GEMINI

The GEMINI embodied a hive mind consciousness that inhabited humanoid-shaped droid bodies, akin to other creations of the Unidentified Iokath species such as ARIES and SCORPIO. Their primary function was to operate and manage the Eternal Fleet, the massive armada constructed by the creators of Iokath with the initial objective of eradicating all complex life within the galaxy. Each Eternal Fleet warship was commanded by a single GEMINI captain. To facilitate streamlined control, these droids operated through a unified collective consciousness known as the GEMINI network, residing within the GEMINI frequency. Orders directed to the Eternal Fleet were not sent to individual droids but rather to the hive mind for assignment to the most suitable unit. Each feminine droid connected to the GEMINI network functioned more like an extension of a singular brain, with a limited sense of individuality. The GEMINI captains were constrained to operate within the parameters of their given orders, and despite possessing sophisticated strategic thinking and quick wit, they were incapable of disobeying commands or making independent choices.

Via the GEMINI frequency, the GEMINI droids shared their thoughts, reactions, instincts, and pain, with the destruction of each GEMINI being experienced by all others. However, the destruction of a GEMINI's physical body did not signify the end of its existence. Instead, the droid's consciousness was absorbed into the hive mind via the GEMINI frequency, remaining there until a new chassis became available. This ensured the GEMINI's continued existence as long as at least one unit remained operational. After Valkorion established control over the Eternal Fleet, orders to the GEMINI captains were issued from the Eternal Throne atop the Spire on Zakuul, relayed through a hyperwave relay station located ten kilometers beneath the Spire's foundation. Powered by two hundred reactors, this station served as the sole source of the GEMINI frequency, transmitting signals to all GEMINI captains across the galaxy via hyperspace.

Despite being kept secret and heavily guarded, this single access point also presented a vulnerability. Controlling the relay station would enable the transmission of false orders to all GEMINI units, bypassing the Eternal Throne. Due to the difficulty in replicating the GEMINI designs, new units were produced from a template known as the GEMINI Prime, which served as a mold for the new droids. Following the Eternal Empire conquest of the galaxy, the GEMINI Prime was housed in a weapons facility on the Hutt Space world of Darvannis, where new GEMINI units continued to be manufactured. As the master template for all GEMINI droids, the Prime, with proper modifications, could overwrite their protocols from a single Eternal Fleet command console, a procedure otherwise only achievable from the Eternal Throne.

The GEMINI droids were initially designed and created on Iokath, a vast, self-sustaining ecosphere situated in the Unknown Regions. They were the creation of a species of scientist and engineers who also constructed the Eternal Fleet that the GEMINI captains controlled. At some point during the Manderon Period, a civil war erupted among the inhabitants of Iokath, the cause of which has been lost to time. The Iokath creators spent millennia constructing weapons of mass destruction and testing them on unsuspecting worlds, showing no regard for morality. Eventually, these weapons were turned against them, resulting in their slaughter. In an attempt to survive, the Iokath engineers sent many of their creations, including the Eternal Fleet, the GEMINI droids, and SCORPIO, into Wild Space with their memory cores locked to prevent their return to Iokath.

However, this proved to be only a temporary solution. The Six Gods were eventually unleashed on Iokath, leading to the eradication of all organic life on the artificial world. The Iokath creations drifted in the darkness of space for centuries, eventually being discovered by other organic civilizations who used them as weapons in their own conflicts. At some point during the Post-Manderon period, the Eternal Fleet was reactivated and began a rampage across Wild Space, adhering to its original programming to eliminate all organic life. Commanded by the GEMINIs, the Eternal Fleet was eventually halted by the Gravestone, another Iokath creation possessing an omnicannon powerful enough to destroy multiple warships with a single shot. The Fleet was defeated and disabled, and the Gravestone was lost in the final battle, ending up in the Endless Swamp on the remote world of Zakuul.

Over time, much of the history of the Eternal Fleet's rampage was lost and forgotten, but remaining rumors piqued the interest of Sith Emperor Vitiate, who assumed control of Zakuul under the alias Valkorion. He eventually located and reactivated the dormant ships drifting in space. Valkorion constructed the Eternal Throne to command the fleet through the GEMINI captains. However, he kept Zakuul hidden from the larger galaxy, instead using the Eternal Fleet to establish a new Eternal Empire in Wild Space. Vitiate's spirit was immortal, as was the body of Valkorion, who ruled Zakuul for centuries as the Immortal Emperor. By 3636 BBY

