TK-622 was one of the last remaining Jango
Fett clones created during the Galactic Empire’s reign, before the cloning on Kamino for regular
soldiers was drastically reduced in favor of more
experimental clone creations. As such, TK-622 was a minority within the
Stormtrooper ranks which was comprised almost entirely of regular, non-clone Humans. And for many of the other Humans, clones were
viewed as sub-human, more as machines rather than
true living beings. Due to this widespread view on
clones within the Empire, 622 had to deal with being consistently looked down upon by
his fellow peers due to his clone origins. Regardless of this discrimination, 622 was
crazy patriotic for the Empire, viewing it as the only
system that prevented chaotic lawlessness and the greatest shield to protect the people
from the evils of crime syndicates, and his hatred
for the Rebel Alliance ran deep as well, with him
viewing them all as terrorists who wanted to bring down a legitimate government of peace
and prosperity. Additionally, 622 likely learned of the Clone
Wars during his training, a conflict that saw the
death of millions of clones as they fought against another rogue enemy organization that
sought to bring about change in the galaxy. On top of that, the clones helped create the
Empire through their service and loyalty to Palpatine, being
the backbone of its early years before being phased
out by regular Humans. So from this other perspective, him doing
whatever it took to prevent such a devastating war like
the Clones Wars, while also honoring the deaths of the clones that helped create the Empire
likely added to his motivation as well. 622’s love for the Empire only increased
once he met Commander Akobi, who quickly became the clone’s best friend and almost like
a father figure to him too. This relationship first came about when 622
saved Akobi’s life during a military campaign on
Malastare. On top of having his life saved, Akobi quickly
realized 622’s devotion to the Empire was unlike many other people’s, with him
being an Imperial to the bone and having the willingness to complete any mission no matter
the cost. Akobi came to reward his saver by making him
into a sergeant and always having the clone by
his side, with them both becoming good friends as time went by. Eventually the two were boarded on the newly
completed Imperial battle station, the First Death
Star. Upon their arrival, a seemingly defective
RA-7 protocol droid randomly opened fire at Commander Akobi, who was once again saved
by 622, as the clone wasted no time to blast the
hostile droid into pieces. Believing it to be a malfunction due to the
droid’s low quality of A.I., 622 was ordered to take the
droid’s head into maintenance to better understand exactly what went wrong in its
programming. While at the maintenance office, the technician
simply dismissed the accident as a simple malfunction. But 622 wasn’t convinced, believing it was
a planned assassination toward Akobi. The two got into a mini argument over what
really happened, with the technician subtly insulting
the clone by comparing his kind to the basic A.I of the droid they were inspecting. During the inspection, 622 saw a quick glimpse
of the droid’s memory feed that looked like an
order to specifically assassinate Akobi, but before he could further look into it, the
droid’s head exploded, destroying any evidence that could
have been found. When 622 brought up this concern with Akobi,
he too dismissed it as nonsense and saw the attack from earlier as nothing more but a
malfunction in a cheap droid model. All the commander had on his mind was receiving
an award for a military campaign that was in
reality a disaster, but the Empire spinned it as a success for propaganda purposes. Despite
Akobi desiring not to receive such a shameful reward, even recognizing the awfulness of
celebrating a campaign which caused the death of hundreds of innocents, 622 attempted to
make him feel better by reminding his friend that not all the civilians were innocent as
they were supplying weapons to the rebels. As the two went down the halls of the Death
Star, they were again attacked by a droid. But this
time it was a massive Imperial probe droid, that went right after Akobi, grabbing the
commander and frying his body up with electricity. 622 was able to prevent the droid from fully
killing Akobi, grabbing the commander to safety once again,
but this time he was too late, as the injuries on
his friend were too great to fully recover from, with Akobi being put on a life support
system and being given only a short amount of time left
to live. While in the med bay getting healed up from
the minor injuries he himself received from the
attack, 622 was now 100% sure that there was someone onboard the Death Star that was
attempting to kill Akobi. Feeling a bit of hatred toward both himself
for failing to protect his friend and also the culprit behind the attack itself,
the clone was determined in doing everything in his
power to uncover the truth behind the attack and avenge Akobi. During his investigation in trying to discover
the culprit behind the attacks, 622 was sent running
all across the battle station, in many cases spending up to half a day just to get to one
end of the death star. His biggest fear however, was encountering
a higher ranking trooper or officer, as he didn’t want
to be given an order that he would have to follow and be forced to abandon his personal
mission on finding Akobi’s murderer. Despite what was likely days of attempting
to locate the killer on the Death Star, 622’s investigation ended up going nowhere as he
kept on going around in circles, as it seemed like
every time he was sent to one location, a technician would say something completely
