Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.
In space, two Imperial Star Destroyers were deploying pods from their hangar bays before the pods activated their thrusters as they all jumped into Hyperspace.
One of the pods soon left Hyperspace as it neared Atollon and landed within the planet's coral mesa as two Krykna spiderss were fighting before stopping as they noticed the pod landing in the distance as a protocol droid with blue plating, white and yellow markings and white eyes opened the pod's hatch and exited the pod as it began walking forward as it scouted the area before seeing an A-wing flying by in the distance.
"Possible target acquired. Preceding to investigate," the protocol droid said before he continued walking forward as a Krykna spider began following him as another one appeared in front of him as they cornered the protocol droid, "Encountering hostels. Cannot give away position." The Krykna spiders then began to attack the protocol droid.
"Hobbie, Biggs, Wedge, let's go! Move it!" Hera ordered Wedge, Biggs and Hobbie, who were wearing rebel pilot uniforms standing next to each other next to the Ghost as she, Satele and Zeb began to approach them within the landing bay of Chopper Base as two A-wings flew away from Chopper Base, "We're behind schedule, Phoenix Squadron. I want these fighters launched and at the training coordinates by 062."
"Don't understand why I can't come along," Zeb said as Wedge, Biggs and Hobbie ran towards their A-wings.
"Zeb, you're my chief of security. I need you to stay behind and mind the base," Hera explained.
"Oh, Hera, come on. Let me tag along," Zeb said, pleading with her as Kanan and Sabine walked towards them with the blind Jedi Knight wearing a bag over his shoulder, "You can always use an extra pair of hands. Just don't leave me on my own here. I'll be bored to death."
"You won't be on your own," Hera assured him she began walking towards the Ghost as AP-5 and Chopper walked past the Ghost with Chopper waving at Zeb as he pulled out one of his metal arms, "You have Chop and AP-5 to keep you company along with General Kalani and his battle droids in case anything bad happens while we're away."
"Like I said, bored to death," Zeb groaned.
"We'll be back before you know it," Kanan told Zeb as the Lasat placed his hands over his hips as Satele did the same with her hands as she, Sabine and Hera looked at Kanan.
"Carry on, Captain Orrelios," Sabine said, saluting Zeb as she bent down a bit before following Kanan and Hera up the Ghost's ramp.
"Sorry, Zeb," Satele chuckled as she followed her sister and the others up the Ghost's ramp.
"Did they seriously leave you in charge of this entire facility?" AP-5 asked Zeb as he walked in front of him with Chopper standing next to him.
"Something wrong with that?" Zeb asked him.
"Well, I always assumed you were more of a lift heavy things and punch anything in your way type," AP-5 explained, "You know, a grunt." As AP-5 said that, Zeb grunted angrily at him, "Precisely. Now, what exactly do you do?" Chopper then grunted an answer for him.
"What'd he say?" Zeb asked the protocol droid.
"He said, we've never actually figured that out," AP-5 answered.
"Don't you have something to do?" Zeb asked AP-5 as he grunted.
"Actually, while everyone is off practicing. I intend to take this opportunity to conduct a thorough inventory of the base's munitions depot," AP-5 answered, "Either of you may assist me." Chopper then grunted a response.
"Eh, I'm with you, Chopper," Zeb said, agreeing with the astromech, "Counting crates? Not my idea of fun. I'd rather help Kalani train his battle droids."
"Is it because you never learned to count?" AP-5 asked him in a teasingly tone, "I can teach you."
"What?! No!" Zeb said with annoyance in his voice as he pushed AP-5 aside as he went to leave AP-5 with Chopper, "I don't have to stay here and listen to this. I'll be in the command center."
"Doing what?" AP-5 asked him.
"Commanding!" Zeb answered.
"Captain," a rebel officer greeted Zeb as the Lasat and Chopper walked towards him and Kalani as they both stood around the command center's holotable.
"Anything to report," Zeb asked them.
"We've been tracking meteors impacting on the surface nearby," the rebel officer answered, "We think one of them knocked out a perimeter sensor in sector six. Should I send a unit?"
"No, I'll take a look," Zeb answered.
