The 501 clone legion is an emblematic clone squad of the game Star Wars: Battlefront II. We can control them during the campaign of the game, from the very beginning till their transformation to stormtroopers. In the final days of the war, the 501st was frequently shuttled across the galaxy, often divided into specialized groups to assist other missions. Under the orders of Chancellor Palpatine, the 501st would sometimes operate outside of the usual command structure, with detachments of the unit serving at many pivotal campaigns. In 19 BBY, the final year of the war, the 501st took part in several battles pivotal in ending the war. In the Battle of Mygeeto, they were involved in Project Hammertong, a clandestine mission to acquire a power crystal for Chancellor Palpatine, who secretly had plans of constructing a superlaser-armed battlestation. The clones succeeded in pushing back the droid forces, recovering the power crystal, bringing it back to a Republic Gunship, and transporting it away from Mygeeto. Crucial to the mission, they managed to keep their commander, Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, unaware of their true purpose.

The 501st legion also fought in the Battle of Felucia alongside Jedi Knight Aayla Secura. Despite conditions the troopers would remember as hellish, they defeated the Confederacy's droid forces, as well as several wild acklays. Shortly before the Battle of Coruscant, members of the 501st were stationed on Coruscant, where they were used to carry out security patrols. Not long afterward, the 501st fought in the Battle of Coruscant in an effort to rescue the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine from the Confederacy. Members of the legion, many flying starfighters in battle for the first time, destroyed a number of droid starfighters and capital ships. Most importantly, they created a diversion, clearing a path for Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to infiltrate the Confederate flagship, the Invisible Hand, and rescue Palpatine.

After that battle, some members of the 501st were dispatched to Kashyyyk. When they jumped out of hyperspace, they found the planet blockaded by the Separatists. The 501st was forced to punch a hole in the Confederate Navy, which they accomplished by destroying vital parts of the CIS cruisers infiltrating inside, also, stealing a set of attack plans hidden in a holocron for the upcoming battle. They then landed on the planet's surface, where they fought alongside the 41st Elite Corps defending the beach, then the wookie wooden fortress against a large number of droids, until Jedi Master Yoda arrived and helped them winning the battle.

Following this battle, a detachment of the 501st was transferred to Utapau. According to the database of BF2, they fought with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and helped Cody and his clone squad, the 212th Attack Battalion defeat the droid forces there by taking down various CIS heavy gun batteries and destroying an energy column. Most importantly, General Kenobi was able to kill the Confederacy's Supreme Commander, General Grievous in a duel.

As the battle was winding down, a group of clones from the 501st was discreetly transferred to Coruscant, in preparation for Order 66, a top-secret order given by Chancellor Palpatine which stated that the Jedi had rebelled against the Republic, and needed to be eliminated. On Coruscant, the 501st rendezvoused with the Sith Lord Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, and were given their orders: destroy the Jedi. With their inability to resist morally-questionable orders, the 501st Legion steadily marched behind Darth Vader and towards the main entrance of the Jedi Temple. Then they carried out Order 66 to the letter by attacking every Jedi in their path, from masters and knights to padawans and younglings. With most of the senior members of the Jedi Order scattered throughout the galaxy on various fronts, the Temple's remaining occupants were left in a hopeless position as Vader and the 501st clone troopers turned the Temple into a scene of slaughter and mayhem. Though the 501st suffered their own fair share of casualties, they killed almost all Jedi, and prevented them in their desperate effort, while the Jedi tried to destroy the holostacks in their library, not to let their large knowledge in holocrons and books get into the hands of the Sith.

A short time after the execution of Order 66, Palpatine announced that he was reorganizing the Republic into the Galactic Empire, which he would rule as emperor. Now serving the Empire, the members of the 501st took the designation stormtrooper, as well as new armor, weapons, and ships. They would continue to serve directly under Vader, and in the years to come, would fight in a number of pivotal battles. The legion was often deployed in places where its advanced fighting skills could be used to make a political statement. Most of its missions were classified, so as to hide what it was doing from the Imperial Senate. In the years following Order 66, the 501st would fight on a number of mop-up missions against either remnants of the Confederacy or the few Jedi that had managed to survive Order 66.

Another crucial mission took place a year after the Empire's rise. Queen Apailana of Naboo greatly disapproved of the Empire and its policies, including the systematic extermination of the Jedi Order. Thus, she secretly used her homeworld as a shelter for any Jedi fugitives that were seeking protection. As the Empire swiftly strengthened its rule over the galaxy, Queen Apailana broke off diplomatic ties in order to explore military options. In response to Naboo's act of defiance, the 501st Legion was dispatched to Naboo with orders to assassinate the queen, her bodyguards and any Jedi found on the planet.

Their track record for successful missions, combined with a fearsome reputation for brutal efficiency, earned the 501st Legion the nickname "Vader's Fist," not in the least because their primary commanding officer was Darth Vader. As the Sith Lord's personal legion of stormtroopers, the 501st executed many top-priority assignments over the years since the end of the Clone Wars. Hence, the 501st essentially became responsible for aiding the Sith Lords in building their empire throughout the first decade of the New Order.

Sometime after the Battle of Naboo, the 501st was sent to Mustafar to stop a droid rebellion led by the rogue Geonosian Gizor Dellso. When the Empire learned that Dellso discovered a hidden droid factory, the Geonosian fugitive had already reactivated the facility and produced a new army of battle droids. The 501st first had to fight his fleet before they were able to land on the planet. They also succeeded in taking back the plans for an experimental starfighter that Dellso had managed to steal from the Empire previously. On Mustafar, they destroyed numerous droids as well as Dellso's prototype droid schematics before confronting Dellso and his bodyguards. The troopers killed Dellso as well as his guards, then bombarded the planet from space.

A special detachment of the 501st Legion was dispatched to Kamino with orders to suppress and destroy a covert rebellion on Kamino. When the Empire discovered that a group of disgruntled Kaminoan scientists had taken it upon themselves to liberate their homeworld. Thus, they created the Anti-troopers, an army of clone soldiers created from the genetic template of Jango Fett. In addition to the Anti-troopers, a new generation of ARC troopers was engineered to bolster the strength of Kamino's new army. With Kamino's priceless cloning technology in danger of being lost to the Empire, the 501st was tasked with annihilating their renegade clone brothers in order to bring Kamino back into the Empire's fold. To better ensure the success of the mission, the 501st was placed under the command of the bounty hunter Boba Fett, an unaltered clone, who was hired to serve as the mission commander because of his knowledge regarding Tipoca City's inner workings.

The combined might of the Anti-troopers and ARC troopers was ultimately no match against Fett and the more experienced 501st stormtroopers. After completing several primary objectives such as retrieving Jango Fett's DNA, disabling the clone tanks' life-support systems to prevent the creation of more Anti-troopers and destroying a pair of LAAT/i gunships, the 501st crowded the remaining enemy clones onto the facility's platforms where they were all exterminated. Though they destroyed the entire rebellion at the cost of killing their own clone brethren, Emperor Palpatine no longer had any faith in the concept of an army created entirely from just one man. Hence, new genetic sources were introduced and resulted in stormtrooper clones that were not based on the Fett template. Not long afterward, the Stormtrooper Corps began recruiting real Humans into their ranks. As a result of the huge influx of different clones and enlisted troopers, the Fett clones were reduced as a small minority within the army that they once filled as a whole.

Custom 501 clone figure front

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