A being akin to a black fog, described as semi-sentient, was brought into existence by the Galactic Empire. This occurred on Imperial Research Station 13, which was initially an escort frigate but had been repurposed as a laboratory. The experiments conducted there sought to harness the power of the dark side of the Force. This entity was composed of dark side essence and would take control of sentient beings, feeding on their life energy. Post-creation, this being turned against the starship's crew, leading to their collective demise.
Sometime during the Galactic Civil War, the light freighter Sidewinder neared Imperial Research Station 13. Utilizing 3PO-series protocol droids and R2-series astromech droids, the dark side entity lured the freighter's passengers inside the frigate. It then swiftly moved towards the starship, seizing control of one of the newcomers, with the intention of using the ship to reach densely populated planets to consume the life force of millions. However, the original crew of the Sidewinder intervened by destroying their own ship, effectively trapping the creature, at the cost of their lives. Subsequently, the creature sustained itself by draining their life force over a period of months before ultimately succumbing to starvation.
During the Imperial era under the Galactic Empire's rule, Imperial Research Station 13, a former Imperial escort frigate transformed into a laboratory, became the site of experiments. These experiments had the goal of accessing the dark side of the Force. The result was a semi-sentient fog-like being that sustained itself by feeding on the life energy of sentient creatures. This being then attacked the starship's personnel, causing their deaths, and eventually took possession of one of the deceased crewmembers. However, before their deaths, the remaining ship's crew disabled its engines. The creature then programmed the ship's 3PO-series protocol droids and R2-series astromech droids to become an army of enslaved soldiers.
During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the light freighter Sidewinder, carrying passengers fleeing an Imperial invasion of Tegrat, a planet in the Outer Rim Territories' Koradin sector, emerged from hyperspace near Imperial Research Station 13. The frigate's tractor beam then pulled the freighter in, docking it with the larger vessel. The dark side entity, needing a constant source of life energy to survive, intended to use the Sidewinder to escape to populated planetary systems where it could consume the life force of entire populations.
To accomplish this, the entity used its droid army to draw the light freighter's crew deep inside the frigate. The Sidewinder's passengers eventually entered a laboratory, where the creature waited with six droids. After the visitors destroyed the droids, the corpse inhabited by the dark side entity fell, striking its head. The body's head shattered, revealing the creature to the horrified survivors. The entity then rushed toward the Sidewinder, possessing one of the ship's passengers.
Aboard the light freighter, the creature locked itself in with two droids. It contacted droids in Imperial Research Station 13's tractor beam control rooms, ordering them to release the freighter, and then detached the Sidewinder from the frigate. The creature began repairing the freighter's damaged hyperdrive to escape into hyperspace. However, the ship's former passengers, choosing to sacrifice themselves to save millions, used the frigate's weaponry to destroy the Sidewinder. Stranded again, the dark side entity drained the individuals on the frigate of their life force one by one, each allowing it to survive for another month, until it eventually starved to death.
When not in a host body, the being appeared as a black mist, a fragment of the dark side of the Force. It needed to consume the life force of other beings; failure to do so led to starvation and eventual death. When it encountered the Sidewinder's passengers, the creature inhabited the emaciated corpse of a tall Human.
The fog-like entity could take control of sentient beings, both living and dead, such as Humans. While possessing a corpse, the creature could extract knowledge from its host's brain, using it to perform tasks like programming and instructing droids.
The fog-like entity debuted in the roleplaying adventure "Imperial Research Station 13," by Lester W. Smith, published in the October–November 1990 forty-sixth issue of Challenge magazine for West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. In the adventure, the entity can possess any player character; only Force-using characters proficient in the Control aspect of the Force, or specifically in the Force of Will ability, can resist it. Starving it to death is the only way for the player characters to destroy the entity.
When the player characters first encounter the entity in its Human vessel, they can shoot it or capture it; in either case, the entity emerges from its host body (if captured, the Human falls over when touched). The entity then possesses the character closest to the Sidewinder; if that character is aboard Imperial Research Station 13, they run toward the light freighter. If a player character has remained aboard the freighter, the entity rushes toward the starship and possesses them. "Imperial Research Station 13" also presents an alternative, less deadly outcome. A proficient Force-user senses a disturbance in the Force caused by the entity and arrives aboard a Rebel Alliance starship to investigate. The Force-user destroys the entity's physical form before it possesses its second victim. This article assumes the scenario plays out as described.