Vulture Droid (Droid Starfighter)

At over three kilometers in diameter, these enormous vessels resemble flattened disks with a central sphere containing the ship's bridge and reactor assemblies. The disk is broken at the front of the craft, revealing two mammoth docking bays lined with forward docking claws. The reclusive Neimoidian commanders typically seal themselves in the ship's spacious bridge while their legions of droids handle the operation of the mighty craft. The most important vessel in a Separatist battleship flotilla is the Droid Control Ship, which transmitted signals to the battle droid armies used by the Trade Federation and Separatist forces.

One of the wealthiest corporate organizations in the galaxy, the Trade Federation controlled most of the interstellar shipping passing through the Rim territories. The Trade Federation was headed by Viceroy Nute Gunray, and even had its own representative in the Republic Senate to lobby for even greater power. On the orders of Darth Sidious, the Trade Federation sent its battle droids to invade Naboo to create a government crisis. During the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation secretly signed on as a member of Count Dooku's Separatist organization, though representatives in the Senate tried to deny this.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems, also known as the Separatist Alliance, was a collection of star systems and corporate titans that left the Republic and fought for independence against the Republic’s clone armies and Jedi Knights. The charismatic former Jedi Count Dooku was the Alliance’s political leader, while its military power came from credits and assets donated by powerful galactic trade groups. No one suspected that the Alliance was actually a tool of Darth Sidious, who had engineered the Clone Wars as part of a Sith plot to rule the galaxy.

Protecting the skies over Republic worlds were specialized clone fighter forces flying the latest in starfighter technology. The ARC-170 fighter was a bulky, aggressive ship covered with weapons. Three clone trooper pilots operated this advanced combat craft, with a pilot handling the flight maneuvers, a copilot operating the laser cannons mounted on the ship's wide wings, and a tailgunner operating the dorsal rear-facing cannon. The fighter also carried an astromech droid for onboard repairs.

Protecting the skies and space around Naboo is the N-1 starfighter. Its sleek design exemplifies the philosophy of art and function witnessed throughout Naboo technology. Its twin radial J-type engines are capped in gleaming chrome and trail long delicate-looking finials behind the ship's single-pilot compartment. Behind the pilot sits a standard astromech droid, plugged into an abbreviated, ventrally-fed socket which requires the droid to compress slightly in order to fit within the vessel's curves. The fighter features twin blaster cannons, twin fire-linked torpedo launchers, and a capable automatic pilot feature.

Hyena droids are automated starfighters equipped for heavy ordnance bombing runs. Based on the slimmer vulture droid design, hyena bombers have a wider, sturdier hull with larger wings to offer greater stability during flight. The droid's central processor unit is contained in its starboard hull unit, from which glows a pair of red photoreceptors. The port hull unit houses the droid's ordnance bay, and has a downward-facing photoreceptor for pinpoint accuracy when dropping bombs. Like the vulture droid, the hyena bomber can reconfigure its shape to adopt a ground-walking mode.