The mission to a droid decommissioning facility was a job undertaken by the renegade Clone Force 99 at the behest of the information broker Ciddarin Scaleback to steal the head of a tactical droid from an Imperial decommissioning facility in Coronet City, Corellia. However, at the same time that the clones infiltrated the plant, two smugglers, Trace and Rafa Martez, also entered the facility after the same goal. After an initial struggle over the droid head as waves of police droids attempted to subdue the intruders, the two groups joined forces to escape, reprogramming battle droids on the way to be scrapped to combat the security. However, the tactical droid's head was destroyed by enemy blaster fire. Sergeant Hunter chose to give a data rod on which Tech had copied the intel to Rafa, knowing that she and her sister were going to use the information for the right purpose. After parting ways, Rafa informed her contact about the squad of renegade clones she and Trace had met, and that she knew where they were based.
The Clone Wars was a three-year conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The breakaway Separatists fielded an army of battle droids against the Republic's clone troopers. In 19 BBY, the war came to an end when the Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, and the droid army was shut down. In the aftermath, the new Empire wasted no time in scrapping the Separatist military.
As part of the change in government, the clones of the Grand Army of the Republic had been brainwashed to serve Palpatine and the Empire through implanted inhibitor chips which made them unquestioningly obedient. Among the very few clones who avoided the mind control were most of the members of the irregular Clone Force 99 commando squad, who were immune due to genetic mutations or, in Echo's case, implanted cybernetics. They defected from the Empire within days of its formation, taking Omega, a young enhanced clone created by the Kaminoans, with them, although losing their sniper, Crosshair, to his brainwashing. However, instances of rogue clones were so rare that most people believed all clones were serving the Empire.
Scaleback briefs the squad on the mission.
After encountering a bounty hunter on Pantora, the so-called Bad Batch made the acquaintance of the information broker Ciddarin Scaleback on Ord Mantell while trying to identify their pursuer. Scaleback identified the mercenary as Fennec Shand, but had the squad do a job for her as payment, and offered further work. Promising a mutually beneficial arrangement where they worked for her, got paid, and she helped shield them from the Empire, Scaleback afterwards set them up with another job: she had a client who wanted a T-series military strategic analysis and tactics droid retrieved from a decommissioning facility on Corellia for the information stored on it. Squad leader Hunter reluctantly agreed to the task, and the Batch set out for Corellia aboard the Marauder. Tech suggested that since the clone army now served the Empire, knowing how to defeat them had suddenly increased in value.
However, Scaleback's client was not the only person interested in such data. The sisters Trace and Rafa Martez, who worked as smugglers, had been tasked by the former Clone Captain Rex, who was, like them, a friend of the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, with retrieving a tactical droid head from the same facility. He wanted to use the intel to fight against the Empire. The sisters traveled to Corellia aboard the Silver Angel with the astromech droid R7-A7.
Arriving in Coronet City, Rafa and Trace disguised themselves as workers and entered the decommissioning facility, leaving R7 in charge of the Silver Angel so he could pick them up when necessary. Around the same time, the Bad Batch arrived in the system, approaching the planet stealthily by hitching their shuttle to the underside of a class four container transport so as not to trip any sensors. Once they were close enough, the Marauder decoupled from the freighter and flew down, landing at the industrial dock. The five clones approached the scrapping plant on foot, spotting the police droids which patrolled the area, a detail Hunter noted Scaleback had left out of her briefing. Tech observed that the droids were patrolling on rotating quadrant scans, which were straightforward to bypass with the correct timing. Spotting a way in, Tech led the squad to a ladder on the side of the building. Wrecker, being scared of heights, was nervous about climbing, but brought up the rear as they went up the ladder and entered the building.
The squad approaches the droid decommissioning facility
When the Batch entered the main area of the plant, they encountered a worker whom Wrecker immediately dragged into a corner and knocked unconscious. The squad proceeded along the facility's catwalks into the middle of the room, where they got a good look at the multiple conveyor belts carrying deactivated droids to the smelters. After surveying the area, Hunter told Tech and Echo that the three of them would go down to the main controls to locate any tactical droids. He then ordered Wrecker to go to the upper level to serve as lookout. When the acrophobic clone complained that that had been Crosshair's job, Hunter responded that that had been an order. Omega was told to stay in her position and keep watch for the target.
