Remote/Legends



"Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living? That's something else."

- Han Solo

Remote was a broad word to describe an entire class of restricted automatons. These automatons had no independent initiative, and only acted on orders given by their owners. Like droids, remotes possessed a limited degree of intelligence and drew from a library of preprogrammed instructions and past experience to complete their tasks. The remotes themselves were usually fifteen centimeter diameter spheres covered with maneuvering thrusters, laser emitters, and sensors.

Characteristics
The onboard computer housed inside a remote was programmed with numerous combat drills. Each drill ended after a preset time or when a score had been reached. The trainee would set their blaster to emit only light, so as not to damage the remote. The sensors on the remote automatically detected light and scored it as a hit. For novice-levels, the remote moved slowly and the stun blasters were not used. However, at expert settings, the remote was able to weave around the opponent going full speed and constantly fired stinging stun blasts. Marksman-H remotes were also excellent for lightsaber drills&mdash;because the remote's stun blasts had a greater reach than a lightsaber's blade, the trainee would have to deflect numerous stun blasts while waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.

The stun blasters were different from one remote to another, and varied from light discharges which were merely sensed to full-intensity beams which could numb a limb for several minutes. The selected difficulty level determined the remote's firing rate, which could be set to speeds up to twice per second. The accuracy as also variable, but the advanced settings used very precise targeting for better practice dodging attacks.

For movement, the remote used a small repulsorlift generator which could achieve a top speed of twenty-five kilometers per hour. Eight maneuvering thrusters made the remote extremely nimble; combined with it's fast acceleration and deceleration, this made for an unpredictable practice.

Remotes were rarely used offensively, however, Imperial cities were known to carry some to swarm and surprise enemies

History
Many Force-users (such as the Jedi Younglings) used remotes as training tools to hone blaster defense abilities by deflecting the remote's low energy plasma blasts with their lightsabers. Some would also cover their eyes with some sort of shield, relying exclusively on the Force to guide their actions. Typically, remote training was used in conjunction with the basic Form I of lightsaber combat.

Some models, such as the common Marksman-H training remote, were used by marksmen to practice quickdraw skills, reaction times, and accuracy. Depending on the training program being run, this could be difficult, as the fast and nimble droids were very difficult to hit, especially from a distance. In order to prevent permanent damage, trainees usually fired light-only bolts at the remote.

Although used primarily for training purposes, remotes could also be configured to serve in a variety of other roles, including long-range surveillance, as a portable microphone, and even as a cargo mover.

Specially modified remotes called seekers were used by Imperial forces in pursuit of certain targets. Fitted with deadly armament and highly capable sensors, these mobile remotes were capable of wreaking havoc due to the difficulty in targeting them.

One of the few remotes to gain note was one created by a Zabrak named Bao-Dur. After he created the remote, it followed him through his life and even through the Mandalorian Wars that the Zabrak helped end at Malachor V. Later Bao-Dur and the remote met the Exile that he had earlier met in the Mandalorian Wars. After the remote and Bao-Dur followed the Exile back to Malachor V, Bao-Dur asked the remote to activate the destructive Mass Shadow Generator that he created to end the earlier war. The remote performed his master's request and stayed behind to ensure the activation of the generator.

Behind the scenes
The training remote in A New Hope was cited as inspiration for NASA's SPHERES program of miniature satellites.

In Star Wars Battlefront II, the auto turret has a similar body of a training remote.

Non-canonical appearances

 * Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars: Yoda Stories