View source for Drone barge/Legends

{{Top}}
[[File:Drone_barge.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A [[converted drone barge]] used by [[Galactic Empire/Legends|Imperial]] [[Admiral/Legends|Admiral]] [[Mordur]].]]
'''Drone barges''' or '''droid barges'''<ref name="Yard">{{Journal|8|The Yard of Opportunity}}</ref> were self-piloting [[Starship/Legends|starships]] controlled by an installed [[command/control module]]<ref>''[[Han Solo at Stars' End]]''</ref> or [[Droid brain/Legends|droid brain]]. They were popular with haulage firms, as they were significantly cheaper to run than using vessels that required a crew, and were regularly used on simple routes when supervision was not necessary.

==Description==
[[File:DroneBarge.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The [[Millennium Falcon/Legends|''Millennium Falcon'']] stows away on an automated drone barge.]]
These drones had no individual personality programming and had only enough intelligence to calculate simple hyperspace jumps, locate guidance beacons when arriving at a port and run self-diagnostic checks on cargo and engine systems. While this was cheaper than hiring a sentient crew, drone barges were more vulnerable to navigational error, [[Hyperdrive/Legends|hyperdrive]] failure and even outright [[Pirate/Legends|piracy]].

Since drone barges were not designed to accommodate organic life forms, these vessels were not equipped with living quarters and life-support systems. Their cramped corridors only had the first gulps of planetary atmosphere that entered the vessel during freight loading or unloading. Despite these, many desperate people would stowaway onboard these drone barges knowing the impending risks for various reasons.

This type of starship was produced by several companies including predominantly droid manufacturers like [[Cybot Galactica/Legends|Cybot Galactica]] or ship-building corporations like [[Gallofree Yards, Inc./Legends|Gallofree Yards, Inc.]] and [[Corellian Engineering Corporation/Legends|Corellian Engineering Corporation]]. The latter company (Corellian Engineering Corporation) was noted for manufacturing the gigantic [[StarHauler-class drone barge|''StarHauler''-class]] which included more than 24 different versions.

==Operational history==
[[File:Drone_Barge_-1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Drone barge departing Fondor.]]
Drone barges were used for a variety of tasks including the transportation of goods including grain from [[Orron III]] or ice blocks from [[Ohann]] and the disposal of massive amounts of industrial waste churned out by shipyards on industrial worlds like [[Corellia/Legends|Corellia]], [[Fondor/Legends|Fondor]] and [[Kuat/Legends|Kuat]]. A considerable number of these starships were also hijacked or sabotaged by pirates or shipjackers, knowing the vessel's vulnerability and that their actions were unlikely to be recorded by the authorities.

As a youth, [[Han Solo/Legends|Han Solo]] once stowed away on board a [[Transport/Legends|transport]] that had been converted to a drone barge; luckily for him that particular vessel still maintained a limited atmosphere. [[Tanith Shire]] &ndash; a [[supply-tug]] operator at the Fondor shipyards &ndash; regularly sabotaged these vessels by reprogramming their control systems to exit hyperspace prematurely and crash-land on the remote desert world of [[Ophideraan]] where their cargo and electronic systems would be plundered by the [[Serpent Masters]] who employed her.

{{Ship-stub}}

==Appearances==
*''[[The Paradise Snare]]''
*[[Droids (1995) 2|''Droids '' 2]]
*[[Droids (1995) 3|''Droids '' 3]]
*[[Droids (1995) 4|''Droids '' 4]]
*''[[Han Solo at Stars' End]]'' / [[Han Solo at Stars' End (comic strip)|comic]] {{1st}}
*''[[Star Wars Missions 9: Revolt of the Battle Droids]]''
*''[[Star Wars Missions 10: Showdown in Mos Eisley]]''
*''[[Star Wars Missions 11: Bounty Hunters vs. Battle Droids]]''
*''[[Star Wars Missions 12: The Vactooine Disaster]]''
*''[[Darth Vader Strikes]]''
*''[[The Serpent Masters]]''
*''[[Shadow Stalker]]''
*[[Star Wars (1977) 98|''Star Wars'' (1977) 98]]

==Sources==
*{{GSWUCite|1|drone barge}}
*{{Journal|8|The Yard of Opportunity}}
*{{EGCite|D|Drone barge}}

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Drone barges| ]]
[[Category:Fifth-degree droid models]]
[[Category:Transport classes]]