Before Clone Force 99 became fugitives from the Empire, they were some of the most effective soldiers the Republic had ever created.
A newly released official Star Wars clip revisits one of the best demonstrations of exactly why.
Taken from the series premiere of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the extended scene returns to the frozen world of Kaller during one of the final battles of the Clone Wars.
Republic forces are in trouble.
Jedi Master Depa Billaba and her clone troops have been pushed back by a large Separatist force, while her young Padawan Caleb Dume returns with what initially sounds like deeply inadequate reinforcement.
Five clones.
That is it.
The reaction from the regular clone officers is understandable.
Five soldiers are supposed to turn around an entire battle?
Then Clone Force 99 arrives.
Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair and Echo do not fight like an ordinary clone unit.
That was always the point.
Created as an experimental squad, each member possesses specialised abilities that make the team dramatically more effective when operating together.
Hunter leads the group and uses enhanced senses to read the battlefield.
Wrecker provides overwhelming physical strength and a lifelong enthusiasm for anything capable of exploding.
Tech analyses situations at extraordinary speed and turns information into tactical advantage.
Crosshair is an almost impossibly precise marksman.
Echo, the former ARC trooper rescued from Separatist captivity, adds his extensive military experience and cybernetic capabilities to the team.
The Kaller sequence lets all of those abilities work simultaneously.
Rather than meeting the droid army with conventional formations, the Bad Batch attacks with the kind of improvised chaos that has become its trademark.
Their entrance alone immediately changes the momentum.
Separatist battle droids who had been forcing Republic soldiers into retreat suddenly find themselves dealing with opponents who do not follow the expected rules.
Wrecker charges into situations most soldiers would sensibly avoid.
Crosshair eliminates targets from distance.
Hunter moves through close combat with almost complete confidence.
Tech calculates what the team needs before anyone else has finished identifying the problem.
Echo operates seamlessly alongside them despite being the newest addition to the squad.
To Caleb Dume, the difference is immediately obvious.
“You’ve gotta see these clones. They’re different.”
That observation effectively introduces the entire premise of The Bad Batch.
Clone Force 99 are clones.
But they have never truly fitted into the clone army.
Their genetic mutations, specialised skills and fiercely individual personalities separate them from the millions of soldiers created from Jango Fett’s genetic template.
For most of the Clone Wars, that difference is an advantage.
On Kaller, it helps save the Republic position.
Only minutes later, it becomes something far more important.
Because the Battle of Kaller takes place immediately before Order 66.
The Separatists are defeated.
The Republic appears to have won.
Then everything changes.
Emperor Palpatine issues the command ordering the clone army to execute the Jedi.
For most clone troopers, inhibitor chips implanted during their creation compel immediate obedience.
Depa Billaba’s own soldiers turn their weapons against her.
The Jedi Master sacrifices herself protecting Caleb, allowing her Padawan to escape into the wilderness.
Clone Force 99 reacts differently.
Because of the squad’s genetic abnormalities, most of their inhibitor chips do not function in the expected way.
Hunter does not suddenly see Caleb as an enemy.
Neither do Tech, Wrecker or Echo.
Crosshair, however, feels the order much more strongly.
That difference becomes the first fracture inside the team and ultimately one of the defining conflicts of The Bad Batch.
Hunter chooses to let Caleb escape.
Crosshair believes they have disobeyed a direct military order.
Within minutes, a squad capable of operating with perfect confidence on the battlefield is thrown into a moral crisis for which none of its specialised training could possibly prepare them.
That is what makes the Kaller battle such an effective opening for the series.
Viewed purely as an action sequence, it is a spectacular introduction to Clone Force 99.
Each member receives a moment to demonstrate exactly why the group earned its extraordinary reputation during the Clone Wars.
But the victory is deliberately short-lived.
The audience gets to see the Bad Batch at the absolute height of its career as a Republic military unit moments before the Republic itself effectively ceases to exist.
There is another important Star Wars connection hidden inside the sequence.
Caleb Dume eventually grows up to become Kanan Jarrus, one of the central characters in Star Wars Rebels.
For viewers who already know Kanan’s story, watching the frightened young Padawan on Kaller gives additional meaning to everything that follows.
His master is killed during Order 66.
The clone soldiers he once fought beside suddenly become his hunters.
And the trauma profoundly shapes his relationship with clones years later.
The Bad Batch therefore begins not simply at the end of the Clone Wars, but at the exact point where multiple eras of Star Wars collide.
The Republic is dying.
The Empire is being born.
The Jedi are being exterminated.
Kanan Jarrus is beginning the life that will eventually lead him to the Ghost crew.
And Clone Force 99 is about to discover that being different from the other clones may be the only reason they still possess the freedom to decide what kind of soldiers — and what kind of people — they want to become.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch eventually ran for three seasons, following Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Crosshair and Omega through the earliest years of Imperial rule.
But before all of that came Kaller.
Five unusual clones.
One desperate battle.
And one final Republic victory immediately before the galaxy changed forever.
Watch Clone Force 99 take on the Separatists on Kaller in the official clip below.
