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 that featured heavy armor that resembled that of a stormtrooper, powerful weapons, and jetpacks for increased flexibility and tactical advantage.

They came in three versions: the Phase I dark trooper was a skeletal droid armed simply with a vibro-blade and physical shield; it was primarily a testbed for the later stages as well as the Phase II which featured also the external elements. The Phase III dark trooper was the main unit but it was never fully developed; the only three prototypes were on board Arc Hammer, one was used by the originator of the project, General Rom Mohc. It was a more powerful variant of the Stage II model and intended to be worn as a battle suit.

History
"I told you it would never work."

- Sate Pestage

The Dark Trooper Project 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 main goal for the dark trooper project was to create the next evolution of the stormtrooper. It comprised 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 along side 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 the standard E-11 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 defense against enemy fire, the armor was equipped with acceleration compensators to allow a soldier inside to endure the extreme maneuvers the unit was designed to perform.

It is known that the dark troopers were also used against the forces of Tyber Zann.

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

Legacy
Though the dark troopers were deactivated during the mission to Arc Hammer, the design of the armor was reused for a number of stormtroopers of the New Republic. These design-related 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 probably, also 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 three different phases of these droid troopers:

Phase I
The Phase I dark trooper was the earliest dark trooper and was little more than a 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 as the suit, a jetpack and an assault cannon fixed to its right hand capable of firing 400 plasma shells and 20 missiles without reloading.

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 3 phases. One was the Nova-class dark trooper, used to board Rebel ships.

A special branch of the Stormtrooper Corps was also referred to as dark troopers. They used an impressive jump-pack get close to the enemy and attacked with devistating close combat weaponry. Since the punch of jump would break any man's legs, regardless to the armor, these troopers' limbs were improved by droid components, which meant that these men were more cyborgs than actually men. However, these dark troopers had nothing to do with any of the phases of dark trooper run on Arc Hammer. It is rumored that some dark troopers were trained to have Force-sensitivity, trained by Darth Vader himself.

Behind the scenes



 * Dark troopers were first introduced in Star Wars: Dark Forces. The overall objective of the game was for the player, as Kyle Katarn, to destroy the project before it was fully implemented.


 * Dark trooper Phase III was introduced into the expansion for Star Wars Miniatures entitled Universe by Wizards of the Coast. Dark trooper phases I and II are in the following set, Champions of the Force.


 * 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, which contradicts information established later in The Essential Guide to Droids, the first source to explicitly establish that the dark troopers are droids.


 * Dark troopers also appear as a playable character class in the Star Wars: Battlefront games. This causes problems with established canon information, however, as dark troopers are not supposed to be created by the time of the missions in these games. Additionally, the dark troopers themselves appear slightly different to either 3 classes of dark trooper, though resemble the Phase II the most. This is yet another problem, as the Phase II was droid operated rather than having a living being inside.


 * Yet another "variant" of dark trooper 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 Nova-class dark troopers) 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.


 * Three variants of the dark trooper will appear in Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. One variant will have a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Dark Forces
 * Sand Blasted
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption