XJ9-CS14

Arakyd Industries built XJ9-CS14, a Viper probe droid, on the planet Vulpter, which was responsible for producing half of the Galactic Empire's probe droid inventory. Sometime after the Clone Wars, the droid was created within a factory by the mother of Maela, a girl who developed a strong interest in probes like XJ9-CS14. By 3 ABY, the droid was stationed on the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Stalker as part of Project Swarm. This was a large-scale Imperial initiative aimed at locating the hidden base of the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War using probe droids. However, the project's initial investigations yielded no results, prompting the Imperial leader Darth Vader to order a new wave of droids to be deployed.

XJ9-CS14, one of a hundred thousand probes sent across the galaxy, was launched from the Stalker in a hyperdrive pod and directed to the Hoth system, a region known to have been frequented by pirates and smugglers. Upon reaching the orbit of the planet also called Hoth, the droid's pod automatically activated emergency braking thrusters, allowing the planet's gravity to pull it toward the surface, resulting in a crash landing near the Nev Ice Flow. XJ9-CS14 managed to land intact, even though a significant number of Viper probes often suffered irreparable damage during landing. Unbeknownst to the droid, rebels occupied the planet, having established their base there just a month prior. Commander Luke Skywalker of the Alliance witnessed the crash and assumed the droid's pod was a falling meteorite, a common occurrence on Hoth. However, Skywalker was unable to investigate further because he was attacked by a wampa, an ambush predator native to the icy world. The creature, also noticing the probot's crash, took advantage of Skywalker's momentary distraction and struck the rebel.

XJ9-CS14 cautiously exited its pod, scanned its immediate surroundings, and then headed west from the crash site to begin its full survey of the snowy planet. After being detoured by a large meteorite crater, the droid began detecting energy readings from Echo Base, the rebel's secret hideout. The probot was then attacked by its own wampa, which was hiding beneath a snow dune. XJ9-CS14 engaged the creature in combat before heading southeast along Clabburn Range. At some point, it also came into contact with a group of tauntauns, bipedal pack creatures utilized by the Alliance. After traveling for several kilometers, it entered Zone Twelve of the hidden base and came across a deflector shield generator utilized by the Alliance, Although it determined that the structure was indeed generating power, the droid's programming did not deem the findings to fulfill the requirements of "rebel activity," with the probe coming to the conclusion that the barren planet was too inhospitable to sustain life forms. Regardless, the probe transmitted visuals of the generator back to the Imperial Navy.

The signal transmitted by XJ9-CS14 was intercepted by Wyron Serper, the Rebellion's senior controller, who informed General Carlist Rieekan of Alliance High Command. Rieekan and Serper then discussed the information with their fellow rebels, including headquarters personnel Leia Organa and Han Solo, who were unfamiliar with the code language used by the probe. After the protocol droid C-3PO informed the Alliance leaders that the code was potentially Imperial in origin, Captain Solo and his first mate Chewbacca departed from Echo Base to confront the probe. Rieekan, believing they might need assistance, ordered Rogue Squadron pilots Ten and Eleven to meet them at Station 3-8.

As the probot moved through an area just north of Ceyan Range, it was in the process of informing its superiors that there was no life on the planet when it detected movement near a snowbank. Upon closer inspection, the droid discovered the Wookiee Chewbacca and fired three bursts of blaster fire at him. Solo then emerged from behind a group of rocks, striking the probe with his own blaster. During the skirmish, XJ9-CS14 began transmitting a signal alerting the Empire to send all available units to its location, but the message was cut short when Captain Solo fired another shot at the droid, causing it to initiate its self-destruct sequence. XJ9-CS14 exploded, scattering black-metal dust across the white dunes.

Although the explosion left the droid beyond repair, Capin Harinar, an Alliance Major and materials analyst, was able to determine from the wreckage that the droid was a Viper probe, leading him to suspect that Echo Base had been compromised. Following the droid's discovery, Rieekan and Organa ordered the evacuation of the base, anticipating the arrival of Imperial forces. During the evacuation, Thane Kyrell, an Imperial defector, was assigned the task of releasing the Alliance's tauntaun mounts; the rebel recruit lamented the necessity of the evacuation in the wake of the probe's swift discovery.

