Ames Bunkle, who later went by his operating number DX-578, was a male human who lived with his parents on the planet Lothal. When Bunkle was sixteen he enrolled in the Academy for Young Imperials on Lothal, where he ended up specializing in stormtrooper training. The process drastically changed Bunkle's personality, breaking him down and then rebuilding him as a loyal but near-emotionless servant of the Galactic Empire. Bunkle graduated into a full fledged trooper, and took part in the arrest of a group of Lothal dissidents who had bombed Imperial mining operations on Lothal.
Ames Bunkle was a male human who lived on the planet Lothal under the reign of the Galactic Empire. Born around 22 years before the Battle of Yavin, Bunkle's parents, Pari Bunkle and her partner, were researchers in the Empire's Ministry of Agriculture. Bunkle studied at the Junior Academy of Applied Sciences during his childhood, where he set the record for number of carries in the game of grav-ball while playing against the team in summer at the age of fifteen. After graduating the Junior Academy, he applied to, and was accepted into Lothal's Academy for Young Imperials during the spring alongside Dhara Leonis, a girl of the same age who lived with her family in an apartment two floors above Bunkle's home. A year after setting his grav-ball record, Bunkle attended a party held by Leonis's parents, Leo Leonis and Tepha Leonis, although his own parents could not make it as they were on assignment.
At the party, Bunkle stood alone on the apartment's balcony until he was approached by Dhara's brother Zare Leonis. The pair discussed Bunkle's apprehension about attending the academy, and how it was a shame they had been at the Junior Academy at different times, given Zare was also grav-ball enthusiast. A patrol of TIE/ln space superiority starfighters then passed the apartment and drew the boys' attention, causing them to discuss the starfighters engines. The conversation was joined by Lieutenant Piers Roddance, another guest at the party and an Imperial officer. The discussion moved on to the Empire's All Terrain Defense Pods, before Zare spotted Governor Arihnda Pryce amongst the other guests and bought Bunkle over to speak to her. Pryce was with the other members of the Leonis family, and Leo gave a speech about the pride he felt in sending his daughter to the academy, before Dhara introduced Bunkle to the governor and then left them to talk.
Bunkle enrolled in the academy in the fall and specialized in ground tactics after initiation, while Dhara took mostly officer training classes, meaning the pair did not see each other much outside of shared assignments. After starting at the Junior Academy, Zare questioned his sister about Bunkle's well being during a call and asked her to say hello for him. Bunkle was chosen later that year to specialize in stormtrooper basic training, an intense course during which he was not allowed contact or communications with his parents. Around half way through Bunkle's training, his mother Pari fell ill, and the cadet was given two days leave to visit her. While out in the rain on the way home, Bunkle encountered Zare Leonis also on his way home. The pair spoke briefly, and Zare was shocked by the drastic change training had brought about in Bunkle's personality. He later spoke to his sister about the changes, which she claimed would only be temporary.
Before Bunkle finished his first year at the academy, Dhara went missing and was assumed to have run away. The cadet then finished his training and became a full fledged stormtrooper with the operating number DX-578. In the summer following the graduation, DX-578 was one of several troopers who traveled in an Imperial Troop Transport to a marketplace in Capital City. There they searched through the stalls and marched into a shuttered shop, where they found and arrested three dissidents responsible for the bombing of nearby Imperial mining operations. One of the dissidents was Beck Ollet, an old classmate of Zare Leonis, and as DX-578 and the other troopers brought the dissidents to the transport to be taken away, Zare watched from amongst the crowds of shoppers.