Chapter 35: Battle of the Heroes

"Where is he?" Commander EEK-176 demanded.

"I don't know!" the Jawa chieftain squeaked in his native tongue.

EEK-176 gave a hand signal and a pilot battle droid shot a Jawa hostage with an E-5 shotgun. Such close range with a shotgun left a bloody, disgusting mess of what a second before was a living being.

The new corpse was just one of many that littered the bloodstained ground. The other corpses were from Jawas that had initially tried to fight the battle droids when they first approached the settlement. But their makeshift weapons of plasma torches and excavation grenades were no match for the battle droids. Since some of the Jawas were so eager to fight, EEK-176 figured they had something to hide. The Jawas were much less eager for confrontation now, though they still hadn't given the droid commander any satisfactory answers to his questions.

The other Jawa hostages squirmed in their binders, but none of them dared to try and run. There were several red B1 battle droids armed with E-5 blaster rifles, watching and waiting for any of them to try and make a run for it. A squad of B2 super battle droids and mark IV recon droids were tearing apart the small settlement, searching for any sign of Commander Karl Zako. Dwarf spider droids and crab droids on the outskirts of the settlement stood watch in case any of the villagers who weren't EEK-176's hostages tried to escape the area.

"You're running out of followers, Chieftain. And I'm going to ask this again. Where is our human officer? We know your people kidnapped him!"

"We didn't, we swear! I am being honest! There is nothing I can tell you. My village would never go anywhere near one of your battles."

"I know you're a liar. This is an unlicensed salvage operation you're running here." EEK-176 gave the signal for another hostage to be executed. Another Jawa was turned into a pulpy mess by the pilot droid's shotgun. The droids could have used a regular E-5 blaster rifle or a SE-14 blaster pistol for the executions, but EEK-176 deliberately chose an E-5 shotgun because it left such a horrific mess of the victim. Though even such horrendous displays of violence and death didn't elicit an answer EEK-176 was hoping for. It was clear that the Jawa chieftain didn't really know anything.

"I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. If I don't get an answer I like, you and your village die." What the Jawa chieftain didn't know was that EEK-176 planned to have his troops slaughter the entire settlement anyway. They were unlicensed parasites sucking away work from the few legitimate citizens of Raxus Prime. That, and EEK-176 couldn't allow any of them to survive to tell the tale of the droids' cruelty. OOM-9 wanted to keep a positive image of the Separatists on Raxus Prime. And while massacring unlicensed scavengers would get cheers from some, it would be frowned upon by others.

Despite thorough searching on behalf of the droid army, Commander Karl Zako was nowhere to be found on Raxus Prime. OOM-9's troops couldn't find him anywhere. The unlicensed scavengers the droid army hunted down hadn't provided them the CIS officer. The regular citizens of Raxus Prime hadn't seen Karl Zako either when the droids came and asked. The lingering junk droids the CIS destroyed didn't have the commander. The remaining clone forces being tracked down didn't have possession of Zako either. It seemed as if the human commander was no longer on Raxus Prime.

OOM-9 contacted the network of Separatist informants planted in Republic space and found that the Republic had not captured a Separatist officer by that name either. To OOM-9, this meant that Commander Zako had to have been acquired by a third party. The clone troops didn't have him, and no Republic ships had been able to escape off of Raxus Prime.

The droid general continued to send his troops to scour the few civilian settlements that dotted Raxus Prime's junky landscape. OOM-9 considered that Zako may be held for random, or could have been taken off world and sold to slavers if his captors didn't know his value. OOM-9 had contacted Senator Zok Zuuk to see if the Neimoidian could talk with the Zygerrian Slavers Guild and see if Zako had ended up in their markets. OOM-9 also deployed Katen, Sledge, SSA-719, and KJZ-8267 to check if Zako had ended up in slave markets not affiliated with the Zygerrians.

General OOM-9 had been good for business and good for the war. Senator Zok Zuuk personally and professionally had benefited from the exceptional command battle droid. So when OOM-9 contacted the Neimoidian for a favor, Zuuk was more than happy to assist the droid. What made the request even easier was the fact that Miraj Scintel, The Most High Queen of Zygerria, was currently on the Confederate capital world of Raxus.

Zuuk's political power had increased and it took the Neimoidian less than half an hour to schedule a meeting with the Queen. Zok Zuuk walked through grand halls of the Separatist Senate building, protected by a pair of security battle droids. The trio stopped when they reached a large door guarded by a pair of Zygerrian soldiers.

"I am Senator Zok Zuuk, here to meet with the Queen," the Neimoidian quickly addressed the two Zygerrian guards.

"And she is not happy about it. She has scheduled business with Count Dooku, not with you," the guard on the right side of the door replied.

"This will not take long," Zuuk walked past the soldiers and pushed the doors open. The Zygerrian guards were surprised at the Neimoidian's brashness, but did nothing to stop him.

"The Most High Queen of Zygerria, I am Senator Zok Zuuk of the Zalost system."

"I am aware of who you are," Scintel snapped, "make it quick. I have other matters to attend to."

"One of my Generals has had an officer go missing. I wanted to check to see if he hadn't been picked up and sent into your markets by mistake."

"That would be quite a mistake," Scintel replied, "we will see what we can do. But I doubt we have your missing officer."

Creel Station had a poorly lit, stuffy, bare bones mess hall. Major Ashley Katen had planted herself in this foul-smelling cesspit for the purpose of getting into a fight. The slavers that conducted business aboard this particular space station worked in conditions almost as horrible as the slaves they bought and sold. Katen didn't want to be confined to this unrefined hive of scum and villainy any longer than she had to, so she chose her victim and started her work.

"Hey," Katen called out with a crack of voracious anger in her voice. Ashley Katen was often livid, though at this particular moment in time she felt irritated enough that she could rival a Sith Lord in terms of her anger. "You with the antenna!"

Only about half of those that inhabited the mess hall hushed up to see what Katen's deal was.

Her initial challenge failed to rouse her intended target, a Rodian seated at a table with three Nikto. Katen tried again, only this time she was twice as loud and three times as obnoxious. "Don't ignore me you bug-eyed freak!"

The Rodian she had been trying to rouse finally got up from the table he had been sitting at. "What is your problem, human?"

"You whispering to your little friends about my physical appearance," Katen lied, "you green-skinned scum bags wouldn't recognize an attractive female if she kicked your ass!"

Some of the other slavers sitting around the mess hall laughed.

"That wouldn't be you," the Rodian pulled out a stun baton from underneath his brown jacket.

Katen cracked a grin; the poor fool had no idea what he was in for.

The Rodian moved into to strike at Katen's head. The human easily backed out of reach of the alien and caught his arm before he could swing for another attack. She twisted his wrist, breaking it and forcing him to drop the baton. The Rodian's howls of pain were cut short when Katen punched him in the face.

Katen then picked up the Rodian and hurled him into a nearby table, spilling food and drink all over an Ithorian. The Ithorian took offense and started beating the pulp out of the Rodian. The three Nikto who had been seated with the Rodian now got up to go after Katen.

"This isn't a fair fight," Katen said as the three aliens approached her.

"Too bad," one of the Nikto said.

"No, I meant it's not fair to you," Katen smiled.

Two of the Nikto suddenly fell to the dirty floor, paralyzed by pain. Melissa Sledge had scooped up the Rodian's fallen stun baton and snuck up behind the trio of slavers. The third Nikto turned around in time for Sledge to pop him right in his jaw.

Katen and Sledge saw that the pummeling the Ithorian was giving the Rodian had caused another spill, which had led to another fight between parties that weren't affiliated with Katen or the Rodian.

Soon another skirmish had broken out, and then another. There was a big brawl in the mess hall but not everyone was joining in on the fun. Katen walked over and sucker punched a Gran still sitting at a table.

"Hey! That's my friend," a Devaronian complained.

"Come do something about it."

SSA-719 motionlessly waited behind a bulkhead at the intersection of two corridors. Given how much time had passed, SSA-719 figured Katen and Sledge had plenty of time to cause a bar brawl to draw security's attention.

The intercom system finally came alive. "Security to the mess hall immediately. We have a situation."

SSA-719 peered his thin head just around the frame of the bulkhead to see a trio of humans armed with stun batons run by. The security droid watched them disappear from sight, waited a few moments, and then made his move.

The security battle droid had not been made for stealth, though if SSA-719 encountered trouble he'd just blast his way through. The droid approached from where the security humans had come from and turned to a door.

SSA-719 tried the controls but the door was locked. The security battle droid pried the panel open and hacked the door. The interior of the security office was empty. SSA-719 went about searching for his target and quickly spotted the slaver terminal he required. The droid captain found that he also needed to hack the terminal. SSA-719 was by no means a hacking expert, but breaking through the slaver's sloppy defenses was well within his abilities.

Certain slaver groups were at odds with the Zygerrian Slavers Guild and therefore would not be cooperative with Separatist officials. Hacking and taking the information by force was the only way they could make sure it was accurate.

It took a few minutes but SSA-719 found what he was looking for, he had found Commander Zako's location.

"Hey!"

The security battle droid turned from the terminal to see a Weequay in the doorway. The guard was armed with nothing more than a stun baton. SSA-719 aimed his E-5 blaster rifle and shot the guard as he tried to lunge. The Weequay fell to the metal floor with a thud, and didn't move. SSA-719 walked over the corpse and left the area.

