During the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker was given a chance to strike a major blow against the Separatists. But the mission came with a cost.
If the Republic destroyed the target, innocent lives could be lost with it. And for Anakin, a former slave who knew what it meant to be treated like property, that choice was not something he could simply accept as part of the war.
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The Republic Wanted to Destroy a Separatist Foundry
In Age of Republic – Anakin Skywalker #1, the story begins with a hidden Separatist droid foundry on the Third Moon of Kudo.
Republic Intelligence has discovered the facility, and Admiral Yularen wants to destroy it before Separatist reinforcements can arrive. From a military point of view, the mission is simple. The longer the Republic waits, the more droids the Separatists can build, and the more clone troopers may die later.
But there is one problem.
The local Kudon population is believed to be working inside the foundry. That means a direct Republic strike would not only destroy the Separatist facility. It could also kill the civilians inside it.
Anakin Found Out the Workers Were Slaves
Anakin does not agree with destroying the foundry while living beings are still inside. Instead of accepting the attack plan, he goes to Kudo III himself with R2-D2 to see what is really happening inside the facility. Once he reaches the foundry, he discovers that the Kudon are not Separatist workers at all.
They are prisoners.
The Separatists had forced the local population into the foundry and used them as slave labor to build droids for the war. The people inside were not helping the enemy by choice. They were trapped, chained, and made to work under droid guards.
He had once been a slave on Tatooine. He knew what it meant to belong to someone else, to have no choice, and to be treated like property. Seeing the Kudon in that same position turns the mission from a military strike into something much more personal. Anakin saw slaves who needed to be freed.
Anakin Freed Them and Ruined the Separatist Trap
After seeing the Kudon prisoners inside the factory, Anakin jumps down to the foundry floor and ignites his lightsaber.
The droid guards move in, but Anakin cuts through them before they can stop him. Then he goes straight to the Kudon workers and removes their restraints. That is when he learns what really happened to them: their village had been gassed, and when they woke up, they were already inside the foundry as prisoners. More battle droids arrive before they can escape.
Anakin tells the Kudon to take the blasters from the fallen droids, if they know how to use them. One of the Kudon answers that just because they do not fight in the Republic’s war does not mean they cannot fight. Anakin makes it clear he is not asking them to fight for the Republic. He is asking them to fight for themselves.
The freed Kudon pick up the weapons and turn on the droids who had been holding them captive. By the time the fighting is over, the foundry is no longer a Separatist victory waiting to happen.
Back aboard the Resolute, Obi-Wan explains what the Separatists had really planned. The information about the droid foundry had been leaked on purpose. If the Republic had destroyed it from orbit, the Kudon prisoners would have died inside, and the Separatists could have blamed the Republic for slaughtering innocent civilians.
Anakin’s disobedience stopped that from happening. He freed the Kudon, destroyed the trap, and left them alive to choose their own future.
