Null-class Advanced Recon Commando

"Yes, I know how the Kaminoans did it. They used our genes against us, the ones that make us bond with our brothers, make us loyal, make us respect and obey our fathers - that's what they manipulated to make us more likely to obey orders. They had to remove what made Jango a selfish loner, because that makes a bad infantry soldier, and you can tell from the Alpha ARCs that the Kaminoans weren't wrong. But there's one thing I don't know yet - and that's how they controlled the aging process. That's the key. They robbed us of a full life span. But we will not be defeated by time, ner vod."

- ARC Trooper Lieutenant N-7, Mereel - in an encrypted transmission to N-11, Ordo

Numbering only twelve, the Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos were the first clones of Jango Fett created by the Kaminoan cloners, and the prototypes for the Grand Army of the Republic. They were deemed a failure by the Kaminoans and were not put into mass-production. However, Mandalorian mercenary Kal Skirata saved them from termination by the Kaminoans and later adopted all of them.

All of the Nulls were named after Mandalorian warriors.

History
"Highly intelligent, deviant, disturbed&mdash;and uncommandable."

- Orun Wa

The Kaminoans attempted to enhance the Fett genes, but only six of the twelve prototype troopers survived the gestation period. They refused to follow orders, and were thus deemed unacceptable. The Kaminoans originally intended to "recondition" or terminate the "defective units", but they were saved from destruction by Kal Skirata, a Mandalorian training sergeant hired by Jango Fett to train clone commandos.

Training
Kal volunteered to train them as "black ops" commandos, named them, and taught them their Mandalorian heritage. Even before reaching two years of age, Ordo and his Null brothers had already undergone flash instructions and live ordnance tests. After completing their accelerated growth they trained in mandalorian military and survival training.

During training the Nulls experienced near-death torture to train them in resisting interrogation, the mercenary Kal Skirata taught his clone troopers a technique of resisting interrogation by shutting out reality to become someone else who wasn't in your terrible situation. One way to achieve this was to visualize putting the pain and fear in a box, or concentrating on its physical reality so minutely it fragmented and ceases to register; another method was to imagine you were somewhere else. One could also focus on the next moment one could bear to think about, like the next meal, second or step, time after time until the ordeal was over Mandalorians were trained to endure torture.

They also had special training for a variety of fighting styles and tactical combat like anti-terroism, covert ops, espionage and even medical situations like Jaing and Mereel Skirata who reversed the aging process and cured Boba Fett. They were also drilled codes or oral commands like "Check", an oral command that had been drilled into the commandos by Kal, to instantly make them stop what they were doing or codes like Order 66 which was one of a series of contingency orders that the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic were trained and prepared for during their growth.

Special training
They recieved special training that allowed them to act without thinking. They claimed it was similar to the Jedi's use of the Force. Their training was furthered by Kal, who taught them how to handle a wide assortment of weapons, ranging from blaster rifles to Verpine sniper rifles and hand to hand combat. They also ate food that only contained nutrients. Later in their special training they learned the skills of maneuvering in zero-g.

Combat training
Besides learning black Ops training, They were well trained slicers & assassins,they learn how to fight in tactical combat in squads or lone wolf against armies or squads of sepratist the training made them reconnaissance, saboteurs, spies, guerilla and intelligence experts, they even developed extreme exploits like their ability to track a flitnat across the galaxy, they even found General Grievous during the four years in the war.

Life style during training.
Under Kal's supervision, the Nulls were seperated from the other clones throughout their training where the other clones only ever saw the Nulls around Tipoca City when they were stealing equipment or sabotaging systems. In particular, Darman of Omega Squad remembered the Nulls scaling the supports of the huge domed ceilings, swinging around hundreds of meters above the floor and placing blaster fire to within centimeters of the Kaminoan technicians.[3] At some point, Fett's unaltered clone son Boba Fett angered the Nulls by saying that his father could beat Kal whenever he wanted. Ordo retaliated by sticking Boba's head down a refresher.[2]

Under Skirata supervision they learned to use their fierce independence, innate creativity, and physical superiority in combination with their training in advanced combat, weapons and vehicles to become virtual one-man armies.thouch peerlessly efficient, the Null ARCs were quite unpredictable by clone standards, and loyal only to Skirata.

Genes
During the early stages of the clone army's development, Jango Fett and his Mandalorian military advisors advocated the creation of clones capable of handling covert missions too delicate for the standard units. To achieve the desired results, the Kaminoan did not apply the standard behavior correction giving them unaltered independent minds to develop personality to the first generation of clone troopers,they would come to speak with Jango Fett's own Concord Dawn accent and speech patterns though this trait was common to the flash-learned standard clone troops, as well.

Due to their genetic enhancement,they had enchanced intelligence they have many accounts of intellectual exploits their enchanced intelligence score was thirty-five percent higher than commando types & they had A unmeasurable high scores in training, during the war they specialize their equipment like pruddi skirata & his plan for destroying a sepratist army which worked,The nulls also discovered the reverse aging process for their genes & found A cure for Boba fett fatal illness combined with their other abilities like Kal memory & their heightened sensitivity to minute personal details.

They developed eidetic memory which allowed them to remember facts with perfect recall,the perfect memories often came in handy to the nulls, allowing them to memorize codes, manuals, and other information. These abilities eventually lead to nulls like mereel & jaing specialization in slicing and genetics. Due to the Kamioans genetic tinkering, Mereel and the other Nulls had very intense loyalties- either they would die for you, or you would end up dead. Like his brothers, Mereel was loyal only to Kal Skirata, and his family.

Since their Arcs develop a lot of will power and mental strength for example the capture of Alpha-17 & Obi-Wan Kenobi. When Alpha-17 was being tortured he did not give in and when Asaaj Ventress tried to use the Jedi mind trick against Captain Rex he managed to resist it.

Like all Arcs and clones they had aged twice as fast a regular himan being. They had the height of 1.83 meters or 6ft tall human, the Nulls prime clone's genetic sample was also enhanced to increase physical prowess. They developed improved muscular structures and physiques, their build was also slightly heavier than the average troopers and commandos, most ARCs would develop a body mass of 80 kilograms or more. They also had a peckish appetite, and a sweet tooth, which Skirata theorized might be due to their maturation, and the metabolic need to fuel his rapid aging

But they had draw backs whether it be their hostile behavior or the fact that they would not take orders from someone who was not Kal Skirata. The problem most Nulls had was their unpredictability, due to the Kamioans genetic tinkering the Nulls had very intense loyalties- either they would die for you, or you would end up dead. Even Skirata said that Null ARCs were psychotic(bonkers) but they were unshakably loyal when the mood struck them and each Null where only loyal to Kal Skirata, and his family.

Regardless they were genetically superior to all clones troopers, Commandos, Jango Fett and his son Boba. For instance when The Imperial Remnant launched a nanovirus specifically targeting Boba Fetts into the atmosphere of Mandalor. The nano-virus killed anything with Fett DNA; however, the other Nulls would not be affected by the nano virus as their DNA template was altered substantially from the template that was used for Boba Fett and the regular clone troopers.

Overview
The Null ARC's were also known as Skirata's private army Despite the fact that their loyalty and their reliability to the Jedi was constantly in question, the Nulls' unique skills compared to the rest of their brethren was undeniable, and thus they and Kal Skirata were reluctantly tolerated in the Grand Army, if only to ensure their cooperation during the war. The Null ARC Troopers worked in the Special Operations Brigade of the Grand Army. It should also be noted that all Null ARC's were officers, except for Null-12. When asked why he was only a Sergeant by one of the Omega Squad commandos, A'den replied, "I preferred to be an NCO. If it's good enough for Kal'buir, it's good enough for me."

Two Clone Intelligence units, Null-6 and Null-10, were the troopers who located General Grievous's hiding place on Utapau near the end of the Clone Wars.

Though they worked for the Grand Army of the Republic, Kal Skirata had them keep alert for evidence leading to the location of Kaminoan Chief Scientist Ko Sai, so Skirata could find out how to decelerate the aging process so as to give any clone a full life span.

The experience of developing Null ARC troopers contributed much in the production of the Alpha-class Advanced Recon Commandos. During the Clone Wars, the Null-class and Alpha-class ARCs harbored a grudge against each other. Whereas the Alpha-class ARCs saw the Nulls as an embarrassment and shame to Jango Fett's legacy of a fully Republic-loyal clone army, the Nulls viewed the Alpha-class ARCs as even more stubborn than Jango and often referred to Alpha-class ARCs as "ordinary" ARC troopers. However, the highest ranking Null, Captain Ordo, managed to retain a respectable relationship with Alpha Captain Maze, although the two were known to have at least once injured the other.

Known operations
"They're instant death on legs."

- Kal Skirata


 * Coruscant spaceport siege
 * Mission to Kamino
 * Mission to Coruscant
 * Sabotage of Olanet Droid Factory
 * Battle of Gaftikar
 * Mission to Utapau



Null ARC troopers
 * N-5 ("Prudii"), Lieutenant
 * N-6 ("Kom'rk"), Lieutenant
 * N-7 ("Mereel"), Lieutenant
 * N-10 ("Jaing"), Lieutenant
 * N-11 ("Ordo"), Captain
 * N-12 ("A'den"), Sergeant

While the other six Nulls died before even being recognizable as embryos, Skirata's thoughts during the capture of Ko Sai reveal that he did name all twelve of them.

Appearances

 * Omega Squad: Targets
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Republic Commando: True Colors
 * Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
 * Imperial Commando: 501st
 * Bloodlines
 * Bloodlines