CT-5539, nicknamed Hock, was bred for war like the millions of other Clones on Kamino.
But unlike the rest of his clone brothers, he
saw very little action of the Clone Wars, as during one of
its early battles he was abandoned when he was shot out of a Republic gunship.
Left for dead just like that by his Jedi General, Hock came to hate the mystical warriors he
originally looked up to.
Unlike the legendary stories he had heard of them prior to his first
deployments, he came to realize how ineffective the Jedi were as generals, countlessly making
mistakes that cost the lives of troopers, and even their own.
They were not worthy to lead life- time trained warriors like himself.
Nearly having lost his own eye and greatly injured, Hock was barely able to survive on
his own in the wilderness until he was finally rescued
by a couple of farmers.
Farming became his way of life for the next 2 or so years, until
Hock overheard some stories of a new dark warrior that
had arose in the galaxy since the Clone Wars.
This dark warrior was Darth Vader, whose accomplishments as the Empire’s enforcer reignited
the fighting spirit within Hock, as he was simply astonished of the possibility of serving
a true warrior for once in his life.
With this new spark to fight, Hock left the farming life and sought to rejoin his clone
brothers, who were now the newly reorganized Imperial
Stormtroopers.
While Hock made his way back into civilization, he came across a city that was celebrating
its new Imperial Rulers, with the people being
rewarded for their capture of a Jedi.
The Jedi had been beaten by the people and placed in a
cage.
Upon seeing the captured Jedi like this, Hock came to realize just how truly weak they were
in the end, which only deepened his need to serve
a true warrior like Darth Vader.
Once he finally got to dawn the white armor of the clones once more, Hock we brought under
the Sith Lord’s command.
Having realized how different a man he became since he was
originally abandoned, Hock came to engrave the lessons he had learned of survival by
painting his helmet with a red mark to symbolize the
scar he received during his abandonment.
During his first battle in years, Hock gave it his all, going beyond the call of duty
and doing everything he could to prove to Vader that
he was worthy to be under his command.
And as expected, Vader did come to notice Hock’s
performance, becoming impressed with the clone’s ability to hold his own against near-impossible
odds.
Hock came to notice Vader’s supernatural actions as well, being amazed to see them
firsthand, as the Sith Lord cut down numerous Jedi at
once with ease and his ability to stoke fear in the
Empire’s enemies with just his presence alone.
Unlike the Jedi, who only spoke of peace and order, Vader physically brought peace and
order through his actions, and that alone made Hock
look up to him.
Hock’s actions of going beyond the call of duty earned him not only the Sith Lord’s
respect, but also the title of commander within Vader’s
troopers.
Soon he came to earn the cyborg’s trust as
well, which was a rarity few were able to attain.
Then came the battle of Ostor, which would put Hock and Vader’s relationship to a test.
Ostor came to become a home of a separatist colony
which sought to live outside of Imperial rule.
The Empire of course was not going to allow that
to happen, as upon its discovery of the Separatist colony, Darth Vader and his troops were sent.
Now the entire operation that underwent involving Ostor was the first time Hock came to criticize
Vader.
There were 3 main mistakes the Sith Lord made in the Clone’s opinion.
First was that Vader himself did not participate in the battle
on the ground himself, second was that he ordered
no reconnaissance prior to the battle, and third was that he put General Rohn in charge,
The only thing he did right in Hock’s opinion was having the clone being placed in charge
of the first advance.
But there was only so much the clone commander could do against General
Rohn’s command.
First, the General became emotionally invested into the battle upon seeing the enemy hold
up a banner that made fun of him personally.
This caused the general to order a direct attack on the
enemy, which saw the movement of all the troopers deep into the enemy’s territory without
proper reinforcements.
Although initially they were slaughtering the enemy with ease, Hock came to realize
how suspicious everything seemed and requested
for his men to fall back, sensing a trap from the
enemy to be sprung at them.
The General dismissed Hock’s concerns, with himself being more concerned about the fact
that the banner that insulted him still being up.
Hock refused to obey the general’s command and attempted to reorganize the troops himself
on the ground.
But there was too much chaos happening for him to accomplish anything, and in his
opinion, because some of the armor was being worn by non-clone Humans, that already had
greatly weakened the discipline of the entire battalion.
Hock eventually made his way back to General Rohn’s position back inside the AT-TE walker,
demanding the general to change his mind and call in for a tactical retreat, to the point
of throwing his own helmet at the walker’s
window.
Being shown such disrespect, the general ordered Hock to be taken in as a traitor, but Hock
refused to go down without a fight, eventually shooting his way into the AT-TE walker and
snapping General Rohn’s neck.
But he was too late to change the outcome of the battle, as while he was fighting his
way to stop General Rohn, all the other Imperial troopers
were killed as they had fallen into the trap Hock
had predicted earlier.
Soon after, Hock received a call from Darth Vader who demanded answers as to what had
happened.
And answers were given, from the clone to the Sith Lord.
Understanding that this defeat was partially Vader’s own fault for being too careless
in the beginning, both he and Hock came to an agreement
to put the entire blame on General Rohn.
And this level of trust was put to the greatest test, as both Vader and Hock were to explain
themselves to Emperor Palpatine himself, who was accompanied by some other high-ranking
Imperials.
As they had planned earlier, they both placed the blame on all the faults of the battle
on General Rohn.
Never in his life had Hock expected to meet the Emperor in person, let alone lie to him
to his face, but his trust in Vader had allowed
him to carry on without flinching.
As a result of them placing the blame on the dead General, both clone and Sith Lord left
the meeting without punishment, with Palpatine
only ordering Vader to always be directly involved in
battles from now on.
Hock also came to realize how lucky he was to not be terminated, later believing that
Vader himself prevented that from happening.
As the two walked down the hallways following their meeting with the Emperor, Vader came
to place his hand onto Hock’s shoulder in a
comforting manner.
The Sith Lord than asked if the Clone was as bold behind the controls of a
starfighter as he was on the battlefield, or perhaps
even more impressively, as he was in front of the Emperor’s throne.
Hock responded that he could definitely hold his own, but Vader responded that he could
find countless pilots that could hold their own,
for he wanted one he could trust.
And Hock was the only one he could count on in that regard.
And as the Sith Lord left the clone following those words, Hock came to view Vader as a
friend and was honored to hear the dark warrior put
such great trust into him.
But these feelings for Vader would soon come crashing down, as Hock would come to see the
true monster the Sith Lord actually was.
Back on Ostor, it was round two for the Empire and this time they were not playing around.
Coming with attacks from both the air and the ground, Hock joined Vader and helped lead
the starfighters against the Separatist’s shielded
base.
During their attack, the separatist colony had
yet another surprise attack up their sleeve, as they too had starfighters to fight with,
using numerous ships from the former Republic.
Although Hock was able to hold up his own for quite some time, he was eventually shot
down and he blacked out right as he hit the ground.
He later found himself waking up inside the enemy’s medic bay.
While there, he talked to a few of the other injured patients until learning
that there were no guards within the entire base, as all those who were capable of fighting
were in the frontlines.
With this new knowledge, Hock got himself out of the medic bay and searched the base
until he discovered the command center which contained
the 3 leaders of the Separatist colony.
When he met them, Hock demanded they end their crusade against the Empire and to
surrender, but the separatist leaders refused.
Instead, they attempted to persuade him, by telling the clone exactly why they were fighting
the Empire.
Their goal was purely to do what their people wanted, to fight for the fundamental
principles of democracy and justice that the Empire clearly did not believe in.
And that their entire show of defiance that day was done in a desire of lasting long enough
to inspire hope in others across the galaxy to
do the same.
Although still determined in stopping their small rebellion, Hock was unable to
commit himself to murdering them all there with a pipe,
as their devotion to such pure ideals had him slightly shaken up.
Plus, he saw no need to murdering unarmed leaders who made it clear
they would not fight back.
Instead, Hock searched across the base until he found its shield generator and was able
to disable it from protecting the entire colony.
As the shields came down, the Imperial starfighters began to bomb the buildings nearby.
As Vader and his now landed troopers began to march toward the enemy base, Hock decided
to track down the enemy soldiers’ field commander and take him out.
But as Hock located this rebel commander, he came to realize that he
too was a clone.
This once again shook the core of Hock, as he never believed one of his own
could betray the Empire.
But this shock only lasted for a moment, as Hock still followed through with attacking
the rebel commander.
The two got into a brutal fist fight, with them forming a large crowd around them as
both the rebel soldiers watched from one side, and Vader’s now approached troopers watching
from the other.
Vader had ordered them to stand down, as he himself was curious to see the
outcome of the clone fist fight.
Although Hock was beaten down to the ground, he did win by grabbing onto a giant rock and
smashing it into the rebel clone commander, killing him instantly.
With a clear victor from the fight, Vader ordered his troopers to fire upon the rebel
soldiers that stood across.
While this was happening, Vader showed a rare ounce of humanity by reaching a
hand out to Hock, confirming to the clone that the Sith Lord now viewed him as a true
friend.
With this boost in morale, Vader and Hock together fought their way through the remaining
rebel soldiers.
But as the rebel soldier numbers began to dwindle, Vader’s wrath seemed to only
increase.
For he not only killed just the men, but the women and children too.
Hock seemed to be briefly caught up in this revenge filled rage himself, but slowly snapped
out of it as he could barely recognize himself
upon realizing the horrors he helped commit.
As Hock was getting back to his senses, he came to truly see the monster Darth Vader
was at his core.
No one was spared from his killings, and the horror Hock saw the Sith Lord commit
was beyond inhuman to him, to the point where he no longer viewed Vader as a human being,
but as a mere demon.
As the battle slowed down, Hock re-entered the enemy base he had woken up in from earlier.
As he entered the command room, he saw all 3 rebel leaders dead.
It was clear they had not put up a fight, but that did not matter to
Vader.
As he saw the Sith Lord make his way down to the medic bay, Hock knew he needed to step
in and try to prevent anymore pointless deaths.
As Vader entered the medic doorway, Hock rushed in and demanded all the patients in
that room to accept their defeat and kneel before
their new Imperial rulers, knowing that them doing so was likely their only hope for being
spared.
What came next was perhaps the most shocking thing both Hock and Vader saw.
One of the patients, who had all but one of their limbs
blown off, made a slow but clear effort to stand up on
what little remained of his blown off legs.
A stand up in defiance to ever kneeling to the Empire
was what he did.
And his courage was then followed by everyone else in the medic bay.
Angered by this act of defiance, Vader proclaimed their fates as the same of all those he had
killed in the battle.
And with that, the Sith Lord began to cut down every single patient in that
medic bay, all in front of Hock who watched in horror.
Not being able to take this nightmare any longer, Hock started to shout “stop” at
the Sith Lord.
To his surprise, Vader did indeed stop and stood still, perhaps in shock that the clone
he had trusted so much in had turned against him.
Maybe bringing up memories of his other friends who he believed had done the same in the past.
Nonetheless, Hock was in such a shock that he did not remember what he said after he
had gotten Vader’s attention.
All he knew was that he had misplaced his respect and came to realize
what exactly the people were standing up against, the pure evil that Vader and the Empire he
served symbolized.
For a brief moment, Hock reached out to Vader, believing he could get to him to change his
course in life.
But then Hock realized something, that he may have misinterpreted Vader’s
stillness from earlier.
It was all completely possible that the Sith Lord had not heard or cared for Hock’s shouts
to stop.
And that he only stood still as a means of deciding on who to kill next.
And with that realization, Hock came to believe that Vader,
the one he respected so much and desired being friends with, was simply a monster he had
to get away from.
And the clone did just that, leaving the Empire and becoming a farmer once more, with him
later starting a family of his own.
Despite being away from Vader, Hock still feared the dark monster,
with him at times seeing the Sith Lord’s helmet in the shadows of his wife.
However, in the end, Hock was able to live out the rest of his
life in peace with his family, with Vader becoming only
an old memory to the Clone.