R3-series astromech droid/Legends

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This article is about the astromech droid model. You may be looking for individual droids named R3.

The R3-series astromech droid was an astromech model developed and sold by the droidmaker Industrial Automaton (IA). The R3 came at the heels of IA's blockbuster launch of the R2-series astromech droid as the company rushed to capitalize on their new dominance of the maintenance and repair droid market. The R3's designers copied the R2's general aesthetic, including the bright, contrasting color trim on a white metal chassis. The obvious difference in the factory unit was its head: the R2's opaque dome was swapped for a clear dome of plastex or transparisteel. The transparency gave the droid's internal sensor package greater range and showcased the R3's other major distinction, its newly updated Intellex V computer brain. Over time, however, some units' original domes were replaced with opaque ones or painted over carelessly.

Unlike its predecessor, the R3 was designed specifically for use by militaries and high-tech government agencies—IA developed another product, the R4-series agromech droid, to appeal to a broader clientele. The R3's Intellex V was capable of housing an immense amount of data; those units bought by the Galactic Republic had a database of detailed specifications on every vessel in the Republic Navy. Armed with this information, the R3 worked in cooperation with gunnery crews, security troopers, and naval chiefs of operation aboard capital-scale warships and at battlestations. Though its primary function was as a capital ship astromech, it could still operate as a plug-in droid for starfighters, holding up to five hyperspace jump coordinates in its astrogation buffer. The R3 had a genial and chummy personality, which allowed it to coordinate easily with large crews of organic sentients.

Due to the sensitive nature of the R3's programming, the rather expensive model was sold only to recognized government militaries. The Galactic Republic purchased 125 million of the droids during IA's initial production run, and later the Galactic Empire used R3s aboard its Star Destroyers and Death Star battlestations. Following the fall of the Empire, in an effort to maintain friendly relations with the New Republic, Industrial Automaton's policy restricted it from knowingly selling to the Imperial Remnant or known Imperial factions. Nevertheless, R3 units found their way into the hands of pirates, private spacers, the Rebel Alliance, and other groups through various black market channels.

Description

R3 and R4-series schematics

The R3-series astromech droid featured much of the same hardware as its predecessor, the R2 unit,[1] lacking only the earlier droid's extendible video sensor.[5] The R3's chassis was largely cylindrical, appearing as an upright tube with a short, truncated cone at its base. Keeping the droid upright were two narrow legs, each of which terminated in a treaded foot shaped like trapezoidal prisms; a third leg was housed within the droid body and could be extended when necessary to afford greater stability. Capping the unit's design was a hardy, rotating, plastex dome.[1] An R3 unit typically followed a color scheme with the main body white and the trim a bright color.[1]

Role

Like other astromechs, the R3-series was a second-degree droid,[3] designed for such tasks as general starship maintenance, computer repair, and data retrieval.[6] However, unlike its predecessor, the R2, the R3 was intended primarily for service aboard large-scale capital ships, warships, and battlestations rather than small-scale starfighters.[4] Its most basic difference from the R2 unit was that rather than servicing starfighter-scale craft, the R3 unit used its standard diagnostic package[3] to perform routine maintenance and repairs on capital-ship computers, engineering and weapons systems, and external components.[7] The unit's Intellex V computer had the capacity to store intricate schematic diagrams for every ship in the Republic Navy.[1]

A yellow trimmed R3 unit

This level of detail allowed the R3 to work effectively with gunnery crews, chiefs of operations, and security troops aboard Capital ships.[1] Teams of R3s could work in tandem with a capital vessel's nav computers to speed their computational capabilities and to better organize information.[7] Others processed data for various ship stations, such as communications, engineering, sensors, and tactics. Some ships included specialized astromech slots in key areas, into which R3s could be fitted to carry out their duties, leaving only their domes visible.[8] Despite its commonness in military bases and aboard military starships, the R3 unit avoided combat. Should its position come under attack, the R3's preferred response was to move into a safe location, plug into a nearby terminal, and either report the altercation, call for backup, or provide other support.[3]

Although its design was tailored toward large-scale vessels and battle stations, the R3-series astromech maintained the starfighter plug-in functionality of other astromech droids, allowing the unit to serve as a capable starfighter pilot counterpart and maintenance unit. The R3 could store up to five sets of hyperspace jump coordinates in its active memory. The R3 unit could become a capable copilot, coordinating advanced trajectories and ship coordinates even in the thick of a dogfight.[9]

Meanwhile, R3 units employed by government agencies performed more humdrum duties. In such locations, R3s worked alongside various officials, ranging from municipal functionaries and local magistrates to Imperial moffs and assistants to the Supreme Chancellor and Emperor.[3]

Although the astromech was capable of understanding Basic and two other languages of the owner's choice,[3] R3-series droids themselves communicated via droidspeak,[10] a machine language of high-density chirps and squeals. When several R3s worked together at a single station, their constant chatter filled the air, sometimes confusing incoming organic crew members unfamiliar with the twittering language.[7] The R3's use of droidspeak made the unit a natural counterpart to Cybot Galactica's 3PO-series protocol droid.[10]

History

Part of the R-series of droids from Industrial Automaton,[2] the R3 was Industrial Automaton's followup to the smash success of the R2-series astromech droid, a model whose popularity and sales had exceeded all expectations and catapulted IA to the top-tier of droid development companies occupied by the likes of Arakyd, Cybot Galactica, and Rebeton Kl'ian.[11] For their next entry in the series, IA's management tasked its engineers with one goal: take the R2 and improve on it.[4]

IA's droid designers decided to make the new model the capital warship's and battle station's answer to the starfighter-based R2 unit. The new droid received programming in gunnery repair and security protocols. The engineers paid particular attention to the model's Intellex computer, upgrading it from the R2's Intellex IV to the more sophisticated Intellex V. Although the designers kept much of the R2's basic body design to cut costs,[4] they realized that the Intellex V would be a key selling point,[1] replacing the R2's solid dome with one of clear plastex as a marketing ploy to showcase the new hardware and boost the scope and sensitivity of its sensors.[4] The new droid otherwise followed the R2's bright-trim-on-white-metal color scheme.[3] The new model, dubbed the R3-series astromech droid, entered production.[4]

IA priced the droid much higher than its predecessor and produced it in only limited quantities to establish it as an elite addition to their catalog.[4] Due to its specialized nature, the sales were restricted to recognized governments.[1]

File:R3 Astromech XWM.png
An R3 unit repairing an ARC-170 starfighter

The strategy worked: the R3 sold briskly, earning IA great profits and never falling behind the company's sales goals. In their initial order alone, the Galactic Republic bought 125 million R3s from IA's first production run. R3 units soon joined the crews of all capital ships of the Republic Navy.[4]

Despite the transition from Galactic Republic to Galactic Empire, R3 sales remained strong. The Empire honored Republic contracts with the droid's maker to buy a steady supply of R3 units for use throughout the Empire.[3] R3 astromechs thus joined the crews of not only Imperial Star Destroyers but also the first and second Death Stars. With the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, the Alliance to Restore the Republic gained access to R3-series astromechs by stealing them from the Empire. Pirate and privateer groups, too, were quick to adopt the R3 for use on their ships after taking the droids as booty or buying them on the black market.[4] With the defeat of Galactic Emperor Palpatine and the rise of the New Republic, IA struck deals with the new government to supply them with R3s, nullifying contracts and sales to the remnants of the Empire to placate this new customer. Nevertheless, IA also widened its target customer base by selling to planetary governments and privately owned fleets as well.[4]

R3-S6

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 The Essential Guide to Droids ("R3 and R4")
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The History of R-Series Astromech Droids" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, p. 130.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Threats of the Galaxy, p. 136.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 "The History of R-Series Astromech Droids" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, p. 138.
  5. ↑ "The History of R-Series Astromech Droids" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, pp. 136, 138.
  6. ↑ Star Wars Encyclopedia, p. 16.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The DarkStryder Campaign, p. 84.
  8. ↑ The DarkStryder Campaign, p. 37.
  9. ↑  Star Wars Customizable Card Game – Special Edition Limited (Card: R3-A2 (Arthree-Aytoo)) (backup link).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "The History of R-Series Astromech Droids" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, p. 134.
  11. ↑ "The History of R-Series Astromech Droids" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, p. 137.
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