Why the Origins of the Dark Trooper was so… Dark

the Imperial dark trooper is a fairly pervasive bit of Star Wars legends law appearing in multiple games and novels in both legends and Canon most of you probably know the dark trooper from Battlefront sue where it served as the Imperial specialist unit their story was primarily told in the game Star Wars dark forces however which stars the legendary Carl katana and it's actually pretty dark in this video we'll be delving into that backstory which should hopefully grant a bit of insight into these unusual imperial units attention sergeant on deck first and foremost what are dark troopers well for starters they're not actually storm troopers they're battle droids or at least the most well known ones were most of the dark troopers featured in sources that aren't dark forces were phased to dark troopers the most common variant of a line of heavy battle droids intended to visually mimic Imperial Stormtroopers the most notable exception of this was battlefront 2 which featured phase zero dark troopers instead they were heavily armored heavily armed and incredibly effective capable of taking out whole rebel task forces single-handedly fortunately for the Alliance dark troopers had a mostly limited run for reasons we'll get into later since the end of the Clone Wars there had always been a push from some elements of Imperial military command for the Empire to invest in battle droids to supplement or replace stormtroopers with memories of the CIS stroyed army still fresh in the minds of pretty much everyone in the galaxy such pushes were usually met with failure but not always working with inspiration from the l8l mind battle droids they had intended to produce for the Republic during the Clone Wars taggi co-produced the zx3 experimental droid Trooper which was intended to fill specialized roles within the Stormtrooper Corps that project failed but it paved the way for a successor project one that would be led by Imperial General Rama MOC was an interesting man a genius who placed a great deal of importance on personal combat he was a product of the Clone Wars and over the course of the conflict he developed a knack for destroying the Confederacy's battle droids in one-on-one combat which led him to develop a fascination with cybernetics this fascination eventually paid off when a few years before the Battle of Yavin he proposed the dark trooper project and was allowed to work on prototypes these prototypes someone's actually droids there was something far darker aging Clone Trooper veterans were cybernetically enhanced similarly to how Anakin Skywalker was made into Darth Vader and turned into what MOC termed phase zero dark troopers over 70% of the organic issue of these troopers was replaced by cybernetic enhancements which effectively rejuvenated the old ones resulting in incredibly effective soldiers these dark troopers featured black armor and were well-equipped having access to short-range jet packs deadly Acosta's blast cannons blast two pistols and thermal detonators they one deny ibly effective as they combined a cybernetic enhancements top-of-the-line gear and experienced soldiers but the line wasn't without its problems most of the clones that became phase zero dark troopers were unwilling participants and the trauma of the enhanced process drove many to suicide the Empire retired the liners are results ending the dark trooper project for a time but after the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin the dark trooper project was finally greenlit fully and Rama got to work aboard the specialized dreadnought Ark hammer designing the perfect Imperial battle droid most notably mok experimented with the use of freak in the construction of his droids a rare metal mind on gromer 16 was lightsaber resistance indeed it was the very same metal that the electro staffs used by the IG 100 Magna guards were made Oh ultimately MOC created three variants of the dark trooper which were sent on missions across the galaxy aboard hyperspace pod sent out by the arc hammer which roamed distant parts of space and secrets the phase one dark trooper was the simplest of the bunch they consisted of a durable but comparatively lightweight frick skeleton with the minimal degree of armor plating and built-in weapons these droids were clearly prototypes and were primarily used as centuries after the development of later models due to their comparative fragility the Freak skeletons of these units proved incredibly effective but the bare-bones designs of the droids left power cables exposed a weakness that made the droids not all that difficult to despite their weaknesses phase 1 dark troopers were extremely deadly they were equipped with jump packs short-range jet packs that allowed them to shoot themselves four words at a high velocity which when combined with their weapons made them all the deadlier dark troopers were equipped with blast shields attached to their left arms and vibra blades attached to their right which were very dangerous when paired with their jump axe their main tactical floor was rather obvious they were restricted to melee combat which as we all know was rarely the best course of action on the battlefields of the Star Wars universe phase two dark troopers the most well known units of the line row decided improvement over the prototypes instead of a freak exoskeleton these droids featured heavy Frick armor which mimicked the patterns of common stormtrooper armor they bore a striking resemblance to stormtroopers except their arm was black and they're about twice as tall as any human they were much more durable than their phase-one counterparts and Imperial command is lucky enough to acquire these units generally use them as tanks allowing them to soak up damage while dealing out to plenty of their own Phase two dark troopers had jump acts as well though these were more akin to traditional jet packs than the phase one versions their weapons weren't built-in to allow for adaptability but