Clone Commando

A Clone Commando, or Republic Commando, was an elite soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic. Often working in groups of four, clone commandos were assigned to carry out covert operations too delicate for regular clone troopers. Covert infiltration, sabotage, demolition, and assassination were standard tasks for the clone commandos.

History
Soon after the cloners of Kamino began their clone trooper project, Jango Fett, although he believed his clones would be the best soldiers in the galaxy, realized that situations would arise that regular infantry clones could not handle. He persuaded the Kaminoans to create a new class of Advanced Recon Commando, which he would personally train. The result was the Alpha-class Advanced Recon Commandos.

The Kaminoans believed the Alpha ARCs would be just as rogue as the "failed" Null-class ARC troopers, so they proposed another idea. They requested a battalion of elite commandos be created from the regular clone trooper genome template. These clones would be more loyal and obedient than the ARC's but more independent to their more common brethren; this would allow them to handle more delicate missions that had a broad objective. The commandos could devise their own ways of completing it. The commandos would be placed into squads (nicknamed "pods") of four commandos each, in a reflection of the aiwha hunting pods native to the depths of Kamino.

Fett agreed to this proposal and requested that the commandos be trained by professional mercenaries Kal Skirata and Walon Vau (in addition to computerized "flash" training.) The cloners agreed with Fett, and soon Jango had gathered 75 Mandalorian soldiers and another 25 elite mercenaries from around the galaxy to form the Cuy'val Dar, or "those who no longer exist". Under the direction of Fett, the training sergeants gave the commandos the most elite training available. The Kaminoans soon found they had a number of small, operational squads, each capable of carrying out self-contained or campaign-augmenting missions, as well as being highly trained and fiercely cohesive, yet capable of carrying out a variety of mission profiles. When the Clone Wars started with the Battle of Geonosis, the commandos were some of the first units dropped in, disrupting droid factories and assassinating Geonosian lieutenant Sun Fac. However, due to the Jedi inexperience with leading an army, many commandos died—50 percent of them having died in the first year of the war—as many were used as infantry. Over the course of the Clone Wars, the commandos were set to work in various other flash-points across the galaxy, wreaking havoc on the Separatist forces.

Throughout the Clone Wars, there were many different opinions regarding the commandos. Some clones tended to respect the commandos for their superb training and combat skills while other clones, especially the infantry-based units that fought in the larger battles of the war, believed that the commandos' reputation was grossly exaggerated. As the Clone Wars dragged on, the emergence of the Mandalorian Protectors only added to the causes behind the growing number of casualties among the Grand Army of the Republic. For this reason, and the fact that an Advanced Recon Commando went rogue, because of his Mandalorian heritage in the first place, the clones began to despise anything Mandalorian, especially clones who still embraced the Mandalorian culture. Ultimately, the loyalty of the standard-issued clones fell to the Galactic Republic without question, and since the Mandalorians had declared war for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, than heritage or no heritage, Mandalorians were now viewed by the clones as enemies of the Republic. And to a clone trooper - all enemies of the Republic were to be eliminated.

The ARC troopers, being the best and most elite unit within the Grand Army of the Republic, were the clones that were held in a higher regard than the Clone Commandos. Even the commandos acknowledged the superiority of the ARC troopers, Darman having stated that the ARC troopers were about the closest thing on the Republic's side that he feared.

The standard clone troopers were useful in a group, while the ARC troopers, though they occasionally worked in squads as well, were very capable on their own. The commandos were trained to battle in a four-men squad, but they were described as "formidable" by the Kaminoans, who claimed that "they are the best of the best that the Republic has to offer and were given the best training available, superior to their more common brethren." However, this is in reference the commandos in comparison to the regular clones and is based on the Kaminoans' biased opinion, for they still perceived the ARC troopers as failed experiments which bred impulsive and irrational clones. Overall, the clone commandos were second best in the Grand Army, superior to regular clones and more independent-minded, but less up-to-par and more obedient than the ARC troopers.

With the initiation of the clone commando experiment, approximately 100 instructors (of which 75 were Mandalorians) were chosen by Jango Fett himself. Each instructor trained a group of clones, of 104 per group, with each group separating into multiple squads (4 commandos). Some of these clones didn't survive the training. Clone Commando Training Sergeant Kal Skirata personally shot and killed one clone with his own rifle.

Training
Clone commandos were trained by a group of elite training sergeants chosen by Jango Fett. These men and women, known as the Cuy'val Dar trained the commandos in a variety of tactics, and often the trainers were a fatherly figure for the fatherless clones. However, some, like Walon Vau, opted to toughen up their soldiers and were ruthless towards them. Clone commandos were trained in live-fire exercises, giving them a sense of the reality of combat long before normal clone troopers. Anti-terrorist training was conducted in a building nicknamed the Killing House. Though many commandos died during these exercises, the rest learned rapidly, allowing them to become better soldiers. However, the repercussions of their squadmates' deaths were felt by any commando who lost a vod—a brother. Clone commandos also experienced near-death torture to train them in resisting interrogation, and many clones were left mentally scarred from it.

Each clone commando was trained to handle a specialized task, varying from commando to commando. Some, like Sev, specialized in sniping and assassination. Others, like Fi, specialized as medics and received more advanced training than their other brethren in that field. Others, like Boss or Niner, showed more leadership potential and acted as squad leaders. Some, like Scorch and Darman, showed a natural skill with demolitions ordinance and acted as demo specs. Others, like Fixer or Atin, were trained to be able to handle a variety of technology-based tasks, such as slicing computers.

Known Units

 * Delta Squad
 * Omega Squad

Known commandos

 * RC-0419 "Scorch"
 * RC-1137 "Niner"
 * RC-1139 "Lukky"
 * RC-1158 "Corr"
 * RC-1994 "Boss"
 * RC-2419 "Fixer"
 * RC-2420 "Fi"
 * RC-5179 "Sev"