The Kamino uprising was a conflict in 12 BBY on the aquatic planet Kamino, the origin world of the Grand Army of the Republic during the waning days of the Old Republic. After having spent the better part of the last couple decades growing clone troopers for the Old Republic and stormtroopers for the Galactic Empire under Emperor Palpatine, a group of Kaminoans went rogue, using their cloning resources to grow an army with the intent of combating Palpatine's New Order. The Kaminoan resistance once again used the Grand Army of the Republic's template, Jango Fett's DNA and equipped their soldiers with phase I clone trooper armor.
Upon learning of the insurrection, the Galactic Empire hired renowned bounty hunter Boba Fett, himself a clone of Jango Fett, to penetrate and sabotage the cloning facilities of Tipoca City. Fett's childhood spent in the city granted him intricate knowledge of the facility's layout, and he led the Imperial Army to a crushing defeat of the "anti-clone" army. The Kaminoan leadership themselves were destroyed when their escape transports were shot down as they attempted to flee. Before the battle's end, Fett extracted a sample of the Jango Fett DNA and delivered it to his Imperial clients. The uprising led to a restructuring of the Imperial cloning policy; the previous model of centralized cloning sources was abandoned in favor of having a wide variety of cloning centers and genetic templates.
In the years following the rise of the Empire, the planet Kamino was kept under the watchful eye of Emperor Palpatine, in order to ensure that the planet's cloning technology remained under Imperial control. A small group of Kaminoans known as Clone Masters, resentful of the Empire's presence, began to grow an army of clone troopers to use in order to fight against their oppressors. These rogue clone troopers were called clone anti-Imperial troopers because they were created to fight against the Empire. They wore Phase I clone trooper armor and were mostly Jet Troopers and Rail ARC Commandos. The conflict pitted these Kamino-grown troops against their own Imperial brothers: members of the 501st Legion of stormtroopers, who were led by the bounty hunter Boba Fett, since he had been "born" and raised on Kamino and had a great knowledge of the facility.
An Imperial dark trooper attacks Kaminoian clone troopers.
The Imperial forces landed in the city in a Sentinel-class landing craft. Boba Fett, hired for his knowledge of the cloning facility, made his way towards the cloning facility and destroyed a door control console that kept the facility in lockdown and proceeded inside, killing any rogue clones who got in his way. Fett and his troops were then ordered to retrieve a Template Sample of Jango Fett's DNA to prevent the Kaminoans from using it to clone more rogue soldiers. After getting his hands on the sample, Fett returned it to the Landing Craft which shortly took off upon acquiring it from Fett. The bounty hunter then returned to the facility and wiped out the life support systems located in the lower cloning center, ending any chances of more anti-Imperial clones being grown. Meanwhile, his fellow Imperial stormtroopers fought the enemy clones on the numerous platforms of Tipoca City.
Boba Fett destroys a Kaminoian turret.
After Fett finished his work in the cloning facilities, he met up with the troopers outside and aided them in the battle. Mere moments after the clone life support was destroyed, the last of the anti-Imperial troopers were pushed back onto the landing platforms and finally destroyed. The leaders of the Kaminoan rebels attempted to escape in two LAAT/is, but were brought down by rockets fired from Imperial shock troopers and from lasers fired by ground turrets.
With the traitorous clones exterminated, Kamino remained under Imperial control and the rogue cloning facilities were commandeered unto Imperial rule. The surviving leaders of the Kaminoan resistance were arrested and detained onboard the Death Star. Most would join Rebel inmates and die fighting during the Death Star Uprising.
Although the clone rebellion was soundly defeated, this incident convinced Emperor Palpatine to commission the creation of new clones from different templates and the recruitment of birth-born soldiers to fill the ranks of the Stormtrooper Corps. He also did this because he believed that the non birth-born troopers were too susceptible to corruption, and believed that a more diverse group of soldiers would solve this issue. Although the Jango Fett template would still be used, none of the Fett clones, especially the members of the 501st who defeated the rebel clones, would ever get used to the increasing diversity in the army ranks that they once filled as a whole.
The Kamino uprising first appeared in the 2005 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Battlefront II as the fourth mission in the Empire section of the "Rise of the Empire" campaign. The event was later mentioned a few times during the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force novel series.
- Star Wars Battlefront II: Prima Official Game Guide
- The New Essential Guide to Alien Species
- "The 100 Greatest Things About Star Wars... Ever!" — Star Wars Insider 100
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Guide to Warfare
- "Imperial Icons" — Star Wars Insider 148