From A Bug's Perspective
It was a dark time for the Geonosians: from the brutal attacks of the Republic's clone armies on their desert homeworld to the enslavement of their race by the Empire; building, piece by piece, what would be the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. A weapon in the works since before the Clone Wars. Originally under the order of Count Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but taken over by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and the Republic following the second invasion of the planet during the war. Unbeknownst to them until it was too late, this weapon they were creating would be the Geonosian's downfall.
Klikat, having been young at the time, around the age where members of the Geonosian species were deemed fully grown and mature enough to work, remembered standing among thousands of his brethren in the Arena of Justice and seeing three off-worlders fight for their lives against beast brought in from across the cosmos. It was supposed to have been an exciting day for the young Geonosian, but ended up becoming one of the worst for both him and the rest of his people as more and more outsiders arrived, either robed warriors wielding swords made of light, or white armoured soldiers using blaster rifles, all targeting the insect species.
The warrior caste of Geonosis fought hard but even with the droid armies they created under their command, Klikat and his people were forced to retreat into the catacombs deep underground as the outsiders took over their world. When they managed to retake their home a year after the invasion, those invaders returned and once again Geonosis was taken over by the Republic.
Subject to Republic rule, the Queen was silenced while Archduke Poggle the Lesser was forced to carry out the invader's command. Under his order, the Geonosians resumed building the Ultimate Weapon, a device more powerful than anything ever seen by the galaxy before. Their time under the Republic was harsh, with troops constantly watching Klikat and his people, their cultures and traditions continued to be practiced only as long as they did not interfere with Republic laws; not even Poggle could oppose the Chancellor, or the Jedi enforces that led their armies. Despite now being their allies, in the Republic's perspective, the Geonosians saw that they were becoming tools, used in their invaders' quest to concur the remaining worlds within the galaxy. It gave chills to Klikat and many others of his race, quite odd given the world they lived in was a dry, hot world.
Then three and a half years after the conflict first erupted, Poggle died, the war ended, and the Republic reformed itself into an Empire, which led to the darkest era in Geonosian history. They thought the Republic had been bad, but the Empire was far worse. No longer did they have any free sayings. They were no longer contract workers, but slaves. Day and night, no break, no pay, no benefits of any kind. The Queen was executed, and what was left of the caste systems were completely dismantled, with the highest to lowest Geonosians all being placed under one demeaning group dedicated to non-stop work in service to the Empire and the construction of the Ultimate Weapon, later known as the Death Star.
Klikat remembered when construction reached a pivotal moment. The hyperdrive was fully operational, along with a great majority of its interior features and outer coverings. The biggest issue yet to be fully complete at the time was the massive lasers that would be the key feature of the entire station. These lasers, when channelled together would be able to destroy anything as large as a planet. Over the years they spent as slaves to the Empire, many Geonosians, Klikat among them, feared that once fully complete the Empire would use the weapon to destroy Geonosis and the insect race that created it.
However, while the Death Star was far from complete, the Empire moved the weapon from Geonosis to a location unknown to the bugs. When this happened Klikat and his people knew that their time was almost over. They were right: not long after the weapon's relocation, Geonosis' overlords slowly started moving their troops and other resources offworld; yet their star destroyers remained in orbit, and their bombers slowly began distributing canisters across the planet; which were placed under heavy guard by the remaining imperial forces.
At the time they couldn't figure out exactly what was in those canisters, could've been poison or maybe explosives, but whatever it was, the Geonisians could only assume that it would be used to end their race. If that were the case, it didn't mean that the bugs would simply stand down a be wiped out. As things continued to grow worse for Geonosis during the Empire's rule, members of the population began preparing for the inevitable that they all knew was bound to happen. Since retaking their world during the Clone Wars, the Republic and then later the Empire did everything they could to disarm the bugs to prevent another uprising. However, over time, some Imperials stationed on Geonosis became slack; overconfident in their ability to control the insects. This allowed the Geonosians to acquire weapons and tools needed for a last desperate mission. They weren't able to gain enough resources needed to kick the Empire off their world, but enough to distract the enslavers long enough to ensure their species continued survival. Along with the supplies they stole, the Geonosians also acquired an extremely valuable treasure that could resurrect their people should they be wiped out.
Sending spies within Imperial-controlled territory, the Geonosians confirmed that the Empire was indeed planning to eradicate the entire planet's population, with the canisters they'd distributed throughout the planet being filled with poisonous gas. Though they couldn't stop the gas from being unleashed, nor create an immunity to it in time, Klikat's people were able to carry out a final mission to save their race. Placing Klikat and several other Geonosisans in several escape pods they'd stolen, with the treasure inside his, the pods were launched into space towards one of Geonosis' moons. To distract the launch, the remaining Geonosian warriors launched two attacks on the Empire; one on what remained of their main military base, and another on the planet's main communications towers; the latter of which they were able to secure long enough for techs to hack into the system and use to cover Klikat's pod from Imperial ships in orbit. Their efforts proved successful, as Klikat managed to escape Geonosis and go into hiding on the nearby moon of Servieve. Though his pod was the only one to escape, the others were all destroyed. Klikat saw this himself with his own eyes.