standard faced true dark troopers were equipped with devastating assault cannons manufactured by moth Reba's these massive weapons were unwieldy for organics but suited perfectly for the dark troopers and could fire up 400 plasma blasts and twenty dumb fire missiles without reloading enough power to annihilate entire rebel companies while phase ones were mostly restricted to sentry duty phase two dark troopers were most commonly seen on field missions that would be deployed from the arc hammer aboard hyperspace pods and sent to the hardest of targets where they would execute their missions with the utmost efficiency in battle they frequently performed flanking maneuvers using their jetpacks to get behind enemy forces before annihilating them from behind with their assault cannons this strategy was most notably employed in the attack on TAC base shortly after the Battle of Yavin an operation that first brought the units to the attention of the Alliance to restore the Republic the phase 3 dark troopers whether deadliest units are the mall and also the rarest only a handful where ever produced and most of them never left the arc hammer they towered over even the phase to dark troopers and were designed to be able to serve as either exosuits for storm troopers or as battle droids as previously intended indeed battle droid might have been an inadequate classification for these monsters it would be more accurate to call them droid tanks with even more heavy armor than phase to dark troopers phase 3 dark troopers were nearly indestructible and they were also incredibly well armed and once more they featured jet packs which is impressive considering how much the droids must have weighed like phase 2 units they were armed with assault cannons and grenades but they also featured a wide array of incredibly destructive built-in weaponry this Arsenal included a pair of built-in dual blaster cannons in the wrists 6 Plex rocket tubes in the shoulders and a pair of seeker missile launchers which were also built into the soldiers now with all that said you may be wondering how on earth rebels ever managed to cut the dark trooper project short to answer that question allow me to introduce you to call Catan the man the myth the legend Kyle Katz on a human who eventually went on to become one of the first members of the New Jedi Order was born and raised on a farm on Saloon a Celestin colony moon after the death of his mother he joined the Imperial stormtrooper Corps and quickly became one of the Empire's best soldiers a rise that can be partly attributed to his force sensitivity over the years he developed a hatred for the Rebel Alliance which stemmed from his father's death in a skirmish with a rebel unit on soon this outlook was shattered however when katana discovered that it was actually the empire that had initiated the attack and that they had killed his father as a means of making the rebellion look bad consequently could sign defected to the rebellion shortly before the Battle of Yavin and his first mission was part of Operation sky Hawk the operation that resulted in the rebellion capturing the plans for the Death Star in legends the rebels had to acquire malt for partial copies of the schematic to formulate a full plan of the station and Kyle Curtin was responsible for acquiring part of those plans together with the partial schematics that the other rebel agents had stolen guitars plans were delivered to a cell of rebels on top rawa who assembled a full schematic outline of the Empire's Ultima weapon before the Empire attacked it was during the subsequent battle that the top rawa rebels transmitted the stolen plans to the orbiting tent i-4 and the rest of the story is history in the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin Mon Mothma personally tasket on with getting to the bottom of the Empire's dark trooper project armed with his wits a personal energy shield and plenty of guns katana embarked on a quest that led him more or less across the galaxy at TAC base which dark troopers had been destroyed he found an abandoned assault cannon which he traced to manufacturing centers on Ana Watts and from there he followed the project supply line to fest grammar 16 and then tan TV on the way he rescued rebel operatives fought and defeated Boba Fett and defeated several Kell Dragons barehanded Qatar's quest eventually led him to none other than the executor itself which he successfully infiltrated so as to determine the location of the arc hammer by stowing aboard afraid of bound for ramos secret vessel Catan snuck aboard and set about destroying the ark hammer after killing ROM Mach who was suited up in Phase three dark trooper armor at the time Catan successfully destroyed the vessel single-handedly putting an end to this deadly imperial project so that's the story of the Empire's dark troopers but what do you think would you be interested in more videos on fun Star Wars legends tidbits in the future let me know in the comments section below and as per usual guys just before you go make sure you check out all of those needy links in the description below needing your clicks today so if you want to play games with the wider Star Wars community or just chat in general we have our gate sleaze gaming Network and all that corresponding discords there for your enjoyment so if you haven't joined them yet make sure you do anyways guys as always thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next video [Music] [Music]

Channel: Geetsly's

Views: 534,485

Keywords: Star, Wars, star wars, dark trooper, star wars stormtrooper, star wars dark trooper, dark trooper project, star wars dark trooper project, best troopers star wars, imperial troopers, best imperial troopers, dark trooper battlefront 2, star wars best armor, star wars armor design, star wars scary, scariest star wars, scariest star wars troops, clone trooper, clone wars, republic army, grand republic army

Id: fGAQcWgj3GQ

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 28 2019