- Revenge of the Battle Droids???
- Vader returns to Geonosis to build his army!
- The Dark Lord's ascension continues!
On Geonosis, Dr Aphra briefs Darth Vader, Triple Zero, and BT-1 about her assignment from the Droid Gotra to liberate droids from a Geonosian queen with a droid factory. However, Dr Aphra suggests that she can steal it for them. Examining a Geonosian corpse, Dr Aphra says that the planet should be quieter since Geonosis was sterilized. She wonders what weapon was used on Geonosis before sending Triple Zero and BT-1 to scout beneath the planet's surface.
Dr Aphra asks Lord Vader if he has ever been to Geonosis, causing him to remember his kiss with Padmé Amidala. However, he tells her to stop probing and warns the rogue archaeologist that he only wants compliance and silence. When Lord Vader asks if the droids are capable of mapping the route, she tells him that it will be tangle but not to word about Triple Zero and BT-1. The Sith Lord responds that he has come for an army and dismisses the two droids as expendable.
Triple Zero and BT-1 soon encounter several droid workers made in the likeness of Geonosians. After greeting the droids, he gets BT-1 to unleash his flamethrower, incinerating the droids. Triple Zero taunts the flaming droids in Geonosian that they are on fire and dead. Aphra and Vader soon stumble on the flaming droids. Dr Aphra realizes that Gotra's information about the factory below was right. Inspecting the droids, she realizes that the Geonosian Queen has made robotic offspring since she is sterilized.
The four soon encounter the Geonosian Queen Karina, who has attached herself to a giant mechanized egg laying machine that produces robotic offspring insider her lair. Dr Aphra asks Vader if it is a good idea to steal robotic womb factory from a "homicidally broody alien queen." Vader says yeas and proceeds to use his lightsaber to sever Queen Karina from her robotic womb. When Karina castigates the Empire for robbing and exterminating her people, Vader uses the Force to slam her against the hive wall.
Karina orders her droid workers to attack the intruders but BT-1 unleashes his flamethrower and blasters against the droids. Aphra leaps from a platform and informs Lord Vader that they can't get the locator to the roof since the thrusters are gone. However, Lord Vader uses the Force to hurl it up, impressing Aphra. This blows a hole in the ceiling. Vader's Naboo Royal Starship soon arrives and lowers a giant magnets which lifts the Geonosian droids, Triple Zero, and BT-1. Lord Vader and Dr Aphra climb to safety, leaving the distraught Queen behind. Airborne, Lord Vader reassures Dr Aphra that his ship is stronger than it looks.
Aboard the Ark Angel in space, Dr Aphra and Triple Zero reprogram and modify Karina's worker droids. When Lord Vader asks what Triple Zero wishes to do, she explains that he has some unconventional theories about self-improvement for droids and that was the main reason his consciousness was locked away. Dr Aphra tells Lord Vader that his droid army will be ready in a few hours and asks if he is planning to kill her now that she has done her job. She tells him that she prefers being impaled through the neck with a lightsaber or ejected into space.
Vader remains silent. Dr Aphra says that she is lucky to be alive and tells him that she rather not die. She says that she is "happy her blood's doodling in the margins of a story worth telling." Lord Vader replies that she has proven herself useful and that she is safe as long as he has use for her. He warns her not to blackmail him since he will kill her. Dr Aphra says that Vader can trust her while accepting that she is a risk. She tells him that he needs to win for a higher cause and reiterates that she prefers death by lightsaber.
Just then, Triple Zero informs his masters that they have been contacted by the Wookiee Krrsantan, who has delivered an important bounty for them. The prisoner turns out to be Cylo, who was transporting illegal alien organ supplies. Krrsantan caought him before he could return to his base. Vader demands to know the location of his headquarters but Cylo remains defiant. Vader wants to interrogate him but doesn't have time and gives the job to Triple Zero, who takes an interest in the prisoner's grafted flesh and organs from multiple species.
Later, Triple Zero emerges, having tortured Cylo to death. He informs his masters that the prisoner is called Doctor Cylo IV and that he has obtained the location of his research base and the nature of his commission from the Emperor. Darth Vader gives orders to dispose of the body. However, Triple Zero has already killed him. Triple Zero informs Lord Vader that the base is an organic structure in an isolated outer nebula and that it is the home of Vader's "replacements." Lord Vader orders Triple Zero to set a course for Cylo's base immediately.
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