Droidbreaker

The droidbreaker, formerly known as the swamphulk, was a creature native to Belgaroth. Its native planet consumed by pollution and scrapyards, the droidbreaker evolved in a single generation to survive and fit its new surroundings. With a steady diet of plasteel and different forms of refined metal, the droidbreaker became a hulking figure that skulked the many junkyards that covered the planet. A droidbreaker steak could be made from droidbreaker meat and was high in iron content due to the droidbreaker's diet.

Biology and appearance

These creatures reached five meters tall at the shoulders. They moved on four short legs and were covered in gray, leathery hide. Small black eyes sat deep in their skulls, while a triangular head,^[1] crowned with a bright carapace,^[2] ended in an elongated bony proboscis. Droidbreakers used their strong, sharp proboscises to pierce armor, metallic plating, and the thick hides of other beings,^[1] in order to grind them up immediately with rows of sharpened teeth.^[2] To seize prey, they employed an extremely strong, slippery gray tongue.^[1]

Originally, the predatory droidbreakers inhabited swampy regions, which earned them another, no less well-known name – swamphulk. Even in early times, they hunted various creatures and careless travelers, instilling fear in the inhabitants of Belgaroth. In addition to their carnivorous preferences, these beings also consumed plasteel, seeking out droids or victims equipped with armor.^[2]

Possessing a high adaptability to changes in their environment, droidbreakers managed to restructure their biochemistry within a single generation in order to survive the ecological collapse of their homeworld. They developed immunity to poisons, resistance to acids, and drastically altered their diet, abandoning their originally carnivorous way of feeding. The basis of their new sustenance became plasteel and processed metals, which droidbreakers could assimilate without harm. They particularly favored wiring and circuits, which made functioning droids a desirable prey. Having evolved the ability to sense active energy sources through their emissions, droidbreakers were capable of detecting working power cells from up to 200 meters away. In addition, by means of electromagnetic waves, they could determine the location of metallic objects within a radius of 10 meters.^[1]

History

During the Clone Wars, a squad of four clone scouts of the Galactic Republic landed on Belgaroth to investigate a report that the Czerka weapons factory was trading with the Separatists. Infiltrating the enemy facility, they found a shipment of prohibited FEX-M3 nerve gas grenades. Marrt, one of the soldiers, took a grenade from the crate as evidence of the factory’s criminal activities. During their retreat, the squad was spotted by B1 battle droids who, under the command of Tarin, drove the clones into a misty swamp inhabited by deadly swamphulks. The clones believed they had shaken off their pursuers, but Recon, one of them, sensed the approach of a huge unknown entity. Suddenly, a swamphulk burst out of the fog and attacked the scouts. The creature quickly killed all but Marrt, who devised a way to deal with it. He threw the FEX-M3 grenade toward the swamphulk, hoping it would catch it, and fired at it with his pistol. Nearly all of the shots ricocheted off the creature’s head carapace, but one struck the grenade directly, killing the monster with nerve gas. Marrt buried his comrades and placed the head of the swamphulk above their graves.^[2]

By the rise of the Galactic Empire, the planet Belgaroth became a classic example of a small, insignificant world ruined by the New Order for its own selfish purposes. The ecological catastrophe caused major changes in the planet’s natural environment and forced local species of flora and fauna to adapt rapidly to the alterations.^[1] The droidbreakers, who had previously not shunned inorganic materials,^[2] easily adapted to digesting aggressive chemicals and consuming processed metallic waste. In the altered world, wild droidbreakers populated the surroundings of the so-called Scrapyard, where numerous expended weapons, burned-out droids, and toxic waste were discarded. Conditions in the Scrapyard were terrible, but the droidbreakers learned how to survive there.^[1]

Some sentient species that fed on iron-containing food considered droidbreaker meat a true delicacy: a single portion steak would cost no less than 200 credits.^[1]

Behind the scenes

The droidbreaker were designed for the sourcebook Coruscant and the Core Worlds (2003) for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by Wizards of the Coast. The information section about the planet Belgaroth offered game scenarios set on this world, among them the story «A-Hunting We Will Go». In the plot, a local crime lord who desired a steak made from droidbreaker meat forced the player characters to go hunting in the habitat of wild droidbreaker in exchange for the return of their confiscated ship.

Appearances

• "A Trooper's Tale" — Star Wars: The Clone Wars Comic 6.8 (First appearance) (In flashback(s))

Sources

• Coruscant and the Core Worlds (First mentioned)
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia

Notes and references

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