Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.

Two Imperial Star Destroyers were deploying pods from both Star Destroyers as the pods jumped into Hyperspace. One of these pods jumped out of Hyperspace as it neared the planet of Atollon and landed in the coral mesa of the planet as a E-XD-series infiltrator droid climbed out of the pod and began walking around the area before stopping as it noticed ship flying by in the distance. "Possible target acquired. Proceeding to investigate." The E-XD-series infiltrator droid then began to continue walking forward only to get cornered by Krykna both behind and in front of him, "Encountering hostiles. Cannot give away position." The droid went on before getting attacked by the two Krykna spiders.


"Hobbie, Wedge, let's go! Move it!" Hera ordered both Wedge and Hobbie who were both in rebel pilot uniforms standing next to each other as she, Ezra and Zeb began to approach them on Chopper Base as A-wings flew from the base. "We're behind schedule, Phoenix Squadron. I want these fighters launched and at the training coordinates by 062."

"Don't understand why I can't come along," Zeb said as both Wedge and Hobbie ran to A-wings.

"Zeb, you're my chief of security. I need you to stay behind and mind the base," Hera answered.

"Oh, Hera, come on. Let me tag along," Zeb pleaded with her as Sabine and Kanan walked towards them, "You can always use an extra pair of hands. Just don't leave me on my own here. I'll be bored to death."

"You won't be on your own," Hera said as she walked towards the Ghost as AP-5 and Chopper walked past the Ghost on its side, "You have Chop and AP-5 to keep you company."

"Like I said, bored to death," Zeb repeated himself.

"We'll be back before you know it,"Kanan reassured the lasat.

"Carry on, Captain Orrelios," Sabine said, saluting him.

"Sorry, Zeb," Ezra chuckled as she followed her sister and the others up the Ghost's ramp.

"Did they seriously leave you in charge of this entire facility?" AP-5 asked Zeb as he walked in front of him with Chopper.

"Something wrong with that?" Zeb asked him.

"Well, I just always assumed you were more of a lift heavy things and punch and punch anything in your way type," AP-5 explained, "You know, a grunt." As AP-5 said that Zeb grunted angrily at him, "Precisely. Now, what exactly do you do?" Chopper grunted an answer for him.

"What'd he say?" Zeb demanded.

"He said, we've never really figured that out," AP-5 answered.

"Don't you have something to do?" Zeb asked him as he grunted.

"Actually, while everyone is off practicing, I intend to take this opportunity to conduct a thorough inventory of the base's munitions supply depot," AP-5 answered, "Either of you may assist me." Chopper grunted a response.

"Eh, I'm with you, Chopper," Zeb said, agreeing with the droid, "Counting crates? Not exactly my idea of fun."

"Is that because you never learned to count?" AP-5 asked him, "I can teach you."

"What?!" Zeb said in disbelief as he went to leave, "No! I don't have to stay here and listen to this. I'll be in the command center."

"Doing what?" AP-5 asked him.

"Commanding!" Zeb answered.


"Captain," a rebel officer greeted Zeb as he and Chopper walked towards him at the holotable.

"Anything to report?" Zeb asked.

"We've been tracking two meteors impacting on the surface nearby," the rebel officer answered, "We think one of them knocked out a perimeter sensor in sector six. Should I send a unit?"

"No, I'll go take a look," Zeb answered as he turned to Chopper, "Chopper, you're with me." Chopper grunted, disagreeing with him, "Oh, you don't want to go? Fine. Then you can stay here and help AP-5 with his supply inventory."

"Copper, there you are. We have a lot of inventory to calculate immediately," AP-5 said, approaching him only for Chopper to follow Zeb, "Wait. Where are you going?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Zeb said as Chopper followed him.


"Well, I don't see a meteor, but it looks like spiders had a go at it," Zeb said after exiting a landspeeder with Chopper as he replaced the sensor as he stabbed it in the ground, "Easy enough to fix." He then pressed buttons on the panel, deactivating the sensor as he noticed something from between the dead spiders and went to inspect it, "It looks like something stumbled onto a nest and got swarmed." He pushed the spider away with his bo-rifle and saw the E-XD-series infiltrator droid laying on top of the other dead spider. "Huh. It's some kind of droid." He placed his bo-rifle back on his back as he moved the E-XD-series infiltrator droid from its side, "And not one of ours. How'd it get here? Doesn't look Imperial." Chopped grunted a response, "We should take it back to base, see if we can figure out where it came from." Chopper then grunted frustratedly as he took out his utility hammer and began to slam it on the E-XD-series infiltrator droid's head. "Course you disagree and wanna trash it. Well, I suppose, since Hera left you in charge…" Zeb went on as he picked the E-XD-series infiltrator droid up, "Oh, wait, she didn't." He finished as he began walking back to the landspeeder with the E-XD-series infiltrator droid as Chopper grunted frustratedly.


"Agent Kallus, we've lost contact with one of our Infiltrators," an Imperial officer informed Kallus as he held a datapad in his hand as he stared out a window as he stood in the bridge of a Star Destroyer, "It hasn't reported in."

"What was its last known location," the Fulcrum agent asked him.

"The droid never transmitted its coordinates, so we don't know," the Imperial officer answered, "Should we alert command?"

"If we chased down every temporary comm failure, we'd have little time to do anything else," Kallus answered as he turned to him as went to leave the Imperial officer, "If there's still no contact by next cycle, we'll follow up. For now, we wait."


"No, no, no, no. This is all wrong. Rations in the munitions section? Torpedoes with detonators?" AP-5 said as he inspected the munitions section of the base, "My maker! This is a logistics nightmare. Say what you like about the Empire, they were organized. Mostly because of me, of course."

"Hey inventory!" Zeb suddenly called out to him holding the E-XD-series Infiltrator droid.

"Um, excuse me," AP-5 said as Zeb placed the E-XD-series Infiltrator droid on a container in front of them, "This is a supply area, not a trash compactor."

"We found this busted-up droid in the wasteland," Zeb explained to him, "Can you identify it?"

"Hmm. It looks like an older model of some type of protocol droid," AP-5 answered before pulling out a power starter device, "I should be able to give it enough power for a systems restart." e then plugged the device into the E-XD-series Infiltrator droid, causing it to quickly powered back up as it's eyes lit up.

"Hey, it worked!" Zeb gasped.

"Of course it worked," AP-5 told him.

Uh…" Zeb began to speak to the Infiltrator droid before clearing his throat, "Hello. Who are you? Where do you come from?"

"Designation, unknown," the Infiltrator droid mumbled incoherently.

"It's memory systems are damaged," AP-5 stated as the Infiltrator droid walked away.

"Armory and munitions storage area. Proton torpedoes,47. Blaster recharges,820. Thermal detonators,62 crates. Ion mines, 32," the Infiltrator said as he scanned and inventory the entire area.

"Did he...Did he just scan and inventory this entire area?" Zeb said before chuckling as he pounded AP-5 a little, "He's better at your job than you are."

"I seriously doubt that," AP-5 responded, "He appears to be a logistics droid and could prove useful as my assistant."

"Hmm. Seems harmless enough," Zeb said as he looked at the Infiltrator droid, "I guess we could take in another stray."

"Species, Lasat. Designation, military. Rank, unknown," the Infiltrator droid said as he scanned Zeb as he turned to him.

"Captain Orrelios at your service," Zeb said as he saluted the Infiltrator droid before the Infiltrator droid saluted him back causing Zeb to laugh, "Fast learner, this one. Heh."

"Astromech C1 series. Obsolete mechanism. No longer in production,"the Infiltrator said as he scanned Chopper, causing Chopper to grunt frustratedly.

"He doesn't like you. Now I really like him," Zeb chuckled as he looked at Chopper as the Infiltrator droid walked away.

"Captain Orrelios to the command center for a priority message," a rebel comm officer suddenly contacted Zeb over the intercom.

"Keep an eye on my new friend, huh?" Zeb requested AP-5 as he began going towards the command center.

"Very well," AP-5 said.


