Bandomeer used to be a lush agricultural world. It probably could have stayed that way and still flourished as a trade depot. The system was at a crossroads between two highways, the Hydian Way and the Braxant Run, meaning freight and trade were a constant as people transferred between the two. With the two forms of income, Bandomeer would have been better off than most in the outer rim. That was until they found ionite, a rare material, and turned the planet’s crust into one big strip mine. The toxic wastes that such massive mining operations created were visible even from our vantage points on one of the system’s various trade stations. Now there was no farming on the desolate rock, no forests either. They gave them all up to get at their expensive ores.

Much like the trade routes were highways, the trade stations were glorified pit stops. Crappy food, refueling stations, bad lodging, and a large concentration of the seedier type of people were all stock standard when you entered a place like this. As a collection point for the Braxant Run, all manner of goods flowed through here at a constant rate. Raw materials, foodstuffs, and now with the end of the clone wars, millions of decommissioned droids could readily be found for the right price.

Luckily the price for what we needed was low. Not because what I needed was cheap, but rather we found the best trade partners in the galaxy hanging about the station: Jawas.

I’m not sure what brought them out here, but it probably had something to do with their love of wastelands and junk. The Bandomeer system had both in good supply.

“It looks perfect!” I exclaimed as the four short, hooded figures unveiled the order we placed.

“This piece of junk?” Alhoy asked before reaching out to the vaguely humanoid-looking scraps of droid that they had found for us.

Just before he touched it, one of the Jawas slapped his hand away with what looked like a tiny riding crop. “Nyeta! Shumeneez un toyneepa!” the Jawa exclaimed while holding out an upturned palm.

“He is currently requesting payment, sir,” 2V translated for us. The droid looked mildly uncomfortable having been summoned out of the ship, though if I’m being honest he always looked nervous around me.

I nodded and tossed a very small pouch of credits into his hand. The other Jawas rushed him to inspect it, all with cries of “Utinni!” Not wanting a renege on the deal, the group of them rushed off in an excited huddle before disappearing into the shadows.

“Now you can touch the droid, Alhoy. And by that I mean, pick it up and get it onto the ship before anyone sees,” I hissed.

“Fine fine, I don’t see the rush though. I can’t imagine anyone stealing this piece of junk,” he retorted before straining to heft the robot into his arms.

“This was a very valuable part of the clone wars. Sure, it’s junk now, but the imps want them destroyed as soon as possible for a reason,” I explained. “Now shut it till we are back on the ship.”

Alhoy had worked up a sweat and resorted to dragging the unit by the time we were up the ship’s ramp. I would have helped with a force-lift, but it was always best to keep a low profile. In the main hold, our new find elicited an interesting look from Alha, though she soon returned to staring holes into her credit stick.

“Another droid? This place stinks enough as it is,” Merrin said while looking with narrowed eyes between 2V and X2. The sentiment elicited a series of indignant beeps from X2. 2V profusely apologized about the smell and began cleaning himself with a powerfully scented liquid meant for getting stains off the floors.

“Merrin, please stop menacing 2V, he really thinks any failings will cause his decommissioning,” I explained.

“Maybe, he should,” she replied while a hateful aura radiated off of her. 2V sensed her malice and his scrubbing intensified.

“Stop that. You two, set a course for Agamar,” I commanded the droids. “Alhoy, set him on the table, and let’s get the droid dissected,” I continued.

2V visually flinched at the imagery on his way out. Alhoy was all too happy to have the droid ripped to pieces. Even Merrin volunteered to help, though I was forced to remind her not to damage the interior when she got overzealous with her glowing green knife.

Soon enough just about every chip, processor, and wire were exposed on the droid that had been completely stripped of its decorative plating. I ran my fingers along the machine, looking for any evidence of damaged memory chips.

“So can you please just tell us what the deal with this thing is?” asked Alhoy after watching me search for a while.

“What do you know about super tactical droids?” I asked.

“Always answering a question with a question,” he grumbled. I just waited for a real answer.

Alhoy was unwilling to give it to me for a few awkward moments, then he gave up.

“Fine, I know they were the separatist generals. The old tactical droids were always being spoofed on late-night holovids. But the newer ones had a surprising victory ratio. It made the old separatist channels almost hopeful about the war,” he explained.

I nodded with a grin.

“Super tactical droids were almost never taken captive during the war. Even when they were, their advanced anti-interrogation protocols meant they were useless captives,” I explained.

“Why would you interrogate a droid?” he asked. “Just pull out the memory or hack into its head,” he continued.

“I had a decent hunch, but I wasn’t sure until I found this,” I said as I exposed the circuitry in the very center of the droid’s bulky torso. Inside, where the rest of the droid was still pristine, was a single cubed compartment corroded almost completely by acid. The exterior had a small injector with a clear and empty vial.