"Are you sure you don't want one of us to send a unit?" Kalani asked him, "I could send a squad of my battle droids and have them report back as soon as possible."
"I'm sure, General," Zeb reassured the Super tactical droid before turning to Chopper, "Chopper, you're with me." Chopper grunted a response as he pulled out one of his metal arms again, "Oh, you don't want to go? Fine then you can stay here and help AP-5 with his supply inventory."
"Chopper, there you are," AP-5 said as he walked into the command center as he began to walk towards Chopper, "We have a lot of inventory to calculate immediately." Chopper then began to roll away towards Zeb as he began to follow the Lasat, "Wait. Where are you going?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought," Zeb chuckled as Chopper followed him.
"Well, I don't see a meteor, but it looks like spiders had a go at it," Zeb said as he exited a landspeeder that he was riding in with Chopper as they reached the coral mesa outside of Chopper Base in the planet's wilderness as Chopper exited the landspeeder as well as they approached a dead Krykna lying on the ground behind a sensor marker that was knocked to the ground on its side with Zeb holding a spare sensor marker in his hand before stabbing it into the ground, "Easy enough to fix."
He then began to activate it as he pressed buttons on the sensor marker's panel before widening his eyes as he saw a metal object lying underneath the dead Krykna and groaned as he stood back up and began to approach it.
"Looks like something stumbled onto a nest and got swarmed," Zeb said as he grabbed his bo-rifle from his back and pushed the dead Krykna's body aside and saw the same protocol droid that was attacked by the Krykna spiders earlier lying on top of another Krykna as he placed his bo-rifle back over his back as he moved the protocol droid off the dead Krykna's body, "Huh. It's some kind of droid. And not one of ours." He then looked over the protocol droid from above, "How'd it get here? Doesn't look Imperial." Chopper then grunted, asking what they should do with the protocol droid, "We should take it back to base, see if we can figure out where it came from."
Chopper then grunted frustratedly as he pulled out a hammer from his body and banged it on the protocol droid's head for a second as Zeb went to pick the protocol droid up.
"Course you disagree and wanna trash it. Well, I suppose since Hera left you in charge…" Zeb said as he placed the protocol droid's body over his shoulders as he began to walk back over to the landspeeder, "Oh, wait, she didn't." Chopper then grunted frustratedly again as Chopper pulled both of his metal arms out as he followed Zeb to the landspeeder.
"Agent Kallus, we've lost contact with one of our Infiltrators," an Imperial officer informed Kallus as he held a datapad in his hand as Kallus had his hands behind his back as he stared out the viewport of a Star Destroyer as they stood on the Bridge of a Star Destroyer, "It hasn't reported in."
"What was it's last known location?" The ISB/Fulcrum Agent asked him.
"The droid never transmitted its coordinates, so we don't know," the Imperial officer answered, "Should we alert command?"
"If we chase down every temporary comm failure, we'd have little time to do anything else. If there's still no contact by next cycle, we'll follow up," Kallus answered as he turned around as he went to leave the Imperial officer as well as the Star Destroyer's Bridge, "For now, we wait."
"No, no, no, no. This is all wrong. Rations in the munitions section? Torpeopes with detonators?" AP-5 said with disbelief in his voice as he inspected the munitions section of Chopper Base, "My Maker! This is a logistics nightmare. Say what you like about the Empire, they were organized. Mostly because of me, of course."
"Hey, Inventory!" AP-5 suddenly heard Zeb call out to him as he saw Zeb a distance away from him with Chopper next to him as they walked away from a landspeeder, carrying the protocol droid that they found in the planet's coral mesa.
"Um, excuse me," AP-5 protested as Zeb placed the protocol droid on a container nearby as AP-5 walked towards Zeb, "This is a supply area, not a trash compactor."
"We found this busted-up droid in the wasteland," Zeb explained to him, "Can you identify it?"
"Hmm. It looks like an older model of some type of protocol droid," AP-5 answered as he looked over the mysterious protocol droid before grabbing a power starter device from below them and placed it on the container next to the mysterious protocol droid, "I should be able to give it enough power for a system restart." He then plugged the device's cord into the mysterious protocol droid's back, causing it to quickly power up as its eyes lit up.
