ME: Inspired by lledra-fanstuff's "This is not my armour" piece.
The clone troopers, who are now the first Imperial Stormtroopers, have tackled the dangerous work of fighting our enemies on the front lines. Many have died in their devotion to the Empire. Imperial citizens would do well to remember their example.
(Excerpt from the Declaration of a New Order, by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Sheev Palpatine the Great Uniter)
As a clone cadet, Jax had dreamed of becoming a commander and serving as the right-hand man of a Jedi General. He imagined wearing armor distinguished by unit markings, something the Jedi officers allowed to raise esprit de corps amongst the men of the GAR.
Then Order Sixty-Six was issued, and the Jedi were declared enemies of the state for attempting to assassinate Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. As the Clone Wars ended, the last Chancellor of the Galactic Republic turned it into the Galactic Empire and declared himself Emperor. However, changes went beyond renaming unions and trading out an old title for a new one.
Unit markings and individual customizations were prohibited as divisive practices, and the armor worn by clone troopers-now known as Imperial Stormtroopers-once more was unadorned white with few exceptions. The Kaminoans' cloning methods were discarded in favor of Spaarti technology. Birth-born Humans and Near-Humans were allowed to join the Stormtrooper Corps, with the most exceptional of these recruits being chosen as new clone templates.
At the chronological age of eight and the biological age of sixteen, Jax silently listened as Prime Minister Lama Su announced that the clone currently still developing as embryos would be the last ones created using Kaminoan technology.
"The Clone Wars may be over," the Kaminoan leader said in a stern tone, "but do not mistake this era as a stable one. There are still remnants of the Separatist Alliance in the greater galaxy, not to mention other aberrant elements that seek to undermine the Empire. Cadets, I implore you not to underestimate your enemies, for they remain dangerous threats in spite of their decreased resources. Your training and equipment may be the only things that will enable you to survive in service to the New Order."
Two years later, Jax was biologically twenty. Due to his leadership skills, he had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and assigned to a platoon based on Belderone. Jax stared at the helmet he gripped in his hands-it was of a new design, and unlike the Phase II ones he had seen Jax knew that the Empire had never let Stormtroopers customize them, so he couldn't even imagine it having, say, the blue markings of the 501st Legion, or the green markings of the 41st Elite Corps.
"This is not my armor," Jax said aloud. No, Stormtrooper armor wasn't the armor he dreamed of wearing, or armor he would be proud to don and go into battle with.
One of his subordinates, a female Human from Corellia fresh out of training, looked at him. "Is something wrong, Lieutenant?"
Silently Jax cursed himself before responding. "Everything's fine, Private," he told her. "Everything is fine."
"Understood, sir."
Jax's platoon was a mixture of clones and birth-born recruits, veterans of the Clone Wars and rookies with little-to-no experience. Remarkably enough, a few DSD1 dwarf spider droids had been attached to the platoon in order to provide fire support. While Jax had never expected to fight alongside droids even in his wildest dreams, the former Separatist automatons were the least unwelcome surprise he had seen so far from the Empire. However, one thing still stung-individuality was not encouraged in the Stormtrooper Corps, so ironically an organization more diverse genetically than the Grand Army tended to be more bland and sterile.
If only I could paint my armor, Jax thought as he filed a report. It wouldn't even have to be an individual customization, if the Emperor allowed for unit markings then it would be an acceptable compromise for me.
But Jax knew that the austere New Order likely would never extend that privilege to ordinary soldiers like him.
ME: A/N: I do wonder about the fate of the younger clones, particularly the ones that were still developing as embryos as of Order 66. I can buy Palpatine discontinuing use of clones in favor of recruits, but surely there would be plenty of young clones not even old enough to hold a rifle leftover.
Dwarf spider droids being mechanical attack dogs for Stormtroopers is something I got from The New Essential Guide to Droids. I wonder how they'd be assigned-one per fireteam, or at least one per squad? I do wonder who came up with that idea, given how the Empire seems prejudiced against droids (at least when it comes to combat) in both Legends and canon (though I think Dark Troopers will canonically appear in Rebels).