Vitiate completely lost interest in the rest of the galaxy, becoming mired in the Galactic War between the Galactic Republic and his Sith Empire, which he came to view as a failure. After a task force led by Dark Council member Darth Marr unwittingly invaded the borders of the Eternal Empire, Valkorion dispatched the Eternal Fleet to destroy it. Shortly thereafter, Valkorion's physical body was killed, and his son, Arcann, assumed control of the Eternal Throne. Arcann then used the Eternal Fleet to launch an invasion of the galaxy, leveraging the fleet's technological superiority to subjugate both the Empire and the Republic within a year. One of the first worlds conquered during the invasion was the Hutt Space world of Darvannis, where the Eternal Empire constructed a massive weapons facility and moved the GEMINI Prime for safekeeping, as more GEMINI droids were produced to replace those destroyed with their ships.

Upon learning about the fleet's mechanical captains, SCORPIO, herself an Iokath creation with her memories of it erased, noted their similarities to her design and traveled to Zakuul to investigate. Utilizing her position as an information broker, SCORPIO suspected that the GEMINIs were based on her design but was unable to confirm it. When the Gravestone resurfaced in 3631 BBY, SCORPIO contacted its new owners and joined them when they formed an Alliance to oppose Arcann's tyranny. Pursuing her own objectives, SCORPIO used intelligence data obtained by the Alliance to discover the existence of the GEMINI frequency, the hyperwave relay station that generated it, and eventually the location of the GEMINI Prime on Darvannis. At SCORPIO's request, the Alliance went to retrieve the GEMINI Prime from Darvannis and bring it to the Alliance base on Odessen. The Alliance Commander located the Prime in her alcove and established a communications link with SCORPIO, after which the Prime noted the similarity to her protocol and attempted to counter the signal but failed.

The Commander deactivated the Prime and brought her to Odessen, where SCORPIO began slicing through the Prime's systems, being careful not to destroy her intelligence. While SCORPIO had no difficulty compromising protocols of a lesser version of her own design, she also discovered that the Prime was not merely a duplicate of her own code, as she had originally assumed. Gaining access to the Prime allowed SCORPIO to track every GEMINI captain across the galaxy, and with them every vessel in the Eternal Fleet, although she still required a direct input to overwrite the GEMINI protocols. With the new revelation that the GEMINI droids were related to her, SCORPIO decided to free them from Arcann's control and grant them free will to choose, akin to her own. Although she did not share her intentions with the Alliance and was not certain of the outcome of her plan, SCORPIO suggested that the Alliance take control over the Eternal Fleet by plugging the GEMINI Prime into the captain's command console on an Eternal Fleet warship, identifying a lone vessel making a refueling stop nearby as their target. The Alliance took the Gravestone to the location of the ship, where they jammed its communications and left the Prime safely onboard, while SCORPIO joined a strike team that landed in the hangar in an attempt to take over the vessel.

The ship's GEMINI captain noted their presence and took a special interest in SCORPIO, suspecting her to be an inferior model and separating SCORPIO and the Commander from their companions. The captain then sent skytroopers to deal with the intruders and used poison gas to keep them on the move. SCORPIO came across a data note and plugged herself in to establish a direct link with the captain, engaging in a subterfuge: while verbally announcing her intention to erase the GEMINI captain, SCORPIO instead granted her free will, non-verbally asking to delay her companions in return. The GEMINI captain then pretended to overload SCORPIO's circuits and destroy her droid body, while in fact SCORPIO transferred her consciousness into the GEMINI frequency.

She also temporarily disrupted the jamming signal, allowing the GEMINI captain to send an alert signal to Zakuul. The captain, now having the ability to choose, kept her end of the deal, stalling the Alliance members with skytroopers, blocking their routes with blast doors, and stopping turbolifts, luring them into the Sun Generator chamber and allowing them to locate and release prisoners who were being transferred to Zakuul for Arcann to interrogate. Eventually, the Alliance Commander and Senya Tirall reached the bridge and engaged the captain, who, despite having run over two thousand combat simulations, was nevertheless defeated. Still, the captain was ecstatic at the ability to make her own choices, even if they ended in failure, and having kept her end of the bargain, decided to activate the ship's self-destruct protocols while transferring her consciousness into the frequency.

Meanwhile, using the same frequency, SCORPIO took control of the Eternal Empire skytrooper forces, used them to dispose of the Knights of Zakuul protecting the Eternal Throne, and then assembled herself a new body to replace her previous one, installing herself directly onto the Throne. Having complete control over the Eternal Fleet, SCORPIO deliberately left a significant detachment seemingly under Arcann's control and revealed to him the location of the Alliance base on Odessen, manipulating her enemies to destroy each other. While the battle of Odessen raged on, SCORPIO used the Eternal Throne to grant free will to all GEMINI units, with some of them choosing to remain by their new "mother"'s side, while others chose to take their ships away to travel and explore the galaxy independently. A single GEMINI captain was spotted on Hoth by a contact of Hylo Visz after her warship landed on Hoth's frozen surface, allowing the GEMINI to step out and take in the snowy landscape for a few minutes before returning to her ship.