Having been stocked with plenty of equipment in his pod, among them being a compad linked to satellites his people had set up before their attack, Klikat waited on Servieve until the Empire finished withdrawing from his homeworld. Then sent a probe droid he'd brought from Geonosis back to his home to confirm that the imperials were gone and that there were no traces of poison on the planet. When the probe confirmed the planet was safe, Klikat returned to find, to his horror, all his people were dead; not just those who'd fought in the final battle, but every single bug, even the ones who'd been hiding below in the catacombs.
Though devasted by the loss of his people, Klikat refused to give up. He'd hid deep underground, only rising to the surface to set up defences such as an abandoned military-grade shield generator, and several squads of battle droids. These would be used should outsiders return to his home to defend what remained of Geonosis. Along with this, Klikat took the liberty of using explosives to collapse certain tunnels to prevent outsiders from following him should he be discovered. While he maintained his defences, Klikat also spent a great deal of time readying himself for when the time would come to resurrect his people.
Eventually, more outsiders arrived. Klikat refused to let himself be killed, not when there was still a chance to revive his people. When the intruders entered the underground tunnels, Klikat blew up additional passageways, boxing his enemies in, and sending in his droids to overwhelm the enemy. One survived though and went into hiding. When he couldn't find the remaining intruder, Klikat hoped that he'd seen the last of him and that he didn't have to worry about any more outsiders. Those hopes were shattered when reinforcements arrived looking for the survivor. Though unlike the intruders from before, Klikat discovered that this new party was composed of not only an old clone from the previous wars but two Jedi as well. Seeing an opportunity to exact revenge against the invaders that brought his homeworld to ruins Klikat again unleashed his droids.
That's when the survivor, Saw Gerrera, resurfaced, managing to use explosives to divide the droids and stop them before they could eliminate the new arrivals.
At the same time, additional invaders had been dispatched several to investigate Klikat's shield generator. When Klikat overheard this, he activated the droidekas up top to eliminate the Jedi's friends. When he did this, though, the Jedi spotted him and hunted him down. He ran but was caught and his remaining droids were deactivated. Gerrera then demanded to know what was happening on Geonosis, and what his people were building for the Empire.
"Tell me bug, what secrets were worth the lives of my teammates, my friends!" Gerrera demanded.
Fear engulfed Klikat, thoughts of death, but more importantly, the extinction of his people and the loss of Geonosis filled his mind. He panicked, fearing it was the end. Then to his surprise, one of the Jedi, a young human stepped to Klikat's defence, trying to talk to him in a more peaceful and friendly tone.
"Easy now, we won't hurt you. My name is Ezra. What's yours?"
Responded in his people's language of Geonosian, Klikat gave this Ezra his name, but it was obvious that the Jedi didn't understand him and had trouble interpreting his name.
"Yeah, I think I'm just gonna call you Klik-Klak."
The nickname wasn't too off from his actual one, and the bug kinda liked it. He certainly wasn't gonna fight over it, especially when he had no weapons while the people surrounding him were well-armed.
"It's okay. C'mon on out," Ezra encouraged.
Feeling less afraid than he'd been before, Klikat stepped out of the shadows and walked closer to the outsiders, among them was a droid who he tried to examine curiously. But when he touched the droid, it got defensive.
"Easy Chopper," Ezra said to the droid before returning his attention to Klikat. "Klik-Klak, do you know, what the Empire was doing here, on Geonosis?" he asked trying his best to describe what he was saying using arm gestures, appearing to not know for sure how well the Geonosian understood him.
Not being able to speak basic, and without any proper way to translate, Klikat knelt on the ground and used the dirt to draw a vague image of the Death Star, the weapon his people had been building for the Empire.
Unfortunately, no one understood what he was trying to tell. Then their droid picked up an energy signal leading to Klikat's workshop, where the treasure he'd been protecting was hidden. The outsiders decided to invest, which made the Geonosian nervous, even more so when Gererra placed binders on his wrists.
"What are you doing?" Ezra protested.
"Tracker. I don't want him running off again," Gererra said as he forced Klikat to follow the others. When they reached his hideout, Gerrera started rummaging through Klikat's stuff, consumed by fear, he interjected retrieving the treasure he'd been given to guard and maintain by his people, a queen egg.
When Ezra and the others saw it, they quickly figured out what was going on. Once hatched and fully grown, the new queen could repopulate the entire Geonosian race, allowing for their species to continue.
"He's just been defending it," Ezra stated. "That's what he was trying to draw." The Jedi was wrong about what he'd been trying to tell them, however, he was right about why Klikat had been doing what he'd been doing with the droids and using them to attack them.
