The short story "Pax Empirica—The Wookiee Annihilation" was penned by Steven L. Kent and featured in the Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.
Wayson Dower, a Stormtrooper, finds himself among a 200-man Imperial force (accompanied by three speeder bike scouts). Their mission, a reconnaissance operation on Kashyyyk ordered by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, aims to prepare the Wookiees' home planet for an impending Imperial invasion. Captain Janzor, the unit's commanding officer, briefs his troops, explaining that the target, a treetop city, is too densely vegetated for transports to land. The unit must proceed on foot with minimal support. He notes that TIE/LN starfighters cannot provide air support due to the dense foliage, which would make them vulnerable, and the treetop platforms are too fragile to support the weight of an AT-AT. Janzor then shares a rumor that Wookiees are evolved banthas before giving the soldiers time for preparation and rest.
On the way to their quarters, Dower and his comrade, Corporal Milo Strander, make a stop at the Trooper's Canteen. Their conversation touches upon the mission and other GeNode troopers, revealing insights into clones. They discuss how clones are psychologically conditioned to overlook their identical appearance, believe they are not clones, and develop individual personalities. They also observe three sergeants chosen for the mission. These sergeants, named Oswald Strepp, Tak Bazierre, and Dalia, are from an earlier clone generation, making them more experienced and sharing a rigid, by-the-book demeanor. After ensuring their equipment is in order, the troopers board a transport headed for Kashyyyk.
As the transport descends into Kashyyyk's atmosphere, it strikes a large branch after eliminating several Wookiees concealed in the trees, which knocks Sergeant Bazierre out of the cabin and into the forest below. The pilot declares that the trees are too dense to penetrate, so the troops must use the skylift (a device to lower supplies and soldiers). Strepp selects Dower to descend with the skylift and unload the supplies. During his descent, Dower spots Bazierre's lifeless body. The operation proceeds smoothly until the skylift completes its task, at which point a lone Wookiee ambushes Dower, nearly killing him before Strepp intervenes with a single, decisive shot. Following the soldiers' descent, Dower confides in Strander his suspicion that Strepp harbors a grudge against him. After Strepp assigns Dower to point and then guard duty, Dower confronts him. Janzor then tells Strepp to ease up on Dower, although he still has guard duty. Janzor then informs the men of their next objective: attacking a nearby outpost to prevent it from alerting other Wookiees to the invasion.
Upon reaching the outpost, a Wookiee spots one of the speeder bike scouts, compromising the element of surprise. Janzor selects five soldiers, including Strepp and Dalia, to storm the building. He instructs Strander and Dower to flank the outpost and eliminate any retreating Wookiees, while also forbidding the use of thermal detonators to preserve the structure. Strepp intentionally draws the Wookiees' fire, allowing Dalia and other marksmen to eliminate them. With most of the Wookiees neutralized, three attempt to flee, only to be gunned down by Dower, earning him Strepp's respect. Janzor, Dalia, and Strepp discuss the next steps of the assault while Strander and the other troopers establish a barracks. Dower, after examining the outpost's equipment and realizing the Wookiees are more intelligent than initially believed, begins his guard duty.
Later, a large force of Wookiees silently eliminates another stormtrooper guard and launches an ambush on the outpost. Dower rushes back, witnessing retreating stormtroopers, including Strander. Strander advises Dower against returning to the outpost, and Strepp orders Dower and the escaping troopers to retreat. Janzor and a dozen other troopers are forced inside the building by the overwhelming number of Wookiees (Dalia is presumed dead at this point). However, the Wookiees retreat when Strepp climbs to the roof of the outpost and opens fire on the Wookiees. He draws their attention and continues to fire, ordering Dower and the other survivors to return to the drop site. Strepp tells Janzor he is dropping a thermal detonator to allow them to escape and tells them to drop to the ground when he says to and then run for open ground. He drops it and it goes off. The resulting explosion nearly destroys the outpost, kills Strepp and Janzor as well as other troopers, but kills many Wookiees and allows the surviving troops to escape.
