The Dark Reaper Project

21.9 B.B.Y. (1 month after the Battle of Geonosis) Buried for thousands of years on Raxus Prime lay the Force Harvester, an artifact of Sith technology capable of sucking the life from every living thing within a number of kilometers. During the First Sith War, the Force Harvester had been used as a power device for an even greater monstrosity, Dark Reaper.

The Dark Reaper had not been seen in millennia, but Count Dooku knew that some Force spirits persisted even after death. Count sent a Trade Federation fleet to frozen Rhen Var to secure Ulic Qel-Droma's crypt. Guided by the ancient Jedi ghost, Dooku began excavating for the buried Force Harvester on Raxus Prime.

The Jedi Council mobilized an attack. Marching through a forest of rusted girders, the Republic's new AT-XT scout walkers blasted Separatist mortar tanks, while nimble Jedi hovertanks cleared out gun turrents. When Dooku made an appearance, Anakin chased him aboard a starship, which then blasted into orbit. Left behind, Obi-Wan defeated the Count's going-away present: a giant, crablike siege weapon called protodeka. On board Dooku's vessel Anakin sat in a holding cell, having fallen victim to a sneak attack by Dooku's mercenary Cydon Prax. Soon the ship reached the Wookie colony of Alaris Prime, where Count Dooku tested his Force Harvester. Anakin escaped only centimeters ahead of the weapon's shock wave, and sent an SOS to the Republic. By the time a clone legion arrived, Anakin had Alaris Prime well on its way to freedom.

Now, Dooku unleashed the Force Harvester on Mon Calamari, Bakura, and Agamar. The Republic counterattacked on Thule, a crumbling world that had once used to be a Sith World! The Republic army advanced on the old Sith city of Kesiak, but the deadliest weapon in their arsenal proved to be Anakin Skywalker. When Cydon Prax destroyed Mace Windu's vehicle in a tank-versus-tank showdown. Anakin killed Cydon in a fusillade of energy darts. Anakin then penetrated the Dark Reaper and destroyed the alchemical monstrosity with old-fashioned Republic ordnance.

Though counted as a victory, the Republic's preoccupation with the Dark Reaper allowed the Separatists to seize Bespin's Tibanna gas refineries as well as the historical Jedi stronghold of Ossus.