Dek-Nil


Dek-Nil was a first generation droideka who was reprogrammed by Doctor Aphra. He joined Aphra on a mission to retrieve the memories of Triple-Zero, and was later imprisoned in Accresker Jail along with her, being used as a hubdroid. As Aphra was attempting to escape the prison with the help of Dek-Nil, his restraining bolt was moved by a mysterious Force spirit, allowing the Imperial programming to control him. Aphra managed to override his restraining bolt in another escape attempt, but Dek-Nil was disassembled by the Force spirit. The apparent shape-shifter "Lopset Yas" retrieved Dek-Nil's head, along with his central processor, and carried it with him.

Skako Minor


Dek-Nil was part of Chelli Aphra's crew of mercenaries

Dek-Nil was part of Chelli Aphra's crew of mercenaries

The droideka that became Dek-Nil was reprogrammed by Doctor Chelli Aphra, who fitted him with probability tech, also tinkering with his existential circuits. Aphra made a decoy control circuit to prevent restraining bolts taking over the droid, hiding the real one behind beskar plating. Around 3 ABY, Dek-Nil was chosen by the assassin droid 0-0-0, leader of the Son-tuul Pride syndicate, as part of a crew put together in order to carry out a mission to Skako Minor in hopes of locating his memories. Once the crew arrived on Skako, the Skakoan Hallio Bas revealed that he had betrayed them, leading them into an Imperial trap. Aphra killed Bas and the Imperials with Flufto, an explosive tooka that she had cloned.

Able to continue their mission, the crew broke into the workshop of Wat Tambor. Dek-Nil was able to sense Magna Tolvan's Delta-class T-3c shuttle moments before it crashed into the workshop, awakening a chthonic worm god. During the resulting fight that occurred, Dek-Nil fired a shot that caused a stormtrooper to misfire and collapse the ceiling on the worm god, killing it. The crew looted what was left of the workshop before leaving Skako Minor. However, Aphra discovered that 0-0-0's memories were stored on the Tarkin Initiative space station Hivebase-1.

Hivebase-1


With the help of jump signatures located in Tambor's files, the crew managed to track down and locate the Rebel Alliance flight school Lucrehulk Prime. The Rebel officer Bini assumed the crew were recruits, showing them around the school. When Sister Six questioned where the Defel Glahst Ombra had gone, Dek-Nil cryptically predicted that Magna Tolvan was wearing Ombra's fur as a disguise, breaking a pipe that leaked onto the floor. The crew were then discovered by General Hera Syndulla, who realized they were mercenaries and imprisoned them. As Dek-Nil had predicted, Tolvan entered his and Aphra's cell wearing the fur of Ombra. As Tolvan questioned Aphra, threatening her, the pipe that Dek-Nil had broken leaked onto several wires, causing an electrical surge that knocked Tolvan unconscious and unlocked the prison's cells. The crew escaped the Lucrehulk-class Battleship, managing to capture General Syndulla as their prisoner.

Dek-Nil is shot by the Hivebase-1 rejects

Dek-Nil is shot by the Hivebase-1 rejects

Arriving at Hivebase-1, Aphra used Syndulla to both trick the Imperials into allowing them to board and to allow the Lucrehulk Prime to pursue them, becoming trapped in a skirmish with the Imperial forces. Before they could complete their mission, Tolvan informed Commander Yewl of their presence, leading Yewl to defrost the prototypes stored aboard the station. One of the prototypes shot Dek-Nil, seemingly destroying him.

However, Dek-Nil was not destroyed, and had been merely playing dead. He sabotaged the station's registry, renaming its firing patterns, before shooting at the scaraphyte swarm that surrounded the station, causing it to behave erratically. Dek-Nil's sabotage of the registry led one of the Imperials into saying the codeword that activated Aphra's exploding tookas, who had been let free around the station. The crew managed to complete their mission and steal the data from the station, but Dek-Nil was later found and captured by Tolvan, who sent him to Accresker Jail along with Aphra.

Failed escape attempt


Dek-Nil welcomes Chelli Aphra and Lopset Yas to his squad

Dek-Nil welcomes Chelli Aphra and Lopset Yas to his squad

Once he arrived at the wreckage-prison, Dek-Nil was taken and put to use as one of the many hubdroids. The Galactic Empire attempted to reprogram Dek-Nil by placing a restraining bolt on him, but Aphra had his real control circuit hidden behind a solid beskar casing. After being assigned a squad, Dek-Nil arranged for the deaths of his squad members in what appeared to be improbable accidents. During an attack on a Rebel Alliance EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, Dek-Nil encountered Aphra and her squad, who had sabotaged and destroyed their hubdroid moments earlier. Aphra, along with the apparent shape-shifter "Lopset Yas", the only survivor from their squad who was truly the rogue surgeon Cornelius Evazan in disguise, was saved by Dek-Nil, who transferred their proximity bombs to himself, preventing their detonation. Despite detecting a third lifeform, Dek-Nil transferred the two convicts into his squad.

