The Essential Guide to Warfare: Star Wars (Star Wars: Essential Guides) by Fry Jason & Urquhart Paul R

Author:Fry, Jason & Urquhart, Paul R. [Fry, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780345542748
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

Darth Vader and the 501st battle Jedi on Kashyyyk (Dave Seeley)

The Empire’s 501st Legion—nicknamed “Vader’s Fist”—was the New Order’s best stormtrooper unit, fighting with discipline, bravery, and unquestioning loyalty in numerous campaigns. Battle-hardened Rebel irregulars dismissed many stormtroopers as “plastic soldiers” who relied on armor and numbers. But the 501st was different: News that the legion was entering the battlefield reduced Rebel forces to a grim silence.

The 501st began as a brigade within the Grand Army of the Republic, seeing its first action at Kamino, and units within that brigade were assigned to Anakin Skywalker after he took command of the Kaminoan clones. Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano generally operated with the 501st’s Torrent Company, led by Captain Rex.

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine took note of the 501st’s successes, approving of Skywalker’s unorthodox methods and the way they were adopted by Rex and his troopers. At Palpatine’s direction, the 501st changed from a conventional unit into something quite different: an amalgamation of units whose troopers were given secret training and transferred to battlefields and units as the demands of the Clone Wars dictated. Skywalker led 501st units at Christophsis, Teth, Bothawui, JanFathal, Quell, and Kothlis, not to mention in the Second Battle of Geonosis. All the while, the members of the 501st were carefully watched and tracked so the best could be selected for special assignments.

Legion units played a front-line role in the Outer Rim Sieges, fighting at Mygeeto, Felucia, Kashyyyk, and Utapau. In the Battle of Coruscant they defended the capital against General Grievous’s daring raid and fought gallantly, though in vain, to prevent Palpatine’s kidnapping. After the Jedi Rebellion, they responded to Darth Vader’s call, taking heavy casualties in overcoming resistance at the Jedi Temple.

After the Republic’s reorganization as the Empire, 501st units helped reconquer the Rim and neutralized some of the gravest threats to Imperial power, suppressing Naboo’s opposition to Imperial policy and a clone uprising on Kamino. While many of its missions were classified and hidden even from the Senate, the 501st fought on worlds such as Kessel, Gon Tiek, New Plympto, Murkhana, Maun Digitalis, Honoghr, and Mustafar, often alongside Darth Vader. The legion’s association with Vader led to missions tracking down the Death Star plans, storming the Rebel base on Hoth, and defending the second Death Star at Endor.

With Emperor Palpatine dead, the 501st was one of many proud Imperial traditions degraded as warlords squabbled over the Empire’s leadership. Because the legion had only rarely operated as a whole, it fragmented into individual units under the control of various leaders, and soon effectively ceased to exist.

But the 501st was remembered, and Grand Admiral Thrawn reconstituted it as part of his Empire of the Hand. This was a new 501st, open to soldiers from any number of backgrounds, including nonhumans. In 130 ABY the 501st remained a name to be reckoned with, serving as Emperor Roan Fel’s guard; under General Oron Jaeger, the legion remained loyal to Fel, rejecting the authority of Darth Krayt.

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