Käärme Käminoläinen

**Käärme Käminoläinen**, born **CC-8053** in the service of the Grand Army of the Galactic Republic, was a clone commander who served as the commanding officer of Special Operations Brigade's clone assassins during the Clone Wars and subsequently defected from the Imperial Military to Bunduki sometime after the war's end to pursue mastery of Teräs Käsi among the Followers of Palawa. Käärme Käminoläinen died in 3–4 ABY on Bunduki, defending his fellow Followers of Palawa from a concurrent attack by disgruntled Steel Hand of Palawa Arden Lyn and the Imperial forces of the Dark Jedi Yun.

## Biography

### Early life

Like the bulk of the clone troopers who comprised the Grand Army of the Republic, the soldier who eventually adopted the päläva nickname "Käärme" was cloned on Kamino from the genome template of Jango Fett, a renowned Mandalorian bounty hunter considered by many to be the best in the galaxy. Born three years after the first generation of Fett clones as a member of a younger cadre, the clone known as Käärme was not yet ready for active duty in 22 BBY and thus missed much of the Clone Wars. Käärme was one of a number of clones slated for training as clone commanders on account of his high test scores and penchant for independent thought.

### Clone assassins

With the codification of the Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic during the early part of the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine used his emergency powers to create a specialized unit of clone soldiers capable of executing contingency order 66, the order handling the possibility of a Jedi uprising against the Republic. The end result of Palpatine's emergency legislation was the creation of the clone assassin specialization, a unique class of clone trooper capable of going toe-to-toe with low-level Force users through use of the Forceful martial art known as Teräs Käsi.

Though the Republic Military already employed a number of Forceless Teräs Käsi practioners as contractors, including noted Palawa Belt champion Phow Ji, the Chancellor desired that the inaugural class of clone assassins be trained by a Force user, preferably one without ties or allegiance to the Jedi Order. To this end, Palpatine hand-selected the Follower of Palawa known as Pälävaläinen, a potent Teräs Käsi practitioner and Force user who held the rank of Steel Hand of Palawa, to oversee the training of the first company-sized unit of clone assassins. Though they existed solely for the execution of contingency order 66, the clone assassins were subsumed within Special Operations Brigade under the tacit command of Jedi Generals Iri Camas and Arligan Zey.

### Training in Teräs Käsi

Käärme, who had exhibited a unique predisposition towards unarmed combat from the earliest days of his training, was one of the first clones selected by the Kaminoans for training. On account of his previous training as a clone commander, he was selected to serve as the commanding officer of the company and worked closely with Pälävaläinen in training the other clones. Despite being little more than a teenager, Käärme exhibited an aptitude for both Teräs Käsi and the training in stealth-based irregular warfare to which the assassins were subjected, prompting Pälävaläinen to give him the päläva nickname "Käärme" meaning "serpent" in Galactic Basic.