Dark trooper

"A new stormtrooper that can take out a Rebel base that quickly? Hmphh. I should've kept working for the Empire."

- Kyle Katarn

The dark troopers were advanced battle droids and infantry exoskeletons that featured heavy plating that resembled the armor of a stormtrooper, powerful weapons, and jetpacks for increased flexibility and tactical advantage.

Besides the Phase Zero prototypes, they came in three versions: the Phase I dark trooper was a skeletal droid armed simply with a vibro-blade and physical shield, primarily a testbed for the later stages; the Phase II dark trooper, which featured, in addition, the external elements; and the Phase III dark trooper, which was the main unit and was never fully developed. Only three Phase III prototypes were on board Arc Hammer. One of these was used by the originator of the project, General Rom Mohc. It was a more powerful variant of the Phase II model and was able to be worn as a battle exosuit.

Development
The Dark Trooper Project, building on the previous L8-L9 and Z-X3 projects, was the brainchild of General Rom Mohc, who strongly advocated the martial virtues of close combat with one's enemy, and thus disagreed with the philosophy that created such superweapons as the Death Star. He operated the dark trooper project from his customized starship, Arc Hammer.



The first iteration of the project came years before the Battle of Yavin. Stationed aboard the Empirical research station and using most of the same technology that had been used to transform Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, the Empire started building clone trooper veterans into gruesome cyborgs, the so called Phase Zero Dark Troopers. As the Empire started to become less dependent on its clone troopers, the Phase Zero project declined and was eventually shut down, but the efficiency of the cybernetic soldiers had become apparent to most, including the man overseeing the space station: a young Imperial officer called Rom Mohc.

Years later, the Dark Trooper Project was finally greenlighted. The main goal for the dark trooper project was to create the next evolution of the stormtrooper. It consisted of the armor and the application of weaponry so it was intended for use with the basic stormtrooper (clone and the like) but looking forward to whatever internal system that might be developed. The dark troopers were first used against the Rebel Tak Base in the Battle of Talay, in retaliation for the destruction of the first Death Star. They slaughtered all the Rebels in the base. Concerned about the potential threat of the dark troopers, Mon Mothma tasked Kyle Katarn with the program's destruction.

Squads of the dark troopers were characteristically deployed alongside the standard Imperial stormtroopers and the Imperial Army regulars in battles to add their distinctive advantage. They used their advanced combat techniques and jetpacks to drop behind enemy lines or outflank enemy positions, contributing to the overall effectiveness of battle maneuvers by creating havoc amongst their foes.

They were equipped with specialized assault cannons, which were modifications on the Imperial repeaters, rather than the standard E-11 blaster rifle; they were also issued additional fragmentation grenades, thermal detonators, and concussion grenades. Dark troopers wore dark gray armor made of the nearly indestructible metal phrik, mined on the moon Gromas 16. In addition to providing superior protection against enemy fire including energy weapons such as lightsabers, the armor was equipped with acceleration compensators to allow a soldier inside to endure the extreme maneuvers the unit was designed to perform.



Katarn succeeded in destroying Arc Hammer after killing Mohc. With the death of Mohc and the destruction of Arc Hammer, all official research into the dark trooper project, and all research into other battle droid programs, ended.

However, it is evident that not all of the Dark Troopers were destroyed along with the Arc Hammer; some were seen being stationed on Kessel, Felucia, Coruscant, and other worlds.

Legacy
"In light of the Arc Hammer fiasco, Emperor Palpatine is withdrawing all funding for the development of Imperial battle droids. I told you it would never work."

- Sate Pestage

Though the dark troopers were deactivated during the mission to the Arc Hammer, it should be noted that at the Battle of Ord Sedra, a number of Imperial Remnant stormtroopers wore armor that was vaguely similar to the dark trooper designs. These stormtroopers would engage the Yuuzhan Vong during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Phases
Production of dark troopers began in Gromas 16 where phrikite was extracted. Phrik alloys were tested on a laboratory on Fest and they were refined in Ice Station Beta on Anteevy, where, presumably, the Phase II was produced. The weapons of the dark troopers were manufactured and supplied by Moff Rebus.

Dark troopers stayed on Arc Hammer, whose location was always secret, and were jettisoned to their planetary targets in hyperspace pods.

There were several different phases of these droid troopers:

Phase Zero
The original dark troopers were not combat droids but cyborg clone troopers with over 70% body parts replaced by mechanical components. They were armed with standard blaster rifles and modified stormtrooper armor. Their cybernetic modifications included prosthetic limbs and organs and a life support system.

Phase I


The Phase I dark trooper was the earliest dark trooper and was little more than a lightsaber-resistant phrik skeletal frame equipped with a vibro-sword attached to its right arm, and a blast shield on its left. It served primarily as installation sentries.

Phase II
The Phase II dark trooper was equipped with the external elements&mdash;the suit, a jump pack, and an assault cannon capable of firing 400 plasma shells and 20 missiles without reloading. They were also armed with the deadly ARC Caster, which shoots out powerful bolts of electricity. Because of these advantages, Phase II dark troopers were the most common combat units.

Phase III
The last and most powerful dark trooper was the Phase III dark trooper, which dwarfed even the Phase II model, and was intended to be the armor of the next generation of stormtroopers.

Other dark troopers


There were some less known other variants of the standard three phases. One was the dark novatrooper, used to board Rebel ships. Another variant was the Triumphant-class dark trooper, some of which escorted Darth Vader during several operations in 1.5 ABY. The Inquisitorius also had their own dark trooper variant, the Inquisitorium dark trooper. The purge trooper was an earlier dark trooper model, specifically designed for combat against Jedi and other Force-wielders.

Zasm Katth commanded several so-called "Darktrooper Teams" (such as Darktrooper Team Two) that had been empowered with the dark side of the Force.

Behind the scenes
Dark troopers were first introduced in Star Wars: Dark Forces, serving as the game's most powerful enemies. The overall objective of the game was for the player, as Kyle Katarn, to destroy the project before it was fully implemented.



According to Leland Chee, keeper of the Holocron Continuity Database, the dark troopers appearing in computer games such as Star Wars: Battlefront II, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption are non-canon. Appearances in such games should be mainly considered for gameplay purposes only. Some fans, though, consider them human and classify them as Imperial Jet Troopers. The dark troopers of Battlefront II can also be explained by the Dark Trooper Phase Zero project, introduced in the The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, in which the Empire transformed clone veterans into cyborgs.

While it is implied that the dark troopers in Dark Forces are droids, this is never actually stated in the game. The game Star Wars: Rebellion describes the dark troopers as Force-wielders wearing exosuits; however, this is probably non-canon, especially since The Essential Guide to Droids was later the first source to explicitly establish that the dark troopers are droids.



Several other "variants" of dark troopers appeared in the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. Most of the dark troopers in the game are white, as opposed to the dark gray of Dark Forces, although a variation of the droids (known as the dark novatroopers) found during the Rebel corvette missions are colored black. Due to the nature of combat in the game, the dark troopers do not use their jetpacks or their assault cannons.

Some non-canon appearances of dark troopers differ from the canon version. In Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, the Phase II variant seems to use a large chaingun and the Phase III variant has two shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. However, in the Star Wars Miniatures game, Phase III dark troopers have small missile launchers. In the Star Wars: Battlefront series, they appear slightly different to all classic phases of dark trooper and were probably the inspiration for Phase Zero dark troopers. In Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, they were about as powerful as an AT-PT, although this is probably game mechanics.

Dark troopers have also been produced as toys. The Phase III dark trooper appeared as an action figure in the Kenner Expanded Universe set, and all three phases are represented in Star Wars Miniatures.

The New Essential Guide to Droids established, through retconning, the evolutionary link of the dark trooper to the L8-L9 droid via the Z-X3 droid, drawing on the resemblance all three droids have to stormtroopers and, consequently, to each other.

There has been some debate about the number of Phase III Dark Troopers produced, some sources say three, while the "New Essential Guide to Droids" states that there was only one ever built.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Dark Forces
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader

Non-canonical appearances

 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption