Chapter 22: Battle of Ockramoma

The CIS had gotten reports that the Republic had invaded the planet Ockramoma. The Republic had reports that the CIS was building droid factories on Ockramoma. Both sides had sent armies to the contested planet. Everyone's intelligence was wrong.

Ockramoma was literally split in two. The south pole had pledged allegiance to the Confederacy while the north pole stayed loyal to the Republic. The planet had only two million inhabitants, one million on each opposite end. The planet was insignificant in every sense: economically, militarily, politically, culturally, but it had to be addressed at some point. Now was that time.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems had chosen General OOM-9 to secure the planet. The Galactic Republic had sent the Jedi Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee to deal with the situation. Unduli and Offee were both Mirialans, a species of near-humans that typically had yellow-green skin. The two Mirialan Jedi had taken part in the Battle of Geonosis at the start of the war, as well has several battles afterwards. They were a very capable pair. By some strange stroke of luck, an insignificant planet was about to become a battlefield led by extraordinary leaders on both sides.

OOM-8 and OOM-9 stood at the Scrapyard's command bridge. The enemy fleet had arrived at almost the exact same time as they had. The Republic forces consisted of three Venator star destroyers and four Acclamator assault ships. There was a large distance between the two opposing fleets.

"Shall we move to engage?" OOM-8 asked.

"Not yet, Commander."

"A transmission from the planet," a pilot battle droid alerted the two OOM command battle droids.

"Open the channel."

"Yes sir."

"What are you waiting for?" the Ockramoma's Separatist leader demanded. "Get your troops down here and defend us! We were promised protection!"

"And you shall have it."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"We are observing the enemies movements. We will strike when it is appropriate."

"Don't wait too long or you wont have anyone to save."

"They're on the north end of the planet; they have to go through us if they want to get you. I will deal with them."

"What about attacking the north? We've been requesting battle droids for months to get rid of them. You're the first group sent to us."

"I will deal with the northerners after I have destroyed the Republic's forces. The clone army is the only real threat in this situation."

"It better get done."

"It will, I am sending an ambassador to keep you updated on the battle, prepare to receive him," OOM-9 cut the transmission, tried of having to explain himself to the whiny human.

"That was tiresome," OOM-8 shook his elongated head.

"I'm sure he'll change his tone once we've solved all his problems for him." OOM-9 turned to the holographic image of the tactical droid TH-1066. "Commander TH-1066, you are to report to the south pole and take charge there."

"As you command, General."

The Republic fleet was holding, waiting to see what the Separatists would do. The waiting game was getting everyone nowhere.

"They lied. There's no droid factory here. They wanted us to subdue the southerners," the Venator captain informed the two Mirialan Jedi. "Now they're panicking because a Separatist fleet exited out of hyperspace at about the same time we did."

"What should we do Master?" Barriss Offee asked.

"The Separatists are waiting for us to make the first move." Luminara Unduli was calm and collected. "We're going to give the droids a target, away from the poles."

"General?" the Venator captain asked.

"We'll land near the equator. When the droids follow us there we can deal with them without worrying about civilian deaths. When the battle droids are finished I'm certain the south would be willing to negotiate."

"Ah, of course. But you forget," the captain tried to choose his words carefully. "The CIS excels on large scale battles. We might not have enough troops to counter them effectively. What if you were to lose?"

"Then you may bombard the area from orbit. It won't be a problem as there will not be civilian settlements nearby. Ready the transports and Acclamators, Captain."

"You're going to bring down the Acclamators? What if their fleet engages ours from space?"

"That CIS fleet is likely to have only one competent organic commander who could only be in one place at one time. Likely down on the planet, fighting me. I doubt the droids left in space would be smart enough to engage in an effective fight on their own."

"And if there's multiple competent commanders?"

"Then you can bring the Venators down as well if the situation turns bad."

The Republic captain didn't like his own competence being called into question. The very thought of Venator star destroyers being bested by Munificent, Recusant, or Lucrehulk ships was absurd to Republic naval officers. "Very well, Master Jedi."

The 8th Fleet was still holding south of Ockramoma's equator.

"They're moving down to the planet."

"Predicted trajectory is the equator."

"They're trying to lure us away from the population centers. They don't want civilian casualties, as usual." OOM-9 was confident he figured out the Republic's plan.

