OOM-9's Revenge Chapter 38: Ultimate Menace, a star wars fanfic

Chapter 38: Ultimate Menace

General OOM-9 crouched down, holding a kneeling position on the outer tread cover of an NR-N99 tank droid as the treaded tank crawled over the brackish ocean water. Most individuals wouldn't think that the NR-N99 tank droid to be amphibious, but the droid army was full of surprises. A security battle droid and two B1 battle droids shared the same tread cover with their leader. On the right side of the tank droid, four more droids were riding on top of the other tread cover. Around them was an entire invasion force consisting of more tank droids as well as PACs, STAPs, MAF gunships, hunter-seeker droids, and an assortment of aquatic vehicles.

Small torrents of dark blue water buffeted the battle droids when their tank droid cut through the occasional wave. OOM-9 found the ride rather relaxing. Unlike many organics, the droid general found he enjoyed the calm right before a battle. Battle droids were not programmed to feel fear; they had a few basic self-preservation protocols but nothing equal to the fear that held so many organics in a vice. Even if the droids were heading to their doom, it was a simple matter of being reassembled and repaired after the fight was over.

For the better part of the week, OOM-9's armies had been fighting the Republic on the plains of the planet Aargonar. The Battle of Aargonar was long and drawn out, not because of the skill of the Republic but because of their sheer numbers. The 8th Fleet's central control computers had calculated that since the droid army first arrived four days ago they had managed to kill at least fifteen million enemy soldiers. And that number was being conservative. What was so odd was that ninety-five percent of the enemy soldiers the droid army faced were non-clones. OOM-9 wasn't sure if this was a sign that clone numbers were dropped or that this particular army just happened to be made of enlisted birth-born troops.

Even though OOM-9's attack group was currently traversing water Aargonar was a mostly desert planet, though it was nowhere as near as harsh or brutal as others such as Tatooine or Geonosis. The Republic was on its last legs, holding onto the coastal city of Zodar. Soon enough OOM-9 was going to take even that from them.

"Gah! Zako! I told you to keep it steady! You're throwing off my aim!" Katen tried to steady the AAT's primary laser cannon.

"I had to move or we would have been blasted!"

"Couldn't you do it a little smoother? You're a terrible driver!"

"My driving's fine! You're a bad gunner!"

Commander Zako and Major Katen had decided to crew an armored assault tank together. While it was a bad idea for two high-ranking officers to be in the same tank, the two humans really didn't give much of a damn for common sense. They were expendable after all; the droid army would do just fine if anything fatal were to happen to them. The endless bickering between the two was unwarranted as Katen still hit her target and Zako kept their tank from being hit.

Zako and Katen were leading a massive army consisting of several heavy weapons and walkers. They were approaching the city of Zodar from the south, following up the costal line. They had been at their march for quite some time and had made a big show of it to the Republic.

That was their group's primary purpose. Zako and Katen were to lead an attack on the city from the south as a feint. Their slow, plodding homing spider droid and tri-droid walkers (and even a few of the rare giant dwarf spider droids) had been approaching the city for hours in order to lure the Republic's heavy armor to the south side of the city. The goal of the Separatists' southern battle group was merely to keep the heavy armor occupied on the south, not to actually gain ground and invade. That didn't mean the droids and their human leaders weren't going to make a go of it anyway.

"They're taking the bait. Second wave coming in. SSA-306, 3B3-2998, tell your groups to scatter and pull back," Zako ordered. Commander Zako was sending in squads of infantry ahead of the spider walkers to draw in the GAR armor. When the vehicles took the bait, the CIS armored units would move up to destroy them. The tactic was slow but worked well so far.

On the western edge of the city the droid army arrived over great desert plains under the command of EEK-176. This particular battle group had seen a lot of action lately and it showed in how the troops lacked the organization usually seen by CIS forces. There were several different kinds of troops, ground vehicles, and aircraft, though the vast majority of the vehicles in the group excelled at speed. The army would have been much larger except for the fact that they had left numerous units behind at previous cities and battle-sites. They had swept over most of the continent before setting their sights on the coastal city.

General OOM-9's troops were good and Commander EEK-176 was an exemplary leader, but there was no way they could have pulled off such a feat and kept going on towards Zodar if not for their new secret weapon: Dr. Destroyer.

The Ithorian Force-sensitive had claimed that OOM-9 had not yet seen the full extent of his powers, and he wasn't lying. Being free from the restrictions of the Jedi and the Sith, Dr. Destroyer was bound only by the limits of his own creativity and his connection to the Force. Having no allegiance to anyone but himself (until only recently), Dr. Destroyer had developed unique Force techniques over the years. The Ithorian could hide himself from other Force-users easily; if he couldn't handle that he would have been discovered long ago. There was another distinctive technique, one that he had created himself. Dr. Destroyer was the inventor of the Force ability known as Battle Interference.

Battle Interference was a Force ability that could lower the morale, stamina and reaction time of a large group of individuals, reducing their overall combat effectiveness. In many ways Battle Interference was the polar opposite of the ability known as Battle Meditation. Dr. Destroyer was powerful enough that he could affect entire armies or fleets, reducing the skills of veteran soldiers to the level of mere recruits. OOM-9's armies had fought a lot of non-clones on Aargonar, but the city of Zodar was full of clone troops. Dr. Destroyer found that it was easier to affect large numbers of clones, considering they all had the same mind. That the clones' muscles had to work just a little harder to move, their reflexes were dulled just a little bit, they had to concentrate harder just to think, turned them into a bunch of bumbling idiots. Battle Interference was a perfect compliment to the droid army, if Destroyer had Battle Mediation, it wouldn't have worked on increasing the abilities of the droid troops.

The battle droids expertly cut through the ranks of the clones. Commander EEK-176 led the western attack on the city not from the ground but from the air. The command battle droid was standing at the open door of the Emerald Slicer, using a particle beam sniper rifle to observe (and occasionally shoot) the enemy. EEK-176 had been using gatling guns a lot recently and decided for this battle he would use a sniper rifle. The command battle droid hardly needed the sniping practice and no matter how long he didn't utilize a particular weapon his programming wouldn't allow him to forget how to be instantly effective. Droids didn't get rusty and out of touch with certain skills like organic troops could. EEK-176 merely felt like doing something different.

"Keep the bomber and artillery fire away from the city. Keep your advance slow, try to draw them out of the city," EEK-176 instructed his army over the open comm channel.

Though their senses and strength had been dulled, the clone troopers could still rely on technology to pick up some of the slack. A defensive line of anti-air tanks fired a volley of homing missiles—striking a Trade Federation droid starbomber, a hyena droid bomber and a MAF. The three ships fell from the sky, black smoke billowing from their fatal wounds.

The two droid bombers were doomed, but the crew and passengers of the MAF started piling out the back hatch. The first one to jump ship was the B1 battle droid 3B3-888. The droid sergeant had jumped backwards out of the dying gunship and was plummeting towards the ground. Several other B1, security and marine battle droids followed suit, and the MAF's three pilot battle droid operations were the last to make the drop of faith.

3B3-888 hit the ground feet-first with a massive thud, kicking up a large haze of heavy brown dust. A human or similar organic would not have been able to survive such a fall and would certainly not be able to immediately fight, but 3B3-888 was not so fragile. The B1 battle droid raised his E-5 blaster rifle and started sending crimson blaster bolts towards the enemy as his brothers were just sticking their landings.

The occupants of the now-defunct MAF were far ahead of their other ground-bound allies. Still, the droids were hardly in close proximity to the clones and held their position until the other ground troops could catch up.

"It's not working, Commander. Their frontline fighters are holding position but their rear guard is falling back towards the city." Captain SSA-719 informed EEK-176 over the comm.

That was not good. The more clones they had to fight inside the city the more difficult the battle would be, even with Dr. Destroyer's Battle Interference. "Roger that. We are now changing our battle plan. All units full attack. Stop them before they flee to the city's interior."

Tank droids carrying infantry on their tread cover charged ahead of the battle droids stuck on foot. Hailfire droids rolled in at top speed, firing their deadly missiles. A huge strike force of recon craft lead by KJZ-8267 burst ahead of them all, bypassing 3B3-888 in seconds.

The recon group consisted of STAPs, ASTs, speeder platforms, and flitknot speeders. KJZ-8267 continuously fired his AST's twin laser and blaster cannons to the point where they nearly overheated. The repulsor craft sped across the ground right below the hailfire missiles, barely passing them up. KJZ-8267 and his group hit the infantry hard and the hailfire missiles connected as soon as the CIS recon craft passed by, decimating the clones before they could fire at the backs of the repulsor craft.

The maneuver was incredibly successful. The Republic's front line was entirely decimated. The clones falling back had to turn around and stand their ground. The clones knew if they continued their retreat they'd be slaughtered. At least facing their enemy they might inflict some casualties on the CIS. From up above in the Emerald Slicer, EEK-176 noticed a clone commander directing the action and killed him with a blast from his sniper rifle. With the clone commander dead EEK-176 figured the clones below would be slightly less organized.

Zodar was also under attack from the north. But the CIS army attacking the north side of the city was not affiliated with OOM-9's troops—they belonged to none other than General Grievous. Grievous' forces had arrived at Aargonar a day ago. The Kaleesh cyborg was not impressed with how long it was taking the secure the planet and had come to ensure that the planet was taken. His presence wasn't needed; the Republic was on its last legs. OOM-9 didn't want Grievous around; he did not want to deal with any potential fallout should Grievous discover Dr. Destroyer. The Ithorian wasn't a Jedi, but the battle droid general wouldn't put it past the Kaleesh cyborg to try and kill him anyway. OOM-9 noticed Grievous had a tendency not to think things through, and he also had a bad habit of killing allies. Grievous was not popular with the CIS troops either. It didn't matter if they were droids, humans, Neimoidians, Geonosians, or anyone else; Grievous had a habit of pissing everyone off. Everyone would follow his orders though; Grievous had too much favor with Count Dooku (though less than OOM-9 currently did) for anyone to attempt to assassinate him.

General Grievous rode his tsmeu-6 personal wheel bike. The ground craft was basically a large wheel with a left side seat for the pilot. The wheel bike had an Nd-53 double laser cannon for offense. Even though the wheeled vehicle had disadvantages compared to a repulsorcraft, the Kaleesh enjoyed the occasionally crunching sounds when he was able to run over enemy clone troopers.

When it came to vehicles, Grievous preferred speed to power. The Kaleesh never rode around in an armored assault tank. He needed something that could quickly react to ever-changing situations, and that happened a lot when one fought Jedi on a regular basis.

And that is what Grievous faced at this moment… a Jedi. It was easy enough to pick out the Jedi amongst the clones, she was the only female… and Twi'lek, in the whole group. The yellow lightsaber also gave it away.

A pair of unfortunate clones was crushed as Grievous sped towards his target. A tank droid followed after the general, the droids on its tread covers ready to get off and help the general at a moments notice. The tsmeu-6 wheel bike was hardly known for maneuverability but Grievous was able to every out of the way of the incoming cannon fire. At such close range the clones were able to pick out Grievous amidst his droid army and the cyborg would have attracted more blaster fire if not for the fact that the clones couldn't afford to ignore all the battle droids barring down on their positions.

Grievous felt an invisible surge hit the front of his wheel bike as the Jedi tried to swat him back with the Force. Foolish Jedi, Grievous thought to himself. She'll need to be more creative than that to stop me.

The blast flipped the wheel bike over. Grievous allowed himself to be thrown from his seat, though he caught onto its side with one clawed hand before the bike got away from him completely. When Grievous hit the dirt he dug in with his clawed feet and threw the bike at the Jedi's squad of clone bodyguards.

The Jedi was too slow to catch the bike with the Force and her clones were horribly maimed or killed at the sudden impact. The tank droid following Grievous came to a stop and several B1 battle droids and BX commando droids came over to their general. General Grievous didn't even bother igniting any of his lightsabers as his squad of droids surrounded the Jedi.

"General Grievous, you are a fool to show yourself here. The only way you will leave this planet is in the custody of the Galactic Republic."

"Do you really believe you can defeat me, Jedi?"

"Yes." This Jedi had spirit. There was no trying with the Jedi, one either did or did not.

"I don't think so."

"That is yet to be seen. And I'm not the only Jedi here. There is one on his way that you could never hope to defeat."

Grievous let out a laugh. "Good. I am looking forward to a challenge."

"You have one right here."

"You, a challenge to the Great General Grievous? Shall I shut you up and defeat you in your chosen form of lightsaber combat? Shall I once again demonstrate that I am superior to any Jedi? Shall I add your lightsaber to my burgeoning collection? These words sound hollow and tired even as I speak them."

The Twi'lek Jedi was confused as the battle droids raised their weapons.

"Kill her."

The Jedi instantly fell to the red blaster fire. Grievous did not feel like wasting his time with such weaklings today. If his battle droids could kill her so easily then she wasn't worth the Kaleesh's time.

General Grievous looked around at the battle before him. The clones seemed to be less effective than they usually were but their fighting spirit was better than that pitiful Jedi, perhaps some of them would make good opponents.

General OOM-9's attack group finally reached the eastern edge of the city. OOM-9 specifically chose to lead the amphibious assault. General OOM-9 loved amphibious attacks: the challenge of an entrenched opposition, the transition from water to ground, the utter shock from his enemies when they excelled in taking ground so quickly.

The attack was just like all the others. B1 battle droids, super battle droids, aqua droid, dwarf spider droids, and crab droids rose out of the water as if some necromancer had summoned them from an ethereal realm. The dwarf spider droids and crab droids were the first of the underwater troops to emerge, being as they were the most durable and had the greatest chance of surviving the initial barrage of blaster fire. The multi-legged droids let loose a spasm of blaster fire, but their primary purpose was surveying the dock and obtaining the exact locations of the clone defenders. The B1s, B2s and aqua droids emerge only seconds after. The spider and crab droids had updated the B-series and aqua droids with the precise locations of the clones, so when the bipedal droids surfaced they were able to start firing on the clones with uncanny accuracy that should have been impossible for troops that were previously underwater and hadn't seen the surface.

The droids' wet armor glistened in the sunlight. If there were any organics in the Galaxy that were sexually attracted to battle droids, this would have been quite a sight for them to behold. The droids were quick to kill scores of clones stationed at the harbor.

The tank droids on the water were close enough where they could start shooting accurately. A rocket from one of the battle droids riding on a tank droid flew through the air and blasted an AT-RT. The endless noise of the droids mixed in with the sounds of the waves provided an otherworldly chorus of background music for the battle.

A battle droid riding in one of the MAFs above purposefully dropped out of it. It was the grapple battle droid GD-79. The large, gray droid landed on top of a UT-AT with an ear-shattering thud.

"Get him offa there!" Two clone troopers latch onto him with the ascension cables launched from their DC-15A rifles. The clones were experienced enough to know that the droid's armor was too tough for it to be brought down by shooting it. Still, using their cables wasn't the best idea either. The grapple droid violently pulled on one of the cables, sending the clone flying in his direction. GD-79 caught the clone by the head and crushed it with one massive hand. The grapple battle droid then pulled over the other clone before he could let go of his gun. GD-79 snapped the clone's back in half, introducing the clone's feet to the back of his head. He tossed the corpse away and grabbed the UT-AT's primary laser cannon, ripping it free of the rest of the vehicle. The grapple droid swung and cannon around and impaled it deep into the tank. The UT-AT shuttered for a second before exploding.

In truth there were few units the Republic had that could counter a grapple battle droid short of a heavy tank and GD-79 just proved how well he could deal with that particular problem.

PACs that had skimmed over the water were now depositing battle droid troops on land. The STAPs were heading into the city. There was little else standing in OOM-9's way. The CIS group attacking the eastern half of the city had incurred no casualties. The attack had gone very well, possibly the most successful amphibious assault to date.

While things were going well on the eastern side of the city, the situation had changed on the west. Commander EEK-176's forces were having more trouble breaking through to the city. It was as if Dr. Destroyer had suddenly broken his Battle Interference.

From up in the Emerald Slicer, EEK-176 got a good few of a Venator star destroyer and two Acclamator assault ships descending down towards the city. It was clear that the Republic had some reinforcements but that didn't explain why the current group of clones were suddenly doing better. The Ithorian could have broken his technique but EEK-176 could not think of a reason why he would do so. Dr. Destroyer wasn't in any danger; he was safely up in the 8th Fleet. What would cause him to break his concentration?

Just the brief moment of sightseeing the Republic capital ships and EEK-176 had lost the clone officers amongst the mess and carnage of the battle below. The Confederate infantry were in spitting distance of the clone troopers. KJZ-8267's group of various recon repulsorcraft had gone ahead into the city's interior but the larger vehicles were still in out on the dusty plains. The Emerald Slicer had to bank hard to port to avoid an incoming missile from a clone below. The Republic was forced to rely on rocket launcher-wielding clones at this point; they had lost almost all of their anti-air tanks.

Though losing his primary targets, EEK-176 was not helpless. The Separatist Droid Network was performing perfectly and the droids on the ground were able to act as their commanding officer's eyes. There was just the barest minimum of lag time as the droids wirelessly traded information with each other. The sniper rifle-wielding command droid in the shuttle was alerted to the precise locations of several clones that ranked sergeant or higher. Assassinating the clone leadership was suddenly lowered in priority as Commander EEK-176 caught sight of a trio of clones trying to set up mortars.

EEK-176 patiently waited as the clones set up their mortars—and were stationary, before taking the shots. He fired three shots at perfectly rhythmic intervals from one another. Each of the violet streaks came down on their target flawlessly. Every member of the mortar squad was killed by a headshot from above. Only after checking for any more mortars did the sniper commander go back to killing officers.

The Venator star destroyer came in low, hovering over the north side of the city. It cast a long shadow over the droids and clones fighting below. LAAT gunships rained down on the droid army, Vulture droids racing up to greet them with crimson fire. V-19 Torrent fighters swooped down to deal with the droid starfighters while the Republic's older gunship fighters stitched green cannon fire across the hulls of homing spider droids until they exploded into balls of burning metal.

General Grievous looked up with enthusiasm; maybe there was a Jedi in that new group worthy of his time. "All troops hold position. We'll let them come to us." The cyborg wasn't worried about making it to the city; it was being attacked from all directions after all.

Purple Y-wings painted the Confederacy's ground troops with proton bombs and cannon fire. Gunship fighters and V-19 Torrents prevented the Vulture droid fighters from stopping the bombers from carrying out their task.

One LAAT/i gunship (with custom purple markings) in particular came in close and low towards Grievous' location. The cyborg general had no ranged weaponry at the moment, but the battle droids surrounding him opened fire. The clones riding in the belly of the gunship fired back, quickly proving themselves to be expert marksmen. Grievous noticed that not only were these clones performing better than the other clones he fought in battle today, but they seemed to be some of the best he had ever seen. Much to Grievous' endless frustration, he had observed his droid troops bested in combat by clones countless times, but in this confrontation the fight seemed remarkably one-sided. Not even the BX droid commandos were pulling their weight this time.

"By the Force! General Grievous is here!" Grievous could hear one of the clones exclaim. The Kaleesh was barely able to make out that these clones were covered in odd violet markings before they opened fire on him.

The clones belonged to the 187th Legion, one of the most elite clone units in the entire Grand Army of the Republic. They had proven themselves in many battles and were able to pull off some of the most stellar victories the Galaxy had ever seen. The 187th had the best foot soldiers, the best pilots, the best engineers, the best scouts, the best snipers, and the best saboteurs. They were not as famous as General Skywalker's vaunted 501st Legion, though only because if the 187th's exploits were posted all over the HoloNet the Republic would be accosted with accusations of war crimes. The 187th Legion had the privilege to serve the Jedi Master and High General Mace Windu.

The 187th's other leader was Commander Krane. Despite his failure at Thule, Commander Krane had done well enough that he had been put in charge of the 187th Legion. The 187th were easily the best troops Krane had ever worked with, and the commander intended to retain his position as their leader. That meant no more screw-ups… like the disaster at Thule.

"Mr. Purple, I think it's time we showed Grievous how we deal with droids."

"Yes, Commander." The clone Krane addressed had more prominent violet markings than the other clones (excluding Krane). Mr. Purple aimed an EMP launcher and fired.

Grievous avoided the shot, but the electric blue blast still took out a nearby BX droid commando. Other clones riding in the purple gunship started to fire upon Grievous with their various weapons. Krane charged up his Z-6 rotary blaster cannon and started shooting.

"This is Grievous we're dealing with here!" Krane yelled. "Don't be cheap now, don't be afraid to use the rockets!" The gunship fired its rockets as and one of the clone passengers used a PLX rocket launcher. The explosions nearly took out their target, but Grievous was still moving.

Grievous was able to cover a lot of ground very quickly with his long, looping strides. He occasionally killed a clone or two as he ran. The clones in the gunship were making a mess, destroying several battle droids as they tried to kill the cyborg, yet they never seemed to hit any nearby clone allies Grievous ran past. The general actually took a few hits from the small arms fire but it was nothing his armor couldn't handle. It was the EMP launcher he had to watch out for—it that hit him his life support systems could fail and he would die a very disgraceful death indeed.

The cyborg general finally had enough and used the grappling hook installed on his arm to latch onto the hull of a passing Sheathipede shuttle and was lifted into the air. Grievous was still a potential target but the CIS shuttle was able to quickly carry him away to the city's interior.

"General Grievous is retreating! Well done!" Krane had a feeling he wouldn't be the one to kill the CIS leader. But the clone had made the cyborg look like a fool, forcing him to flee so easily. Krane was content with that victory. No loss to me, Krane thought to himself. If he's going into the city then the General will kill him. Krane opened up a comm channel and informed Mace Windu that Grievous was heading into the city.

"Commander EEK-176," SSA-719 came in over the comm.

"What is it, Captain?"

"We're taking fire from clones with violet coloration on their armor markings. It doesn't match any known rank of clone we've come across before. But they are very effective."

EEK-176 used his sniper rifle to get a closer look at the new clones. "I don't like this. Perhaps they are some elite unit."

"Where is Grievous? They're coming in from the north and cutting right into our flank!"

"Grievous' attack force is finished." Things were looking bad for the droid army, yet the passing of General Grievous would have been welcome news to every battle droid in the Confederacy.

"Is he dead?"

"I don't know. Keep fighting, hold your position for now."

"Roger roger."

EEK-176 contacted OOM-9 over the comm. "General, the western attack group is getting hit hard from the north! Grievous has either fled or is dead."

"I doubt the General is deceased. Hold out as best you can. I'll push my forces through the city faster and we'll meet on your side. I'll contact Zako and tell him to do the same."

"Right." EEK-176 murdered a clone sergeant from kilometers away. The poor bastard had no idea what killed him. The command droid did not stop sniping while he talked but he was running low on higher-ranked clones to kill. While EEK-176 was fine sniping out of his Sheathipede shuttle high in the sky, the command droid clearly saw the clones were fighting much better than before with no signs of slowing down. The commander was now completely sure something had gone wrong with Dr. Destroyer's Battle Interference.

Hundreds of battle droids had infiltrated the city's sewer system when OOM-9's forces landed at the docks. They had traveled underground, unimpeded by the clone forces, and were using detpacks and time bombs to blow holes in the city streets and started crawling out of the ground at certain intervals. They looked like skeletons emerging out from holes right out from hell. Such a maneuver was uncommon on such a massive scale and caught the clone defenders completely off guard. The Republic had set up defenses to counter the enemy they could see moving on the city streets, when explosions started blowing holes in the ground behind them they were not in an ideal position to react effectively.

OOM-9's army pushed through the city quickly. Clones were slaughtered in the crossfire zones the droids had set up. The quick fighting was preferable to ensure that civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.

General OOM-9 was walking through the streets on foot when a Sheathipede shuttle flew overhead and a certain Kaleesh cyborg dropped down near his location.

Grievous landed with a clunk that cracked the cement. The Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies was uninterested in the battle between clones and droids that was before him. OOM-9 had a feeling the Kaleesh would run to a battle site that was going in favor of the CIS; Grievous was a predictable coward. It would have been too much to hope that the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies had actually died.

"Check your fire! Watch for civilians!" OOM-9 ordered his troops.

"You are an odd one, General OOM-9." General Grievous walked up to OOM-9, towering over the command droid. OOM-9 was surprised that Grievous bothered to address him by name.

"I've never seen a battle droid so concerned with the life of organics, then again, your kind isn't very good at killing them either."

"Your charm and wit knows no bounds, General Grievous. If we don't protect the civilians, then why are we fighting this war?"

"To defeat our enemies in battle."

"True. But it would be monotonous if we indiscriminately killed all organics. It would get boring if we wiped out all life in the Galaxy."

"Yes, I'm sure all you sharp-witted battle droids get bored very easily."

"Organics are an important part of the Galaxy. If we killed them all, it would be over, and then it would be boring. We have to leave someone alive. Even if we exterminate the entire Republic, later generations of the Confederacy will break apart and wage war on each other again. And I will have a war to fight again. And the cycle will continue, as long as I have organics to watch over."

"You certainly have the future planned out." Grievous stared at the droid. "You think to become the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies?"

"I know I will. For all your improvements, eventually you will die. From battle or old age, it will not matter. This droid army, that you think so little of, will be mine. I will outlast you all, it is a simple matter of fact."

"Watch what you say, droid. Or you will find your own life much shorter than mine." OOM-9 knew better than to incur Grievous' wrath but he had risked it by speaking honestly anyway. OOM-9 had nothing to fear, if the cyborg had decided to cut him down he could easily be repaired and put in working order again. The conversation was a trial to see how far OOM-9 could get away with the Kaleesh. Grievous had killed others over much less in the past. But Grievous had been performing extremely poorly lately, losing huge amounts of troops, ships, and military installations in minor skirmishes. From what OOM-9 could tell, he currently had more favor with Count Dooku than Grievous did and it was possible that the Kaleesh knew this as well. It was the most logical explanation as to why the cyborg didn't destroy him on the spot for stating the obvious fact that Grievous would eventually die of old age and OOM-9 would be his successor—Grievous would have incurred the wrath of Count Dooku for assaulting a valuable pawn. OOM-9 didn't much care for playing politics, but that didn't mean he wasn't skilled at the game.

Political strategies and tests of patience would have to wait; there were enemies to kill. And judging from how many friendly signals were disappearing a few city blocks away, OOM-9's attack group was closing in on a dangerous foe.

General Grievous was about to take his leave and go hunting for any Jedi that might be lurking about the city when a flash of lightsabers cut across the sky and dissected a quartet of battle droids in seconds.

It was a dizzying array of colors. When they finally stopped, they revealed a female Xexto to be the wielder. Xexto were on average a short, lanky species that were most notable for the fact that they had six arms (through two of them were primarily used as legs). This particular Xexto Jedi was skilled enough that she wielded four lightsabers at the same time.

OOM-9 fired a quick volley from his custom E-5. The trio of violet lasers was dead center on the Jedi's torso, but one of each of the lasers were deflected away by three of the Jedi's four lightsabers. With so many lightsabers and being such a small target, OOM-9 figured he might have an actual problem dealing with the Xexto Jedi.

"General Grievous. Your rein of terror and murder is at an end."

"Perhaps you will provide me with an actual challenge." Grievous' voice with filled with hopeful malice. The lanky cyborg turned and jabbed OOM-9 in the chest with a clawed finger. "Continue your march through the city. I will deal with this Jedi slime myself."

"Roger roger." OOM-9 gave Grievous the basic stock acknowledgment battle droids used.

The command battle droid turned and continued onward. He didn't bother to watch as Grievous activated his four lightsabers and charged at the Jedi. He had a good idea of what would happen. Under other circumstances OOM-9 would have liked to watch the fight, it wasn't often that you saw a duel between two combatants that involved eight lightsabers altogether.

OOM-9 and his squad needed to find and eliminate whatever was up ahead that was causing so many friendly signals to disappear from the network.

General OOM-9's squad soon came across the culprit behind the lost signals. A certain bald Jedi was finishing cutting up the last of a squad a super battle droids. OOM-9 and his troops had never fought this particular Jedi before but they immediately knew who it was on sight. Everyone in the Confederacy would recognize this particular Jedi. Before them was the most powerful Jedi in all of the Order, so easily distinguished by his purple lightsaber, Mace Windu.

It had been an incredible stroke of good fortune. They droids had the chance to turn the tide of the war deeply in favor of the CIS right now. The death of Mace Windu would be a huge moral boost to the Confederacy while sending Republic citizens fleeing to the faux safety of their security blankets.

"Kill him!" OOM-9 knew it wouldn't be an easy victory. He considered updating General Grievous with the new information but decided against it for the moment. In theory OOM-9 could have just waited as Grievous and Windu fought it out. The Kaleesh would likely lose and OOM-9 would be done with the cyborg. But the longer Windu was alive, the better chance he had at escaping and OOM-9 was not going to let this opportunity pass him by. Windu was a far bigger problem than Grievous and OOM-9 wanted him dead as soon as possible.

Though quickly turning Mace Windu in a corpse seemed beyond the capacity of OOM-9's current squad of B1s, B2s and aqua droids. The Jedi Master dodged their attacks and cut them to pieces as if they were nothing. It was a good thing OOM-9 had a backup plan; he always had a backup plan.

A type B Sheathipede escort shuttle came in low and droids started falling out, landing cat-footed as they hit the hot city pavement. OOM-9's squad of HouseKarl battle droids had arrived. OOM-9 had been keeping the elite droids in reserve, specifically so General Grievous didn't see them or their abilities. The battle droid general wanted their existence a secret in case he ever needed to use them against Grievous and his entourage of MagnaGuards one day.

Windu should have no idea what hit him. The HouseKarls looked like regular battle droids with the exception of their purple markings. The only thing that might give the Jedi pause was that some of them were holding melee weapons; Windu would not likely have seen a lot of droids with the double-edged ZK-III battle-axe or the RW-B power war-hammer. The squad of HouseKarls didn't leave a lot of time for observation or contemplation anyway; they were upon the Jedi and attacked before the human was even finished with OOM-9's first squad.

That's when it happened—OOM-9 saw with his own photoreceptors a HouseKarl get cut to pieces by Mace Windu. The Jedi Master did it without batting an eye, as if the elite droid were nothing more than a common B1 unit. The HouseKarls had never lost, never been defeated. They had taken some damage here and there, but one had never been destroyed before. Their perfect record had been shattered in a split second. In the next split second their previously flawless record was shattered again and again and again.

The Jedi cut through OOM-9's elite droids as if they were in slow motion. All the while he held the grace of someone who was uninterested with what they were doing, as if Windu were a prodigy youngling student who was bored with taking an exam he found far too easy.

OOM-9 always had a backup plan and a backup to his backup plan. One could never be too careful. A second shuttle had looped in low and the Z1 special ops battle droids piled out this time. They already knew what they were fighting and how dangerous the Jedi was, the network linking the droids had warned them of that.

Mace Windu was only halfway through the HouseKarl battle droid squad when the special ops droids attacked. The Z1 units had an advantage, as their weapon set was the opposite the HouseKarls' were using: the special ops droids were equipped mostly with ranged weaponry while only a few had melee weapons.

The Jedi Master changed up his speed and pacing—now he looked like he was actually paying attention to the battle he was in. Still… Z1 battle droids started to fall to pieces just like their HouseKarl brethren had.

General OOM-9 still had one more immediate ace in his arsenal: the grapple battle droid GD-79. The dark gray droid was only a street over and was quickly closing in on the Jedi was per OOM-9's wireless request. The B1 grapple battle droids were made for killing Jedi. There was a possibility that the grapple droid wouldn't be able to send the Jedi off to the afterlife either, in which case Grievous might actually get a shot at killing Windu. OOM-9 highly doubted Grievous could succeed where he would fail but anything seemed possible at this point.

What was left of the HouseKarl and Z1 droids finally proved that Mace Windu was not an all-powerful demigod. Even the greatest of the Jedi had limitations and Windu revealed his when he turned and fled into a building. The signage above told that the structure was the city's museum. All the battle droid followed the Jedi in, including OOM-9 and GD-79.

The interior of the building was eerily silent and dark. The section of the city the museum was located in had lost power due to the battle that raged outside. Natural light still shown through the windows preventing Windu from having any darkness to hide in, not that it would have helped him anyway.

"Fan out in groups of three," OOM-9 ordered. There weren't enough droids left for everyone to have a full group so OOM-9 and GD-79 searched as a duo.

The droids were quick but careful as they searched for their prey but it soon became apparent that the Jedi was no longer on the first floor. They started moving up to the higher floors, teams stopping at the second, third, fourth, and fifth. They were wasting too much time having all teams scan the same floor together. They had to move faster. There was even the possibility that the Jedi had gone all the way up to the roof and had already escaped, meaning OOM-9 and his elite droids were just wasting their valuable time.

GD-79 and OOM-9 ended up searching the fifth floor. The pair was going through a large exhibit dedicated to displaying old-style paper books. A lot of the books were very old and priceless. It would be a shame if anything happened to them, not that OOM-9 cared. The command battle droid saw the books as nothing more than a severely outdated way of storing information. Being a mere command battle droid with limited processing power OOM-9 was hesitant to change, but being around humans like Zako and Katen for over a decade had changed his personality and expanded his ways of thinking. Still, Katen and Zako had never shown an express interest in old print books, so OOM-9 and the other droids never developed a sense of wonder or reverence for the outdated medium.

But the books weren't important, finding and killing Mace Windu was. In his right hand OOM-9 had his custom E-5 blaster rifle put on the flamethrower setting and ready to go. He would be a fool to try and use one of the blaster settings on a Jedi of Windu's caliber at such close quarters. In his left hand OOM-9 had his ZK-II war-axe activated. A soft purple light emanating from the axe's edge splashed a violet glow against the stacks of old books.

GD-79's heavy footsteps echoed loudly across the empty floor. There was the sudden snap-hiss of a lightsaber and Jedi appeared from around a bookcase and dashed in at OOM-9. The battle droid general blocked a fluid strike from the saber with his axe that would have taken his head off.

OOM-9 answered with his own strike and the Jedi cartwheeled away a good distance. Windu stopped, not moving a muscle. He was aware that GD-79 had suddenly disappeared. OOM-9 had already wirelessly updated the other droids that he had found the Jedi.

Windu bent at the knees and held his lightsaber at an angle facing towards OOM-9.

"Master Windu, how kind of you to join us. I thought you would have fled. After all, what's the harm in missing a few battle droids in the grand scheme of things? But then again, the way the clone armies of the Republic fight it looks like you might have to win this entire war by yourself."

"You look like a regular droid, but I know that isn't the case." Windu's eyes narrowed and his mouth curled into the slightly frown imaginable. "No regular battle droid could wield such a weapon and successfully parry my attack."

"How very observant of you. I am more than I seem to be, but I am not the only droid that can stand against you."

"I noticed that from your troops. They look like regular droids aside from their custom coloration, yet they fight like MagnaGuards. It must have been difficult to construct such droids."

"Not at all. Increase the quality of the armor plating and targeting sensors, increasing the processing and power output and you can turn any droid into a murderous machine of death superior to any organic being. It is quite simple. I've noticed for a long time throughout galactic history that organic companies have—whether intentionally or through their sheer ineptitude, have produced weak and stupid droids. You fear us. You fear us because we're stronger than you, smarter than you and better than you if given the chance."

"No amount of technology, no matter how advanced, can compare to the power of the Force."

"Say that all you want, it won't save you from the inevitable truth that you are going to die!" OOM-9's plan was working. Windu was a talkative fool, Jedi often were. The battle droid general was merely biding his time as the other droid teams scrambled to reach his location.

Before either of them could get in another remark on their little conversation GD-79 burst through the bookcase next to the Jedi. As if a stream bending to the curvatures of a mountain, Mace Windu was fluidly able to avoid the grapple droid's swipes and strikes.

Not planning on playing defense forever, Mace struck back with at the large droid, hitting him in the forearm. GD-79 effortlessly pushed the purple blade backwards, throwing Windu off balance. OOM-9 took the opening provided and let loose a stream of fire from his custom rifle. Windu flew through the fire unfazed; OOM-9 guessed that the thinnest of Force barriers was protecting him.

The Jedi came at OOM-9 despite the flames; OOM-9 caught the lightsaber against the edge of his axe again and pushed the Jedi back. Windu was thrown against a bookshelf but quickly bounced off it and went back to strike a charging GD-79. For once Mace was too slow and the grapple droid caught him in the side with his right claw. Just before the gray droid could clamp down harder and break a few ribs Windu brought his saber upward and slashed GD-79 at the elbow, taking his part of his right arm off. The grapple droid stumbled back for a second while OOM-9 fired rockets from his rifle. B1 grapple battle droids had both phirk and cortosis plating on various parts of their bodies to keep them from being effortlessly cut up by Jedi. But Windu had hit the droid at a joint that wasn't made of lightsaber-resistant material.

Just as some of the HouseKarl and Z1 droids had shown up Windu turned tail and dove over the guard railing that protected people from falling to the floor below. OOM-9's rockets took out the guardrails and a good part of the floor as he continued to fire at the Jedi. OOM-9 and GD-79 both leapt over the ledge, determined not to let their target escape. Just as Windu touched down on the floor below he had to dive out of the way as OOM-9 slashed with his axe and landed where Mace had been a split-second before. GD-79 followed suit with a much larger thud when he hit the floor feet first. The floor trembled and for a moment OOM-9 thought GD-79's impact was going to create a hole that would drop them down to the next floor.

The books on the upper floor had caught fire from OOM-9's flamethrower attack and a healthy blaze had started to envelope the area. Neither the Jedi nor the battle droids cared about the irreplaceable artifacts that burned away. The other droids followed OOM-9 and GD-79 and also jumped down to the lower level.

Windu stood there for a moment, eyeing his opponents. One of his sleeves had been partially torn by debris from the floor that had been sent scattered around by OOM-9's bulldog RLR rockets.

"You couldn't defeat me when there was only two of us, you stand no chance now."

GD-79 flexed the claws in his remaining hand for a moment. "I only need one hand to crush your skull, Jedi!" The grapple droid took off at a run, charging straight at the Jedi Master. It was as if a freight train was about to run down a shaak. Windu realized this himself and used the Force to blow a whole in the window behind him before jumping out of the building.

As the droids made it to the opening they saw that Windu had managed to land on the top of a passing train that just happened to be going through the city. OOM-9 called in for the shuttles to come pick them up, Windu wasn't going to get away that easily.

High Jedi General Mace Windu had earned a slight reprieve. The battle droids he fought today were much more effective than the standard fair he was accustomed to fighting. Either the droids in general were getting smarter as the war dragged on or he had stumbled upon an elite fighting force. Either possibility was bad news for the Republic. At the very least the battle droids with the purple markings and the ones coated entirely in black were elite custom units. Mace was fortunate enough to put a dent in their numbers so he didn't consider that they would be much of a threat any longer—unless there were more standing by. Given how cheap the Confederacy was that prospect didn't seem likely.

The Jedi Master looked around the city as the train took him through it. The track's support pillars were several stories tall, towering over the private residential buildings but shorter than the corporate and private structures. Mace was in a good position to easily see how the fighting was going in the skies above and the city streets below.

The clones still in the city streets were being overrun but that was to be expected. The sole purpose of Windu's mission was to evacuate as many Republic personnel he could off of Aargonar. They were never meant to stop the Separatists from taking the city… or the planet. Still, the clones were being beaten back much faster than Mace had thought.

The CIS infantry was a mixture of B1s, B2s, aqua droids, droidekas, dwarf spider droids, crab droids, octuptarra droids, humans, Neimoidians, Gossam, Geonosians, and Koorivar with a few rare variants of the B-series droids like the baron battle droid or the thermal detonator battle droid. Windu found it to be a rather unusual combination. He was so accustomed to fighting uniform hordes of B1s and B2s with the occasional droideka team thrown in the mix.

The CIS fighters in the sky were just as varied as the troops down below. There were so many different aircraft he rarely saw before. Most prominent were the E-STAP-series starbombers, Windu had gotten used to seeing the Hyena droid bombers more than anything else. He also noticed that the aircraft came in the old Trade Federation colors as well as the newer CIS gray and blue. Their appearance gave the effect that the droids were a disorganized mess yet they fought well.

Mace Windu was not without problems as he rode on top of the train. Several rocket battle droids had jetted over and started shooting at him from afar. He effortlessly deflected the attacks from their rifles with his saber. Although Windu could block the blasters all day he had work to do. The Jedi jumped, under the influence of the Force, shooting through the hot air and grabbing onto the droid nearest the train before taking his head off with his lightsaber. As the decapitated droid's body fell Windu jumped again and landed on the next droid. The Master Jedi repeated the process until he had destroyed all the jetpack-equipped droids. Even when the droids had figured out what he was doing and tried to jet out of the way Windu was still able to catch them all. When Windu had killed off the final rocket battle droid he jumped again and this time landed on top of a passing blue Vulture droid.

The droid starfighter was not pleased that he had acquired an unexpected passenger and quickly did a few spins to try and shake the Jedi off his hull. Mace Windu was able to hang on and retaliated by cutting off the droid's port wings with a single swift stroke.

The droid fighter started spinning out of control and fell towards the end of the city—taking Mace Windu to the western edge where EEK-176's battle group was fending off attacks from the 187th Legion.

Sergeant 3B3-888 had noticed several rocket droid signals had lost connection to the network and turned his head in time to see Mace Windu fall from the out of control Vulture Droid. The Jedi landed on his feet and instantly went after a marine battle droid wielding an E-6 blaster rifle. The human Jedi charged in directly and cut the droid marine into several pieces. Windu caught the attention of a flame battle droid and a plasma battle droid that quickly suffered the same fate as the marine had. The Jedi then started zipping around the battlefield, killing all manner of CIS troops from B1s and B2s to organic soldiers like Geonosians and Koorivar.

Windu combined with the 187th's latest push and things were starting to fall apart for the Separatists. 3B3-888, like all the other droids, had been informed by the network that Mace Windu was here in the city but the B1 battle droid sergeant had been surprised at how quickly the Jedi had changed his location. Just a few minutes ago he was supposedly being pursued by General OOM-9 much deeper in the heart of the city, yet now he was on the western edge causing untold levels of chaos and destruction.

But Mace Windu was not the only one who had made his way over to the western edge of the city. Commander Zako and Major Katen had left their battle group and taken their AAT to the western side to help out against the flank attack on EEK-176's forces. Much to Zako's protest, Katen had abandoned the tank and fought on foot, though she somewhat regretted her decision. "Damn it sure is hot out. What is with us fighting on so many desert planets lately?"

Major Katen saw Mace Windu approach. She had become very proficient in fighting Jedi since the Clone Wars had begun. She liked it when the others considered her to be an 'anti-Jedi' unit. But most Jedi were actually very poor at melee combat, being accustomed to being able to cut through everything with one strike or spending most fights deflecting blaster bolts from firearms. Katen didn't believe for one second that Mace Windu was like other Jedi. But she had to make a choice, she either had to fight or flee. There was no room for thinking out a plan of attack when fighting Jedi, for they could read your thoughts and use them against you. You had to make snap decisions and go with your gut. Ashley Katen had made her snap decision; she was going to fight.

"You're gonna wish you stayed on Coruscant, old man!" Katen activated her electrostaff and charged after the Jedi.

Master Windu saw the human female with the electrostaff coming at him. Given his previous encounter with the droids of remarkable skill earlier, he had no desire to put up with any more crap from whatever this woman offered. But he was sure that if she was using an electrostaff then she was be trouble.

The Jedi answered Katen's charge with a Force push, sending her sprawling backwards. Katen hit the dirt ground at a hard angle but before she could get back up Windu hit her with yet another Force push.

Katen took the next invisible blow and managed to barrel roll her body across the ground. She was lucky she was wearing her armor or she could have lost a lot of skin otherwise. 3B3-888 saw the whole thing and noticed that the major was moving funny as she came out of the roll on her feet. 3B3-888 was no medical droid but he knew Katen long enough to tell when she wasn't moving properly. It looked to him as if her left shoulder had been dislocated.

The Jedi Master was still advancing on Katen. 3B3-888 ran over to his friend and fluidly swapped his E-5 blaster rifle for her electrostaff and pushed Katen out of the way. The B1 battle droid reactivated the electrostaff and charged at Windu, replacing himself as the Jedi's new opponent. Windu kept coming and took off 3B3-888's left arm with a swift downward swing of his saber. The Jedi then deprived the battle droid of is right arm. The droid hadn't even been able to connect the staff to the saber the Jedi had moved so fast. When Sergeant 3B3-888 was nothing but an armless torso on legs Windu finished him off with a mighty Force push that sent him flying several meters away.

Katen had been running away but she was still too close to the Jedi. A B1 battle droid coated in a black and gray camouflage pattern came in and challenged the Jedi on his own. The B1 kept his E-5 blaster rifle in rapid-fire mode as he tried to murder the Jedi. Windu deflected the shots as he ran, eventually catapulting himself in a huge somersault that propelled him up and over the battle droid. To the droid's credit, he kept shooting at the Jedi as his target went up and over with astounding speed. When Windu landed on the ground again the droid still had his sights on him and tossed a V-1 thermal detonator. Windu suddenly burst forth with the speed of the Force, past the thrown explosive and cut the black and gray droid in half at the torso with one swift stroke. The battle droid had failed to kill the Jedi but bought Katen enough time to get away safely.

Mace Windu instantly had a new opponent in the form of Commander Zako's dark gray and blue armored assault tank. The commander had seen Katen, 3B3-888 and the other valiant B1 get thrashed by the Jedi and he was pissed.

The AAT's secondary laser cannons heated up as they fired at the moving Jedi. Windu was quick but the red lasers were dangerously close to vaporizing him. The Jedi dodged around in a looping, wide semicircle before turning and jumping on the front of Zako's armored assault tank.

With the Jedi on the front of his tank and posed to cut his lightsaber into it, the human operator knew he had only one venue of counterattack that stood a chance at killing the Jedi. Commander Zako immediately hit the accelerator and slammed the front end of his AAT into the side of a building, attempting to crush the Jedi. Windu jumped off at the last second and soared through the air to greet a hunter-seeker droid that was hovering nearby.

Two rocket battle droids that were previously on the ground started up their jetpacks and took off after the Jedi hanging from the hunter-seeker droid. One of the rocket droids had an E-5; the other had a SE-14 pistol and thermal detonators. The droid with the detonators threw one up at Windu as he sliced up the hunter-seeker droid. The E-5-wielding rocket droid shot the grenade as it sailed through the air, causing it to detonate prematurely—right as it was near the Jedi. It was an impressive display of timing and teamwork that only droids (or the most highly trained organics) could ever hope to achieve. Mace Windu somehow survived the explosion unscathed and fell down to chop up the droids as they tried to cut him with their wrist fusioncutters.

Commander Zako's tank no longer moved. It was currently unknown if the tank was merely stuck or if Zako seriously injured himself (or even died) in the crash. Whatever the commander's condition was, the tank was not going to be bothering Mace Windu again.

A quartet of destroyer droids rolled in to finish Mace Windu off once and for all. They deployed into attack mode and activated their shield generators, encasing themselves in protective blue bubbles. Whether the Jedi chose his blade or to redirect blaster fire, he would not be able to finish the droids quickly before they killed him, or at least that's what the CIS central control computers of the network thought. Windu called on the Force and brought up the dirty ground beneath the droids, causing them to hover midair on little floating islands. Mace manipulated the islands, quickly turning them sideways and smashing them into each other, crushing the droidekas even though their shielding was up.

The shuttle carrying OOM-9 and his elite droids reached the western edge of the city. Even though the elite droids joined in on the fighting there were too few of them to make a difference. The Separatists were fighting a losing battle on the western edge of the city. OOM-9 couldn't find Mace Windu in the chaos and opted to just kill as many clones as he possibly could.

In the skies above Commander EEK-176 was still sniping away from his brown Sheathipede shuttle. He had given up trying to kill high-ranking clones or targets of interest and instead killed as many clones as fast as he could. But no matter what he did it never seemed to be enough.

"SSA-719, fall back! I'll cover you!" EEK-176 killed a pair of clones that were attacking the security droid captain.

Lieutenant KJZ-8267 came around on his AST. The pilot battle droid had singled out the enemy's clone commander, who was wrecking havoc with a rotary cannon. Krane saw the repulsor vehicle headed his way and was able to dodge the incoming laser blasts. The clone planted a time bomb as the armored scout tank went by. KJZ-8267 saw the explosive device and knew you wouldn't be able to get it off in time so he veered to the nearest cluster of clones and bailed out. His scout tank crashed in the squad and the time bomb exploded.

KJZ-8267 unhooked the E-5 shotgun from his back and tried to kill Krane but the clone's rotary cannon derived him of his head and left arm.

The rear hatch to Zako's tank opened up and the cyborg stumbled out. In nothing but his officer's uniform he was in no condition to fight such competent clones, but he would do so anyway. The hot air stung his eyes and irritated the hell out of him; he hadn't planned on leaving his tank precisely because it was so miserable outside. But his minor discomfort was nothing compared to what was going on around him. He fired at a few clones before spotting the Jedi and started to make his way over to Windu's location.

"Shit!" EEK-176 killed another pair of clones but was too late to save the B1 battle droid they were attacking. The CIS numbers were wearing thin. Landing craft from Grievous' army were closing in on the area but the extra help wasn't being fast enough.

The Republic was fed up with the droid sniper riding in the Sheathipede shuttle and a trio of purple Y-wings flew in and hit the shuttle with a volley of blue lasers. The Emerald Slicer's starboard engine burst into flames and the ship whined as it fought against the forces of gravity.

As the shuttle fell EEK-176 bailed out. A pair of clones noticed the droid in freefall and started shooting at him. Luckily, EEK-176 was falling towards one of the buildings on the edge of the city. Just when he was about to collide with the structure the command droid pushed off the surface with his foot, kicking up a lot of dust (brought on by the battle). The impromptu smokescreen blinded the clones from their target but two violet beams cut through the dust cloud and each nailed one of the clones. EEK-176 hit the ground with a thud but he landed on his feet.

Finally on the ground, the Separatist Droid Network had given EEK-176 an alarming update. Commander Zako was closing in on Mace Windu. EEK-176 took off running, he didn't have much time to get to a sniping position.

The network had informed OOM-9 of Zako's actions as well. The droid general hooked his E-5 vertically along his back and his axe horizontally along the bottom of his backside. OOM-9 hurried and snatched up an E-60R rocket launcher from a fallen B1 and started rushing towards Windu's location.

Commander Zako had reached Mace Windu. There were no clones or droids in the immediate area (other than the crab droid Windu had just finished destroying). Zako put away his E-5 on his belt; he knew he didn't stand a chance at hitting the Jedi. Windu would block everything he shot and Zako knew it. He pulled his ZK-II war-axe and activated it. Zako knew he stood no chance with this weapon either, but it was better than the blaster.

"Over here, Jedi!" When it was clear Zako hadn't gotten the Jedi's attention he tried again.

"Mace Windu!"

"Do I know you?" The Jedi turned towards the cyborg and had his lightsaber raised and ready, yet didn't move to attack.

"No, but I know you. Everyone in the Confederacy knows the greatest Jedi of the Order. So, what brought you out of your palace on Coruscant? Surely you didn't come all the way out here in the middle of nowhere to deal with a couple of grunts like us?"

"And who are you?"

"I am Commander Karl Zako of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and I will not bow down to you! I may be weaker than a Jedi Master, but cut me down and a million more will take my place! And when I'm slain, I'm going to fall face first so that when I'm dead the Galactic Republic can kiss my ass!"

OOM-9 kept running; Zako didn't have much time. If it came to a duel, the Separatist officer would lose to the Jedi. OOM-9 knew one couldn't save everyone in war. There were always going to be casualties, but most of those numbers were negated by the fact that most droids could be repaired after being destroyed in battle. It was his organic soldiers OOM-9 had to really worry about. They weren't repaired so easily and sometimes couldn't be saved at all. OOM-9 had been given more and more organic troops to lead recently; he was a popular choice since his army's causality rate was so incredibly low when compared to others. But the hard truth was not everyone was going to survive the war. On a certain level OOM-9 just wanted to ignore statistics and aim for the impossible. Why should he let math or common sense or the unseen forces of the universe tell him what he could or couldn't accomplish? Even if he couldn't save everyone, at least he could ensure that Commander Zako lived to see at least the next battle after today. It was a rather organic urge—one often associated with the rowdy humans that were always accomplishing (or trying to accomplish) great and unachievable things. OOM-9 had spent a long time around humans, parts of their infectious nature had rubbed off on him and a lot of the other battle droids. It didn't seem to be a bad thing.

"How can you be so stupid? How can you be so blind? You Jedi claim to be peacekeepers yet you slaughter any who don't bow down before you! There would be no war if you Jedi bullies had just left us alone!" Zako continued his rant against the Jedi. It was working so far; he was keeping the Jedi Master in one place without having to fight him.

Commander Zako's rant had run dry. Mace was ready to attack. Karl Zako knew his time had come. He knew he couldn't win, but he would fight anyway. Though even at the very end he still believed his friends could save him at the last second. He didn't believe in much but he had faith in his friends.

"Let's see what you're made of. And I mean that. Do you bleed like the rest of us or do you ultra Jedi just turn into magical space dust or something?" Zako held his axe ready in his fighting stance.

Windu started towards the Separatist officer, only to instantly be forced back through the air. A violet rocket had violently exploded where he was seconds ago. OOM-9 had nearly plastered Windu's guts all over the place. It was such a close shot. The Jedi would have been dead if not for the Force protecting him. Even as Windu was propelled backward through the air a flurry of sniper fire came his way. Mace deflected the blasts but one came so close it tore the edge of his left sleeve.

EEK-176 had gotten into position just in time. The droid sniper was too far away for the Jedi to get at him and Windu ended up retreating as more droids came in to support OOM-9.

Mace Windu was thoroughly impressed. The motor-mouth human fully intended to be a distraction, and it had worked. The most astounding part was the Windu had detected no hint of deception from the human, he must have implicitly trusted the battle droids to save his life with no thoughts otherwise, either that or he was ready and willing to die for his cause.

Zako let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when the Jedi ran away. His heart was beating as if someone had strung it with an adrenaline-laced needle. He had faith in his friends but he was also very sure he was about to die. It looked like he was going to live to fight another battle.

Captain SSA-719 had gotten the drop on Commander Krane. The security battle droid had attacked from the top of a wrecked tank droid. The clone commander was busy dealing with a few super battle droids but when he swung his rotary cannon around to greet the spindly security droid, SSA-719 managed to shoot it with his E-5 blaster rifle. It was more of a miss on SSA-719's part; the security droid had been aiming at the clone, not at his weapon.

Krane hit the ground in a roll and grabbed a DC-15A rifle off a dead clone before taking cover behind the ruins of a clone scout walker. The pair exchanged fire with each other for a moment before Mr. Purple came in to interrupt.

Mr. Purple fired his ascension cable, tagging SSA-719 in the chest just as Krane blasted the droid's lower half off with a sputtering of well-placed shots.

"Get over here!" Mr. Purple reeled the battle droid in, shooting at the droid at the same time. SSA-719 surprised both clones as he kept firing back as the purple clone drew him closer. The droid managed to blast the clone commander in his right shoulder before he was upon the other one that had snagged him.

SSA-719 had been completely reeled back in and Mr. Purple tried to shoot him but the droid grabbed the barrel of the long rifle and jerked it away from him, ripping the ascension cable attached to him in the process. SSA-719 was nothing more than a torso with arms as his lower half and legs had been blasted away, but he kept going. He violently dragged himself past the clone's rifle and swung around behind the clone and started choking him at the neck.

Mr. Purple thrashed around a bit but couldn't dislodge the droid. As soon as he stopped failing around Krane expertly fired a single shot and freed his brother from SSA-719's metal grip.

It was right then that Mace Windu had arrived at Krane and Purple's location. OOM-9, Zako and a squad of various kinds of battle droids were fast approaching. A purple LAAT/i gunship came down and picked up the three Republic warriors.

The gunship took off; the battle droids still sending small arms fire its way. It was right then that General Grievous and two of his MagnaGuards decided to make their appearance at the western edge of the city. Grievous' frustrating fight with the Xexto Jedi had taken far too much of his time and the Kaleesh's arrival marked the beginning of ht end of the fight. Reinforcements from both Grievous and OOM-9's armies were landing everywhere and the 187th new better to retreat and live to fight another day. Some of the other clones they had been sent to rescue weren't as quick to get away.

General Grievous had been made aware of Made Windu's presence and had become infuriated when he learned he had just missed the Jedi Master. The cyborg general took out his frustrations on the remaining clones that weren't able to evacuate in time.

Overall there was another full fifteen minutes of fighting before the battle was finally over and the Venator star destroyer and its two Acclamator assault ships had pulled back up to the upper atmosphere and eventually into space. The Confederates didn't make their retreat easy. Several dozen squadrons of E-STAP droid starbombers, Scarab starfighters and Vulture droid fighters harassed the three capital ships until they fled into the safety of hyperspace.

General Grievous was in a particularly foul mood. The Jedi had escaped his grasp without the Kaleesh even laying eyes on him. Grievous didn't think it was likely he would find another prize like Windu for quite some time. The Kaleesh general blamed the battle droids for their inability to at least keep Windu distracted enough until he could arrive on location. So when a nearby B1 battle droid made a comment on how impressive the battle had been, Grievous activated one of his lightsabers and cut the droid down.

That act of ruthless and unnecessary betrayal did not sit well with another nearby Separatist officer. Commander Zako had seen the whole thing. The human knew of the Kaleesh's reputation as a ruthless jerkass who would kill his own troops without a second thought, but he had never witnesses it firsthand for himself. Zako couldn't even fathom how anyone could so casually kill a teammate for no reason (Grievous was in a bad mood but Zako hardly considered that a reason to cut down an ally).

Whether it was in his brain or in his heart or both, something inside Zako had snapped. "Hey! What's the matter with you? Why did you cut him down?"

OOM-9, who was near Zako at the time, was completely surprised. His human friend already had both his blaster and axe drawn up and ready to go.

"You dare threaten me?"

"Threaten? I'm going to kill you, you traitorous bastard!"

Grievous still had his lightsaber active.

Just before the two could connect OOM-9 got in between them. OOM-9 had brought up his own ZK-II war-axe to block Grievous' lightsaber while grabbing and pointed the barrel of Zako's E-5 blaster away from the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies.

"Out of my way!" Grievous demanded.

"Stand down, General!" OOM-9 snapped.

Grievous' two bodyguards didn't take too kindly to what was going on. IG-101 and IG-102 both activated their electrostaffs and started stomping towards the commotion.

The two MagnaGuards were stopped short as two of OOM-9's HouseKarl battle droids, KV-8 and KV-9, blocked them and switched on their ZK-III battle-axes.

Everyone was on edge. The MagnaGuards and HouseKarls didn't move to attack each other, but kept their weapons ready. Several regular troops were witnesses to the standoff as well. No matter which general they belonged to, be it OOM-9 or Grievous, the B1s, B2s, droidekas, dwarf spider droids, crab droids, and octuptarra droids didn't make a move to support either side. No matter who ended up wining the fight, the regular battle droid troops would follow the victor. Only the elite droid bodyguards of the two respective generals demonstrated that they were willing to pick a side if it came to bloodshed.

Grievous' saber cackled and sparked against the edge of OOM-9's war-axe. Reptilian eyes glared daggers of doom down at the command battle droid that dared stop Grievous from issuing punishment to the insubordinate human officer.

Commander Zako backed away, acquiescing to General OOM-9's authority.

"Back off, General," OOM-9 warned. "I will correct my officers as I see fit." In the current contest of strength, the two were tied as they shoved their weapons against each other. Grievous was strong but OOM-9 had been upgraded far beyond that of a normal command battle droid. In a test of pure strength, OOM-9 would win. OOM-9 could overclock his power regulators and vastly increase his strength, even if that meant he would burn out his operational cycle and force a shutdown and recharge. Grievous could not overcharge his internal power supply the way OOM-9 could, he had to have energy keeping his vital organs alive or he would die.

OOM-9 had the Kaleesh beat, unless it came to a real fight. That problem had fixed itself as EEK-176 had gotten into a sniping position. The custom colored brown and white command droid had his particle beam E-5s sniper rifle trained right on Grievous' faceplate. Grievous had tough armor, but the powerful sniper rifle would leave a smoking hole in his brain.

"Do you challenge my authority over my own officers? Do not force me to take this issue up with Count Dooku. I hold great favor. And I am also aware that the Count has already admonished you for destroying your troops. You will lose on this issue, General Grievous. Your competence is in question as it is, especially since you lost the Malevolence. And if you had destroyed one of my droids, we all would have attacked."

Grievous grumbled but shut off his weapon. "This will not be tolerated again."

"It won't happen again."

With that, Grievous stormed away, the MagnaGuards IG-101 and IG-102 hot on his heels.

When Grievous was away OOM-9 turned to Zako. "What the hell was that?"

"You know exactly what that was!"

"I didn't save you from Windu just so you could get yourself killed by Grievous!" It had been and long and hard day and the battle had been brutal. OOM-9 figured all of these factors combined with heat levels uncomfortable for humans and the sight of Grievous suddenly destroyed a battle droid had pushed Zako past his limits. Still, the commander's actions were inexcusable.

At the end of it all, OOM-9 had sentenced Zako to the bowels of the Scrapyard's cluttered repair shop. OOM-9 stood, staring (he would have been glaring if he had been capable of facial movements) at the human cyborg. The battle droid was still surprised at how stupidly aggressive Zako had been.

"I expected better of you, Karl. I would like to think you know better than to threaten a superior officer."

"Grievous is an incompetent moron who's cruelty needs to be stopped. Your record is flawless. All he does is fuck things up and make the whole Confederate army look bad! And then he has the gall to blame and kill his own troops for his failures! You should be the one running the Separatist Droid Armies, not him!"

"You are not in a position to make that decision. Since you are so concerned with the well being of your battle droid brothers you will spend your time fixing them personally until our losses from the battle have been recovered." OOM-9 grabbed a fusioncutter lying on a nearby crate and put it in the human's hand. "Get to work."

"Yes sir."

The battle droid general left, leaving Commander Zako to a large pile of broken battle droids. PK and OX9 worker droids were scattered about the area, collecting the pieces of battle droids and putting them in organized piles. Karl Zako started fixing the droids he was most familiar with: SSA-719, KJZ-8268 and 3B3-888.

"I don't understand why the Banking Clan put so much money into rebuilding that cowardly idiot," Zako grumbled.

"That doesn't sound too different for what you did for us," SSA-719 stated. The poor security droid was missing his lower half and his arms weren't responding properly.

"You could only say that on the most superficial level." The tone of frustration was leaving Zako's voice. "Grievous is a homicidal psychopath. An incompetent homicidal psychopath. You're not like him. You protect people, people who can't defend themselves. You make the Galaxy a better place to live. All Grievous does is make all Confederates look as bad as he is. He's a murderer, a coward, and a bully."

"We're not always protectors," SSA-719 said, "you seem to forget our invasion of Naboo."

"That was in protest to the tax increase. You were still protecting people. People like me. I had just started working for the Trade Federation. Why should my taxes go up forty percent? To feed the greed of the politicians on Coruscant? What did they do to deserve it? They didn't help us against the pirate gangs that murdered and pillaged our convoys, we did that ourselves. They treat the working class like garbage and do nothing but tax us into oblivion to fill their coffers."

"All of that may be true," KJZ-8267 interjected, "but that doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't have threatened Grievous."

"I know. I couldn't stop myself. I'm so tired of that loser running the Confederate military. He is the worst leader I've ever seen. I know we are supposed to be loyal and follow the orders of our superiors but that guy… Officers have a duty to those they command… he doesn't care about anyone but himself."

"You should not have challenged him personally. You organics are so fragile," the pilot battle droid clarified, looking at the human's cybernetic eye. "You are not as easy to repair as we are. You need to take better care of yourself. We're not going to let you leave us with Ashley all alone."

"Right," Zako managed a chuckle.

"And don't worry about Grievous," 3B3-888 said, "he will get his soon enough. One day, a Jedi is going to corner him and he won't be able to run away." The battle droids hated Grievous just a much—if not more than Zako did, they were just more professional about keeping their anger in check. Knowing they were going to outlive him—even if he somehow managed to die a natural death from old age helped keep things in perspective.

The conversation ground down to a halt when Major Katen came in the room.

"What do you want?" Zako sneered.

"What's with the attitude?"

"What's with abandoning your friends in a fight?"

"I was injured!"

"Awww… poor Katen. You get your shoulder dislocated? Well some of us have sustained real injuries!"

"The droids will be fine and you didn't even fight Mace Windu technically."

"I was referring to the eye I lost on Raxus Prime you stupid bitch! And from what I saw you didn't fight Windu either. He just knocked you around with the Force for a bit. Hey, maybe you should go join the Navy and be Sledge's Vice Captain in Cowardice. What are you even doing here? Don't you have some work to do?" With Zako currently being punished in the repair shop, Katen had ended up with his regular duties. The commander had assumed his friend had come down to berate him over that fact and tried to drive her away.

"Fuck you!" Katen stormed off.

"Fuck you too!"

"You're a little harsh there, don't you think, Commander?" KJZ-8267 asked.

"I'm in no mood to put up with her right now."

The day's events did leave the battle droids a lot to think about. Zako should have been able to keep his anger in check, it was almost as if he were trading personalities with Katen. The odd behavior of organics occasionally confused the droids, but they had at least thought they had understood Zako and Katen after all these years.

Katen fought back the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes as she stormed down the hall away from the repair shop. She was worried about her friends so she had decided to go and see how Zako and the droids were doing. But the moment she had gotten there Zako instantly snapped at her and the battle droid trio said nothing. It hurt. It had been a very long and trying day and pretty much everyone had had a close brush with death. That dumbfuck Zako had even personally challenged General Grievous! Katen didn't think she even had it in her to try something like that.

Major Katen was already miserable and her stupid friends had to go and snap at her when she was trying to be nice! I should have just gone to bed, Katen thought. Should have known all my friends are a bunch of assholes.

She was tired, not just physically but mentally as well. They had recently survived a series of attacks from the pain in the ass Obi-wan Jakoby and today they faced Mace Windu. The way things were looking they would probably face Yoda in battle soon. The war was becoming a lot less fun and a lot more serious, and Katen didn't like it one bit.

Severed heads, scattered limbs, scarred torsos were strewn about the room. Dr. Gatling Quartz was not a happy Skakoan as he looked about the scrapped ruins of his once marvelous creations. So many of HouseKarls and Z1 droids had been damaged. The scientist mumbled various expletives native to his home planet that were so softly spoken they were unintelligible beyond the confines of his mask.

OX9 worker droids scurried about as they tried to place the proper pieces to the correct droid. The smell of burnt circuitry was ripe in the air though none of the room's occupants could smell it. The droids lacked olfactory sensors and Dr. Quartz was stuck in his sealed pressure suit.

The only fully functioning battle droid in the area was Commander EEK-176.

"The battle against Mace Windu was a disaster."

"I am well aware of that, Commander."

"We need new weapons if we are to kill a Jedi of his caliber."

"And you shall have them. But it will take time. And right now it's going to take a lot of time getting these droids put back together and up to code before I do anything else. If you want something done quickly you're going to need to get me more assistants or ask Destroyer to make you something."

"We prefer quality over speed if you don't mind, Doctor."

"Then don't complain when it takes some time. I will not be made a fool of. I will give you something that will kill that Jedi."

"Just what we wanted to hear." EEK-176 took his leave and let the Skakoan go about his repair work.

It had been an extraordinary day: OOM-9 had fought the best warrior the Republic had to offer, Commander Zako had uncharacteristically gotten out of line, and OOM-9 had to deal with the tiresome General Grievous. There was one more import item OOM-9 had to deal with; he had to have a talk with Dr. Destroyer about the importance of working as a cohesive team.

It was easy enough to find and reach the Ithorian; he was in his personal meditation chamber. The Force-sensitive was sitting cross-legged on a simple circular plush pad laid out on the floor but got up to his feet when the battle droid entered the room.

"Dr. Destroyer, we need to have a talk about your lack of commitment in the previous battle."

"Mace Windu is the stronger warrior in the Jedi Order. I entertain no delusions that I could easily defeat him in combat."

"You weren't being ordered to fight him directly."

"I must remain hidden from the Jedi Order."

"You had no problem using your Battle Interference when there were other Jedi on the battlefield."

"They were weak. They were not able to detect me. Mace Windu would have."

"I understand you made a judgment call during battle. But it cost us heavily. I am not unreasonable in allowing my trusted subordinates a heavy degree of freedom in carrying out their duties. But you must remember that my word is law."

"At this point it would be wise for me to remain hidden from the Jedi."

"You cannot hide from the Jedi forever."

"We will not have to wait long. The Jedi are falling fast in the war. Soon there will be so few that they will be worried about their own survival rather than hunting me down."

"Just make sure that next time you drop your Battle Interference technique you call it in quicker."

"Of course."

With that out of the way, OOM-9 left. He didn't want to push the Ithorian too far. Destroyer was new and it was a possibility that he might leave if irritated. OOM-9 did not want to lose such a valuable asset. He would need every advantage he could get if he were to ever defeat the likes of Mace Windu. If they were lucky they wouldn't be seeing him again anytime sooner. They needed time to formulate a plan of action on how to kill the troublesome Jedi.