During the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems established a droid factory on the planet of Mokivj. This factory used to be another factory, for manufacturing material, until the Separatists arrived and changed it. The facility would be managed by Duke Solha. The purpose of this secretive factory was two-fold; both of which involved production of armor with a cortosis weave rendering it largely impervious to lightsabers and blaster bolts. The first and more obvious purpose of the factory was to produce a cortosis-armored variant of the Separatist Droid Army's B2 super battle droids. The second, more nefarious purpose was producing clone trooper armor strengthened with cortosis as a contingency plan for Darth Sidious and Count Dooku's planned Order 66 and Great Jedi Purge.
The Mokivj droid factory was built there because of a nearby rich deposit of cortosis, an extremely rare metal. The cortosis vein was the site of a cortosis mine, which provided the factory with cortosis for several months.
Duja, a former handmaiden of Senator Padmé Amidala, uncovered the Separatist's operation which ultimately resulted in her death. Before her death, however, she was able to get a message about her discovery to Amidala, who proceeded to look into the matter.
When Count Dooku, Head of State of the Confederacy of Independent Systems received vital information from an unknown source, which contained information about a rare metal that blocked lightsabers, the primary weapon of the Jedi and Jedi Order, the Confederacys main enemy during the Clone Wars. With that information, and the known location, Dooku contacted his master, who was pleased with the discovery. As he intended to use the cortosis to reinforce the clones armor with cortosis so it could resist the Jedis weapon during Order 66. The Serennian later dispatched some members of the Serennian nobility, Duke Solha, his brother, and sister to the planet, where they found an abandoned, old fortress. After they repurposed the fortress, they began the production and manufacturing of Solhas own battle droid, the cortosis B2-series super battle droid, which used the metals properties. The metal was obtained from a mine near the factory, where locals, working as miners excavated and extracted the metal.
Although it wasn't originally built as a factory, but as a fortress, vulture droids were docked within the walls of the factory, and could be deployed as security in the sky.
B1-series battle droids and B2-series super battle droids—both standard and some of the cortosis-armored ones produced locally—served as security within the factory.
The Mokivj droid factory appeared in the 2018 novel Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn.
- Star Wars: Timelines