"These idiots are too predictable," OOM-8 said. "We could defeat them at half brain functionality."

"True. This may be starting to get easy," OOM-9 said. "Prepare the Hardcells, freighters and landing craft for touchdown."

"Roger roger," several of the bridge's crew answered. OOM-9 left to go to his personal advanced E-STAP starbomber.

In one of the Scrapyard's secondary hangers, Z23-Y75 was trying to reason with a certain boisterous Skakoan. "Doctor Quartz, please reconsider your current course of action."

"Nonsense. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"It will be dangerous."

"There are plenty of droid fighters to draw the fire away from myself. And I've already been under fire more than once. My little adventure will not slow the weapons progress." Dr. Quartz crawled into his black Belbullab-22 starfighter and joined the starfighter horde. Z23-Y75 informed OOM-9 of Dr. Quartz's participation.

Several squadrons of Scarab and Vulture fighters followed OOM-9 and Dr. Quartz as they went down to the planet. Guarded by hunter-seeker droids, the transports and Trade Federation freighters followed.

It did not take long to locate the Republic's landing site. They certainly advertised it well enough. The four Acclamator assault ships had landed on the surface and were starting to release their heavy assault vehicles.

Various kinds of LAAT gunships placed clone infantry and light vehicles in defensive positions around the Republic cruisers. Gunship fighters broke their holding patterns to attack the incoming Separatists.

"Focus on their fighters. Protect the transports as they land." OOM-9 barreled right in at the first formation of gunship fighters. OOM-9's bomber actually collided with a gunship fighter. The advanced E-STAP had size and durability on its side, and the inferior Republic starfighter was knocked aside and crashed into another gunship fighter.

Once OOM-9 cleared through all the headlong assault, he sharply turned around and starting hunting for individual enemy aircraft. OOM-9 had turned around a little too fast, as he ended up having to dodge a few friendly Vultures and Scarabs that were still charging forward. OOM-9 zeroed in on an enemy starfighter and locked on, clipping the gunship fighter's left wing.

The gunship fighters scattered and took different targets. A few managed to slip past the Scarabs and Vultures to harass the landing craft. The C-9979 landing craft were not helpless; they fired back with their defensive turrets. The hunter-seeker droids uncurled into attack mode and also fired on the gunship fighters.

Dr. Quartz kept back from the main starfighter skirmish, preferring to attack squads of clone troopers on the ground. The white-armored troopers were easy targets against the brown-orange ground. And there was the added bonus that the infantry stood virtually no chance of taking down Quartz's durable Belbullab-22.

The transports landed and started unloading STAPs, AATs, GATs, AMLs, PACs, hailfire droids, and NR-N99 tank droids. Luminara Unduli watched through a pair of electrobinoculars. "They're sending out high-speed vehicles. They're going to try to attack the Acclamators before they unload the heavy armor."

"So, what should our course of action be?" Offee asked her master.

"We need to push all our infantry and light vehicles to the Separatists' position immediately. We need to keep as much distance between their tanks and our ships as possible."

Obviously, the 74-Z speeder bikes were the first to comply with Unduli's orders. The Republic speeder bikes did not have the power to harm the armored assault tanks and the other armored vehicles but that didn't matter as the STAPs ended up being their opponents.

EEK-176 drove a heavy STAP. The larger STAP-2 was a tad too slow to keep up with the STAP-1s and 74-Z speeder bikes. Commander EEK-176 opted to lead the AATs and GATs toward the approaching TX-130 Saber-class fighter tanks. Before reaching them, EEK-176 was able to shoot down an already damaged gunship fighter that flew too low.

The four Hardcell transports began landing, releasing their usual content of various battle droid infantry, including 3B3-888, SSA-719 and the dwarf spider droid DSD-08.

As the AATs, GATs, AT-RTs, and IFT-Xs tore into each other, the NR-N99 tank droids and hailfire droids drove around the long way and attacked from the sides. KJZ-8267 oversaw the flanking attack from a blue and gray armored scout tank.

Luminara and Barriss led their clone troopers into battle, but were stopped before they even reached firing distance of the battle droid infantry. A yellow GAT blocked their path and fired a series of missiles into them, killing the majority of the clones that were with the two Jedi. After it was done shooting missiles, the ground armored tank charged through the remaining clones.

