BB-8

BB-8 (Beebee-Eight) is a fictional robot character featured in the Star Wars multimedia franchise. It was a supporting character in the 2015 feature film Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

BB-8 is BB-series astromech droid. He has a spherical body shape and location is provided through thrust and gyroscopic movement. He has a dome head atop of his shell, similar to that of an R2-unit. However, he is significantly smaller than the average R2-unit and is only about .67 meters tall. BB-8 communicates through a series of beeps, chirps and whistles, which is understood by most other droids, but only by a few sentient species.

Some thirty years after the Battle of Endor, BB-8 operated in the service of the Republic Resistance. He was assigned as a fighter support unit to pilot Po Dameron. Po Dameron was given a top-secret mission, which took him to the planet Jakku, where he met with an elderly sympathizer to the cause named Lor San Tekka. Lor San gave Po a portion of a map that the Resistance hoped would lead the way to Luke Skywalker - the last of the Jedi. Members of the First Order caught wind of Po's mission and intercepted him on Jakku in the Kelvin Ravine. Before he was captured, Po placed the map inside of BB-8 with instructions to get it back to the Resistance.

BB-8 did as instructed and left the area. He traveled along until he reached the Goazan Badlands near Niima Outpost. A scavenger known as Teedo, riding astride a biomechanoid Luggabeast ensnared BB-8 in a net. A young human scavenger named Rey caught sight of this and liberated the droid. After freeing him, she ordered BB-8 to be on his way, but he instead decided to follow her. She ultimately relented and brought her back to her abode inside the ruins of a downed AT-AT. When Rey went to Niima Outpost to trade for rations with Unkar Plutt, the immense Crolute offered her sixty-four portions for the droid. Rey told him that he wasn't for sale. A group of Unkar's thugs attacked Rey, hoping to steal the valuable droid, but Rey easily fought them off. A defecting Stormtrooper of the First Order named FN-2187 landed on Jakku, having rescued Po Dameron from the First Order Star Destroyer. FN-2187, renamed Finn, believed that Po had died in the crash, and took his flight jacket to replace his Stormtrooper armor. He eventually made his way to Niima Outpost, where he found Rey fighting the thugs. After meeting with her, he accompanied BB-8 and she back to her home. BB-8 recognized Po Dameron's flight jacket, and Finn told him that Po didn't survive the crash. He then told Rey that he was actually a high-ranking member of the Resistance, and convinced BB-8 to help him support his story. Finn knew that BB-8 had the map, and together, Rey and he committed themselves towards returning the droid to the Resistance base on D'Qar.

They traveled in a stolen freighter ship known as the Millennium Falcon, which Rey had to fly with great speed and maneuverability in order to outrun pursuing TIE fighters. In order to keep himself from literally bouncing off the walls, BB-8 extended several stabilizer rods, rooting him to the interior hull of the ship. The Falcon was quickly overtaken by a larger freighter ship called the Eravana, which was piloted by the Falcon 's original owner, Han Solo and his co-pilot, Chewbacca. After it was explained how important BB-8 was to the Resistance, Han and Chewie agreed to help them get back to D'Qar. First they made a stop on the planet Takodana and visited the castle of one of Han's old contacts, Maz Kanata. BB-8's spherical form made a lot of noise as it "thumped" its way down the old stone steps into the lower basement. The First Order sent a strike team to Takodana, but fortunately, they were intercepted by a squadron of Resistance X-wing fighters. Rey was captured by First Order operative Kylo Ren, but Han, Chewie and Finn managed to escape with BB-8.

They finally made it to D'Qar where BB-8 provided the map to Resistance leaders. At this time, he reunited with his master, Po Dameron, who had miraculously survived the crash on Jakku, and also met with protocol droid C-3PO, who introduced him to his inert counterpart, R2-D2.

BB-8 served on Po Dameron's X-wing fighter once again, this time in an offensive against the First Order facility at Starkiller Base. The mission proved successful and the base was destroyed. During this campaign, Rey escaped from the First Order and reunited with her new friends. After the battle, BB-8 returned to D'Qar.