The natural rock formations of Geonosis, painted and stained in all shades of red, still stood even after the tumultuous Clone Wars. The Geonosians themselves still buzzed about as well.

Gizam Dorso was among one of them. His insectoid body, bony and pointed with sharp edges, fought against the winds and dust of his home planet. His wings fluttered against the waves of red dust that kicked up and lapped at his feet from the ground hundreds of feet below him. His eyelids worked overtime as they kicked off the dust from his protruding eyes.

His mind was in a similar state to his overworked body.

The Empire was here, the true face of the Republic, the very reason why the Confederacy had come to fruition. And they had taken everything from them. They had stripped them of their weapons, taken all power away from their monarch, had them slave away to build their super-laser in the form of a floating space station the size of a small asteroid. The Deathstar.

'If only we'd had more time. We could've used it against them, put an end to all this foolishness,' Gizam thought. His wings stuttered for a moment, his anger getting the best of him, 'This is fine. Our people have survived for millennia under these unrelenting winds, this new age will be no different. I will set the course straight. I will guide my people to glory. I will put an end to this once and for all. And it will all start here'

A tall natural rock spire extended far into the air, above most of the other plateaus and buttes in the area. A hole, nearly the width and height of an AAT sat at its side, staring back at him as the abyss does to the Sith. His wings lowered in velocity and speed until he began to float back to the ground, directly into the hidden base below.

His bony feet landed with a soft thud against the carved and smoothed steps that was the entrance to the base.

It had been at the start of the war that he'd last stepped foot here.

He descended, the darkness of the cave swallowing him whole.

Gizam stumbled around in the dark, his eyes just about making out the lines and edges of the smooth red cave walls around him. He extended one hand out to his side until he felt the cool touch of the rock at his fingertips. His hand glided over it as he went along deeper into the cave.

He felt his hand slip off the edge.

He was in the first chamber. If it was dark before, it was a complete void in here. There was no light whatsoever within the chamber.

Gizam fiddled around with a cloth pouch strapped to his waist, feeling in the dark for cold steel.

He pulled out a thin cylindrical electric torch and pushed at a button on it's side.

A bright glow emanated from a small bulb at the top of it.

His wings fluttered to life, kicking up small clouds of dust as he ascended, taking in his surroundings.

Embedded into the cave walls were several dilapidated machines, their silvery guts lay out bare to the world. Most of them had been blown open, the metal where they'd been impacted was outstretched and mangled. Gears, circuit-boards, and cables were mixed into one ball of mismatched parts. Some of the machines threatened to fall from where they hung, the weight of its exposed insides weighing it down.

'Such a waste, all of this would've been a great help to aid me now. No matter, the droids will have to do,' Gizam thought, flying back down.

Directly ahead lay a closed security gate with a booth at it's side in the form of a carved out room from the cave itself with a thick piece of glass separating it from the entrance.

Gizam retrieved a red-stained key-card from his pouch and inserted it into a small pocket on one side of the gate.

A ring rang out from inside.

The gate slid open with a stutter, the mechanism nearly becoming ensnared in the crumbling rocks around it.

'The backup power is activated,' Gizam assessed, 'I will need more than that'

He flew forward, the buzzing of his wings echoed throughout the entire cave system. Past the gate was a short corridor which opened up into a wider chamber, it's entrance was another security area as an overhang and a wall directly ahead blocked off direct access to the rest of the facility. There was a split in the path leading left and right. Gizam looked to his side spotting a terminal with a cable running up it's side. He glanced behind him, mindful of the secret hiding spots on either side of his current position.

He flew over to the terminal and pressed at the screen, his claws clicking against it as he ran several commands that had once been part of his daily routine.

Somewhere deep within the base emanated a hum. Slowly but surely the lights flickered on, one-by-one, until the whole area was lit up for proper use. He discarded his electric torch, stuffing it back into his pouch and proceeded forward.

Past the wall obscuring the view was the rest of the facility. There were another two chambers to the left and right of the security area. One being the living quarters where both the Geonosians and droids had lived together. The other being filled with computers, terminals, radio antennas, and all sorts of electronic devices, all tainted with the red dust that perverted everything with its touch.

Directly ahead lay the command room, where all the officers and commanders had once been cooped up. Gizam's attention was focused on this singular room, where he'd spent many nights and days with the others. It was chock-full of confidential data harvested by the computers and antennas around the base. More importantly, it was also where an attempt at retaking the base had failed.

He flew forward at full speed, his excitement nearly overcoming his senses as he came to an abrupt halt. At the room's center was a holotable, big enough to simulate entire battlefields, ground or space. Giant computers with screens matching their size lined the outer walls. Thick cables ran between them. The floor was littered with B1 battle droids.

Gizam's feet fell back to the cold rocky ground.

'Now, which one of you will be the first,' He thought.

His bony feet tapped against the rock as he began his search, looking over every one of the droids. Most were left fully intact, others had parts of their chassis torn open.

He grimaced at one in particular that had it's eye exposed.

Droid or not, the pain of the wound tickled his senses. The B1s were made in their image, after all.

He moved further up north, prodding at one of the B1s that had been left mostly undamaged.

A glint pierced his eye. His head whipped up to it's source. His wings fluttered as he took in the corpse of a B1 at the farthest end of the command room, all alone.

'Unusual,' Gizam thought, 'They're not known to stray so far apart from one another. Did this one get thrown over here by an explosion?'

He nearly gasped as he took in the sight of it's body. The top half of it had been burned, exposing the silver steel underneath. Stripes of his tan coating still existed around his lower abdomen and forehead, but all the area in between was silver.

'Beautiful,' Was Gizam's first thought, 'He is lucky, to be turned to silver and to survive with no major injuries'

He knelt down and picked up the droid's body, bridal style.

He laid him down on one end of the table, the light reflecting off of his shiny chassis.

'You will be the jewel of my droid army. Yes, I can see it now. You and I commanding trillions of your kind all across the galaxy. We will be victorious, luck is surely on our side,' He withdrew another tool from his cloth pouch and began clicking the B1's panels open.


Gizam leaned over the keyboard of the computer before him. His breath pulling and shooting out bits of dust. His protruding eyes reflected the light of the giant monitor in front of him. He typed in one last command and leaned back into his chair with a soft squeak. His fingers ran along the cable extending from the computer all the way to the B1 propped up on two chairs next to him. He twisted at the ends of them and popped them off.

The last of the B1's panels clicked back into place.

His bony joints creaked and groaned as he stood.

Stray documents littered the holotable behind him and the table in front of the monitor ahead. He paced between all of them, taking in their contents as he evaluated the next steps of his grand plan.

His steps jerked to a stop.

The whir of servomotors erupted from behind him, breaking the white noise that had pervaded throughout the facility. He was too used to the constant buzzing of a bustling colony. The lack of it nearly drove him mad.

He whirled around.

The B1 was sitting up now, his arms stabilizing him on the wobbly seats that held him in place.

"You're awake," Gizam said, trotting over to him on his hind legs, nearly bouncing with delight with each step he took.

The droid stood, standing up straight. He looked for his blaster hurriedly before Gizam snapped his fingers together to get his attention.

"Is your vocalizer functional?" Gizam continued.

"Yes sir," The B1 replied, the silver of his exposed chassis still shining in the light.

"Good. Your first orders are to begin reprogramming all of these droids you see on the floor here," Gizam said, gesturing at the B1s behind him.

The B1's head wavered between him and the rest of the droids, "But sir, I don't know how to-"

"I've upgraded your core functions. You have the capabilities of reprogramming and leading other droids now. In fact, you will be the general of my new droid army," He paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, all the while staring at the B1, "You are smarter, better, faster – you will be an outstanding tactician. I can see it in you now. But first, we must start with these droids. Go on, begin reprogramming. I have my own work to do"

"Roger, roger," The B1 replied, stiffly moving ahead into the room. He went around the table, looking at each and every one of the deactivated B1s, unsure of where to start. He came to an abrupt halt over the one with a photo-receptor exposed. He knelt down and began dragging him back towards one of the computers, the scraping of his chassis filled the room.

Gizam smiled, 'Finally some more noise,' He flipped through another set of documents.

The B1 glanced over at him for a second, still dazed and confused. He looked down to one hand and clenched his three wide metal digits together, 'I don't remember anything,' He slid a hand over the edge of his curved head, 'Where even am I?' He thought, looking around. The glint of the light overhead blinded him for a moment. He slid one hand over his photo-receptors as they adjusted for the sudden change in brightness, 'That doesn't matter, the objective is what's important…'

He expected his programming to agree.

It didn't.

He shook his head and slid one hand over to a bundle of cables nearby.