Power Guards

Power Guards are synthetically augmented supersoldiers created by a secret Republic research project. Ethical and legal restrictions against experimenting on living soldiers required the Republic military to conduct the research as a black ops project on Nar Shaddaa; on the virtually lawless Hutt moon, those in charge could easily acquire technology and resources that were banned in the Republic without raising suspicion in the Senate. However, being located on a non-Republic-controlled world left the project vulnerable to enemy attack or infiltration in the event of discovery.

(Codex Text - Star Wars the Old Republic / SWTOR - Knight Class Story)