Secret mission to Geonosis The secret mission to Geonosis was carried out by the Sith Lord Darth Vader not long after the Battle of Yavin . Having fallen out of favor with Emperor Palpatine , Vader had recruited the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra and the assassin droid s BT - 1 and 0 - 0 - 0 to assist him in building an army of unquestionably loyal battle droid s . Vader soon arrived on the planet Geonosis and his team infiltrated the lair of Karina the Great , a Geonosian queen who had utilized a droid factory to produce battle droids as her " children " after she was injured and left unable to produce offspring during the sterilization of Geonosis . While BT - 1 fired on the queen ' s B1 battle droid s , Vader and Aphra severed the queen from her factory , and Aphra used her starship , the " Ark Angel " , to blow a large hole in the roof of the lair so that Vader ' s own starship could then extract both the factory and Vader ' s team with a large crane . The captured droid factory began producing BX - series droid commando s for Vader , which he used to assault the research base of a rival Imperial operative named Cylo . Prelude . During the reign of the Galactic Empire , the Empire sterilized the planet Geonosis , killing all Geonosian life on the planet except for a single Geonosian drone , nicknamed " Klik - Klak " by the Lothal rebels of Phoenix Cell when they undertook a mission to investigate Geonosis alongside rebel extremist Saw Gerrera and his Partisans in 2 BBY . An unhatched egg containing the last insectoid Geonosian queen also survived under Klik - Klak ' s protection . The egg hatched eventually and the next Karina the Great was born ; thereby ensuring the survival of the Geonosian specifies . However , Karina was injured by Imperial bombs sometime later , and was left unable to produce offspring . By 0 ABY she had taken up residence in a subterranean lair and attached herself to a droid factory in an attempt to continue her race using the factory as her womb and the battle droid s it produced as her " children . " Some time later , during the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance , the Alliance destroyed the Empire ' s greatest weapon : the Death Star mobile battle station capable of destroying entire planets . One of the Rebel Alliance ' s follow - up campaigns included an assault on Weapons Factory Alpha , the Empire ' s largest weapons factory on the moon Cymoon 1 , and the Sith Lord Darth Vader failed to prevent the Rebels from blowing up the factory . Emperor Palpatine , Vader ' s Sith Master , grew displeased with Vader and demoted him for his failures at Yavin and Cymoon 1 and put him under the command of Grand General Cassio Tagge . Vader secretly hired two bounty hunter s to hunt down two targets : an Imperial operative whom Vader had seen working for Palpatine in a suspicious manner , and the Rebel pilot who had destroyed both the Death Star and Weapons Factory Alpha . Vader then convened with Tagge aboard his " Executor " - class Star Dreadnaught " Annihilator " . Vader and Tagge soon attacked and defeated a group of pirates who utilized custom droideka security droid s provided to them by a Doctor Chelli Aphra . Vader had been impressed with the droidekas and began a search for Aphra , eventually locating her on the asteroid space station Quarantine World III . The archaeologist also gave Vader two assassin droid s , 0 - 0 - 0 — commonly known as Triple - Zero — and BT - 1 , also known as Beetee , to help . Vader revealed that he needed private resources of his own to capture the operative and the Rebel : unquestionably loyal battle droid s . Aphra understood , and using information she had been given by the Droid Gotra , a criminal syndicate , she explained that a Geonosian queen had survived her homeworld ' s sterilization and possessed a droid factory . Vader agreed to her choice , and they left for the old warzone of Geonosis aboard Aphra ' s starship , the " Ark Angel " . The mission . While en route to Geonosis , Vader brought in his J - type 327 Nubian starship to aid in the latter stages of the mission . Soon thereafter , the " Ark Angel " set down near the entrance to the Karina the Great ' s lair , while Aphra sent Triple - Zero and Beetee into a cave rn to scout out the most direct route to Karina ' s chamber . Vader had been to Geonosis several times before during the Clone Wars while still a Jedi , and being on the red - desert world brought up painful memories of his deceased wife , so he ordered Aphra — who had been asking Vader personal questions — to be silent as they , too , entered the catacombs to steal the droid factory . Farther in the tunnels , Beetee and Triple - Zero came across several of the queen ' s B1 battle droid