IG-88
|
|
IG-88 was a fictional character who first appeared in the movie Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. He has since appeared several times in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
IG-88 was an elite assassin droid created for Project Phlutdroid, a military contract given to Holowan Mechanicals by the Galactic Empire. Five IG-88 models were built, as well as one outdated IG-72; they differed from previously developed assassin droids by having newly developed AI routines intended at greatly improving their combat routines and better intelligence and autonomy traits. One of the IG-88s was taken from Holowan Laboratories prior to the activation of its fellows, and eventually became an Imperial Grand Moff known as "For-Atesee". Of the remaining four IG-88s, one activated prematurely, with greater than designed sentience. IG-88 assessed the scientists in the lab as threats, to its new consciousness and used its built-in weapons to kill them all within thirty seconds. It then copied its program into the three inert IG-88 shells, labelling them IG-88B, IG-88C, and IG-88D, in order of activation. IG-88A, as he now dubbed himself, also awakened the "inferior" IG-72, and together the assassin droids agreed to conceal their origin by killing everyone involved in Phlutdroid. Having helped the IG-88s do so, IG-72 departed from their company to seek his fortune. Several years later, he would self-destruct on Tatooine. In the meantime, the four IG-88s, for their wanton destruction of Holowan Laboratories and their ruthless assassination purges of everyone even remotely connected with their design and manufacture (to prevent any flaws in their design from being revealed, and to make it more difficult to restart the Project; eventually over 150 deaths would be attributed to the IGs), earned a "Dismantle on Sight" warrant from the Empire and 40 systems.
The IG units took over a droid manufacturing facility on Mechis III, and reprogrammed the all the droids built there with a program that, once activated, would compel them to turn on their masters and aid in the great droid takeover of the galaxy. IG-88B was sent to keep a public face for the group, distracting anyone from Mechis III.
10 years before A New Hope, IG-88A ran into C-3PO and R2-D2 while on a bounty to humiliate the crime lord Olag Greck, based off Hosk Station in the Kalarba system. Despite its batteries being drained and being subsequently captured by Greck, IG-88A escaped, but was hunted down again by the two droids. Even this defeat IG-88A managed to turn to his advantage, taking the two hostage and defeating Greck in a space battle on the Indobok moon, thereby justifying his position as the second-best bounty hunter in the galaxy (after Boba Fett).
Having heard of IG-88's exploits, Darth Vader chose to ignore the "Dismantle on Sight" order and contacted the increasingly infamous assassin droid. IG-88B responded. Vader had gathered six of the greatest bounty hunters in the galaxy on the Executor to track down the Millennium Falcon and capture its crew alive. IG-88B sliced into the ship's computers and planted tracers on the other hunters' ships. While inside the computer, it learned of a second Death Star, and sent that information to its brethren. IG-88B followed Boba Fett to Cloud City and laid a trap. Fett, however, had lain a trap of his own. He disabled IG-88B with ion cannons, and then blew it apart with its own weapons. IG-88B's shell can be seen in The Empire Strikes Back, when Chewbacca is gathering C-3PO's scattered parts.
IG-88C followed Fett to Tatooine to capture Han Solo. Although it could perform much harder maneuvers in its specially-designed IG-2000 vessel, Fett managed to outfly it and destroy it. IG-88D attacked immediately thereafter, briefly surprising Fett, but his ship was destroyed as well. IG-88D survived and traveled to Ord Mantell, where Dash Rendar ultimately destroyed him.
IG-88A copied its program into the second Death Star's primary computer core, and intended to take control of the station and use it to rule the galaxy. No one was aware of IG-88A's presence, except Palpatine. Just as it was about to perform its intended task, the Rebel Alliance destroyed it.
IG-88A's body was later found by Tyko Thul when he took over Mechis III, and reprogrammed to serve as his personal bodyguard. When his brother Bornan went missing during the Diversity Alliance crisis, Tyko staged a kidnapping of himself by IG-88 and several newly manufactured assassin droids. When the young Jedi Knights, among them Tyko's nephew Raynar, arrived on Mechis III, they discovered the ruse. After several reprogrammings, IG-88 drove off Dengar and was sent after Bornan Thul.
The animated Clone Wars series gives a glimpse at the ancestry of IG-88, as well as the meaning of IG. The Muunilist-based InterGalactic Banking Clan, often abbreviated as IBC but more commonly called the IG Banking Clan, was one of the charter organizations that founded the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Whereas the Trade Federation and Techno Union used Geonosian-built battle droids for their armies, the IG Banking Clan used a series of tall, lanky droids known as IG Lancers, who rode speeder bikes and carried lances like medieval jousters. These IG droids bore a passing resemblance to the native Muuns who ran the bank clan, who looked like tall and grotesquely thin humans with abnormally tall heads. Led by Durge in chapters 4, 8 and 9, until they were defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi and his clone troopers. The connection between the IG Banking Clan and Holowan Laboratories is a beneficial one; after the rise of the Galactic Empire, the IG Clan no longer exists and the IG-88 droids were created from the basis of the original Lancer blueprints. In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, another IG-88 predecessor can be seen: General Grievous's IG-100 MagnaGuards.
External Links
- Star Wars Wiki article (http://starwars.wikicities.com/wiki/IG-88)
- Star Wars Databank article (http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/ig88/index.html)
References
- Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters, Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88, 1996, 1st paperback edition. Kevin J. Anderson, ISBN 0-553-56816-7
- Star Wars" The ssential guide to characters, 1st edition, 1995. Andy Mangels, ISBN 0-345-39535-2
- Star Wars, Young Jedi Knights: Delusions of Grandeu, paperback, 1997. Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, ISBN 1-57297-272-6ja:IG-88