User:Thetoastman/wts

This page compiles entries submitted by thetoastman for StarWars.com's What's the Story? Hyperspace feature.

Republic Shadow Troopers
The Shadow Troopers were born as a result of a secret executive order from Palpatine to the Kaminoan cloners. As per Palpatine's demand, they gathered their best and brightest tactical officers and ordered them to establish a hidden training facility deep in the humid jungles of the nearby tropical world of Rishi, where the unit was to be trained. It was then ordered that a small percentage of the most elite ARC troopers were to be secretly devoted to the Shadow Trooper program.

To head up the most elite of his troopers, Palpatine wanted the only the best. Four months after Geonosis, the Jedi Council, acting on a tip, dispatched a veteran Jedi Master named Cronal to the Anoat system. However, the tip was only the bait for a trap. When Cronal landed, a mysterious Dark Jedi attacked him and quickly gained the upper hand. When Cronal was defeated, the attacker revealed that he was none other than Palpatine. Under the Sith's sway, Cronal turned to the Dark Side.

Cronal assumed the alias Agent Blackhole and returned in secret to Coruscant, where he was given command of the Shadow Trooper ranks. A brilliant commander, he quickly turned them from unseasoned recruits into the most dangerous troops of the entire clone army. Their orders came from Palpatine and Palpatine alone, and their missions were directly supportive of Palpatine's ambitions and the sinister underlying goal of the Clone Wars- the continuation of the war and the eventual extermination of the Jedi. As such, their objectives went against both the Confederacy and even elements of the Republic. Shadow Troopers maintained a balance between them and eliminated any friction that might threaten to end the war.

With the declaration of the New Order and the reorganization of the Republic into the Galactic Empire, the Shadow Troopers were able to drop their veil of secrecy. Agent Blackhole became the head of Imperial Intelligence, and his Shadow Troopers became the Blackhole Stormtroopers.

DC0052 Intergalactic airspeeder
For the manufacturing industry, the Clone Wars were a time of turmoil, advantage, and unlikely business alliances. Perhaps the best example of this frenetic attitude of the industry was the Dual Core 0052 Intergalactic-class airspeeder.

For five years before the Wars had even begun, the speeder's predecessor, the DC0046 Chivalrous-class, had been in use by Naboo's royalty. The model was developed by the Theed Palace Engineering Corps as a luxurious single-person transport to allow royals to travel in serenity from their rural country homes in the rolling green hills of the Naboo countryside to the bustling Royal Palace in Theed. No expense was spared, from the vessel's sleek design and chromium finish to its dual core engines that were some of the quietest available.

In the aftermath of the outbreak of the Clone Wars, it soon became clear to the Jedi that they would need a means of planetary travel faster than shuttles and more efficient than starfighters. The Jedi Council had planned to ask Rothana to develop a suitable craft, but before they could launch the request, the information was leaked to the Engineering Corps by Senator Amidala, who, unbeknownst to the Theed engineers, had learned it from her husband Anakin Skywalker. Seizing upon the opportunity to preempt the Council's request and capitalize on the information, the Engineering Corps quickly developed the idea for a new speeder based on the DC0046 and pitched it to the Council, who welcomed this fast and relatively cheap solution.

The DC0052 was basically a stripped down version of the royals' transport, with a few additions. It had two added engine boosters that enhanced speed, and a simple color scheme instead of the expensive chromium plating of its precursor.

The speeder was used extensively during the latter part of the Clone Wars by the Jedi, especially on Coruscant. After the Galactic Empire was declared and the Jedi Order fell, most were decommissioned and sold off to the Coruscanti upper class.

Trans-System Assault Transport/infantry (Mos Espa ship)
The introduction of the Trans-System Assault Transport/infantry a decade before the Battle of Naboo was followed by a storm of controversy that nearly shattered what would become one of the galaxy's wealthiest companies.

Upon its release, Rothana Heavy Engineering, its manufacturer, was sued by the Incom Corporation for industrial espionage, as the TSAT/i's forward intake engine was suspiciously similar to a prototype design Incom had been testing. Incom won the lawsuit, and all TSAT/i models were immediately recalled and their continued civilian use outlawed. Rothana was fined heavily and restricted with measly production caps.

The affair nearly bankrupted Rothana, and the company barely survived for the next twenty years, subsisting off of meager government contracts, until it struck gold by securing the contract to supply war machines for the Grand Army of the Republic shortly before the Clone Wars, which catapulted it into the position of one of the galaxy's premier manufacturers.

The bounty hunter Rango Tel, during his ill-fated mission to assassinate Kam Nale, acquired a TSAT/i off a shrewd salesman that neglected to mention that the ship was illegal to fly. When Tel was killed by Nale before the Boonta Eve Classic, the gunboat sat stagnant in Mos Espa for three months before a band of Jawas took notice and dismantled it piece-by-piece, selling off the parts to various junk dealers.

After the rise of the Empire and Incom's defection to the Rebel Alliance, the company became desperate for any way to cut costs during production. Incom officials began buying scrap parts to be recycled into new ones for reuse, most notably in its ubiquitous T-65 X-Wing starfighter. One merchant visited Tatooine and happened upon the partial remains of Tel's old TSAT/i. He happily bought off the scraps, and the engines eventually were reconfigured and built into an X-Wing that would one day be used in the Battle of Yavin, by an infamous pilot under the callsign Red 5.