As Omega watched through macrobinoculars, Wrecker climbed up to a vantage point on the next level and knocked out another worker. Hunter, Echo and Tech descended a spiral staircase to the control panel, quickly stunning the workers stationed there. Plugging in with his scomp link, Echo found that there was one tactical droid left in the facility, as the others had already been scrapped. Hunter noted they would only have one shot at their task and they had to get it right. Asked where it had been offloaded, Echo located it on the north conveyor. As Rafa approached her from behind, Omega spotted the droid through her binoculars and reported to Hunter that the droid was in pieces, although its head was intact. However, the girl then saw Trace as she claimed the head and ran off, reporting the theft to Hunter.
Wrecker, sweeping the area with his binoculars, spotted Trace as she made her way onto a catwalk, reporting that one of the workers had stolen the head. Omega told Hunter she was going after the thief, but Hunter told her to stay put, only for Rafa to confront her as she tried to leave. Rafa told Omega she was not going anywhere, and Omega drew her energy bow on the smuggler, who raised her visor. Rafa cautioned Omega, saying she did not want to hurt her but could not have her getting in the way, prompting Omega to retort that Rafa was in fact getting in her way. Trace contacted Rafa over her comlink and reported that she had the target, asking where her sister was, but Omega warned Rafa not to answer. Making her way down the stairs by the control desk, Trace attempted to get in contact with Rafa, only to be startled when she encountered Tech and Echo, who immediately pointed their blaster pistols at her, Tech asking who she was. Raising her visor, Trace backed away while asking them who they were, only to be boxed in when Hunter came up to her from behind.
Rafa attempts to reason with Omega.
Rafa attempted to talk Omega down, noting that the girl's arms were clearly tiring from the effort to hold her bow drawn. Suggesting that the girl had won, Rafa advised her to put her bow down so they could talk. When Omega lowered her weapon, Rafa rushed forward and attempted to disarm her. After a brief struggle, the bow went off, firing a bolt into the side of a gas tank and blowing a hole. The weapon was knocked out of Omega's hands and fell off the catwalk. The disturbance and damage was immediately noticed by the other intruders and alarmed the workers, who began to evacuate the plant. During the evacuation, one of the workers spotted the intruders at the control panel and reported a security breach. As the workers fled, the facility was locked down, with the conveyors stopped and blast doors sealed. Trace sarcastically asked Hunter how he planned to get out of the building now.
Rafa insinuated that the situation was Omega's fault, sarcastically congratulating her, but Omega retorted that the smuggler had been the one who grabbed her bow. As police droids began filing into the facility, Rafa snapped at Omega to grab a weapon instead of standing around, but Omega coldly noted that she had had one as Rafa aimed her pistol at the droids. Wrecker opened fire on the droids from his vantage point and yelled at them to get moving, and Omega followed Rafa when she attempted to leave the girl behind. At the control desk, Echo noted the security closing in, and Hunter ordered the team to focus their fire while Trace took cover.
As the clones engaged in a firefight with the police droids, Hunter contacted Omega, who told him that there was a second person after the droid head but she was in pursuit, following Rafa down a ladder. Hunter told her to stay put, stating that they had the droid head. Trace immediately refuted his statement before fleeing up the staircase. Hunter followed her, telling Tech and Echo to deal with the droids and find a way to lift the lockdown. Rafa and Trace eventually reached each other in the maze of catwalks, still being chased by Omega and Hunter. When Trace realized Hunter was about to catch up to her, she tossed the droid head to Rafa, who attempted to flee the scene only to bump into a police droid, knocking the droid head out of her hands, and it ricocheted onto the conveyor. Omega and Trace immediately set off to retrieve the head.
Hunter saves Rafa's life
Hunter destroyed the police droid before it could kill Rafa, and she told him not to expect gratitude, prompting him to sarcastically ask if he should have let the droid shoot her. Rafa shot a police droid approaching him from behind, and the two became pinned down in a firefight against the droids on the catwalks, working together against the common enemy. Hunter asked Rafa why she wanted the droid head. She retorted that as a clone it was none of his business, but he responded that that day, it was. On the conveyor, Trace ran for the droid head, only for Omega to slide onto the conveyor along the top of a chute from the wall. Omega seized the head and ran past Trace, nearly knocking her off of her feet, and Trace gave chase.