"Hey, it worked!" Zeb gasped as the mysterious protocol droid sat up.
"Of course it worked," AP-5 told him.
"Uh…" Zeb said, clearing his throat as he began speaking to the mysterious protocol droid, "Hello. Who are you? Where do you come from?"
"Designation, unknown," the mysterious protocol droid muttered incoherently.
"It's memory systems are damaged," AP-5 explained as the mysterious protocol droid walked away from Zeb and AP-5.
"Armory and munitions storage area. Proton torpedoes, 47. Blaster recharges, 820. Thermal detonators, 62 crates. Ion mines, 32," the mysterious protocol droid said as he scanned and inventoried the entire area.
"Did he… Did he just scan and inventory this entire area?" Zeb said before chuckling and slapped AP-5 on the shoulder.
"I seriously doubt that," AP-5 said, disagreeing with him, "He appears to be a logistics droid and could prove useful as my assistant."
"Hmm. Seems harmless enough," Zeb said as he looked at the logistics droid with his hands behind his back before placing them on his hips, "I guess we can take in another stray."
"Species, Lasat. Designation, military. Rank, Unknown," the logistics droid said as he scanned Zeb, who smiled at the logistics droid.
"Captain Orrelios at your service," Zeb said, introducing himself to the logistics droid before the logistics droid saluted him back, causing Zeb to laugh, "Fast learner, this one. Heh."
"Astromech C1 series. Obsolete mechanism. No longer in production," the logistics droid said as he scanned Chopper, causing the astromech droid to grunt frustratedly as he pulled both of his metal arms out as the logistics droid walked away.
"He doesn't like you. Now I really like him," Zeb chuckled as he looked at Chopper.
"Captain Orrelios to the command center for a priority message," they suddenly heard a rebel comm officer say over Chopper Base's intercom as they contacted Zeb.
"Keep an eye on my new friend, huh?" Zeb requested AP-5 as he began going towards Chopper Base's command center.
"Very well," AP-5 said, telling Zeb that he'll keep an eye on the logistics droid for him.
"Sir, we have a priority message from Fulcrum," a rebel comm officer reported to Zeb as he approached the command center's holotable near Kalani as the Super tactical droid stood on the other side of the holotable.
"Let's hear it. Put him through," Zeb said, wanting to hear what Kallus had for them this time.
"The Empire has begun to deploy recon droids," Kallus said in his Fulcrum voice as the symbol of Fulcrum appeared from the holotable's holoprojector for a split second before switching to a schematic of a type of protocol droid that looked larger than normal protocol droids and with its hands split in half instead of being connected and with the area where its eyes were being flipped upwards, revealing a second pair of eyes as Zeb placed his hands over his hips, "These infiltrators sweep the Outer Rim worlds for rebel bases."
"Oh, look at that thing. It's armed to the teeth," Zeb muttered as he stared at the schematics that were being projected from the holotable's holoprojector.
"They are extremely dangerous, but can appear harmless while in protocol mode," Kallus went on as the droid on the schematics switched to a droid that looked like the one he and Chopper found in the planet's coral mesa.
"Oh, no," Zeb muttered as he realized that he and Chopper accidentally brought one of the Empire's infiltrator droids to Chopper Base.
"One recently failed to report in," Kallus continued, "Be advised, if the droid remains out of contact, the Empire will come after it, and soon. Fulcrum out."
"General Kanai, you better come with me and bring a few of your commando droids because I think me and Chopper found a droid out in the wasteland that looks like the one that Fulcrum just showed us," Kalani nodded as he went to get a few of his commando droids.
"Make sure you categorize every crate in this section," AP-5 told the logistics droid as they walked down an aisle in the munitions depot with Chopper before he stopped and turned around towards the logistics droid as Chopper did the same as well, "Oh, this is marvelous. You and I are going to get along famously. We'll have this rebel base in tip-top shape."
"Rebel," the logistics droid said, repeating what AP-5 said as Zeb, who was holding his bo-rifle in his arms, Kalani, who held an E-5 blaster rifle in his hand and four droids that looked like B1 battle droids but they had black colored plating with bronze colored plating at some parts of their bodies with their eyes being white with two of them having E-5 blaster rifles and the other two having vibroblades called Commando droids appeared in the distance behind the logistics droid.