Strander and Dower briefly speak together and learn that there are five survivors of the battle: Dower, Strander, a soldier with Strander, and two troopers who escaped after Strepp used his detonator. Dower, Strander and the man with him, and the other two are an unknown distance apart. Strander suggests using beacons that will show their locations through their helmet's vision to reunite the group, but Dower advises against using their helmets, fearing Wookiee surveillance, and insists on following Strepp's order to return to the drop zone. After running for some time, Dower sees a large group of primal Wookiees and hides. He sees them torture two soldiers (the two who survived thanks to Strepp) who are holding onto tree branches. The Wookiees poke them with branches until they fall and then maul them.
While in hiding, Dower spots a spider the size of a TIE fighter with extremely low temperature reading a meter of branches below him. He remains motionless until Strander finds him. Dower expresses guilt over not helping the two troopers but Strander consoles him and says he could have done nothing to a large group of Wookiees. Strander introduces the other survivor, Private Sterns Yennich. Both are unarmed. Strander explains that the two of them were part of a five man group retreating from the base. Strander and Yennich were unarmed and Wookiees eventually picked off the three men in their group who had weapons. They then decide to wait for nightfall so they can use nightvision and have slightly better vision than the Wookiees. While they wait, Yennich discovers the tortured troopers' weapons, and he and Strander scavenge them.
As night descends, the trio advances as quickly as they can. Dower spots the spider again but ignores it and continues to run for the drop zone. Dower theorizes that the spider, living in the darkness under the treebranches, is blind or ultra-sensitive to light. Fortunately, the sun is coming up and will soon force the spider back into the darkness. Strander and Dower push forward through thick overgrowth, but Yennich runs towards a clearing with no branches that the spider is near. Dower tries to warn Yennich but realizes the audio on his helmet does not work. He watches the spider attack Yennich mercilessly with its icy claws. At one point it seems that Yennich will be able to shoot his way out but the spider bites through his armor, killing him. The spider then retreats down through the trees with Yennich's body just as the sun rises.
Dower realizes that since his helmet's audio is not functioning he has been rendered deaf and throws away his helmet. Strander takes off his helmet while he and Dower discuss what they should do next, but suddenly they hear a voice radiate from Strander's helmet. It is one of the three speeder-bike scouts who accompanied their platoon, and they soon appear near the troops. The speeder-bike scouts explain that they had been looking for the survivors of the platoon all night and mentions that a much larger attack force landed a few hours after theirs. Dower realizes that his platoon only landed to distract the Wookiees from the main invasion force, and when he, Strander, and Yennich were running during the night, the Empire had captured a continent.
Strander and Dower are returned to the cruiser, promoted to first sergeant, given medals, and will see no more action in the Kashyyyk campaign. Posthumuous medals are rewarded to the dead soldiers of their platoon. Dower briefly considers retiring and moving to a quiet corner of the galaxy, but then decides (probably due to his obedient clone programming, if he was a clone) that such a peaceful place only exists with the help of the Empire and he must serve the Empire and never retire.
Pax Empirica, which saw publication in November 2001, offered insights into clone stormtroopers. This occurred several months prior to the theatrical release of Attack of the Clones. The narrative indicates that, at the time of the Kashyyyk invasion, almost 40% of stormtroopers shared the same template. It elaborates on a specific aspect of the clones' genetic programming that enabled them to disregard the identical appearance of their fellow soldiers. Furthermore, it delves into the development of individual personalities among clones, a theme that was further explored in Revenge of the Sith.
The story puts forth the idea that Wookiees might have descended from banthas. The theory posits that Neimoidian traders, centuries prior, crash-landed on Kashyyyk with a shipment of banthas, which then adapted to the planet. This aligns with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which reveals that the Rakata transformed Kashyyyk into an agricultural world approximately 30,000 years ago, utilizing a machine designed to promote growth and manage the ecosystem. A malfunction in this machine led to the planet's massive tree growth. The machinery itself, along with the adjacent Star Map, were influenced by the Dark Side, which is believed to have created the hostile environment of Kashyyyk's Shadowlands. The game also alludes to a Wookiee legend suggesting they were not originally from Kashyyyk, speculating that they were brought there as caretakers for the agricultural world.
Although the story is said to take place a few years before Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, the invasion of Kashyyyk led by Tarkin occurs in 19 BBY as depicted in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.