Luminara jumped on top of the yellow GAT and cut a hole in the roof. She did not expect an enemy to come bursting forth at her. Katen jacked her electrostaff upwards, the Jedi barely moving out of the way in time. With Luminara backed away, Katen climbed out on top of the tank. Without a pilot at the controls, the GAT flopped to the ground. Katen fell off when the tank stopped but Unduli kept her balance.

"Come down here and fight me like a woman," Katen challenged.

Luminara Unduli flipped right over the Separatist officer, landing squarely on the dirty ground. "As you wish," she raised her lightsaber to attack.

A heavy artillery gun started bombarding the area preventing the clones from coming to Unduli's aid. Barriss used the Force to propel herself toward the artillery tank.

The artillery gun tried to hit the Jedi with its laser cannons but missed. Offee jumped on top of the HAG and sliced off its primary cannon. The near-useless artillery tank swiveled around trying to shake her off. It finally stopped and opened up. Barriss flipped around to the front of the tank to face the pilot. The Jedi did not expect to see a human.

A human in a Separatist officer's uniform. "You Jedi ruin everything," Zako shot at Offee with his E-5 blaster rifle. This was precisely the situation Commander Karl Zako had been trying to avoid the entire war. He had fought Jedi before, but he always had battle droids with him. This time a Jedi was right in his face and there was no immediate help. Being cowardly wasn't the best course of action since Zako was seated in the tank, so the Separatist officer went with reckless. He activated his ZK-II war-axe and charged out toward the female Jedi.

The Jedi must have been weak, inexperienced, or unprepared to kill a human. She backed away from Zako's charge. Karl couldn't believe his luck. "What's wrong? Come a little closer. Afraid that I'm a better swordsman?"

"That's an axe," Barriss stated.

"Arggh! Shut up and fight," Commander Zako fired his E-5, only to have the shots deflected back at him. The CIS officer had to dance around a bit to avoid being hit with the redirected blaster fire. He almost lost his footing, and that's when Offee attacked. Zako was quick enough that he was able to lock his axe against her lightsaber. "You gotta do better than that," Zako taunted.

EEK-176 turned his STAP-2 around and went to help Zako. Offee was able to avoid the heavy STAP's powerful lasers and slashed it as it drove by. The large STAP fell apart but EEK-176 emerged out of the wreckage unharmed. EEK-176, armed with his own ZK-II war-axe and E-5 blaster, went to double team against Offee with Zako.

Groups of clone and droid infantry finally reached each other, no easy feat considering the dangerous vehicles buzzing about everywhere. SSA-719 and 3B3-888 were armed with nothing more than the standard E-5 blaster rifle. Not the deadliest weapon they could have chosen for the battle, but it certainly did the trick on full auto fire. They cut through groups of clones without the slightest problem, as if some divine wind was pushing against the clones, making them miss the two battle droids.

On the southern end of the planet, a gray and blue Sheathipede shuttle touched down on a landing pad. Commander TH-1066 exited out of the shuttle. The tactical droid was protected by a posse that included four red B1 battle droids, two security battle droids, and two marine battle droids. The battle droids were all armed with E-5 blaster rifles, but TH-1066 was unarmed.

"You must be the ambassador."

"That is correct. I am here to ensure the protection of our people."

"And you're going to do that with a handful of droids?"

"More troops will be arriving shortly. We are not under immediate attack. My current duty is to keep you informed about the battle at the equator."

"Right…"

"Is there a problem?"

"No. No problem."

OOM-9 noticed Katen and a few battle droids fighting a Jedi. Bombing the Jedi was out of the question; he'd hit his own troops. He could let Katen handle it, but from what OOM-9 saw it looked as if she was having a rough time of it.

OOM-9 turned his starbomber around. Major Katen saw an advanced E-STAP bomber approaching and knew it was OOM-9. Ashley Katen knew her general was going to do something so she backed away from Unduli as best she could.

OOM-9 tried to land his bomber on the Jedi. Luminara was able to roll out of the way just in time. The E-STAP's cockpit opened and OOM-9 jumped out, firing his E-5 blaster immediately. He killed a clone trooper before he even hit the ground. OOM-9 activated his ZK-II war-axe and ran at the Jedi. Katen ran at Unduli as well, not wanting to give the Jedi a fair, one on one fight.

