Darth Malthael looked in that direction, cruelty in his eyes. He opened a channel and said slowly, "See that Commander-class ship? That's their fleet flagship."
"Are we launching a raid? Their forces are extremely strong. It won't be easy," Volgograd-Kanidi said over the comm.
"Be ready to coordinate," Darth Malthael said darkly. "I'd like to see what trick they're playing."
"Understood."
Through his Force sense, Darth Malthael detected something strange about the Force presence coming from the Republic's side, so he decided to strike first.
Large numbers of B-1 battle droids were sent into the death-filled warships of the Second Battlegroup. These battle droids had been programmed to operate warships and were meant to control them.
Darth Malthael had merely used the most basic Resurrection Spell to turn the soldiers aboard those Republic warships into the lowest-grade walking corpses. He had not even used Essence Transfer to preserve their intelligence. There was simply no need. All he wanted was to destroy those warships.
Now that those warships were controlled by walking corpses, the outcome could not have been better. The B-1 battle droids could be sent in to get the ships moving; they would at least make decent cannon fodder.
As for whether this cannon fodder consisted of the Galactic Republic's most advanced Star Destroyers, that did not matter at all. He did not even have the slightest intention of bringing one back for research. The Fourth Civilization's technological archive contained plenty of more advanced warships. Even in the present-day Fourth Civilization, some ships used technology that remained hopelessly beyond reach, fit only to be admired.
Those walking corpses, left with only the most instinctive memories, were basically being put to wasteful use, performing simple manual labor under the B-1 battle droids' command.
In this battle, against the Galactic Republic's