different about the droid’s programming and then suggest
the clone to go to a different department within
the death star to help him instead. He was so committed to finding out who had
attacked his friend, that 622 even ignored alerts on
the Death Star that warned Rebels had infiltrated the battle station and had freed a high-profile
prisoner. But despite all the time and energy spent
on his investigation, the clone ended up completely empty handed and had no other clues left to
follow. Near the cusps of giving up, 622 decided to
spend Akobi’s final moments together, as his friend
was barely holding onto life, barely being sustained by the medical equipment attached
to him. As he looked upon the severely injured man,
622 not only knew that his death will likely put an
end to him finding his killer, but also be the end of his only friend in the entire galaxy. During his final moments, Akobi came to realize
his sins of the crimes he committed while serving the Empire. During these cries out, 622 did everything
he could to calm his friend down and convince him that he wasn’t the monster
he believed himself to be. But this didn’t stop Akobi, who began to
question his entire service to the Empire and even
started to wonder if the Rebel Alliance was right in the conflict. His biggest regret was the
bombing of a civilian med center, that he accidently ordered due to faulty intel, and
the awfulness of still being declared a Hero during
the battle and the deaths of the innocent people
being swept under a rug by Imperial propaganda. 622 still attempted to calm his friend and
make it appear like it was all the Rebel’s faults, that all
the sins of his friend were to be blamed on the enemy. But Akobi wasn’t buying that and even
acknowledged that while he was extremely proud of 622, he only wished the clone could see
beyond his training and be aware that the Empire wasn’t always the righteous Order
of peace and prosperity it painted itself to be. And with those final words, Akobi finally
succumbed to his injuries, leaving 622 without anyone
to call friend anymore and his entire belief in the Empire shaken like never before. This all caused 622 to go into a near panic,
going immediately back into searching for any clues
he may have missed that could lead him to the killer of his friend. This meant so much to him,
that for the first time in his entire life he actually disobeyed a direct order when
the Death Star command called all available personnel into
battle stations during a Rebel attack, and instead
he continued his investigation in finding the killer of Akobi, obsessing over it as
he looked everywhere for clues. During this obsession, 622 began to wonder
if he himself was malfunctioning like the droids
everyone told him about, as he had just disobeyed an order for the first time, crushing his
belief himself in being a perfect soldier. He also began to question Akobi’s final
words about the Empire and how they haunted him. Although he still believed in the Empire and
was fully willing to die for it, 622 wondered if that
was because he was truly loyal to it or if it was due to his creation, that if the feeling
of loyalty was out of his free will or something deeply
programmed into him like a droid. While his mind raced with all of these thoughts
and self-doubts, 622 was surprised to find the
culprit behind all the attacks standing right at the door. It was the technician from earlier, the
same one who originally dismissed the attacks as a malfunction in the droid’s A.I. He had come
to close up any loose ends that could link him to the assassinations, and his final one
was a stubborn clone who just couldn’t let things
go. The technician was a traitor who began to
sympathize with the Rebel Alliance following his
discovery of what really happened during the military campaign Akobi had led, targeting
the commander as a means of avenging the people
he had killed. As the technician fired upon 622, he mocked
his fallen friend, calling Akobi a monster who
deserved his death, and that the Empire was an evil force that needed to be destroyed. While the technician gloated about the doomed
fall of the Empire and that the Rebel Alliance was never going to die out, the rubble from
the Rebel attack on the Death Star crashed upon
him during their first failed attempt at the exhaust port. With the killer of his friend finally caught
and given the justice he deserved, 622 began to reflect
on himself and what he had experienced. He viewed himself as a failure in not only
being unable to protect Akobi, but also not being
a good enough soldier in protecting the Empire he
still loved from the spreading virus of the Rebellion, recalling both his failure to help
the Imperials fend off the Rebel infiltration
team and not joining them now during the attack that was
happening to the battle station right that moment. With his helmet now removed, 622 began to
look upon the stars from his window until finally
making eye contact with Luke’s X-wing in the distance. Witnessing the proton torpedoes enter
the exhaust port, 622 accepted his fate that he was going to die soon and that the Rebel
Alliance was going to have this victory. Despite this, he still believed the Empire
would prevail in the war and that the Rebellion’s victory
on destroying the Death Star was only going to reveal them as the true terrorists that
they were, and that the sacrifice of all the men and
women on the battle station were not going to be in
vain. That this day would be forever remembered
and that the Rebels cannot silence a million voices. And with those final thoughts of Imperial
patriotism, 622 died shortly afterwards as he was
vaporized in the Death Star’s explosion along with everyone else.
