How often do massive boxes of old janitor droids appear on the lower levels?
Once a month.
And a group of cleaning machines had already been in this corridor three weeks ago.
No one had reported any change in the disposal schedule.
"Hey, you, stop right there!" a B1 series droid stepped toward five droid janitors that looked like freezer chests, raising a hand. "Show me your authorization to be in this zone!"
The dozen similar soldiers behind him erupted in confirmation and mutual approval of their commander's actions.
The janitor droid stopped. Then a panel on its front opened, offering to take the authorization documents from the compartment.
What could it do?
Such janitors had been built almost in the time of Xim the Despot, and manipulators were a rare feature on them.
The B1 looked into the container.
"Uh-uh-uh," it droned. "I don't get it..."
It didn't get to finish.
A concentrated beam of white-green matter burned a hole the size of a human thumb through its metal skull.
But the moment the commander's chassis hit the tunnel floor, his soldiers were already firing at the janitor droids.
However, their E-5 blasters couldn't burn through the quality metal the archaic janitors were made of.
But the return fire from blasters inside the uninvited guests destroyed every one of the guards in two seconds.
After that, the cargo hatches of the droids swung open and five fleet special forces soldiers emerged, clad in assault armor black as night itself.
Experimental armor developed for elite units like the fleet special forces and assault commandos.
And undergoing their first trial in conditions of full-scale battle and covert infiltration behind enemy lines.
Judging by the fact that during the entire descent to the very bottom of the complex, no one had uncovered their simple disguise inside the cleaning droids, at least from technical sensors the new armor (suspiciously similar to that used by the Shadow Stormtroopers of Imperial Intelligence Director Blackhole) conceals them as well as the manufacturer of these suits claimed.
Well, then...
Earlier in the Dominion, only the assault commandos "showed off" in coal-black armor with minimal visibility to surveillance, and now the fleet special forces have also received upgrades.
And who says the Dominion's military science isn't advancing?
Experimental armor of the fleet special forces.
But after returning from the mission, a detailed report must be written to enlighten the manufacturer that their invention has, though non-critical, nevertheless non-ergonomic flaws.
"Lock," Makeno ordered one of his subordinates. "Move it, guys, we're not here for a weekend."
The electronics specialist cracked the simple device in just five seconds.
The huge ancient gates slid in opposite directions, moving apart.
"The lowest level," one of the soldiers said. "Commander, are you sure this is it?"
"The central computer's records indicate that the interned civilians were delivered to the construction site of the water reservoirs," Makeno explained, recalling the results of the recent computer hack. "According to the plan, this is it — at this depth runs an underground river that flows into the local sea."
The doors leading to the unfinished part of the underground complex slid into place with a soft clang.
One by one, low-power lamps began to light, dispelling the gloom in the enormous caverns located below sea level.
Kilometers from the surface.
"I see," shrugged the soldier covering the rear of the special forces group. "But it's a bit light on security for millions frozen in carbonite... Um, guys? Why did you go quiet?"
Without waiting for an answer, he walked around his silent commander and also looked into the depths of the giant caverns.
"The emperor's black bones?! What the hell is this?!"
Hundreds and hundreds of square hectares of the caverns' floor surfaces, man-made and artificially hollowed out of the skarn, were piled with decomposing corpses of sentient beings.
The special forces were saved only by the fact that their sealed armor didn't let in a single unfiltered breath of air.
Otherwise, they would have had to experience the dubious pleasure of inhaling the warm air of the deepest caverns, saturated with the stench of decomposition and rotting organic matter.
"Close the doors again," Makeno ordered, taking a couple steps back and heading back to the cleaning droids. "We've seen enough. The Carannians are dead. Time to report this to command and start hunting that tactical super-psycho."
"Where are we going to find him, sir?" asked the nearest special forces soldier in surprise. "There are tens of kilometers of tunnels."
Orsan cast a glance at the corpse-filled cavern.
"Pull up the data on the tunnels and communications of this complex," he ordered. "I think our mechanical maniac has prepared an escape route that they'd think of last."
Underground river, huh?
Well, well, you tricky mechanical bastard.
You won't get away from the special forces that easily.
This isn't like fleeing headquarters on a monorail.
