TK-622 was one of the last remaining Jango Fett clones created during the Galactic Empire’s
reign, before the cloning on Kamino for regular soldiers was drastically reduced in favor
of more experimental clone creations.
As such, TK-622 was a minority within the Stormtrooper ranks which was comprised almost
entirely of regular, non-clone Humans.
And for many of the other Humans, clones were viewed
as sub-human, more as machines rather than true living beings.
Due to this widespread view on clones within the Empire, 622 had to deal
with being consistently looked down upon by his
fellow peers due to his clone origins.
Regardless of this discrimination, 622 was crazy patriotic for the Empire, viewing it
as the only system that prevented chaotic lawlessness
and the greatest shield to protect the people from
the evils of crime syndicates, and his hatred for the Rebel Alliance ran deep as well, with
him viewing them all as terrorists who wanted
to bring down a legitimate government of peace and
prosperity.
Additionally, 622 likely learned of the Clone Wars during his training, a conflict that
saw the death of millions of clones as they fought
against another rogue enemy organization that sought
to bring about change in the galaxy.
On top of that, the clones helped create the Empire through
their service and loyalty to Palpatine, being the backbone of its early years before being
phased out by regular Humans.
So from this other perspective, him doing whatever it took to prevent such a devastating
war like the Clones Wars, while also honoring the deaths
of the clones that helped create the Empire likely added to his motivation as well.
622’s love for the Empire only increased once he met Commander Akobi, who quickly became
the clone’s best friend and almost like a father figure to him too.
This relationship first came about when 622 saved Akobi’s life during a military campaign
on Malastare.
On top of having his life saved, Akobi quickly realized 622’s devotion to the Empire
was unlike many other people’s, with him being an Imperial to the bone and having the
willingness to complete any mission no matter the cost.
Akobi came to reward his saver by making him into a sergeant and always having the clone
by his side, with them both becoming good friends
as time went by.
Eventually the two were boarded on the newly completed Imperial battle station, the First
Death Star.
Upon their arrival, a seemingly defective RA-7 protocol droid randomly opened fire at
Commander Akobi, who was once again saved by 622, as the clone wasted no time to blast
the hostile droid into pieces.
Believing it to be a malfunction due to the droid’s low quality of A.I., 622 was ordered
to take the droid’s head into maintenance to better
understand exactly what went wrong in its programming.
While at the maintenance office, the technician simply dismissed the accident as a simple
malfunction.
But 622 wasn’t convinced, believing it was a planned assassination toward Akobi.
The two got into a mini argument over what really happened, with the technician subtly
insulting the clone by comparing his kind to the basic
A.I of the droid they were inspecting.
During the inspection, 622 saw a quick glimpse of the droid’s memory feed that looked like
an order to specifically assassinate Akobi, but
before he could further look into it, the droid’s head
exploded, destroying any evidence that could have been found.
When 622 brought up this concern with Akobi, he too dismissed it as nonsense and saw the
attack from earlier as nothing more but a malfunction in a cheap droid model.
All the commander had on his mind was receiving an award for a military campaign that was
in reality a disaster, but the Empire spinned
it as a success for propaganda purposes.
Despite Akobi desiring not to receive such a shameful
reward, even recognizing the awfulness of celebrating a campaign which caused the death
of hundreds of innocents, 622 attempted to make him feel better by reminding his friend
that not all the civilians were innocent as they were
supplying weapons to the rebels.
As the two went down the halls of the Death Star, they were again attacked by a droid.
But this time it was a massive Imperial probe droid,
that went right after Akobi, grabbing the commander
and frying his body up with electricity.
622 was able to prevent the droid from fully killing Akobi,
grabbing the commander to safety once again, but this time he was too late, as the injuries
on his friend were too great to fully recover
from, with Akobi being put on a life support system and
being given only a short amount of time left to live.
While in the med bay getting healed up from the minor injuries he himself received from
the attack, 622 was now 100% sure that there was
someone onboard the Death Star that was attempting to kill Akobi.
Feeling a bit of hatred toward both himself for failing to protect his friend
and also the culprit behind the attack itself, the clone was determined in doing everything
in his power to uncover the truth behind the attack
and avenge Akobi.
During his investigation in trying to discover the culprit behind the attacks, 622 was sent
running all across the battle station, in many cases
spending up to half a day just to get to one end of
the death star.
His biggest fear however, was encountering a higher ranking trooper or officer, as he
didn’t want to be given an order that he would have to
follow and be forced to abandon his personal mission
on finding Akobi’s murderer.
Despite what was likely days of attempting to locate the killer on the Death Star, 622’s
investigation ended up going nowhere as he kept on going around in circles, as it seemed
like every time he was sent to one location, a
technician would say something completely different
about the droid’s programming and then suggest the clone to go to a different department
within the death star to help him instead.
He was so committed to finding out who had attacked his friend, that 622 even ignored
alerts on the Death Star that warned Rebels had infiltrated
the battle station and had freed a high-profile prisoner.
But despite all the time and energy spent on his investigation, the clone ended up completely
empty handed and had no other clues left to follow.
Near the cusps of giving up, 622 decided to spend Akobi’s final moments together, as
his friend was barely holding onto life, barely being
sustained by the medical equipment attached to him.
As he looked upon the severely injured man, 622 not only knew that his death will likely
put an end to him finding his killer, but also be
the end of his only friend in the entire galaxy.
During his final moments, Akobi came to realize his sins of the crimes he committed while
serving the Empire.
During these cries out, 622 did everything he could to calm his friend down
and convince him that he wasn’t the monster he believed himself to be.
But this didn’t stop Akobi, who began to question his entire service to the Empire
and even started to wonder if the Rebel Alliance was
right in the conflict.
His biggest regret was the bombing of a civilian med center, that he
accidently ordered due to faulty intel, and the
awfulness of still being declared a Hero during the battle and the deaths of the innocent
people being swept under a rug by Imperial propaganda.
622 still attempted to calm his friend and make it appear like it was all the Rebel’s
faults, that all the sins of his friend were to be blamed on
the enemy.
But Akobi wasn’t buying that and even acknowledged that while he was extremely proud
of 622, he only wished the clone could see beyond his training and be aware that the
Empire wasn’t always the righteous Order of peace
and prosperity it painted itself to be.
And with those final words, Akobi finally succumbed to his injuries, leaving 622 without
anyone to call friend anymore and his entire belief
in the Empire shaken like never before.
This all caused 622 to go into a near panic, going immediately back into searching for
any clues he may have missed that could lead him to
the killer of his friend.
This meant so much to him, that for the first time in his entire life
he actually disobeyed a direct order when the Death Star
command called all available personnel into battle stations during a Rebel attack, and
instead he continued his investigation in finding
the killer of Akobi, obsessing over it as he looked
everywhere for clues.
During this obsession, 622 began to wonder if he himself was malfunctioning like the
droids everyone told him about, as he had just disobeyed
an order for the first time, crushing his belief
himself in being a perfect soldier.
He also began to question Akobi’s final words about the Empire and how they haunted
him.
Although he still believed in the Empire and was fully willing to die for it, 622 wondered
if that was because he was truly loyal to it or if
it was due to his creation, that if the feeling of loyalty
was out of his free will or something deeply programmed into him like a droid.
While his mind raced with all of these thoughts and self-doubts, 622 was surprised to find
the culprit behind all the attacks standing right
at the door.
It was the technician from earlier, the same one who originally dismissed the attacks
as a malfunction in the droid’s A.I.
He had come to close up any loose ends that could link
him to the assassinations, and his final one was a
stubborn clone who just couldn’t let things go.
The technician was a traitor who began to sympathize with the Rebel Alliance following
his discovery of what really happened during the
military campaign Akobi had led, targeting the
commander as a means of avenging the people he had killed.
As the technician fired upon 622, he mocked his fallen friend, calling Akobi a monster
who deserved his death, and that the Empire was
an evil force that needed to be destroyed.
While the technician gloated about the doomed fall of the Empire and that the Rebel Alliance
was never going to die out, the rubble from the Rebel attack on the Death Star crashed
upon him during their first failed attempt at the
exhaust port.
With the killer of his friend finally caught and given the justice he deserved, 622 began
to reflect on himself and what he had experienced.
He viewed himself as a failure in not only being
unable to protect Akobi, but also not being a good enough soldier in protecting the Empire
he still loved from the spreading virus of the
Rebellion, recalling both his failure to help the
Imperials fend off the Rebel infiltration team and not joining them now during the attack
that was happening to the battle station right that
moment.
With his helmet now removed, 622 began to look upon the stars from his window until
finally making eye contact with Luke’s X-wing in
the distance.
Witnessing the proton torpedoes enter the exhaust port, 622 accepted his fate that
he was going to die soon and that the Rebel Alliance was going to have this victory.
Despite this, he still believed the Empire would prevail in the war and that the Rebellion’s
victory on destroying the Death Star was only going
to reveal them as the true terrorists that they were,
and that the sacrifice of all the men and women on the battle station were not going
to be in vain.
That this day would be forever remembered and that the Rebels cannot silence a million
voices.
And with those final thoughts of Imperial patriotism, 622 died shortly afterwards as
he was vaporized in the Death Star’s explosion
along with everyone else.