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Viper Probe Droid

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an Arakyd probe droid used by the Empire, the Viper was a squat, spherical droid which moved about on a small repulsor engine and had six segmented arms. Manufactured to specifications detailed by Darth Vader, they were armed with a light blaster cannon and a self-destruct mechanism. They were also equipped with a variety of sensor systems and recording devices. Although Arakyd indicated that the Viper was built to Imperial specifications, much of its design was actually based on the work of Viper Sensor Intelligence Systems, a small corporation absorbed by Arakyd during the Clone Wars. The first wave of Viper probots to come into Imperial service were produced on Mechis III, at the time when IG-88 controlled the planet. The assassin droid added secondary programming to these droids, mandating that the droids also report back to IG-88 on Mechis III if they found any weakness or flaw which the assassin droid could exploit in its quest for galactic dominance. In essence, IG-88 hoped to use the Viper probe droids as the advanced scouts in the droid revolution. The Viper was extremely sensitive to external stimuli, and were known to turn themselves on during transport if jostled too much. They were delivered to a specific destination by a hyperspace jump pod, which was specially designed to carry the droid without damaging it.