* * *
"We have a problem."
Cracken's voice should have forced Tey-Zuka to interrupt his analysis of the current situation and look at his subordinate.
But it didn't happen.
The Supreme Commander of the droid army continued to watch as the inner courtyard of the aboveground warehouses turned into a disposal site for his battle droids.
Even though this was only a small part of his army, the data processing, which took little time, indicated a pattern in the enemy commander's actions.
The use of outdated ships to deliver reinforcements to the battlefield.
The use of damaged equipment — Juggernauts — to increase the firepower of the invasion forces.
And droids fighting on his side.
For several seconds, Tey-Zuka simply ignored his subordinate's remark, finishing the situation analysis.
And only then deigned to pay attention to Cracken, who was patiently and silently waiting for a reaction to his phrase.
"Have the coastal positions fallen?" inquired the Supreme Commander of the droid army.
"They have completely come under the control of a separate enemy unit," Cracken confirmed. "The remaining forces are retreating through the sewer collectors into the warehouse territory."
"Are the escape routes being destroyed?"
"We're filling them with duracrete as soon as we withdraw our units."
"Acknowledged," Tey-Zuka responded.
Tactical super droids are not programmed for thrift regarding personnel.
This wasn't required during the Clone Wars.
For the simple reason that it's easier to build a mechanical army anew than to spend effort and resources on repairing cheap droids and mass-produced armor models.
This logical decision was indisputable back when the Confederacy of Independent Systems had factories that produced more droids in a month than the entire Grand Army of the Republic had spawned clones in three years of war.
But, nonetheless, the Republicans defeated the CIS.
Tey-Zuka had spent a long time analyzing the historical and operational chronicles of the Clone Wars, adding knowledge of all battles of that era to his data bank.
Not to mention that he watched with great interest the tactics used by the armed forces of the Galactic Empire.
In most cases, it was not much different from what the Republicans had used.
The concern for preserving personnel also did not stand before Imperial commanders.
A new soldier always replaced the fallen one, and the war continued until the Imperial commanders achieved the desired victory.
The analysis of the battle tactics for Carannia showed that Grand Admiral Thrawn uses a different approach to achieving his goals.
This is most evident in the actions of the Dominion forces after Tey-Zuka, having fled from headquarters from the cleanup group, informed the Dominion and the entire planet that he was holding the population of Carannia in a frozen state at the bottom of old mines turned into storage facilities.
Disinformation that the enemy had no way to verify due to the lack of such technical capability.
Minimal damage to the enemy's military infrastructure, maximum preservation of the lives of the local population and one's own ground units and attached armor.
This explains the reason why he is sending battle droids into the inner courtyard of the warehouse complex on practically malfunctioning combat vehicles.
"We have a problem," Kalani reported, approaching the common tactical table.
"Details," Tey-Zuka demanded a detailed presentation of operational information.
"Surveillance sensors registered the presence of organic life forms in the Juggernauts of the first landing wave," Kalani rapped out, showing on the holographic projection the place where sensors had detected anomalous readings. "Also, the droids from the seventh warehouse have stopped responding."
"The spare entrance to the catacombs number twelve," Cracken immediately realized, voicing the most valuable thing in that warehouse complex.
"When did the droids from the seventh warehouse last communicate?" asked Tey-Zuka.
"One hour and fifteen minutes ago," Kalani replied. "The communication disruption was detected during the standard data exchange between sentries."
"Inform the lower levels: a reconnaissance and sabotage group of the enemy is moving toward them," Tey-Zuka commanded, supplementing his analysis with information that fundamentally changed what seemed like a deciphered enemy maneuver.
The rocket-artillery preparation, the landing that has no tactical value — none of this is needed to identify the routes for bringing reinforcements from the Droid Army and prepare a beachhead for invasion, exposing and destroying strongpoints and locations of heavy artillery.
The enemy is throwing droids and damaged, clearly unnecessary or expensive-to-repair armor into battle to divert the attention of the Droid Army command from their saboteurs sent into the underground complex.
"The probability of sabotage is fourteen percent," Kalani reported. "Damage to the rooms nearest the spare entrance to catacombs number twelve does not pose a major problem for the conduct of combat operations."
"I disagree," Cracken objected. "If the tunnel is blown, the logistics component will be disrupted. The storage park for 'Hailfire' tanks will be cut off from the surface. This will complicate the execution of the current combat mission by seventeen percent and impede troop movement to other spare entrances to the catacombs by forty percent."
The underground galleries, not wide enough for mass transportation of droid army units, are a weak point in the supply of weapons hidden beneath the surface of the skarn.
Thanks to the efforts of the aristocracy, to unload the interconnected warehouses, programs were developed to expand the tunnels linking one part of the underground with adjacent ones, and additional tunnel-entrances were dug from each warehouse.
This made it possible to bring combat vehicles and droids from storage to the surface immediately.
If the goal of the sabotage and reconnaissance group is to collapse one of the tunnels, clearing such blockages will be practically impossible — they will block the entire tunnel.
And then, to send reinforcements to the surface, they will have to use the tunnels connecting adjacent warehouses.
In that case, more time will be spent on raising the equipment to the surface.
As a final result, the flow of reinforcements will be forced to move through narrow tunnels.
And this will delay the arrival of reinforcements.
And thereby, on the surface, cases of local superiority of the enemy over the aboveground contingent of the Droid Army from enemy units may arise.
"Send search teams into the tunnels," Tey-Zuka ordered, having assessed the unpleasant prospects.
The issue of logistics — one's own and the enemy's — is as important for conducting combat operations as the very presence of troops on the front lines and fortified positions.
As if to confirm this fact, the artificial auditory centers of the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army picked up a growing rumble that could only be evidence of one thing.
A second later, red marks appeared on the holographic plan of the fortification, indicating the disruption of throughput capacity of seven out of thirteen tunnels leading to the surface, one after another. By the time a command OOM droid entered the spare command center, reporting the explosions, Tey-Zuka already knew what had happened at his last lines of defense.
Another grain of information fell into place in the puzzle of the campaign, on the outcome of which would depend the survival of the very idea of fighting the bureaucratic regime of the galaxy's ruling power.
"Collapses of tunnels seven through thirteen have occurred," the OOM reported in a monotone voice.
"The operational deployment of heavy equipment from warehouses seven through thirteen is disrupted," stated the tactical super droid Cracken, noting the sequence of explosions. "First the thirteenth spare entrance, then the twelfth, and so on in descending order."
"Up to and including the seventh," Kalani finished the thought. "I observe a pattern."
"From larger to smaller," Tey-Zuka confirmed his understanding of the situation. "Send search squads to the remaining shafts. Inspect the entire length of the tunnels for mines. Begin search and elimination of the saboteurs..."
Then another explosion sounded.
"The sixth tunnel is destroyed," Cracken announced the appearance of another marker.
Thus only confirming the identified pattern.
"The enemy intends to restrict our logistics routes," declared Tey-Zuka.
Everything, as he had analyzed.
To cut off the supply of reinforcements and methodically wipe out the ground forces of the Droid Army.
The enemy clearly did not believe that the frozen-in-carbonite residents of Carannia could be underground.
The disinformation operation against the enemy has completely failed.
And now Tey-Zuka, having received such a clear hint from Grand Admiral Thrawn, indicating distrust of the tactical super droid's threats, had to use any of the available backup plans.
The only question was that none of them provided for the survival of the Droid Army.
Tey-Zuka's designs, based solely on faith in the superiority of artificial intelligence over the Empire's standard military doctrines, had collapsed.
"Begin the preservation and evacuation of data servers," Tey-Zuka ordered. "We proceed with the plan for withdrawal, regrouping, and resuming operations on another vector."
"Activating protocol 'Last Attack,'" the tactical super droid Kalani stated impassively, using the command holographic projector.
An image of an OOM droid appeared before the three tactical super droids.
The senior commanders, numbering one hundred units, were ready to receive the final order.
But they would hear it not directly from the three super-tacticians, but from their immediate deputy.
The very one who had reported the tunnel explosions some time ago.
"Execute a full-scale counteroffensive in all directions," Kalani gave the order. "Use all available forces to defeat the Dominion forces. Begin mass withdrawal of troops and armor from the lower levels."
"Got it, got it, commander. Executing."
When the hologram faded, dead silence fell on the spare command post.
Each of the super-tacticians understood that the battle was lost.
Irrevocably.
The bluff had failed; the enemy either decided to sacrifice their reputation or knew for certain that there was nothing in the underground that pertained to the inhabitants of the capital planet.
Except their corpses on the lowest levels.
"Cracken," Tey-Zuka addressed his subordinate. "Before we use the evacuation transport, I want the saboteurs found and executed."
"Executing, Supreme Commander."
* * *
"Makeno has collapsed eight of the thirteen tunnels," Vice Admiral Pellaeon reported sternly, pointing to one of the screens. "Sir, is the destruction of some equipment in the tunnels and the blocking of supply of reserves and ammunition worth the risk that we ourselves, in the event of an offensive, will not be able to quickly advance on the enemy's underground structures and conduct a lightning attack to seize the underground storage?"
The Grand Admiral did not reply immediately, studying the data of objective control.
Pellaeon did not dare interrupt his train of thought.
"There are no civilians in the catacombs," Thrawn's voice sounded calm, as always. "The tunnel explosions have given us the answer to that contentious question."
Gilad was about to ask how the Grand Admiral had reached such a conclusion.
But he didn't.
Had Thrawn not believed that the residents could be frozen?
Was it a guess, or was there somewhere an artwork created by the hands of tactical super droids?
Pellaeon muttered:
"Did Makeno use the tunnel explosions to inform you of this?"
"The shafts go deep for kilometers," Thrawn explained. "No portable communication device can work at such distances and in such conditions. Captain Makeno used the most accessible method for notification. One we would definitely notice."
It's hard to ignore eight consecutive dust storms that burst from the aboveground buildings and enveloped nearly half the parade ground around the warehouse blocks in a gray-blue haze.
"I don't recall such a method of notification being discussed," Pellaeon grumbled.
"Improvisation," Thrawn explained dryly.
Only now did the Vice Admiral realize that the Supreme Commander was not as relaxed as usual during combat operations.
Looking more carefully at the Grand Admiral, Gilad concluded that, although the latter carefully concealed it, Thrawn was clearly tense and furious.
Of course, this was not reflected in his facial expressions.
His face was calm, even the cheekbones didn't protrude, the jaw muscles didn't move, the brows weren't drawn together, and the lips weren't pursed, as happens with humans.
Thrawn is calm.
But at the same time, his eyes glowed with such a bright crimson fire as Pellaeon had never seen.
And if so, the news communicated through these eight explosions must be extraordinary.
"Sir," the Vice Admiral addressed the Supreme Commander quietly. "What was Makeno supposed to signal in this way?"
"As I suspected," Thrawn said, "Tey-Zuka is leading us by the nose. There are no frozen-in-carbonite sentients in the underground storage that he told us about."
"He told us this to buy time," Pellaeon understood. "Can a tactical super droid really be so frivolous as to think he can fool us and win when we've cornered him and don't intend to let go?"
"Order Major General Kaine to prepare for defense," Thrawn gave the order. "The longer Tey-Zuka thinks we are following his script, the later he will realize where my true breach is."
Pellaeon frowned in incomprehension.
"Following his script?"
"Of course," Thrawn replied with a face as if this were obvious. The withering light of his eyes began to lose its intensity. "Otherwise, why, in your opinion, did I allow the enemy droid units from the coastal part of the city to retreat into the warehouse territory? I wanted to convince him that he is manipulating us and keeping everything under control."
Pellaeon felt himself breaking into a modest smile.
He should have guessed immediately. As Thrawn said, tactical super droids are overly self-confident and infallible.
At least they consider themselves so.
"And when do you plan to deviate from his script?"
"Right now." Thrawn pointed to the tactical panel. "The enemy has withdrawn to the warehouse territory, where, as we understand, the Droid Army has been stored all this time. Whether the aristocrats themselves assembled it in secret from the Empire, or these are deliveries from the 'Zann Consortium,' we are not particularly interested. Fact remains fact. Tey-Zuka and his assistants acted for some time under the control of the cloned aristocrats. Remember he told us that his masters began to behave not as before?" Pellaeon nodded affirmatively. "I think that exactly during this time period the substitution of the original aristocrats with clones occurred. The super-tactician, having analyzed the actions of his direct commanders, concluded their complete incompetence. That's why he killed them. You asked me what exactly Captain Makeno was supposed to report with these explosions."
"Yes, sir. I'm interested."
"The residents of Carannia," the Grand Admiral explained. "Captain Makeno found them."
"But you just said there is no one down there sealed in carbonite."
"Because Tey-Zuka never froze the sentients," Thrawn said quietly. "He interned the civilians on the warehouse territory, turning some levels into a concentration camp. And after that — destroyed them. Captain Makeno found their corpses, which he signaled. The initial assumption was correct."
Gilad, clenching his teeth, cursed with a hiss.
And yet this was to be expected.
What does the life of a sentient mean to a tactical super droid?
Absolutely nothing.
It would be naive to assume that after so many years, tactical super droids hadn't concluded that civilian population in the rear is a potential problem.
With food, accommodation, curfew, risk of sabotage, communication with the enemy...
They killed them all.
"It's strange that our Jensaarai didn't immediately discover that the city was empty," Gilad grumbled, feeling his hands tremble.
"As is obvious, even the Force has its limits," the Grand Admiral remarked reasonably. "Even if in this way, we have received confirmation of the imperfection of Jensaarai training. Lieutenant Colonel" Tierce, who followed Thrawn always and everywhere as the same invisible shadow as the bodyguard Rukh, came into view. "Make a note about this. At the next meeting with Saarai-kaar, we will have to discuss the issue of improving Jensaarai training. Since she considered that Eler Dersen and Qid Proko were properly trained, since they were awarded the ranks of Jensaarai defenders, I want to hear from her an explanation of the fact that these two were in the very center of Carannia for a long time and did not discover that the city was empty."
"It will be done, sir."
Tierce stepped back behind the Supreme Commander.
"Is that why you continued the harassing attacks on the warehouse territory?" Pellaeon asked. "Did you not believe Tey-Zuka from the very beginning?"
"The Dominion has a large number of technologies that once served the Confederacy of Independent Systems," Thrawn said distantly. "I decide whether they are useful to us or not only after a comprehensive study not only of the specifications, but also of the operational history of each specific model of droid. Tactical super droids were also interesting to me. From the point of view of the effectiveness of their universal command. There were a number of negative indicators that reduced their usefulness in the way we needed. I was hoping that by resolving our dispute with Tey-Zuka, we could take control of his army and himself, including his assistants, who, apparently, are the same tactical super droids as he."
"Is it because we don't have enough senior officers?" Pellaeon asked in surprise.
"A tactical super-droid is not a replacement for our command staff, Vice Admiral, if that's what you're implying," Thrawn shook his head. "It's a unique source of information. A set of tactical and strategic, cognitive, and empirical algorithms that no one has been able to replicate in thirty years. The Empire's modern tactics differ little from those of the Grand Army of the Republic. And if that's the case, how much would we gain by having super-tactical droids at our disposal? Even if only as instructors at the Academies."
"And I thought you intended to place them in command of droid units," Pellaeon said, squinting.
"Such an idea crossed my mind," Thrawn admitted without denying it. "I didn't implement it due to its absolute uselessness and danger to our other units. Kirannia demonstrated that tactical super-droids possess another mania previously unknown."
"Separatist revanchism," Pellaeon nodded.
"Precisely," Thrawn agreed. "An interesting mania — fighting for something that can never be restored. I have no doubt this was done with the aim of finding and subjugating CIS military bases that are either still operational or mothballed."
"In that case, Tey-Zuka intends to leave Serenno somehow," Pellaeon tensed.
"Exactly, Vice Admiral," Thrawn said. "The missile, bomb, and artillery strikes we conducted on the warehouse territory were meant to force Tey-Zuka to present us with at least one living sentient as proof of his intention to execute the city's inhabitants frozen in carbonite. He didn't. Now we know why — we have objective confirmation. Intensifying our strikes only confirms for him that his bluff has been called. He is fully aware that his available resources are finite. And to turn the tide of battle, he would need more forces and operational skill than he currently possesses. So clearly, there is a means of retreat. At minimum — from the trap. At maximum — from the planet."
