Trip

Trip is something of a quirk, as far as droids go. Though it appears on the outside to be a T3-series Utility Droid - a design more than four thousand years old - it is in fact only twenty or so years old. Designated a T3 Replica Droid (often shortened to T-REP or "Trip"), the droid is the brainchild of retired Republic Navy engineering officer Carson Luka, as a project to occupy his abundance of free time. The external shell was constructed to match original blueprints of the T3 series, but the internal workings made use of far more modern technologies. Slightly bulkier than the R-series droids from Industrial Automation, Trip has most of the functionality of a modern Astromech Droid, with a few bonus features thrown in. Unfortunately, that same larger frame prevents the droid from interfacing with ships and starfighters through standard Astro Droid sockets.

Among the miriad of extra features integrated into Trip is a vocabulator. Though not an advanced unit, the droid is capable of articulating messages in (simple) Basic, rather than being confined to the usual droidspeak of its modern counterparts. Intended as a pet and retirement companion rather than being confined to a spacefaring vessel, Trip also has expanded functionality as a repair droid, and has a large auxiliary power unit that can be used to power external devices. Modifications by subsequent owners have added to Trip's programming and code slicing abilities, as well as his sensor performance. Finally, he contains a high-capacity memory storage module that contains an encyclopedic database of interesting - and often irrelevant - information. Unfortunately, this capacity replaces much of the astrogation software that would usually be found in an Astromech Droid, making Trip utterly useless as a navigator.

Ownership of Trip passed to Carson's son, Jaden Luka, after the droid's builder was taken ill and died. The droid served as the mechanic aboard the Astral Queen, Jaden's YT-2000 Transport, for several years. When Jaden became involved with the Rebel Alliance, the ship - and Trip - saw considerably reduced use by their owner, instead being utilised by Jaden's travelling companion and self-proclaimed bodyguard, Amos Iakona. When Jaden was assigned to Rogue Squadron, both the ship and the droid were left in Amos' charge.

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