"Looks like a queen egg," the clone figured out. "It's very rare."
Using Klikat's equipment to boost their transmitter's signal, the outsiders were able to contact their ship, learning that the Empire had arrived. Gerrera tried to force Klikat to come with them for interrogation, but Ezra and the others stepped, trying to help the Geonosian now that they knew his mission was vital to his race's survival. Despite Klikat's protests, the group agreed to take him and the egg with them, only just to question him, then return him home. With no weapons, his remaining droids to deactivate, or any means to escape without the risk of Gerrera taking a shot at him or the egg, Klikat had no choice but to go with his captors.
They reached the group's ship where things took a turn for the worst. The rest of the crew defended Klikat, but Gerrera started electrocuting him and tried to take him by force; even going so far as to threaten to shoot the egg.
"Let us pass, or I destroy the egg."
The sight terrified Klikat, more so than when Gerrera threatened him earlier, or even when he returned to the billions of corpses that had been his people. Fear once again consumed his mind. His people were gonna die. He could feel it. Right then and now the Geonosians were going to be extinct at any moment. But again, Ezra came to Klikat's aid, with his friends stepping in to protest Gerrera's actions.
"Saw, you don't wanna do this."
"I know you think you're only doing the right thing."
"Our enemy shows no mercy," Gerrera defended. "Neither can we."
"If you harm that egg, you're helping the Empire wipe out the last of his kind. The last of his family," Ezra said in a desperate attempt to persuade Gererra to release the egg.
Still terrified by the weapon being posed on his race's last hope, Klikat was amazed just by the compassion Ezra, this outsider was showing for him and his race. No one outside the Geonosian hive had ever cared so much for the species as he appeared did. On top of that, this was a Jedi, they led the first and second attacks on his people that allowed for the Republic of old to conquer their world. Now here was one, no two, both Jedi were defending Klikat and his race against one of their own.
Before they could resolve the matter, though, the Empire attacked, forcing Klikat and the others to retreat deeper underground. Needing to focus their efforts on fighting off the Empire, Gererra returned the egg to Klikat, much to the Geonosian's relief. To his amazement and surprise, these rebels, as they called themselves, were victorious against the imperial forces. Every time Klikat ever saw anyone fight the Empire, it always ended in defeat for the former.
Klikat and the rebels soon reached the bottom of the cavern where they discovered poison canisters used in the genocide of Klikat's people. The sight of them brought back sad, painful memories to the Geonosian.
Klikat wasn't the only one being affected by the sight of the canisters. "Ezra's right," Gerrera said, to the surprise of everyone else, Klikat especially. "The Geonosian belongs here," he said before removing the binders around Klikat's hands, further shocking everyone.
Ever since Klikat had known Gerrera, the rebel had shown nothing but hate and disdain towards the Geonosian, refusing to trust him, treating him miserably, and even threatening to shoot the egg that could revive Klikat's people. To be fair, Klikat had learned in their time together that Gerrera had lost family to the Confederacy during the Clone Wars, then his home planet to the Empire. Like Klikat, he too had lost everything; and it pained the Geonosian to say it, but it seemed that his people were somewhat responsible for the loss of this family. His people did create the greater majority of troops that made up the CIS' military force. Droids which were responsible for his family's death. He also sent droids himself personally to kill Gerrera and his friends when they first arrived on Geonosis. Now after all that, Gerrera was feeling genuine sorrow for Klikat and even releasing him. Klikat wasn't a warrior, but he knew honour, something that Gerrera was demonstrating at the moment.
"Those canisters are all we need to prove that the Empire wiped out its people. Everyone loses family in wars, even the enemy. The Geonosians deserve the same chance to rebuild that we do."
Looking over at Ezra, the Jedi gave him assurances that it was all right.
"Go on Klik-Klak, you're free," he stated.
Not wasting a moment, Klikat went over to a nearby pile of rubble he recalled having once been the opening to one of the thousands of tunnels that ran throughout the planet. Removing some of the rubble he climbed in with the egg, giving his friends one final farewell before resealing the tunnel.
That was the last Klikat ever saw of Ezra or the rebels. The remainder of his life he spent underground, preparing for, hatching, and raising the egg to become the new queen of Geonosis. Throughout this time, Klikat regretted his inability to reveal to the rebels the true reason why the Empire whipped out the Geonosians, or give them any true hint about the monstrous Death Star that would soon be unleashed on the Galaxy. Though the Geonosian had faith that they'd find a way to stop it without or without his warning. After all, if there was one thing Klikat had learned from his new friends, is that even in the darkest of places, as long as you had compassion, there was hope, and hope was far more powerful than any weapons the Geonosians, or any other race could ever build.
If you want to know the fate of Geonosis and the bugs that inhabited the planet, read the canon Darth Vader comics that take place following A New Hope.