"AP-5, step away from that droid!" Zeb ordered the protocol droid as he, Kalani and two of the Commando droids aimed their blasters at the logistics droid, while the other two Commando droids did the same with their vibroblades.
"Rebel base," the logistics droid said, repeating what AP-5 said again.
"Um, what exactly is happening?" AP-5 asked with confusion, "And why have you brought them with you?"
"That thing's some kind of Imperial recon droid," Zeb explained.
"And he brought me and my Commando droids as backup," Kalani added.
"Rebel base identified," the Imperial recon droid went on.
"Get away from it!" Zeb ordered AP-5 and Chopper before seeing that the Imperial recon droid was doing something, "What's it doing?"
"Designation, Imperial Infiltrator Droid EXD-9," the Imperial recon droid said, introducing himself before transforming into its attack form.
"It's remembering," AP-5 explained.
"Assignment, Atollon," EXD-9 added as it's mouthplate slid down, revealing three red eyes as they replaced his white eyes, "Target, rebels."
"Commando droids, attack the Imperial Infiltrator Droid," Kalani ordered his Commando droids as he, AP-5, Zeb and Chopper began to back away.
"Stop! Oh!" AP-5 ordered EXD-9 as it used one of its arms to knock the protocol droid to the floor as Zeb, Kalani and two of the Commando droids began firing their blaster rifles at the Imperial recon droid with the blaster bolts ricocheting off the EXD-9's body as it leaped onto the catwalk above them as Zeb, Kalani and two of the Commando droids continued to fire their blaster rifles as EXD-9 ran across the catwalk before jumping down onto a container next to the catwalk and leaped onto Zeb, causing the Commando droids with vibroblades to rush at the Imperial recon droid to attack the Imperial recon droid with their vibroblades as the EXD-9 began to punch him, only for the Imperial recon droid to notice them and swiped them across the floor with one of its arms, giving Zeb enough time to push his bo-rifle towards EXD-9's chest, causing the Imperial recon droid to back away a bit before Zeb fired his bo-rifle at him, only for the blaster bolts to be fired at the sky instead of EXD-9 as the Imperial recon droid jumped onto a container next to them and began firing at them with built-in blasters after the Commando droids with vibroblades got back on their feet.
"Uh-oh!" Zeb muttered as he, Chopper, Kalani and the Commando droids evaded EXD-9's blaster bolts as they went to take cover behind the containers EXD-9 jumped back down before Chopper left the container he was hiding behind and approached the Imperial recon droid from behind and shocked him with his spark projector before EXD-9 turned around towards him and
swiped him across the ground before he was slammed into one of the containers before he fell to the ground and began to approach the astromech droid to finish him off as Zeb left the container he was hiding behind and yelled a battle cry as he ran towards EXD-9 as Kalani and the Commando droids with the E-5 blaster rifles did the same as they began firing at the Imperial recon droid as one of Zeb's blaster bolts soon shot one of EXD-9's left hands off, with oil coming out of it as the area where its hand was cut off of from sparked with electricity before EXD-9 began fleeing the area as Zeb, Kalani and the Commando droids with E-5 blaster rifles continued firing at EXD-9, only to miss as Zeb stopped firing his bo-rifle as he helped Chopper up, while Kalani and the Commando droids stopped firing their blaster rifles as well, "You okay, Chop?" Chopper then grunted a response as he pulled both of his metal arms out, "I can only guess what he's saying."
"In summary, I told you so," AP-5 translated.
"Well, we managed to damage it and it's on the run now, so what do we do now?" Kalani asked Zeb as he noticed the hand that he, along with Zeb and his Commando droids, shot off of EXD-9.
"We can't let that thing report what it saw back to the Empire," Zeb answered.
"We must alert Captain Syndulla," AP-5 told him.
"For once, I agree," Kalani said, agreeing with the protocol droid.
"Uh, no time," Zeb said, disagreeing with them, "Hera put me in charge because she trusts me. I'm not letting her down." They then walked down another aisle with Chopper having his built-in flashlight activated, "Come on. It's leaking fluid. We can track it." As they followed the trail of fluid from EXD-9 they found a wrecked astromech.
"Ghastly," AP-5 said, horrified as they approached the wrecked astromech and belt down towards it with Zeb, "This poor astromech's power core has been completely drained. And several key components have been removed."
"That thing's repairing itself," Zeb realized, "Trail ends here, where it patched itself up."
"So how will we take it down if it's repairing itself?" Kalani asked before coming up with a plan as he turned to Chopper, "Chopper, can you track the Imperial Infiltrator Droid? Chopper then grunted a response.
"Chopper said its power supply is not registering on his scanners. The power it consumed from this droid was most likely not enough for its needs," AP-5 translated for Zeb, "It may still be looking for more."
"Well, that gives me an idea?" Zeb told them as he stood back up, causing Chopper to grunt.
"Yeah, what is your plan, Captain Orrelios?" Kalani asked the Lasat, agreeing with Chopper.
"Really you can have those?" AP-5 asked in disbelief as he stood back up as well.
"Chopper, you get its attention. Lure it to me, and I'll blast it," Zeb said, explaining their plan to them before turning to the Super tactical droid, "Kalani, can you have your Commando droids help Chope in luring the Imperial Infiltrator Droid to me?"
"Certainly," Kalani answered.
"May I remind you both that we are in an area housing high-explosive munitions?" AP-5 reminded them, "Perhaps not the best place firing blasters. We were lucky enough the first time."
"Well, you could have told us that before," Zeb told him.
"I just told you now," AP-5 told them.
"Well, I was planning on sending two of my Commando droids with vibroblades," Kalani explained to AP-5.
"That's a good idea, General," AP-5 told the Super tactical droid.
"Okay, so I'll just grab it. Get it on the ground and shut it down," Zeb said, changing his plan a bit.
"Grab it?" AP-5 said, repeating what Zeb said with disbelief, "That's your plan.
"Yeah, that sounds like a foolish plan," Kalani said, agreeing with the protocol droid.
"Yes," Zeb confirmed, "And if I do, can you shut it down, AP?"
"Of course, I can," AP-5 answered.
"All right. Chopper, get to it," Zeb ordered Chopper, who grunted as he turned off his built-in flashlight as he rolled away from them to search for EXD-9.
"BX-2234, BX-2235, go with Chopper," Kalani ordered his Commando droids with vibroblades.
"Roger, roger," the two Commando droids with vibroblades both said at the same time as they followed Chopper to search for the Imperial recon droid.
As the two Commando droids and astromech walked down an aisle with Chopper making a chirping sound before they saw a metallic object being thrown backwards ahead of them in the distance, startling them before they sneakily went over to inspect what was happening and saw EXD-9 salvaging parts from a Gonk droid before Chopper grunted at the Imperial recon droid, getting its attention as it looked at Chopper and the two Commando droids as Chopper grunted the word 'Uh-oh'.
Chopper and the two Commando droids then began to run away from the Imperial recon droid as Zeb watched from a catwalk above as he grabbed his bo-rifle from his back and extended it as he jumped on EXD-9's back before the Imperial recon droid threw him off of his back onto the ground as it began to approach AP-5, the Commando droids with E-5 blaster rifles and Kalani, who along with the Commando droids aimed their E-5 blaster rifle at him began grunting in a panicked tone with both of his metal arms in a surrender-like manner.
As this was happening, the two Commando droids with vibroblades rushed towards EXD-9, only for the Imperial recon droid to swipe them across the floor, causing them to get damaged as they began to spark with electricity and powered down as Zeb stood back up and activated his bo-rifle's electro-staff's feature before rushing at EXD-9 and stabbed his bo-rifle's electro-staff into the Imperial recon droid's back, causing EXD-9 to turn around towards him and began advancing on him and began rotating it's left hand as it tried leaping towards Zeb, only for the Lasat to evade the Imperial recon droid before it went to strike at him, only for Zeb to avoid the strike as he ran towards a cargo container for a second before EXD-9 went to strike at him again, only for Zeb to evade it again and went to strike his bo-rifle at the Imperial recon droid, only for EXD-9 to block the attack with its hand as Zeb grunted before he screamed in pain as the electricity from his bo-rifle began electrocuting him, causing him to let go of his bo-rifle before the Imperial recon droid tossed it aside as it charged at Zeb as it pushed him towards one of the cargo containers ahead of them in the distance and held him against the cargo container as it lifted Zeb up before Choking him and threw him aside towards a crate in the distance before falling to the ground next to the crate.
