Commander Appo, also known as Clone Commander 1119 was the blue-helmeted Commander in charge of the 501st Legion (later named "Vader's Fist"). When the Empire arose, the 501st were assigned to Lord Darth Vader, the Emperor's newly named emissary. Under the orders of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, he and his troops attacked the Jedi Temple with Darth Vader during the Great Jedi Purge, killing all of the Jedi.

During the Temple raid, Senator Bail Organa landed on the landing platform extending from the Jedi Temple's spires to find a disturbing turn of events. Clone Commander Appo reports to Bail a surprising development within the ranks of the Jedi order and asks him to leave while pointing a blaster at him. Before Bail could leave, a 10 year old Jedi named Zett Jukassa tried to escape, killing Appo and many of his troopers, before succumbing to their gunfire.

Though most clone troopers spent their accelerated formative years on storm-drenched Kamino developing under the careful watch of politically ambivalent scientists, there are two units that were notable exceptions. The red-marked shock troopers and the blue-marked 501st legion were raised and trained on Coruscant.

The well guarded and secretive facilities served as their training ground. The Galactic Republic must have used considerable leverage to prompt the usually reclusive Kaminoans to leave their homeworld and bring their jealously guarded cloning techniques to another planet, though any documentation about such arrangements remains understandably classified.

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