The Essential Guide to Droids (Page 24-25)
Protocol: PD Lurrian Protocol Droid
[edit]The PD series was an embarrassing and costly disaster for Cybot Galactica, though not through any fault of its own. Rather, the company was blindsided by the vagaries of the market and the capriciousness of Imperial lawmakers.
Niche marketing can generate big payouts when done correctly, and Cybot Galactica had a ripe target. The alien Lurrians were innate geniuses at genetic manipulation and had amassed an ample treasury. Unfortunately, their frozen homeworld’s harsh climate was tough on droids, and the automatons had never caught on as a consumer product among the inhabitants of Lur. Cybot’s engineers decided to design a new protocol droid specifically for the Lurrian market.
The Lurrians were humanoid, so a stock protocol unit was used as a base. The exposed stomach wires, common to the 3PO series, were lightly shut behind plasteel plating, and all joints and seams were treated with weather-resistant industrial sealant. The shock-proof outer casing was produced in three bright colors — red, yellow, and orange — for better visibility against the snow.
The head was replaced with a new design, with stylized features more familiar to the wide-eyed Lurrians. Additionally, a jutting brow ridge prevented falling snow from obscuring the oversized photoreceptors. A standard AA-1 Verbobrain served as the droid’s intelligence bank, with sixty percent of the language programming removed in favor of an extensive library on genetics and DNA resequencing.
But the most innovative change was dictated by Lur's steep terrain. The Lurrians inhabit warrenlike cities bored into snowy ravines and glacier peaks by genetically engineered asgnat swarms. Since Lur's gale-force winds can buffet a repulsorlift vehicle straight into a cliff face, many of the natives traverse their vertical environment via primitive hook and line.
The PD's delicate hands were exchanged for heavy servogrips, allowing it to cope with the terrain. Fully detachable, the hands could be fired with a controlled burst from rockets located at the wrist joints. A line of thin, but strong, cable spooled out from a reel in each forearm and could easily pull the droid up to a new perch once the hands had secured a firm hold.
The Lurrians expressed strong interest in the PD design, and thousands were produced—only to go unsold when the Emperor quarantined the entire planet to keep Lur's genetic scientists under his thumb. With no market, Cybot Galactica sold the entire production line to a major wholesaler at a loss.
Despite their highly specialized environmental adaptations, the PD models are still perfectly serviceable protocol units, particularly if their buyer has an interest in genetics. Zorneth the Ithorian, codeveloper of the mind-altering savorium herb, kept a crimson PDA6 as his personal assistant aboard his herdship.
Info Boxes
[edit]Front View
[edit]- Plasteel Body Casing
- Auditory Sensors
- Snow Shield
- Computer Access Port
- Rocket Jet
- Oversized Photoreceptors
- Hands (detachable)
- Vocabulator
- Recharge Port
- Cable Reel (inside forearm)
- Weather-treated Joints
- Comlink (behind forearm panel)
Side View
[edit]- Snow Shield
- Rocket Jet
- Hands (detachable)
- Cable Reel
- Comlink