2nd Airborne Company

The 2nd Airborne Company, also called the 2nd Airborne or 2nd Company, was a company in the Grand Army of the Republic consisting of 144 clone paratroopers and support staff. It was led by a clone trooper captain and High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. This unit was divided into four platoons, one of which included Parjai Squad, a squad of paratroopers under the command of clone trooper sergeant Barlex.

The 2nd Airborne, part of the 212th Attack Battalion within the 7th Sky Corps' of the Republic's Order of Battle, specialized in high-altitude drops and airborne combat. Its clone troopers were rigorously trained and programmed for effective and unwavering warfare.

The clone paratroopers of the 2nd Airborne Company utilized specialized, robust Phase II clone trooper armor engineered to withstand high-altitude descents. This armor was embellished with several dual orange bands, signifying the trooper's rank and association with the company. While some troopers in the company wore their armor without any additional gear, the majority were outfitted with an assortment of satchels, pouches, and a gray kama.

Moreover, the 2nd Airborne's troopers were equipped with BlasTech DC-15A blaster rifles, DC-15S blaster carbines, DC-17 hand blasters, and at least one E-Web heavy repeating blaster. For their airborne operations, the troopers of the 2nd Airborne used winged jet backpacks.

The clone paratroopers of the 2nd Airborne Company, along with their support personnel, were created from the genetic material of the human male Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. They were born in the cloning facilities of Tipoca City on the Wild Space planet Kamino. These troopers fought in the Clone Wars, a large-scale galactic conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Early in the Clone Wars, ten clone troopers from the 2nd Airborne were killed by Separatist Mandalorians. This event led to the company developing a strong hatred for all Mandalorians. To express their anger, members of the company directed their animosity towards other clones in the Grand Army of the Republic who had received Mandalorian training, including the clone commandos of the Special Operations Brigade.

During the war, the Gen'Dai bounty hunter Durge, who became a Separatist commander, used a blaster rifle to kill a clone trooper from the 2nd Airborne. He was seen standing over the trooper's body on a small rock formation.

On one occasion, a squad from the 2nd Airborne, along with the 212th Attack Battalion and an All Terrain Tactical Enforcer walker, attacked a Separatist-controlled world. During the battle, one of the company's paratroopers provided aid to a trooper from the 212th, while the rest of his squad fought Separatist forces in an area filled with rubble.

In 21 BBY, fifteen months after the war's beginning at the First Battle of Geonosis, the 2nd Airborne Company and its Parjai Squad were aboard the Republic auxiliary freighter Core Conveyor, traveling to the Outer Rim Territories planet Gaftikar. Their mission was to deliver commandos from Omega Squad and additional supplies for the Battle of Gaftikar on the planet's surface. Barlex, the leader of Parjai Squad, thought this lowered their chances of survival for their next mission.

During the journey, Barlex and a loadmaster from the 2nd Airborne Company expressed their dislike for Mandalorians to the members of Omega Squad, directing their anger towards them before preparing them for a parajump onto Gaftikar. After the squad's parajump, the 2nd Airborne Company proceeded to the Outer Rim planet Mirial to engage Separatist forces stationed there.

In 19 BBY, following the discovery of Separatist General Grievous on the Outer Rim planet Utapau, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi gathered a fleet of Venator-class Star Destroyers and the 7th Sky Corps on the Core Worlds planet Coruscant, which included the 2nd Airborne Company's paratroopers. The force's objective was to find and eliminate General Grievous to bring an end to the war. The 2nd Airborne deployed from Coruscant to Utapau, landing on the planet's surface via Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry gunships. Simultaneously, General Kenobi engaged Grievous in a lightsaber duel, marking the beginning of the Battle of Utapau against the Separatist Droid Army stationed there.

During the battle, the 2nd Airborne Company faced the Separatist's army of battle droids, including B1-Series battle droids, OOM security battle droids, B2 super battle droids, Octuptarra combat tri-droids, and LM-432 crab droids. During his brief duel with Kenobi, General Grievous attempted to escape on his personal Tsmeu-6 personal wheel bike, crushing one of the 2nd Airborne's paratroopers and knocking two others off a platform. After Grievous's death at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the 2nd's troopers signaled a clone trooper sergeant to assist a wounded 212th soldier, while more paratroopers were deployed from a LAAT/i nearby. Shortly after, a 2nd Airborne paratrooper was killed by a Separatist blaster next to a 212th trooper who was climbing a crab droid to attack it from above.

Near the battle's conclusion, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine initiated contingency Order 66, labeling all members of the Jedi Order as traitors to the Republic and ordering their immediate execution. The clone troopers of the 2nd Airborne Company, influenced by an inhibitor chip implanted at birth, turned against their Jedi General. One of the 212th's All Terrain Tactical Enforcers aimed its mass-driver cannon at Obi-Wan Kenobi, shooting him off a cliff and sending him and his varactyl into a pool of water below.

Believing Kenobi had survived, clone marshal commander Cody of the 212th Attack Battalion ordered a 2nd Airborne Company clone to search for the general, but they were unsuccessful. Upon returning to Cody, the clone reported that no one could have survived such a fall, as Kenobi had escaped the planet aboard Grievous' Soulless One Belbullab-22 starfighter. Simultaneously, the 2nd Airborne Company, along with the 41st Elite Legion and the 212th Attack Battalion, assisted in subjugating the planet's Pau'an population.

Following the rise of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, the clone paratroopers of the 2nd Airborne Company were reformed into clone stormtroopers, serving under the new Imperial Military and continuing to secure Utapau for the Imperial regime.

Later that year, during a meeting with the new commander of the Imperial Commando Special Unit, a special forces unit tasked with eliminating Jedi, clone commando Niner mentioned the 2nd Airborne Company to commando Darman. He did this while reminiscing about Sergeant Barlex in an attempt to rebuild their relationship.

The 2nd Airborne Company made its first appearance, without being named, in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, a 2005 film written and directed by George Lucas. The company was later named in a Star Wars Blog post by author Karen Traviss, published after the film's release in the same year. Karen Traviss named the 2nd Airborne Company as a tribute to the real-world paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment of the British Army. The 2nd Airborne Company's tactics in Revenge of the Sith and its appearance on the cover of Star Wars Insider 84 led to a strong fan desire for more information on clone paratroopers in 2005.