The Essential Guide to Droids (Page 18-19)
Protocol: M-3PO Military Protocol Droid
[edit]The M-3PO military protocol unit is a small but important subset of Cybot Galactica’s total 3PO output. In the years since their introduction, the metal experts have become increasingly common in Alliance military garrisons and starfighter bases, much to some soldiers’ dismay. The droids might look different from their diplomatic counterparts, the disgruntled grunts complain, but they’re no less annoying.
Despite their "military" designation, M-3PO units aren’t built for combat. Instead, the droids are administrative organizers acquainted with the rules, regulations, and procedures of over six million military and paramilitary organizations both past and present, including honor codes, ceremonial protocols, and historical military doctrines.
M-3PO units often specialize in equipment requisitioning, barracks billeting, duty roster planning, and personnel file management. Though they never shirk their duties, they are notorious sticklers for paperwork and going through "proper channels." Since most military bureaucracies are hopelessly sluggish, a simple order for two dozen blaster rifles can take a regiment’s M-3PO weeks to fill.
The droids have standard 3PO bodies painted black, and clamshell-shaped heads appropriated from Cybot Galactica’s discontinued KW traffic controller line. Two red photoreceptors glow from the dark cavity between the upper and lower halves of the head where most of the communication and sensor equipment is stuffed. M-3POs are susceptible to all the physical shortcomings of the 3PO series, including stiff joints and poor balance.
The quartermaster of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic’s fight to capture Coruscant was an M-3PO unit nicknamed "Emtrey." Years earlier, the droid had been cobbled together at Echo Base on Hoth with parts from three junked M-3POs. This radical rebuild allowed his assemblers to make some unique modifications to Cybot Galactica’s basic design.
Emtrey was programmed with commodities-brokering software and given a second "scrounging" personality, allowing him to engage in bribery, bartering, and black-market transactions. Furthermore, upon hearing a verbal code phrase, Emtrey slumped into an inactive wait-state so that his memories and trade files could be accessed remotely. The only way to rouse him from this stupor was to depress the red reset button hidden at the top of his neck post.
Emtrey fulfilled a dual role, executing the squadron’s day-to-day administrative duties while simultaneously keeping an eye on Tycho Celchu, a suspected Imperial pawn, at the behest of New Republic General Airen Cracken. Following Celchu’s exoneration, Emtrey stayed on with the squadron and served with distinction for many more years.
Info Boxes
[edit]Front View
[edit]- Military Database Computer
- Auditory Sensors
- Photoreceptors
- Reset Button
- Olfactory Sensor
- Support Piston
- Restraining Bolt Mount
- Recharge Coupling
- Servomotor
- Powerbus Cables
- Intermotor Actuating Coupling
- Reinforced Knee Joint
Side View Head Detail
[edit]- Military Database Computer
- Auditory Sensors
- Photoreceptors
- Reset Button
- Olfactory Sensor
- Support Piston
- Restraining Bolt Mount