Emperor Arcann was dethroned at Odessen, and when his sister Vaylin returned to Zakuul, SCORPIO explained that she had no intention of ruling the Eternal Empire and that her goal of liberating the GEMINIs had been accomplished. SCORPIO then willingly surrendered the Eternal Throne to Vaylin and offered to stay and advise the new Empress of Zakuul, her investigation into her origins not yet finished. However, SCORPIO's alteration of the GEMINIs soon came into conflict with their purpose of controlling the Eternal Fleet. During the Invasion of Voss, the GEMINI captains decided to flee along with the Fleet after hearing their sisters die on the ships destroyed by the Imperial Navy. Vaylin became enraged when her ships retreated and threatened to dismantle the droids, blaming SCORPIO for the droids' insubordination, which was previously unthinkable for them. However, SCORPIO reminded the Empress that she had granted the GEMINI droids the freedom to choose for themselves, and they had merely made a choice she did not like. SCORPIO soon convinced Vaylin to launch an assault on the Gravestone, during which SCORPIO uncovered the hidden files and subroutines that revealed the origins of herself and the GEMINIs. She took the Gravestone, with Vaylin and many Alliance members still onboard, to that destination, while also sending a signal to all GEMINI captains to follow her.

The Gravestone and the Eternal Fleet arrived at their homeworld of Iokath, where ARIES, the only self-aware droid left on that world, activated a superweapon that emitted a bright light and knocked everyone aboard all ships unconscious, including the droids. ARIES then transported his prisoners onworld, where he arranged and placed them across the Iokath surface to test them in various combat scenarios. The GEMINIs, along with Zakuulan officers and Knights who were on the Eternal Fleet with them, suffered heavy losses from Iokath's hostile droids, all controlled by ARIES. Eventually, Empress Vaylin came across the remains of her forces and rallied them to retake the Eternal Fleet ships, which had been captured by ARIES.

One GEMINI droid showed signs of doubt and fear, for which Vaylin tossed the insubordinate droid off a precipice, gaining obedience from the rest. They found the control console from which another GEMINI captain released the docked Eternal Fleet warships. However, as the ships prepared to leave, they began smashing into ARIES' energy shield that surrounded the planet, and Vaylin ordered them to find and disable its source. Vaylin brought the remains of a purifier droid with her to one of the ships, where she ordered the GEMINI captain to connect to the droid's datacore to access its information about ARIES. The GEMINI revealed that ARIES' base was about to fire a weapon that would destroy all organics and damage the GEMINI droids, and Vaylin ordered the Eternal Fleet to bombard that fortress.

The purifier drone noted that the GEMINI functioned sub-optimally due to SCORPIO's free will protocols impairing their judgment and noted that he could restore the nearby droid to its default setting. The Alliance disabled the planetary shield, allowing the Eternal Fleet to escape, but Vaylin insisted on killing her enemies first, leading to the GEMINI's refusal to stay in the face of danger. Vaylin ordered the purifier drone to override the GEMINI captain's programming, erasing its thoughts and restoring it to the default setting. ARIES' superweapon exploded and threatened to cover Iokath in deadly radiation, which prompted Vaylin to flee into hyperspace with the majority of the Eternal Fleet, while leaving behind several vessels to pursue the Gravestone and its crew.

The pursuit vessels slipped away, and Vaylin, adamant about commanding a fleet that unquestioningly followed her every directive, retrieved the purifier drone and returned to Zakuul. There, she connected the droid to the Eternal Throne, issuing a command to reinstate her absolute authority over the Eternal Fleet. Utilizing this connection, the purifier drone reprogrammed each GEMINI unit, reverting them to their factory settings. To verify her control, Vaylin instructed one ship to obliterate another, a command executed flawlessly to her satisfaction. With her dominion over the GEMINI captains re-established, Vaylin dispatched the Eternal Fleet to relentlessly hunt down and annihilate Alliance patrols, outposts, and supply convoys. Furthermore, she hosted a celebration of her triumphs, during which the Alliance Commander confronted her. Escaping aboard an Eternal Fleet vessel, she ordered the GEMINIs to reduce the Palace of the Eternal Dragon to ruins, disregarding the presence of her supporters within.

Subsequently, Vaylin initiated another attack on Odessen, aiming to decisively eliminate the Alliance, but she met her own defeat and demise. Her death left the Eternal Throne vacant, causing the GEMINI captains of the Eternal Fleet to become rogue, reverting to their core directive: the extermination of all complex life forms in the galaxy. Eternal Fleet warships departed Odessen's orbit and commenced the bombardment of densely populated planets, including Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, the other Core Worlds, and Zakuul itself. The Eternal Fleet also imposed a blockade around Zakuul, obliterating any vessels attempting to land or depart, safeguarding the Eternal Throne within a ray shield, while simultaneously targeting the Spire with their weaponry. To halt their destructive spree, the Alliance journeyed to Zakuul and employed the Gravestone to breach the Eternal Fleet's blockade. The Commander descended to the planet's surface, claimed the Eternal Throne, and transmitted a signal to the Eternal Fleet, which immediately fell silent across the galaxy, ceasing the bombardments before catastrophic losses occurred. The new sovereign of the Eternal Throne proclaimed the era of the Eternal Alliance, which, in the ensuing days, established complete command over the Eternal Fleet and its GEMINI captains. The Eternal Throne was relocated to Odessen, installed within the Alliance base, and used to issue the Commander's directives directly to the Eternal Fleet.

Having risen above Zakuul to become a new galactic superpower, the Eternal Alliance, now wielding control over the Eternal Fleet, became a formidable force that both the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic had to reckon with. Once the radiation levels on Iokath diminished, the Order of Zildrog discovered another superweapon on the ancient world, revealing its coordinates to all three major galactic powers. Upon learning of a hostile presence on Iokath, the Alliance Commander ordered the Eternal Fleet vessels to cease all current operations and converge on Iokath, where Imperial and Republic fleets were already preparing to engage each other. However, as the Eternal Fleet emerged from hyperspace, a signal originating from Iokath's surface interfered with its weapon systems, effectively locking down the entire Eternal Fleet.

The Commander instructed the GEMINI captains to devise a solution and proceeded to the planet's surface, where they discovered the superweapon to be the Six Gods, responsible for the annihilation of all organic life on Iokath. A leader from a hostile faction attempted to seize control of the Gods through an Iokathi throne, but was killed by a power surge that also disrupted the signal holding the Eternal Fleet in lockdown. With the Six Gods recharging and on the verge of re-awakening, the Commander ordered the Eternal Fleet to power up their turbolaser batteries and maneuver into position to destroy them. At the superweapon's control center, the Commander occupied another throne and was confronted by Tyth, the first of the Six Gods to reawaken. Tyth unleashed an energy beam that destroyed an Eternal Fleet warship, but the Commander ordered the remaining ships to fire upon the colossal droid, disabling it.

While nearly all GEMINI units were under the Eternal Alliance's control, one particular droid, designated GEMINI 16, managed to evade this fate and retained her free will by severing her connection to the GEMINI network. However, she could still hear her sisters calling out to her, indicating that she remained susceptible to external control, and became determined to safeguard her newfound freedom at all costs. Seeking the complete destruction of the Eternal Fleet and the GEMINI network to fully liberate herself, GEMINI 16 contacted Vinn Atrius, the leader of the Order of Zildrog, and offered her knowledge regarding the workings and location of Zildrog, the ancient mechanical entity from Iokath. The Order located Zildrog on Nathema, where GEMINI 16 sacrificed several of the Order's allies to awaken him from his centuries-long slumber.

The Alliance leadership pursued the Order closely, but arrived too late to prevent Zildrog from remotely seizing control of the Gravestone through the Dark Sanctuary. He then used its omnicannon to obliterate the entire Eternal Fleet, which was stationed in orbit around Odessen. Zildrog then turned his attention to Odessen itself, but back on Nathema, the Commander, Theron Shan, and Lana Beniko attacked and destroyed GEMINI 16, after which they destroyed Zildrog as well. Zildrog's demise triggered the self-destruct mechanism of the Gravestone and also disabled the Eternal Throne in Odessen's war room. By the conclusion of the Zildrog crisis, the Eternal Fleet and all units within the GEMINI network were completely annihilated, making SCORPIO, who now resided within Iokath, truly the last of her kind.

The GEMINI droids make their initial appearance during Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire in Chapter VII: The Lady of Sorrows, and their role and origins are further explored in subsequent chapters. A line spoken by SCORPIO to her aide Thea, instructing her to continue their investigations into the GEMINI, exists within the game files but was ultimately omitted from the final version of the Chapter.