Elijah Brockway
[Insert Clever Joke Here]
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: There's a lack of recently made astromech droids in the factory, and precious few examples that are open market anyways, so I figured I'd make the newest iteration of the 'everybody can feasibly own one who wants one' astromech sub for people that don't just want to use old canon models but don't want to go to the effort of making their own sub, but I'm also lazy, so I'm just reposting an old sub from a different site. Which is why I'm posting this with my writer account, so that there's no question that yes, I wrote both—and also because this is a goodwill offering sub for the entire site anyways.
- Image Source: Wookieepedia
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Link by yours truly
- Manufacturer: Industrial Automaton
- Affiliation: None
- Market Status: Open-Market
- Model: M-Series Utility/Astromech Droid
- Modularity: High modularity; tools and weaponry can be swapped out easily, armor plating can be replaced with different materials, and there's a healthy aftermarket for new parts for the M-Series droids.
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Durasteel (main body and most components), Transparisteel (photoreceptors, body of M2 and M7 models specifically), Plasteel (certain components in need of greater traction and flexibility, such as the treads), Diatium power cells, Tricopper wiring, Gold circuits.
- Classification: Class II Astromech Droid
- Weight: Heavy
- Height: Average (0.8 [normal] to 1.6 [extended] meters)
- Movement: Treads, rocket boosters
- Armaments: Integrated blaster pistol (model chosen by purchaser), shock probe, various other droid weapons that could be installed within the body.
- Misc. Equipment: Full-spectrum photoreceptors, full-spectrum transceiver, radiation detector, auto-updating compendium of common starship and vehicle schematics, scomp link, astrogation buffer with memory capacity for up to thirty destinations, fusion cutter, and various other tools and equipment, to be installed per the choice of the owner.
- Resistances:
- Energy (And other Blaster type weapons): High
- Kinetic: High
- Lightsabers: None
- Sonics: Average
- EMP/Ion: Very Low
- Highly modular design—M-Series droids are designed to be modified to suit the end user's needs, because Industrial Automaton is well aware that for sentients in the galaxy, there's no true one-size-fits-all choice...so they decided to make it easy to do your own tailoring instead.
- Durable Casing: Designed to brave the vacuum of space, not just the interior of a ship, as well as to guard the ship in the event that a final line of security is needed, the M-Series astromechs were designed with durability in mind, both against energy blasts and physical shrapnel...or bullets, whichever the case may be.
- Dedicated Aftermarket: Modularity is the name of the game with these droids, and they can rapidly be reconfigured to suit most use cases that they can be expected to encounter.
- Every Droid's Fear: There's no protection from lightsabers for these things, and the EMP/Ion protection is extremely minimal. Any dedicated anti-droid weaponry will put one of these down with no trouble.
- Light Weaponry: Other than droid weaponry disguised as tools—which, of course, takes up valuable tool space on a droid designed to use those tools—the only space one of these has is for a single integrated blaster pistol/heavy blaster pistol. It can't carry much.
The M-series Astromech/Utility droids were created by Industrial Automaton to fill a void that existed in the droid market of the modern day. While medical droids, protocol droids, and combat droids were all easily found - alongside the obvious labour droids - many droid models that were dedicated to shipboard use were, outside of a few old and hard-to-find models due to their manufacturers having since gone out of business, ceased production on the models, or never produced very many of them to begin with—pilot droids, astromechs, both were becoming rather rare. Even those that weren't were still rapidly going out of date in the non-stop frenzy of advancement the galaxy was experiencing, so one team at Industrial Automaton put their heads together to try and develop a new series of astromech/utility droids, multipurpose, that would be able to keep up with the ever-changing galaxy.
The M-series droids all have the same shape - the main difference is in colouration and accentations, primarily. The latest entry into the line is the M8-XX series of droids, with primarily white-coloured durasteel casings and varying buyer-chosen accent colours, a pristine appearance that appeals to all types throughout the galaxy. The M0-XXs were all a flat durasteel grey, with the M1s having green accentations, the M2s having a transparent upper dome, M3s having red accentations, M4s blue, M5s black, M6s yellow, and - distinctly unpopular, for some odd reason - the M7s were completely transparent, similar to their M2 counterparts (interestingly, both series units often complained of feeling 'naked' when not given frequent memory wipes).