The battle droid made his way towards the mess hall, running into Katen and Sledge before getting there.

"I found him," SSA-719 told the two women. "Let's go."

"Finally," Sledge huffed.

"Is he here?"

"He was. He has already been transported to another location. I have the coordinates," the battle droid explained.

"It was those two humans! Over there!" a voice further down the corridor yelled.

Blaster bolts started to fly in the direction of the three Separatists. SSA-719 fired back.

"They don't give up," Katen said.

"Time to go," Sledge urged the other two to start running. Their hurried footsteps rang out against the metal floor, as if to announce to all of Creel Station that they were the guilty party responsible for all the chaos.

The trio ran for the hangar bay where their shuttle was parked.

"You finish?" Sledge asked KJZ-8267 when she saw the pilot droid also approaching their Sheathipede shuttle.

"My objectives have been completed," the pilot droid answered.

Though blaster bolts still chased them, all four got aboard safely.

"Shut the hangar bay doors!" one of the security personnel yelled.

"They're not responding!"

The Sheathipede shuttle exited the space station with no problem. One of KJZ-8267's tasks had been to lock the hangar doors open.

Though Creel Station's security weren't about to let the CIS operatives get away so easily. A trio of Z-95 Headhunters left from another hangar bay, chasing after the shuttle.

"I thought you said your objectives had been completed?" Katen asked the pilot droid as he drove the shuttle away from the station.

"Wait for it," KJZ-8267 said.

A moment later the three fighters blew up. KJZ-8267's other task had been to sabotage the security force's starfighters. SSA-719 transmitted the necessary data back to the 8th Fleet still in orbit around Raxus Prime before the shuttle went into hyperspace.

OOM-9 was finally started to get results. SSA-719, KJZ-8267, Katen, and Sledge had discovered that Zako had been captured by scavengers and taken off world to be put up in a slave auction on the planet Breeka.

OOM-9 had left the surface of Raxus Prime and returned to the Magna Musai. The battle for Raxus Prime had been won, but the droid armies of the 8th Fleet still needed to pack up their vehicles and troops before moving out. It was time consuming, but Katen's group was going ahead to Breeka. If they were lucky, they wouldn't need an army to take back Zako.

Obi-wan Jakoby walked through the overly grandiose halls of Coruscant's Jedi Temple. The halls were rather devoid of Jedi, too many were busy fighting in the war. The Jedi Weapon Master had been summoned to one of the Temple's Situation Rooms, though he did not know why.

When Jakoby arrived he was greeted by Grand Master Yoda.

"Master Jakoby, good to see you, it is," the diminutive alien said.

"And it is always a please to see you," Jakoby gave a short bow.

"For other purposes, I wish this meeting was. But a possibly dangerous assignment for you, the Jedi Council has." The gnarled old Jedi Master had a furrowed expression on his face.

"I am here to serve."

"Our contacts inform us that a Separatist officer has been captured and is on the slaver's market on the planet Breeka. Retrieve this officer before the Separatists, you must."

"I will leave for Breeka at once, Master." Obi-wan Jakoby was more than happy to leave the security of the Jedi Temple and get back to fighting on the front lines.

Count Dooku admired Darth Sidious' ability to orchestrate events to where the Sith Lord would emerge the winner no matter what the outcome was. A recent example was the Battle of Felacat. Sidious was able to observe the Republic's new Mandator II-class star dreadnaught against the abilities of a Separatist officer. Sidious and Tyranus had learned that the Mandator II was not as effective as it could have been. But they also learned that OOM-9 was a cunning officer whose skills they could exploit at a later date. Though neither Sidious nor Tyranus knew that the Separatist plan of attack on the Mandator II during the Battle of Felacat was actually KJZ-8267's idea. Or that the blind luck and subsequent actions of Captain Sledge allowed the 8th Fleet to know precisely what challenge they were facing before it had even arrived. Sidious and Tyranus attributed the success of the mission to General OOM-9. The Sith never placed their faith in the traits of friendship and teamwork. Though the Sith didn't know it, those characteristics were strong in OOM-9 and his subordinates.

This new problem was another matter. It was part of no one's plans. General OOM-9, acting on proper protocol, had reported that one of his officers was missing in action. The file on Commander Karl Zako revealed that he knew a lot about Separatist droids, weapons, vehicles, and aircraft. He certainly knew more than most other officers of the same rank. He knew enough that it would be a problem for the Confederacy if the Republic were able to extract large amounts of information out of him. In the long run, the information could tip the scale of the war; the Republic could develop new battle strategies and weapons based on intricate knowledge of the Separatists' arsenal. The Sith needed the war to continue to drag on, more Jedi needed to die.

"General, there's an incoming message from Count Dooku," a pilot battle droid informed OOM-9 when the droid general made it to the Magna Musai's command bridge.

"Put it through."

Dooku's visage filled the large viewscreen. "General OOM-9, I've heard you've misplaced one of your top officers, Commander Zako. It would be disastrous if one so knowledgeable of our battle droids were to fall into Republic hands. I trust you are already moving to remedy the situation?"

"Of course, my lord. My subordinates have discovered his location. I have already deployed advance agents to retrieve him and I will be there myself shortly. Commander Zako will soon come under my possession once again."

"Very good, General. I expect to hear news of your success in the near future." The image flickered and faded and finally shut off.

Count Dooku had considered sending his apprentice, Asajj Ventress. But Ventress was currently busy with other assignments and Count Dooku felt General OOM-9 was competent enough to solve his own problem.

Commander OOM-8 turned to OOM-9. "What if the Republic gets to him first?"

"Commander Zako knows how to resist the persuasion of the Force," OOM-9 stated.

"Not forever."

"He will last long enough. I doubt he will ever even fall into Republic hands. You think we won't be able to rescue him?"

"I would have sent more than just Katen, Sledge, SSA-719, and KJZ-8267."

"They are more than capable of this task, and we will be there soon."

Most of life's challenges were solved by Karl Zako ordering battle droids to blast something or someone. However, that was not an option to his current problem. Zako tried to convince his captors (a group of Rodian and Jawa scavengers) to release him but they were intent on selling him into slavery. So when Zako was all out of ideas and it looked as if he would be taken off Raxus Prime for sure, he told his captors the truth: that he was a high-ranking officer in the Separatist Droid Army. He hoped that they were Separatist sympathizers and would let them go. It wasn't a stretch; they were on Raxus Prime after all. Or at the very least they feared the CIS enough to let him go. Instead they decided he was either lying or valuable enough to be put up for auction.

Commander Zako found himself taken to Creel Station, before being shipped off to the desert planet Breeka. His captors had bandaged his injured eye and nothing more, they hadn't even offered him any painkillers. Zako was ferried between various prisoner cells until he wound up in a cage on the auction block. Zako watched as various individuals started to enter the large auction room, taking seats in folding chairs.

Zako's one good eye focused in when he saw Katen, SSA-719 and KJZ-8267 enter the room. The bidders already in their seats noticed as well, just about anyone in the galaxy could recognize Separatist battle droids. Katen was wearing her KSV-1 combat suit. The three Separatists were unarmed, no weapons were allowed in the building. Still, the two battle droids solicited murmurs of dread from some of the other patrons. Since they hadn't come in shooting, Zako figured Katen intended to buy him legitimately. Zako suddenly sunk, if Katen bought him he would never hear the end of it.

Just as Katen and the two battle droids took their seats on the left side of the room, a new trio walked into the room that also drew everyone's attention.

What was clearly a Jedi dressed in white robes was flanked by two clones without their armor. The Fett clones were also recognizable throughout the galaxy, though slightly less than battle droids since most of the galaxy only saw the clones when they were encased in their armor. But enough of the patrons were able to distinguish them as clones even without their armor. Tai in particular drew attention with his short, spiked purple hair.

Obi-wan Jakoby, Kicker, and Tai immediately saw the two battle droids, and the armored human female sitting in between them.

"The Seppers know about him," Kicker whispered to Jakoby and Tai.

"Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way," Tai said.

"You mean the fun way," Jakoby told the clone commando.

The three Republic personnel took their seats on the right side of the room, in order to put some distance between themselves and the Separatists.

A Gand got out of his seat. "I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm out of here," he said loudly enough for all to hear. Two male humans with a similar level of common sense also got up and walked out. Everyone else stayed in their chairs and waited for the slave auction to start.

A human auctioneer strode up to an old metal podium at the front of the room. The various discussions between the patrons started to quiet down and die.

"Our first item up for auction is a human male who claims to be a military officer in the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Considering some of the bidders here today, we now believe his claims to be valid. The bidding will start at fifty thousand credits," the auctioneer smirked. He started the price out low as a joke, knowing that it would soon skyrocket.

"Ashley, get me out of here. I'm injured and need medical attention," Zako called out from his cage.

"Silence slave," the auctioneer sneered.

"Fifty thousand," a female Balosar said before Katen or Jakoby could get out a word.

"Eighty thousand," a male Anzat raised his bidding paddle.

"One hundred thousand," Katen raised her paddle.

"Two hundred thousand," Jakoby raised the bid.

"Three hundred thousand," a Besalisk said.

"Five hundred thousand," the female Balosar stayed in the bidding competition.

"Six hundred ninety thousand credits," Katen said.

"Eight hundred thousand," Jakoby countered.

"One million credits," Katen grinned and turned to see the expression on Jakoby's face. The Jedi seemed to be undeterred.

"One million one hundred thousand," a Duros jumped in.

"One million two hundred thousand," Jakoby quickly raised his bidding paddle.

"One million five," Katen said. She had started to grind her teeth in frustration. Katen fully intended to buy Zako with her own money; she'd be able to tease him endlessly about it later. Given how wealthy her family was, this was entirely possible for her to accomplish.

"Three million credits," Jakoby proudly said. Quiet murmurs started to go around the room.

"Four million," Katen quickly snapped, anger building in her voice.

"Seven million," Jakoby shot back.

"Eight million," Katen scowled.

"Nine million," Jakoby smirked.

"Nine million, five hundred thousand," adrenaline coursing through her veins, Katen stood out of her chair when she raised her bidding paddle.

"One billion credits," Jakoby smugly stated, suddenly skyrocketing the price.

Gasps of astonishment and murmurs echoed throughout the room. The auctioneer nearly dropped his gavel due to the shock of hearing the price.

"The price now stands at one billion credits," the auctioneer was stunned.

"I can't beat that," Katen slunk back into her chair, "I can't beat that."

"One billion one hundred thousand," SSA-719 raised his bidding paddle for the first time.

"One billion two hundred thousand," KJZ-8267 raised his paddle.

"What are you doing?" the security battle droid turned to look at the pilot battle droid.

"I though it would be funny," KJZ-8267 said.

"Nine billion credits," Jakoby was almost as irritated as Katen now.

"Nine billion credits…" the auctioneer wasn't sure if the offer was real or not anymore. There were more whispers among the other bidders.

The battle droids were silent now.

"Nine billion credits, going once…going twice…"

Just as the auctioneer was about to pound the gavel Katen had an outburst.

"You liar! You don't have that much money! The Jedi Council would never authorize nine billion credits just for a single Separatist officer! He's not even a general!"

"You wouldn't know what I've been authorized to do," Jakoby shot back.

"I'm gonna authorize my fist in your face," Katen got out of her chair. SSA-719 and KJZ-8267 likewise got up and followed Katen's lead.

Jakoby, Kicker and Tai also got out of their seats and started over towards the three approaching Separatists. The other bidders scrambled to get out of the way.

"Security!" the auctioneer called. No security personnel came.

"You Jedi are nothing without your lightsabers," Katen moved to punch Jakoby in the face.

"You Separatists are nothing no matter what weapons you have," the Jedi fluidly deflected the blow with his left arm and punched Katen in the stomach with his right.

SSA-719 and Kicker started fighting with each other while KJZ-8267 took on Tai.

Katen was only momentarily stunned, and soon came back throwing punches and kicks at Jakoby. The Jedi was still able to parry away everything Katen threw at him.

"What's going on here? These droids are tough," Kicker wrestled with SSA-719. The clone struggled as the security droid tried to bend his hands backwards enough to break the wrists.

"You mean to tell me you meatbags actually believe that you could take a droid in a fistfight?" SSA-719 evilly said.

"Yeah," Kicker couldn't break the droids grip. He opted to sweep kick the droid's leg. SSA-719 fell, but still hung on to the clone, leading both combatants to fall to the floor.

Tai was throwing punches that KJZ-8267 easily blocked. The clone's fists started to swell as he continued his attack.

"You're no match for a Jedi," Jakoby threw a few punches that Katen blocked with her forearms.

"You're no matched for a pissed woman," Katen suddenly kneed the Jedi in the groin.

"Oooooo… my thermal detonators," Jakoby fell to the floor in pain.

Katen turned and started over towards Zako's cage.

"It's about time," Zako complained as she approached. "Get me out of here."

"A thank you would be nice," Katen sneered.

"When I'm actually free," Zako's voice was filled with pain and anger. "Behind you!"

Jakoby was running back up towards Katen again, keeping her away from the cage.

Most of the bidders had been able to leave the auction room by now, though the auctioneer still cowered up at the front of the room.

When KJZ-8267 started pulling punches, Tai was able to get the upper hand in the fight. The clone caught the pilot droid's hand mid-strike and shoved him into a cluster of folding chairs near the front of the room.

KJZ-8267 flailed around on the ground, trying to get all the chairs out of his way and looked up to see Zako saying something to him. "Use the f…"

"Use the what? The Force? What are you talking about?" the pilot droid was confused.

"The forks!" Zako pointed and yelled.

"Oh." The pilot droid looked to see the utensils lying on the floor near where he was. They and a plate of half-eaten cake had been abandoned by one of the other bidders.

Tai made his way towards the pilot droid. KJZ-8267 quickly crawled over to the fork.

"All right, droid," Tai was upon KJZ-8267. "Time to meet your maker."

KJZ-8267 quickly took the fork and jammed it into Tai' right foot. The clone stumbled back, howling in pain as blood gushed from the wound. KJZ-8267 got up and gave the clone a powerful uppercut that sent the commando flying into a group of chairs.

KJZ-8267 picked up one of the folding chairs and went over to where SSA-719 and Kicker were fighting. The pilot droid snuck up from behind and smashed Kicker down with the folding chair.

"Enough of this nonsense," Jakoby bitch slapped Katen with the Force, sending her careening through rows of folding chairs towards the back of the room.

The security and pilot droid moved to take the Jedi but Jakoby held with both up in the air with the Force for a moment before sending them crashing into each other and then propelling them to opposite sides of the room.

Kicker pulled the fork out of Tai's foot and the two clones regrouped with their Jedi general. It looked as if the Republic had won.

Then suddenly the wall on the right side of the room blew up. A B2-HA super battle droid walked through the hole in the wall, his cannon arm pointed towards Jakoby. A squad of B2 super battle droid started marching in after the B2-HA super battle droid. Captain Sledge slinked in behind the group of B2 droids; suited in her black and gray KSV-1 combat suit and carrying an E-5 blaster rifle in each hand.

The wall on the left side of the room blew up. The two clone commandos Ace and Jack led a squad of clone troopers into the room. Ace tossed Jakoby his lightsaber and Jack tossed the Jedi his shoto lightsaber. Once he had both his weapons, Jakoby activated them.

Neither side was fooling around, the B2 droids and clone troopers killed one another was superb precision. Soldiers from both sides were falling at a constant rate. Sledge attacked with her dual E-5s for a few shots before breaking away from the fight to hand over the weapons to SSA-719 and KJZ-8267. Sledge then donated her commando SE-14 blaster pistol to Katen. Melissa Sledge still had one weapon left, her electrowhip.

The B2-HA droid fired his cannon arm, missing the evasive Jedi. Jakoby threw his shoto lightsaber, cutting the first B2 droid in half before having to block several laser blasts from the other super droids.

A wrist rocket from one of the other super droids forced Kicker and Tai to dive out of the way. After another clone destroyed the B2 that was targeting them, Kicker helped Tai get to his feet, and the two unarmed and unarmored clones retreated to the hole in the wall their brothers had made. They weren't going to be much use to their general without their gear, and didn't want to stay out of the fight any longer than necessary. SSA-719 and KJZ-8267 had made them look like fools, and they wanted revenge.

Though only a torso lying on the ground, the B2-HA super battle droid fired his cannon arm again, this time ignoring the Jedi and aiming for the common clone troopers. The first missile scored a hit that obliterated one clone and knocked two others off their feet. Ace and Jack fired at the droid until he was finally destroyed for good.

Sledge activated her electrowhip and put in a few slashes towards Obi-wan Jakoby. At first the Jedi was surprised at being attacked with such a weapon, but was able to block the whip's strikes with his two lightsabers. Jakoby was in for another surprise when his weapons were unable to cut the electrowhip.

A stray blaster shot from a super battle droid killed the still-cowering auctioneer.

The super battle droids were steadily pushing the clone troopers back. 8EX and 5TE came up and broke open Zako's cage with their powerful hands.

"It's time for you to go, Commander," 5TE said.

Between Sledge's electrowhip and fire from the super battle droids, Jakoby started to back off to get some breathing room.

Katen, 8EX, 5TE, KJZ-8267, SSA-719, and Sledge took Zako and left the rest of the super battle droids finish off the Jedi and his clones. The CIS group moved towards the building's exit, but was stopped by a team of black and gray B1 battle droids.

"Stop. We cannot go outside. The Republic has an AT-TE out there, we could not hold our positions," one of the B1 droids informed the group.

"Alright, we're going up to the roof then," Sledge said.

The team started to move towards the stairwell.

"Come with us," Katen ordered the B1 battle droid squad to follow. The black and gray battle droids left a few HX2 mines at the entrance in case any clones tried to come in that way. The mines only took a moment to set and then the B1 squad followed the others to the stairs.

"We have acquired Commander Zako. Battle conditions demand that we change the evacuation point to the roof of the auction building," 8EX transmitted to the network as they ran up the stairs.

"Roger that," OOM-9 answered back, "we are moving a MAF to the updated evacuation point."

The sounds of metal feet hitting metal stairs were drowned out by blaster fire. A clone dual wielding DC-17 hand blasters attacked 8EX and 5TE, the two droids leading the group. The B2 battle droids fired back, hitting the clone and causing him to flip over the guard railing and fall off the stairway. The clone gave out a loud scream as he plummeted to his death.

A clone trooper on the next landing fired a trio of shots from his DC-15A blaster rifle, all of which hit 8EX. The super battle droid refused to go down and plastered the clone with his wrist lasers.

The group of Confederates was about to get to the next landing when it unexpectedly blew up. A clone trooper had planted a time bomb to stop the CIS from advancing up the stairs any further.

The clone attacked from above but the battle droids and their human allies heard lightsabers coming up from below. Jakoby was ascending the staircase, followed by two of his clone commandos.

"I'll take the Jedi," 8EX turned around and started heading back down the stairs.

The clone fired down on the Separatists as they left the stairwell to the highest floor currently available to them. 8EX fired all of his wrist rockets and a torrent of lasers, but was unable to kill the Jedi or his two commandos. Once Jakoby was close enough he cut off 8EX's right arm before slashing him at the torso.

"Let's try the turbolift," Sledge said.

Before the CIS troops could reach the turbolift they fell under attack from five clone troopers. It became clear that the clone that blew up the stairwell had intended to funnel the CIS to this floor, and they had fallen for his trap. The one thing the clones weren't prepared for was how large the CIS group was. Whether it was from poor planning or lack of available troops, the five clones that barred the way were not enough to stop the Separatist squad from advancing.

"Hurry, we gotta keep moving," Katen said.

"They locked down the turbolift," Sledge tried the button.

"Then we'll get have to unlock it," SSA-719 said as he and 5TE pried the doors open.

They heard the sound of lightsabers. Obi-wan Jakoby was approaching.

"Keep moving. I'll hold off the Jedi," 5TE said as he turned to attack Jakoby. The others didn't stop to question the super battle droid; they did as they were told. SSA-719 was the first to grab onto the service ladder in the turbolift shaft, followed by KJZ-8267, Zako, Katen, the B1 droids and then Sledge. Sledge made sure she was last, meaning she'd be the first to face Jakoby, and her electrowhip made her the most likely candidate to be able to survive against him.

Just like 8EX before him, 5TE was able to do nothing against the Jedi or his clone commandos and ended up a pile of scrap metal.

It was a bright, clear day with no wind. There was nothing to hinder the combat effectiveness of the two opposing military forces, save the annoying glare from the planet's sun. OOM-9 flew a brown advanced E-STAP droid starbomber. He and his squadron of Mankvim-814 light interceptors protected the MAF as it made its way towards the target site. Though the skies were filled with LAAT/i gunships, only a few V-19 Torrent fighters bothered to harass OOM-9's squadron. The majority of the V-19 fighters were preoccupied with the hordes of Vulture droids and Scarab starfighters that polluted the sky to bother with the few Mankvim-814 interceptors. The LAAT/i gunships were more concerned with dropping off their infantry at key locations around the city. Sometimes the clones were deployed on top of buildings to act as snipers, others were sent down to the city streets to reinforce positions that the clones were in danger of losing.

In the streets below, hundreds of battle droids and clone troopers fought for control of the city. The central control computers assured OOM-9 had his army held numerical superiority, though numbers alone were not winning him this battle. The CCC calculated that the CIS was losing three battle droids for every one clone trooper.

A pattern began to emerge in the street fighting. The clone army was taking and holding the street junctions, allowing them to fire on the battle droids from multiple sides. There were a few vehicles, from AATs, ASTs, homing spider droids, and NR-N99 tank droids fighting for the CIS, to AT-TEs, personal clone walkers and clone scout walkers on the side of the Republic. Though there was one unit that stood out from all the others. The Republic had sent an A-6 juggernaut right into the heart of the metropolis. The juggernaut was colored in an urban camouflage paint scene: blacks, blues, and grays. It was not a paint job OOM-9 had ever seen on an A-6 juggernaut before. He had also never seen the Republic so recklessly deploy a clone turbo tank either.

The A-6 juggernaut caused massive destruction to both the CIS and the city itself. The turbo tank was barely able to fit into the city streets. Whenever the gargantuan tank had to make a turn, it would smash into buildings, turning parts of them into rubble.

OOM-9 shot down a Torrent fighter before breaking off from the rest of his group. The droid general planned to put a stop to the turbo tank before it could do any more damage.

The A-6 fired a barrage of rockets towards OOM-9's bomber, all of which the advanced E-STAP was able to avoid. The turbo tank's heavy laser cannon turret turned to track the craft, the clones operating the juggernaut were obliviously aware of the threat the bomber posed to them. OOM-9 performed a series of barrel rolls that threw his starbomber in between the blue laser blasts that sought to end him. OOM-9 brought his craft into a dive, sending it straight for the city street, then brought it back up and over the turbo tank, letting loose a Void-7 seismic charge as he passed by. As soon as OOM-9's bomber was clear of the tank, the seismic charge went off, unleashing a powerful shockwave that ripped the juggernaut in two.

OOM-9 drew some attention of enemy fighters after his stunt was successful. He shot down a LAAT/i gunship that had no business trying to challenge him. Two V-19 Torrents proved to be more of a problem. OOM-9 was assisted by a passing Vulture and Scarab starfighter and the droid general was back on his was towards the MAF he was supposed to be protecting.

Major Katen, Captain Sledge and the others had reached the roof. The humans were affected by the change in temperature when they left the climate-controlled interior of the building, but the droids didn't mind. Two of the B1 battle droids stayed at the entryway to the turbolift shaft to deter Jakoby from taking the easy way up. All they had to do was shoot down at anyone who dared tried to use the service ladder, which of course, Jakoby did. At getting up only a few rungs, Jakoby found that he couldn't block blaster bolts and climb the ladder at the same time. The thought of using the Force to propel him all the way up the turbolift shaft occurred to Jakoby, but the Jedi figured he'd end up being shot in the process. So Jakoby ended up backing down and decided to get to the roof via the stairs.

Zako sat on the floor of the roof, tired and in pain. Katen and Sledge looked down towards the streets below and they saw that the AT-TE that had caused them to go up to the roof in the first place had just been overwhelmed and destroyed by a large horde of crab droids and dwarf spider droids.

"Figures that thing is destroyed the moment we get all the way up here," Katen complained. Though it was not entirely safe below, there were still several squads of clone troopers fighting with the spider and crab droids. Nonetheless, it was clear enough that the Separatist droids were going to take that particular street.

"No use trying to go back down now," KJZ-8267 said.

The clones fighting in the street that were armed with DC-15A blaster rifles started to break away from the spider droids and used their ascension cables to attach and begin to climb up the side of the building.

"Blast them," Sledge said.

Katen and several of the B1 battle droids started shooting either the clones or their cables.

A blue sniper bolt whizzed right by SSA-719's head.

"Sniper!" the security battle droid called out. Everyone ducked into cover.

More sniper shots rang out over their heads.

"They're providing cover for the clones scaling the wall," SSA-719 said. "They're just trying to bide time."

"Well, what do we do now?" Sledge whined. Her electrowhip was useless in a long-range battle and Katen still had her pistol.

The answer to Sledge's question came in the form of red sniper bolts flying towards the clone snipers on another building. B1 battle droids armed with E-5s sniper rifles were on the rooftops of other buildings and were shooting to keep the clone snipers busy.

While the opposing sniper kept shooting at each other, Katen and her B1 battle droids had a chance to run back over to the edge of the roof and shoot clones that were still scaling the wall of the building. The clones were much closer this time and tried to fire back, though their shots were incredibly inaccurate as the position of their guns were largely dictated by the ascension cables that kept the clones from plummeting to their death.

A few times Katen and the black and gray B1s had to pull back when the clone snipers dared to shoot at them. This of course left the clone snipers open to the droid snipers. It was a delicate balance for both sides between shooting and trying to avoid getting shot.

The game came to a close when one of the B1 battle droids shot the last clone attempting to scale the building. Now Katen's group could just sit back in cover and wait for pickup to arrive.

It would have been that way if Jakoby hadn't shown up the roof. The Jedi had no problem lifting himself, Ace and Jack over the gap in the stairs and they finally reached the roof.

The battle droids engaged the two clone commandos while Sledge attacked the Jedi with her electrowhip.

OOM-9's advanced E-STAP droid starbomber and his squadron of Mankvim-814 interceptors raced by overhead. The MAF came up behind them and landed on the roof just in time.

A flame battle droid exited the MAF and started shooting fireballs in Jakoby's direction.

"Everyone to the MAF! Lets go!" KJZ-8267 yelled. One of the B1 battle droids pulled Zako to his feet.

As the flame battle droid got closer to Jakoby he switched from shooting long-range fireballs to a steady stream of flame. Sledge put distance between her and the Jedi to avoid getting burned.

Jakoby had no defense against the flames and ran back towards the doorway to the stairs.

"Move it," OOM-9 transmitted to the others, "we're getting increased activity in the sky. There are a lot more Torrent fighters than before. We have to hurry."

OOM-9 and his squadron were too preoccupied with the V-19 Torrent fighters to notice the lone LAAT/i gunship come up. The gunship was quick and moved with purpose; it locked on to the parked MAF and fired all its weapons. The MAF was destroyed. The gunship took the MAF's place on the roof, clone troopers spilling out of it, Commander Lancer among them.

Jack tossed an EMP grenade that disposed of the flame battle droid. Jakoby and his two commandos started pushing forward at the droids again.

Commander Lancer blasted the B1 helping Zako and grabbed the CIS officer, dragging him aboard the gunship.

"Take off," Lancer told the gunship pilot. The LAAT/i lurched into the air, leaving behind several clones.

"General OOM-9," SSA-719 transmitted, "do not fire on that gunship. They have Commander Zako aboard."

"Roger roger," OOM-9 acknowledged.

The gunship took off, OOM-9 and his fighters were still too preoccupied with the V-19 Torrents to follow it.

"That's it," Katen hissed, "you're all dead!" Katen managed to kill two clone troopers with her pistol but when she turned it on the commandos her killing streak ended.

Jakoby suddenly found himself on the losing side of the fight now. Sledge had gone back to attacking him with the electrowhip again while the B1s were slow to fall to his commandos. The clone snipers on the opposite building were finally all dead, freeing the battle droid snipers to shoot at the Jedi and is cohorts.

Another LAAT/i gunship came in close to the roof of the building. Jakoby picked up Ace and Jack with the Force and threw them over into the passing gunship. Jakoby then propelled himself with a mighty Force jump and landed perfectly in the ship.

Jakoby waved goodbye to his adversaries, even as they still fired their guns at the LAAT/i.

"General Jakoby, we have the Separatist officer," Lancer reported into his comlink. The clone commander held the Separatist by the shoulder, Lancer didn't have time to put the enemy officer in binders but doubted he would even try and put up a fight. He looked to be in bad shape and was barely staying conscious.

"Good job, Commander Lancer. Get him to my cruiser. I'll be along shortly, Jakoby out."

OOM-9 finally broke away from the enemy Torrent fighters, thanks to a squadron of Scarabs coming in and helping his squadron of Mankvim-814 interceptors. OOM-9 boosted his bomber to catch up to the gunship, and considered what kind of options he had to take it down without killing Zako. OOM-9 searched through the network to see what kind of allies he had nearby.

OOM-9 picked up the signal of the rocket battle droid, RKT-421. OOM-9 turned and slowed down when he neared RKT-421's location, wirelessly ordering the droid to accompany him. The rocket battle droid used his jetpack and boosted over to E-STAP starbomber as it came past. RKT-421 magnetized his feet to the hull of the bomber and OOM-9 resumed his pursuit of the LAAT/i gunship.

Though huge plumes of black smoke were emanating from several parts of the city and various starfighters were still chasing each other around, OOM-9 was still able to identify and close in on the gunship.

OOM-9 also found the location of the baron battle droid E2BA-89 using the network. The baron battle droid was nearby and perfect for OOM-9's plan. General OOM-9 fired his bomber's two laser cannons, missing on purpose but encouraging the gunship to turn down onto a different path. The gunship changed course as OOM-9 hoped and flew right above the street where E2BA-89 was.

The baron battle droid fired his twin missile launchers, hitting the LAAT/i gunship but not destroying it. The impact knocked one of the clone troopers right out of the craft. OOM-9 pulled his bomber near the damaged gunship and RKT-421 jetted over.

"Blast that droid!" Lancer ordered.

RKT-421 hit one of the clones in the face with his wrist-mounted fusioncutter before grabbing Zako away from Lancer and taking off.

"No you don't," Lancer jumped from the gunship, grabbing onto Zako's leg. All the extra weight strained RKT-421's jetpack, causing the trio to lose altitude and eventually crash into the city streets.

Lancer was the first to his feet and pulled his DC-17 hand blaster and shot RKT-421. The clone commander moved to grab Zako but was caught off guard when the Separatist officer punched him in the face. The clone fell to the ground, though Zako couldn't tell if he was unconscious or not. The Separatist officer just started moving away.

OOM-9 turned his bomber back around to find out what had happened but he was intercepted by a V-19 Torrent fighter. OOM-9 tried to shake the fighter off but the V-19 stayed on the E-STAP. The pilot was none other than Screwball, one of Jakoby's best clone pilots. Even though he was being pursued, OOM-9 was still able to artfully drop a plasma bomb on a clone scout walker below.

Screwball finally scored a series of hits that sent OOM-9's bomber spiraling down into the city. Black smoke bellowed from the E-STAP's engines. OOM-9 wrestled with the non-responsive controls as his bomber gave out on him. His advanced E-STAP bomber crashed in one piece, the battle droid general was down, but not out. He shut down the craft's systems to prevent it from overheating and blowing up, an unlikely event, but it didn't hurt to be safe. OOM-9 forced open the cockpit to find clone troopers moving towards his location. The command battle droid quickly updated the network and requested reinforcements. Things were going badly, not only had OOM-9 lost Zako, but now he also needed rescuing.

Sergeant 3B3-888 received the signal and rallied together a team to go and secure OOM-9's location. The B1 battle droid hopped on the side on an armored assault tank and ordered the pilot to take him to OOM-9's coordinates. 3B3-888's team of battle droid infantry followed behind.

The CIS infantry were starting to lag behind the AAT badly. They were constantly interrupted by attacks from clone troopers or LAAT/i gunships. The AAT's secondary laser cannon's were constantly overheating trying to drive away all the threats. One of the LAATs was undeterred by the tank. Seeing that he was vulnerable, 3B3-888 got off the side of the tank, and just in time. The gunship splattered the tank with laser fire, and the AAT retaliated with its primary laser cannon. The gunship was hit on its left wing and swerved into the side of a building.

A pair of AT-RTs came up, focusing their firepower on the tank. The tank fired back at one of the recon walkers while 3B3-888 killed the driver of the other with his E-5 blaster rifle.

The gray and blue AAT simply refused to die. Plumes of black smoke were rising out of the cracks in its armor. Though the tank continued to attack, pushing the droid army forward against the clones.

"Grenade!" a B1 battle droid warned.

A super battle droid blasted the clone that had thrown the explosive that took out a baron battle droid that was unable to get clear of the blast radius.

"Keep going! We're almost there!" 3B3-888 yelled over the battle, "the general needs us!" It was almost hopeless. Though they were nearly there, 3B3-888's battle group had been decimated. At the rate they were going, their droid general would have to rescue them.

Sergeant 3B3-888 was lucky enough that he had other friends he could count on. A MAF flew in overhead and dropped off SSA-719, KJZ-8267 and a small squad of B1 battle droids.

"Having fun yet?" KJZ-8267 asked the B1 battle droid sergeant.

"Absolutely," 3B3-888 shot a clone.

Once the droids were deployed the MAF ascended back into the air, it stayed and hovered in the immediate area to give the ground troops support. The assault flyer fired a pair of missiles that narrowly missed an AT-RT that bolted into the area.

"There's the general!" SSA-719 pointed.

OOM-9 was still holding off clone troopers, using the wreckage of his bomber as cover against their attacks.

Lieutenant Minecar was not having an easy time. The clones under his command couldn't destroy one battle droid holed up near the wreckage of an advanced E-STAP starbomber. Now an enemy tank, gunship and more droid infantry were approaching.

"Contact Jakoby," Minecar told Sergeant Gnasher, "tell him we need reinforcements."

"Yes sir."

Minecar then took a PLX rocket launcher and hit the AAT dead on, finally disabling it. A few blaster shots went Minecar's way, forcing the clone to ditch the rocket launcher and dive into cover behind some rubble.

"I need cover fire!"

"Right away," the clone trooper who volunteered for Minecar was sniped by KJZ-8267's E-5s sniper rifle.

Once the blaster fire in Minecar's direction died down he crawled over to the rocket launcher, aimed it at the MAF, and brought it down as well.

"Someone take out their heavy weapons," 3B3-888 said.

"There, that clone lieutenant," SSA-719 fired his own rocket launcher. Minecar was barely able to clear the blast the purple rocket sent roaring his way. Minecar had dropped his rocket launcher again, but he was still alive. The clone lieutenant made it back into cover and started searching for a new weapon. Considering how many corpses were piling up it wasn't difficult. Minecar took a DC-15x sniper rifle from a long dead clone captain. Minecar fired off a pair of shots, destroying a super battle droid. Then the clone bolted from his cover to run over towards Sergeant Gnasher's location.

The droids had lost their tank and air unit, but were still doing well until a LAAT/i came into the area. SSA-719 shot it down with his E-60R rocket launcher.

Obi-wan Jakoby jumped out of the gunship as it fell, carrying Ace and Jack using the Force.

"It's that Jedi again," SSA-719 observed.

Jakoby and his commandos landed near Minecar and Gnasher. OOM-9 fired off a flurry of bulldog rockets from his custom E-5, forcing the Jedi and his clones to retreat to cover. The gap in clone shooting allowed OOM-9 to finally regroup with his troops.

"General, the situation is bad," Minecar said.

"I can see that," Obi-wan Jakoby said.

A blast from SSA-719's rocket launcher destroyed the cover that Jakoby was behind, forcing the Jedi to deflect incoming blaster fire before he could get behind the wreckage of a clone personal walker.

Minecar peered from out of cover to fire again but his head suddenly exploded into little meat chunks mixed in with pieces of shattered helmet. KJZ-8267 had nailed the clone lieutenant with a headshot.

"Sith spit!" Gnasher cursed as Minecar's headless corpse fell near him. "You clankers are gonna pay!" Another sniper shot rang out and plastered the cover Gnasher was hiding behind, as if to tell the clone to shut up.

The dwarf spider droid DSD-08 and a trio of plasma battle droids were walking up the street from the south. The Republic fighters were slowly being boxed in. Green plasma bolts rained down towards Jakoby and his commandos, the plasma droids were intent on killing the biggest threats to the droid forces.

A LAAT zipped by, four clone jet trooper leaving the gunship and headed towards the tall plasma battle droids.

"Go go go!"

"Take it down! Take it down!"

One of the jet troopers flew too close to one of the plasma battle droids and was swatted down by the droid's handless arm. The clone crashed to the street and was shot by KJZ-8267's sniper rifle while he tried to get back up.

"Concentrate on one droid at a time," one of the jet troopers said.

DSD-08 beeped in frustration as the spider droid consistently failed to hit the fast-moving jet troopers.

A trio of droidekas started to roll into view.

"General, we've got to go," Ace said.

"All right fine," Jakoby agreed, "taking this city, or this planet, doesn't matter. Master Yoda ordered me to acquire that Separatist officer."

Obi-wan Jakoby, Ace, Jack, and Gnasher pulled back while the remaining clones were overwhelmed by OOM-9's droids.

"Keep after them," OOM-9 ordered his troops, "I want that Jedi killed."

Jakoby's retreat had suddenly been cut off when a Sheathipede type B escort shuttle flew in low and BX droid commandos rained down from the sky.

Commander CDC-76 led the commando droids. The BX droid commandos ran right for the clones, firing as they went. Jack hit three of the droids with one blast from the anti-armor attachment of his DC-17m interchangeable weapon system.

Ace shot the commando E-5 rifle right out of CDC-76's hands. The commando droid fluidly switched to his vibrosword and moved in to kill the clone commando. Ace was able to duck away from the first swipe, knocked the droid's arm so he couldn't recover and then decapitated the commando droid with his knuckle vibro blades.

Commander TH-1066 came in on his AST. The tactical droid observed the failure of the droid commandos and took it upon himself to eliminate the Jedi before he could cause any more destruction.

Jakoby deflected the scout tank's laser blasts and ripped the droid ride out of his vehicle with the Force. Jakoby let the tactical droid hang in the air for a second before throwing his lightsaber, slicing Commander TH-1066 in half.

OOM-9's collection of droids was cut off from pursuing Jakoby any further when a squad of AT-RTs interrupted them.

Commander Zako stumbled about the city streets. Tired and disoriented, he had no idea if he was heading towards friends or enemies, or no one at all. He had no means of contacting the droid army and letting them know where he was. The human commander heard a series of explosions, which he recognized as mortars. Zako went towards the sounds.

Eventually Zako was grabbed by the arm and pulled aside. When his eye finally focused he saw that a B1 battle droid had him.

"Commander, we need to get you to safety."

"Right."

The B1 led Zako past a group of thermal detonator battle droids launching their mortars at a distant group of clone personal walkers.

Jakoby and his clones made it to the suburbs surrounding the city. The fighting had not subsided any; instead it had intensified. At Jakoby's orders, most of the clone army was pulling out of the city. With fewer buildings in the way, both sides were able to mass their heavy vehicles and infantry into humongous groups.

AA-9 gunship transports and CR25 troop carriers competed with Trade Federation drop ships, C-9979 landing craft and VACs to see who could unload their cargo the fastest. The V-19 Torrent fighters, LAAT gunships, Scarabs, Vulture droids, and MAFs that clogged that sky had been joined by BTL-B Y-wings and all three types of E-STAP droid starbombers. Republic anti-air tanks and Trade Federation AMLs were hard pressed to try and shoot down all the flyers.

74-Z speeder bikes, speeder platforms, STAPs, and ASTs buzzed around the larger vehicles. TX-130 saber fighter tanks fought with AATs and GATs. Clone scout walkers took on NR-N99 tank droids. AT-TEs were challenged by homing spider droids and hailfire droids. AT-RTs targeted dwarf spider droids and vice versa. HAGs and AV-7 anti-vehicle cannons exchanged artillery fire with one another.

The infantry of both sides were everywhere doing everything. The clones were taken aback at how many human infantry the CIS was using in addition to the battle droids. The intense fighting had prompted OOM-9 to send in all his assets, including his human troops. The standard CIS troopers, assault troopers, snipers, engineers, officers, and shock troopers were all sent into battle with their droid allies.

"Yeah, that armor worked real well, didn't it?" A human CIS soldier shot and killed a clone.

"What out for wrist rockets," a clone sergeant warned his troopers as they fell under attack from a squad of super battle droids.

Droidekas were uselessly firing at an AT-TE that was busy enough taking on a tri-droid.

A trio of clone personal walkers was evenly matched against a T4 turret droid. The walkers were designed for killing infantry but a T4 turret droid was pushing the boundary of what was considered infantry.

A Y-wing bombed a cluster of LR-57 combat droids that were walking towards a squad of clones that was busy trying to deal with a pair of grapple battle droids.

A Trade Federation super freighter above the battlefield was deploying rocket battle droids and B2-RP super battle droids to where they were needed. Wherever the CIS infantry needed a boost in their numbers, the jetpack droids boosted in to fill up the ranks.

Giant dwarf spider droids brought down by VACs started to dominate the battlefront. The AT-RTs, clone personal walkers and scout walkers didn't have the durability or offensive firepower to oppose the large spider droids. The AT-TEs were still too busy trying to take out the homing spider droids.

A LAAT/i gunship touched down and dropped off Kicker and Tai, in full armor, down to Jakoby. As the gunship lifted back off it was immediately shot down by four passing Scarab starfighters.

Commander Lancer had regained consciousness and acquired a 105-K lancer bike. The clone commander rushed towards the edges of the city to take part in the most dangerous fighting. The clone passed by several different groups of clones and droids fighting. Suddenly Lancer caught sight of something he did not expect to see, a squad of battle droids was taking Commander Zako to a gray and blue MTT. Lancer immediately called it in to the rest of the clone army; they had to disable that transport before it could get away.

There was one individual who was accumulating more kills than anyone else on the battlefield. Commander EEK-176 was using the shoulder-mounted ZPR gatling gun while dual-wielding two ZGD gatling guns, his favorite weapon combination. The command battle droid had already gunned down over one hundred clone troopers on his own. The steady stream of red and purple laser blasts elicited an almost unending chorus of clone death screams.

Not to be outdone in terms of destruction, 3B3-888 had backed away from the fighting to a MUT. The large transport opened its front hatch and a pair of OX9 worker droids carrying the KnKr-1 Doomseeker cannon came down the ramp and handed the large gun over to the B1 battle droid.

3B3-888's first set of victims was a few AT-RTs that went to harass the MUT. The B1 sergeant then shot a LAAT/c gunship that was flying low enough for him to accurately shoot it. The battle droid then destroyed an entire AT-TE on his own.

Obi-wan Jakoby and his commandos noticed the destructive droids and raced to stop their rampage. A heavy STAP got in the way, cutting Jakoby's squad in two. Jack and Kicker went on ahead towards 3B3-888 while Ace and Tai were suddenly surprised to find themselves opposed by the grapple droid GD-79. Ace and Tai were running low on ammo and their DC-15s side arm blasters did nothing to GD-79's dark gray armor.

Jakoby sensed a disturbance in the Force, and turned to see OOM-9 swiftly cut down ten clones in a matter of seconds. The Jedi noticed the droid's weapon, a ZK-II war-axe.

"Decent," the Jedi commented as he approached the command battle droid. Jakoby was actually quite surprised at OOM-9's display of combat prowess. The Jedi hadn't seen BX droid commandos that were able to match the command battle droid that stood in front of him.

"Maybe you will be impressed when I kill you," OOM-9 stated.

"I doubt that very much."

"Your overconfidence is your weakness."

"You being a droid is your weakness. I am the great General Obi-wan Jakoby, and I am far superior to any droid."

"Never heard of you," OOM-9 used the elite rifle function of his E-5, "I have heard of Obi-wan Kenobi, but I guess the Republic doesn't yet consider me enough of a threat to warrant sending a real Jedi."

Jakoby attacked with both lightsabers, though OOM-9 was able to parry away every single strike with his single war-axe. OOM-9 kept his axe centered near his chest, using short swift strikes combined with flipping his wrist in different directions to send the lightsabers striking off in atypical slants. The battle droid made it hard for Jakoby to recover from a miss, but the Jedi was fast and skilled enough that he prevented the droid from making any slashes of his own.

KJZ-8267 swung around in his newly acquired gray and blue AST and lassoed Ace with his electrowhip. He caught the commando by the neck and dragged the trooper across the ground. The clone tried to hit the pilot droid with his pistol but couldn't aim properly while being chocked, electrocuted and drug across the battlefield.

Tai hit GD-79 with a thermal detonator, and while the explosive didn't destroy the powerful droid, it stunned him enough so the commando could run away. Tai aimed his anti-armor attachment, waited for KJZ-8267 to pass, and fired. The AST was hit, and the pilot droid was thrown from the vehicle. The pilot droid also lost his grip on the whip and Ace was freed.

Once he regained his bearings, GD-79 went to assist OOM-9 against Obi-wan Jakoby rather than continue after Tai and Ace.

Lieutenant KJZ-8267 got to his feet and unhooked the flechette E-5 shotgun that was horizontally attached onto his upper back. The familiar whoomp of the shotgun sound went off as the pilot battle droid killed a few clone troopers while making his way back towards Ace. KJZ-8267 was joined by a giant dwarf spider droid and two crab droids, and the group continued towards the commandos. Ace and Tai knew they could handle a single pilot droid, even two crab droids, but with the giant dwarf spider droid in the way the clone commandos retreated.

"Will you hurry up and finish him off already," KJZ-8267 called out to SSA-719, who was trying to kill an ARF trooper. "We still have entire armies of that one guy to kill."

3B3-888 managed to destroy an IFT-X fighter tank before he noticed the two clone commandos approaching him. The B1 battle droid turned his cannon on the clone commandos, but both were too fast to hit, which of an incredible feat considering how heavy their armor was.

Kicker was caught up by a trio of B2 battle droids, but the commando was at least clear of 3B3-888's attention. Jack was low on ammo, so he ran right up to the B1 battle droid. 3B3-888 swung the large gun, trying to knock the clone over. Jack pulled his pistol and shot at the gigantic gun, rather than at the droid wielding it.

"Clone scum!" 3B3-888 swung the Doomseeker cannon around again, this time also firing it. Jack still managed to stay out of the way, continuously filling the gun full of holes. The next time 3B3-888 pulled the trigger the Doomseeker cannon didn't fire. The cannon made a weird noise and red sparks started to shoot from it. 3B3-888 ditched the gun and ran for it, but the B1 battle droid was still caught in the resulting explosion. Sergeant 3B3-888 was blown to pieces.

OOM-9 and GD-79 were forced to break away from Obi-wan Jakoby when they saw a heard of A-6 juggernauts coming their way. The pair escaped the Jedi by jumping onto the side of a NR-N99 tank droid. The turbo tanks were painted in an urban camouflage color, just like the one OOM-9 had destroyed back in the city. It looked like the clone army was trying for one last major push for victory.

Many of the CIS vehicles were able to band together and form a charge against the clone turbo tanks. The AATs, GATs, NR-N99 tanks droids, and hailfire droids were the ones fastest enough to accomplish the task. Though the juggernauts proved to have superior size and firepower on their side. The Confederate vehicles were forced into the gaps between the massive turbo tanks, or risk being crushed. The problem was that there were IFT-X fighter tanks and AT-RTs already in between the A-6 tanks. The CIS vehicles were desperate and numerous enough that they were able to break through the smaller enemies in order to avoid being flattened by the larger ones.

E-STAP droid starbombers flew overhead and released bombs on the juggernauts, but it wasn't enough to stop them.

After the herd of A-6 tanks had made their pass, they started to split up and target specific portions of the Separatist army.

The battlefield was a complete disaster. Major Katen had started to wish she had stayed back and finished the fighting in the city. But she had hopped on the side of an AAT and rode out to the big battle with the others. Only things were going horribly. Even the most basic clones were tough, and surprisingly accurate. Katen was having trouble scoring any kills without getting herself shot up. She ditched the tank she was riding when she saw enemy mortars flying their way. The armored assault tank was destroyed, and Katen was on her own without any other droids nearby to help her out.

The clones she fought against knew she was on her own, and were eager to kill the human. Katen ended up getting stuck using what was left of the AAT as cover. But she couldn't get away, and she couldn't kill all her opponents.

"Hey, is anybody near me?" Katen asked over the com. "I'm in trouble over here."

"Hang on, Major," EEK-176 responded, "I'm on my way." The command droid was slowly blasting his way towards his stranded ally, but the going was slow and he had a lot of clones in his path.

Katen tried firing at the clones, but the blue blaster bolts sent her scrambling back to the safety of cover. The clones were approaching nearer and she had barely killed any of them. Ashley Katen knew she wasn't going to be able to fight her way out of this one. The angry blue blaster bolts played out a symphony that demanded her death.

"I think this is it. I can't fight my way out of this one," Katen breathed. "EEK-176, I want you to tell-"

"You're going to fight and you're going to survive! That's an order Major!" EEK-176 transmitted. "Just hold on! Can anyone else get to her?"

A small smile formed on Katen's face. EEK-176 wasn't going to give up; he would never give up. But Katen was trapped, and she knew it. She would try, but she would fail.

DSD-08 had heard the request for assistance, but the dwarf spider droid was nowhere near fast enough to reach the major's location. But the spider droid had an idea. DSD-08 signaled an E-STAP droid starbomber.

"Negative," the pilot droid responded to DSD-08, "my bomb bay is empty. Strafing runs against infantry with my laser cannons will not eliminate all targets."

The dwarf spider droid demanded the bomber land near him and the pilot complied. DSD-08 magnetized his feet to the side of an E-STAP droid starbomber and the aircraft took off again, heading for Katen's coordinates.

Katen was drenched in sweat: partly from fear and partly from the heat of the desert world. The clones kept firing, keeping her trapped. If she tried to shoot back she'd be hit for sure. She pulled out a TB-47 time bomb; if she was going to die she was going to take the clones with her.

"I'm gonnna miss you guys," Katen whispered. Just as she was about to run out and meet her clone attackers an E-STAP starbomber flew in close. DSD-08 detached from the bomber and plummeted down, landing on top of three of the enemy clones attacking Katen. The spider droid wasted no time in blasting the clones he hadn't crushed in his dramatic landing. The clones, and Katen, were completely taken by surprise. Katen put away the time bomb and started shooting. Seconds later all the clones were dead.

"DSD-08!" Katen exclaimed, "I could kiss you."

"Save it for later, Major," EEK-176 had finally arrived.

Screwball veered his V-19 Torrent fighter in the direction Lancer had transmitted to him. The MTT was right where his superior had promised him. The clone pilot fired, careful not to destroy his target. His fighter swooped by, but the MTT was still moving. Screwball had a avoid a pair of missiles sent his way from a baron battle droid before turning around and making another run at the MTT. The next series of hits halted the armored transport.

Clone troopers started to rush towards the wreck. Lancer came in close and dismounted his bike. The MTT opened up and battle droids started piling out, firing upon the clones with all their anger.

A pair of AT-RTs came in to help the clones and once the battle droids were taken care of Lancer led the clones into the MTT and captured Zako. Lancer transmitted his progress to Jakoby, and the Jedi general was quick to arrive at the location.

"You've cost me a lot of trouble," Jakoby told Zako, "you had better be worth it."

"You won't get anything out of me," Zako laughed, "I'll never betray the Confederacy."

"We'll see about that. You'll find that I can be very…" Jakoby was cut short as a horde of hunter-seeker droids swarmed over the area.

"Take them down!" Lancer yelled at his troopers.

The hunter-seeker droids were just an appetizer. A red C-9979 landing craft came down from the sky and landed near the wrecked MTT. The craft started spitting out waves of battle droids, super battle droids, droidekas, and dwarf spider droids. Commander Z23-Y75 was leading them personally.

"Get him to the shuttle," Obi-wan Jakoby ordered.

"Right away, sir," Lancer said.

"Hey! I'm over here," Zako called to his comrades, struggling against Lancer.

Jakoby stayed to hold off the droids.

Even with Jakoby by their side, the clones were falling fast. The droids were angry, and their shots had never been more precise.

Z23-Y75 was in front of the pack, firing an E-6 blaster rifle. The command droid went after Jakoby, but the Jedi deflected the blaster bolts, ran up, and gave Z23-Y75 an uppercut, slicing off part of the command droid's head. After taking out the leader, Jakoby saw the Nu attack shuttle take off, headed towards the Droid Collector. After everything that had happened Jakoby finally had that damned officer. Jakoby had enough; a LAAT/i gunship picked him up and followed after the Nu shuttle.

Bio cannons started showing up at the edges of the battlefront, bombarding the A-6 juggernauts. It was a dangerous game of attack and retreat, as the juggernauts would go after the droid artillery but the bio cannons would roll up and move out if any of the turbo tanks started towards them.

"What happened to Z23-Y75's signal?" SSA-719 asked as he fired a rocket at a heavy clone scout walker.

"It's gone, I don't know what's going on," EEK-176 replied as he mowed down a few clones with his trio of gatling guns.

"He lost Zako, the Jedi has him," OOM-9 said. The hunter-seeker droids had uploaded the information to the network and OOM-9 was the first to get it. The droid general then contacted his direct predecessor. "OOM-8, I want you to retrieve Zako. Take the HouseKarl and special ops droids with you."

A group of clone personal walkers moved on OOM-9's group, but were interrupted by Z1 special ops dwarf spider droids that had dropped their stealth systems to reveal themselves.

Obi-wan Jakoby couldn't believe it. After three straight hours of trying to probe the Separatist officer's mind he had gotten almost nowhere. Jakoby and Zako were onboard the Droid Collector. The Jedi opted to forgo further fighting in order to immediately probe the officer's mind in case he was stolen away by the droid army again.

Jakoby's flagship and the rest of the fleet had descended into the planet's atmosphere and were near the surface. The Republic cruisers were steadily sending down drop ships to pick up the troops and vehicles fighting below. It was a painfully slow process, but Jakoby wasn't going to leave his troops behind and he wasn't going to waste any more lives trying to take and hold Breeka. The Separatist fleet had also followed them down to the planet, and wasn't making things easy.

Jakoby had managed to learn that the officer's name was Karl Zako. And he was able to learn that the blonde bitch he fought at the auction was Ashley Katen and the woman with the black hair and electrowhip was Melissa Sledge. Other than that, Jakoby didn't get much. Zako was no fool and was skilled in resisting the persuasion of the Force, Jakoby wondered why he was so resistant.

Zako kept going through the complete schematics for an E-5 blaster rifle in his head. A common Separatist firearm found littering countless battlefields on thousands of different worlds. Completely useless information to Jakoby. The fact that Zako was strung out on pure pain due to his injured eye wasn't helping the matter either. And Zako's thoughts curiously drifted to muffins and rainbows more than once.

"It's like trying to probe the mind of a battle droid! A battle droid! You really are brainless, they outta call you Zako the Battle Droid!" Jakoby tried to rouse anger in Zako to throw his mind off the E-5 schematics but the CIS officer didn't respond, completely ignoring the Jedi. Zako's head slightly tilted left to right as a big grin adorned his face.

Jakoby slammed his fist on the table, which seemed to catch Zako's attention. "You can't keep this up forever! Sooner or later you'll have to sleep and then I'll get you in your dreams," Jakoby warned.

"You wouldn't like to visit me in my dreams. Republic personnel tend to die a lot in my dreams," Zako lazily replied, the E-5 schematics, rainbows and muffins still going through his mind.

"I've had enough of this stupidness."

"Maybe you should try being less stupid then," Zako managed a laugh.

The 8th Fleet had sent all of its Hardcell-class interstellar transports to land on the surface of the planet to unload large numbers of troops.

While the new troops were a problem for the clone army as it worked to get their vehicles back to their cruisers, Jack saw as the Techno Union ships as an opportunity to cause some trouble of his own.

Separated from the rest of his squad, Jack fought his way towards one of the Techno Union transports on his own and got inside. The fighting wasn't easy, though Jack had recently been re-supplied and had more than enough ammo to deal with the droids he encountered. The commando planned to steal the ship; hopefully drawing the clankers' attention away from the Venator star destroyers and Acclamator assault ships. It was a stretch, but Jack hoped to at least piss off the droid army.

But the clone commando had no idea how angry the battle droids already were. After Jack had dispatched a trio of super battle droids, he found a grapple battle droid and two flame battle droids had been sent to kill him.

Jack knew it was time to abandon ship and fled from the droids. When the round a corner and was temporarily out of sight, Jack hid a homing beacon on the side of a crate that was lined up against the bulkhead before he left. If Jack couldn't be a problem now, he would have to settle for causing the CIS grief later.

The Scrapyard and Magna Musai had come dangerously close to the Droid Collector. Sheathipede shuttles sent out from the CIS ships started landing in one of the Republic cruiser's hangar bays. Special ops, Housekarl, and marine battle droids flooded into Jakoby's cruiser.

The few clones in the hangar were quickly killed. OOM-8 exited out of one of the shuttles as the fighting ended.

"Find the commander," OOM-8 told KLO-657.

"Roger roger." The special ops droids and HouseKarls left to search the ship. OOM-8 and the droid marines stayed behind to guard the shuttles in the hangar.

The elite battle droids caused havoc all throughout the Droid Collector. Captain Klo Toon was tired of his ship being destroyed from the inside especially since the Kel Dor captain had spent so energy on keeping his Venator from being destroyed by the CIS capital ships.

Toon requested that Jakoby personally deal with the enemy shuttles in the hangar, since all the clone security teams that were sent had failed. Jakoby was not happy about it, but he left Zako in his cell and went to deal with the enemy boarders.

Captain Melissa Sledge had her fill of the fighting on the surface of the desert planet and had gone back up to the 8th Fleet's only Providence-class carrier/destroyer, the Karajor. Though considering how the two opposing fleets were fighting, the sky was no safer than the ground battle.

The Venator star destroyers and Acclamator assault ships had been forcing the 8th Fleet to break formation by threatening to ram the capital ships. Time and again the Separatist ships gave way to the Republic ones, though no collisions had yet occurred.

The air was still clogged with fighters and bombers from the two opposing sides. Kills were rare for either side, though the E-STAPs were more successful at bombing ground targets than the Y-wings were.

The Karajor broke away from an Acclamator that was bothering it and started to close in on the Droid Collector. "Do not attack their flagship until we have confirmation that our troops have fled from it," Sledge told her crew.

"General," the clone sergeant in charged addressed Jakoby, "we cannot get into the hangar. They're just holding position. A few other droids got further into the ship but we can't track them. They're moving too fast."

"They sent advance teams to recover their officer," the Jedi said, "first we must eliminate their means of escape."

"Yes sir."

Jakoby activated his lightsabers and entered the hangar, the clone troopers following behind him.

The Republic defenders were greeted with V-1 thermal detonators.

"You throw like a wounded Hutt," Jakoby dodged a detonator tossed by OOM-8. The clones that accompanied the Jedi were not as agile or lucky as their leader.

The marine battle droids attacked with RD-4 radiation launchers, E-60R rocket launchers and E-5 shotguns, not something the Jedi could easily defend against.

OOM-8 tossed his last V-1, but still failed to kill the Jedi.

"Looks like your all out of thermal detonators, I doubt you're going to kill me with that little pistol," Jakoby mocked OOM-8's SE-14.

"Shut your talk hole, I'm not finished yet!" OOM-8 kicked open a crate and dozens of thermal detonators spilled across the hanger. Obi-wan Jakoby was frozen in disbelief.

"You wouldn't dare," the hooded Jedi said.

OOM-8 shot one of the explosives and set off a chain reaction that set half of the hanger ablaze, the half the clones were fighting from. Jakoby was thrown back. The Jedi was barely able to escape alive.

Obi-wan Jakoby pulled back from the hangar and ran into a new group of droids. The Jedi's green lightsaber clashed against a ZK-III battle-axe.

"What's this?" Jakoby was surprised by the weapon the HouseKarl battle droid wielded. The Jedi snapped his blue shoto lightsaber to life but before he could make a strike against the HouseKarl a Z1 battle droid came in with a RW-B power war-hammer and nearly flattened Jakoby.

"When did you fools start using war-hammers?"

"We've been using them for some time now, there's just no one left alive to tell about it," the black droid answered.

A few sudden blasts from KLO-657's precision SE-14 blaster pistol and Jakoby had to back off. The Jedi noticed Zako was with the droids as they ran past him for the shuttles. Jakoby knew this would happen, he knew he shouldn't have left the officer alone.

Jakoby tired to pursue, but the attacks from the droids kept him at bay. The droids all loaded up into the Sheathipede shuttles and left the Venator's hangar.

"You're not getting away that easy," Jakoby made a jump and landed on the roof of one of the transports.

The shuttles started towards the Karajor. A Vulture droid being chased by two V-19 Torrent fighters nearly slammed into the shuttle group.

A MAF flew over the shuttles and opened its back hatch. General OOM-9 dropped out and landed on the roof of the Sheathipede shuttle that Jakoby was on.

"I've observed you and your clone army fight all day," OOM-9 activated his ZK-II war-axe, "judging from that, I calculated that you'd pull off a stunt like this."

"Then you're a bigger fool than I thought," Jakoby laughed, "why would you try to stop me personally?"

"I'm not alone," OOM-9 explained. The MAF had turned around again and this time GD-79 dropped onto the shuttle, the grapple droid's weight making the ship rock slightly.

"Not you again," Jakoby blocked GD-79's first strike. The Jedi then had to turn around and quickly block OOM-9's axe.

"I have no time for this. I'll do this the easy way," Jakoby tried to lift the two droids with the Force, but found they wouldn't budge.

"We magnetized, how to you think we're keeping our balance on this ship?" OOM-9 asked over the roar of laser fire as the Droid Collector and Karajor tried to destroy one another.

"That won't save you from my lightsabers!"

OOM-9 and GD-79 continued to dual Jakoby until the shuttles landed in the Karajor's hangar. Jakoby then leapt off the roof of the shuttle and landed on the hangar deck.

Commander OOM-8, the HouseKarls, special ops, and marine battle droids left the shuttles. Security and pilot droids stationed in the hangar rushed over towards the Jedi, weapons drawn.

Jakoby backed up against the edge of the hangar, but the droids didn't attack yet.

"You'll never take me alive," Jakoby stated.

"That's the idea," OOM-9 gave a hand signal.

The droids all fired. Jakoby back flipped out of the hangar, and landed in a passing LAAT/i gunship. The battle droids kept firing, but the Jedi had escaped.

Minutes after Jakoby had escaped the Karajor, the Republic finally withdrew from Breeka, the Venators and Acclamators fleeing to hyperspace. The CIS didn't follow.

Author's Note: The planet Breeka is mentioned in X-wing Rogue Squadron: The Warrior Princess.

I would like to mention that GD-79 and all grapple battle droids up to this point are the B1 grapple battle droids from the video game Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles. The B2 super grapple battle droid from the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith video game has yet to appear in this story.