The Clone-Droid Army

[Markus Wilding]

On Byss and Mustafar, both significant cloning and droid manufacturing outposts, machines began to turn and come to life. Production facilities, once long-abandoned, seemed to begin manufacturing on their own. Clones began to appear on Byss. On Mustafar, droids began to patrol the planet's mines and factories.

 

The Clone-Droid Army had risen, and its commanders would soon put it to good use.

[Markus Wilding]

Clones and droids. Two of the most easily mass-produced soldiers combined, and equipped only for one thing: war. The Clone-Droid Army's commanders were no more than a collection of disgruntled army and navy commanders who were discontent with their home worlds and the old Empire, but the skills they learned while in service with the Empire and other militaries were of extreme value. Two armies were thus built and grown on Byss and Mustafar, to defend the planets and their vital manufacturing and cloning facilities from outside aggression.

 

The Clone-Droid Navy was an important component of the Clone-Droid military. Two fleets existed, for defense of Byss and Mustafar. Both fleets had a Mandator II-class Star Dreadnaught at the head, with Subjugator-class heavy cruisers providing escort protection. DP-20 frigates and Marauder-class corvettes provided a line of skirmishers and support for their larger cousins. And of course, droid fighters on board both Subjugator-classes provided defense against any intruding starfighters.

 

On the ground, B1 and B2 battle droids were the main military force on Mustafar, while on Byss it was strange to see a non-Clone on patrol. In order to prevent the total deactivation of entire droid armies, the need for a command link on an orbiting mainframe has been removed. The B1s are built primarily as foot soldiers, with B2s and occasionally a group of droidekas. For now, and until advanced training had been secured and developed, the clones of Byss were simply regular soldiers. Their pure numbers would stop most foes.

[Markus Wilding]

Admiral Zieger Sivron stood on the bridge of the newly-christened CDN Indestructible, the first of two Mandator II-class Star Dreadnaughts that were in service with the Clone-Droid Navy. Below him, the droid command staff worked on calibrating systems and upgrading the ship's computers. Most of the ship's complement were made up of B1 battle droids, serving in a command and marine capacity. Senior officers and weapons officers were commanded by clones that had been trained specifically to be imaginative and daring, along with the pilots that served as the starfighter complement on the Subjugator-classes. He was still incredibly impressed with the speed of the droids - as an Imperial officer he had been more or less conditioned to view droids as inferior, useful only as janitors and utility bots. Still, they weren't the naval officers and enlisted men he had served with in the Imperial Navy, not by a long shot. To him, however, the Clone-Droid Army was more than necessary. After the Empire's shameful defeat at Endor, he and other like-minded officers had split from the Empire, and although he had heard of Grand Admiral Thrawn discussing a similar split, he and the other officers with him were not interested. No, they wanted more...war was in their veins. Although their home worlds shunned it, Sivron and his fellows had wanted more combat since they first tasted their own blood in battle. While they couldn't demand that of their droids, they could definitely demand that of their clones.

[Markus Wilding]

Bespin. A vital source of tibanna gas, an important component to powering blasters and could also be used as hyperdrive coolant. Thus, an army was sent to secure the planet for Clone-Droid Army use. Based out of Mustafar, four Acclamator II-class assault ships descended upon the planet with a complement of droids, sending 12,800 of the B1 series down to not only destroy any resistance, but also to secure the tibanna gas collection facilities. In the assault, nearly 80 battle droids had been destroyed by the local resistance, although the sheer numbers soon overwhelmed the locals. Phase 1 had been successful - the landing ports had been secured. Phase 2, securing the tibanna gas collection facilities, would be underway soon. For this task, transports were requested from Mustafar to send droidekas and the more robust B2 super battle droids to the planet.

[Markus Wilding]

Stage 2 had just been launched. For this, the combined B1 and B2 battle droid units began to assault the fortified tibanna gas collection facilities, while under orders to be mindful of the gas itself locked in containers, which could prove flammable. The last thing the Clone-Droid Army needed was to lose precious stores of this gas. The human resistance was, however, very prepared for the droid assault. Losses were high as the B1s tried to navigate a system of obstacles, leading them into kill-zones built by the human defenders, costing the Clone-Droid Army forty B1 units. The B2s, however, being much more robust, were able to navigate the kill-zones without problem and fire upon the humans in their nests. Droidekas soon joined the fray once the obstacles were deemed clear and the meat of the operation began - fighting in the collection facilities themselves. Without their cover, and with droidekas literally shielding the more vulnerable B1 droids, the human defenders had little chance. Clever use of thermal detonators could have destroyed them, of course - but that also meant destroying pallets of tibanna gas. After perhaps two planet hours of fighting, the facilities were taken. Overall losses numbered in 103 B1 droids, 7 B2 droids, and one droideka.

 

After-action reports sent to Clone-Droid Army High Command made it clear a change in programming was needed, as well as a redesign of the droids. Programming changes included modifications to allow for more specialized roles for the B1 battle droids, noting that their smaller frames made for excellent concealment. Thus, the variant known internally as B1S was created, a droid built to kill at long ranges with deadly and cold efficiency, armed with a E-17D rifle, most of which had been stolen from Imperial armories. Until more of those could be secured, however, factories on Mustafar were busy constructing the less accurate but still reliable E-5s rifle. While still in the base tan color that was standard for all B1 battle droids, these would be painted by local commanders to suit the camouflage needs of the local battlefield. Another variant built, building upon successes and failures learned on Bespin, was the B1E droid, designed for combat engineering duties. These would be equipped with scatterguns, fusion cutters, detonation packs and enough information on how to build and destroy structures it would make any old engineer impressed. Redesigns of the B1 droids led to increased torso armor, as well as added protection for its internal processors and computers. This would mean it would take slightly more shots to actually destroy the B1 design, although not many more.

[Markus Wilding]

It had been determined on Byss that old stores of Fett DNA, notably Jango Fett's, had been either stolen or too degraded to be usable. Therefore, a new host had to be found for massive cloning. After numerous trials and errors, General Nestrahu Guytrout's DNA strain proved to be the strongest. A native of Coruscant, General Guytrout was a notable fighter and was even rumored to be Force-sensitive, not that the Clone-Droid Army needed such things. In three years time, the first batch would be grown and trained...and any "defective products" eliminated, usually with a good blaster shot to the head. Any errors found in the first batch would be fixed by the next, and so on and so on.

 

Four different "flavors" of clones would be grown - the regular troopers for what was unkindly referred to in Clone-Droid Army High Command as "cannon fodder", clad in camouflage armor that was painted to suit the terrain of the world the army resided in, heavy weapons troopers that specialized in anti-vehicle and anti-building weaponry like rocket launchers, combat engineers trained in the art of construction and deconstruction, and commandos, trained to carry out and complete any mission that, to a normal human, would be downright suicidal. The commandos would receive special training, which combined general infantry tactics, anti-vehicle warfare, combat engineering, amphibious operations, low-support missions, breaching and clearing, hostage rescue, and advanced marksmanship. A common slogan written on the barrack walls of these clones was "Running won't help, but it'll make it really funny".

[Markus Wilding]

 

TS//G

 

LIGHTSTEALTH 18 RECONNAISSANCE SHIPS DISPATCHED TO SCOUT SEVERAL NEARBY SYSTEMS

 

In Order of Importance the following systems are being scouted:

 

Mustafar

 

 