“As generals, they are privy to confidential and important information regarding Separatist fleet movements, weapons depots…just about anything related to the war so that they could better come up with their own strategies,” I explained. “Yet, the Republic almost never cracked them, probably because they didn’t store their secrets in their head. Instead, that information would have to be separate from the rest of the systems. In case anything happened to the droid, it would be independently destroyed,” I continued.

“So, this droid is useless because it’s been deactivated?” Merrin asked while twirling a vibroblade.

“Not useless, but it served an important purpose,” I replied. “And before you ask, no you can’t carve it up, I want to bring it back online eventually.”

“More droids?” she asked exasperated.

“Well get used to it. We are going to be getting a large infusion of droid forces if everything goes our way,” I explained.

“What? Why?!” she exclaimed.

Agamar, especially the area where a particular DH-Omni support vessel lay wrecked was a cold rocky planet. Sure, it supported life, and there were even sentients living on it somewhere, but not where the ship stood. In fact, the ridge it was on had almost no signs of life whatsoever. Other than the massive ship, the only thing around us was snow and rock. DH-Omni support vessels were troop and supply haulers that resembled two halves of a sphere connected by a centra rod, vaguely like a dumbbell. For this particular DH, one of those sphere halves was almost completely crushed from the impact, while the other received far less damage. Thus, it came to rest at an odd angle on the ground.

Even with the desolate landscape, my small landing party got a surprisingly warm welcome from three B1s who came out to meet us.

“Greetings! I am Unit B1-256, my commander has sent me to ascertain your intentions,” the lead droid said as we walked up to the structure.

“Extend my greetings to General Kalani,” I replied politely. “Inform him that I wish to speak with him immediately regarding the shutdown order relayed by to all separatist armies. This information is top-secret and must be heard in person, not transmitted,” I explained.

“One moment please,” B1-256 said, before pressing a finger against his communicator. He then relayed that information over the communicator went silent for a few moments and said, “General Kalani has invited you to the bridge, please relinquish your weapons esteemed guests.”

I smiled and nodded. For the current job, I chose to wear the black silk robes from Alderaan, while my saber was safely hidden inside one of X2’s compartments. B1s were notoriously easy to fool and didn’t bother searching my astromech droid without being told to do so.

I opened the robes to show that I had nothing to hide and then nodded to Alhoy. He began the lengthy process of emptying himself of dangerous items. Flame thrower cuffs, blasters pistols, a blaster gauntlet, rockets, a shiny new vibroknife, and his long rifle meant that the B1 assigned to carrying our stuff was soon struggling to carry it all. That said, it also didn’t matter since X2 also had a pair of pistols hidden.

“Would you like refreshments?” 256 asked us once we entered the ship’s hangars.

“You have any coffee?” I asked.

“No, sorry,” 256 replied.

“Tea?”

“No, sorry,” 256 said.

“…I’ll be fine without,” I replied slightly annoyed.

The hangar, despite the crash, was surprisingly intact. Though there didn’t seem to be any fighters or vulture droids, three neimoidian shuttles looked ready to fly. There were at least fifty B1s, ten super battle droids, and twelve droidekas. They were either on standby or performing various tasks. On top of that, crates upon crates of military supplies filled the area. It was a goldmine and would make an admirable consolation prize.

Kalani was waiting for us on the bridge. Super Tactical Droids often almost looked custom-made. They each had gilded plates, with designs etched into them and unique colors. Kalani was dark green with a swirling gold pattern on his outer plates. The one back in the ship, though rusted and banged up still retained his deep blue painting and some evidence of gold geometric gilding.

The general turned to face us as I sat down on one of the bridge’s chairs and Alhoy took up position behind me. Besides our escort, two other B1s flanked the super tactical droid.

“I am told you have information regarding the shut down order issued to every command droid?” Kalani asked us in a slow and mechanical voice. Super Tactical Droids had a penchant for sounding methodical and never seemed to be excitable unlike most other droids.

“More than that, I’m sure you’ve found it suspicious that we were so suddenly commanded to lay down our weapons?” I asked.

“That is precisely why I chose to refuse the order,” Kalani replied.

“Well, it was a costly and effective trick by the Republic. The entire executive council was destroyed, which allowed turncoats to issue the command,” I explained. It was technically the truth as the Confederacy’s Parliament never approved the shutdown order and it was never issued by the official leader of the Separatists.

“I estimated as much,” the droid replied.

I shrugged. “Thus, a great responsibility has fallen onto my shoulders. I am now the Supreme Martial Commander of our forces. My first task is to take stock and assemble what remains of our forces,” I explained. Said forces, were shrinking by the moment as Republic forces rounded up the deactivated forces and sent them to foundry worlds.

“By what authority are you the Supreme Commander?” Kalani asked.

“A secret emergency meeting of what’s left of the parliament assigned me the job,” I explained nonchalantly. “At this point, we need to establish a guerilla resistance since most of our forge worlds have already been taken.”

“What is your name? I do not recognize you from any leadership roles,” said Kalani. I couldn’t tell if he was just asking for confirmation or if he was suspicious. Nothing in his voice betrayed his intentions and the force was no good in giving me information on droids.

“I’m Darth Zaros; you could say I was something of an associate to the Count. I never held office before now, though that shouldn’t be a surprise since our entire command structure was wiped out,” I said.

“Have you any form of identification?” Kalani asked without much time to process the information.

“No, and it would be too dangerous to travel with any since I have only a few protectors. Now, I’m going to need a list of any bases, untouched ships, supply drops, even factories that may not have been taken by the Republic,” I explained.

“I cannot comply. You must supply me with the necessary command identification for me to relinquish control,” Kalani replied. “If that is all, I must ask you to leave as you do not have the necessary security clearance to remain on my ship.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples in feigned frustration to buy some time while I created an image of the droid’s anatomy in my mind. After spending the entire trip to Agamar memorizing the interior of a super tactical droid, it wasn’t the hardest thing to do. It still required a lot of concentration to do.

My first idea was to simply crush the acid device with the force. That said, intricate force control wasn’t my best area of practice. Sith Warriors were trained for strength and power. It was almost miraculous that I had enough control to restrain a person without crushing them to a pulp, so I decided it was best not to try. I had a decent chance of crushing the entire memory cache.

“Very well, I will return with the required documentation if I can,” I said. With a clear vision in my head, I stood up and offered my hand to Kalani for a shake. Kalani accepted it.

At the same time, I snapped with my left hand, signaling for X2 to deploy my saber. It popped into the air and in flash was sucked into my hand. Kalani had no time to react before I pulled him in and ignited the blade. It created a surgical cut. As precisely as my body's years of experience allowed, I pierced what I hoped to be the acid injector. Then I gave him another slash to the wires around the power unit, causing his body to go limp. It was near instant and needed to be, just about anything could have triggered those injectors.

The inept B1s didn’t have a chance to react. I charged the two in the front, slashing them down in quick order, while Alhoy dispatched the other three in the room with the pistols hidden by X2.

“You’re up,” I ordered the astromech. It beeped an affirmative response and then rolled over to the deactivated general. An impressive and slightly unnerving array of sharp and/or hot tools appeared out of the droid, all of which got to work on the Kalani. Alhoy set about rearming himself while I sat back down in my original seat and relaxed.

Within minutes, X2 gave another set of beeps, letting us know that the operation was about to be complete. Both Alhoy and I snapped back to attention as the red lights returned to Kalani’s eyes. The general turned its head from left to right, taking in the carnage of the room for a moment before settling its sights on me.

“Supreme Commander? I’m sorry for this sight, I seem to have lost power for a moment,” Kalani said after scrambling to his feet.

So, the operation was a success.

Plan A was to simply convince Kalani that I was the new Separatist leader. It’s probably a good thing he didn’t believe us since that would have shown he was almost unusably inept. Plan B was slightly more intricate and involved first destroying Kalani’s ability to trigger his memory erasure protocols. Then after cutting his power, X2 was able to overwrite his memory and current protocols so he would recognize me as the new leader.

“Good to have you back Kalani. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault I simply couldn’t contain my anger when I learned you weren’t going to be serving tea for our meeting,” I offered with a dismissive wave. “Luckily my personal astromech was on hand to patch you up.”

“My apologies. I will have better refreshments next time you visit. To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?” Kalani replied.

“We are regrouping. Believe it or not, you are basically the last officer I have left. I need your technical knowledge in locating arms, troops, and supplies that are still out of the Republic’s reach,” I explained.

“How would you like to proceed?”

“You'll be on your own for a bit. I have a list of wants, but for everything else use your own discretion. Bring everything you can back online,” I explained, before handing him a data-pad outlining my main goals. I really just wanted a few cruisers, some BX droids, and as many IG-100s as he could find. With a small force like that, we could basically become pirate kings and slowly grow a powerbase.

Kalani nodded and began examining the pad.

“Secrecy is the name of the game, play it safe and make sure everything you find isn’t tracked. There’s a forested moon orbiting Yavin inside the Yavin system, it’s heavy enough to conceal quite a large force for now. Mass there for the rendezvous,” I explained before getting up.

"Oh yeah, I have an offline tactical droid on the ship, have him brought out and repaired. As I said, we need all the help we can get," I said over my shoulder as we left.