Luminara's situation was further complicated by the fact that DSD-08 had targeted the Jedi and slowly marched her way, blasting at the Jedi when OOM-9 and Katen were out of the way.

The AT-TEs and SPHA-Ts were leaving the Acclamators and started forming attack formations. If the droid army did not hurry, the battle would soon turn very difficult.

All across the battlefront, the ground began to rumble. At first the droid and clones took no notice of it, save for being more conscientious about maintaining their balance. The rumbling continued and grew worse. Now many of the troops on both sides stopped fighting, some even falling over.

"What's going on?" 3B3-888 asked.

"Earthquake?" SSA-719 answered with a question.

Giant worms burst up through the ground and stretched to the sky. It was currently impossible to accurately gauge how tall the giant worms were, but they seemed to be taller than thirty meters. They were all also roughly the same height. They were translucent, being most a clear color but others colors such as blue, orange and yellow shown through depending on how the sunlight hit them. The giant beings did not appear to have mouths, which was an important thing for the armies scattered about around them.

"What are those things?" a clone yelled. Both the clones and droids had stopped fighting each other entirely to stare at the massive beings that now surrounded them.

The giant worms seemed to be reaching towards the heavens, even the starfighters in the sky had to fly around them. "What's this? Most interesting," Dr. Quartz observed as he flew in between the waving translucent tendrils.

"So, that's why the locals live at the poles. The rest of the planet's invested with these things," OOM-9 stated. "So, this was your plan all along."

"I had no knowledge of these creatures," Unduli told the battle droid.

"You lie."

"Why would I lie to a common battle droid who is about to be scrapped?"

"So, the Jedi are dumb and blind?" OOM-9 and Luminara crossed melee weapons again. "One would think a Force sensitive would have been able to detect such large creatures."

The worms didn't seem to be attacking the two armies scattered about the ground. After the initial surprise wore off, the clones and droids started shooting each other again.

"You're willing to die for this worm infested planet?" OOM-9 asked as he knocked Unduli away.

"I don't have to worry about that option as long as I'm only fighting against you and your troops."

DSD-08 fired and Katen lunged at the overconfident Jedi. "You Jedi talk too much!" Unduli was able to parry away the vicious strikes and blaster bolts.

TH-1066 received an update on the situation. He resolved to interrogate his hosts. "Why has the battlefront been suddenly infested with giant, worm-like creatures?"

"Because, that's where they live."

"Why were we not informed of this before?"

"Because we didn't know you would be fighting at the equator. Once you were there, what did it matter? Would your armies have pulled out and retreated?"

"Is there any other pertinent information you neglected to tell us about?"

"No. You know as much as we do now. We know little of the gel worms, because we stay the hell away from them. They don't come near the planet's poles, and that's all we ever needed to know."

A few of the freshly deployed SPHA-Ts got the bright idea to fire upon the gel worms. Luminara Unduli didn't give the order to attack the worms. She sensed that her Padawan hadn't either; it must have been one of the clone commanders. Or the SPHA-Ts' crews might have panicked and attacked without any orders at all. She tried to transmit a cease-fire order to the artillery but couldn't catch a break while fighting both OOM-9 and Katen at the same time.

One of the powerful blue beams struck right through the middle of one of the gel worms. Another beam cut through a second worm. The worms' translucent innards began to spill about the battlefield.

The ground began to rumble as the worms thrashed about violently. Not just the ones that had been hit, but all of them. The thrashing of the injured worms cause the goo to spill out on some of the clone troops that were fighting SSA-719 and 3B3-888.

SSA-719, 3B3-888 and the other battle droids stopped fighting when they realized that the clones were screaming in pain, wallowing on the ground. The battle droids watched, realizing that the clones were melting.

"Some sort of acidic substance," SSA-719 said.

"What gave it away? The melting clones?" 3B3-888's humor went unacknowledged.

The two injured gel worms finally stopped squirming and collapsed onto the ground, acidic goo gushing onto the ground. An AT-TE got stuck in the ooze. The armored vehicle tried to walk away, but its legs melted into the sludge. Shortly, the entire walker was consumed.

More AT-TEs started to get stuck as the goo kept running over the battlefront. The quicker vehicles were able to get out of the way in time when it came near, still continuing to fight with one another. The droid and clone infantry did the same, only breaking away from each other when the ooze got too close.