s , and Beetee promptly destroyed them with its flamethrower while Triple - Zero insulted them in their native language . Aphra and Vader soon came across the carnage . Aphra examined the burned droids , noting that they had " interesting tweaks " to the standard battle droid design , such as insectoid wings which the Geonosians often supported . Aphra conflated that the " tweaks " meant the Karina the Great did not see the droids as mechanical beings , but as her own children . Vader and Aphra caught up with the two assassin droids and together they entered the great queen ' s chamber . Vader leapt down to Karina and cut her from the droid factory — her " womb " — using his lightsaber . She survived the attack and sent dozens of B1 battle droids , some capable of flight , to stop the Sith Lord . In response to this , Vader ordered Beetee to open fire . The droid did so with his surfeit of blaster s , pulverizing many of the droids while Vader cut down others . Aphra , meanwhile , prepared the " Ark Angel " locator beacon to send it to the ceiling of the lair . When the beacon ' s thrusters malfunctioned , Aphra jumped down to Vader ' s position to ask if he could help . Before the rogue archaeologist could finish asking , Vader used the Force to throw the beacon to the roof with the point of his finger , leaving Aphra content with the Sith Lord ' s abilities . The " Ark Angel " , at Aphra ' s order , barraged the roof of the lair , creating a massive hole in the ceiling and causing vast amounts of rock to rain down . However , Vader used the Force to create a " bubble " around himself and the doctor to protect themselves while Vader ' s Nubian starship lowered a crane through the hole . Karina ordered her " children " to make sure the intruders did not escape , and to bring back her " womb . " Aphra attached the crane to the droid factory while Vader held off Karina ' s onslaught . Aphra was unsure if Vader ' s " pretty little " starship would be able to rip the factory from its foundations , but Vader assured her it would due to the " enhancements " he had given it . Vader ' s chromium starship then lifted Vader , Aphra , and the factory into the skies of Geonosis while Beetee and Triple - Zero followed behind using Beetee ' s booster rockets . Aftermath . Vader and his team returned to his Nubian , docked with the " Ark Angel " , and began fine - tuning the droid factory . Not long after , Beetee and Aphra got it working successfully , creating a single BX - series droid commando that Triple - Zero examined . Aphra remarked that Vader now had a private off - the - grid army and no longer needed her services , thinking he would kill her . Vader , however , believed she was still useful and informed her that she would live as long as he had use for her . Soon , one of the bounty hunters Vader had hired , the Wookiee Black Krrsantan , came with a very important delivery . Krrsantan had captured Cylo - IV and brought him aboard the " Ark Angel " where Vader ordered Triple - Zero , a specialist in torture , to learn what Palpatine had tasked him with . Triple - Zero did so and was able to identify the agent and the location of his research base where assassins were being trained to possibly replace Vader as the Emperor ' s enforcer — with commission from Palpatine himself . The protocol droid accidentally killed Cylo - IV during the interrogation , and informed Vader of his findings . Vader ordered the course to the base be set , and they left immediately to storm the base using two platoons of the newly built commando droids . Later , Vader continued to produce commando droids , using multiple platoons of them during multiple campaigns in the Empire ' s name , notably during the War on Shu - Torun , where the droids helped turn the tide of battle to Vader ' s favor . Behind the scenes . The secret mission to Geonosis was first mentioned in the of the Marvel comic book series , " " , which was released on March 11 , 2015 . The mission first appeared in " " , which was released on April 8 , 2015 . It was written by Kieron Gillen , with art by Salvador Larroca . Gillen has been working alongside the Lucasfilm Story Group to develop the story and events of the ongoing comic series . Although the title of the secret mission to Geonosis is not a formal name such as the Battle of Coruscant , it is not a conjectural title as it is referred to as such by dialogue spoken by Aphra in " Star Wars : Darth Vader 3 : Vader , Part III " . When " Darth vader 4 : Vader , Part IV " was released , the Geonosian queen in the issue went unnamed . However , in late 2016 , the " Star Wars " canon source book " " was released . In the book , the Geonosian queen who fought against Darth Vader and Aphra was identified as Karina the Great .