Droid workers were modified battle droids created by the Geonosian queen Karina when she was sterilized by the Galactic Empire to continue the Geonosian species. She did not think of them as droids, but as her own children. In the year 0 ABY, the Sith Lord Darth Vader stole the droid factory Karina used as her womb, preventing her from creating more droid workers.
Modified battle droids, droid workers had a resemblance to the Geonosians with their brown plating, red photoreceptors, and pair of functional wings on their backs. They carried E-5 blaster rifles.
During the Imperial Era, the Galactic Empire sterilized the planet Geonosis, killing nearly all life on its surface. Karina, the last surviving Geonosian queen, was sterile and unable to repopulate her people. Desperate, she attached herself to a portable droid factory and produced droid workers, thinking of them as her children.
In 0 ABY, Darth Vader, rogue archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra, and assassin droids 0-0-0 and BT-1 arrived at Geonosis to acquire the droid factory. Aphra sent the droids beneath the planet surface to map out the route. The two were attacked by numerous droid workers, but BT-1 easily destroyed them with its built-in weapons.
Vader and Aphra followed the droids deeper into the cavern, where they found Karina producing "eggs" using the droid factory, which "hatched" into droid workers. Vader quickly severed Karina from the factory with his lightsaber. Karina ordered all of her droid workers to stop the four and retrieve the factory, but BT-1 and Vader destroyed any that got close. Vader then lifted the droid factory away using the Naboo Royal Starship, preventing any more droid workers from being built.
Droid workers first appeared in Darth Vader (2015) 4, a 2015 comic written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Salvador Larroca. They were first identified in Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded, a 2017 reference book written by Adam Bray, Kerrie Dougherty, Cole Horton, and Michael Kogge.
- Star Wars: Galactic Atlas
- Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded