Chapter 41: The Scorpion Droids
After going through decontamination, OOM-9 entered the laboratory of Dr. Destroyer. Dr. Destroyer was in many ways similar to Dr. Gatling Quartz. They both had a loose code of ethics and were scientific butchers who had no problem performing horrific experimentations on living beings. Though it didn't seem quite so evil when it was clone troopers being experimented on.
OOM-9 walked past several clone troopers in various states of agony and suffering. Many of them had different body parts cut open for all to see, most of them were conscious. With all the exposed human innards everywhere, OOM-9 could only imagine what the lab must have smelled like. The Ithorian madman had prescribed painkillers to the clones not as a courtesy, but to get them to shut up so he could concentrate.
The entire atmosphere screamed generic evil lab of a mad doctor, but OOM-9 knew none of what he saw was for show. Everything had a purpose.
Considering Dr. Destroyer was Force-sensitive, OOM-9 figured the Ithorian might be able to provide some ideas on combating the clones that others couldn't. Dr. Quartz had provided OOM-9 with many deadly new weapons and droids, but the Skakoan scientist had not been able to exploit the clones' weaknesses specifically.
OOM-9 came to a stop when he reached Dr. Destroyer, who was currently working on a clone trooper strapped to a medical chair. The top of the clone's skull had been removed and the Ithorian was poking around in his brain. If OOM-9 had a stomach it might have been sick at the horrid sight.
"Interesting."
"'Interesting' is not the word I would use to describe clone troopers, Doctor."
"And what word would you use to describe them, General?"
"Stupid." If OOM-9 were to be entirely truthful, 'stupid' was not a fair single-word description of the clone troopers. While it was true that they were easy to predict in combat, their effectiveness was more hindered by the fact that they mindlessly followed the orders laid out by the Jedi. The Jedi were out of practice at conducting a proper full-scale war for quite some time. And the non-clone Republic officers weren't much better than the Jedi. Most experience Republic officers had was gained from small-scale conflicts (being fair, the exact same thing could be said for CIS officers). But another factor was that no one had experience fighting a military comprised mostly out of droids. Aided by the wireless connections of the massive Separatist Droid Network, the battle droids could coordinate and move in a way organics could never hope to match. The clones had no such connection with each other beyond the empty platitudes about the bonds of brotherhood that stemmed from the fact they were all the products from a singular clone template of Jango Fett.
"Indeed. And that in and of itself is interesting."
"How so?" OOM-9 slightly tilted his head to the side, a gesture he often made to display curiosity.
"After careful examination and experimentation, I now have precise first-hand data regarding the intelligence of the Kaminoans' clone troopers. Their critical thinking abilities are far below that of the average natural human. How odd."
"Doesn't seem so odd to me. The Republic wants dumb soldiers that won't question their orders. The Trade Federation tried the same thing with my people over a decade ago."
Dr. Destroyer found it intriguing that OOM-9 referred to his battle droids as 'people' but didn't comment on it. "And that didn't work out so well for them, did it? You, and several others, have evolved far beyond your original parameters."
"Could the same thing happen with the clones?" OOM-9 asked, "could they rise up against their masters?"
"It is possible. But highly unlikely… especially given the rate your droids kill them off, anyway. They would need time and real life experiences to break free of the shackles of their programming. The Kaminoans bred the clones to be obedient. They are genetically modified to follow orders. That is their weakness. They don't think the way a natural human does. They are not as intuitive or versatile as regular humans. They have no free will. Their testosterone levels are greatly below normal for a human male. That is why they do so poorly in combat. They have no spirit. They are programmed… and programmed poorly."
"G-go to hell," the clone Destroyer was working on managed to sputter out. OOM-9 wasn't even aware the clone was coherent enough to speak until he did so.
"Even if I do go to hell, it's a better fate than what awaits you, clone. You have no soul. I can sense that you're nothing more than an empty shell of mobile meat and bone."
"N-no we're not."
"Don't argue with me, filth!" Dr. Destroyer was not one to tolerate backtalk from prisoners, especially clones that he held a very low opinion of. Before the clone could speak again Destroyer purposefully moved the tool that was lodged in his brain. The clone started to mumble incoherently, the Ithorian scientist had just caused him to go brain dead. "Oops," Destroyer spoke in a tone clearly indicating he meant to turn the clone into a gibbering meatsack.
"Doctor, we don't take prisoners just so you can kill them in your lab on a whim." Once again, Dr. Destroyer had proven just how similar he was to Dr. Quartz.
"He had outlived his usefulness anyway. Besides, it's not like we have any shortage of clone troopers to work on."
"What else have you learned about them?"
"Yes, the modified Jango Fett template. All the clones I have examined are the same."
"They are clones."
"Yes, but each and every clone I have examined has the exact same genetic modifications. They are all the same, which is quite odd considering they fill nearly every roll in the Republic's military. Foot soldiers, commandos, gunners, pilots, engineers, even officers. They're all made the same. The difference is in the training they receive after they've been made. If the Kaminoans wanted to create an effective clone army, they would have genetically modified specific clones to fit their assigned roles better. They also should have used different templates—and not just from humans. That they chose to mass-clone a human is odd. There are much more dangerous beings in the galaxy than mere humans. Humans are a threat because of their numbers, which begs the question why the Republic didn't merely conscript humans if that's what they wanted. There are certainly enough idle humans in this galaxy. But back to my other point: a specific template should have been used for pilots, a separate one for common infantry, another for engineers, and so on and so forth. Instead, the Fett clones are all the same and are merely trained differently. The Kaminoans are incredibly lazy cloners."
"You could do better?"
"Of course. The cloning technology of my own people is far superior to what was used to make these clones. Such shoddy workmanship. I'm surprised your army hasn't won this war already."
"The incompetence of General Grievous is slowing us down considerably. That, and the fact that the Republic seems to have a limitless supply of clones."
"Kamino can't be supplying the Republic with a galactic army on its own. There have to be other clone factories on other worlds we're not aware of."
"While you're stating of the brutally obvious of the clones' inferiority has been enjoyable, I don't believe that is why you have summoned me."
"Ah, yes. I am more than just a powerful Force-sensitive, after all." Destroyer picked up a large green vial with the Force. "I have developed a weapon for you. FK-class neuro poison."
"FK?"
"Fett Killer. This toxin will only affect clones of Jango Fett. It will kill them in a matter of seconds. It can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. No other organics are affected, so even your organic troops will be able to safely deploy this."
"Excellent."
"I'm also working on developing an alternate strain that will kill all organic life, just in case the Republic gets wise and starts implementing more variety in their military forces. Of course, you'll only want your droids to be using that variation."
"Of course."
"… General," Dr. Destroyer paused, as if unsure of what to say. "Despite my low opinion on the Kaminoans' cloning abilities, I must admit that they could do better. That they aren't producing a more effective army is troubling."
"Perhaps they are merely being cheap," OOM-9 suggested.
"If that is the case, then whoever was representing the Republic in dealing with the Kaminoans knew absolutely nothing about cloning. The Kaminoans had to have been outright lying to the representative's face."
"The Republic typically sends Jedi on such assignments." OOM-9 knew the Republic would often send Jedi when professionals were called for. "They could get away with lying to a Jedi's face?"
"The Kaminoans could be so arrogant as to think they are providing a superior product. Many of the alterations in the clones' genetic makeup suggest the Kaminoans were not intimately familiar with human biology when they started production."
"And you are?"
"I know how to do my homework. Further proof lies in the clones' armor. Searching through the clones' minds, I have learned that they find it uncomfortable. Further proof that the Kaminoans don't know what they're doing. They are either taking the Republic for a ride, or are focusing on something else we aren't yet aware about."
The thought that the Kaminoans' Fett cloning program was merely a side project disturbed OOM-9. He had not seen enough evidence for himself for such a claim to be validated… but the possibility of it being true could be disastrous for the CIS. But then another thought entered OOM-9's metal mind. What if the Republic built a weak army on purpose? Why would they do such a thing? To prolong the war? An extended war meant more credits for war profiteers. But OOM-9 thought they were taking an awful risk. Money was meaningless if your side lost the war. Perhaps there was another ulterior motive… but OOM-9 couldn't spend all day on conspiracy theories. There were other things to do.
"For all my contempt for the Kaminoans cloning practices," Destroyer continued, "programming organic beings is inherently difficult. Time and again cloned armies fall to the guile and critical thinking skills of natural-born organic soldiers. Science has only come so far. If clones had the ability to think like regular organics, there would have been a lot more cloned armies in galactic history… and they would have been more successful…" Dr. Destroyer trailed off, realizing the exact same argument could be made against battle droid armies. Destroyer suspected OOM-9 would take offense to such an insinuation. OOM-9 and a few of the other battle droids were far above average when it came to droids, but the same could not be said for the entirely of the Separatist Droid Army.
Captain Melissa Sledge strode out onto the hangar deck of the Karajor. While traveling through hyperspace, the crew didn't really need her on the bridge. Truth was, the droids didn't really need her at all. They didn't need any of the organics. The Trade Federation, and later the Confederacy, had a habit of placing a few organic beings in charge of most droid forces, if only to assure organics everywhere that they still mattered. Battle droids could certainly handle things themselves without direct organic leadership.
Sledge looked around the hangar. A pair of firefighter battle droids was engaged in casual conversation with an Aqualish technician. Vulture droids were milling around in walker mode. Human engineers and pilot battle droids were inspecting light and medium vehicles as they were loaded onto Neimoidian transports. PK and OX9 worker droids were loading up crates filled with weapons and ammunition. Sledge found what she was looking for: Commander Zako. The bio-linked cyborg was with the super battle droids 8EX and 5TE.
Commander Zako was doing push-ups. He did not stop when Sledge walked over, though he did briefly look up and noticed that she was present.
"Hello, Captain." 8EX and 5TE said the exact same thing at the exact same time.
Sledge giggled. "Hey guys." She liked it when the droids did things like that.
"Sledge." Zako merely grunted, not stopping his exercises.
Since she had joined the 8th Fleet, Sledge had noticed that she didn't see Zako or Katen exercise all that often. Back in the old days of the Trade Federation, they worked out more often, but things had changed since the war started. Zako and Katen were both in great shape and the constant fighting and trying to keep up with the battle droids kept them physically fit. Despite not going into battle so much herself, Sledge was also great physical condition.
Sledge knew exactly why Zako was doing push-ups.
"Still sore about losing that arm-wrestling match to Vex?"
"Shut up, Sledge."
Sledge walked over to 8EX. "You know," she grabbed the super battle droid's left arm and straightened it out so that it was in front of him. "You're not going to beat her just by working out more."
"I know that."
"Then why bother?" She latched herself onto 8EX's outstretched arm, hanging off it like a monkey.
"Losing is fine. But I didn't expect her to beat me so easily."
"We're getting older." Sledge hoisted her lower body up and curled her legs around 8EX's arm. She then released the grip her arms had and let herself dangle upside down. Her officer's hat fell off and landed on the floor. "We're only going to get more decrepit as time goes on. And if you really want to show up Vex, you're going to have to get a few more cybernetic implants."
"I don't plan on doing that." Zako ceased his push-ups and stood up. "And I wouldn't say we're that old yet, considering the position you're in now."
"I recommend cybernetic implants for the both of you," 8EX said, "it would help slow the aging process."
"I think Sledge was joking, 8EX," Zako said.
"But I am not."
Sledge pulled herself back up and grabbed onto the droid with her arms again. She let her legs falls and let go, hitting the deck boots first. "Oh, c'mon. We're not aging that badly."
"But you are aging. All organics do."
"Tell you what, I'll think about getting some cybernetic work done," Sledge huffed. "Let's change the topic, huh?"
"You guys worry too much," Zako said, "we're likely to all be killed in this war anyway."
"When did you grow a backbone?" Sledge raised an eyebrow.
"Since he lost his left eye," 5TE answered.
"Hey, I had a spine before that." Zako's cybernetic eye whirled around independently of his natural one, stopping when it focused on the super battle droid.
"You do take more risks than you used to," the super battle droid countered.
"Maybe I want some payback for what those clones did to me. I can't even get mad at a specific individual. The clone that did this to me died back on Raxus Prime. So I just have to take my anger out on the Republic military in general. Though I may not even be able to do that anymore, from what I've heard about these new droids Quartz cooked up, organic soldiers may all be obsolete soon."
"You could always still be used as cannon fodder," Sledge said.
"Right." Zako's cybernetic eye whirred around to look at Sledge now.
"That is so freaky when you do that." Sledge crossed her arms.
"Do what?"
"The eye thing."
"Oh, yeah. I guess I've gotten used to it." Zako had reached a point where it felt completely natural for his cybernetic eye to go off looking in different directions from his natural one.
"It makes you look like some freaky chameleon thing. Like some generic bad guy from the old holovids."
"Generic?" Zako found that more irritating than being called a 'bad guy.'
There was one specific thing OOM-9 noticed when he walked into the Karajor's war room… it was crowded. Normally, Separatist battle droids were accustomed to crowds. Droids fought alongside each other in battle groups often numbering in the hundreds, marched in armies measured in the thousands. It was typical, predictable, but this was one of the few exceptions to the rule. OOM-9 was not used to having so many high-profile Confederate leaders in one place.
Wat Tambor, General Fangor, General Whorm Loathsom, General Lok Durd, Pune Zignat, Dr. Nuvo Vindi and Zian Finnis were all present and studying the planet Gerrard V. Spending time rotting away in prison, they were quick to busy themselves and get back to work. The tactical droid TH-1066 was present on behalf of OOM-9's forces, until the droid general showed up personally. The room was crowded enough that no one other than TH-1066 even noticed OOM-9's arrival.
OOM-9 would not have usually kept the leaders under his care for so long. Under normal circumstances they would have been given new assignments and shipped off already but OOM-9 insisted they stick around for a special demonstration that was planned.
"It was an odd move on behalf of the Republic," Whorm Loathsom said, "the Duros are such a small minority on Gerrard V that they didn't even register as a full percentage point in census data."
TH-1066 had been present the whole time, and was able to wirelessly relay to OOM-9 what the others were talking about—Gerrard V's recently 'elected' civilian leader.
General OOM-9 joined in the conversation without missing a beat, as if he had been present the whole time. "The Republic must have simply used the most politically adept individual that was willing to work with them that Gerrard V had to offer without taking into consideration any other factors."
"The political situation of Gerrard V is ultimately of no consequence." Lok Durd paced back and forth. "Republic influence will be purged upon our arrival. When the clone army is destroyed, the existing power structure will find no support among the common people—that is, if they somehow manage to escape our grasp. The outcome of the battle has already been decided. The only question that remains is how effective we will be." Durd allowed a smile to grace his large face. "And I am interested to see how these new droids perform in combat."
"I concur," General Fangor agreed. "These new droids must be especially powerful if you ask that we all bear witness to them."
"Indeed, General Fangor," OOM-9 said, "we have the some of the finest military and scientific minds of the galaxy gathered here. Your reviews of this new droid would be most helpful."
The 8th Fleet exited out of hyperspace in front of Gerrard V.
Commander OOM-8 had requested Dr. Destroyer's presence on the command bridge. Dr. Quartz had finished a new droid that was soon to be tested, Dr. Destroyer had developed neuro poison designed to only kill clone troopers. Things were starting to look better; the 8th Fleet could certainly use a morale booster after the previous fights it had endured. But OOM-8 had concocted a little idea—something that would blow everything else out of the water if it worked.
Through the windows, OOM-8 and Dr. Destroyer observed the fleet of Republic ships in orbit around Gerrard V. The fleet was made up of Acclamator assault ships and Venator star destroyers; the Republic favored the use of those ships heavily.
"What is it you would have me do, Commander?" Dr. Destroyer asked.
"You are remarkably talented at controlling the minds of clone troopers," OOM-8 stated.
"I am. They are weak-minded. It is not difficult to control them."
"Could you use the Force to control the crews on the Venator star destroyers? Can you extend your powers from such a distance?"
"I can."
"Possess their bridge crews. Have the ships crash into one another." OOM-8 was no expert in the limitations of the Force, but the CIS had faced many weak Jedi. Not to say Dr. Destroyer was weak, but OOM-8 knew the Ithorian couldn't accomplish everything. The command droid figured that grasping the ships and forcibly floating them into the system's star was beyond Destroyer's power. But OOM-8 figured this was a reasonable request.
"I can do that."
Destroyer reached out through the Force, focusing in on the bridge of the lead Venator star destroyer. Through the Force, the Ithorian felt around, seeking the minds of the beings onboard that specific section of the ship. He found them—dim lights against a vast backdrop of nothingness. A few brighter bulbs flared in his vision: the captain and the few non-clone crewmembers. Not as dim and sad as the clones, but Destroyer would have no difficultly guiding their actions either.
Identifying his prey, Destroyer seized control in an instant. Their minds were his to command. Doing as Destroyer willed, the bridge crew wordlessly guided their Venator ship right into the path of another Venator.
The collision shattered the hulls of the two ships, small explosions rippling down their sides. Dr. Destroyer moved on and took control of the crew of another Venator, and sent that one careening into an Acclamator assault ship.
The Force-sensitive Ithorian repeated the process until the Republic fleet had been destroyed. The cannons of the 8th Fleet fell silent. The entire ordeal had taken longer than OOM-8 would have guessed; Dr. Destroyer never possessed more than one bridge crew at a time.
"Very clever, Commander. I'm surprised no one thought to do this before."
"You haven't been with us very long, Doctor. I'm sure we will think of many more uses for you," OOM-8 said.
"This will not go unnoticed by the Republic."
"It will not matter. They cannot tie you to it, or you would have protested."
"True. It is no more dangerous than using my Battle Interference."
"And since our ship crews primarily utilize droids, the Jedi will be unable to use this tactic against us."
Pod hunters were deployed to dispose of any escape pods that had been jettisoned.
With the Republic fleet in ruins, transports left the 8th Fleet and approached the planet, starting the ground invasion of Gerrard V.
The network had alerted OOM-9 that OOM-8's idea had worked perfectly. Using Dr. Destroyer to possess the enemy bridge crews was ingenious. For the time being, it seemed that space battles would become a thing of the past for the 8th Fleet, at least until the Republic figured out what was going on. All it would take to stop Destroyer's ship killing ability would be to comprise their bridge crews with droids. OOM-9 considered that if they used Destroyer's abilities sparingly, the Republic might not figure out what they were doing. As it stood currently, the other Separatist leaders with OOM-9 weren't aware of what had transpired during the space battle either. None of them had paid the space battle any mind; they were waiting for the demonstration of the new droids.
Commander EEK-176 led the ground invasion while OOM-9 stayed with the other military leaders on the Karajor. Waiting through some initial battles on the planet, a small clone outpost was scouted out and three of the new droids were deployed for the demonstration. Several Separatist recon droids followed the new droids, recording them and uploading the footage to the 8th Fleet.
The recon droids' surveillance was plastered all over several large viewscreens for the Separatist officers to see. Of the recently released prisoners, General Fangor, General Lok Durd, General Whorm Loathsom, Zian Finnis, Dr. Nuvo Vindi, Pune Zignat, and Wat Tambor were present. Gregor Zolska and the Silver Stalker were not onboard the Karajor, having chosen to participate in the invasion of Gerrard V. OOM-9, Baroness Zincer, Commander TH-1066 and Commander Zako were also present.
The three droids that dominated the vidscreens resembled giant metal scorpions. Eight legs propelled each droid as they skittered across the arid dirt of Gerrard V. They each had two clawed arms and a tail for attack. They were clad in dark gray armor. A large, violet eye dominated their heads. Standing at a height of 1.98 meters, the scorpion droids were no taller than dwarf spider droids (not counting the scorpion droids' tails or the spider droids' antennas) though the scorpion droids were much longer than the spider droids. Like other droids of their kind they spoke in a beeping language.
The scorpion droids rushed a squad of clone troopers on patrol, tearing at the enemy with their massive metal claws or their stinger-tipped tails.
"Our recent encounter with Mace Windu highlighted the deficiencies of the HouseKarl and Z1 special ops battle droids." Doctor Quartz purposefully did not list what those deficiencies were. OOM-9 was a brilliant droid, he had preformed well beyond his original abilities, but he was mostly good at fighting and commanding armies. Over his time with the unique command battle droid, Quartz had learned that OOM-9 wasn't good at everything. The droid general's idea of the special ops battle droid had proven that when it came to designing new droids and weapons, OOM-9 lacked creativity and tried to use brute force tactics on the design process. OOM-9's thinking process was little more than 'make it the same but with higher quality materials, higher energy output, and more computing capacity.' Dr. Gatling Quartz was an artist when it came to designing new weapons and droids, but the Skakoan felt it wise not to gloat about his superiority this time. Besides, Quartz was too busy gloating over the new scorpion droids at the moment to pause and acknowledge anything else (including himself).
A few clones from the squad managed to escape the slaughter, heading towards the Republic outpost, which was the scorpion droids' ultimate goal.
"We needed a new unit to decisively win this war. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the droid you were looking for: the SKN-87 scorpion droid." Dr. Quartz was actually impressed with himself. He had managed to surpass his own predictions and completed the scorpion droids much faster than originally intended. His new droids were already out on the field and committing their first massacre. Quartz's cruel heart swelled with pride.
The clones at the outpost rushed to take up defensive positions. They couldn't hear what their comrades on patrol were yelling about—but it was obvious it had to do with the droids that resembled giant scorpions. Some of the clones manned EWHB-12 repeaters, but quickly learned the weapons were too weak to puncture the droids' armor.
With so many new targets, the scorpion droids started firing their anti-infantry blasters. Each droid had a pair of repeating blaster cannons installed in their claws. A crimson tide of red started to cut through white armor as blue was spat back towards the dark gray hulls of the three droids.
"They're some kinda new droids! We need heavy weapons over here now!" a clone sergeant yelled. It only took a moment for several clones to show up with rocket launchers.
The scorpions were incredibly fast for a droid their size, and were just as fast scuttling sideways or backwards as they were going forwards. They were able to dodge the incoming rockets entirely, an impressive feat for droids so large.
A pair of AT-RTs rushed in and were swiftly destroyed: one from the tail-cannons and the other was physically torn apart by the droids' metal claws.
Another blue rocket was sent soaring towards one of the scorpion droids. The droid managed a combat roll—flipping his large body around and landing on his feet again. The rocket exploded harmlessly at the scorpion droid's side.
To say that the scorpion droids' claw cannons were designated as anti-infantry was a disservice—they were incredibly powerful. They cut down the armored clones instantly; they were so powerful they could batter down light to medium armored vehicles. The scorpion droids left a sickening display of gore in their wake not seen since the HouseKarl battle droids had been deployed on Krant.
The outpost's sole scout walker was torn apart by the anti-vehicle cannons installed in the scorpion droids' tails.
One of the scorpion droids fired its metal tail-stinger at a clone. The harpoon effortlessly punctured through the both armor and meat. The stinger was attached by a metal chain, allowing the scorpion droid to quickly wheel in his catch. The droid whipped the clone around until his body was broken. While gruesome, it was less efficient than just using their blaster cannons, but the scorpion droids were here to demonstrate what they could do.
The outpost commander sent an alert to the main base in the capital city. They were going to need help.
A pair of prowler droids at the outpost uploaded live feed to the Republic base commander and her two Jedi. The two Jedi were none other than Kit Fisto and Adi Gallia—both members of the Jedi Council and incredibly dangerous.
"What are those?" the base commander asked.
"Looks, like some sort of new droid, sir," the clone at the computer terminal said.
Stupid clone. Doesn't know a rhetorical question when he hears it, she thought to herself. Being addressed a 'sir' all the time was annoying as well.
"Request immediate assistance. We're getting torn apart over here." The voice of the outpost commander came in over the comm.
"Those troopers won't last long," Gallia said.
"Send in the ARC troopers!" The base commander demanded. They had lost contact with the fleet in orbit and now some new kind of droid was causing trouble. Things were bad enough as it was; so the commander was very determined to put a stop to this little problem immediately.
"Yes sir. Outpost Gamma, we are sending ARC troopers to your location. ETA: Five minutes. Stand by."
"We're not gonna last five minutes!"
The base commander raised an eyebrow. The clones weren't usually that insolent. Things must have been going very badly. More so than what the prowler droids were providing them with.
Over the course of those five minutes, the scorpion droids methodically wiped out the rest of the Republic outpost. The droids had finished their work just as the ARC gunship was coming within range. The scorpion droids looked to the sky and fired their tail cannons. Four violet streams of deadly laser made contact with the blue gunship, and the aircraft came tumbling out of the sky.
The Republic prowler droids and Separatist recon droids continued to provide the leaders of the two factions a view of the battle.
The scorpion droids rushed to the wrecked gunship and slaughtered the survivors of the crash before they could even react. It was incredibly uneventful. The Republic's ARC troopers were known as some of the greatest soldiers the galaxy had ever seen… and they and been reduced to nothing in the span of a couple of seconds. It wasn't even a real fight, the clones were killed before they could even collect their weapons and clear the wreck. The ARC gunship's two pilots were the last to die. The scorpion droids had to cut open the gunship with their claws to get to them.
It was all over. The entire clone garrison stationed at the outpost had been eliminated. The scorpion droids could move on to their next target.
The Separatist Droid Network gathered the data from the droids and distributed the results directly to OOM-9 and a few select others. The results were impressive: the three scorpion droids had killed an entire battalion of clones without taking any casualties.
Seeing the battle on the viewscreen ended, the CIS leaders were silent for a moment. Having been broken out of prison, most of the officers were holding a grim view of the current state of the war, but seeing the new droids' spectacular performance, it looked like their fortunes were about to change.
"These droids could have altered the outcome on Christophsis," Loathsom said.
"I congratulate you on the success of your droids." Lok Durd turned to Dr. Quartz. "Not as efficient as my defoliator but I recognize the value of their abilities. I could certainly make use of such droids when they enter mass production."
Commander Zako was silent, his mouth slightly agape. He had never seen such a battle before. It was marvelous. Zako wanted to be part of the action, especially since it was so much in favor of the droid army. He turned to his superior officer. "OOM-9, can we go down there and join the fight? I can't believe we're missing this."
"Very well, Zako. TH-1066 can get care of the others on his own."
Baroness Zada Zincer saw the two take their leave, and she followed them. Baroness Zincer had been stuck in a corner for a long time. As a civilian leader, she had to answer to the general public, and the war had started to turn against the Confederacy. Taxes were high to fund the military and people were becoming fed up with it. The military leaders weren't exposed to the same scrutiny that Zincer was. They either failed to recognize the problem or didn't care. Either way, Zincer's problem had been solved. These scorpion droids were going to win the war and Zincer had a feeling all her critics would shut their mouths once Zakkudos was drowning in riches from plundered Republic worlds. Zincer's own political career might even possibly extend beyond Zakkudos now.
"Can I help you, Baroness?" OOM-9 asked.
"You already have. These new droids are just what we need."
"Unfortunately, they are very expensive," OOM-9 reminded the human.
"I don't care," Zincer was quick to reply. "We are going to mass produce these new droids. And we are going to conquer this entire galaxy. This is no longer a war for independence. We are going to take everything."
"That will take time. And I don't want the factories producing only these droids."
"Of course not. But these new scorpion droids are different from those other elite models you commissioned. The Republic can't hope to stop us now. The clone troopers are completely ineffective against these droids and the Jedi are too few. When we have enough of these droids made, we're going to plunder the Republic's worlds of all their resources. Zakkudos has put a lot of money into this war. And I plan to drown my planet in wealth. No one will dare speak another ill word against me again, do you hear me, General?"
"Yes, Baroness."
While the others fought, Ashley Katen was languishing around in one the Scrapyard's hangar bays. She had not gotten over the fact that she had murdered a little girl. She didn't care enough to see the new droids in action; she didn't care about the battle raging on the planet below. Her personal little pity party was interrupted by DSD-08.
"Hey, DSD-08." She looked over as the spider droid slowly marched his way over to her. "What are you up to?"
The dwarf spider droid gave a sorrowful sounding response.
"You know better than that. You're not going to become obsolete. The scorpion droids are not going to replace the dwarf spider droids." Katen absently rubbed the back of her head.
The spider droid gave another series of beeps.
"If anyone's going to becoming obsolete, it's me. Nobody needs me anymore. I could die today and it wouldn't matter to anyone."
DSD-08 beeped again.
Katen let out a sigh. Maybe I should tempt fate? She wondered. "DSD-08, how 'bout we go down to the planet and show the others what we can do."
DSD-08 beeped in agreement, nodding his large head.
"Okay. I'll get a transport ready."
Commander EEK-176 observed the area through a pair of electrobinoculars. The droid army was slowly coalescing around Gerrard V's capital city of Harazod. After a series of skirmishes around the planet, the Republic now knew it was facing a new and very dangerous battle droid. Being beaten at every turn, the Republic recalled all its forces to the planet's capital in order to maximize their firepower, which EEK-176 considered to be a surprisingly competent move on the Republic's part. Faster units such as speeder bikes, AT-RTs and fighter tanks were trying to prevent the droid army from getting too close to the city while the Republic artillery moved into defensive formations.
It was difficult for either faction to take special notice of the scorpion droids at this point; they were lost in the endless sea of Confederate droid troops. They scorpion droids blended in perfectly with the other multi-legged droids deployed in the battle: dwarf spider droids, crab droids, octuptarra droids, chameleon droids, T4 turret droids, and droidekas. Bipedal units like the B1 and B2 battle droids would appear to be in the minority now, except for the fact that there were so many of them.
Captain SSA-719 and a squad of security droids were firing off remote rockets into clone infantry formations. The droids were trying to clear away as many enemy infantry as they could as fast as they could. They were targeting the clones for a very specific reason.
Sitting in the driver's seat of a tsmeu-6 wheel bike, Sergeant 3B3-888 led an entire attack group comprised of the monowheel vehicles. A thermal detonator battle droid was right behind him, sharing the seat, turning the vehicle into a very mobile mortar launcher. The combination was 3B3-888's idea; the B1 battle droid had been spurred into serious critical thinking in order to show his old model could still prove useful when compared to the new scorpion droids. The B1 battle droids faced no threat of being replaced, but 3B3-888 couldn't fight the urge to surprise both friend and foe alike with his resourcefulness. The mortar wheel bikers were agile enough to avoid the firepower of larger vehicles but were vulnerable to infantry fire—though that was no longer an issue thanks to the remote rockets from SSA-719's squad. The wheel bike squad was able to get through the tank defenses and destroy the anti-air tanks so the bombers could move in and finish the job.
The sky was clogged with starfighters, but two stood out over all others. The recently released Silver Stalker was piloting a gray Belbullab-22 fighter. The other exceptional fighter was a Delta-7 piloted by Adi Gallia. Both Gallia and the Silver Stalker were ace pilots, and they found each other in battle quickly. The problem was they cancelled each other out. Neither could shoot the other down, and both were prevented from making a meaningful kill streak on the other side's fighters. That left the rank-and-file Vultures, Stag Beetles, Scarabs, and Torrent fighters to decide the outcome of the air battle. The two opposing groups of fighters continued on in a stalemate with no side gaining a clear upper hand—but the Republic now lacked anti-air tanks thanks to the wheel bikes.
Squadrons of E-STAP droid starbombers were able to get past the Republic's defensive screen of fighters, and started raining down hellish fury in the form of green plasma bombs. AV-7 cannons and A5-RX battle tanks were reduced to a few burning pieces of scrap metal bathed in burnt dirt. There was little stopping a full charge by the Separatist ground forces now.
As could be expected, KJZ-8267 was leading the bomber squadrons from his own E-STAP. Despite the fact that his focus was supposed to be on eliminated ground forces, the pilot battle droid couldn't help but try and shoot down as many fighters as he possibly could, just to see how he would compare to the Silver Stalker. It wasn't a competition in any real sense, as the Silver Stalker was scoring almost no kills (being too busy with Adi Gallia).
Even though he was clearly the most dangerous air unit in the battle, KJZ-8267 went ahead and released his bomber's compliment of mechanized drone fighters. The tiny automated drone fighters were very fast and agile and would swarm a specific target. Any model of E-STAP could carry up to eight of the drone fighters (at a cost of holding fewer bombs). KJZ-8267 released all eight of his drones, sending them against a nearby Torrent he was too busy to shoot down as he was currently chasing after a gunship fighter. Each drone was equipped with two laser cannons. Two laser cannons apiece for the eight drones meant the Torrent fighter was quickly drowned in violet lasers and converted into a superheated fireball.
KJZ-8267 banked his bomber to the right and dusted off a few clone scout walkers that were encroaching on General OOM-9's position.
Despite OOM-9's arrival to the planet's dusty surface, the battle droid general left the senior commander in charge. EEK-176 was in every way OOM-9's equal, and the two droids could pass leadership positions between each other and the soldiers of their army couldn't tell the difference. More often than not, the two command droids acted as co-leaders. Rank was nothing more than a formality, something recognized more by the 8th Fleet's newer organic soldiers or those outside the military structure that comprised the 8th Fleet and the armies it carried.
OOM-9 was currently utilizing the gatling gun trio EEK-176 favored so much: the shoulder ZPR gatling gun combined with dual wielded ZGD gatling guns. OOM-9 understood why EEK-176 enjoyed the combination; he was able to gun down countless clones without any fire support. He was a one-droid army. But OOM-9 wasn't alone. He had several squads of various battle droids and humans at his sides. Zako and Zolska were also nearby; OOM-9 noticed the cyborg commander was having trying to keep pace with Zolska. Even though they both wore FR-8 shock trooper armor, it was easy to tell them apart. Zako was arrogant enough that his armor sported custom violet eyes on his helmet, while Zolska's were the standard blue.
Zolska moved blindingly fast (amazing considering the human was in his fifties). Zako was wheezing heavily trying keeping up, he was not about to let someone twenty years his senior show him up. But even Zolska's combat skills were overshadowed by the brutal power of the scorpion droids that fought alongside them.
The devastation unleashed by the scorpion droids was massive. They were the apex of modern military technology. Combined with the skills of soldiers like OOM-9 and Zolska, and Commander Zako found himself outclassed and highly irrelevant… and he felt relieved. A dark cloud was lifted from his mind. The grueling pressure to succeed was fading away. For it didn't matter what Zako did, he would never be on the level with the likes of soldiers like Zolska. He didn't matter; the droid army was assured success. Knowing the battle… the war would go just as smoothly with him out of the picture, and Zako found himself fighting more effectively than he ever had before. The battle felt clearer, every shot was more accurate. Knowing he didn't matter at all had freed him from fear and doubt, and he was all the more effective for it.
KJZ-8267 had bombed more of their armored adversaries, but one AT-XT remained to challenge OOM-9's group. The bipedal walker was not stingy with the mortars it lobbed at the scorpion droids. The droids were able to roll away from most of the blasts, but were caught on the edges of the splash damage—though the scorpion droids were unaffected. The scorpion droids reminded OOM-9 of the durability of advanced dwarf spider droids, but they had maneuverability the spiders did not. One of the scorpion droids managed to scuttle all the way over to the AT-XT, and brought it tumbling down when it clipped one of the walker's legs with a metal claw. The walker came crashing down, the driver either dead or smart enough to hide in his wrecked vehicle. Zolska and Zako cut the walker's head open when they reached it, discovering that the pilot was still alive. Zolska solved that problem quickly. The group continued on towards the city.
Rather than fighting in the battle, Kit Fisto was still in Harazod. The Jedi Master had learned that the planet's president had set about looting the city, using loyal supporters and government-owned transports to take all the money and art he could.
Fisto called the politician on his imagecaster.
"Mr. President, this is highly inappropriate. Securing financial resources in order to continue the war is one thing. Looting art is quite another." This is who Kit Fisto was: even in the darkest hours under the strain of war, he would not willfully ignore corruption when it came to his attention.
"The art can be sold to secure additional financial resources. Or don't you want to win this war? Judging from how your army is fighting, it looks like you don't."
"Looting local art will only loose us the support of the people."
"The support of the people means nothing when you can't beat the droid army! This entire venture is a loss. We might as well salvage something from it."
"The Republic will never abandon—"
"It already has," the hologram of the Duros cut the Nautolan Jedi off. "I'm getting out of here. I expect you will delay the droids long enough for my transports to escape."
"I will hold them off as long as I can."
"See that you do." The tiny hologram fizzled out.
Fisto knew he couldn't stop the thievery from happening, at least not during such a heated battle. And the truth was the Republic needed resources in order to continue the war. Using looted financial resources and priceless art was just another thing to add to the ever-growing list of the Republic's moral bankruptcy. Kit Fisto didn't like it at all, but it wasn't something Kit could dwell on any further; he needed to get into the fight. The president's corruption would have to be dealt with another day… if they even lived to see another day.
A brown Neimoidian transport came in low near the city and dropped off Major Katen and DSD-08, as well as a several squads of B1, B2, and crab droids. Surveying the battle around them, DSD-08 and Katen concluded that if they had arrived any later, the fighting would have been over. It was astonishing how much progress the droid army had been able to make. The scorpion droids stood out as particularly brutal killers, but every droid and organic soldier on the battlefield was doing their best to keep up with them.
Katen's battle group started attacking the nearest grouping of clone troopers. The clones put up a decent fight, for they were fighting for their very lives. At this point in the battle, there was no illusion that the clone troopers were fighting to keep Gerrard V, or Harazod, or even fighting on behalf of the Republic in general—they were fighting for themselves, fighting to stay alive, struggling against the looming embrace of the grim reaper. But it still did not save them. No amount of struggle or effort could stop a dwarf spider droid's cannon from tearing through clone armor.
Katen's battle group finished off the clones and moved onto the next group, then the next, and the next—until they came across Kit Fisto.
There were no verbal threats, challenges or introductions, Katen and the droids merely attacked. They knew who Kit Fisto was; he was a rather famous member of the Jedi Council. And Katen didn't think she had it in her to distract the Jedi with ravenous rantings the way Zako had done with Windu. She didn't get the chance even if she wanted to—Kit Fisto rushed in and started cutting the droids to pieces. The B1s, B2s and crab droids all fell to the green blade so effortlessly it looked as if the entire fight had been scripted for the droids to lose.
Katen was next on the chopping block, or so she thought. Kit was just about to strike at her when he was repelled by a red blaster bolt. The Nautolan Jedi fluidly changed course and burst forth at the spider droid, slicing him in two with one swift stroke of his green blade. The top of DSD-08's head fell away from the bottom half, and the spider droid's four legs collapsed. The bright red light faded from the droid's large, bulbous photoreceptors. The damage was bad; Katen realized it could prove fatal. It was possible the lightsaber had damaged DSD-08's droid brain beyond repair. Katen had just watched DSD-08 die.
Then Katen saw it. Kit Fisto unleashed the most obnoxious, shit eating grin she had ever seen. The bastard thought it was funny. Everything was backwards from what it was supposed to be. Katen should have been the one smiling and laughing as she killed Republic troops. Instead this Jedi slimeball had a snarky grin as he cut up battle droids right in front of her.
And then Katen snapped. Her old energy and anger had returned, bolstered from the fact that she now lacked fear. At that moment, Ashley Katen completely lacked fear. If anything, she wanted to die. She charged the Jedi in a roar, her electrostaff cackling as it crashed against Fisto's green lightsaber. Neither weapon could destroy the other, yet Katen kept striking as hard as she could, as if hitting it hard enough would somehow short the weapons internal circuits and shut down the lightsaber. No such thing happened. Instead there was nothing but the messy, nuclear fury that was Katen's rage pitted against Kit Fisto's smug Jedi calm.
As the air around them sparked with the snarls of power, it became clear that Kit Fisto's mastery of the lightsaber and knowledge of the Force was nothing more than a joke when pitted against one so eager to kill and willing to die in the process. The Jedi barely kept pace with Katen's parrying, striking, spinning and slashing. The final insult to Fisto's mastery of the Force came when Katen kicked up some dirt in the Jedi's face, momentarily blinding him. Raw, supernatural power had been beaten by simple dirty tricks. The Force barely provided Fisto the insight on where to block Katen's next strike while he was blinded.
Frustrated at being bested by such mundane trickery, Fisto renewed his own assault, only to be beaten back by Katen's mountain of suicidal rage. Nearby battle droids had taken notice of the fight and were rushing to help the armored Separatist officer kill the Jedi.
Fisto knocked Katen away with the Force, and then jumped up to catch a ride on a passing LAAT gunship. Katen pulled her commando pistol and fired at him, still trying her best to kill him. Her aim was true enough that Kit found himself having to deflect a couple of the red blasts with his lightsaber. With the gunship out of range, Katen looked around. The battle was winding down. The clone army was in full retreat. There was no immediate threat to her person. Katen released the tension built up in her muscles. She sulked over to the scrapped form of DSD-08. She hoped the techs would be able to fix him.
Kit Fisto thought his fight was over and he had gotten away, but the Force provided him the briefest insight that that was in fact, not true. But a brief warning of the immediate future was all Fisto got—a split second later EEK-176's AAT hit Fisto's gunship with it primary cannon.
The Jedi leapt from the falling wreck and landed on his feet not far from the droid commander's tank. The Nautolan Jedi burst forward, reflecting blasts from the command droid's E-5 blaster rifle. Fisto ran right up the front of the tank and was about to decapitate the droid when he was surprised to discover that his lightsaber connected with something other than the droid's thin neck.
EEK-176 had blocked Fisto's lightsaber strike with his ZK-II war-axe. The two weapons were connected in a contest of physical strength, a contest EEK-176 was winning. But that wasn't enough; EEK-176 fired his E-5, forcing Fisto to jump away.
The Jedi landed in the dirt, far from the armored assault tank. Super battle droids and BX droid commandos moved in towards the Jedi.
"Kill him," EEK-176 ordered.
Fisto blocked the blaster bolts that came his way, redirecting them at the droids that tried to end his life. He soon found himself on the run again when EEK-176's AAT tried to incinerate him with its primary cannon.
The battlefield had become much smaller. All around the area of Harazod was clogged with Separatist forces. OOM-9's battle group had nearly reached EEK-176's, and they barred Fisto's escape route. The battle droid general's trio of gatling guns came alive, though the Jedi was able to elude them by charging directly towards the droids. Fisto managed to destroy a few battle droids and when he went for one of the scorpion droids, it skittered out of his lightsaber's reach. The scorpion droids were tough, but they weren't made out of cortosis or phirk, a lightsaber could still cut them up.
EEK-176's tank was blocked by an IFT-X fighter tank, preventing him from attacking the Jedi further.
Zolska charged forward, his war-axe meeting the Jedi's lightsaber. OOM-9 and the surrounding droids would have filled Kit Fisto full of holes right then and there is not for the fact that they suddenly had to deal with several incoming AT-RTs. OOM-9 was frustrated, the annoying walkers just had to show up now, stopping him from killing a member of the Jedi Council.
Zako on the other hand, ignored the AT-RTs and kept his focus on the Jedi. He circled around the duel between Gregor Zolska and Kit Fisto and snuck up behind the Nautolan. Zako activated his own war-axe, the violet edge gleaming in the dusty air.
Kit Fisto swung his free hand around his back and knocked Zako away with a burst of the Force, treating the commander as no more than an afterthought.
Zako flailed around on the dusty ground, snatching up his blaster rifle again. There were clones nearby, and they had turned towards him. Five in total, Zako didn't stand a chance. With the OOM-9 and the droids still fighting the AT-RTs and Zolska busy with Fisto, Zako was on his own. Zako didn't stand a chance out in the open, but he'd try anyway. He didn't have much choice.
Right before the clones pulled the triggers on their weapons there was a great gray blur. 3B3-888 had boosted in on his wheel bike and run over the squad of troopers, leaving a slick trail of blood and intestines in his wake.
"Thank you," Zako transmitted to the B1 battle droid.
"You're welcome."
3B3-888 turned his wheel bike back around and aimed straight for Fisto, but the Nautolan somersaulted out of the way before the battle droid could turn him into road kill. Fisto found himself having to block multiple blaster bolts, as Zolska and Zako opted to shoot at him with their E-5 blaster rifles. As 3B3-888 looped around again, the mortar droid riding with him tossed a pair of thermal detonators Fisto's way. Kit Fisto grabbed the grenades with the Force and hurled them at one of the scorpion droids. The droid made a disgruntled beeping noise when the grenades went off, but his armor was unaffected by the blast. The scorpion droid fired his stinger harpoon in retaliation, but missing the elusive Jedi. The droid reeled his stinger back in and fired again, yet still missed. Attacking clone troopers was one thing; attacking Jedi was another. Kit Fisto was just as good as avoiding attacks from the scorpion droid as he was from everyone else.
EEK-176 had eliminated his enemy fighter tank and OOM-9 had finished off the last of the AT-RTs. Both the tank-bound EEK-176 and OOM-9 had turned back around to attack Kit Fisto when several blue lasers came raining down on his general position. Adi Gallia's Delta-7 interceptor dived down, providing covering fire for her ally. The AAT swerved to the side, more concerned with avoiding fire than getting a good shot at the fighter. OOM-9 fired his trio of gatling guns up at the slender starfighter, managing to hit it several times. But the fighter didn't go down, and turned around again for another attack. EEK-176 raised and fired his E-5 at the Delta-7, it wasn't likely he would shoot down the ship with his simple blaster rifle, but he tried anyway.
In Gallia's next pass, she attracted the attention of the scorpion droids, but they failed to hit her craft entirely.
Despite being far from the fight, SSA-719 managed to guide one of his remote rockets to Fisto's location. The rocket slammed down, creating a huge explosion, yet the Jedi was somehow able to get far enough away in time that he wasn't vaporized. The impact from the blast was close enough that Zako and a few B1 battle droids were knocked off their feet. Zolska managed to keep his balance and kept firing on Fisto.
Another Delta-7 came hurtling towards their location, though this one didn't have a pilot—at least not in a normal sense. The craft was being operated by its astromech droid, who was coming to rescue his master. Kit immediately recognized the custom color scheme of his personal starfighter and leapt up onto the interceptor as it passed by. The droids continued firing on it as it sped away. Kit Fisto joined with Adi Gallia and together their Delta-7 interceptors became lost in the background of the starfighter battle.
The ground troops that had hunted Fisto updated the fighters in the sky, but KJZ-8267 could not locate the Jedi fighters. It looked like they were going to get away, Jedi often did. Survival always was one of the Jedi's more annoying talents. KJZ-8267 was soon preoccupied with new, larger targets anyway. Several civilian transports were trying to flee the city. The pilot droid ordered his mechanized drone fighters to attack the nearest transport, softening it up. He then hit it with a few plasma bombs, destroying it in a single pass. Several more E-STAP bombers followed suit in attacking the transports. In the droid army's single-mindedness about destroying the enemy, they had ended up accidentally blowing up several transports of stolen artwork from the city's museums. It was a minor mistake, one that they could hardly be faulted for.
Once Harazod was lost to the droid army, the Republic was quick to abandon the planet. The retreat was a disaster: only a few transports and fighters managed to escape while many clones had been left behind and captured. Dr. Destroyer had been sent around to the various groups of prisoners to scan their minds to determine if they knew any valuable information. Once the Force-sensitive Ithorian gave the all clear, the prisoners were summarily executed. The droid army had more than enough prisoners already and had little use for clone troopers that didn't know anything.
Commander Zako and Sergeant 3B3-888 were in charge of one such group of clones, and after Destroyer had left for the next group, the CIS officer gave the order to begin the executions. The battle droids started shooting the clone prisoners one-by-one.
One of the clone troopers burst forward from the group after the first few executions. "You can't do this! We're prisoners of war! We're humans!"
Sergeant 3B3-888 and Commander Zako had no qualms about executing unarmed prisoners; none of the regular soldiers under the leadership of General OOM-9 had a problem with killing unarmed prisoners (though some of the newer organic troops might protest). Most soldiers in the Confederacy had no problem with this. The Jedi were seen as too dangerous to keep alive and no one in the CIS considered clone troopers to be actual people. There were many in the Republic that would call them war criminals, but 3B3-888 and the others didn't see themselves that way. To them, it didn't matter if the clones were killed in orderly executions or during a battle; they were all going to die one way or another. Even clones that were taken prisoner would be killed off eventually. No clone, or Jedi would be spared in the war. They would all fall to the Separatist war machine, one way or another.
Commander Zako sent out a wireless signal for the executions to cease. Sergeant 3B3-888 knew the commander was about to cause a scene. 3B3-888 had noticed that Zako was steadily getting angrier ever since becoming a bio-linked cyborg, though the droid suspected that part of the problem was that the commander was still riding the adrenaline high from such a successful battle. The battle droid knew his superior officer had been set off when the clone claimed to be human (though such a claim from a clone would set off any human soldier in the Confederacy).
"You think you're a human?" Zako walked over to the clone, taking off his helmet and revealing his face, specifically showing his cybernetic eye. "I'm a bio-linked cyborg, yet I'm more human than you'll ever be. I'm a real human, born from human parents. You were created in a factory."
"Just because I was born differently doesn't make me any less human. I am a human. I am a man. I am a soldier, a real one, not like you and those clankers you work with." That last part annoyed 3B3-888, but the battle droid wasn't truly angered. It was a statement that came out of the mouth of a clone trooper who was about to die, and thus 3B3-888 paid it no mind. The clone did get a reaction out of Commander Zako.
Zako punched the clone in the jaw. "You are nothing! You are a mindless piece of meat grown in a vat for the sole purpose of being cannon fodder. You're a soulless affront to the natural order of the galaxy!"
"I may be a copy, but I'm still human. And no amount of denial on your part will ever change that fact."
Zako hit the clone again, this time knocking him to the ground. "You're not a human! You just look like one. Your kind was created to make up for the Jedi's lack of numbers in this war. Nothing more. You're unthinking meat puppets! If you stopped to think for just a moment, you would realize this! Not even the Republic considers you human! The Republic claims slavery is illegal within their borders, yet you're all slaves. You're not paid, you're not given a choice if you want to fight or not. You die by the hundreds of millions in obscure battles nobody cares about. They don't care, cause you're not human! All they care about is how much taxpayer money it takes to create you." Zako kicked the clone while he was down.
3B3-888 stepped in and pulled Zako away. "That's quite enough, Commander." 3B3-888 pulled his E-5 blaster and shot the clone in the head. "You have better things to do than arguing with a bunch of dead clones."
The executions started up again and 3B3-888 pulled the CIS officer away to speak in private.
"What was all that, Zako?"
"That clone just got to me, is all."
"You need to calm down."
"Give me a break. I'm not perfect. I get mad sometimes. It's part of being human."
"I know." 3B3-888 patted Zako on the shoulder. "But you need to control yourself. Your ranting proved useful against Mace Windu, but it serves no purpose here. All you were doing is making yourself look bad in front of the troops." The battle droids present knew Zako well enough that his ranting didn't matter, but there were also newer human troops around. 3B3-888 knew Zako might have come across poorly to the newer troops and the B1 battle droid knew they needed unit cohesion in order to succeed in battle.
The cyborg put his helmet back on and let out a sigh. "Okay, fine."
"It's just a clone—who was about to be executed, I might add. You shouldn't get so worked up."
"How would you feel?"
"About what?"
"What if a battle droid's programming was copied. Poorly, I might add. And this copy was produced by the billions, and you had to fight them cycle after cycle after cycle. And then these copies start claiming that they're just as authentic as the real deal."
"I see your point. Still, you need to calm yourself. You need to keep your focus or one day a clone might be the death of you? Do you want that?"
"No. I always figured the Jedi would be the death of me anyway."
"Death by Jedi? You have some lofty aspirations. But, let's try to keep you from dying, eh? Things would get boring without you around." 3B3-888 was starting to think Zako could use a vacation, and he wasn't the only one that needed to take a vacation.
Even more than Zako, the droids felt Katen could use some time off. The stressed Separatist officer was currently pacing about the repair bay of the Scrapyard, waiting to see if DSD-08 would be all right.
The dwarf spider droid was in bad shape, so much so that he was beyond Katen's skill to repair; otherwise she would have fixed him herself. But instead she found herself having to wait while the techs fixed him up. Waiting… waiting and not knowing… that was always the worse part.
Katen felt worse than ever before. First she had killed that girl. That was certainly horrible. But it was an accident. Now she may have gotten one of her friends killed. Pong Krell may or may not have played a part in her previous failure, but this time she had no one to blame but herself.
Damn it, why did I have to go and show off? Why did I insist DSD-08 go with me? Why did this have to happen? I should have just stayed on the fucking ship. Katen paced back and forth. The raging inferno that had engulfed her soul while battling with Kit Fisto had been extinguished. Katen had seen a lot of death in her days; she was the cause of many deaths herself. But it felt weird when the survival of one of the droids she knew so well was at stake. She always took it for granted that they could be fixed up after battle. Sure, their droid army had suffered the occasional permanent loss of battle droids, but the ones Katen interacted with most often always made it through. She thought everyone was going to make it through. They were going to survive the war together until it was won. That's what was supposed to happen. Sure they may make mistakes along the way but they were special, they were real. Not like those soulless clone troopers or snobbish Jedi. They were supposed to make it through… though it didn't seem like that was the case anymore.
Finally one of the technicians, a Neimoidian, approached Katen.
"How is he?" she asked.
"Repairs are complete. He's perfectly fine. Dwarf spider droids are rather hardy units, I don't see what you were so worried about." Katen went to go check on him. The dwarf spider droid was good as new. He bore no scars of his recent battle. A wave of relief washed over Katen. DSD-08 was fine. It had all worked out in the end. Everything was fine. In fact, it looked like things would be getting better for the droid army soon. That gave Katen some small measure of comfort as she started to slink back into her depression.
The reviews were in: the scorpion droids were a massive success. Not a single one had been destroyed in the battle to take Gerrard V. None of the Separatist leaders that witnessed them in action had anything negative to say, aside from their prohibitive cost.
The Wat Tambor, Whorm Loathsom and the other Separatist leaders soon departed from OOM-9's custody, all except for one… Baroness Zada Zincer. The human was loitering around the Karajor's war room, and had summoned OOM-9.
"What can I do for you, Baroness?" OOM-9 asked upon entering.
"You can start by explaining what that space battle was all about. I may have only one eye, and I'm not connected to the network like that soldier of yours, but I'm not blind. More than just Quartz's scorpion droids were tested in this battle. Dr. Quartz is a genius, I admit. But I find it hard to believe that he could find a way to compel Republic cruisers to deliberately crash into one another," Zincer continued on, not letting OOM-9 speak. "You have acquired a Force-sensitive. I do not believe a Jedi would work with you, not after all the Jedi the droid armies have killed. And the Sith are too cowardly to brandish such power. You have acquired… something else…"
"You are correct, Baroness." OOM-9 saw no point in trying to lie. Zincer had already figured most of it out on her own.
"I do not like it when you keep secrets from me, General. I can understand why, but I do not like it."
"I am trying to exercise discretion. Drawing too much attention will bring the full force of the Jedi Order down on me."
"I think you blew it with that last stunt."
"Perhaps. But I believe I still have time to operate in the shadows."
"The time for discretion is coming to an end, General. This Force-user of yours changes little. The Force is nothing compared to the power of our factories. If anything, this Force-user will accelerate my plans, considering the practical way you utilize his abilities. I trust you to divulge all information to me when it is appropriate. But there is one thing I do need you to do for me."
"What is it, Baroness?"
"That bio-linked cyborg of yours, Commander Zako. I want reports on his mental health. A human has never been integrated into a network of this size before. I want to know if there are any side-effects."
OOM-9 knew this could be problematic. Zako never was the picture of mental health to begin with. "Looking to connect to the network yourself?"
"In the future, possibly. That is all I have to say on the matter for the time being. I will be heading back to Zakkudos now. I have much to do."
"Of course." Things were certainly going to become interesting very soon. The nature of the war was about to change. OOM-9's armies had played defense against the Grand Army of the Republic for long enough. Soon, they would be going on the offense, and the Separatist Droid Army was ready to make the Republic's worlds suffer.
Author's Note: The planet Gerrard V appeared in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.
The neuro poison appeared in Star Wars: Battlefront II.
Mechanized drone fighters appeared in Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter.
I came up with the scorpion droids on my own. With all the different spider droids, crab droids, Scarab starfighters, Stag Beetle fighters, and XT Beetle transports I figured scorpion droids would make sense as they keep with the little bug theme the CIS has going.