Viper probe droid

This article is about the Viper probe droid, manufactured by Arakyd Industries. You may be looking for other probe droids.

"We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy. I want proof, not leads!"

―Admiral Kendal Ozzel —

Listen (file info)^[6]

The Viper probe droid, commonly referred to as the probot or Imperial probe droid, was a deep-space exploration and reconnaissance probe droid produced by Arakyd Industries. The Viper model was based on the success of Galalloy Industries' early probe droids. The design of the probot also relied heavily on the work of Viper Sensor Intelligence Systems, a corporation acquired by Arakyd during the Clone Wars. Though they were used almost exclusively by the military, they were considered class two exploration droids.

Specifications[]

"'Fraid there's not much left."
"What was it?"
"A droid of some kind. I didn't hit it that hard. It must've had a self-destruct."

―Han Solo and Princess Leia —

Listen (file info)^[6]

ProbeDroid egvv — Viper probe droid schematics.

The lightly-armored Viper droid measured 1.6 meters in height with five manipulator arms extending from a central pod and several retractable sensor arms for gathering samples. High resolution receivers and sensors covered the domed head—including motion, acoustic, sonic, and seismic sensors, a radiation meter, magnetic imager, and holocamera. It had an atmosphere sensor capable of determining a planet's atmosphere class within one half-hour. It moved on a repulsorlift generator which was equipped to operate over any terrain.^[1] One of the arms was high-torque, and the droid was equipped with a floodlight on its head.^[7] In addition, when making transmissions, the probe droid emitted a audio encrypted imperial computer code set of an unknown serial number.

Information was relayed back to its superiors via a high-frequency HoloNet transceiver. Its repulsorlift engines carried the droid across terrain at up to 40 km/h, while the arms gathered samples. Vipers were delivered to their targets through single-use custom built hyperspace pods. They were commonly deployed along the perimeters of key strategic star systems and hyperlanes to act as automated guardians.^[1]

Typically, a Viper probe droid cost 14,500 credits.^[1] They were capable of being deployed from Galactic Empire Command centers.^[8]

History[]

Viper probe droid and Quarren — A Quarren evades a Viper probe droid.

Arakyd probe droids were originally designed for use by the Galactic Republic in survey and exploration duty.^[1] Some droids were applied to military uses; for example, the Confederacy of Independent Systems employed a number of upgraded probots during the invasion of Kashyyyk during the Clone Wars.^[4] With the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire, Arakyd produced new modified versions of their probots with military-level sensors and equipment and marketed them as Viper probe droids.^[1]

The Empire's probing eyes[]

ViperProbeDroid-NEGTD — A Viper probe droid

Viper probots in service with the Empire were upgraded under the direct supervision of Darth Vader and featured a blaster cannon, a self-destruct mechanism, and, in some cases, deflector shields.^[1] These armed probe droids formed part of the security/defensive force of various bases of the Galactic Empire, such as Gromas Mines, Imperial Detention Center, the area around the Imperial Security Operations building in the Imperial City, even inside the Executor. Moff Rebus employed some droids as security for his hideout in Anoat City, including probe droids. Rebel agent Kyle Katarn dealt with those droids while sabotaging the Dark Trooper Project.^[9]

The droids also saw wide service with the Imperial Intelligence's Analysis Bureau, which used them as remote surveillance droids posted largely in the Outer Rim Territories. In conflict zones, probots often worked alongside the Imperial Navy to monitor traffic and provide early warnings of attack.^[1] They could also be programmed to engage pursuit mode, whereupon the Viper would track an enemy vessel and report back on its location and destination.^[source?]

AnoatCity-DFRemaster — Kyle Katarn shoots a hovering Viper probe droid guarding the area of the Anoat sewers.

Shortly after the Battle of Tatooine, the Empire dispatched various probe droids to Tatooine in an attempt to recover the stolen plans for the Death Star.^[10] Six months after the Battle of Yavin, the Galactic Empire sent a detachment of probe droids to root out Rebel Commander Luke Skywalker. They were destroyed by Skywalker and Rogue Squadron.^[11] Probe droids were also used to scout ahead for Imperial strike forces, including during the Reytha campaign^[8] and the battle at Corellia, or were sent on search missions like at Chorax.^[11] Several were also dispatched to Dantooine as security measures while the Imperials arrived on the planet to detain the defecting Imperial officer Tycho Celchu.^[12]

Following the Evacuation of Yavin, the Empire commissioned thousands of probe droids to scour the galaxy for hidden Rebel Alliance bases.^[1] This large new line of Viper droids was manufactured on Mechis III. Darth Vader personally oversaw the project from the start, visiting the manufacturing facility^[2] and assigning ships of his Death Squadron to deploy them into the far reaches of space.^[6] The overall military and political goal was to pin down the elusive and mobile Alliance High Command.^[1] Vader himself was obsessed above all with hunting down Luke Skywalker.^[6] He transmitted special orders that the probes be programmed to prioritize both Skywalker and the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's starship.^[13]

The Empire's success with the Arakyd's military model of the Viper yielded plans for the C-Viper probe droid, a more streamlined variant designed for planetary law enforcement organizations.^[14]

Eyes and ears of the revolution[]

"Go and report. You have much to see. Burn brightly."

