Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To create a probe droid to assist in exploring space and different worlds.
Image Source: https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/probe-probe1-3d-model/1113727
Canon Link: N/A
Restricted Missions: N/A
Primary Source: Probe Droid
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: L2 series Excursor-class Probe Droid
Production: Mass Produced
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Modularity: supplementary sensors, beacons
Material: Durasteel, Ardanium II, Agrinium, droid components
Classification: Second Degree
Weight: 500 kg
Height: 2.2 meters
Movement: Repulsorlift / Microthrusters
Armaments: none (grasper arms if forced into combat)
Misc. Equipment:
Beacon Bay & Launcher
Biolux Organoform Circuitry
Calor-series Bio-Computer
- universal transceiver package
- EnhanceScan General-purpose
- high-frequency transmitter
- radionics package
- Miniaturized Solid Fuel Converter
- 3 Basic Grasper Arms
SPECIAL FEATURES
Heavy Duty Repulsorlifts: Excursors are equipped with heavy duty repulsorlifts, which are powerful enough to allow the droid to control its descent into an atmosphere, coast along the outer edges of an atmosphere, or rise up to 10 meters up in the air.
Beacon Launcher: Like the DP-2 Probe Droid, the Excursor has a beacon bay and launcher, which allows it to deploy sensor beacons, directional landing beacons, and hyperspace beacons.
Mechanic: Excursors have secondary programming to act as very rudimentary mechanics. This allows Excursors to repair themselves on extended missions, scavenge or explore wrecks, or aid in the repair or sabotage other technologies.
Sensors Package: Excursors use a universal transceiver package coupled with an EnhanceScan General-purpose Scanner, which provides the Excursor with both basic starfighter and droid sensors. Various other sensors can be plugged into these systems for more specialized missions, such as industrial mineral scanners or hyperwave signal interceptors.
Communications package: Excursors are equipped with high-frequency transmitters to quickly communicate with their home facilities and other Excursors but also sport a back-up radionics package.
Miniaturized Solid Fuel Converter
3 Basic Grasper Arms
Networked Explorer: By communicating and coordinating with other Excursors and their onboard beacons, Excursors excel at quickly rapidly mapping out and exploring areas.
Heavy Repulsorlifts: Excursors are equipped with heavy duty repulsorlifts, which allow the droid to better explore not only a world's surface, but also coast around in a world in orbit before descending onto the world itself.
Environmentally Tough: By using Calor-series Bio-Computers and Biolux Organoform Circuitry, Excursors can function in areas of ionized areas, such as nebulas and worlds with frequent storms. Excursors are also armored in durasteel plating backed by Ardanium II-coated agrinium mesh, which not only provides them with typical protection against common threats, but allows them to better function in irradiated areas. An ionic shield protects the droid from low-grade ionizing radiation and electromagnetic anomalies.
Noncombatant: Excursors are not designed for combat, and have next to no ability to attack conventional combatants except for grabbing at things with their claws.
Bulky: Excursors are fairly large for their role, which can make them easier to detect than many of their counterparts. They also cannot fit into tight spaces, often meaning that they cannot follow humans or other similar-sized objects or creatures through narrow confines.
DESCRIPTION
As the Directorate began their private war on arms dealers, warlords, and criminal elements on the fringes of known space, they quickly found themselves having to search relatively unknown worlds. To thatend, Lucerne Labs embraced the idea of the classic Viper Probe Droid and remolded the concept to the needs of the Directorate. While extremely similar in appearance and most basic functions, there are a few notable changes. The Excursor has almost no combat ability or weapons, but it noticeably is better than the original when it comes to operating in the immediate space around a world. It's common for a group of Excursors to be launched out of a ship's warhead launchers, from which they will disperse to scout out a world or conduct surveillance in an area, where they function as part of a continuous intelligence apparatus that not only contains other probe droids, but their own deployed sensor beacons and other intelligence sources.
Technical Explanations
Personality: Excursors support a sophisticated personality matrix based in a full-sized bio-computer. This personality matrix is focused on the idea of finding the “truth” and an almost child-like “curiousity”. These motivations drive individual Excursors to heuristically learn as they go, developing unique methods of operations and individual quirks based off of their original scouting/exploring programming. In the process of doing this, most Excursors become specialists in certain fields, such as orbital observation, wildlife cataloguing, catrography, and manhunts. Most Excursors become enthusiastic about discussing their findings and techniques in those areas, and its not uncommon for a hold of the droids to constantly be discussing their experiences and ideas about their specialty.
Skillset: Excursors support basic probe droid programming. This programming largely focuses on the ability to navigate through unknown areas and use their onboard sensors to properly understand and map their surroundings. All other skills are secondary and integrated into this core skill set. As an example of this, an Excursor may identify a particular threat, such as a wild animal or starship. Any sort of combat or evasion programming that would produce a response is routed firmly in its core programming. This may mean that it figures out a way to navigate around the threat or use it to its advantage for its mission (such using it to find others of its kind). Excursors are heuristic machines though, and their skillsets tend to evolve, especially if they are subjected to similar situations or experiences in a row. It's not uncommon for specialist Excursors to even rewrite portions of their own programming to better improve its ability in a different area. Consequently, while all Excursors are basic probe droids, many of them are better and worse in specific roles under that single function. Once specialized, an Excursor is typically employed only in that role, so as to prevent its new experiences from rewriting over its self-developed specialization programming. A partition within the bio-computer also holds hard-wired repair protocols, allowing the droid to act as a rudimentary mechanic, allowing it to help repair itself or other objects that it may encounter during its travels. This ability is extremely limited, and complicated repairs by Excursors typically take much longer than they would if done instead by a dedicated mechanic or repair droid. The droids can also use this skill to sabotage or take apart objects, such as to disarm automated traps or break off small pieces of technology that will be analyzed back at the droid's home base.
Chassis: The Excursor's chassis is undeniably influenced by the older Arakyd Viper Probe Droid. Much of its basic anatomy is still the same, though the Excursor is notably larger to better allow it support a starfighter-grade sensor package and heavier duty repulsorlifts. It's upper half rotates around, allowing it to quickly move a variety of sensors to scan different areas of space. The upper half also contains the droid's bio-computer-based core and communication's system. The lower half contains heavy duty repulsorlifts and appendages, as well as grasper arms and the beacon launcher.
Locomotion: Excursors rely on a quartet of compat, heavy duty repulsorlifts. These allow the droid to hover up to 10 meters in the air in most environments. They are also used to shift orbits if the droid is employed in outer space, and to slow down its descent into the atmosphere. These repulsorlifts are supplemented by small chemical-fuel based thrusters located around the lower ring of the droid. These provide the Excursor with additional ability to shift its course in space, and act as retrothrusters for orbital reentry in case the repulsorlift is not strong enough.
Weapons: Excursors do not have any built-in dedicated weapons, as the droids are designed to avoid combat. However, they can employ their grasper arms as crude melee weapons. These are typically ineffective against anything other than unarmed opponents or wild animals.
Defenses: Excursors rely on old-fashioned but reliable, fully-encasing armor to provide protection. This is composed of thick durasteel plates backed with a matrix of agrinium mesh coated with Ardanium II. Durasteel provides the droid with basic physical protection from environmental threats like falling rocks and common weapon's fire like blaster bolts. Agrinium mesh along with Ardanium II provides it protection against high radiation. The Excursor also sports a low power ionic shield, which is primarily designed to allow the droid to operate in ionized environments, such as nebulas, or to survive areas frequently hit by large amounts of electromagnetic radiation.
Sensors: Excursors use a universal transceiver package coupled with an EnhanceScan General-purpose Scanner. Typically, the universal transceiver package is used for long-distance, rough readings of objects and environments, while the EnhanceScan is used for closer and more finely detailed scans. Other sensors can be added to this sensor suites through the universal transceiver's ability to seamlessly incorporate secondary sensors, such as mineral scanners, HSIs, or long-range terrain scanners. An additional source of information for the Excursor is its sensor beacon launcher, which allows the droid to deploy sensors into hazardous areas or to continually monitor large amounts of area for changes. Excursors are designed to work in teams alongside of other Excursors, droids, starships, and other survelliance assets. They can seamlessly transmit and pull other sensor data between each other to better understand their surroundings.
Miscellaneous Equipment: Excursors are equipped with high-frequency transmitters, allowing them to communicate with distant starships, stations, and other droids. A small back-up radionics set provides another means of communicating in the case of natural phenomena or communication's jamming. A small cargo compartment in the Excursor holds spare parts for the droid, allowing it to repair itself, along with a miniaturized solid fuel converter, which allows the droid to recharge its power cells for extended surveys.
