Bio:

First activated on Kuat, unit 9-LOM.D5.L11.D84, colloquially known as 9-LOM, was the property of a wealthy heiress and her husband and served as their protocol droid and administrative assistant during the height of the Republic. However, it did not take long for the programming glitches which plagued other LOM-series protocol droids, such as infamous bounty hunter 4-LOM, to manifest themselves in 9-LOM as well.

9-LOM found himself compelled to disobey orders as well as lie for personal gain, leaving his owners' residence at odd hours and pursuing side work as an information broker, low-level spy, and go-between for the local criminal element operating in the vicinity of his owners' residence. After amassing a decent number of credits, 9-LOM opted to surreptitiously buy his own starship - a DeepWater-class light freighter - and abandoned his former owners.

After striking out on his own, 9-LOM partnered with the astromech unit R3-T7, nicknamed "Hero"; the pair began making a name for themselves as droids-for-hire, with 9-LOM commonly acting as a bodyguard, courier, spy, and information broker. With the outbreak of the Clone Wars, 9-LOM chose to continue supporting the Republic, although this led to him experiencing firsthand the prejudice against droids which the Clone Wars manifested. Nevertheless, he participated behind-the-scenes as an espionage and infiltration specialist, briefly crossing paths with notable faces on both sides of the conflict.

When the Clone Wars ending and the Galactic Empire was formed, 9-LOM and Hero mostly found themselves back where they'd started, making credits doing odd jobs on the fringes of Imperial space. No friend of the Empire's totalitarian regime, 9-LOM regularly took contracts from the fledgling Rebel Alliance until he was ultimately compelled to join the Rebellion proper after an escort mission for a Rebel spy on Barkhesh.

After joining the Rebellion 9-LOM was assigned to the Infiltrators where he served with distinction, including operations on Fest and Idomar, and was outfitted with an array of internal equipment and upgrades. He was ultimately assigned to the Rebel base on Hoth, where he began to demonstrate his piloting aptitude by flying occasional sorties in snowspeeders and X-wings. While he did not participate in the ground battle on Hoth, 9-LOM did fly an X-wing in some of the evacuation efforts. Following the battle, 9-LOM transferred to the Starfighter Corps on a permanent basis as a member of Corsair Squadron, occupying the slot of Corsair Four. He eventually advanced into the esteemed ranks of Rogue Squadron, before being promoted to Corsair CO.

9-LOM appears at first glance to be a matte black, unmodified LOM-series protocol droid with grey photoreceptors, and while he features all of the linguistic and ettiquite capabilities of a stock model, his chassis houses numerous enhancements such as upgraded servomotors, a short range repulsor in his left palm, electromagnets in his right palm and feet, a code slicer in his right middle finger, and a hold-out blaster in a retracting holster in his right thigh. 9-LOM's weapon of choice is a Czerka AM-125 repeating slugthrower, which features a rotating cartridge that allows for multiple types of ammunition. 9-LOM is still partnered with his astromech Hero, who serves as his copilot/navigator when flying astromech-enabled craft.

9-LOM exudes a quiet menace and can seem intimidating despite his short statue due to his unreadable features and the historic instability of his model, although much of this is a facade. He bears no resentment towards organic beings despite the common prejudices against droids, and secretly seeks to prove his worth. This need to subvert droid expectations occasionally pushes him to take unnecessary, but calculated, risks.

Bio:

As the eldest of a large Zeltron family, Gemilan - known as Gemi - grew up surrounded by siblings. She enjoyed school, excelling in mathematics and the sciences, but while she would have liked to take her studying further she knew it would not be possible. Her family was unable to afford the cost of university study, so she would have to find a job.

At the age of 16, she joined a tradeship as a trainee engineer and back-up pilot. Her birth-father was a pilot and she seemed to have inherited his skills, enjoying the challenge of flying the Dropkick Murphy whenever she could. She was surprised to discover that, as well as its legal cargoes, the ship also carried a range of less savoury goods in smuggling compartments. During a visit to Coruscant, Gemi was stashed in one of the hidden holds with a blaster to guard an illicit cargo of spice while the rest of the crew were undergoing immigration procedures. Unfortunately, the otherwise-empty ship was stolen by a couple of hot-headed young idiots seeking to escape Imperial entanglement. By the time the McCauley twins discovered her, they were far away from Coruscant - and her crew.

Jack and Connor McCauley would happily have abandoned their unexpected stowaway, but her engineering skills came in handy when the Dropkick Murphy kept breaking down. By the time they reached their destination, Gemilan had acquired a new nickname, Gremlin, because the brothers blamed her for the ship's mechanical faults. Unknown to Gremlin, the McCauleys were due to meet with a contact from the Rebellion, who was seeking to recruit them to the Alliance cause. However, they were caught in an Imperial ambush: Connor was shot, Jack and Gremlin barely escaped. Jack, nursing his grief, told Gemi he hoped he would never see her again and the pair parted company, leaving Gremlin with the Dropkick Murphy and its secret cargo of spice.

Experiencing the Imperial attack, combined with the Empire's growing repression of non-humans, motivated Gremlin to join the Rebellion. She put the Murphy in storage, spice and all, and signed up. She was sent to one of the Rebels' piloting academies, based on a planet known as 'Rainworld' for its stormy weather, and began her new career as a would-be fighter pilot. Her training officer was one Lieutenant Roy 'Lock' Callahan; the pair had, at times, a combative relationship as Gremlin struggled to adapt to military discipline but she loved the speed and responsiveness of her X-wing snubfighter, though she still had a lot to learn.

Just how much was made clear when Gremlin and seven other cadets graduated early into Bantha Squadron, which had Lock as its new XO. Their first mission was a disaster: the CO was killed, as were most of the cadets, and Gremlin initially struggled with survivor's guilt. The group was quickly transferred into the newly-constituted Red Squadron, commanded by a Mandalorian mercenary, Meg "Flash" Avern, and Gremlin settled into the role of a snubfighter pilot. Life expectancy was short; comrades quickly became family. Gremlin flew to protect her squadmates and her own family, far away on Zeltros. She made mistakes, survived and learned from them; bacta took away the worst of the physical scars and the support of her colleagues helped with the mental ones.

Gremlin is extremely loyal to her squadmates and takes happiness seriously - theirs and hers. She is passionate about the Rebels' cause, though not blindly idealistic - she is well aware of what they are up against and knows their realistic chances of survival. Sometimes this leaves her feeling down, a state alien to her usual Zeltron cheerfulness, and she needs to be coaxed out of her sadness to regain her normal place at the centre of a crowd.

Her skillset expanded when members of the Rancors, an elite Commando unit, joined the Reds. The squadron was trained to undertake clandestine special operations and in addition to her engineering knowledge, Gremlin became the unit's demolitions specialist, a task she enjoyed. Or as she put it happily, "This means I can blow Imps up in space and on the ground!" Lock, who had been CO of the Reds for some time, was heard to wonder aloud if this was a good idea after all.