EXD-9 then ran towards Zeb as he stood back up and lunged at Zeb as he turned around to face the Imperial recon droid, grabbing him as it pushed Zeb towards a few cargo containers in the distance before throwing him on top of one of the cargo containers and leaped towards Zeb, only for the Lasat to roll away from where the Imperial recon droid was going to land before standing up and jumped onto the droid's back, "I got it. I got it!" He began struggling to stay on top of the Imperial recon droid's back as AP-5, Chopper, Kalani and the Commando droids walked towards them as the Imperial recon droid walked backwards towards one of the cargo container's edges before falling to the ground below as Zeb continued to hold onto the droid's back, who was struggling to get free from the Lasat's grasp, "Shut it down!"
"Hold it steady," AP-5 said as EXD-9 was still struggling to break free from Zeb's grasp.
"I'm trying!" Zeb told him as he struggled to keep the Imperial recon droid detained as Chopper attempted to shock EXD-9 with his spark projector, only for the Imperial recon droid to kick the astromech, sending him to fly backwards as Zeb grabbed onto EXD-9's arm, "Shut it down now!"
"Almost got it," AP-5 said as he placed his hand behind the Imperial recon droid's head, "Stand by."
"Stand by?!" Zeb repeated as AP-5 continued to shut the Imperial recon droid down.
"Got it," AP-5 said as EXD-9 powered down, "What do you know? Your plan actually worked."
"I'm surprised that it worked out as well," Kalani said, agreeing with the protocol droid.
"Of course it did!" Zeb told them as he pushed the Imperial recon droid off him and rotated his arm as Chopper approached the deactivated Imperial recon droid and grunted after getting back up as Zeb groaned and stood back up, "Okay, let's have some good news. You know, just to see how it feels."
"Chopper can detect no long range equipment," AP-5 told Zeb"Which means the droid has not transmitted our position to the Empire."
"Well, that's something," Zeb stated, "It must have a ship somewhere nearby. What's the bad news?" Chopper then grunted as he looked down at EXD-9.
"The droid appears to be counting down?" AP-5 answered as he, Zeb and Kalani looked down at the Imperial recon droid's chest, which began beeping as four red numbers written in Basic appeared on EXD-9's chest.
"Counting down to what?" Zeb asked them.
"Most likely has activated its Imperial anti-capture failsafe," AP-5 answered, "There's probably a proton warhead inside too."
"I think so, too, AP-5," Kalani said, agreeing with the protocol droid.
"If you both are right, then this droid could vaporize the entire base and us along with it," Zeb told them.
"The countdown timer has already begun," AP-5 informed them.
"How much time have we got left?" Zeb asked him.
"Twenty seconds," AP-5 answered.
"Any ideas?" Zeb asked as he groaned before Chopper grunted as he took out one of his utility tools and used it to freeze the proton warhead of the Imperial recon droid's countdown circuit with it, "What did he do?"
"He's temporarily frozen the countdown circuit," AP-5 answered, "That should buy us time to move the droid to a safe distance from the base before it detonates. This part will require some manual labor. Your specialty, I believe."
"Wait," Zeb said as he grabbed the Imperial recon droid's body, "Fulcrum said if this droid doesn't report back to the Empire, they'll come here looking for it."
"I agree, we can't let it detonate in the wastelands," Kalani said, agreeing with Zeb.
"Oh, wait," AP-5 said as Zeb let go of EXD-9's body as it fell on top of the protocol droid, "Are you both suggesting we allow it to return to the Empire, with a memory bank filled with rebel secrets?"
"Well, we can't let it detonate. We can't let it go back," Zeb explained as AP-5 pushed the Imperial recon droid's body off of him before standing up, "Think, Zeb, think!"
"This may take a while," AP-5 muttered.
"Can you get inside the droid's programming, AP?" Zeb asked AP-5 as he sighed and turned around towards him.
