Chapter 11: Infiltration on Kalaan
The space over the planet Chorax had become more crowded as the Lucrehulk battleship, the Glaciarium, exited out of hyperspace. The powerful battleship was the newest addition to the 8th Fleet.
OOM-9 was conversing with Dr. Quartz when a droid interrupted them. "General, we've just received a shipment of the new BX-series droid commandos fresh from the factory."
"How odd, they gave you almost nothing to start with, and now they're sending you a new battleship and new droids?" Quartz pondered.
"The Glaciarium is from Zalost's shipyards, it was going to be mine anyway. And I've never been informed of the creation of such commando droids before." The droid general took the datapad from the droid informant, studying the readouts. "Yes brand new droids. Not even field-tested in real combat against clone troops. The Separatist leadership is less generous than you think, Doctor."
"Perhaps the Count considers that your job," Dr. Quartz answered with an open palmed gesture of his hand. Constantly contained in his pressure suit, the Skakoan was accustomed to using hand movements in place of facial expressions. And while such actions would likely be wasted while conversing with battle droids, Dr. Quartz still did it out of habit.
OOM-9 paused for a moment in thought, and then turned from the droid informant back to Quartz. "I still want those special ops battle droids I requested built. And I want them to be perfect, just like the droid who ordered them." OOM-9 smarmily referred to himself.
"As you wish, but wouldn't that be redundant?"
"I am not sure of the abilities of these new droids; it may still serve us well to continue with my original plans."
"Shouldn't they be tested in actual combat before you pass judgment on their abilities?"
"I trust that these status reports are accurate, and the commandos will be tested; nevertheless Commander Zako and I had planned the production of my special ops battle droids long before these commandos were built and I am not going to let the designs go to waste."
"The mechanics of your droids are not even finalized, there are still power issues and the problems with the stealth system," Quartz added. The Skakoan was personally but silently indignant that he had to implement the unimaginative designs of military officers and command droids. They should have just let him fulfill his position unhinged. Then they could see some truly monstrous designs.
"That is your job, Doctor."
"It's going to be extraordinarily expensive…" Quartz trailed off. It wasn't as if the Skakoan personally cared about the credits needed; he just didn't want to hear complaints about production costs later.
"Money does not concern me, Doctor. You could throw all the credits in the galaxy into a black hole and I wouldn't care. My primary concern is for my troops and the well being of the Confederacy. I assure you, if my bank account does not cover the tab then Nute Gunray or the Zalost system will take care of the rest."
"It's not just money, we'll need uncommon resources, and time."
"If you require resources we don't have then I shall take them by force. I want those droids built," OOM-9 pointed his finger at the Skakoan. "And if you need more time then I suggest you spend your days working in the lab rather than playing with the prisoners in the torture chambers. I'm paying you to build me droids and weapons; I don't need a dungeon master. I have given you a lot of freedom regarding your grotesquely hostile treatment of prisoners."
"Yes, General," Quartz answered. The Skakoan was taken aback by the apparent irritation of the command battle droid. What would a droid care about the treatment of clones? Or it was perhaps Quartz's penchant for torture that annoyed the droid, that it took too much time away from potential research and development. In the end, the Skakoan really didn't care as long as he was given free rein to basically do as he wished. The General would get his special custom droids soon enough. OOM-9 dismissed Dr. Quartz from the bridge.
"EEK-176."
"Yes, General OOM-9?"
"What is the status of Kalaan?"
"While it is technically still a member of the Republic, about forty percent of the population supports the Confederate cause. Unfortunately, this information was taken from an old poll as the planetary government has increasingly censored the public. I'm fairly certain that the average citizen doesn't know that their planet is hosting Republic military forces. A direct attack will make us look like the aggressors and we may lose the support of the local populace."
"The planet doesn't have the strength to oppose me. Though it would be in the best interest of our image if they voluntarily joined us. Since Dooku has given me droid commandos to test, then I say we use them. We will take out the listening post with a small strike force. The Kalaanites will never know we were here."
He then looked around the large control room. "Where are my two human officers?"
"They're in the landing bay sir," a pilot droid answered OOM-9.
"It's finally here, they finally fixed it!" Commander Zako exclaimed as he opened the crate that was just unloaded from a Sheathipede transport shuttle. The content of the container was a complete set of FR-8 shock trooper armor.
"Careful, Zako. You finally get your armor fixed but the next thing you know you'll get hit full-on by a rocket launcher."
"Fuck you, Katen."
Major Katen opened another nearby crate. She pulled out a black and blue KSV-1 combat suit.
"I thought that thing was shredded beyond repair," Zako said when he saw Katen's garment.
"Right, I ordered a new one."
"It took this long to get here? I understand mine took time to fix, but if that's brand new it should have arrived much earlier than mine."
"I had it shipped with your stuff. In order to reduce cost."
"For someone who comes from a wealthy family you sure are cheap."
"That is how one stays wealthy."
A pilot droid approached the two humans. "General OOM-9 wants both of you on the bridge."
"Right," Katen answered.
Commander OOM-8 transferred over to the Glaciarium to conduct an inspection. Usually such a procedure would be unnecessary on a Separatist vessel, but the battleship had a larger organic crew than usual. Organics were known to cut corners and skip standard operation procedures on occasion.
Before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, most Lucrehulk ships typically carried a crew of thirty-five organics on board. Of course the number of organics aboard was always variable, but when the war broke out many ships were completely crewed by battle droids. The Glaciarium had over two hundred humans serving aboard it. Most were engineers or officers, but there were a few combat infantry units.
A squad of twelve CIS shock troopers stood at attention as OOM-8's shuttle touched down in the landing bay. Separatist shock troopers wore FR-8 armor, the same as Zako had just acquired. It was bulky black armor that was aesthetically derived from B1 battle droids. The helmets had a short 'snout,' similar to the B1 head, and beady blue eyes. Basically the armor made the human troopers look like overweight battle droids.
A human CIS officer greeted OOM-8 and escorted him through the major centers of human activity aboard the ship. OOM-8 guessed the officer was native to the Zalost System, since he was not adverse to showing the higher ranked droid respect and seemed not to take offense if direct control of the ship was taken away from him. Battle droids enjoyed respect in the Zalost System, so it is no surprise that FR-8 armor was also invented there. It was an odd place in the galaxy, to be sure.
"We are going to take a small task force to wipe the listening post off Kalaan. We will not be using gigantic armies or causing large explosions this time," OOM-9 told his officers. "Katen and Zako will accompany me down to the planet while EEK-176 will command the fleet from space. We will also be testing the new droid commandos I have been given."
"Are you sure we can rely on these new models?" Zako asked.
"No, that is precisely why I want you and Katen with me."
"Understood, sir."
"OOM-8 will command the last remaining cleanup operations on Chorax from the Glaciarium. Prepare yourselves, we launch for Kalaan within the hour, that listening post has been in operation long enough."
The Scrapyard, Magna Musai, Komusai, Executioner, and Enzack exited out of hyperspace out of range of Kalaan's sensors. A significant portion of the 8th Fleet considering that the operation was supposed to be small, but OOM-9 wanted them there in case things turned bad. OOM-9 knew that he and his troops were not the best at clandestine operations.
Three Neimoidian transports departed from the fleet and stealthily made their way to the planet. The brown colored ships were smaller than the more common Trade Federation drop ships, but could still carry large amounts of infantry and would be able to slip planet-side unnoticed.
The transports made it through to the atmosphere without incident. Local planetary security was lax, and the Republic wasn't patrolling the area since they were trying to stay hidden from the local populace. Under the cover of night, the three Neimoidian transits flew low and dropped off the attack force. The team was some ways away from the enemy base, but the transports could not bring them in any closer without being detected. OOM-9's infiltration force consisted of beetle troopers, chameleon droids, B1 battle droids, and the new BX droid commandos.
The droid commandos, led by the command droid commando CDC-76, took point on the way to the GAR base. The droids trotted along at a brisk pace, with the goal of completing their mission before dawn. KJZ-8267 led the beetle cavalry with a heavy kag beetle, an upgraded version of the standard kag beetles the other pilot droids were riding. Heavy kag beetles were upgraded with cybernetics that increased durability and connected the bugs to the droid network so they could better follow orders. Heavy beetles also had their natural wings removed and replace with mechanical ones that allowed for faster speed when in flight.
Upon reaching the outer perimeter of the base, OOM-9 observed the area through his electrobinoculars and then ordered the chameleon droids to enter stealth mode and survey the Republic base more thoroughly. Once the chameleon droids cataloged the layout of the area and calculated the patrol patterns of the clones OOM-9 ordered Major Katen and the droid commandos to infiltrate the interior of the base, leaving the beetle troopers and B1 battle droids behind.
"We're not going with them?" Zako asked OOM-9 when Katen and the BX droids were out of earshot. Zako felt secure and confident in his armored suit. Unlike the standard CIS shock troops, his helmet's eyes were purple instead of the standard blue. An aesthetic choice allowed for a high-ranking officer, like OOM-9's CIS symbols on his shoulder plates—which was originally Zako's idea to begin with.
"Patience, Commander," OOM-9 answered. "We will get our turn soon enough."
The stealthy group ran for a door in a gap between the clone patrols. One of the droid commandos forced the locked door open with his fusion cutter and the team was inside. The team moved quickly and quietly through the base.
Katen halted the group when she saw a sign pointing the way to the clone barracks. Their objective was the command center but Katen couldn't resist the chance to kill clones as they slept. The group split into two teams, Katen's group going toward the barracks and CDC-76's crowd continuing on to the command center.
Katen silently slinked into the clone barracks, observing which beds were occupied by sleeping clones and which were empty. She had told her droids to stay in the hallway, not wanting them to screw up her examination of the area by accidentally making a noise or other some such mishap. When she felt comfortable with the layout of the room she motioned her team to enter. The BX droids were much quieter when they moved compared to the older models of battle droids.
The clones continued with their slumber uninterrupted. The droid commandos took aim. Katen gave a silent hand signal and the battle droids opened fire. Their commando E-5 blaster rifles had a sound distinctly different from the standard E-5 blaster rifle. Katen also noticed that the commando rifles did not fire fully automatic like the standard E-5 did.
The clones died in their sleep. Not one was even able to wake up to learn of their fate. Once the area was safe Katen grabbed one of her droid's rifles. "This looks like a regular E-5. What's going on?"
"That is a commando E-5 blaster rifle, ma'am," the BX droid answered.
"Does it have a fully-automatic fire feature?" Katen asked.
"No, ma'am. Our high accuracy ratios negate the need for fully-automatic fire."
"You've got to be kidding me. The old E-5s could switch between the fire settings, this thing only has one?" Katen hoped the droid commandos' aim was as good as they claimed.
"It only needs one."
"OOM-9 will be the judge of that," Katen snapped at the droid. She shook her head and muttered to herself as she handed the droid back his firearm, mentally cursing to herself. This was stuff she should have known about before the mission, not during it. "What the hell is research and development doing? Simpler isn't always better. Would it kill those dumb fucks to give the gun a different model shell? It's hard to know what's what anymore."
"That is the intended effect. To confuse our opponents," the droid answered.
"Yeah, well it also annoys me," Katen grumbled. Between standard E-5 blaster rifle, elite E-5s, E-5 shotguns, E-5 flechette shotguns, bulldog rocket launcher rifles, E-5 flamethrowers and now these new commando E-5s; things were starting to get ridiculous. The battle droids were able to scan and instantly know which weapon was which at a glance but organic Confederate soldiers lacked such ability unless they had specific eyewear or identification programs within their helmets. Katen briefly wondered why they didn't get more weaponry manufactured by the Gothic Pentarchy but quickly dismissed such a question as stupid since the answer was clear that equipment made from that sector of the Confederacy was too expensive to make on a larger scale. It was best to leave such thoughts until later and focus on the mission at hand anyway.
Back outside the base, OOM-9 ordered his beetle cavalry to advance. The beetle troopers were ideal for the mission, as they did not make noise as other vehicles would. The large insects silently made their way to the outdoor sensor dish transmitters under the protective custody of the camouflaged chameleon droids. There were eight transmitters in all and each beetle trooper took his own dish. The pilot battle droids riding the beetles disembarked from their mounts and proceeded to disable the transmitters with fusion cutters.
The patrolling clone troopers were oblivious to the entire process. OOM-9 kept surveying the area with his electrobinoculars while Zako paced about back and forth, bored at not having anything to do.
"You could try to act like you're on a stealth mission," SSA-719 criticized Zako's unnecessary movement.
Zako turned to the security battle droid. "We're far enough away. Besides, these clone troopers are blind."
"The chameleon droids have their camouflage engaged," SSA-719 said.
"They still missed those big hulking kag beetles," Zako replied.
"Yes, let's all whine and complain that our enemies are incompetent," Sergeant 3B3-888 sarcastically interjected.
OOM-9 had allowed his underlings to bicker with one another. The general knew they were just playing with each other and the clone troopers were being unobservant. OOM-9 had expected more of a challenge. The abilities of the clone troopers were wildly variable, a fact that confounded OOM-9 since they were all copies of one single person.
The BX command droid CDC-76 transmitted to OOM-9 that they had taken the command center. That bit of news was enough for OOM-9 to push ahead for a full assault. "Snipers, take your targets! Infantry, forward march!" OOM-9 ordered.
SSA-719 led a small group of B1s with E-5s sniper rifles. They began shooting at the clone patrols, alerting all Republic soldiers that they were under attack. OOM-9, 3B3-888, and Zako led the B1 infantry straight into harm's way.
On board the bridge of the Scrapyard, Commander EEK-176 did not have much to do. Things were going smoothly. The droid spent his free time studying the technical blueprints of the ZGD gatling gun on a datapad. He spent time going over what power outputs would be required to shred an unarmored organic soldier versus an armored one. Such was the thinking of a battle droid, always concerned about battle. But EEK-176 could have powered down into recharge mode for all it mattered at the moment. There was simply noting noteworthy for him to do.
A droid subordinate interrupted EEK-176's recreational reading. "Sir, multiple Republic ships have exited out of hyperspace in front of Kalaan."
And then in an instant, things were not going so smoothly. But such was the nature of war.
OOM-9 walked through the sprawling piles of clone corpses. OOM-9 stopped and looked at a dead clone that had his armor burned off by the beetle troopers' acid guns. The dead clone had no clothing left save for the standard black body glove all clones wore underneath their white armor.
"Disgusting, looks like a bag of putrid rotting meat."
"Meatbags, HA! Good one OOM-9!" Zako exclaimed amusedly at OOM-9's accidental joke. The clones on the outside of the base had all been taken care of. But sounds of a fierce firefight could be heard from inside the base.
"Sounds like the newer models could use some help," 3B3-888 stated.
"Let's go," OOM-9 pointed toward the door leading inside.
EEK-176 ordered three squads of Vulture fighters, two squads of Scarabs and a group of E-STAP droid starbombers to attack the Republic convoy that happened to jump out of hyperspace at the area of the planet where the Republic listening post was. It would take a few minutes to engage the enemy ships as the 8th Fleet was stashed away from the planet as to not draw attention to itself. It looked like a supply convoy that had simply arrived at the wrong time. EEK-176 was not about to allow them to send any aid to the clones on the planet. A small group of unfortunate escort Torrent fighters sped to intercept the fast approaching enemy CIS starfighters.
The BX droids were accurate, took cover whenever possible and made use of their thermal detonators. Major Katen found herself having to bash Kaminoan worker droids with her electrostaff since the droid commandos were killing the clones so efficiently. CDC-76's group rejoined the Major's and the BX command droid pulled out his vibrosword and started slashing apart Katen's prey, as if to challenge her to see which one could slaughter the most Republic worker droids.
Once CDC-76 got started, he seemed to be able to keep pace with Katen's killing. Finally, there was only one worker droid left in the immediate area, and both the Separatists planned to score the final kill. CDC-76 quickly closed in on the Kaminoan worker droid, but Katen saw a mouse droid scurrying across the floor. She kicked the mouse droid as it tried to pass her. The small black droid flew threw the air and smacked the Kaminoan worker droid in the head, knocking it over and causing CDC-76 to miss it as he slashed. Katen pulled out her pistol and shot the Republic droid as it lay on the floor.
"I win," Katen smiled.
"With all due respect, Major, you cheated. You utilized a ranged weapon. I assumed this challenge was with melee weapons only," CDC-76 stated.
"You assume too much," Katen smirked.
The sound of loud clanking and blaster shots echoed throughout the hallways. "Sounds like OOM-9 and the B1s have come to join the party," Katen said.
Despite the excellent performance of the BX droid commandos, more clone troopers seemed to materialize out of nowhere. However, OOM-9 and his B1s had little problem shooting them down in narrow hallways. OOM-9's fun was interrupted when he got a transmission from EEK-176.
"Commander EEK-176, there is a reason you're not running silent?"
"Yes General. A convoy of Republic ships has exited out of hyperspace and is moving toward your location. I will not be able to intercept them in time. When they arrive you will be overwhelmed, you must abort the mission."
"Very well, I am ordering a strategic retreat. I want the 8th Fleet to target our location and fire on my command."
"Roger roger," EEK-176 understood that OOM-9 planned to blast the Republic ships and the base from orbit.
"Droids, we are leaving!" OOM-9 ordered. "Zako, call our transports and tell them to pick us up."
The B1s fled first with the BX commandos covering their swift retreat. Outside the base was more complicated. AT-RTs littered the area.
"What's all this then?" Katen ducted out of the way of incoming walker fire. "These walkers weren't here before."
"They must be patrols recalled to defend the base," 3B3-888 shot a driver off one of the walkers.
KJZ-8267 put his heavy beetle in flight mode and was deliberately crashing into the AT-RTs, knocking them over and rendering them useless. The heavy beetle had bright blue mechanical wings that glowed in the darkened sky. The AT-RTs drivers were often pinned by their own toppled vehicles. Those that freed themselves pulled out DC-17 hand blasters and attacked the droids on foot.
The chameleon droids abandoned their camouflage and openly attacked the enemy with the battle droid infantry. The droids eventually formed a defensive circle and held off the clone troopers.
A loud thundering sound indicated that an enemy AT-TE was nearby and approaching their location. The three Neimoidian transports appeared but drew no fire as the clones were focused on the battle droids on the ground.
The transports closed in low to the ground, but didn't completely land. The battle droids began running up the ramps that extended from the ships. The slower chameleon droids went up first, followed by the B1 battle droids. The BX commandos then proceeded to dash up the ramps.
The enemy AT-TE came into view. The beetle troopers quickly flew over and melted the walker with their acid guns. SSA-719, Katen, and Zako finally ran up the ramps followed by 3B3-888 and OOM-9.
The beetle troopers then flew up and quickly entered the transports as they turned to leave. The clone troopers that survived the battle continued to shoot at the Neimoidian transits with small arms fire.
An Acclamator assault ship, four Consular cruisers, and five Pelta frigates approached from the upper atmosphere and descended down to the listening post just as the Neimoidian transports were leaving.
As soon as they were safely away, OOM-9 ordered the 8th Fleet to open fire on the listening post. Powerful laser blasts rained down from the sky, obliterating the listing post and recently landed Republic space ships.
"Sir, wont Kalaan take this orbital strike as an act of open hostility and further solidify their allegiance to the Republic?" SSA-719 asked OOM-9.
"Not necessarily. We could release information proving the Republic set up a secret military listening post without the knowledge of the common citizens. Our actions only destroyed the Republic military and caused no collateral damage to the rest of the planet. It could enrage public opinion against the Republic. We can use this entire event to our advantage."
"I was skeptical at first but those droid commandos really came through," Katen admitted.
"We shall see," OOM-9 was less impressed. He had kept in connection with the other droids and was already aware of how they preformed even when he didn't physically see them in action inside the base. "Next time we will have to see how they fare against Jedi Knights," OOM-9 stated.
Author's Note: The planet Kalaan first appeared in the videogame Star Wars: Force Commander.
The FR-8 shock trooper armor worn by Commander Zako and the human Separatist shock troopers closely resembles the Enclave Hellfire armor from Fallout 3. The resemblance mostly comes from the shape of the helmet, though they are also both black in color and heavy duty armor. Having the two armor sets look similar was not intentional, I just happened to notice it later.
The BX droid commandos first appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series.
I refer to the rifles the BX droid commandos use as commando E-5 blaster rifles since the weapons the commandos use clearly function and sound differently than the standard E-5 blaster rifles the other battle droids use. Adding the commando E-5 rifle seemed like the logical step since there is already an elite E-5 rifle, E-5 shotgun, flechette E-5 shotgun, and bulldog RLR, and E-5 flamethrower. The CIS has a lot of weaponry based on the shell of the standard E-5 blaster rifle.
The beetle troopers and Neimoidian transports appeared in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.