Kite

"I just hope whatever it is we're facing is planetside, sir. I'd rather die with dirt, not deckplates, under my boots."

- Kite

Kite was the nickname for a clone trooper commander in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. In 22 BBY, he was assigned to the Venator-class Star Destroyer Laudable under the command of the Phuii Jedi General Ares Nune. Nune's forces had been dispatched to the Phu system to patrol for any Separatist activity in the area. While Kite was talking to Nune on the bridge of the Laudable, the task force was attacked by the Malevolence, a Confederacy warship equipped with two giant ion pulse cannons on each of its sides. Under the command of Confederacy General Grievous, the Malevolence destroyed the shields of the entire fleet with the ion cannons. After doing so, the ship proceeded to destroy Nune's entire task force, using its turbolasers to obliterate the exposed ships, and eliminating General Nune, Kite, and their forces.

Biography
Kite was the nickname of a clone trooper commander in the Grand Army of the Republic. In 22 BBY, during the height of Clone Wars, the war between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Kite was assigned to the Phuii Jedi General Ares Nune. Nune was in charge of a Republic task force, made up of at least three Venator-class Star Destroyers, to patrol the Phu system for any Separatist activity. Kite himself was assigned to the Laudable, one of the Star Destroyers in the fleet.

While on patrol, the task force's initial sweeps reported no enemy activity, and Nune ordered another sweep of the surrounding area to be sure. While the secondary sweeps were underway, Kite and Nune were both on the bridge of the Laudable, and the two began to discuss the mission.

However, a new Confederate weapon was hiding out of sight of the Republic task force, in the form of the Malevolence. The Malevolence was a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser under the command of General Grievous, the Cyborg Supreme Commander of the Separatist's Droid Army. As Kite and Nune were finishing up their conversation, Grievous ordered the Malevolence to fire one of its two ion pulse cannons at the Republic task force, which disabled the shields of the entire fleet. Nune's task force was caught off guard, and General Nune, Kite, and their fleet was destroyed by the Malevolence's turbolaser batteries. The loss of Nune's battle group was later reported in a press release by Holonet News, along with an audio recording of Nune during the attack that had survived the battle.

Personality and traits
"You have a refreshingly singular outlook, Kite. The enemy had best be prepared."

- Ares Nune

Kite was a very singular-minded soldier, having only read manuscripts relating to combat. His mindset kept him from relating fully to his Jedi General, and when Ares Nune tried to strike up a conversation, likening their search to an old fable, Kite was uninterested. Kite thought himself better suited to ground operations, and felt uncomfortable being aboard a starship rather than on solid planetary ground.

Behind the scenes
Kite made his first appearance in the six-page The Clone Wars web comic Shakedown, which led into "Rising Malevolence", an episode in the first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The loss of General Nune's task force was mentioned in HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided, the first installment of the online Holonet News podcast series that took place between the events of the comic and the episode.

Appearances

 * The Clone Wars: Shakedown
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided

Notes and references
Kite