The FIDO was designed by the famed Mon Calamari Admiral Gial Ackbar and was brought to life by a team of top Mon Calamari scientists. It was designed to protect the entrance of a bunker, fortress or a safe house.
The FIDO resembled a large krabbex from a distance. It was composed of an eight-meter long pod connected to four-joint legs.
Its pod was covered by a thick plasteel shell. It was equipped with a sensitive long range sensor and an advanced motion detector. The FIDO's primary weapons, its 26 claw-tipped cables, were kept in the pod and unspooled through a central grid. Its legs were designed to anchor the FIDO firmly in place once a strategic location was chosen and didn't provide mobility.
If the FIDO's controller were camouflaged, the sensor and cable grid had to be left partly uncovered. The FIDO was sophisticated and intelligent enough to distinguish ally from enemy and was well programmed in battle tactics. Its controller supervised the action through protected sensors at the edge of each tentacle and could adapt to new situations.
The Foreign Intruder Defense Organism.
The FIDO's primary weapons were 26 claw-tipped cables, each able to extend to a length of about 100 meters. These cables were influenced by the mouth tentacles of the krakana, a predator native to Dac, the ocean homeworld of the Mon Calamari. Each of these cables were capped with razor-sharp pincers cast from solid plasteel capable of cutting through transparisteel and even the armored hull of an Imperial Juggernaut.
Since these cables were the only weapons of the FIDO, it had to use surprise when in combat, reducing "friendly fire" and collateral damage. If the FIDO was installed correctly, enemy forces would not detect it until it was too late to turn back. Then, they would be grabbed by countless durasteel cables and then destroyed by being thrown around or torn to shreds.
The first unit was deployed during the Battle of Anoth in 11 ABY against Imperial Mountain Terrain Armored Transports under the command of Ambassador Furgan of Carida, who attempted to kidnap the youngest son of Han and Leia Organa Solo, Anakin.
During the battle, the Foreign Intruder Defense Organism was pitted against eight MT-ATs. The FIDO unit destroyed four of the MT-ATs before succumbing to the fire of the rest of the spider walkers. Despite destroying the FIDO, Furgan was defeated by Leia and Terpfen, ending a major threat to the New Republic.
Following the battle, the New Republic began producing more FIDOs though in limited quantity. To prevent others from stealing the design, its blueprints were categorized as classified information by the New Republic Intelligence.
Author Kevin J. Anderson has said that the name FIDO was a reference to the FidoNet Star Wars Echo, an online message board he took part in at the time.
The translation to Spanish of Champions of the Force kept the acronym by calling this droid O.D.I.E.
- The Essential Guide to Characters
- The Jedi Academy Sourcebook
- Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
- The Essential Guide to Droids
- The Official Star Wars Fact File67
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia