Daro

Daro was a forested rocky planet situated in the Outer Rim Territories. Though data claimed that the planet contained no settlements or installations, the Galactic Empire maintained a secret military base within a mountain on Daro in the time shortly after the regime's formation, where troopers were recruited as part of Project War-Mantle. One of the clone trooper instructors, Gregor, attempted to desert from the facility on Daro and was captured, but not before sending a distress signal to fellow clone deserter Rex, who dispatched the unit of former clone commandos known as the Bad Batch to rescue him. The Bad Batch managed to break Gregor out of imprisonment, but the leader of the unit, Hunter, failed to escape the base and was taken prisoner.
==Description==
Daro was a terrestrial planet in the Outer Rim Territories, in square N-6 of the Standard Galactic Grid. It had a forested landscape dotted with roughly cylindrical mountains of varying size. Its atmosphere was breathable to humans, and fauna included carrier butterflies. Daro's plant life included trees, as well as grass and ferns.
==History==
At the beginning of the Imperial Era in 1984,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas available data on Daro claimed that it was uninhabited, with no settlements or installations. However, the newly-formed Galactic Empire established a secret base on the planet, hidden inside of a mountain. As part of Project War-Mantle, the Empire's plans to phase out clone troopers in favor of an entirely recruited military, new "TK troopers" were trained there by a group of fifty clone commandos.
One of the commandos, Captain Gregor—officially designated "CC-5576"—did not take long to decide he did not want to be part of what the Empire was doing and attempted to desert. He made it out of the base, although he was unarmed and missing some of his equipment, but was chased through the forest by troopers using massiffs to track him. During the nighttime pursuit, Gregor was briefly cornered by the massiffs as he planted a distress beacon, but led the creatures and their handlers away from the device. However, he was stunned twice and rendered unconscious shortly afterwards, before being dragged away and imprisoned in the base.
The beacon sent a distress signal to Gregor's friend Rex, another clone deserter who was working against the Empire. Rex was in the middle of something and could not go to Daro himself, so he asked the Bad Batch, a group of deserters he knew, to do it, but Rex had to sign off before he could give them any details. When Tech noted that Gregor's signal had come from a supposedly uninhabited planet, squad leader Hunter wondered what the "reg" they were being asked to rescue had been doing out there. He was initially reluctant to go for several reasons, including a lack of intel, but agreed after pressure from Echo and the child clone Omega.
When the Batch's shuttle Marauder arrived at Daro, Tech brought the starship in low through the atmosphere in order to avoid detection, landing near where the beacon's signal was coming from. The Batch disembarked their shuttle and shortly located the beacon on a fallen tree, Omega pulling it off and showing it to Tech. Hunter used his tracking skills to deduce the struggle that had taken place, following the trail where Gregor had been dragged away to the base of the mountain concealing the Imperial base. There, his enhanced senses alerted him that something was inside, which Tech concurred with as his sensors were being jammed. Hunter ordered Omega and Wrecker back to the Marauder to wait, before deducing that a shuttle had landed in the area earlier.
Scaling the mountain, Hunter, Echo, and Tech discovered the Imperial base. After observing the number of troopers inside, Hunter initially decided to abort the mission. However, Echo was adamant that they had to try, recalling his own past as a Separatist prisoner during the War of the Ring, and persuaded the others to continue onwards. After informing Wrecker and Omega of their status, the trio infiltrated the base via the turbolift shaft. Upon entering the facility, Echo accessed its central computer and was baffled by the muster report, as neither he nor Tech were familiar with the "TK trooper" designation. The Batch located Gregor's cell and freed him, telling him they had been sent by Rex.
Their escape, however, was complicated when their path to the turbolifts was blocked by the troopers gathering for inspection. Tech set off a security alert when he attempted to use Code-16, a clone code, to redirect forces, as such codes no longer worked in the facility. They managed to get to a turbolift after discovering that the new troopers were recruits, but surprised a squad led by the commando RC-1262 on the base's highest level and were forced to retreat. The enemy commando managed to injure Gregor during the pursuit, but was subsequently stunned unconscious. Retreating to a control room deeper in the facility, as Gregor insisted he would be fine, Tech hit upon the idea of using the base's thermal exhaust port to escape, as they could summon the Marauder there.
As the escapees approached the exit, Hunter contacted Wrecker and Omega for a pickup. However, a pursuing commando and his squad discovered what they were planning to do, and more Imperial forces were mobilized. The Marauder arrived at the thermal vent as a firefight was going on between the Batch and their pursuers, and Tech and Gregor managed to board the shuttle before Omega was forced to pull it away due to approaching V-wing starfighters. Tech took over piloting and led the enemy ships on a chase as Wrecker shot them down, with some damage inflicted to the Marauder. When he brought the shuttle back to the thermal vent, Echo was able to board before Tech was forced to pull away again due to more starfighters. Hunter leapt for the ship, but was unable to hang on to the entry ramp and fell down the side of the mountain, barely able to slow down his fall.
The Marauder continued to be pursued by Imperial forces, and Hunter was surrounded by enemy soldiers as he regained consciousness. Hunter ordered the others to leave, promising he would find his way back, and the Marauder was chased out of Daro's atmosphere before jumping into hyperspace, despite Omega's protests. Surrendering, Hunter was imprisoned in the Imperial base, where he was later visited by Crosshair, a former member of the Batch who had stayed with the Empire.
Hunter was subsequently transported to Kamino as part of Crosshair's plans to lay a trap for the rest of the Batch. When the Bad Batch regrouped on Ord Mantell before setting out to rescue him, Omega initially argued that Hunter was probably still on Daro, but Echo and Tech countered that that was unlikely. Shortly afterwards, they picked up a signal sent from Hunter's comlink informing them of his true location, and departed, although they were aware they were walking into a trap.
==Locations==
Although Daro was officially uninhabited, the Galactic Empire had a secret training facility located inside one of the planet's mountains shortly after its formation. The base was highly defensible and difficult to escape, with only two ways in or out, only one of which was accessible on foot.
==Appearances==
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==Sources==
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*Star Wars: Timelines
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==Notes and references==
Category:Arboreal planets
Category:Daro locations
Category:Galactic Empire planets
Category:Outer Rim Territories planets
Category:Prison worlds
Category:Rocky planets
Category:Terrestrial planets