Mission to a droid decommissioning facility

The Clone Wars spanned three years and was a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Separatists, who sought independence, deployed an army comprised of battle droids to fight against the Republic's forces, which consisted of clone troopers. In 19 BBY, the war concluded with the reorganization of the Republic into the Galactic Empire by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, and the droid army was subsequently deactivated. In the aftermath, the newly formed Empire promptly began dismantling the Separatist military assets.

As a component of the governmental transition, the clones of the Grand Army of the Republic underwent brainwashing to ensure their loyalty to Palpatine and the Empire. This was achieved through the implementation of inhibitor chips, which instilled unquestioning obedience. Among the scarce clones who evaded this mind control were the majority of members within the unconventional Clone Force 99 commando squad. Their immunity stemmed from genetic mutations or, as in the case of Echo, the presence of implanted cybernetics. They defected from the Empire shortly after its inception, within a matter of days, and took Omega, a young, genetically enhanced clone created by the Kaminoans, with them. However, they lost their sniper, Crosshair, to the effects of his brainwashing. Instances of clones going rogue were so infrequent that most people were under the impression that all clones were serving the Empire without question.

Following an encounter with a bounty hunter on Pantora, the Bad Batch, as they were known, met Ciddarin Scaleback, an information broker, on Ord Mantell while attempting to identify their pursuer. Scaleback identified the mercenary as Fennec Shand, but required the squad to complete a job for her as payment, and then offered them further opportunities. Promising a mutually beneficial arrangement where they would work for her, receive payment, and benefit from her protection from the Empire, Scaleback arranged another task for them. She had a client who desired the retrieval of a T-series military strategic analysis and tactics droid from a decommissioning facility on Corellia, seeking the information contained within it. Hunter, the squad leader, reluctantly accepted the assignment, and the Batch embarked for Corellia aboard the Marauder. Tech pointed out that, given the clone army's service to the Empire, knowledge of how to defeat them had become significantly more valuable.

However, Scaleback's client was not alone in their interest in this data. The sisters Trace and Rafa Martez, who operated as smugglers, had been tasked by Rex, a former Clone Captain and friend of Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi, with retrieving a tactical droid head from the very same facility. His intention was to utilize the intel to combat the Empire. The sisters journeyed to Corellia aboard the Silver Angel, accompanied by the astromech droid R7-A7.

Upon their arrival in Coronet City, Rafa and Trace adopted disguises as workers and gained entry to the decommissioning facility, leaving R7 in charge of the Silver Angel to provide transportation when needed. Simultaneously, the Bad Batch entered the system and approached the planet discreetly by attaching their shuttle to the underside of a class four container transport to evade sensors detection. Once they were sufficiently close, the Marauder detached from the freighter and descended, landing at the industrial dock. The five clones proceeded towards the scrapping plant on foot, observing the police droids patrolling the area, a detail that Hunter noted Scaleback had omitted from her briefing. Tech observed that the droids were patrolling using predictable quadrant scans, which could be easily bypassed with precise timing. Identifying a point of entry, Tech guided the squad to a ladder on the side of the building. Wrecker, who had a fear of heights, expressed his anxiety about climbing but reluctantly followed, bringing up the rear as they ascended the ladder and entered the building.

Upon entering the main area of the plant, the Batch encountered a worker, whom Wrecker promptly dragged into a corner and rendered unconscious. The squad advanced along the facility's catwalks, arriving at the center of the room, where they observed numerous conveyor belts transporting deactivated droids to the smelters. After assessing the area, Hunter instructed Tech and Echo to proceed to the main controls to locate any tactical droids. He then assigned Wrecker to the upper level to serve as a lookout. When the acrophobic clone protested, mentioning that it was previously Crosshair's responsibility, Hunter reiterated that it was an order. Omega was instructed to remain in her position and maintain watch for the target.

While Omega observed through macrobinoculars, Wrecker ascended to a vantage point on the next level and incapacitated another worker. Hunter, Echo, and Tech descended a spiral staircase to the control panel, swiftly stunning the workers stationed there. Using his scomp link, Echo discovered that only one tactical droid remained in the facility, as the others had already been processed. Hunter emphasized that they had only one opportunity to succeed and had to execute their task flawlessly. When asked about its location, Echo pinpointed it on the north conveyor. As Rafa approached from behind, Omega spotted the droid through her binoculars and informed Hunter that the droid was in pieces, but its head was intact. However, the girl then witnessed Trace seizing the head and fleeing, reporting the theft to Hunter.