Admiral Zieger Sivron was confused. His ship, the CDN Indestructible, had just picked up a signature not used since the Empire. He knew it well, being a lead communications officer, but the fact that the Empire had all but died out had him searching for answers. He asked of the droids below him, "Can anyone confirm? Is this an Imperial ship?" "Roger, Admiral," replied one of the droids near the communications station, "ship is confirmed to match Imperial communications samples." Now this was very interesting. There was no way for this recon ship to communicate back to its home world - wherever that may be - until it landed, however it also was unable to receive or send any communications from other ships, including Sivron's. "Continue monitoring the ship for now," Sivron ordered, "if it heads to land on Mustafar, alert General Hanhudd and his army. We don't know yet if these people are hostile." From the droids below, a chorus of "Roger, roger" was heard as they began to set their sensors and arrays to monitor the ship. "One more thing," Sivron added, "if any of your sensors detect that this ship has detected us and is targeting us in any way, open fire. I don't want whoever is out there getting the first shot." A pause, followed by another chorus of "Roger, roger". The few clones on the ship were alerted to man their weapon stations in case things turned ugly, and the droids seemed to peer into their screens and sensors even closer.

[The Zigur]

OOC

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/LightStealth-18_Reconnaissance_Ship

 

A carbon-black, six-passenger craft with a needle-like body and, disproportionate, down sloping stabilizers, the LightStealth-18 Reconnaissance Ship (LSR for short) was the closest anyone had come to producing a starship capable of hiding itself even while it was scanning.

Unlike most ships designed by Raith Sienar, Imperial Section 19 or Warthan's Wizards during the days of the Galactic Empire, the LSR was not cloaked, but was instead built for silent running and incredible speed. With an abundance low-profile rectennae and packed with signal augmented sensor jammers, blind-band hypercomm transmitters, crystal gravfield traps, and a power core more suitable to a ship of the line, the LSR could all but see the universe to its own aft and could outrun nearly anything that could locate it. It has a class 1 hyper drive. It had a forward mounted laser cannon for defense.

[Markus Wilding]

"What the hell just happened?" Sivron asked as the recon ship disappeared. "The ship made the jump to hyperspace, Admiral." came the reply below. Dammit. This was a problem. Now not only did Sivron not know who these people were, but now there was the question of why they jumped to hyperspace. Were they scouting out Mustafar for an invasion? Was the Clone-Droid Army's existence known? Was it deemed a threat by an unknown actor? Regardless, the time for silence was over. The Clone-Droid Army had just been challenged on one of its homeworlds - a response was needed.

 

As High Command met to discuss this event, machines on Mustafar continued to build. Armored forces had been considered for some time, and with the recent incursion it was clear now a force was necessary to respond to any threat. While not usable on Mustafar or Bespin, tanks would certainly be of use on Byss, and thus all newly constructed armored forces would be sent there. Vehicles built included:

 

All Terrain Anti-Aircraft tank, or AT-AA for short, used only to provide air cover for ground troops and other tank designs

T4-B heavy tank armed with two medium fire-linked laser cannons and concussion missiles for assault and spearhead duties

IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks armed with 30 missiles and a laser cannon for defeating most armored vehicles and destroying entire platoons of soldiers

OG-9 homing spider droid, a self-propelled artillery vehicle that has an anti-personnel laser cannon, a retractable ion cannon, and a laser emplacement for close-in defense

 

---------

 

After several hours of deliberation, the following message would be sent over all communications:

 

 

To whom it may concern,

 

Recently, Mustafar space was breached by an unknown aircraft that matched former Imperial communications codes. We do not know the purpose behind this incursion or who ordered such an act, but let it be known that Mustafar, Byss and Bespin are under the complete control of the Clone-Droid Army. Our military is strong and will defend ourselves against any aggressor. Should those responsible for the breach of our space communicate with us, we will consider allowing the act to pass. Should we find that the craft had hostile intentions, we will correct the mistake that craft's leadership made. We do not shy from war - we enjoy it and will bring it upon anyone who seeks to stop us.

 

Mustafar and Byss's communications will be open for anyone who wishes to claim responsibility for this incursion. We will not tolerate those who wish to toy with us.

 

This is Vicste Gisthas, High General of the Clone-Droid Army, signing off.