"I believe I can," AP-5 answered.
"What are you thinking?" Kalani asked the Lasat.
"I want AP-5 to wipe its memory, General," Zeb explained to the Super tactical droid.
"No, its memory core is protected. Any attempt to tamper with it would likely trigger detonation," AP-5 told him as Zeb stood up and walked behind him, "Nor can I disarm the warhead. One way or another, it is going to explode. It's just a matter of when."
"Or a matter of where," Zeb muttered as he walked back to him, "What if we send it back to the Empire still ticking? Can you make an adjustment to the warhead, set it to restart the countdown when the droid reconnects to the Imperial network?"
"Possibly. What are you suggesting?" AP-5 asked Zeb as the Lasat crossed his arms.
"We let it go back to its base, but it blows up before it can upload its data. Maybe even takes some more of these droids with it. The Empire will never know which one it was," Zeb explained, "Well, can you do it or not?"
"What?" AP-5 stuttered, "Yes, I can. Or at least I can try. Sorry for my delayed response. I was just rathered stunned by the fact that you had a good idea." Chopper then grunted a chuckle at what AP-5 just told Zeb.
"Yeah, that is a good idea, Captain Orrelios," Kalani said, agreeing with AP-5, "I was gonna suggest that as well."
"Just get to work fixing it, AP," Zeb told AP-5 as he crossed his arms before turning to Kalani, "General, can you go back to the Command Center with your Commando droids and contact Hera?"
"Can do, Captain," Kalani said as he turned to his Commando droids, "Squadron, let's go back to the Command Center to contact Captain Syndulla." The Super tactical droid and the Commando droids then began to leave Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper as they went to pick up the damaged Commando droids as the astromech grunted frustratedly at Zeb and AP-5.
"Oh, good point, Chopper. It may try to kill us, so I will restore the droid's behavioral system to the disarmed state in which we found it," AP-5 said as he began on working on the Imperial recon droid's settings, "I will also initiate its return-to-base protocol so it should leave peacefully." Chopper grunted again as AP-5 placed EXD-9's body on the ground, "Main system restart now."
They all went into cover with Zeb and Chopper hiding behind cargo containers, while AP-5 hid behind a wall as the Imperial recon droid powered back up as it transformed back into its protocol mode with Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper watching as it sat back up and turned to its side, feeling that it was being watched, only for AP-5 to quickly hide back down as the droid stood up and began leaving Chopper Base.
'it's leaving the base. Good job," Zeb whispered to AP-5 left where they were taking cover from, "Let's make sure it gets home."
"I'm picking up a second signal," Zeb told AP-5 as they followed EXD-9 through the planet's coral mesa in a landspeeder with Chopper in the back seat as he held a sensor marker in his hand as AP-5 was flying the landspeeder, "Must be his ship." Soon they saw the Imperial recon droid's pod as EXD-9 approached it, "There it is," The Imperial recon droid then climbed back into its pod and began clicking buttons as EXD-9 sat in his seat in his pod, causing the pod to extend a transmitter from the back of the pod.
"That's a long-range transmitter," AP-5 told Zeb as he turned to the Lasat, "It's going to contact the Empire."
"Not if I can help it," Zeb muttered as he hopped out of the landspeeder as he grabbed his bo-rifle from his back and fired the bo-rifle at the transmitter, causing it to break and fall off the pod, "Yes!" He laughed as he hopped back onto the landspeeder, "We did it. We did it! Now that it can't contact the Empire, it will return home, right?"
"If it follows its programming," AP-5 answered as the pod's hatch closed before its engines powered up as it lifted off as it began to leave Atollon with Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper watching, "But what if… I mean, if it goes back, and I didn't correctly reprogram that detonator?"
"Look, we may not like each other, like you and Kalani don't because you both fought on opposite sides in the Clone War, but you've always done your job," Zeb reassured him.
"Well, whatever the outcome, you performed admirably, Captain," AP-5 complemented Zeb as the Lasat sat back down in the landspeeder's passenger seat.
"A lot's happened today," Zeb said as he exhaled, "Not sure if I can deal with you and me starting to get along on top of everything else or you and Kalani starting to get along as well."
