Chapter 34: Reclaiming Raxus Prime
The Confederacy had been paid for the error-free defense of Felacat. Two new capital ships were brought into the 8th Fleet. The Shadow Claw was a Munificent-class star frigate sent specifically to replace the Kuzack. The Karajor was a Providence-class carrier/destroyer and the new flagship of the 8th Fleet. Though they were originally produced and paid for in the Zalost system, the taxpayers of the Zalost system were reimbursed by the Felacatians. OOM-9 had assigned Melissa Sledge to be the new captain of the Karajor.
After the 8th Fleet received the new capital ships, the Separatist leadership tasked OOM-9 with reclaiming Raxus Prime in the name of the Confederacy. The Republic had taken Raxus Prime early in the war, during the Dark Reaper campaign. The Confederacy never had a large presence on the planet when they controlled it, and the Republic held onto the junkyard world with even less authority. The Republic holding Raxus Prime started to look like an insult to the Confederacy, and who better to send than someone who had been there before?
OOM-9 decided not to go charging in with the entirety of the 8th Fleet, not immediately anyway. The droid general sent a handful of Sheathipede type B escort shuttles to clandestinely land on the planet and scout the movements of the Republic. OOM-9 did not want to damage the junkyard planet with a large firefight; there might be more deactivated battle droids amongst the wreckage that could be saved. A reasonable belief, since OOM-9 and several of his companions had been rescued from the junkyards of Raxus Prime a decade ago. And there was always the possibility that there may be other unknown old gems hidden amongst all the junk. OOM-9, EEK-176, OOM-8 and all the other battle droids knew that one day the war would be over and there wouldn't be much for the droid army to do. There might be occasional battles but nothing as big or fun as the Clone Wars. One of the things that the battle droids planned to do with their future free time was to pick through the junkyards of Raxus Prime to see what they could find. But the droids wouldn't be able to do that if they destroyed everything in a grand battle.
The type B escort shuttles were able to land undetected, though it was more difficult than they had originally predicted it would be. All the scrap and debris in and orbiting the planet severely hindered sensors but traffic to and from Raxus Prime had slowed considerably since the Republic took over the planet and it was hard to slip the Confederate shuttles in with the civilian ones. But the droids were able to pull it off, and now had a small force of infantry under the command of EEK-176 on the surface of the toxic planet. The team consisted mostly of B1, security and pilot battle droids. Two Z1 special ops battle droids, Z-3 and Z-4, had been taken along as well. The dwarf spider droid DSD-08 and Z1 dwarf spider droid ZSD-2 were also part of the group.
"It's been awhile," Sergeant 3B3-888 said as he looked around at his surroundings. There were various types of ships, vehicles, droids, and weapons everywhere. The B1 battle droid could only begin to guess where the origins of all the junk had come from.
"I'm surprised we weren't deployed here sooner," Captain SSA-719 said.
"I wonder why the Republic bothered to hold a grip on this planet. Our sources say they aren't using it for resources," Commander EEK-176 said.
"If anything, they'll hold this planet just to keep it away from us," SSA-719 replied. "The Republic is relentless."
"It will prove to be their undoing. They're stretching themselves too thin. Soon enough we will be able to break through their offensive campaigns and smash their defenses," EEK-176 confidently stated.
It was dusk when the shuttles landed. As the droids began their scouting assignment it soon turned to night. Whether it was day or night, the droids could get around Raxus Prime just fine.
As the night dragged on, the battle droids found no hint of Republic activity. The battle droids had arrived at the old excavation site where the Force Harvester had been uncovered several months ago.
"There's nothing but scrap," 3B3-888 said. There were bits and pieces of homing spider droids, AATs, GATs, HAGs, AT-TEs, AT-XTs, and IFT-X fighter tanks scattered about the area.
"The Republic even trashed the excavator crane," SSA-719 observed.
DSD-08 and ZSD-2 picked up movement and alerted the B-series battle droids. The droids were already ready for combat; they had been waiting for a chance to fight for quite some time.
"Hold your attacks," EEK-176 held up his hand to stop his troops before they could even start. "They're friends." Being a command droid, EEK-176's antenna was more powerful than the others' in identifying allies and enemies, thus enabling him to recognize the nature to the newcomers before the other droids could.
A pair of red B1 battle droids appeared out from behind some debris. "Are you reinforcements?" one of the red B1 droids asked.
"Affirmative," EEK-176 answered. "Are there others?"
"Yes sir, we'll take you to them," the other red B1 answered.
The trip wasn't far, but going on foot through the scrap of Raxus Prime meant that it took the battle droids several hours to get to the battle droids' holdout base.
It was dawn when the battle droids arrived at the southern end of the base, if it could be called a base. The entire setup revolved around a small command center. There was a troop center for droid repairs seen a little further north. There were four sides of Trade Federation light walls encasing the troop and command centers in a diamond shape, though there were plenty of gaps where the walls had been destroyed. There were also several Trade Federation sentry posts beyond the walls, to alert the base about any incoming attack. For attack, the base sported a few BR-1 repeaters and a single Raxus Prime tower turret. The inhabitants of the base were comprised of B1 battle droids, B2 super battle droids, droidekas, dwarf spider droids, PK worker droids, and OX9 worker droids all under the leadership of a single red command battle droid.
The lightest of rainfalls started to come down as EEK-176 and his squad were taken to the command droid. It was a good thing EEK-176's squad didn't need any supplies or ammo; the abandoned CIS droids had none to spare.
"You're arrival is greatly delayed. We sent out the distress signal for reinforcements months ago," the command battle droid explained.
"Count Dooku countermanded the distress signal. When he left Raxus Prime no one was sent to reclaim it," EEK-176 explained. "The war demanded the Confederacy's efforts elsewhere."
"You've come now. Does that mean…"
"Negative," EEK-176 answered. "The war still continues. But we have been successful enough that we can finally come to the aid of Raxus Prime. You have not been forgotten."
"It would appear so," the red droid said. "The junkyards of Raxus Prime keep us perpetually blocked off from the network. Are there more of you?"
"We are merely a scouting group. But we will have an entire army arriving soon. Raxus Prime will be reclaimed in the name of the Confederacy in the upcoming battle. If you have information on the locations of the Republic it will help make the fight that much easier."
"It is not the clones that we have been fighting," the command droid answered.
"Then who?" EEK-176 was confused.
"The junkyard droids," the command droid answered. "They view us and the Republic's clones as adversaries."
"Why are they attacking?" EEK-176 asked.
"We do not know. Only after we were defeated by the Republic did they start to attack us. I have done my best to observe the movements of the clones and rebuild the battle droids we lost in the battle but the junk droids have steadily been keeping us on the defensive."
EEK-176 knew the junk droids being referred to were Raxus Prime's master-less droids that had cobbled themselves from countless discard droids and roamed the wastelands of the world. Some of the more violent junk droids had historically made attacks against the planet's small civilian population. But the junk droids shouldn't have been able to make concerted assaults against CIS battle droids. EEK-176 suspected something abnormal was going on with the junkyard droids. Someone skilled had to have been leading the junk droids for them to be such a dangerous nuisance.
"Are you capable of off world communications?" EEK-176 asked.
"Negative. It would be difficult with all the debris anyway. When is the fleet scheduled to arrive?"
"It won't be for several more hours," EEK-176 explained.
The battle droids' conversation was suddenly interrupted when the sentry posts wirelessly warned them of non-Separatist droids approaching the area.
"We're under attack," a B2 battle droid said.
All Separatist battle droids moved to defend the base while the worker droids retreated to the command center.
"Turn them into scrap!" EEK-176 told his soldiers.
It was impossible to tell the make of or model of the enemy droids. So many of them were cobbled together from so many different parts. Some of the components of the junk droids clearly weren't designed to work together. Many of the junk droids were clearly not originally meant for combat duty. It was hard to tell how some of the droids were able to walk, let alone fire a blaster. It almost looked as if the CIS droids were under attack from an abstract painting.
The one thing the junk droids had in their favor was numbers. From the information provided by the sentry posts, there were at least fifty-two of the enemy droids. Though the junk droids' numbers were depleting quickly.
After the battle was over, EEK-176 turned back to the other command droid. "Do you know where they're coming from?"
"We have a few possible locations."
"Give me a few of your troops to show us the way. We will deal with these junk droids. When our army gets here, then we'll attack with the clones."
"Roger roger."
"Z-3 and Z-4. You're staying here at the base. Protect it."
"Roger roger," Z-3 answered. The special ops droids would be great in the upcoming attack, but EEK-176 didn't want to lose the base. The battle droids abandoned on Raxus Prime had lasted for months, and EEK-176 didn't want to risk losing them now. Even if they were to be wiped out in an attack, it would be a simple matter of repairing them though.
The first three locations the CIS attack group tried turned out not to be the base of operations of the junk droids, though they did encounter small squads of the opposition. The Separatist battle droids were easily able to wipe out their numerically inferior foes.
"We're running out of time, the 8th Fleet will be here soon," 3B3-888 said. The 8th Fleet was scheduled to arrive at a designated time, whether Commander EEK-176's group reported in or not beforehand. OOM-9 knew it was unlikely for EEK-176 to report in anyway, given how often the debris of the planet messed with communications. EEK-176 would likely have to take his shuttles and leave the planet to send a clear transmission, and that was something his team no longer had time for.
The fourth area the CIS attack group searched turned out to host a large number of the violent junkyard droids. Though they didn't know it, the Separatist droids fought their opponents on the hull of a half-buried, ancient Centurion-class battlecruiser.
The fight was clearly one-sided in favor of the CIS. The junkyard droids didn't have any weaponry strong enough to damage the armor of the dwarf spider droids or the shields of the droidekas. EEK-176 exploited the advantage by ordering the spiders and droidekas to the front of the Separatist attack group.
The junk droids started to retreat but most didn't have the speed to escape EEK-176's battle droids. The Confederate droids continued their chase, only to be fired upon by laser turrets. The junk droids had led the battle droids into a trap. Unfortunately, the laser turrets still weren't able to destroy the dwarf spider droids or the destroyer droids.
The turrets were destroyed and the fight continued off the rusty hull of the Centurion cruiser. The battle droids pushed the junk droids back into what looked to be a droid-made cavern in the side of a large mountain of scrap.
"Careful, they might be trying to lead us into another trap," SSA-719 warned.
"I don't think so," 3B3-888 said. "They seem pretty desperate this time."
"They've always seemed desperate," SSA-719 replied as he fired his E-5 blaster rifle, destroying an armed 3PO protocol droid. The junk droids were becoming more frantic, though their combat effectiveness didn't increase.
The 8th Fleet had exited out of hyperspace in front of Raxus Prime. The Separatist fleet made no attempt to hide their arrival. No anti-orbital cannon could accurately shoot through all the debris surrounding Raxus Prime and hit the CIS capital ships. OOM-9 and his top officers doubted that the Republic had even set up any anti-orbital cannons on the planet's surface anyway.
Like clockwork, various classes of CIS transports left the large capital ships and descended down towards the junkyard world. Hunter-seeker droids and Vulture droid starfighters went down to protect them. Not wanting to breathe in too much of Raxus Prime's toxic air, Major Katen led the starfighters from her Mankvim-814 interceptor. What was unusual was that the Karajor and all the fleets Trade Federation freighters, super freighters and Hardcell transports followed them down to the surface.
Though the Separatists had yet to encounter Republic resistance, the descent down to the planet was more dangerous than usual. The transports had to carefully maneuver around several tons of floating scrap metal. Being the largest of the group, the Karajor was much slower than the transports, but Sledge kept the cruiser on a course of descent anyway.
As the Confederate transports neared the surface of the world, they started picking up transmissions from the abandoned CIS forces. The abandoned Separatist droids provided OOM-9's army with their locations, as well as the locations of the Republic and the locations where EEK-176 had gone to fight the junkyard droids. The various transports altered their courses accordingly. OOM-9's large attack force went towards the Republic's reported location. Commander Z23-Y75's group went to pick up the abandoned CIS droids at their base. Commander TH-1066 went to support EEK-176's group in their mission to destroy the junk droids.
OOM-9's transports pulled in close to where the Republic's base was. The Karajor had come along with them in case the Republic had any unpleasant surprises waiting. The Republic did indeed attack, but with a lot less firepower than OOM-9 was expecting. The Separatists were expecting SPHA-Ts and legions of anti-air tanks; instead they were harassed by two squadrons of gunship fighters. Katen and her squadrons of Vulture droid starfighters were more than enough to deal with the threat.
The transports landed and started unloading their troops and vehicles. The C-9979 landing craft let loose their predictable loads of speeder platforms, STAPs, AATs, GATs, PACs, and MTTs. Hordes of various kinds of battle droid infantry left the Neimoidian transports. The Trade Federation drop ships let go NR-N99 tank droids onto the surface of the world.
The vehicle armored carriers let loose giant dwarf spider droids. Giant dwarf spider droids were much larger than the standard DSD1 dwarf spider droids. The giant versions were classified as assault walkers and rivaled the OG-9 homing spider droids in terms of firepower and durability. The giant dwarf spider droids offered heavy firepower combined with precision, just what OOM-9 wanted for the battle. OOM-9 didn't want to destroy large swaths of the junkyards, which would had happened if he had sent in bio cannons and HAGs as he usually did.
OOM-9 led the attack from a red GAT and KJZ-8267 drove around in an old beige AST. The two droid leaders had both chosen repulsor vehicles with good mobility in order to quickly navigate around Raxus Prime's tricky terrain.
The Republic's answer was an army of AT-TEs and clone scout walkers supported by teams of IFT-X fighter tanks attacking the Separatist army from the sides.
The more mobile ground armored tanks (OOM-9's included among them) went back and forth intercepting the various attacks from the IFT-X fighter tanks while the giant dwarf spider droids and NR-N99 tank droids fought with the main force of AT-TEs. The AATs and clone scout walkers challenged each other when they weren't interrupted by others. The battle droid infantry hordes didn't have any clone troopers to fight and had to settle for assisting the vehicles in their fight. The infantry sized dwarf spider droids and crab droids ended up acting as wingmen for the larger spider droids.
In the sky, the gunship fighters were reinforced by LAAT/i gunships and V-19 Torrent fighters. The Karajor released squadrons of Scarab fighters to assist the Vulture droids.
Commander Zako led the rightmost side of OOM-9's army, which consisted mostly of giant dwarf spider droids. The human commander piloted an AAT.
One of the large spider droids expertly shot down a LAAT/i gunship. The Republic craft crashed down onto one of the clone scout walkers that barred the Separatists' way.
"This is too easy. I have a bad feeling about this," Zako said.
"Roger roger," one of the commander's pilot droids inside the tank said.
Zako's bad feeling was almost immediately validated. From the right flank, hidden clone troopers began attacking the Separatists. Zako pulled his tank around to meet the clones, and ordered some of his B1 infantry to break off from the main group to deal with the clone ambush.
"Keep pushing forward as scheduled," Zako transmitted to the giant dwarf spider droids. "I'll deal with those clone infantry."
Faced with such an immediate response from the CIS, the clones started to fall back. Zako and his battle droids chased after them.
EEK-176's battle group had fought the junk droids through the scrap caverns. The winding tunnels eventually led upwards, where the Separatists came across areas that looked the makeshift war centers. The dwarf spider droids were the masters of the tunnels, nothing the junk droids had could harm them and the spiders simply stayed ahead of their allies to protect the more vulnerable B-series battle droids from enemy fire.
The fight led back outside to what appeared to be a makeshift landing platform jutting out from the side of the scrap mountain, though there was no shuttle for the junk droids to escape on. On the center of the platform was an antiquated DK-27 guardian droid. The rusty old droid principally functioned as a portable turret.
"What is that thing?" SSA-719 asked as he fired into it.
"Doesn't matter, it'll be scrap metal in a few seconds," 3B3-888 chucked a V-1 thermal detonator at the old droid.
The explosion knocked the DK-27 droid back, and the combined firepower from all the CIS droids brought it down. There was nothing left but smoldering scrap metal, but three figures walked through the smoke to meet the Separatist droids.
The centermost droid was a large, infantry-sized black sphere that hovered in the air. There was a single, bright red eye in the center of the northern hemisphere of the droid's body. There looked to be some sort of needle affixed to the left side of the droid.
The two droids that flanked the hovering one were short, quadrupedal battle droids that had two bludgeoning arms. The two droids looked like silver, insect-like droid attack dogs.
A panel on the bottom right of the black spherical droid extended, revealing a pair of integrated blasters. The black droid started firing, downing a pair of red B1 battle droids.
EEK-176 fired a shot and hit the spherical black droid right below its red eye. After the droid took the blow it disappeared into thin air.
"Where'd he go?" 3B3-888 was puzzled by what had just happened.
The two melee droids charged to attack. They reached a B2 super battle droid and were able to bludgeon him to pieces. The combined fire from B1s, B2s, droidekas, and dwarf spider droids scrapped the two silver droids.
The black droid dropped its cloaking system, revealing itself to be very close to EEK-176. Whether it was due to malfunction or to purposefully initiate an attack, EEK-176 didn't know. Nor did it matter to the command droid. EEK-176 fired a series of shots which all struck their target. It wasn't difficult considering it was a rather large and close target.
Both droids firing at each other, EEK-176 charged the other droid and gave it a smack with the butt of his E-5 blaster rifle. The large hovering droid crashed down to the ground and ceased to function.
A trio of Sheathipede shuttles came in and landed just as the fight had finished. The tactical droid TH-1066 and a team of marine battle droids exited from the shuttle on the right, he had come to offer assistance. Though now that the fight had ended none was needed.
"That droid right there," EEK-176 pointed at the deactivated black droid lying on the ground. "And those two." EEK-176 then pointed at the black droid's two silver bodyguards. "I want them all loaded up on the shuttles and taken up to the Scrapyard. One per shuttle, I don't want to give them any advantage if they decide to wake up."
The battle droids went about picking up the three junk droids and their fallen allies and loading them onto the shuttles.
"Why are we taking those junk droids?" 3B3-888 had sheathed his E-5 onto the side of his power backpack.
"There's something about those droids that's different. They're nothing like the other junk droids. They seem to have all their original parts. One of them had a working cloaking device. We'll worry about their unknown variables later. We have go and assist the others against the Republic."
"Roger roger," 3B3-888 nodded. The B1 battle droid sergeant was ready for more fighting.
"We're getting really close to the base, General. The Karajor is taking hits from their defensive turrets but it's nothing the shields can't handle," Sledge reported as she sat comfortably in the command chair of the Trade Federation cruiser. "They have built their base around an excavation site. There is a large crane in the center of the whole area. They have a heavy wall that runs over the entire perimeter of the base."
"Destroy the walls," OOM-9 responded back to the human captain. "And the turrets. But leave the rest to us. I want to try and find out what they've been up to."
"Yes sir. Commencing bombardment in thirty seconds."
The heavy walls would have slowed OOM-9's ground forces considerably, but the Karajor was able to demolish them quickly.
From his armored scout tank, KJZ-8267 led the STAPs and speeder platforms to quickly pour though the base. There were more clone infantry in the base, which made excellent targets for the recon vehicles.
OOM-9 and the GATs were next in followed by the NR-N99 tank droids and then the AATs and giant dwarf spider droids. The PACs and MTTs came up last, pausing to unleash their stored droid infantry.
Most of the Republic vehicles within the base were clone personal walkers and scout walkers. The best the GAR had to offer had already been sent out against the Separatists, though there were still a small number of IFT-X fighter tanks left.
For the briefest of moments, it seemed as if the Republic and Confederacy were tied in terms of skill and firepower. But then the moment of equality passed, and the CIS started to overwhelm the Republic. Some of the Vulture droids from the sky landed in the base in walking mode and joined in on the ground battle. That's when the large crane in the center of the base became active. It turned and came smashing down, trying to crush a GAT that just barely managed to get out of the way. The crane then went for a walking Vulture starfighter, but the droid converted back to flight mode and took off before the crane could get it.
The crane turned, this time tracking OOM-9's tank. The crane came down, and scooped up the GAT, reeling it into the air. The GAT was starting to be crushed. OOM-9 exited out of the tank's bottom hatch and magnetized himself to the crane. OOM-9 climbed up the chain, reached the upper sheave, and started walking down the latticed boom to the command cabin.
The clone lieutenant controlling the crane saw OOM-9 and tried to shake him off, but OOM-9's magnetic grip held him in place. OOM-9 made it to the cabin, only to have the clone open the door and try to shoot him. OOM-9 fired back, both the droid and the clone hit their target, but only the clone died.
OOM-9 then climbed into the cabin and assumed control of the excavation crane, turning it against the Republic's vehicles. None of the other clones had witnessed their crane being stolen, allowing OOM-9 to get the drop on several vehicles before the clones had figured out what had happened.
By the time some of the clone scout walkers had turned around and fired on the crane the battle was nearly over. EEK-176 and TH-1066 had arrived with more unneeded reinforcements. The giant dwarf spider droids had pretty much destroyed everything larger than an AT-RT that wasn't a building. The light rain had begun to subside.
Zako's tank and B1 battle droids continued to hunt the clone troopers. Zako wouldn't let them go, even though his group had strayed far from the rest of the droid army.
One of the clones had a PLX rocket launcher, and fired it at Zako's AAT. The commander didn't know why the clone hadn't used the rocket launcher before now. The clone fired again, disabling Zako's tank.
Zako and his crew of pilot battle droids left the tank through the rear hatch. The fight was taking place alongside the length of a half-buried Hammerhead-class cruiser. Zako recognized the ancient ship; he had majored in history back in university and remembered some of what he had learned. Before Zako turned to face the clones, he saw a deactivated old droid leaning against a pile of scrap that was near the cruiser. There was something about that droid Zako couldn't put his finger on. The bipedal droid seemed to be intact and almost looked to be a protocol droid. Zako remembered when OOM-9 and the others were deactivated on Raxus Prime. He remembered when they were lifeless husks lying around in all the scrap. Whatever it was about that droid that interested Zako, it would have to wait. He had some clones to kill.
With the AAT gone, the fight had turned around. Even though Zako's group had been the pursuers, the B1 battle droids under his command had taken a lot of casualties. The number of clones and battle droids were equal now.
Commander Zako should have pulled back, but he had too much faith in the abilities of the battle droids under his command. He had gotten used to the power of the Z1 special ops droids and the HouseKarls, but there were none present now. Still Zako trusted his B1 droids to handle the clones and joined them in the battle, even though he was only wearing his officer uniform and therefore very vulnerable.
The battle droids were falling at a faster rate than the clone troopers, but the problem was mitigated by Zako's own skill in killing the clones.
A clone unhooked his thermal detonator and threw it, destroying a pair of battle droids and sending shards of shrapnel everywhere.
A tiny shard of scrap sliced through the air, right into Zako's left eye. The commander let out a squeal of pain, failing around clutching at his face as his left eye oozed crimson tears. Zako couldn't see through the blood or concentrate through the pain. Zako fell to his knees, blaster bolts still flying across the area.
Both the battle droids and the clone troopers ignored Commander Zako as he crawled around on his hands and knees looking for where he had dropped his blaster.
The battle droids and clones continued to fight; their numbers steady declining. Until finally there was only a single B1 battle droid remaining. There was also one clone trooper left.
The final B1 battle droid and last surviving clone trooper both fired at the same time and each hit their target square in the chest. The two opposing soldiers both fell down to the ground at the exact same time. There were no soldiers left on the battlefield, Zako was alone.
Katen's Mankvim-814 interceptor had taken significant damage during the starfighter battle, forcing her to land her craft near the outskirts of what was left of the Republic's base.
Lieutenant KJZ-8267 and another pilot droid rode out to meet her.
"We have a problem. We've lost all connection with Zako's battle group," KJZ-8267 said after he pulled his AST over and got out to address the major. Katen climbed out of her fighter and her boots met the metal scrap that littered Raxus Prime's surface.
"He isn't with the others?" Katen asked.
"Negative. He took a small group and left the main attack force to chase after a group of clone infantry."
"It might just be a communications disruption. We are on Raxus Prime after all." Katen was confident that Zako and his droids could handle clone troopers on their own without much trouble.
"We lost contact with them in sector forty-eight. I say we better…" KJZ-8267 paused as he saw a pair of ARF troopers hiding on a hill of garbage. Katen turned to see what the two pilot droids were looking at.
The two clones realized they had been spotted and ran down the hill away from the Separatists.
KJZ-8267 and Katen had both assumed the worst: that the clones had overhead their conversation and now had the coordinates to where a CIS officer might be in trouble. They could capture him and use him as a hostage to secure their passage off the planet, or at least that's what KJZ-8267 thought their plan was.
"Get them," KJZ-8267 mounted his AST and went around the hill. The pilot droid saw the two clones get on a pair of 74-Z speeder bikes and take off.
Katen got on the other pilot droid's speeder platform and followed after KJZ-8267 and the two ARF troopers. With Katen having taken his speeder, the other pilot droid couldn't give chase and was left to report the situation to the rest of the droid army.
The 74-Z speeder bikes were much faster than KJZ-8267's AST. The pilot droid frantically tried to shoot them down before they got out of range. The Trade Federation speeder platform was much faster, and Katen was able to catch up to KJZ-8267 moderately quickly despite the pilot droid having a head start.
Katen fired her speeder's blaster cannon just to give the clones a scare. She was more concerned about watching her driving and catching up to them rather than shooting them down at the moment.
The 74-Z speeder bikes were going so fast they blew up small pieces of scrap and trash that flung back at their Separatist pursuers. Katen ground her teeth in frustration as she altered her steering so that she wasn't directly behind the two speeders. She hit the accelerator and steadily started to catch the two clone bikers.
KJZ-8267 was starting to fall behind. The pilot droid took a sharp left and disappeared from the chase. KJZ-8267 planned to take a shortcut, though he had no clue as to if it would work or not. He had to try something new, keeping the status quo in the current situation meant that he would inevitability be left behind.
Ashley Katen was much closer to the clones now. She pulled back behind them, pieces of dirt whizzing annoyingly past her face. She fired the speeder's cannon again, hitting one of the bikes. The 74-Z speeder bike didn't break apart; the rider didn't lose control, nothing. Katen fired again but the clone had swerved out of the way and decelerated back towards the Separatist officer.
Katen and the ARF trooper rode side by side. Katen purposefully smashed into the clone, trying to knock him off his bike. The ARF trooper was nearly knocked back into an ancient tank sticking out of the ground but was able to regain control and get back on course before he smashed into any obstacles.
The recon trooper responded by returning the favor and smashing into Katen. Katen's speeder was barely nudged at all and she purposefully bumped into the clone again.
The clone pulled out a DC-17 hand blaster and Katen drew her commando SE-14 blaster pistol. Both opponents shot at the same time, and both missed their marks. Both went back to watching their path for a moment to make sure they weren't about to crash into anything before they went back to trying to shoot each other.
KJZ-8267 suddenly reappeared, coming in on the left from above. The pilot droid had used an old crooked strip of ship hull as a ramp and now was neck and neck with the lead clone biker.
With one bump, KJZ-8267's AST sent the 74-Z speeder bike spinning into a jagged piece of what used to be some sort of ancient tank droid. Katen could feel the heat from the explosion on her face and hair.
KJZ-8267 pulled back and almost made the remaining clone biker drive right into him. A 74-Z speeder bike was no match for an armored scout tank when it came to physical collisions, and the ARF trooper was quick to turn his bike out of the way the pilot droid. Though this left the clone temporarily not paying attention to Katen. She took and opportunity to line up and shot and blast him in the arm. The clone fell from his bike and the vehicle traveled for a distance without its rider before smashing into some debris.
Katen and KJZ-8267 pulled around to make sure the clone that fell from his bike was dead. After confirming the clone was decreased, the pair went on to Zako's supposed location.
It had only taken ten more seconds for Katen and KJZ-8267 made it to Zako's last known location; they had barely killed the clones in time. "Zako, where are you?" Katen yelled.
"Any units, report in," KJZ-8267 requested.
"There's no one here," Katen said as she dismounted her speeder platform.
"No one still functioning," KJZ-8267 pointed out all the destroyed B1 battle droids and dead clone troopers.
They searched for Zako but couldn't find him. All they found was his officer's hat lying on the ground near his E-5 blaster rifle.
"What happened to him," Katen picked up the hat, holding it as if it were some sort of precious, irreplaceable gem.
"He shouldn't have gone too far, we'll find him," KJZ-8267 said.
Author's Note: The Karajor is also the name of the Glorft flagship from the television show Megas XLR.
Raxus Prime appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars video game and in The Force Unleashed.
The command center, troop center, light walls, and sentry posts that made up the abandoned battle droids' base are from Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The Raxus Prime tower turret is from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars video game.
The laser turrets the junk droids use are from the Battlefront series. They are the games' generic turrets found on multiple maps and are simply known as laser turrets in the game.
The DK-27 guardian droid appeared in the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
The black spherical droid and its two bodyguards are canon Star Wars droids. I described them but I purposefully did not name them specifically.
The giant dwarf spider droid first appeared in the video game The Force Unleashed. Though the droid only appears as scrap on the planet Felucia. The damaged head and legs of a giant dwarf spider droid can be found. The regular sized remains of dwarf spider droids can also be found on Felucia. The remains of homing spider droids, hailfire droids, core ships, and clone trooper armor can also be found lying around Felucia.