In the process of working to lift the lockdown, Echo shut down the entire facility, telling Tech it was the only way to do so. Echo told Wrecker to go flip the main power switch, something he was apprehensive about as it required crossing a large gap over a smelting pit, but Echo retorted that he should figure it out himself. Nervous, Wrecker leapt for a grasping claw hanging above the gap and used it to swing across, but he slammed his head hard into the wall when he landed on the other side. Dazed, Wrecker pulled the switch as Tech asked him what he was waiting for, before collapsing in agony: the hit to his head, the latest in a string of such injuries, had exacerbated damage to his inhibitor chip, and he began mumbling the beginning of the "Good soldiers follow orders" catchphrase associated with the chips' brainwashing while mostly insensible. Two police droids approached and began firing at him from across the gap, and Wrecker attempted to return fire, but in his dazed state the droids shot him in the shoulder and he collapsed again. As he was down, the droids departed.
The jolt of the conveyors activating as the facility powered up caused Omega to trip and drop the droid head, and Trace ran past her and took it. Contacting Rafa as she made her way off the conveyor, Trace told her sister to meet her at the north exit. Attempting to follow, Omega discovered her foot was caught in the conveyor and a tangle of deactivated droids, and she was unable to pull herself loose. Fighting droids at the main controls, Tech and Echo attempted to contact Wrecker, but the large clone was insensible from the effects of the damage to his chip and did not respond. Reaching the north exit, Trace was about to leave when she realized that Omega was trapped on the conveyor and approaching the last stretch before the droids were dropped into the smelter, so she turned back and headed to a spot where she could help the girl.
Omega called Hunter and told him she was trapped on the conveyor, while he and Rafa were still in the middle of a firefight. He told her he was on his way and pulled out a grappling hook, throwing it up to hook onto a catwalk above him. Rafa asked him what he was doing, and he told her he was taking out the support pillars, advising her to follow him as he leapt off of the catwalk and onto the conveyor as the smuggler demanded to know who had put him in charge. Hunter secured the end of the cable into the conveyor and drew his pistols, firing on the police droids on the catwalks. The effect of the cable quickly weakened the pillars, with Rafa leaping from the catwalk just before they gave way, collapsing several catwalks and crushing multiple police droids. Rafa yelled at Hunter that he had almost gotten her killed.
Hunter was grateful to Trace for saving Omega.
Omega panicked as she neared the end of the conveyor, but as Hunter and Rafa approached her position, they wound up in another firefight with more police droids. Reaching the end of the conveyor, Omega attempted to hang on but fell into the catchment bin, atop layers of dismantled droids waiting to be smelted. As she looked around, Trace called to her from the edge of the bin, and Omega hurried over to her position. However, Omega could not quite reach Trace's hand as the bin began to open up to the smelter. Told to grab something, Omega took hold of a droid leg and swung it up to Trace, who grabbed it just as the bin fully opened, Trace began to pull Omega up, but she was approached by police droids. Hunter, swinging in on a line from above, shot at the droids. Landing near where Trace was standing, Hunter took out the remaining security in the area before pulling Omega up. After confirming that the girl was okay, he thanked Trace for her help. Rafa landed nearby, and acerbically noted that she was fine after brushing herself off. With more police droids incoming, the group retreated from the area, agreeing to work together, although Rafa made sure to tell Hunter she did not like him.
Regrouping with Echo and Tech at the control desk, Hunter noted that the entrances were blocked. Echo noted that things were about to get worse, as a large wave of police droids was approaching. While the firefight was going on, Trace hit upon the idea of using the tactical droid head to activate the battle droids and send them against the security. However, the first attempt to activate the head did not work. Tech stepped in and attached a signal booster and a data rod to the head so he could access its data better, backing up the data from the head onto the rod in the process. As the police droids closed in, Omega contacted Wrecker telling him they needed help. Finally regaining his senses for the moment, Wrecker came around and told her he was on his way.
Trace reprogrammed the tactical droid.
As she fought approaching droids, Rafa expressed skepticism with Trace's plan, while Trace argued that they only needed a few more minutes while Tech worked on the head. Wrecker rejoined the fight, entering from above and noting that the others had been having all of the fun, and Rafa said that she liked him. After destroying multiple droids, Wrecker retreated behind cover as more security appeared, but the head was finally ready as Tech detached the data rod. Trace ordered the tactical droid to have the battle droids attack the plant security. The B1-series battle droids and B2-series super battle droids on the conveyors, many of which were missing various parts, activated, one droid wondering if they had won the war. Leaping from the conveyors, the battle droids which still had weapons attacked the police droids first, while more damaged droids without armament attacked the security droids in other ways by leaping onto them.
The clones and smugglers emerged from cover and fought their way out of the main plant area. Tech handed the datarod to Hunter, informing him that their mission had been accomplished. Omega found and recovered her bow from where it had fallen as Trace contacted R7 for a pickup. However, as she led the way towards where R7 would arrive, the droid head, which she had been carrying, was destroyed by fire from approaching police droids, to Trace's horror. As more security forces pursued, the Silver Angel arrived, and everyone escaped on board before the ship flew off.
Onboard the Silver Angel, Wrecker's head continued to pain him while the others discussed the outcome of events. Rafa was incredulous that Hunter and his team did not know who they were getting the data for, and he said they were being paid to deliver, not ask questions. When Trace explained that their contact had wanted to use the data to fight the Empire, Hunter and Tech exchanged a look. Rafa asked Hunter why his squad was not serving the Empire, as she had thought that was what clones did these days, and he said they were different, something Rafa had heard before.
Landing at the industrial dockyard, the clones returned to the Marauder. Trace and Rafa said goodbye to Omega, and Omega suggested that they should come visit, agreeing with Trace that the part of Ord Mantell where they were based was quite seedy. Rafa told Omega to work on her bow skills. After Trace returned to the Angels cockpit and Omega headed for the Marauder, Hunter gave Rafa the data from the droid head, telling her that he was doing so because the sisters would use it for the right reasons. Rafa said that he really was different, and he remarked that things had been much simpler when he and his squad were just soldiers. In response, Rafa told him to take it from her that everyone chose sides eventually. Rafa and Omega waved goodbye to each other as Hunter returned to the Marauder, and the two starships took off, heading their separate ways.
Rafa reports her mission success and encounter with the Bad Batch to Rex.
After departing Corellia, Rafa had R7 call up Rex by hologram. Rafa told him that they had acquired the tactical droid data, and that a squad of rogue clones had helped them do it. Adding that she knew where to find the clones, Rafa said that she thought he would be interested.
The Batch continued to do jobs for Scaleback, such as retrieving a lizard Omega nicknamed Ruby from the Rhokai gang. However, she insisted that they owed her a great deal of credits for failing to retrieve the tactical droid head. Keeping an extensive bill of what the squad owed her, Scaleback told Hunter that they needed to get a big score to fully repay her for the loss.
Rex tracked down the Batch at Cid's Parlor, and became alarmed when he learned of Wrecker's headaches and that they had not removed their inhibitor chips, as Tech had decided they were likely not in danger. He insisted that they meet him on the junk planet Bracca, where they entered a wrecked Venator-class Star Destroyer to use its medical bay to remove their chips. Wrecker was to go first, but his chip fully activated and he attacked the others. After managing to take out all of the adults, the mind-controlled clone pursued Omega and cornered her in another room on the ship as she attempted to talk him down. It failed, but Rex managed to stun him and they went ahead with the surgery. After Wrecker had recovered, all of the other Batch members had their chips removed as well. Rex told Hunter that his squad's skills would make them tremendous assets to his cause, but Hunter turned the offer down, saying that his priorities had changed and he was still figuring out what they were going to do. Having to make a rendezvous with a contact, Rex departed after telling Hunter to let him know what he decided, and Hunter in return told Rex that he knew how to contact the Batch if he was ever in a bind.
Hunter chose to stay on Bracca a little while longer, as he thought that the wrecked Venator had a good chance of containing valuable salvage which could square the Batch's debt to Scaleback. However, Bracca's Scrapper Guild was alerted to the intruders' presence and notified the Empire, resulting in a skirmish between the Batch and forces led by Crosshair. The Batch's debt to Scaleback was eventually paid off after Omega discovered she had a natural talent for strategy which made her unbeatable at dejarik, and Scaleback had her play games for bets while the Batch was off on a mission.
- Star Wars: Timelines