Clone Commando

A clone commando (or Republic Commando) was an elite soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic. Often working in groups of four, clone commandos were assigned to carry out covert operation too delicate for standard clones. Covert infiltration, sabotage, demolition, and assassination were standard tasks for clone commandos.
== History ==
Jango “Patch” Fett, soon after the clone trooper project began, although he believed his clones would be the best soldiers in the galaxy, realized that situations would come up that regular infantry clones couldn’t handle. He persuaded the cloners to create a new class of Advanced Recon Commandos, which he would personally train. 
The result was the Alpha-Class Advanced Recon Commando. The Kaminoan cloners believed the Alphas would be just as rogue as the failed Nulls, so they proposed a new idea. They requested a battalion of elite commandos created from the regular clone trooper genome template. These clones would be more loyal and obedient than the ARC’s, but more independent to their more common brethren; this would allow them to handle more delicate missions that had a broad objective. The commandos could device their own ways of completing it. The commandos would be placed into squads, each depending on their armor color. Fett agreed to this proposal and requested that the commandos be trained by professional Mandalorians in addition to flash training. The cloners agreed to the terms, and soon Jango had gathered 75 Mandalorian soldiers and another 25 elite mercenaries from around the galaxy. Under the direction of Fett, the training sergeants gave the commandos the most elite training available. The Kaminoans soon found they had a number of small, operational training squads, each capable of carrying out self-contained or campaign-augmenting missions, as well as being highly trained and fiercely cohesive, yet capable of carrying out a variety of mission profiles. Throughout the battles, there were many different opinions regarding the commandos. Some clones tended to respect the commandos for their superb training and combat skills while other clones, especially the infantry based units that fought in the larger battles of the Galaxy Wars, believed that the commandos’ reputation was grossly exaggerated. The ARC troopers, being the best and most elite unit within the GAR, were the only clones held higher regard than the commandos. Even the commandos acknowledge the superiority of the ARC troopers. The ARCs have been called “pretty well raw Jango”. The ARCs and commandos, although designated in squads, worked best on their own. The commandos were trained to battle in a four-man group, but they were forced into working with many others. Overall, the commandos were second-best in the GAR, superior to regular clones and more independent-minded, but less powerful and more obedient than the ARCs. Training was so intense and powerful that some clones didn’t even survive training. 
== Training ==
Commandos were trained by a group of elite training sergeants chosen by Jango Fett. These men trained the commandos in a variety of tactics, and often the trainers were a fatherly figure for these fatherless clones. However, some opted to toughen up their soldiers and were ruthless with them. The commandos were trained in live-fire exercises, giving them a sense of the reality of combat long before normal clone troopers. Wrong moves resulted in death. Anti-terrorist training was conducted in a building nicknamed “the Killing House”. Though many commandos died during these exercises, the rest learned rapidly, allowing them to become better soldiers. However, the feeling of the squadmates deaths were felt by these clones who had lost a brother. Commandos also experienced near-death torture to train them in resisting interrogation, and many clones were left mentally scarred from it. Each commando was trained to handle a specialized task, varying commando-to-commando. Some were specialized in sniping, assassination, medics, leadership, demolitions, and so on.
== Equipment ==
* DC-17m Interchangeable Weapon Systems
* Katarn Commando Armor
* E-Web Heavy Repeating Blasters
* Accelerated Charged Particle Repeater Guns
* Accelerated Charged Particle Array Guns
* Improvised Explosive Devices
* Bore Bangs
* Flash-Bang Grenades
* EMP grenades 
* Shotguns
* Geonosian Force Pikes 
* LJ-50 Concussion Rifles 
* Knuckle Plate Vibro Blade]]s
* Nigh Ops Armor 
* TIVs 
* WESTRAR-20 blaster pistols
* Kaminoan saberdarts 
* Garrotes 
* Commando Recon Droids
* Remotes 
* Ribbon Charges 
* Hydraulic Shearing Machine 
* DC-15s Side Arm Blasters
* Bowcasters 
* Wookiee Guided Rocket Launchers 
* EMP Disruptors 
* Detonation Packs 
* Thermal Detonators 
* EWHB-12 Heavy Repeating Blasters 
* Wookiee Rocket Turrets 
* Geonosian Elite Beam Weapons
* Kamas 
* Miniature Bacta Tanks 
* Thermal Detonator Tape
* Bacta Sprays
* Heads-Up Displays (HUD)
* Dampener Aerosols
The commandos were heavily armed. They had an impressive arsenal of equipment at their disposable. They wore advanced Katarn commando armor, and they were considered the ultimate soldiers. Because the armor, in most cases, was silvery-gray, the other clone troopers called them “shiny boys”. However, some commandos put special colors or a number of dots on the left chest armor pad to symbolize rank and position in the hierarchy of their designated squad. Others went for camouflage. By default, the commandos were trained with DC-17m blasters, but often used other weapons, depending on the situation. Katarn-class armor also featured a retractable knuckle plate vibro blade for close combat. There was some exotic non-Republic weaponry, such as: LJ-50 concussion rifle, slugthrowers, Accelerated Charged Particle Array Gun, Accelerated Charged Particle Repeater Gun, LS-50 Heavy Accelerated Charged Particle Repeater Gun, improvised explosive devices, bore bangs, flash-bang grenades, and EMP grenades. Often, one member of the squad would be given an E-web repeating blaster. This was an extremely cumbersome and heavy weapon as it had to be moved in several parts. When used by normal troopers, the E-web was manned by two troopers but such was the training given to the commandos that it was only manned by one. Sometimes, commandos would each carry a section of E-web, dividing it into 4 parts if the mission required moving fast and/or over long distances.
== Rank and Color Notation ==
The standard color of the commandos was silver-gray regardless of rank. However, an experiment by the Kaminoans led to the idea of letting clones paint their armor. It gave the commandos more morale in combat. Some used it as an opportunity to create a uniformed armor suit. 
Category:Clone Trooper Variants
Category:Armor