Sith Training Droids, a sophisticated line of training droids, were utilized by the Sith Lords' Order. These droids were architected from the holodroid prototype's blueprints, a unit recognized as PROXY. Fabricated on the water-dominated planet of Kamino, these droids primarily functioned as tools within a clandestine operation overseen by the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Following the redemption and demise of Galen Marek, his former secret apprentice, Vader resolved to forge a "new Starkiller" by leveraging the novel advanced cloning process.
To guarantee the perfect clone would master in mere months what consumed Marek years as an apprentice, the droids were integrated to assist the clone in honing his innate lightsaber skills. A secondary function of these droids was their integrated holographic technology. By replicating the visages of individuals intimate with Marek before his passing, the clone would be compelled to conquer the psychological repercussions stemming from the imprinted memories of his genetic blueprint.
Nevertheless, due to initial cloning procedure imperfections, coupled with inherent complexities in rapidly cloning a Force-sensitive individual, numerous clones resulted in utter failures. Consequently, Vader was compelled to reiterate the procedure repeatedly until the imperfections were rectified, ultimately enabling him to cultivate a genetically flawless replica of the original Starkiller. Consequently, the training droids were essential for assessing many Marek clones, almost all of whom failed, with one exception who surpassed his predecessors, meeting Darth Vader's expectations and gaining his approval.
Later, the training droids served a different purpose when a Rebel Fleet engaged Imperial forces during the Assault on Kamino. As a renegade clone of Marek accompanied the rebels in their assault on Kamino, the training droids became part of the Imperial defense at the Timira City Cloning Facility.
The Sith Training Droids bore a physical resemblance to their progenitor, PROXY. While featuring a slender skeletal framework, unlike PROXY, the training droids had their wiring shielded by metal plating. Another shared trait with their "ancestor" was holographic technology, allowing them to emulate the appearance and voice of nearly any humanoid. Their combat programming encompassed proficiency in blaster marksmanship and fundamental lightsaber combat techniques.
- Kento Marek: To gauge the mental fortitude of the Galen Marek clones and their capacity to overcome their genetic template's emotional bonds, the Sith Training Droids featured a program modeling Galen's father, Kento Marek. Cloning accelerated cloning process flaws led some clones to be unable to strike down droids disguised as Kento, resulting in their trial failure. [2]
- Galen Marek (as a child): Another method to assess the clones' susceptibility to emotional imprints involved a program replicating the young Galen Marek before his abduction and apprenticeship. Some clones, proving more stable, were nonetheless deemed failures for their inability to strike down droids disguised as Galen's younger self. [2]
- Rebel trooper: Equipped with infantry skills and lightsaber combat, the Sith Training Droids also had a module based on Rebel troopers. This program aimed to determine the clones' connection to the Rebel Alliance that Galen Marek had founded and died for. The clone known by Galen's codename faced the Rebel trooper program. While battling the faux-Rebels, Starkiller felt minimal emotional attachment to the Rebellion. He did not feel personally responsible for the Alliance's creation; it was founded by his genetic template. Dismissing the original Starkiller as deceased and determined to fulfill his purpose, the clone successfully destroyed the "Rebel troopers" without difficulty or hesitation. [2]
- Juno Eclipse: Among Galen Marek's emotional anchors, his love for Juno Eclipse was arguably his strongest emotion before death. Consequently, the Sith Training Droids were equipped with a module imitating Juno's appearance and voice. This program alone directly hindered Starkiller's progress, leading to his training failure. [2] However, a more stable clone overcame the emotional imprints, striking down a faux-Juno. [1] Upon Starkiller's return to Kamino, he was nearly deceived by a Holodroid disguised as Juno. Realizing something was amiss at the last moment, he kept his distance. Focused on rescuing the real Juno, the clone readily cut down the training droid. [2]
- Darth Vader: Similar to PROXY, the Sith Training Droids also featured a module replicating Darth Vader's appearance, voice, and combat skills. One droid impersonated the Sith Lord and battled Starkiller in Timira City. Vader's image dissipated after Starkiller defeated the droid and proceeded to confront his actual Master. [2]
- Rahm Kota, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis: These modules were incorporated into the Sith Training Droids to serve the same purpose as the others—to identify the clone of Galen Marek most capable of detaching from Marek's emotional attachments. During the Assault on Kamino, Starkiller was attacked by four training droids, each disguised as Rahm Kota, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis. Familiar with the droids and their tactics, Starkiller readily struck them down in his quest to rescue Juno Eclipse. [2]
The Sith training droids originated from the design of a holodroid prototype, PROXY, inheriting its holographic capabilities and sophisticated combat programming. Consequently, they could convincingly replicate various adversaries, from Rebel infantry to Jedi Knights, in both appearance and combat style. Positioned on the Imperial world of Kamino, these droids played a critical role in the cloning facility of Timira City, where the Sith Lord Darth Vader conducted a highly classified experiment to produce a perfect clone of his deceased apprentice, Galen Marek.
However, the cloning process's inherent flaws compelled the Sith Lord to generate multiple Marek clones, gradually eliminating factors that fostered highly unstable clones. As a result of this iterative process, the droids frequently sparred with the more stable clones deemed worthy of training. Vader aimed to ensure that the clone replacing his original apprentice would surpass Marek in combat effectiveness. Through the imprinted memories of their genetic template, numerous clones acquired not only Juyo, Soresu, or Marek's unique Shien style, but also the fighting styles of Ataru and Niman. By having many of the clones wield dual-lightsabers to master Jar'Kai, Darth Vader intended that his new apprentice would be an even deadlier and more destructive combatant than Marek ever was in his lifetime. Thus, a significant purpose of the Sith training droids was to develop the clones' fighting styles and Force techniques.
Their secondary purpose involved leveraging the droids' holographic capabilities. To assess the clones' mental stability and readiness to detach from Marek's emotional imprints, the droids routinely adopted diverse forms, ranging from average Rebel Alliance soldiers to individuals deeply affecting Marek before his death. This experiment aspect proved most challenging with the more stabilized clones. While Vader approached a fully stable version, he encountered clones unable to complete training by striking down droids disguised as those Marek knew or cared about. Some clones refused to attack their progenitor's father, while others could not bring themselves to attack the young boy Marek was before Vader abducted him from Kashyyyk.
Notably, at least one of the more stable clones flatly refused to strike down a droid that was not disguised. To the surprise of Timira City's lead cloning technician, the clone had no emotional-based difficulty at all when it came to destroying the droids that were disguised as Humans, but became distraught with emotion over a single droid that had short-circuited and was thus unable to utilize its holographic technology. The clone refused to attack the damaged droid, and then smiled and repeated the word "proxy" over and over again, thus clearly showing that he had become destabilized over the imprinted memories of Marek's friendship with the droid PROXY, whom he believed to be deactivated before his own death. Although its holographic abilities were inaccessible, the droid's combat programming was still operating efficiently and proceeded to brutally attack the mentally-unstable clone, who was too overcome by Marek's fondness for PROXY to defend himself.
Just as Darth Vader believed that he was finally on the verge of success, he had to make certain that he was not wrong first. Having been impressed enough by one clone in particular, he decided that another test was required to make sure that the clone would not fail like those that came before him due to the undermining factor of Marek's emotional sentimentality. He declared that Marek was weakened by his emotions and in order to succeed where the original apprentice failed, the clone would have to be strong enough to hate what Marek loved and to be willing to destroy what he created. Hence, several Sith training droids appeared and began disguising themselves as Rebel soldiers. presenting the clone with two red-bladed lightsabers, Vader commanded that the training session commence immediately.
Like many of his failed brothers, Starkiller had no difficulty in destroying droids that attacked him. As he continued to effortlessly annihilate his opponents, he felt little to no sentiments over the droids that were disguised as soldiers of the Rebellion. As a clone, he understood that the Alliance was not his creation, but rather that of a man whom he was created from. The clone was also determined to serve Darth Vader by proving himself worthy to be the Dark Lord's Sith apprentice and was not about to let an obstacle like training droids prevent him from accomplishing his ultimate goal. But like many of the clones before him, he too was stopped by certain memories and emotions that one droid was able to bring to the surface.
The clone recognized the droid in the form of a beautiful woman who seemed increasingly familiar to him. Staying his blades at the last possible moment, he finally recognized her as Captain Juno Eclipse, the former Imperial pilot that Marek fell in love with. As a result, the original apprentice's emotional attachment to Eclipse almost immediately seized control of the clone, thus preventing him from being able to strike her down. Although he knew that she was just a droid and not the real Juno, the clone understood that the test was purely symbolic: striking it down would mean severing himself completely from the feelings that belonged to his genetic template. Although he tried with great effort to follow his Master's order, Marek's love for Juno caused him to lower his head in defeat and deactivate his lightsabers in failure—much to Vader's disappointment.
Having proven himself to be just another failure, the clone narrowly escaped death at Vader's hands. Overcome by Galen Marek's feelings for Juno, the clone succeeded in escaping from Kamino in order to set out on a journey to find the woman who had become the sole focus of his entire existence. Circumstances later forced the clone, by then known by Marek's former codename "Starkiller", to return to Kamino where the training droids would fight once more with the rogue clone.
Unbeknownst to the clone who went rogue and escaped from Kamino, Darth Vader was well on the way to perfecting the cloning process. At some point between the creation of various failed clones (including Starkiller) and the Assault on Kamino, the Dark Lord had been occupied with personally overseeing the development of the only perfect clone of the original Starkiller. Early in the latest clone's training, he was tested against the Sith training droids. Although he succeeded in destroying them, he was nevertheless troubled by the imprinted memories that were used to train him in his inherited abilities. Vader, all too aware of the side-effects and the constant failures that they produced, complimented the clone on his skills but also warned that they came with Marek's weaknesses as well.
Although Vader's approval of the clone steadily grew in a short amount of time, one disappointment after another taught him to be cautious as many clones progressed far, only to fail in the end. But as the clone pressed on with a determination to avoid the fate of his brothers, Vader came to see that his experiment was nearly reaching success at last. As a final test for the clone to prove once and for all that Galen Marek's memories and emotions no longer hindered him, the clone was ordered to strike down a training droid disguised as Juno Eclipse. Like his renegade brother, the clone was initially affected by his progenitor's memories of Juno, and thus Vader needed to know if the clone would also turn out to be a failure because of Marek's love for the former Imperial Captain.
But unlike his imperfect counterpart, the latest and most perfected clone proved himself to be the only stable version who could not be controlled by the feelings of Vader's deceased apprentice. In striking down the disguised droid, he had severed what little emotional imprints remained within him and thus proved himself to be the worthy disciple that Vader painstakingly endeavored to create. In effect, the program of the Sith training droids was also fulfilled with the virtual completion of the Dark Apprentice's trials. But their usefulness to Vader would not end there, as seen in the conflict that would erupt on Kamino shortly after the success of the dark clone.
When Juno Eclipse was abducted and transported to Kamino, Starkiller returned to his homeworld and infiltrated Timira City while Alliance forces engaged the Imperials in battle. As the clone ascended further to the top of the cloning facility, he was confronted by Darth Vader and several Sith Training Droids. Declaring that the clone would either return to the Dark Lord's service or die in the very place where he was created, Starkiller made his choice and prepared to fight his former Master and the training droids. Relying more on evasive tactics to stall and tire out the clone rather than engage in a direct approach, Vader stood back while the training droids assumed the appearances of various individuals from Galen Marek's past.
The distraction was not successful the second time around. Starkiller had centered his mind on rescuing Juno at any cost and did not hesitate to strike down the disguised droids. Dispatching the machines with little effort, Starkiller directly confronted Vader, only to discover that the "Dark Lord" was just another training droid in disguise. With the last of the droids destroyed, Starkiller ascended further up the facility to confront the "real" Darth Vader.
During the fighting in Timira City, PROXY took notice of the scattered remains of the Sith Training Droids that had been destroyed in the wake of Starkiller's rampage in the cloning facility's spire. After the Alliance forces defeated the remaining Imperials and captured Darth Vader himself, PROXY approached Juno Eclipse and asked for permission to salvage the droids' components. He realized that they were modeled after his design and calculated that their pieces could be used to not only repair his heavily damaged body, but could also restore his primary programming as well. Though technically a droid devoid of Human emotion, Juno could see that PROXY was quite anxious to have the opportunity to rebuild himself back to his former state. Seeing no significant reason to reject the droid's request, Juno acquiesced to PROXY's request but urged him to do so with haste. Elated, PROXY wasted no time in hurrying to collect the components that he required from the training droids.