Despite the interruption in XJ9-CS14's transmission, fragments of its report reached Maela, who had by then joined Project Swarm's transmission recovery unit. Immediately suspecting that the structure was of rebel origin, she attempted to take control of the droid remotely just before she lost the probot's feed. Realizing that it had self-destructed, Maela called over fellow transmission analyst Dirjo Harch, who was reluctant to pass the information on to higher authorities in the event that Maela's speculation was proven unfounded. At the behest of his fellow team members, however, he personally sent the message to Captain Firmus Piett of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, the flagship of Darth Vader's Death Squadron, in the Juris sector.

Piett relayed the report to Admiral Kendal Ozzel, who dismissed the information, believing the generator could have belonged to the simple smugglers the planet was known for instead of the rebels they pursued. Upon the insistence of Lord Vader, however, Death Squadron was ordered to move out to the Hoth system. Word of the impending attack made its way through the Executor, with Lieutenant Nash Windrider informing Lieutenant Commander Ciena Ree of the probe's work in uncovering the base. The news also reached Harch and his crew, who gathered to celebrate their success. Although the girl Maela would have preferred to remain at her station and view Hoth from the lens of another probe on the planet, she reluctantly joined the others, planning to inform her mother of the triumph she had achieved through XJ9-CS14.

Within the next few days Death Squadron arrived at Hoth; Admiral Ozzel, seeking to surprise the rebels, commanded the fleet to exit from hyperspace close to the system. Darth Vader, however, was displeased with Ozzel's tactics, and executed him immediately. When questioned about Vader's motives after the fact by Captain Canonhaus of the Star Destroyer Ultimatum, Commander Tian Karmiya speculated that Ozzel had failed to account for the Alliance's discovery of XJ9-CS14, making his surprise tactics useless. Despite Ozzel's blunder, the Empire's actions on the snow world were massively successful, ensuring that the event that came to be known as the Battle of Hoth was remembered as one of the most devastating losses for the Rebellion in the war.

Although the probot had initially failed to realize the scale of the rebels' presence on Hoth, it would go on to become famed for the part it played in the Galactic Civil War in the following years. During his service with the Resistance, the military organization of an older Leia Organa, decades after the war, Admiral Gial Ackbar resolved to blame Rieekan for the droid's discovery of the base; writing within a collection of Rebellion Era documents known as The Rebel Files, he pondered how the probe had managed to land on Hoth without the Alliance noticing. Fellow Resistance admiral Ushos O. Statura later answered this question, correctly speculating that the droid had masked itself as an impacting asteroid. Another Resistance member, the B1-series battle droid R0-GR, commented on the probe's actions in his "droidography," a book that compiled information on droids throughout galactic history. The battle droid also managed to obtain a copy of XJ9-CS14's final transmission, which he included in the volume.

The First Order, a successor state to the Galactic Empire, took inspiration from the use of probes like XJ9-CS14, utilizing their own probe droids to infiltrate the Resistance. Members of the Resistance navy like Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo and Black Leader Poe Dameron were cognizant of the weekly dangers caused by these droids; after discovering Major Harinar's original report on the Hoth probe, both individuals took separate notes in the The Rebel Files, citing the legacy of problems they had inherited from the droid destroyed on the ice world so many years prior.

XJ9-CS14 was a Viper probe droid with black plating and black sensors with a full height of 1.6 meters. Major Harinar speculated that its model number was between X0037 and X0172. While the droid was able to function completely on its own, independent from outside sources, it could also be remotely directed by organic technicians; this allowed for individuals to pilot the droid and interact with objects in the probe's environment as if the operator were there themselves.