―IG-88, to the last Viper probe droid constructed on Mechis III^[2]

When Darth Vader commissioned the construction of thousands of Viper probe droids on Mechis III, he was unaware that the rogue assassin droid IG-88 had taken control of the planet's automated factories. IG-88 was slowly developing plans for a Droid Revolution in which the droids of the galaxy would rise up together and seize power from organic life. Vader's visit to Mechis was in fact the closest the conspiracy ever came to being discovered; but the IG droids masked their purpose well, and Vader only sensed a slight disturbance whose source he could not pinpoint.^[2]

Vader impressed IG-88, both for the raw power he commanded and his blending of organic and mechanical traits. IG-88 decided to use Vader and his commissioned line of probe droids as an integral part of his plan. He gave them a secondary set of programming. They received the same sentience programming that the IG-88 droids had themselves, and they became clandestine solders in his Droid Army. As they went about their missions for the Empire, they were to secretly relay their intelligence back to Mechis III. Thus, they simultaneously served as the eyes and ears of the revolution. Through them, IG-88 would learn about the Empire's plans, actions and vulnerabilities. Eventually, the droids planned to appropriate the Empire's power and make it their own.^[2]

Locating Echo Base[]

"I think we've got something, sir. The report is only a fragment from a probe droid in the Hoth system, but it's the best lead we've had."

―Captain Firmus Piett, to Admiral Kendal Ozzel^[6]

ProbedroidTCGDesolationofHoth — A Viper probe droid on Hoth.

One Arakyd Viper, launched from an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer of Death Squadron,^[15] landed on the ice planet Hoth as part of Vader's galaxy-wide search for the hidden Rebel base.^[6] After it emerged from its hyperspace pod, the probe droid detected a faint comm signal and began to travel toward its probable destination point.^[1] It encountered a wampa ice creature, at first probing it with its laser, then vaporizing it when it appeared to be a threat.^[16] The probe droid had to shut down most of its power during a fierce snowstorm that night, activating its particle shield to protect itself from the thick snow hazard.^[1]

The next morning the droid entered Zone 12 outside the Rebels' Echo Base. It detected the base's large deflector shield generator and began to record it, transmitting the information to Darth Vader's flagship, the Executor. It went on to map out other features of Echo Base and its defenses, information that would be critical for the Empire in the coming battle.^[1] IG-88, back on Mechis III, received the same information. IG-88B traveled to Hoth to observe and learn from Vader's subsequent actions.^[2]

"Princess, we have a visitor. We've picked up something outside the base in Zone Twelve, moving east."

―General Carlist Rieekan, to Princess Leia Organa^[6]

Warning sensors placed by Han Solo had already picked up traces of the probe, alerting the Rebels to the presence of an unidentified object.^[17] The droid was next detected by a lone trooper in Station 3-8; the probe droid destroyed the station with its blaster before the trooper could visually confirm what it was.^[16] Solo and Chewbacca were dispatched to the nearby Ceyan Range.^[18] The probe detected their approach but was no match for them. While Chewbacca acted as a decoy, Solo blasted the confused droid from the other direction.^[1] Seeing that it was cornered, the droid activated its self-destruct mechanism to avoid capture.^[6]

The Rebels realized they had been discovered and prepared to evacuate. On the Executor, Admiral Kendal Ozzel dismissed the idea that the probe's fragmentary data proved anything, but Vader was confident that the probe droid had discovered the hidden Rebel base. Death Squadron proceeded to Hoth and launched a full-scale ground assault, which occupied the base and scattered the Rebels.^[6]

Later use[]

After the Battle of Hoth, Arakyd and the Empire cooperated to produce the Infiltrator probe droid, a new version of the Viper designed to sabotage and seize control of a starship.^[19]

The would-be droid revolution, which involved numerous Viper probes as co-conspirators, was snuffed out in 4 ABY. IG-88A installed his droid consciousness into the computer core of the second Death Star as a final preparatory step. IG-88 was to send out a signal to droids everywhere, including the line of Viper probe droids, to rise up and turn on their masters. But the Battle of Endor ended with the Death Star destroyed and the planned revolution in shambles.^[2]

As the Empire lost ground to the New Republic, it continued to make use of Viper probe droids. In 5 ABY, Jerec and his Vengeance Battle Group, discovered Ruusan and sent several probe droids before his invasion. The battle group used more heavily-armed probe droids boasting four energy cannons, one at each side.^[20]

The Empire Reborn developed the Hunter-Killer probot, a variant of the Viper probe droid scaled up to a colossal size that could operate as an autonomous patrol ship.^[21] In 14 ABY the Jedi Jaden Korr encountered probe droids used by the Imperial Remnant on his scouting mission on Hoth.^[5]

Behind the scenes[]

One of artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud's designs was used for the probe droid in The Empire Strikes Back. Later Star Wars films also share many visual characteristics with Giraud's work, particularly the depiction of Coruscant.

MCQ-probedroid — Probe droid concept art by Ralph McQuarrie.

The film THX 1138 features numerous radio voices that sound strikingly similar to and likely influenced the strange electronic voice of the probe droid in Empire.

Star Wars: Rebellion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide explains that Imperial probe droids are equipped with small hyperdrives, enabling them to scout the galaxy without needing to be deployed by capital ships, for use in the video game Star Wars: Rebellion. This serves as the game-mechanics explanation for the absence of the Predator I Probe-Mate jump pod in Star Wars: Rebellion, which is the Viper probe droid's mode of hyperspace transportation.

Probe droids also appear in the 2006 video game LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, a humorous take on the original trilogy in LEGO form. The game is also included in its 2007 compilation re-release.

It should be noted that the main image used on this article is a picture of the damaged model from the Lucasfilm Archives, with its right antenna bent slightly to the left.