All M-series droids have roughly the same level of functionality, although the M0s through the M5s were primarily utility droids first and foremost, with their astromech capabilities - such as the number of programmable hyperspace coordinates that could be stored in the navigational memory, and definitely their piloting ability - being considered an addition to their original utility droid programming, with the M6s beginning a trend towards specifically astromech-focused abilities. The main differences between each specific iteration of the series lay in the fields of programming and appearance, although some small parts differences are common, meaning that roughly 98% of the parts in each iteration of the series is interchangeable through to the rest of the series (this is an overall average, not specific; check your owner's manual for futher information). Howerver, the M-series is almost as modifiable as a Corellian-designed ship, with many different modifications being available on the market, so that any one of the droids can be configured to suit any need.
Each M-series droid comes with a few completely common features. Within the freely-rotating arm atop the body (also with y-axis movement, able to aim almost straight up but only about 40 degrees downwards) sits a photoreceptor, alongside an electroshock probe with a 3 meter shock range; extra space within the mounting is left open for the integration of a blaster pistol of up to heavy blaster strength, with its own power cell and recharging port available. The photoreceptor attached to the weapon mount is controlled by basic targetting programming uploaded into the droid brain, although models made specifically for military use will have a separate targetting computer with more enhanced programming under the droid brain's control. Within the upper hemisphere of the body a retractable periscopic photoreceptor is also found. In the lower body, they have a retractable third leg, like many other astromech designs from Industrial Automaton.
The two hemispheres of the droids' bodies are not linked, with the upper half able to freely rotate; as well, it can extend outwards from the lower hemisphere, allowing the droid to fit into starfighter sockets made for taller droids than it. This also allows a view inside the droid, showing how the tools it holds are arrayed. The center of the droid has a rotating carousel with the various tools the droid uses attached, including a computer interface arm, a small saw, a fire extinguisher, three claw manipulator arms, a fusion cutter, an oil injector, a lubricant application arm, a screwdriver, and a drill, among other tools, with space left to add in further tool-arms within the droid. Each tool arm is attached to the carousel by a ball bearing at the end of it, with specialized motors turning wheels attached to the bearings, giving them a degree of movement comparable to (but slightly greater than) that of a human arm at the shoulder. These arms also have two movable and controlled joints along their length, allowing the droid to have a great degree of dexterity with them. These arms can either extend through hinged panels on the droids upper and lower hemispheres or directly through the opening between the upper and lower hemispheres if the upper hemisphere is extended just enough to let the arms through. Many of the droids prefer to utilize that method, due to the greater flexibility of tool use afforded by that method.
The droids' primary photoreceptor also doubles as a holorecorder and holoprojector, allowing the droid to record and project holographic recordings, with sound being recorded via a microphone and played via the droids' main speakers. They also have space for external memory storage, in every medium commonly in use through the galaxy.
The droids primarily speak binary as the standard programming language they are given, although they can be modified and programmed to speak basic; however, this is an expensive modification, and often isn't necessary, as many beings in the galaxy either understand binary or their datapads have the ability to translate it in real time.
These droids are very prone to developing a personality without frequent memory wipes, with the only model-specific commonality in this personality being shared by the M2s and the M7s, complaining about a feeling of nudity due to their transparent domes. Many of these droids do, however, take on a thrill-seeking aspect to their personality; this can prove dangerous in the more utility-oriented primary models when given the task of piloting a ship, as, in their excitement, they forget about the fragilities of their organic owners and engage in maneuvers that are too dangerous for an organic occupant in a ship; coincidentally, when they haven't been allowed to develop a personality, their piloting is instead considered overcautious and slow, as well as slightly jerky when maneuvering. The M6s and later, however, have few problems with this.
Licensed production of the M0s through M5s is common, with the model names possibly being different depending on the company doing the production; the M6s and later are produced exclusively by Industrial Automaton. The average cost for the M0s through the M5s generally sits about 2750 credits new, with the M6s and onward being more around 3500 credits new. Prices vary slightly depending on model.
Last edited:
