Echo

Biography

Training with Domino squad

CT-21-0408, a clone trooper in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars, became part of Domino Squad, a unit of clone cadets, around 21 BBY. Because CT-21-0408 frequently "echoed" the regulations and protocols that clone troopers were required to follow, his fellow Domino Squad clone cadets—Cutup, Hevy, Fives, and Droidbait—gave him the nickname "Echo." Echo and Domino Squad were based in Tipoca City, the capital of Kamino, a planet, and received training at the military complex there. Under the guidance of Sergeant Bric, a Siniteen bounty hunter, Echo and Domino Squad participated in combat simulations that pitted them against battle droids. During these simulation battles, each clone cadet, including Echo, used non-lethal weaponry to prevent injuries. Furthermore, all clone cadet squad members were required to collaborate as a team to successfully complete the simulation. However, Domino Squad often struggled to work together effectively.

During a practice exam, Hevy, another member of Domino Squad, separated from the struggling group, while Echo, Fives, Droidbait, and Cutup remained behind barricades. As the simulation test continued, Bric, El-Les (an Arcona), and Shaak Ti (Jedi Master), who were observing Domino Squad's simulation, grew concerned about their recklessness. Bric expressed concern about the group's inability to function as a team and suggested sending them to Tipoca City's maintenance crew, where rejected clones were assigned. Ti noticed Echo's difficulty in adapting to different situations because he was trying to enforce proper procedures on his teammates. Because the members of Domino Squad could not work together, they failed the test. Afterward, Echo and Domino Squad left the combat room and returned to the complex's sleeping quarters. There, Echo told his squad that they should follow orders and not mess around. While the other Domino Squad members mocked Echo's words, Hevy did not enjoy their conversation. When he said that he thought "like an ARC trooper," Echo questioned him, which angered Hevy. Their heated debate turned into a fight, but the brawl was broken up by the immediate arrival of Bric. While Echo quickly apologized to Bric, Hevy dismissed the sergeant. Bric wanted his team to cooperate with each other, and, if they remain the same, they were a waste of his time. Sometime later Bric and El-Les rallied Domino Squad, as well as other clone cadet squads, for a meeting outside the military complex.

Colt, a Clone Commander and ARC trooper, observed the clone cadet's final combat simulator test. Squads that passed the test would have their troopers become combat-ready clones. Colt was particularly interested in Bravo Squad, a unit of clone cadets that had completed certain tests in "ARC trooper time." Echo attempted to explain to his team that they could learn from Bravo Squad, but they disregarded him. Echo and Domino Squad followed Bravo Squad to the combat simulator room and watched as Bravo Squad worked together effectively during their combat simulation test. Shortly after, a cadet from Bravo Squad raised a pole on top of a citadel in the simulator room, completing the simulation test. With Bravo Squad's test completed, Echo and Domino Squad entered the combat room. Echo and the rest of Domino Squad past the cadets from Bravo Squad, who teased them by saying "time to watch the Dominoes fall." However, once the simulator began, Echo and Domino Squad quickly completed certain parts of the simulation faster than their usual rate. As Echo, Fives, Droidbait and Cutup took cover, Hevy, who was destroying droids with his Z-6 rotary blaster cannon, was clearing a path for them. When Droidbait broke away from the group, however, a droid shot him in the back. Echo noticed this and and yelled for Hevy, although Hevy told him to leave Droidbait alone, as he wanted the squad to head for the room's citadel, where the pole to complete the test was located. Because Echo and the other Domino Squad members left Droidbait behind, they automatically failed the test. Colt and El-Les confronted the group and told them they should not leave a man behind.

After failing the test, the clone cadets departed back to their sleeping quarters. For Echo and Fives, however, the two clone cadets felt they did not belong within the struggling Domino Squad. Wanting to transfer to a different clone cadet squad, Echo and Fives went to Jedi Master Shaak Ti. Yet, when Echo and Fives requested they should be moved to Bravo Squad, Ti denied their request and revealed that she had faith within Domino Squad. Because of her confidence within Domino Squad, Ti allowed Domino Squad to retake the test. The following day, Ti joined Bric, El-les, and Colt, while Echo and the rest of Domino Squad entered the simulation room. Making similar progress as the day before, albeit not leaving a man behind, Domino Squad reached the bottom of the citadel. However, they noticed that their ascension cables in their belts were missing which were needed to climb the citadel's tower. Despite the setback, the clones improvised and decided to climb blaster turrets that acceded up toward the citadel's roof. Once Hevy successfully climbed the turrets and lifted the pole on top of the citadel, Domino Squad finally completing the test. Shaak Ti and El-Les spoke positively about their efforts, and due to them working as a team and completing their final test, Echo and the rest of Domino Squad were allowed to become clone troopers. They each received their own medals, as a symbol for their graduation from clone cadet.

Rishi moon battle

Following their transformation into battle-ready clone troopers, Echo and the former members of Domino Squad were assigned their first mission away from Kamino. Echo was stationed at a listening post on a moon orbiting the planet Rishi, under the command of Sergeant O'Niner. Along with fellow troopers Fives, Hevy, Droidbait, Nub, and CT-327, Echo was responsible for maintaining the listening post to warn the Galactic Republic of any impending Confederate attacks on Kamino. On one occasion, while Echo was with the other rookie troopers in the listening post's control room, Sergeant O'Niner informed them of an upcoming routine inspection. However, unbeknownst to the clone troopers, General Grievous of the Confederacy was planning to attack Kamino to halt the Republic's production of clone troopers.

Grievous knew that an attack on Kamino would be detected by the Rishi moon listening post. The stationed clone troopers would then disable the base's "all-clear" signal, alerting the nearby Republic fleet. To counter this, Grievous deployed BX-series droid commandos in Droch-class boarding ships to take over the listening post. Simultaneously, a clone trooper activated the listening post's shield to protect it from what appeared to be an approaching meteor shower, which was actually a group of Droch-class boarding ships. The droids disembarked from their transports and launched their attack on the Republic base. After three commando droids shot and killed O'Niner and three other clones, the remaining clone troopers—Echo, Hevy, Fives, and Cutup—escaped the command center through a ventilation shaft that led outside the listening post. As they exited the ventilation shaft, the four troopers were dismayed when a Rishi eel attacked and devoured Cutup, leaving only Echo, Hevy, and Fives to defend themselves. Eventually, the remaining rookie clone troopers spotted the Obex, a Nu-class attack shuttle piloted by Commander Cody and Captain Rex.

The clone officers had arrived to inspect the listening post, unaware of the droid attack. After being attacked by the invading droids, the two clone officers escaped and encountered Echo and the other rookie troops. Having encountered a droid commando disguised in clone armor during their skirmish with the droids, Rex demanded that the rookies remove their helmets to verify their identities as clones. After the three rookie troopers complied, another Rishi moon eel attacked them. Rex used his DC-17 hand blaster to kill it with a single shot to the eye, impressing the rookies. During their conversation with the rookie troopers, Rex referred to them as "shinies," a derogatory term for troopers with spotless armor that had not yet seen battle. Rex and Cody provided Echo and the other rookie troops with DC-15S carbines, and Rex proposed a plan to retake the listening post.

The group of clone troopers hid near the base's entrance while Rex impersonated commando droid unit 26 using the droid's decapitated head. The clone captain successfully tricked Units 07, 08, and 09 into opening the listening post's main door, allowing Echo and the clone troopers to ambush the remaining commando droids inside the base. Upon entering the command center, the clones defeated the droid units, including their leader, who wielded a vibroblade. However, their victory was short-lived as they noticed General Grievous's fleet arriving above the moon. Due to the lack of response from the commando droids, Grievous sent more battle droids to the listening post. The clones, inside the command center, were unable to disable the "all clear" signal because the droids had hot-wired it. Soon, a droid landing craft descended through the moon's atmosphere and landed at the listening post. With the battle droid reinforcements outnumbering the clone troopers, Rex, to the surprise of the rookie troops, ordered the complete destruction of the base.

When a confused Echo questioned Rex's order, reminding him that their duty was to protect the base, Rex explained that destroying the base would disable the all-clear signal and alert the nearby Republic fleet of the impending Separatist invasion. To destroy the base, Echo suggested using highly explosive liquid tibanna, which was used as a fuel source at the station during the Rishi moon's freezing cycle. While Rex and Echo retrieved the plunk droids that stored the liquid tibanna, Cody, Hevy, and Fives gathered weaponry from the listening post's supply room. With their new weaponry, the clones attacked the invading battle droid forces, buying time for Rex and Echo to wire the three plunk droids together. However, the remote activator to detonate the tibanna inside the plunk droids malfunctioned.

Hevy volunteered to stay behind and fix the problem before joining the other clones as they fled the listening post through a nearby ventilation shaft. Once outside, Rex was surprised to find that Hevy had not yet evacuated the listening post. The clone captain contacted Hevy via comlink, but Hevy refused to leave until he had repaired the detonator. Unwilling to accept Hevy's decision, the clones ran to rescue the rookie trooper. Before they could reenter the facility, Hevy manually detonated the explosives. The listening post exploded, killing Hevy and all of the droid forces inside. Shortly thereafter, Rex, Cody, Echo, and Fives were picked up by an LAAT/i gunship that carried them off the moon. On board the Venator-class Star Destroyer Resolute, Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker awarded Echo and Fives medals for their service. Following the presentation of the medals, Rex inducted the two clones into the 501st Legion for their part in helping the Republic to thwart the Separatist attack.

Defense of Kamino

Some months following the destruction of Rishi Station, Republic intelligence determined that the Confederacy was about to invade Kamino. Echo and Fives joined Kenobi, Skywalker, Rex, and Cody on a trip to Kamino to prepare the defense of the planet. While Kenobi and Skywalker met with Shaak Ti and Lama Su, the Kaminoan Prime Minister, Echo and Fives wandered through Tipoca City's military complex. After reminiscing about their days as clone cadets in the city, they encountered their old friend, 99, who was carrying a stack of DC-15 blaster rifles. 99 was happy to see Echo and Fives but asked about Hevy. When Echo and Fives informed him that Hevy had sacrificed his life to save them on the Rishi moon, 99 sadly showed them Hevy's medal, explaining that Hevy had given it to him. Changing the subject, Echo told 99 about the suspected Confederate invasion of Kamino, and 99 asked if he could assist them in any way. With Echo and Fives' approval, 99 went to the facility's weaponry room to gather weapons for the clone troopers, while Echo and Fives met with ARC trooper Havoc in a docking bay.

The ARC trooper assigned the two 501st Legion clones a dangerous task: he instructed them to go outside onto a platform bridge and "stay in a sniping position." Echo and Fives complied and headed to the bridge. Once there, they positioned themselves, prepared their DC-15 carbine blasters, and waited for the battle to begin. When the invasion commenced, Trident ships, led by Confederate General Grievous and Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, ascended the outer structures of Tipoca City. As the ships damaged the buildings with their drills, battalions of B1-Series battle droids and Aqua droids exchanged fire with stationed clone troopers. On the bridge, Echo and Fives used their carbine blasters to shoot down nearby droids. After 99 visited the two clones and resupplied them with ammo and thermal detonators, battle droids stormed the area, but they were destroyed when Echo threw a detonator at them. Shortly after, a squad of clone cadets approached Echo, Fives, and 99. When the squad explained that they had become separated from their clone cadet group, 99 offered to take them back to the city's sleeping barracks.

Echo and Fives left the platform bridge with 99 and the clone cadets and headed for the indoor barracks. Once there, Clone Commander Cody and Captain Rex joined the group and told everyone in the room that they needed to fight off the droids. However, the clone cadets disagreed, citing their inadequate training. Echo attempted to boost their confidence by reminding them that Kamino was their home and they should defend it. 99 then told the clones that he knew the location of the complex's armory room and that if they could gather enough supplies, they would be able to hold off the droids. With the decision made, 99 gathered the supplies, and each of the clones equipped themselves with a firearm. Echo and the clones stood behind a door leading to a sleeping barrack room, waiting for any droids to pass by. Nearby, Grievous led a group of droids down the same hallway as the clones. After the cyborg General ordered the droids to open the doors, a droid opened the clones' door, revealing them. Echo and the clones began firing at the droids, luring them into the barrack room. The clones took defensive positions behind crates as the droids continued their pursuit. As the firefight intensified, 99 tossed thermal detonators to Echo, Cody, and Rex for more firepower.

Soon, however, the clones around the crates were being overwhelmed by the droids. Rex used his comlink to alert the clone cadets, who were hidden inside sleeping bunkers, to reveal themselves to the droids. As they began firing at the droids, Echo and the others continued as well. However, 99 noticed that the clones had run out of thermal detonators. Despite being told by Rex that it was too dangerous, 99 ignored the order and ran toward a nearby door to retrieve more. Battle droids spotted 99 fleeing and fired at him, killing him instantly. Despite witnessing 99's death, Echo and the remaining clones destroyed the rest of Grievous' droids. Echo and the clones gathered around Fives, who was cradling 99's body on the floor, and mourned 99's loss. After Grievous and Ventress escaped Kamino, ending the invasion and resulting in a Republic victory, Echo and Fives joined Cody and Rex inside a docking bay. Because of their accomplishments during the invasion, Cody and Rex were proud of Echo and Fives. The two 501st Legion clone troopers were then promoted to ARC troopers.

Rescuing Even Piell

Echo and Fives, while under the command of Skywalker and Kenobi, participated in the mission to liberate Jedi Master Even Piell. Piell had been captured by the Separatist forces, who sought to extract information about the classified Nexus Route hyperlane known only to the Jedi Master. At the Jedi Temple located on Coruscant, Echo and Fives joined Skywalker, Kenobi, Jedi Master Plo Koon, Cody, and Rex around a holographic projection. As they formulated their strategy, the team realized that a direct assault on the heavily fortified Confederate prison called the Citadel, where Piell was held, would be futile due to its advanced defenses. Skywalker proposed a plan to encase Echo and the team in carbonite to evade detection by the facility's life-form scanners. His astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a group of reprogrammed B1 battle droids, would then transport the carbonite blocks to the Citadel. Following the strategy session, Echo and the team proceeded to the Temple's hangar bay, where a carbon-freezing chamber, operated by Ugnaughts, was situated. Fives, expressing reservations about Skywalker's plan with Echo at his side, voiced his concerns to Cody and Rex about entrusting their lives to droids. However, Cody concurred with Skywalker's strategy, believing that droids would go undetected.

After Echo and the team were individually encased in carbonite blocks and secured within a Class type B, a modification of the Sheathipede-class transport shuttle, R2 and the battle droids piloted the shuttle to the Citadel, situated on the planet Lola Sayu. Successfully bypassing the prison's life-form scan, R2-D2 and the battle droids landed the shuttle near a cliff adjacent to the Citadel. R2-D2 released Skywalker and Kenobi's team from their carbonite encasements, and the team gathered together. Leaving R2, the battle droids, and the shuttle behind, Skywalker led Echo and the team toward the cliff's edge. Discovering that they could not use ascension cables to reach the cliff's summit due to Electro-mines—which would electrocute anything that touched them and trigger an alarm within the prison—scattered across the cliff face, Skywalker and Kenobi informed Echo and the team that they would have to free-climb the cliff. Approaching the cliff's top, the team noticed a doorway into the Citadel that was protected by a ray shield. Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, infiltrated the Citadel through a nearby ventilation shaft and deactivated the ray shield, allowing Echo and the team to enter.

Near the doorway, Fives was assisting Rex and another clone, Charger, in reaching the cliff's summit. However, as Charger grasped Fives' hand, he lost his grip and plummeted toward an Electro-mine, resulting in his death and triggering an alarm within the Citadel. Despite alerting the Citadel to their presence, Echo and the team proceeded into the prison regardless. Upon entering a hallway within one of the Citadel's detention area, the team discovered that the walls concealed hidden blaster turrets. As the turrets emerged, the Jedi deflected the blaster fire with their lightsabers, while Echo and the clones engaged the turrets with their blasters. The turrets were not the hallway's only danger; Longshot observed an approaching electricity field. While Echo and the others dodged the field, Longshot was struck and instantly killed. The team continued onward and located Piell within a holding cell, freeing him from captivity. Despite rescuing Piell, the Jedi Master sought to locate his officers, who had also been captured by the Separatists, as one of Piell's officers, Captain Wilhuff Tarkin, possessed half of the Nexus Route coordinates in his memory; Piell held the other half. Piell and Tarkin had memorized the coordinates as a safeguard against them falling into Separatist hands. Still within one of the Citadel's detention hallways, Echo and the team were confronted by a group of commando droids, dispatched by the prison's warden, Osi Sobeck.

A firefight ensued, and the Republic team eliminated the initial wave of droids. Sobeck, monitoring the battle through the prison's security system, deployed additional droids and activated the hallway's magnetized ceiling, which seized Echo's blaster, as well as the weapons of other team members—and Skywalker, due to his prosthetic hand—but left the commando droids' weaponry unaffected. The clones attempted to engage the droids in hand-to-hand combat, while Kenobi, Tano, and Piell utilized the Force, but neither approach proved effective, as the droids were magnetically anchored to the floor. Skywalker, however, deactivated the magnetized ceiling, enabling his team to retrieve their weapons and neutralize the droids. They soon located and liberated Piell's men—Tarkin and several clone officers—from a holding cell. Anticipating further encounters with Osbeck's prison guards, Kenobi decided to divide the team; Piell, half of his men, and Cody would accompany Kenobi to create a diversion, while Echo, Fives, Rex, Skywalker, Tano, and Piell's remaining officers, including Tarkin, would remain together and seek an escape route out of the prison. This way, if one group were captured, the enemy would only obtain half of the information. As Kenobi's team detonated explosives in a corridor, Skywalker breached a wall to reveal an old tunnel—knowledge of which the strike team had acquired from old archive data on the Citadel—Echo and Fives resealed the entrance and continued through the tunnels.

Skywalker, having directed R2 to land the shuttle near their location, guided his group through the tunnels. Upon reaching a dead-end, they were ambushed by commando droids equipped with energy shields. Without warning, Tano hurled thermal detonators beneath the droids, destroying them. After Tano used explosives to blast through the rock, Echo and the others proceeded toward a nearby pipeline. Utilizing the pipeline as a means of finding an escape route toward their landed shuttle, Echo and the team soon reached an exit point. However, outside the exit hatch, a battalion of battle droids and crab droids ambushed them. The group escaped, and Skywalker tossed a grenade into the fuel line, causing an explosion that destroyed the droids. Skywalker's team proceeded to Kenobi's location, finding the Jedi Master and his men pinned down by droids guarding the shuttle. Echo and Fives joined the battle, as more droids continued to arrive.

When a commando droid, positioned atop a watch tower, began targeting their shuttle with a laser cannon, Echo reported this to Skywalker. Skywalker and Piell launched an attack on a commandeered STAP, but were incapacitated. Determined to safeguard the shuttle, Echo grabbed a fallen commando droid's shield for protection and attempted to reach the shuttle. However, the droid destroyed the Republic team's shuttle, resulting in Echo's death. Despite this loss, the Republic strike team was successfully evacuated by Masters Koon, Adi Gallia, and Saesee Tiin, who were leading a Republic fleet. Tragically, Piell died before the rescue forces arrived, but he transmitted his knowledge of the Nexus Route to Tano.

Personality and traits

Echo possessed a keen eye for detail. While stationed at Rishi Station, the trooper was not bothered by the lack of action. During his time in Domino Squad on Kamino, Jedi Master Shaak Ti observed that Echo struggled to adapt to dynamic situations. Rather than assisting his fellow troopers in combat, he frequently reminded his Domino Squad members of their deviations from protocol. His habit of "echoing" the rules and orders earned him the nickname "Echo" from his squadmates, a name that stayed with him even after becoming a clone trooper. While stationed on Rishi Station, Echo expressed to the other rookie clones that he preferred quiet environments, which allowed him to study the regulatory manuals.

Echo preferred to stay away from the fighting and read manuals to develop his skills as a soldier for the Republic. Following the evacuation of the listening post after its capture by Separatist battle droids, Echo was able to relay the manual's instructions for situations without a commanding officer to the other clone troopers. Echo's dedication to the Republic earned him a place in the 501st Legion. During the Separatist invasion of Kamino, Echo, who had been serving in the 501st Legion for several months, followed Clone Commander Colt's dangerous order to guard a bridge. Along with Fives, Echo attempted to encourage clone cadets who were worried about their training being inadequate for combat. Due to his accomplishments on Kamino that day, as well as his service within the Grand Army, Clone Commander Cody and Captain Rex permitted Echo to become an ARC trooper. Believing that the shuttle was their only way to escape from Lola Sayu, Echo was determined to protect it at all costs, sacrificing his life, although failing in his mission.

Equipment

As a clone cadet, Echo's armor was a pristine white, with green markings on his arm and leg armor. His chest and left shoulder armor bore a "3" marking. Echo's rookie armor was also pristine white, devoid of dust or combat damage due to his limited combat experience before the Battle of Rishi moon. After Rex eliminated the attacking Rishi eel, the clone captain used his hand to smear some of the eel's blood onto Echo's chest armor. Upon joining the 501st Legion, Echo's armor featured the Legion's signature blue markings. Echo wore a patch on the left side of his legging armor that read "For Hevy," written in Aurebesh. Echo's helmet was equipped with red macrobinoculars. After becoming an ARC trooper, Echo donned ARC trooper armor, which included a rangefinder.

Behind the scenes

On December 3, 2007, Echo's character was initially unveiled in a storyboard for The Clone Wars TV series on StarWars.com. Echo subsequently appeared in "Rookies," the fifth episode of the first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which aired on October 24, 2008. Like all clone troopers in the series, he was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In the original broadcast of "Rookies," Echo used the word "hell"; however, this word was removed in later broadcasts. The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia later featured a brief entry on Echo, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Visual Guide Ultimate Battles assigned Echo the clone designation "CT-26-1409." However, Echo was later identified as "CT-21-0408" in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia. Echo later appeared in the episodes "Clone Cadets" and "ARC Troopers" of the third season of The Clone Wars, which aired on September 17, 2010. The character also featured in the season three episodes "The Citadel," which aired on February 18, 2011; and "Counterattack," which aired on March 4, 2011. Echo makes an appearance in the non-canon video game, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, released in the United States on March 22, 2011, which depicts the events of "Rookies" in a humorous fashion.

In March 2014, after the release of the sixth and final season of The Clone Wars, Supervising Director Dave Filoni indicated that Echo survived the events of "Counterattack." According to Series Writer Brent Friedman, the character was intended to be included in an arc he wrote focusing on an experimental clone commandos team called "The Bad Batch," with the story's "emotional hook" centering on Echo's relationship with Captain Rex. This arc was developed for the series' seventh season, after the Expanded Universe was declared non-canon by Lucasfilm.