Although programmed specifically to be a tenacious hunter, it did not consider much of the evidence on Hoth to be indicative of what the analysis subroutine of its droid brain would identify as "rebel activity." Even after the droid detected Echo Base's energy output and discovered its shield generator, the probot felt that the planet's temperature was too low to allow for life to exist. It was not until the droid came into contact with the Wookiee Chewbacca that it realized Hoth was home to rebels. In its final transmission, XJ9-CS14 proclaimed its allegiance to the Empire before self-destructing.

Project Swarm analyst Maela felt a kind of camaraderie with the droid, as she did with all Viper probes. She considered XJ9-CS14 to be a window into exotic worlds, desiring to approach tauntauns on Hoth just as freely as the probot was able to. After learning of the droid's destruction, Maela felt a twinge of loss, imagining herself dead in the snow of Hoth instead of the probe. After reading the report of Major Harinar on XJ9-CS14 from shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Poe Dameron, a pilot of the Resistance, regarded the droid with contempt, noting that it and all other probes had no sense of self-preservation. The B1 battle droid R0-GR, who considered XJ9-CS14 to be grotesque, shared similar opinions to Dameron on the probes' longevity, though confessed that he, too, may have considered "taking the easy way out" had he been in the same position as the Hoth droid.

XJ9-CS14 came equipped with a powerful blaster and a self-destruct mechanism that could activate a set of charges surrounding its circular base. Although the droid was equipped with only light armor, it was capable of withstanding multiple blasts from Han Solo's DL-44 heavy blaster pistol. The probe had five arachnid-like manipulator arms that it used to gather information. The droid traveled using a repulsorlift and silenced thrusters, enabling it to stealthily hover within meters of an enemy without being heard.

The probe also possessed a data recorder, a central processor, and a transmitter dome, all of which were severely damaged during the probe's self-destruct, preventing Alliance Major Harinar from recovering any information the droid had learned. Within its transmitter dome, the droid was equipped with a powerful HoloNet transceiver, a device located at the top of its sensor-laden head. Linked to two high-frequency transmission antenna, the transceiver allowed XJ9-CS14 to transmit data of the shield generator to the Empire.

XJ9-CS14 made its initial appearance in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, although its designation was not revealed until the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Droidography, which included an Aurebesh message containing the information. Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the droid depicted it hovering over a snow-covered landscape at twilight.

The scene featuring Han and Chewbacca's encounter with XJ9-CS14 was filmed in Finse, Norway on March 10, 1979. Harrison Ford was asked to film in Finse a week earlier than planned. According to associate producer Robert Watts, this was done to avoid extending production time at the studio in Leeds, England. A life-size replica of the probe was mounted on tracks hidden beneath the snow. This, combined with the use of long shots, allowed the filmmakers to create the illusion of a floating droid.

After the main filming was completed, the large model was transported to Industrial Light & Magic in August 1979, where it was joined by a much smaller version of itself. This scale model, created by art director Joe Johnston, was used for the scene in which XJ9-CS14 emerges from the crater, slowly rising through a miniature set. According to Ben Burtt, the film's sound designer, the droid's iconic audio was actually the electronically-altered voice of "a well-known Shakespearean actor," although he did not reveal the actor's name.

The 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations and the 2021 reference book Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy both identify the Star Destroyer that deployed XJ9-CS14 as the Stalker, while the book Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded names the ship as the Avenger. This article assumes that Complete Locations and Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy supply the correct name, being the more recent sources. Additionally, the height of the droid in Character Encyclopedia is listed as 1.6 meters. This is contradicted by the model-making book Star Wars: Droid Factory, which lists the much different height of 0.3 meters, or just 0.93 feet. As this number is much smaller than the size of the droid seen in the film, this article disregards the Droid Factory number as an error.

In a 2017 issue of the magazine Star Wars: Build Your Own R2-D2, the probot is incorrectly stated to have six manipulator arms. This is contradicted by the model used in The Empire Strikes Back, as well as by the illustrations in the magazine itself, which depict the droid with five arms. The film's junior novelization also erroneously describes the probe as having only four arms. This article recognizes the five manipulators seen in The Empire Strikes Back as the canonical number.