It kept getting worse. Even after it seemed the two dead worms should have been depleted they still kept oozing out more gooey fluids. A foreboding harbinger of a painful death, the ocean of ooze swept across the area.

From the sky, Dr. Quartz watched. The others worms were still violently thrashing about and the dead ones still leaked. The Skakoan figured it out and transmitted to OOM-9. "The worms aren't separate creatures, they're one entity! You're all going to drown in acidic goop if you don't get out of there!"

"Roger that, Doctor." OOM-9 relayed the information to the droid control ships in orbit, which in turn, relayed the information to the entire droid army.

Unduli was finally able to break away from DSD-08, Katen and OOM-9. She rushed back toward her Padawan. Considerable distance had been put between them since the battle first started.

"What are you waiting for?" EEK-176 yelled at Barriss Offee. "Call off your troops you idiot! If we stay and fight here we'll all die."

Offee paused, not sure what to make of what the battle droid told her. She was also thrown off by the fact that the suggestion came from a battle droid, a battle droid that had nearly killed her several times already.

A mighty Force leap landed Unduli next to her Padawan. EEK-176 pointed his gun at the newcomer while Zako kept his firearm trained on Offee.

"Master, should we call a full retreat? The droid…"

"Yes. We will have to continue the battle another time. What about your troops, droid?"

"We're leaving," EEK-176 lowered his weapons. "But you're welcome to stay here and die if you want."

"Very well."

"You'll stay?"

"You know we aren't. I'll order a full retreat. We won't attack you as long as you don't attack us."

"Agreed."

The ooze crept up at them, trapping EEK-176, Zako, Unduli, and Offee together. A LAAT/i gunship flew in and the two Jedi used the Force to leap up into the low-flying gunship. "Hey, screw you guys!" Zako yelled at the Jedi as the gunship flew away.

OOM-9, Katen, and DSD-08 also became trapped around the ooze. "We're all gonna die!" Katen climbed up on top of DSD-08's head, and held onto his antenna while OOM-9 tried called for evac.

The entire force of AT-TEs and SPHA-Ts were now being dissolved, their operators abandoned their vehicles to save their own skins. The ooze reached one of the Acclamators. The vile goo ate through the landing gear, and the large cruiser fell completely into the muck, slowly being eaten away. Several clones and crewmembers made it on top of the outer hull of the ship, where they were rescued by passing LAAT gunships as the Acclamator continued to sink.

3B3-888 and SSA-719 had their own problems. They were separated from their droid troops by a fast-moving goo stream. The other droids went back towards the Hardcell transports, but 3B3-888 and SSA-719 were on the wrong side. They kept running, nowhere in particular other than away from the acid ooze that seemed to be chasing them.

"Need a lift?" KJZ-8267 swooped in from behind on his AST. 3B3-888 and SSA-719 each jumped onto a side of the small repulsor tank and KJZ-8267 carried them towards OOM-9's location.

The battle droid trio stopped when they reached OOM-9's group.

"There's not enough room for all of us," Katen whined. "I'm scared, hold me," she tried to latched onto SSA-719. "Get a hold of yourself Major!"

"I can't. We're all doomed!"

A MAF flew down and landed. "All aboard!" OOM-9 shouted. KJZ-8267 took off on his AST alone while the others, including the large DSD-08, all crammed together in the MAF and took off. The MAF flew in and dropped off OOM-9 back at his E-STAP bomber, which was still where he left it.

OOM-9 took off in his bomber while the MAF went and retrieved EEK-176 and Zako. "It's about time!" Zako said as he and EEK-176 squeezed into the already crowed assault flyer.

The other three Acclamators took off, choosing to leave their troops behind rather than be consumed like the other cruiser. The CIS vehicles drove off from the area while the freighters and Hardcells took the droid infantry back into space. For the moment, the vehicles were fine and could be revoked later.

With the evacuation successful, OOM-9 ordered his fighters to renew the attack. The sky was devoid of any more gunship fighters, so the Vultures, Scarabs, and hunter-seekers turned to harassing the Acclamator assault ships as they returned to orbit.

OOM-9 gave OOM-8 the signal to start the space battle. It was just as well; the party was about to start anyway. The 8th Fleet and the Republic fleet had been slowly inching closer to each other ever since the ground battle started.