"Sir, we have a priority message from Fulcrum," the comm officer reported to Zeb as he approached the holotable at the command center.

"Let's hear it. Put him through," Zeb said, wanting to hear what Kallus had for them this time.

"The Empire has begun to deploy recon droids," Kallus begun in his Fulcrum voice as the symbol of Fulcrum appeared on the holotable for a split second before switching to a diagram of the Infiltrator droid, "These Infiltrators sweep the Outer Rim worlds for rebel bases."

"Oh, look at that thing. It's armed to the teeth," Zeb noted.

"They are extremely dangerous, but can appear harmless while in protocol mode," Kallus added.

"Oh, no," Zeb muttered.

"One recently failed to report in," Kallus continued, "Be advised, if the droid remains out of contact, the Empire will come after it, and soon. Fulcrum, out."


"Make sure you categorize every crate in this section," AP-5 told the Infiltrator droid as he walked down an aisle with Chopper and the Infiltrator droid, "Oh, this is marvelous. You and I are going to get along famously. We'll have this rebel base in tip-top shape."

"Rebel," the Infiltrator droid repeated as Zeb appeared in the background in a distance from the Infiltrator droid.

"AP-5, stay away from that droid!" Zeb yelled as he aimed his bo-rifle at the Infiltrator droid.

"Rebel base," the Infiltrator repeated.

"Um, what exactly is happening?" AP-5 asked with confusion.

"That thing's some kind of Imperial recon droid," Zeb explained.

"Rebel base identified," the Infiltrator droid went on.

"Get away from it!" Zeb ordered before seeing that the Infiltrator droid was doing something, "What's it doing?"

"Designation, Imperial Infiltrator Droid EXD-9," the Infiltrator droid said before transforming into it's attack form.

"It's remembering," AP-5 stated.

"Assignment, Atollon," the Infiltrator droid added as it's mouthplate slides down, revealing three red eyes, "Target, rebels." He then went to attack them.

"Stop! Oh!" AP-5 pleaded as Zeb fired at the Infiltrator droid with his bo-rifle only for the blaster bolts to ricochet off the Infiltrator droid's body as it leapt onto the catwalk above as Zeb continued firing at the Infiltrator droid before it ran across the catwalk before leaping onto him and began to punch him before Zeb pushed the droid off of him and fired his bo-rifle before it leaped onto one of the containers around them and fired its blasters at him.

"Uh-oh!" Zeb muttered as he evaded the blaster bolts as he ran to cover behind one of the containers across from the Infiltrator droid as the Infiltrator droid leaped off of the container only for Chopper to shock him from behind with his spark projector before the Infiltrator droid turned around and slammed Chopper into one of the containers before falling to the ground and began to approach him as Zeb yelled as he ran towards the Infiltrator droid firing his bo-rifle and soon one of the blaster bolts shot off a part of its left arm, with oil coming out of it as it spared with electricity before fleeing as Zeb fired at it again only to miss as Zeb walked over to Chopper to help him up, "You, okay, Chop?" Chopper then started grunting. "I can only guess what he's saying."

"In summary, I told you so," AP-5 translated.

"Well, I managed to damage it, but it's on the run now," Zeb said as he inspected the Infiltrator droid's severed hand, "Ah, we can't let that thing report what it saw back to the Empire."

"We must alert Captain Syndulla," AP-5 stated.

"Uh, no time," Zeb protested, "Hera put me in charge because she trusts me. I'm not letting her down." Zeb and Chopper then walked through another aisle with AP-5 with Chopper's dome light on, "Come on. It's leaking fluid. we can track it." As they followed the trail of fluid from the Infiltrator droid they found a wrecked astromech.

"Ghastly," AP-5 stated as they approached the wrecked astromech, "This poor astromech's power core has been completely drained. And several key components have been removed."

"That thing's repairing itself," Zeb realized, "Trail ends here, where it patched itself up. Chopper, think you can track it?" Chopper then grunted a response.

"Chopper said its power supply is not registering on his scanners. The power it consumed from this droid was likely not enough for its needs," AP-5 translated for Zeb, "It may still be looking for more."

"Well, that gives me an idea," Zeb told them as he stood back up, causing Chopper to grunt.

"Really? You can have those?" AP-5 asked in disbelief.

"Chopper, you get its attention. Lure it to me, and I'll blast it," Zeb said, explaining his plan to them.

"May I remind you that we are in an area housing high-explosive munitions?" AP-5 reminded the Lasat, "Perhaps not the best place to be firing blasters. We were lucky enough the first time."

"You could have told me that before," Zeb stated.

"I just told you now," AP-5 added.

"Okay, so I'll just grab it. Get it on the ground and shut it down," Zeb relented.

"Grab it?" AP-5 repeated, "That's your plan?"

"Yes," Zeb confirmed, "And if I do, can you shut it down?"

"Of course I can," AP-5 answered.

"All right. Chopper, get to it," Zeb ordered Chopper, who grunted as he switched his light off as he rolled away to search for the Infiltrator droid, Chopper chirped as he rolled down an aisle before stopping as he saw a metallic device being thrown backwards, startling him before rolling forward to inspect what was happening and saw the Infiltrator droid salvaging parts from a Gonk droid before Chopper grunted to the Infiltrator droid, getting its attention as it looked at Chopper as Chopper made a sound that sounded like 'Uh-oh'.

As Chopper made that sound, he began to roll away on his wheel with the Infiltrator droid chasing him as Zeb watched from a catwalk above as he grabbed his bo-rifle from his back and extended it as he jumped onto the Infiltrator droid's back before the Infiltrator droid threw him off his back onto the ground as it began to approach AP-5 as Chopper made a panicked grunting sound.

As this happened Zeb got back up as his activated his bo-rifle's electro-staff feature before rushing towards the Infiltrator droid stabbing his bo-rifle's electro-staff into it, causing it to turn to him and started rotating its grappling hand around as he leaped for him to jump out of the way as the Infiltrator droid to strike at him only for Zeb to avoid the strike as he rushed in front of a cargo container for a second with the Infiltrator droid striking at him again only for Zeb to evade the strike as he rushed in front of the droid and went to stab one end of his bo-rifle's electro-staff at the Infiltrator droid in the face only for the infiltrator droid to grab it with it's grappling hand, causing the electricity to charge into Zeb from the bo-rifle's electro-staff as he yelled in pain before the infiltrator droid threw it to the side before pushing him against a crate as he began to choke him before throwing him towards a box in the distance before falling to the ground behind the box.

The Infiltrator droid then ran towards him as Zeb got back to his feet as the droid lunged at him again, pushing him towards crates before throwing him onto the top of a crate and leaped towards Zeb, only for Zeb roll away from were the Infiltrator droid was going to land before he stood up and jumped onto the droid's back, "I got it. I got it!" He then struggled to stay on the droid's back as it walked backwards before falling onto the ground below. Zeb continued to hold the droid as he laid on his back with the droid who was struggling to get away from his grasp. "Shut it down!" AP-5 and Chopper approached them.

"Hold it steady," AP-5 said as he began trying to shut the droid down.

"I'm trying!" Zeb yelled as he struggled to hold the Infiltrator droid down as Chopper attempted to shock the droid with his spark projector only for the Infiltrator droid to kick him, sending him backwards.

"Shut it down now!" Zeb ordered.

"Almost got it," AP-5 said as he placed his hand behind the Infiltrator droid's head, "Stand by."

"Stand by?!" Zeb repeated as AP-5 continued to shut the droid down.

"Got it," AP-5 said as the droid powered down. "What do you know? Your plan actually worked."

"Of course it did!" He said as he pushed the disabled droid off of him and rotated his arm around as Chopper grunted as he approached the deactivated Infiltrator droid as Zeb groaned as he stood back up as he got on his feet, "Okay, let's have some good news. You know, just ti see how it feels."

"Chopper can detect no long-range communications equipment," AP-5 told him, "Which means the droid has not transmitted our position to the Empire."

"Well, that's something," Zeb stated, "It must have a ship somewhere nearby. What's the bad news?" Chopper then grunted as he looked down at the Infiltrator droid.

"The droid appears to be...counting down?" AP-5 answered as he looked down at the droid's chest which began beeping as four red numbers appeared on the droid's chest.

"Counting down to what?" Zeb asked him.

"Most likely it has activated its Imperial anti-capture failsafe," AP-5 answered, "There's probably a proton warhead inside too."

"If you're right, then this droid could vaporize the entire base and us along with it," Zeb stated.

"The countdown timer has already begun," AP-5 informed them.

"How much time have we got left?" Zeb asked him.

"Twenty seconds," AP-5 answered.

"Any ideas?" Zeb groaned before Chopper groaned as he deployed one of his utility tools and freezed the countdown circuit with it, "What did he do?"

"He's temporarily frozen the countdown circuit," AP-5 answered, "That should buy us time to move the droid to a safe distance from the base before it detonates. This part will require some manual labor. Your specialty, I believe."

"Wait," Zeb began as he grabbed the Infiltrator droid, "Fulcrum said if this droid doesn't report back to the Empire, they'll come here looking for it."

"Oh, wait," AP-5 said as Zeb let go of the Infiltrator droid as it fell on him, "Are you suggesting we allow it to return to the Empire, with a memory bank filled with rebel secrets?"

"Well, we can't let it detonate. We can't let it go back," Zeb said as AP-5 got off of the droid as he stood back up, "Think, Zeb, think!"

"This may take a while," AP-5 stated.

"Can you get inside the droid's programming?" Zeb asked him.

"I believe I can," AP-5 answered.

"I want you to wipe its memory," Zeb requested.

"No, its memory core is protected. Any attempt to tamper with it would likely trigger detonation," AP-5 responded as Zeb walked behind him, "Nor can I disarm the warhead. One way or another, it is going to explode. It's just a matter of when."

"Or a matter of where," Zeb muttered as he walked back to him from behind, "What if we send it back to the Empire still ticking? Can you make an adjustment to the warhead, set it to restart the countdown when the droid reconnects to the Imperial network?"

"Possibly. What are you suggesting?" AP-5 asked.

"We let it go back to its base, but it blows before it can upload its data. Maybe even takes some more of these droids with it. The Empire will never know which one it was," Zeb explained, "Well, can you do it or not."

"What?" AP-5 stuttered, "Yes, I can. Or at least I can try. Sorry for my delayed response. I was just rather stunned by the fact that you had a good idea." Chopper then chuckled in amusement at what AP-5 told Zeb.

"Just get to work fixing it," Zeb said as he crossed his arms as Chopper grunted.

"Oh, good point, Chopper. It may kill us, do I will restore the droid's behavioral system to the disarmed state in which we found it," AP-5 said as he began working on the Infiltrator droid, "I will also initiate its return-to-base protocol so it should promptly leave peacefully." Chopper grunted yet again as AP-5 placed the droid on the ground, "Main system restart now."

They all went into cover with Zeb and Chopper hiding behind a container crates while AP-5 hid behind a wall behind them as the Infiltrator droid began to power back up as it transformed back into it's protocol mode with them watching as this happened and as the droid sat up, it turned to its side, feeling that it was being watched only for AP-5 to quickly hide back down as the droid stood up and began leaving the area.

"It's leaving the base. Good job," Zeb whispered to AP-5 as they left from cover, "Let's make sure it gets home."


"I'm picking up a second signal," Zeb told AP-5 as they followed the Infiltrator droid through the coral mesa in a landspeeder as he held a sensor in his hand, "Must be his ship." Soon they saw the Infiltrator droid climb back into its pod, "There it is!" The Infiltrator droid began clicking buttons as he sat in the seat in his pod, causing the pod to extend a radar dish outwards.

"That's a long-range transmitter. It's going to contact the Empire," AP-5 said, referring to the radar dish.

"Not if I can help it," Zeb muttered as he hopped out of the landspeeder as he grabbed his bo-rifle and fired at the radar dish, causing it to break and fall off the pod. "Yes!" Zeb laughed as he hopped back onto the landspeeder, "We did it. We did it! Now that it can't contact the Empire, it will return home, right?"

"If it follows it's programming," AP-5 confirmed as the pod's hatch closed and it's engines powered up as it lifted off leaving Atollon with Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper watching, "But what if… I mean, if it goes back, and I didn't correctly reprogram that detonator?"

"Look, we may not like each other, but you've always done your job," Zeb reassured him.

"Well, whatever the outcome, you performed admirably, Captain," AP-5 complimented Zeb as he sat back in the passenger seat.

"A lot's happened today," Zeb exhaled, "Not sure if I can deal with you and me starting to get along on top of everything else."

"Hmm. Agreed," AP-5 said as he began to fly the landspeeder back to Chopper Base.


The Infiltrator droid's pod soon jumped out of Hyperspace along with other Infiltrator droid pods as they flew back to a Star Destroyer and slid into a slot where the pods of the Infiltration droids go as other Infiltration droids left their pods with two Imperial technicians in the room helping the droids out of their pods.

"I think that missing unit is back," one of the technicians said as they began heading for EDX-9's pod.

"So plug it in. Let's what we got," the other technician said as they plugged the droid in, powering it up.

"Alert command," the technician ordered the other technician, "This droid was damaged, but found something." As he said that, the Infiltrator droid reactivated its countdown as its chest slid open, "Is that a countdown?"

"Oh my," the other technician muttered as the countdown went off


Meanwhile on the other Star Destroyer, Kallus was speaking to the Imperial officer, when they suddenly heard and noticed the explosion. "What just happened?" Kallus asked as he turned around to one of the bridge's technicians below, "Report!"

"I believe it was a proton warhead detonation, sir," the technician below him answered, causing Kallus to stare back at the window, secretly smiling.


The next day on Atollon, the Ghost landed on Chopper Base with Hera, Kanan, Ezra and Sabine walking down the ramp as they began to approach Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper.

"Okay, what happened that you called me back on day one of the exercise?" Hera demanded.

"Well, it may be nothing. We, uh… We think we've got it under control. But just in case…" Zeb began.

"Incoming message, priority," the comm rebel officer suddenly contacted them.

"Hold that thought," Hera said as they began to walk towards the command center as Chopper grunted.

"You had nothing to do with what?" Kanan asked Chopper with confusion.

"I can only assume you found and reprogrammed the lost Infiltrator I warned you of," Kallus's Fulcrum voice spoke out of the command center's holotable as the Fulcrum signal appeared on it as they stood around it, "Well, as you no doubt planned the droid did self-destruct on its return to base. I do not know how you pulled it off, but you have my congratulations. Fulcrum, out."

"Uh, what was that about?" Sabine asked as the message ended.

"Uh…" Zeb chuckled, "It's kind of a long story."

"Which I can recall every detail of," AP-5 added, "It all began when Captain Orrelios brought the droid back…" Zeb then suddenly chuckled as he placed his hand over AP-5's mouth, causing AP-5's speech to muffle.


"How did this happen, Agent Kallus?" Thrawn asked Kallus as approached the Grand Admiral on the Chimera at his command center's holotable on the bridge of the Star Destroyer as the holotable displayed a blue colored star map filled with thousands of planets.

"I suspect the rebels captured a unit in the field and reprogrammed it to self-destruct upon its return to base," Kallus answered, "Quite ingenious, really."

"I'm inclined to agree," Thrawn stated.

"You seem in surprising good spirits, considering this loss," Kallus noted.

"Loss, you say?" Thrawn repeated, "Hmm, the rebels may have protected the location of their base for now, but in doing so, they have narrowed my search." Thrawn then clicks a button on the holo-table removing a ton of planets and star systems as the planets turned red, "Before today, they could have been hiding in any of the thousand systems. But now… Now I know they are almost certainly on one of the 94 planets surveyed by my Infiltrators. The rebels have won this battle, but the war will be ours."

Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not? Also next is my favorite episode and have been waiting to write, 'Trials of the Darksaber'. How should I change the conversation between Ezra and Sabine after Sabine gets angry at Kanan after using Mandalorian Vambraces?