Clone commandos
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In the fictional Star Wars universe, the Clone commandos, also known as Republic Commando, were elite Special forces soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic.
These are the behind-the-scenes men of the Star Wars saga. Many battles have been won through the unsung efforts of the Clone Commando squads. They were the predecessors of the elite Imperial Storm Commandos.
The clone commandos were initiated at Jango Fett's demand. He was given ten thousand clones to train, saying that "you can't have an army of drones." Many other Mandalorian outcasts and technical experts helped train the commandos.
The Clone Commandos were created in response to the ARC troopers' independent behaviour. They are considered the medium between two extremes, as this quote mentions: "If you need a job done, you can send one ARC Trooper, 100 Clone Troopers, or 4 Clone Commandos."
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[edit] Squads
Clone Commandos trained in groups of four, and often stayed with that group for all their life in training and in battle. This resulted in Commandos forming intense brotherly bonds, which helped to fuse them as a lethal team. This resulted in the Commandos acquiring skills that complimented each others, although all were competent in performing their comrades' duties (i.e. sniping, hacking, lobbing grenades, etc). Each commando's training is decided by the person that was their head instructor. Each instructor was personally picked by Jango Fett and sworn to silence about his work on Kamino. Some were described as being rewarded with specialty rations in the Star Wars Commando books.
Commando organization was based on the local aiwha predator, which hunted in teams of four. Each commando developed colorful nicknames to develop pride and uniqueness. Jango Fett also suggested armor painting, a Mandalorian tradition. Delta Squad was the first to paint their armour individually, creating not only pride, but the ability to identify each other quickly on the battlefield.
Each commando in a squad had his own profession, such as: demolitions, sniping/ambush, slicing, and infiltration/tactics. Each squad contained both a squadron leader and squadron advisor. Another attribute different from regular and ARC troopers, was that all the commandos developed habits, accents, and voice patterns similar to those of their trainers, with the exception of Republic Commando RC/1138 "Boss" who inherited Jango Fett's Concord Dawn accent.
Clone commandos were assigned to carry out covert operations too delicate for regular Clone troopers. Infiltration, sabotage, laying traps, siege breaking, covert recon, assassination and subterfuge were all in a day's work for the clone commandos.
[edit] Equipment
However, the commandos were not all about subtlety. They had at their disposal a DC-17m, a pulse rifle which could be field-stripped and changed into an anti-armor RPG and a sniper rifle. This allowed them to essentially carry three weapons in one streamlined, efficient package. Despite its multi-purpose nature, the weapon is more powerful than the DC-15 series of blaster rifles in the sense that it fires faster.
Clone Commandos, instead of wearing regular-grade clone trooper armor, wore advanced Katarn-class commando armor, which generated their own shielding, giving the commando the ability to withstand a barrage of shots and still be able to fire back before taking serious damage. The armor consists of a black undersuit with white or black (Omega Squad) armour plating. The undersuit provides a level of artificial thermal insulation, while the armor plating provides the majority of the kinetic defense. The armour can also provide a limited degree of protection to hard vacuum (with approximately 20 minutes of oxygen in the Katarn version 3), and is somewhat fireproof. Bacta could also be easily applied to the commando via handheld dispensers.
There are three kinds of Katarn armour, though only the version 1 and 3 are shown in the game. Version 2 can be seen in the short story "Omega Squad: Targets".
[edit] Role
Republic Commandos were deployed across the galaxy following the Battle of Geonosis, battling through murky Geonosian hives, destroying Separatist fortresses, leading freedom fighters, hijacking or destroying Separatists' supplies or ships and fighting in the dangerous forests of Kashyyyk. The legendary Delta Squad even took on General Grievous' deadly IG-100 MagnaGuards on Kashyyyk prior to the arrival of Master Yoda and Commander Gree's 41st Elite Corps.
[edit] Delta Squad
Featured in the PC and Xbox game Star Wars: Republic Commando, the commandos of Delta Squad were some of the most elite of all commando squads in the Clone Army. Delta Squad consists of
- RC-1138 "Boss" - Squad Leader
- RC-1262 "Scorch" - Demolitions
- RC-1140 "Fixer" - Engineer / Slicer
- RC-1207 "Sev" - Sniper
Delta Squad has been sent on campaigns around the entire galaxy including the assassination of Geonosian lieutenant Sun Fac and have repelled a Separatist attack on Kachirho City in Kashyyyk- losing Delta 07 in the process. The mission to defend Kachirho City gathered valuable intelligence and destroyed strategic Confederacy positions, aiding greatly in the Battle of Kashyyyk. Following the loss of Sev, the remaining Deltas were informed by Master Yoda himself that they were the ones who had made it possible for the Republic invasion force to aid the Wookiees against the Separatists.
During a recon mission at the MIA assault ship RAS Prosecutor, before the reconnaissance on Kashyyyk, Delta Squad would rescue Omega Squad with the help of a stolen Separatist ship and then team up with Omega Squad, Sergeant Kal Skirata, two Jedi, Walon Vau, and Null Arc troopers N-11 Ordo and N-7 Mereel to find a Separatist leak on Coruscant. Delta squad is considered the legendary squad, the best of the commandos. They're also sometimes compared to their superiors, ARC troopers.
[edit] Ion Team
Source: Star Wars: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader The Ion Team was a Clone Commando squad serving under the human Jedi Master Shryne. Ion Team was made up of Climber, Ras, Trace and a fourth clone commando. When Palpatine issued Order 66, Ion Team refused to kill their Jedi Commander and his companions Chatak and Starstone. Soon after refusing to execute the Order, Vader showed up and killed two of the Ion Team, but Climber and one of his comrades escaped and were pursued. Shryne and Starstone managed to escape in the confusion caused by Climber's capture.
[edit] Omega Squad
Omega Squad is a four man Republic Commando Squad featured in Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss, and also in the sequel Star Wars Republic Commando: Triple Zero. The members of the squad are:
- RC-1136 "Darman" - Demolitions expert
- RC-1309 "Niner" - Squad leader
- RC-8015 "Fi" - Sniper
- RC-3222 "Atin" - Technician
Darman previously served in the Battle of Geonosis as part of Theta Squad, with squad members Jay, Vin and Taler. However, all of the other members of Theta Squad except Darman were killed during a failed operation at the Battle of Geonosis. This was possibly the team mentioned in Star Wars Republic Commando the video game. He was then assigned to Omega Squad, a squad composed of members who also lost their comrades in the Battle of Geonosis, although Atin had actually lost two squads: the first in a training accident before the outbreak of The Clone Wars, and the second during the Battle of Geonosis.