"Hmm, agreed," AP-5 said, agreeing with him as he began to fly the landspeeder back to Chopper Base.
EXD-9's pod soon jumped out of Hyperspace along with other Imperial recon droid pods as they flew back towards a Star Destroyer and slid into a slot where the Imperial recon droids' pods were deployed from as other Imperial recon droids left their pods with two Imperial technicians in the room helping the droids out of their pods.
"I think that missing unit is back," one of the technicians said as they began walking towards EXD-9's pod.
"So plug it in. Let's see what we got," the other technician said as they plugged EXD-9 into the Imperial network, powering the droid up as it sat up.
"Alert command," the technician told the other technician, "This droid was damaged, but found something," EXD-9's chest slid open as its countdown circuit reactivated as it began beeping, "Is that a countdown?"
"Oh my," the other technician muttered as the countdown's proton warhead went off.
Meanwhile on one of the other Star Destroyers, Kallus was speaking to an Imperial officer when they suddenly heard and noticed the proton warhead's explosion from EXD-9.
"What just happened?" Kallus asked as he turned around to one of the Bridge's technicians in one of the Star Destroyer's crew pits below, "Report!"
"I believe it was a proton warhead detonation, sir," the technician in the crew pit below the ISB/Fulcrum agent answered, causing Kallus to stare back at the viewport, secretly smiling at what Zeb, Kalani and AP-5 did with one of the Imperial recon droids.
The next day on Atollon, the Ghost landed on Chopper Base with its ramp lowered as Hera, Kanan, Satele and Sabine walked down the ramp as they began to approach Zeb, AP-5 and Chopper, who were standing in front of where the Ghost landed.
"Okay, what happened that you had Kalani call me back on day one of the exercise?" Hera asked them.
"Well, it may be nothing. We uh… We think we've got it under control. But just in case…" Zeb began to say.
"Incoming message, priority," a rebel comm officer suddenly said from Chopper Base's communications system.
"Hold that thought," Hera told Zeb as they began to walk towards the command center as Chopper grunted.
"You had nothing to do with what?" Kanan asked Chopper with confusion.
"I can only assume you found and reprogrammed the lost Infiltrator I warned you of," Kallus' Fulcrum voice said from the command center's holotable as the symbol of Fulcrum appeared from the holotable's holoprojector as they stood around it with Kalani, "Well, as you no doubt planned the droid did self-destruct on its return to base. I do not know how you pulled it off, but you have my congratulations. Fulcrum out."
"Uh, what was that about?" Sabine asked as Kallus' Fulcrum message ended.
"Uh…" Zeb chuckled as he placed his hand over the back of his head, "It's kind of a long story."
"Which me and Kalani can recall every detail of," AP-5 added, "It all began when Captain Orrelios brought the droid back…" Zeb then suddenly placed his arm around the back of AP-5's head and used his hand to cover the protocol droid's mouth, causing AP-5's speech to muffle as the Lasat chuckled, while Hera placed her right arm over her hip, while Kanan and Sabine crossed their arms as they all along with Satele looked at each other before looking at Zeb and the three droids.
"How did this happen, Agent Kallus?" Thrawn asked Kallus as the ISB/Fulcrum Agent approached the Grand Admiral on the Chimaera as he stood at his Command center's holotable in his Star Destroyer's Bridge with the holotable projecting a blue colored Star Map filled with thousands of planets as he placed his hands over the edges of the holotable.
"I suspect the rebels captured a unit in the field and reprogrammed it to self-destruct upon its return to base," Kallus answered as he placed his hands over the edges of the other side of the holotable, "Quite ingenious, really."
"I'm inclined to agree," Thrawn told him.
"You seem in surprisingly good spirits, considering this loss," Kallus noted.
"Loss, you say?" Thrawn repeated, "Hmm, the rebels may have protected the location of their base for now, but in doing so, they have narrowed my search." He then clicked a button on the holotable, removing over a ton of planets and Star Systems from the holotable's Star Map as the remaining planets turned red, "Before today, they could have been hiding in any of the thousand systems. But now… Now I know they are almost certainly on one of the 94 planets surveyed by my infiltrators. The rebels may have won this battle, but the war will be ours."
Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not?