Aphra led Dek-Nil and Yas to an escape pod, which had become stuck on the edge of the prison's airdome. Before they could board the escape pod, however, Dek-Nil's restraining bolt was mysteriously moved into place by a Force spirit. With the restraining bolt in place, the Imperial programming was able to take over his actions. Dek-Nil destroyed the escape pod, forcing Aphra and Yas to return to Accresker Jail. Aphra was later taken in for interrogation, where Dek-Nil suggested several ideas to stop Aphra resisting the mind probe. On their way back to the prison, Aphra pleaded with Dek-Nil, hoping he was pretending to be under Imperial control, but the droideka silenced her, ordering her back to her quarters.

Destruction


Shortly after the battle, Dek-Nil and another hubdroid detected a transmission being broadcasted from the prisoners' quarters, and went out searching for it. The two hubdroids were unsuccessful in finding it and soon after, the prisoners were assigned to attack another target. The prison arrived at the scene of three Imperial-class Star Destroyers, which had disabled a pirate station as a part of the Empire's bandit purges. The prisoners were released to lay siege on the stranded pirates, with Dek-Nil leading Aphra and Yas into the engagement. As they charged into battle, Aphra used Imperial authority code 6690B1 on Dek-Nil, overriding his restraining bolt, and forced him to take them around to a meeting point where Magna Tolvan had arrived to pick up Aphra and Yas.

The Force spirit disassembles Dek-Nil

The Force spirit disassembles Dek-Nil

Aphra and Yas were about to escape aboard Tolvan's TIE fighter when their plan was foiled by the Force spirit, who destroyed the sensor disruptors before leading Aphra to the abandoned wreckage of a Penumbra-1 shattersprite. Aphra, distracted by the ancient Jedi craft, went to investigate, and Dek-Nil followed. However, as they reached the ship, the spirit disassembled Dek-Nil with the Force, leaving his components scattered. Aphra discovered that the spirit's existence was due to gundravian hookspores mutated with the Force, but Aphra and Yas were forced to retreat due to the receding airdome. Yas took Dek-Nil's central processor along with them to keep their proximity bombs safe, and continued to carry the piece of Dek-Nil as they were forced to return to the prison.

After Aphra was forced to reveal the infestation of hookspores while being interrogated by the Mairan Bor Ifriem, the Accresker command abandoned the prison, setting its course to crash into the Rebel Alliance-affiliated planet Tiferep Major. Aphra, Tolvan, Yas and their associate Sana Starros broke into the wreckage of the Arquitens-class tug cruiser, and Yas carried Dek-Nil's central processor on his back. Once inside the cruiser, Aphra asked Yas to give her the piece of Dek-Nil, which she used to slice into the generator that controlled the gravity in the prison. Yas took Dek-Nil's head back after she had done so, and carried it with him once again.

Yas was still carrying the piece of Dek-Nil when Aphra froze him in his natural appearance as Evazan, so that she could trick the vigilante Tam Posla into trading what she thought was a shape-shifter for an escape shuttle. Posla later discovered he had been tricked, returning to Accresker. Yas went with him, tracking Aphra's proximity bomb using Dek-Nil. Yas continued to carry Dek-Nil on his back even as he stunned Aphra, taking her captive aboard Posla's ship. By the time that he had revealed his true identity as Evazan to her, he was no longer carrying the droid.

Characteristics


As a probability droid, Dek-Nil could predict events before they even happened, and could cause chain reactions that he knew the result of. His existential circuits had also been modified, causing him to incessantly make philosophical comments on the wonders of existence that others considered to be strange.

Dek-Nil fires upon an escape pod

Dek-Nil fires upon an escape pod

Despite being a droideka, Dek-Nil was heavily modified, only possessing one arm, which was armed with a blaster cannon, powerful enough to destroy an entire escape pod within seconds. He was altered to have a decoy control circuit, with the real circuit hidden behind beskar plating, preventing restraining bolts from affecting him. He was made of several mismatched parts, including the head of an astromech droid. When taken to Accresker Jail, he was given a restraining bolt and became one of the prison's hubdroids, but his decoy control circuit protected him. He was later taken control of by the Imperial programming, but Aphra freed him from it.

Behind the scenes


Dek-Nil first appeared in the 2017 canon comic Doctor Aphra (2016) 15, written by Simon Spurrier and illustrated by Emilio Laiso.

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