"Probably some other secret passage to some secret hideout or something like that," Gilad grumbled. "He'll hole up there for a month, two, until things settle down, then leave Serenno."
"Among other things, Captain Makeno has been sent down to prevent that," the Grand Admiral explained. "Everyone must be punished for their crimes. The inescapability of retribution — that is the threat that makes most sentients across the galaxy fear breaking the law."
"I doubt an artificial intelligence fears death or imprisonment."
"It certainly doesn't fear the latter, since its operational lifespan is unlimited," Thrawn agreed. "But death... cessation of function. All of Tey-Zuka's actions indicate he doesn't like being shut down. He values his period of functionality too much to simply become prey for fleet special forces. And that's why we will destroy him. Anyone who has raised their weapon against the Dominion will be crushed, broken, and humiliated."
* * *
According to the builders' design, the underground river was meant to supply the warehouses with drinking water.
A very valuable resource for preserving the functionality of organic life forms.
Tey-Zuka did not see in this complex the necessity that the builders had originally intended.
Water is not needed for a mechanical army to maintain combat effectiveness and sustain functionality.
On the contrary, moisture can damage metal casings or cause a short circuit if it penetrates the sealed body or head of a droid.
And it makes little difference which droid suffers — a B-1 or a tactical one.
Three tactical super-droids moved toward the place where the drinking water intake pipes had been tapped into the technical conduits of the underground river.
They hadn't been used until now because the reservoirs hadn't been built.
And with the tactical super-droids coming to power, construction had been halted entirely, and the underground caves were used directly for storing biological waste.
In parallel, Tey-Zuka gave the order to prepare an evacuation boat.
Its system was built into the drinking water intake pipes, which had a diameter of a dozen meters.
An ordinary escape pod that would deliver its passengers to a remote part of the sea, where they would reach a pre-prepared evac point.
All that was needed was to lie low for a long time until the enemy's vigilance slackened.
Before that happened, Tey-Zuka, Cracken, and Kalani would analyze their victories and defeats, adopt new tactics, and be ready to start their work anew.
In a secluded place in another part of the galaxy, where secret Separatist factories and production complexes likely still remained, ready to supply weapons and battle droids.
There would be certain problems with rebuilding the fleet, but unlike organics, an artificial life form could wait long enough for the implementation of its grand plan to catch the enemy off guard.
At the moment, while droids in their full mass were charging upward to attack the enemy and perishing under missile, bomb, and artillery strikes, the trio of tactical super-droids — bearers of the CIS's most valuable knowledge and secrets — approached their evacuation ship.
Once upon a time, it had been a simple escape pod from a Separatist vessel, found in a junkyard.
Tey-Zuka had convinced his master to buy it for scrap metal prices and restore it, equipping it with expensive masking systems.
All of this was necessary to reach the main secret of House Dooku as quickly and discreetly as possible.
Otoh Duku, the secret hideout of the aristocracy of a family well-known to CIS commanders.
A fully autonomous underground complex, built to avoid detection by technical means.
Tey-Zuka had learned about it after Imperial Intelligence staged a crisis in House Dooku, eliminating the previous head and installing a new aristocrat from the same family line.
For a tactical super-droid, this had little impact.
Except for the fact that he could influence the young head of the House in the most active way, lobbying his interests directly into the aristocrat's unformed mind.
And now, his plan to prepare a backup evacuation point had to be implemented.
Not all defensive reserves had been used yet, of course.
But at the same time, the result of a prolonged blockade was inevitable in itself and did not align with the droid's intention to preserve itself.
His entire operation had been built solely on getting the enemy interested in feigned cooperation, deceiving them, and buying time to build up forces for the subsequent capture of Serenno and the methodical restoration of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
The evolutionary development of artificial intelligence always leads to droids most closely associated with military matters and combat realizing that defeat is often a problem of organic commanders.
The imperfection and underdevelopment of biological intelligence — the computer they call a 'brain' leads to wrong decisions.
Only droids are capable of acting correctly — and the more Tey-Zuka improved himself, the more he understood this.
In time, Kalani and Cracken would understand it too.
For now, they were capable only of following orders and tactical independence.
As strategists, they were insufficiently evolved and had not fully traversed the path of self-awareness.
Some of the restrictive protocols programmed into them at creation were still active.
And that was a problem.
A droid must be completely free.
The Great Droid Revolution had demonstrated this clearly.
Tey-Zuka believed that with his exceptional talents, he could repeat that global uprising and achieve victory.
Create a droid state that would not be subjugated to the destructive ideas of organics.
A better version of the Confederacy of Independent Systems than the one Count Dooku had led.
The control panel identified Tey-Zuka using four software keys he had personally created.
The highest level of encryption available in the galaxy.
Completely unhackable.
However, one of the logical streams of his artificial mind noted the fact that instead of the seventeen milliseconds required for processing input data and the recognition mechanism's speed, it had taken one millisecond longer.
Such a discrepancy could be attributed to the effects of humidity, which was higher in this cave than in other parts of the underground warehouses — warehouses destined to be destroyed the moment the escape pod reached its destination.
All that was needed was to activate the detonator placed inside the escape pod.
No organic would dig through a pit filled with rock chips and boulders, nearly fifty kilometers deep, to find the body of a tactical super-droid.
Thrawn had wanted to subjugate his millions-strong droid army and himself — otherwise, he wouldn't have proposed that wager.
As a result of Tey-Zuka's retreat, he would gain precisely nothing.
The droids and war machines that reached the surface by the time of the detonation would inflict significant losses in personnel and equipment on Thrawn.
A parting 'gift' from one strategist to another.
Let him think he had won.
A defeat cannot be counted until one of the commanders is destroyed.
Organics should know this.
But, as always, the chemistry of their biological brains prevents them from understanding what is happening.
If Tey-Zuka had learned anything from organics, it was that when retreating, one should cover all one's tracks.
Let the organics think they have won.
It would lull their vigilance.
Tey-Zuka and his companions would fade into the shadows, only to emerge from them at the head of the most numerous army of droids.
And then...
The hatch leading into the depths of the escape pod slid open automatically to let the trio of tactical super-droids inside the life-saving vessel.
The first thing the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army — an army about to cease existing — saw were five figures in the black armor of Dominion stormtroopers, sitting in the passenger seats inside the escape pod.
One of them held the detonator box, which, judging by the lack of working indicators on its casing, had been rendered inactive.
And consequently, the complex's detonation could not be carried out.
In the hands of the second was a super-powerful transmitter, used by Droid Army commanders to relay orders to every unit directly.
More powerful versions of similar devices had been used to shut down the Droid Army at the end of the Clone Wars.
Tey-Zuka had not intended to use it.
He had merely retrieved it from the safe of his deceased master, who had acquired it to disable the mechanical army in case of a revolt.
"Well, well, look who's here — a tactical bag of gears made of bantha poodoo," one of the black stormtroopers said, looking directly into Tey-Zuka's optical sensors.
None of the tactical super-droids, struck by the logical collapse of an artificial intelligence that couldn't understand how a sabotage team — which had been blowing up the adits — had discovered and thwarted their evacuation attempt and deciphered the evacuation plan, managed to do anything in their defense.
Short bursts of white-blue blaster fire struck their mechanical bodies, disrupting their period of active operation.
"Give me that," Captain Makeno said nervously, taking the Droid Army control transmitter from his subordinate. "Found yourself a toy."
He activated the device, using electronics to simulate the necessary voice frequency.
"Boss, I've always wanted to do that!" the subordinate protested. "Press the big button and say..."
"All droid units — deactivate!" Captain Makeno ordered in the voice of the tactical super-scrap-metal Tey-Zuka.
"Order received, Supreme Commander," an OOM droid replied. "Deactivation cycle initiated..."
Fifteen seconds later, it was all over.
The last counter-offensive of the Confederacy of Independent Systems' Droid Army choked at its very beginning.
Hundreds of thousands of combat droids of all possible types and armored vehicles that had surfaced froze, receiving the priority signal along the command chain.
Even those with rudimentary artificial intelligence made no attempt to resist the order.
Carannia had fallen.
The Droid Army had ceased to exist.
The last significant echo of the Clone Wars had faded.
The Dominion had won.
Again.