Wrecker, scanning the area with his binoculars, spotted Trace making her way onto a catwalk, reporting that one of the workers had stolen the head. Omega informed Hunter that she was pursuing the thief, but Hunter instructed her to remain in place. However, Rafa confronted her as she attempted to leave. Rafa told Omega she was not going anywhere, and Omega responded by drawing her energy bow on the smuggler, who raised her visor. Rafa cautioned Omega, stating that she did not want to harm her but could not allow her to interfere, prompting Omega to retort that Rafa was, in fact, interfering with her. Trace contacted Rafa over her comlink and reported that she had the target, asking for her sister's location, but Omega warned Rafa not to respond. As she descended the stairs by the control desk, Trace attempted to contact Rafa but was startled by the appearance of Tech and Echo, who immediately aimed their blaster pistols at her, with Tech asking her identity. Raising her visor, Trace retreated while questioning their identities, only to be cornered by Hunter, who approached her from behind.

Rafa attempted to de-escalate the situation with Omega, pointing out that the girl's arms were visibly tiring from holding her bow drawn. Suggesting that the girl had won, Rafa advised her to lower her bow so that they could converse. When Omega lowered her weapon, Rafa lunged forward and attempted to disarm her. After a brief struggle, the bow discharged, firing a bolt into the side of a gas tank and creating a breach. The weapon was knocked from Omega's hands and fell off the catwalk. The disruption and damage immediately caught the attention of the other intruders and alerted 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 halted and blast doors sealed. Trace sarcastically inquired about Hunter's plan for exiting the building.

Rafa implied that the situation was Omega's fault, sarcastically congratulating her, but Omega retorted that the smuggler was the one who had grabbed her bow. As police droids began to enter the facility, Rafa snapped at Omega to acquire a weapon instead of standing idly by, but Omega coldly pointed out that she had possessed one as Rafa aimed her pistol at the droids. Wrecker opened fire on the droids from his vantage point and yelled at them to move, and Omega followed Rafa when she attempted to leave the girl behind. At the control desk, Echo noted the approaching security, and Hunter instructed the team to concentrate their fire while Trace took cover.

As the clones engaged in a firefight with the police droids, Hunter contacted Omega, who informed him that there was a second individual pursuing the droid head but that she was in pursuit, following Rafa down a ladder. Hunter instructed her to remain in place, stating that they had the droid head. Trace immediately refuted his statement before fleeing up the staircase. Hunter pursued her, instructing Tech and Echo to deal with the droids and find a way to lift the lockdown. Rafa and Trace eventually reunited in the maze of catwalks, still pursued by Omega and Hunter. When Trace realized that Hunter was about to overtake her, she tossed the droid head to Rafa, who attempted to flee the scene only to collide with a police droid, causing the droid head to fall from her hands and bounce onto the conveyor. Omega and Trace immediately set out to retrieve the head.

Hunter eliminated 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 allowed the droid to shoot her. Rafa shot a police droid approaching him from behind, and the two found themselves pinned down in a firefight against the droids on the catwalks, collaborating against the common enemy. Hunter inquired as to Rafa's motives for wanting the droid head. She retorted that, as a clone, it was none of his concern, but he responded that, on that day, it was. On the conveyor, Trace ran toward 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 her feet, and Trace gave chase.

In the process of attempting to lift the lockdown, Echo shut down the entire facility, telling Tech that it was the only viable option. Echo instructed Wrecker to flip the main power switch, a task he was hesitant about as it required crossing a large gap above a smelting pit. Echo retorted that he should find a way to manage it. Nervously, Wrecker leapt for a grasping claw suspended above the gap and used it to swing across, but he collided with the wall upon landing on the other side. Dazed, Wrecker pulled the switch as Tech inquired about his delay, before collapsing in agony. The impact to his head, the most recent in a series of similar 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 incoherent. 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, causing him to collapse again. As he lay incapacitated, 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 possession of it. Contacting Rafa as she made her way off the conveyor, Trace instructed her sister to meet her at the north exit. Attempting to follow, Omega discovered that her foot was trapped in the conveyor and a tangle of deactivated droids, preventing her from freeing herself. Fighting droids at the main controls, Tech and Echo attempted to contact Wrecker, but the large clone was incoherent due to the effects of the damage to his chip and did not respond. Reaching the north exit, Trace was about to depart when she realized that Omega was trapped on the conveyor and approaching the final 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 engaged in 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.

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 hold 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.

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 Angel's 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.

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.