commander bly

Custom commander Bly figure inspired by the movie character

Clone commander 5052 also known as Bly was the leader of the 327th Star Corps of clone troopers assigned to Jedi General Aayla Secura. He served with her on the wonderful exotic world of Felucia when he received Order 66. The executive command, originating from Palpatine the Supreme Chancellor on Coruscant, identified Aayla Secura as a traitorous enemy of the state, who had to be killed. Demonstrating his loyalty to the Republic, Bly and his troopers raised their rifles and opened fire on their commanding officer, coldly killing the unsuspecting Jedi friend.

CC-5052 was a clone commander who served Palpatine in two eras, both during the Republic and the Galactic Empire that followed. Bly was a clone of Jango Fett, he was bred on Kamino, where he was trained as an Advanced Recon Commando by Alpha-17. Alpha-17 also gave CC-5052 the name "Bly", which the clone commander himself adopted. After assigned to the 327th Star Corps, Bly had to work personally with Jedi General Aayla Secura throughout the Clone Wars, which they managed almost till the end. They were serving in several campaigns on several planets such as New Holstice, Endor, Saleucami, and Felucia. While fighting together they shared their food and supplies with each other, they saved each other's lives many times, and during these adventure a close, and almost friendly connection has been developed between them.

Before they could complete their mission on Saleucami, Secura, Bly, and the 327th were redirected to the bubble flowery Felucia, to save captive Jedi Barriss Offee and her padawan Zonder. Bly and the 327th squad arrived with large armored division, because significant CIS forces were stationing on Felucia. We could see in the Revenge of the Sith film what kind of vehicles were operational in the wonderful looking, but very difficult to travel Felucian planet surfaces and terrains. Interesting opened troop carriers, AT-AP walkers, modified AT-TE-s were available, but in that fertile and dense mushroom and flower jungle the clone forces did not make use of the armored vehicles, only near the river-bed. So they got to disembark the vehicles, and to continue the exploration on foot, on wormback. We saw many native animal species in the Star Wars movies, that were handy for the troopers to ride on. In the desert regions you can rode the dewbacks. In the polar regions you could ride on the tauntauns. And in the Felucian mushroom jungle you can ride a gelagrub, a giant worm that has a semitransparent skin, allowing to see its blue body plasma, which is very similar to those plasma bugs from the movie Starship troopers. So even on foot or on gelagrub that was very rough to advance forward in that dense undergrowth, which often hid mines, that was very hard to detect. Also, it was easy to get lost between those giant colorful flowers and large trees. Furthermore it was a great cover for the hiding battle droids, and superbattledroids. And to top it all, Bly's squad was overrun by many native Acklay creatures. They had to kill at least 5 of those in the Felucia jungle, and they would not have too much chance to survived in those battles without the heroic Aayla Secura's lightsaber. He doubted he and his fellow soldiers would still be standing if it had not been for Aayla Secura's quick thinking in the constant surprise attacks from the Acklay. After they survived those Acklays they successfully rescued Barriss Offee. After that mission Bly and his troops had to hunt down Shu Mai, who was a member of the governing body of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. They couldn't do that, because when Shu Mai realized she was in danger, had her men unleashed a deadly toxin into Felucia's rivers, poisoning its water supplies. Bly set out with Secura to stop the toxin from spreading, but en route he received the command to execute Order 66, which meant that Aayla and all Jedi were declared to be enemies of the Republic, and had to be eliminated at once. Palpatine's order was leaving Bly with little choice but to abandon any friendship he might have had and kill his former commanding officer by shooting her in the back. Bly was one of the few reluctant commanders to follow up Order 66 all over the Universe. When Bly fired he tried to make sure the death was quick and painless. His men aided him, continuing to fire on Secura even after her body had hit the ground. Not taking any chances, Bly then had his troops inspect Secura's corpse, confirming the twi'lek lady's death.

Previously I put inverted commas when I wrote Bly had no choice just to kill Aayla. But he would have! We always hear that clones "just" carry out orders, but we have heard it in the past already... In the Dark Lord book you could read about some great clones, (Climber and his ion-squad) who refused to carry out order 66 when they were ordered to kill Roan Shryne master and his two Jedi companions. They have been knowing the Jedis for years, they knew they were good persons, helped out everybody, including the clone troopers, and they all knew the accusations were false, this whole thing can not be true. Climber replied he thought the droid army is the enemy, not the allied Jedi masters, who were fighting alongside with the clones for years for the final victory, for justice, and for peace! During these years they shared their slight supplies, they saved each other several times, then how could they be traitors, the enemy of the Republic? But if any of the Jedi who stayed at home at Coruscant might done something against Palpatine, why don't they punish THAT, why have to be killed ALL? But unfortunately moral, or logical questions rarely awaken in clone commander minds.

Neither if the crime is evident. Standing above the dead Aayla Bly received a new order from Palpatine, the efforts to stop the spreading of the toxin is needless anymore, and must be abandoned, with the ensuing deaths blamed on the Jedi, as THEY POURED the poison in the river, causing many innocent Felucian people death, and for this awful act, the killer Aayla Secura has to be blamed, and that is why they had to kill the traitor... Do you understand, Commander Bly? Bly understood... After the evident lie and conspiration he remained the servant of the Republic, despite it wasn't existed any more. After gunning down Aayla Secura, Bly's men were unable to locate Zonder (Barriss Offee's padawan) and the two other Jedi Padawans involved in the Felucia campaign, Ekria and Drake Lo'gaan. Again, I think it is similar to the Dark Lord book, as in that book also a Padawan and a master escaped the order 66. An other resemblance, since no Jedi were allowed to escape, the Emperor sent his bloodhound, Darth Vader, to finish off what the incapable clones missed. Darth Vader located Ekria and Lo'gaan at Tepasi, and he gave the now imperial commander Bly the opportunity to finally eliminate the padawans to put right his failure himself. Bly shot both Jedi fugitives, and though he believed them dead, they had in fact survived! It is a question if Bly survived after failing Vader again. Maybe Darth Vader knows the answer...

You can listen to an interesting and learning confession, which was told by a Felucian clone trooper about Aayla Secura Jedi Master. "On Felucia the Seps dug their metal heels into that muck of that alien hell hole and dared the Republic to come in after them. So we did. Only to be met with the month after month of flash eating diseases shrieking nocturnal predators, and other sites that haunt me till this day. Cut off, and for all we knew, abandoned by our superiors our only hope was Aayla Secura, our Jedi Commander. Without her iron will, none of us would come out of that mess without sanity or our lives. When her death comes, I hope it was quick. She earned that much."