CIS fighters harassed the surviving three Acclamators as they ascended back into space. The Republic Fleet was short one Acclamator, which bode well for the Separatists' outlook of the space battle.

"Focus all fire on the Venators. Deploy boarders against the approaching Acclamators," OOM-8 ordered. The command droid figured the Acclamators had their clone compliments reduced from the ground battle, making them more susceptible to infiltration. Which allowed the 8th Fleet's capital ships to focus solely on the three Venators.

One Acclamator seemed to be doing particularly poorly, and OOM-9 chose it as his target. OOM-9's bomber unleashed a Void-7 seismic charge right at the center of the Acclamator. The explosive shockwave sheared the large ship in half. OOM-9 guessed that the ship's shields were down, and he was correct. Debris collided into the remaining two Acclamators.

"Shall I recall the boarding ships?" OOM-8 transmitted to OOM-9.

"No, keep them on course. I won't destroy the other two."

The three Venators kept in tight formation, refusing to be separated. It kept the ships alive and fighting, but prevented them from easily maneuvering to escape.

The droid control ships Scrapyard and Magna Musai blocked the way directly in front of the Venators, while the Munificent frigates and Recusant destroyers attacked from various angles. It was a battle of the big guns, as neither side tried to launch their fighters.

Droch-class boarding ships slammed into the two Acclamators. Mostly marine battle droids were released, but so were Z23-Y75, 8EX, and 5TE. Initially there was intense fighting, but the marine droids swept through their opponents with ease. After a lull in the fighting it was clear the Acclamators were indeed mostly empty. The marine droids ended up shooting mostly unarmed crewmembers and Kaminoan worker droids.

Z23-Y75 and his two super battle droid squad mates reached the life support system room entirely by accident. There were two clone guards, which both took cover as 8EX and 5TE tried to shoot them. 5TE was hit in his armored chest, but didn't go down. Z23-Y75 snuck around the side while the two B2s continued to provide a distraction. He managed to shoot one of the clones, and dispatched the other with a well-thrown thermal detonator.

With the room clear, the CIS droids were free to do as they pleased. "I'm going to shut off the life support systems," Z23-Y75 explained as he worked. "Success." Z23-Y75 turned to the two bigger droids. "Destroy the systems so the clones can't bring them back online."

"Super," 8EX declared. The B2s unleashed their wrist rockets on the various computer terminals.

"Something's wrong," Luminara said. Unduli and her apprentice had been hiding from the numerically superior droid marines.

"It's getting hard to breathe," Barriss deeply inhaled.

"They cut the life support. It's time to go." The two Jedi and the few clones with them took a Nu shuttle from the hanger and departed from the Acclamator, they wouldn't get far in the LAAT/i gunship that brought them to the Acclamator. Especially since gunships lacked hyperdrives.

Without air to breathe there wasn't much stopping Z23-Y75, 8EX and 5TE from walking right into the command bridge. They tried downloading data from the computers but learned that most of the information had been erased by the bridge staff before they suffocated to death.

Piloting the Nu shuttle, the Jedi saw that the space battle wasn't going in their favor either. Both of the Acclamators seemed dead in space while two of the Venators had been destroyed. Only one Venator remained, and it was utterly trapped by the CIS ships that surrounded it.

Luminara Unduli took the shuttle into hyperspace.

"Master, what about the others?"

"There's nothing we can do for them now Barriss. Hopefully, they will be taken prisoner."

Unduli turned out to be wrong, though she would never know it. The last Venator fought on to the bitter end, and was destroyed for its effort.

After everything had calmed down, EEK-176 was sent to conquer the north pole.

Major Katen was detailing her ordeal to a hologram of Captain Sledge.

"And that's why I don't like joining you on your little escapades," the hologram said.

"Sir, the two captured Acclamators are still functioning," a pilot droid told OOM-9.

"What are we going to do with two Acclamators?" OOM-8 asked.

"I'm not sure yet. We'll have to think of something creative."

Z23-Y75 delivered the small amount of data that he was able to recover from the Republic cruiser. The data was heavily corrupted and largely missing, yet a small bit of information remained. It revealed that the Grand Army of the Republic was working on a project on the planet Zelos II. That was all that could be obtained. If OOM-9 wanted more he'd have to find out for himself, and he intended to do just that.