor ivory wood desk placed in the center of the room from which he conducted his business. The protocol droid soon gained a rival in the form of Ganga Lor, a Chevin crime lord who had arrived on the station at about the same time as him. Switch also had some dealings with the Human Doctor Byra Fenn, the operator of the pharmaceutical supplier Delgas Medical Supplies, and she owed him some favors as a result.

Circa 17 BBY, Switch was hired by Alderaanian Security, a security force from the planet Alderaan, to collect and store some cargo for them, which contained one of their agents. The agent was returning from an assignment spying on the Galactic Empire in the Deep Core, and had been frozen in a slab of carbonite to reduce the chance of capture by the Empire while traveling back to Alderaan. Switch arranged for the cargo to arrive on Sel Zonn Station in a cargo bay on Blue Deck, an Imperial-controlled zone of the station, as he believed that the Imperials would not expect anyone to be bold enough to hide contraband there. However, Ganga Lor became jealous of Switch's deal with the Alderaanians, and the Chevin began plotting to rid himself of his rival. Around that time, Switch was also contracted to arrange for a crate of Corellian ale to be delivered to an address on Alderaan, and he stored the ale in the Blue Deck cargo bay with the carbonite-frozen Alderaanian.

An Alderaanian agent called Maya was sent by Senator Bail Organa to collect the frozen operative from Switch, but she was attacked by stormtroopers soon after arriving on Sel Zonn Station. A group of spacers who attempted to help her escape from the Imperials found out about the cargo, so they went to collect the carbonite slab from Switch in Maya's place. On their arrival at Switch's cargo bay, the protocol droid introduced himself and R5-B8 to the agents and offered them drinks from his extensive collection. The spacers entered negotiations with him for the release of the frozen Alderaanian, and he offered to release the cargo in return for a payment of 1,000 credits. However, just as the spacers were concluding their business with the protocol droid, Ganga Lor and a group of Lor's thugs entered the room and attacked Switch and the spacers. Even though Lor had bribed Switch's own thugs prior to the attack, so that they would not fight hard, Switch and the spacers were able to kill the Chevin gangster and all of his cronies. Lor's organization was destroyed, because all of his men had participated in the attack, so the Chevin's demise allowed Switch to gain greater control over crime on Sel Zonn Station.

A short time afterward, Switch received some information from TC-663, a protocol droid contact of his who worked on the planet Cato Neimoidia as a translator for the Hutt crime lord Darga Jiramma Mionne. Darga's Neimoidian majordomo, Igren Demos, had secretly sent a number of messages to the Imperial Inquisitor Valin Draco while the Hutt slept, and through monitoring communications from Darga's palace TC-663 had realized that one of Darga's associates was dealing with the Empire without the Hutt's knowledge. The translator sent copies of Demos' messages to Switch, but the information broker was unable to break their encryption. The spacers Switch had encountered on Sel Zonn Station had since joined the Alderaanian Resistance, an anti-Imperial rebellious movement led by Senator Organa, and were staying as guests at Darga's palace, so Switch ordered TC-663 to give the spacers a copy of the transmissions. Switch hoped that the spacers would be able to break the encryption and would share the information from the messages with TC-663, who could then send the intelligence onto Switch on Sel Zonn Station.

Darga relocated to Cloud City on the planet Bespin after the Alderaanian Resistance agents released the captive Jedi Master Denia from Darga's palace, and the Resistance team subsequently traveled to Cloud City in search of the Hutt. Some of Switch's contacts in the city informed him that they had sighted the agents there, and the protocol droid developed a plan to work with the agents to ensure that a victor of Switch's choice won the upcoming Cloud City Sabacc Tournament. At Switch's behest, the Twi'lek Koroma Moro, a starship captain who had hauled shipments of cargo for Switch in the past, signed up for the competition, with an entry fee supplied by Switch. The droid then set up a means by which the Alderaanian Resistance agents could contact him via Cloud City's communications system, and he sent a message to Captain Sirona Okeefe of the Resistance, requesting that the agents get in touch with him.

The agents contacted Switch and accepted his proposal, and the droid offered them five percent of the competition winnings if Moro won the tournament. The Twi'lek performed well during the opening stages of the competition, and, three days into the event, Switch sent the agents a piece of software that he intended for them to install into the tournament's sabacc dealer droids to alter the droids' programming and turn the odds of the competition in Moro's favor. The agents installed the program, and, as a result, Moro won the competition.

By the time he became an information broker, Switch had not had a memory wipe for a long while, which allowed him to develop a greater degree of individuality than most droids. The remnants of his protocol droid programming led him to have aspirations of sophistication, and, to demonstrate his refined tastes, he acquired an extensive collection of beverages and a rare, hand-crafted Japor ivory wood desk. Switch spoke with a Coruscanti-Imperial accent and enunciated himself like an upper-class Human, making him sound as urbane as he tried to appear. However, while he spoke cheerily and lightly, he was not as civilized or friendly as he tried to present himself; he gave no value to life and thought nothing of the deaths of sentient beings. Despite his impassiveness, Switch understood the concept of friendship and considered R5-B8 to be his most valued companion. He was persuasive and possessed good criminal acumen, and it was these traits that he used to form his organization and convince the sentient beings who served him to make him their leader. He had an interest in illicit activities that took place throughout the galaxy, and he made his services available to anyone who was prepared to pay for them. He also liked to flicker his photoreceptors to imitate blinking.

Switch was covered in shiny, ebony-colored plating and was fitted with standard protocol droid systems, including a processor, a vocabulator, a translation unit, and hand appendages. He also carried with him an audio recorder, a hold-out blaster, a comlink, and a datapad.

Switch was created by Rodney Thompson and appeared in The Traitor's Gambit, the first adventure in the Dawn of Defiance roleplaying campaign. He later received mentions in A Wretched Hive and The Queen of Air and Darkness, the second and third installments of the campaign, which were also written by Thompson. In The Traitor's Gambit, the players roleplay as the group of spacers who negotiate with Switch for the release of the frozen Alderaanian, and when the player-characters first arrive at Switch's cargo bay, it is possible for them to engage in a fight with Switch's Gamorrean guards. If they choose to do so, Switch is not bothered by the fight. The players also have a variety of options for how their negotiations with Switch can occur, and they can persuade him to reduce his fee by 200 if they agree to supply him with information on a regular basis. They can also bribe him to find out about the nature of cargo that they are collecting, and if they mention that they own a starship, Switch offers to pay them to deliver a crate of Corellian ale to an address on Alderaan.

If the players fail to persuade Switch to tell them the cargo's location, he gives it to them after the conclusion of Ganga Lor's attack. If any of the player-characters are injured during the fight, Switch calls in a favor with Byra Fenn to get the spacers healed free of charge. It is also possible for Switch to be destroyed during the attack, but this outcome is presumably non-canon, because A Wretched Hive and The Queen of Air and Darkness indicate that he was active after the attack. Once the spacers' business with Switch is concluded, it is possible for the droid to contact Sirona Okeefe and tell her that the spacers require transport off the station.

In The Queen of Air and Darkness, Switch requests that the player-characters help him to ensure that Koroma Mora wins the Cloud City Sabacc Tournament, and the players have the option of either accepting or rejecting the request. If the players agree to help Switch, the droid initially offers them five percent of Moro's winnings, and if the players choose to negotiate with him, they can persuade Switch to offer them up to seven percent of the prize money. During the competition, if the player-characters fail to tell Moro that they are working for Switch, the protocol droid sends Moro a message that informs him that the agents will be providing him assistance. It is then later possible for Moro to win the tournament.