A nearly sentient being, resembling a dark fog, was brought into existence by the Galactic Empire. This occurred on the escort frigate that had been transformed into the Imperial Research Station 13 laboratory. The experiments conducted there were focused on accessing the power of the dark side of the Force. This entity was composed of a fragment of the dark side's essence, and it would seize control of sentient beings, consuming their life energy. Once created, this being attacked the starship's personnel, resulting in their collective demise.
Later, at some point during the Galactic Civil War, the light freighter called Sidewinder came within proximity of Imperial Research Station 13. The creature of the dark side manipulated 3PO-series protocol droids together with R2-series astromech droids to lure the freighter's passengers inside the frigate. Subsequently, it made a swift move toward the starship, taking over one of the new arrivals, and attempted to utilize the ship to flee to a region abundant with populated planets. Its goal was to sustain itself by devouring the life force of countless sentient beings. However, before it could succeed, the original crew of the Sidewinder chose to destroy their own vessel, sacrificing themselves to ensure the creature remained stranded. Following this, it proceeded to drain the life from those individuals over a period of several months before finally succumbing to starvation.
Sometime during the Imperial era under the Galactic Empire's rule, experiments were performed on Imperial Research Station 13, an Imperial escort frigate repurposed as a laboratory. These experiments, designed to exploit the dark side of the Force, resulted in the genesis of a nearly sentient fog-like being that sustained itself by feeding on the life energy of sentient creatures. The being turned against the starship's crew, causing their deaths and eventually taking control of one of their bodies. However, the last surviving member of the ship's crew disabled its engines before dying. Following this, the creature programmed the vessel's collection of 3PO-series protocol droids and R2-series astromech droids to act as an army of enslaved soldiers.
During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the light freighter Sidewinder, carrying a group of passengers, was escaping an Imperial invasion of the planet Tegrat located in the Outer Rim Territories' Koradin sector. The ship dropped out of hyperspace near Imperial Research Station 13. Subsequently, the frigate's tractor beam pulled the freighter in, causing it to dock with the larger vessel. The dark side creature, in need of a constant supply of life force to survive, devised a plan to use the Sidewinder to escape to a region with many populated planets, where it could sustain itself by consuming the inhabitants of various worlds.
To accomplish this, the creature employed its droid army to guide the light freighter's passengers deep into the frigate's interior. Eventually, the passengers of the Sidewinder entered a laboratory where the creature was lying in wait, accompanied by six droids. After the visitors to the frigate destroyed the droids within the room, the corpse inhabited by the dark side creature fell, striking its head. The body's head then shattered into dry, crusty fragments, and the creature emerged from its vessel, horrifying the other individuals present. The entity then rushed toward the Sidewinder, possessing one of the ship's passengers in the process.
Aboard the light freighter, the creature secured itself inside along with a pair of its droids. It then contacted droids stationed in Imperial Research Station 13's tractor beam control rooms, instructing them to release the freighter, and subsequently disengaged the Sidewinder from the frigate. The creature then began repairing the freighter's damaged hyperdrive engines in order to escape into hyperspace. However, it was ultimately prevented from doing so when the ship's original passengers—choosing to sacrifice their own lives to save millions of others—used the weaponry of the frigate to destroy the Sidewinder. Stranded once more, the dark side creature proceeded to drain the life force of the individuals aboard the frigate one by one, with each of them sustaining it for an additional month, until it eventually starved to death.
When not inhabiting a host body, the creature appeared as a dark mist, which was a fragment of the essence of the dark side of the Force. It required the life force of other beings to survive, and failure to obtain this would ultimately lead to its starvation and death as it became too weak to sustain itself. At the time of its encounter with the passengers of the Sidewinder, the creature was occupying the emaciated, desiccated corpse of a tall Human.
The fog-like creature had the ability to possess sentient beings, both living and deceased, such as Humans. Furthermore, while inhabiting a dead body, the creature could extract knowledge from its host's brain, which it could then use to perform tasks such as programming and giving instructions to droids.
The fog-like creature was featured in the roleplaying adventure "Imperial Research Station 13," authored by Lester W. Smith and published in the October–November 1990 forty-sixth edition of the Challenge magazine for use with Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game by West End Games. In the adventure, the creature has the ability to possess any of the player characters—the only characters who can potentially resist it are those who are Force-sensitive and proficient in the Control aspect of the Force or, even better, specifically in the Force of Will ability. The only method for the player characters to eliminate the entity is to cause it to starve to death.
When the player characters initially encounter the creature in its Human vessel, they have the option to either shoot it or capture it, with the creature emerging from its host body in either scenario (if the Human is captured, it collapses upon being touched). Following this, the creature proceeds to possess the character who is nearest to the Sidewinder—if this character is aboard Imperial Research Station 13, they will then run toward the light freighter. Alternatively, if a player character has remained on the freighter, the creature will rush toward the starship itself and then possess them. Finally, "Imperial Research Station 13" also presents an alternative, less deadly outcome for the player characters. This involves a skilled Force-user sensing a disturbance in the Force caused by the creature and then arriving at the location aboard a Rebel Alliance starship to investigate. The Force-user then destroys the entity's physical form before it has possessed its second victim. This article assumes the scenario unfolds as described.