Badass Bookworm
Source: Wookiepedia, link given in species.
Name: ERP-69 or commonly Six-Nine or Earp.
Loyalties: Phylis Alince and the Jedi Order
Role: Pilot for Phylis’ ship, repairer of gear, companion, storage centre.
Development Threads: N/A
Age: At least 15 years old in current form, but originally a much older unit from 2-300ABY
Species: R9 series Astromech male programming.
Force-Sensitive: N/A
Appearance: ERP-69 has green facings, and sports an impressive series of retractable antennae and gizmos in its dome. Other than that, it looks like a fairly standard astromech droid.
Personality: ERP-69 has gone for a good while without a memory scrub, and as such has developed some rather odd mannerisms. Though loyal to Phylis, ‘he’ has quite a sardonic wit. Due to being her portable computer he has developed a distressing trend of using complex phrases to others and being a bit snooty. ERP-69 also tends to be rather outspoken when dealing with Phylis, probably aware that she is too nice to ever really punish him.
Weapon of Choice: Concealed hold-out blaster which Phylis keeps on stun. Welding arm.
Wealth: Zero.
Combat Function: Considering his owner is a Jedi Master, ERP-69 is not intended to fight. Though he has a concealed blaster it’s not very effective and is only set on stun. Basically, he’s there to provide non-combat support to Phylis, not to be a battle droid.
Skills:
- Skilled at piloting a freighter or small cargo ship. Capable of limited evasion manoeuvres.
- Skilled at repairing and reprogramming regular technology.
- Skilled at scanning his surroundings and recording it. This includes scanning for lifeforms, metallic objects in the ground, thermal and density recording.
- Capable of recording writing and displaying it later, taking audio notes.
- Capable of storing large amounts of data and acting as a field server for Phylis to connect her datapads to.
- Able to boost commlink transmission range to and from Phylis’ ship provided it is within a handful of kilometres.
Other Notes:
In many ways ERP-69 is a fairly standard R9 astromech droid, but in others he has been moulded to fit Phylis’ purposes over time.
The droid’s origins are slightly obscure due to time and damage. The droid’s odd name, which Phylis had to have explained to her, indicates a slightly seedy background. Phylis’ efforts to uncover more has led her back to about 320ABY when a disreputable scoundrel named Baz Tine owned a troupe of ‘dancers’ and bought ERP-69 to help pilot and navigate his ship. A man of unrefined tastes, he thought the name mightily amusing.
In reality, Tine was a petty slave owner and sin dealer who made a lot of enemies, especially amongst the Hutts and cartels. He would often obtain Twi’leks and humans at low prices, moving to other areas and undercutting the Hutts on prices.
In the end, an unknown Hutt decided that Tine had made his last deal and had him murdered and his ‘merchandise’ seized. ERP-69, valiantly try to defend his owner, was blasted and left on the doomed freighter after it had been stripped.
Fast forward over 500 years and a travelling junker found the ship in the expanding galactic markets at the end of the Dark Age and recovered the droid. Though damaged it was repairable and he set to work redoing the droid, then sold it at a handsome profit to the Jedi Order.
Eventually ERP-69 was acquired by Phylis Alince after she became a Jedi Master, and needed help piloting her ship. Phylis learnt binary over the first few years so that she no longer needed a translator and could engage in conversations with her droid. For his part ERP-69 proved to be a somewhat difficult charge, being somewhat proud and difficult. Although advised often to give him a thorough memory wipe and reprogram, Phylis liked the droid the way he was. At the least he was useful for her research and piloting needs, and also gave her someone to talk to in the long hours alone in her study.
