During the era of the Galactic Empire, a crimson droid was employed by the criminal syndicate known as the Cyban Front. This droid, identifiable by its red hue, along with a blue droid, represented the Cyban Front at the auction of the Rur Crystal circa 1 ABY. The auction was hosted by the renegade archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra aboard the Sorca Retreat space station. Their intention was to obliterate the crystal due to the [technopathy](/article/technopathy] of Eternal Rur, the consciousness residing within, as they believed control over technology threatened droid rights.
The red droid's associate, the blue droid, was overtaken by Rur due to the machinations of Aphra's droids, 0-0-0 and BT-1, and subsequently commenced an attack on the other attendees. In the resulting pandemonium, the red droid attempted to flee but was annihilated by Darth Vader, the Sith Lord, after Imperial forces boarded the station to halt the auction.
During the Galactic Empire's reign, the red droid served the Cyban Front, a criminal organization connected to the Droid Gotra syndicate. Around 1 ABY, Doctor Chelli Aphra, a rogue archaeologist, organized an auction for the Rur Crystal, which housed Eternal Rur, the consciousness of the long-dead Jedi Knight Rur. The red droid, accompanied by a blue partner, attended the auction on the Sorca Retreat space station on behalf of the Cyban Front, alongside various other groups. Their goal was to acquire and then destroy the Rur crystal because of Eternal Rur's [technopathy](/article/technopathy], which they feared would endanger the already precarious position of droids in the galaxy.
Following the arrival of the auction guests, Aphra presented the crystal and described its abilities, at which point the red droid's associate questioned the reality of technopathy. The red droid rebuffed its comrade, who then requested evidence of these abilities. Aphra permitted the crystal to possess the blue droid, and Rur launched himself forward in the droid's form before Krrsantan, the archaeologist's bounty hunter associate, shot and destroyed it. After its partner's destruction, the red droid affirmed the existence of technopathy.
The auction attendees then began to determine their bids, and the red droid's partner was taken for repairs. Aphra arranged meetings with potential bidders, including the red droid, and questioned it about its offer as it watched its comrade being repaired. The droid clarified the Cyban Front's intention to destroy the crystal but assured her of the significant amount offered and promised to settle any debts the archaeologist owed to the organizations it represented. Although Aphra was disappointed by the droids' intentions, she considered the offer but ultimately awarded the crystal to the Shadow University academic institution.
Unbeknownst to the red droid and Aphra, the archaeologist's two assassin droids, 0-0-0 and BT-1, secretly inserted the crystal into the blue droid's chassis, allowing Rur to possess it once more. Before the unsuccessful guests could leave the station, a furious Rur, in the blue droid's body and wielding two lightsabers, appeared to attack the guests. Simultaneously, 0-0-0 engaged the station's turrets, setting them to automatically target the escaping criminals. Amidst the initial chaos, the red droid managed to avoid both its partner and the station's turrets, encountering Aphra, who believed that all the machinery in the room had been seized by Rur's technopathy. However, upon realizing that the red droid was unaffected, Aphra understood that Rur did not possess his technopathy abilities, deducing 0-0-0's involvement in controlling the turrets.
The red droid inquired whether Aphra had programmed a destruction fail-safe into its associate. Upon learning that she had not, the droid planned to leave the station. During the skirmish, the droid sustained damage, losing its right arm. As the droid attempted to exit the Sorca Retreat, forces of the Galactic Empire, led by Darth Vader, the Sith Lord, arrived at the station, having been alerted to the criminal gathering by 0-0-0. The droid panicked upon seeing the Imperials and tried to escape, but Vader destroyed it, using the Force to shatter it into pieces. The droid's partner, still possessed by Eternal Rur, was also ultimately destroyed by Vader, who then retrieved the Rur crystal from its remains.
This Cyban Front droid featured red plating with black stripes on either side of its head. It possessed three yellow sensors on its face, with the largest positioned above the other two. The droid had a humanoid shape, with two legs and arms, and three-fingered hands. When the droid spoke, it prefaced its statements with a descriptor of the sentence that followed.
As an affiliate of the Droid Gotra, it championed rights for droids, believing their position in the galaxy was often marginalized. Consequently, the droid opposed technopathy due to its capacity to control droids, desiring the destruction of the Rur crystal despite its potential benefits. The droid assumed that Doctor Chelli Aphra intended to install a destruction fail-safe in its partner during repairs, and sarcastically questioned Aphra about this assumption.
The red Cyban Front droid made its debut in the ninth issue of the 2016 comic series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra. The issue was penned by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Kev Walker, and published by Marvel Comics on July 12, 2017. The Doctor Aphra 9 panel following the blue droid's objection to technopathy depicts the red droid arguing against the ability, while the blue droid counters its point. Since the preceding and subsequent panels establish that the blue droid was the one disputing technopathy, this article assumes the dialogue in that panel is misattributed.