On the planet Bestine IV (better known simply at Bestine), much progress was being made in terms of droid sovereignty. Citizen-Droid enclaves were formed, and droids lived shoulder to shoulder with their Bestinian human and alien counterparts.

Bestine, like Mon Calamari, was a mostly aquatic world, which had a tendency to breed an engineering-class capable of exceptional feats of aquatic, and by extension, aeronautical construction and innovation. Bestine’s Orbital Drive Yards were well regarded from the ages of the Old Republic to the time of the Galactic Empire. However, being prominent in the Inner Rim, and right on the Correllian Trade Spine, Bestine’s ship building capacity did not escape the attention of the Empire. As the Emperor embarked on increasing the Empire’s occupational and ‘peace-keeping’ capacity, Bestine’s drive yards were fully Imperialized, displacing thousands of Bestinians.

TIMM-3, a Droid Technician Specialist, was living with his commune of Citizen-Droids, working in the orbital Bestine Orbital Drive Yards in the years preceding the Imperial takeover. With a knack for Droid design, TIMM-3 was responsible mainly for production, innovation, and upkeep of the DUM division of Labor droids in the drive yards.

He developed good relations with many of the traders, pilots, and staff of the Yards, making especially close acquaintance with Jek Porkins, a trader pilot, and fiercely proud Bestinian. TIMM-3 loved sitting in the Yard Cafeteria Halls listening to Jek recount his space travels over bowl after steaming bowl of sink-crab stew.

As the reality of the Imperial annexation of the Bestine Dockyards took hold, it was notable that the Imperial ruling class had no place for Droid sovereignty, in fact quite the opposite. Droids were enslaved, scrapped and, terribly, melted down at random, and seemingly at the whim of the Imperial officers commanding the Imperial Drive Yards. TIMM-3 lost many friends in these early days, and jumped at the chance when Jek offered to take a derelict freighter and defect from Imperial control.

The decision to leave Bestine was one TIMM-3 would later recall as the inflection point of his existence thus far. Jek had found a small collection of Rebel pilots near Tierfon, and at the Tierfon Rebel Outpost, Jek joined the fledgling starfighter training group, the Tierfon Yellow Aces.

TIMM-3’s mechanical aptitude was soon put to work, helping maintain and repair the outpost’s various spacecraft. He continued to help with droid construction as well, specializing for quite some time in the creation of astromechs for his piloting comrades, including R5-D8, a proud and highly competent R unit whom TIMM-3 created specifically for Jek and Jek’s T-65 X-wing.

Sure enough, Tierfon Rebel Outpost soon became known by the fledgling Rebel Alliance as a source of exemplary pilots and equipment. In fact, after the destruction of Alderaan, the Yellow Aces were called up to deploy and fill the ranks of Yavin Base. Jek Porkins, and Yellow Ace friend Wes Janson, were called up to full active duty for the Alliance when their transfer orders came in from General Jan Dodonna.

TIMM-3 can still clearly recall that day, years ago now, when Jek proudly told him that he was being deployed to Yavin Base. TIMM-3, now a captain at Tierfon Base would say his goodbyes (of course, not knowing that it would be the last time he saw Jek and R5-D8). Dutifully, Captain TIMM-3 would continue his droid production and starship maintenance duties on Tierfon Base.

The rest, we know, is history, the Galactic Civil War was fought, and won by the Rebel Alliance. Tierfon, through the Galactic Civil War, somehow maintained a low enough profile that the Imperials never discovered it. TIMM-3 saw the faces of many a new recruit come through the base hangar doors to hone their skills on the T-65 X-Wing and BTL Y-wing training models that TIMM-3 dutifully kept in pristine repair. He continued to make droids for base usage, and experimented with numerous design models, including a companion model, LA-553, who TIMM-3 designed as a base security prototype (fortunately, never to be used on Tierfon). “For Jek” his cyberneuronals sparked every morning when TIMM-3 reactivated.

After the Truce at Bakura marked the official end of the Galactic Civil War, Tierfon was downgraded to peacetime operations, and TIMM-3 decided it was time to move on to his next adventure. At the recommendation of Commander Wes Janson, TIMM-3 sought work with a group of mercenaries. After all, a Droid Tech’s skills, especially a wartime veteran and officer like TIMM-3, are likely to be just as valuable in the fledgling New Republic as they were in the Civil War.

10 Responsibility. Abolitionist with the cause of Droid Rights.