The Sickener

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"I'm not proud of what I did to you."
"You crawled through the nerf guts first, Sarge. It looked like so much fun that we followed you in. And then you threw up."
―Kal Skirata and clone commando RC-8015[4]

The Sickener was a training facility used by the Galactic Republic's Grand Army on[3] the extra-galactic planet[5] Kamino that was used in clone commando training[2] by 22 BBY.[1] The Sickener earned its name by requiring aspiring commandos to crawl, wade, or slither through a huge field of trenches filled with the rotting entrails of animals[2] such as nerfs[3] and other decaying matter in order to prepare for combat scenarios. The cloned soldiers were reminded by their instructors that the course was nothing compared to the horrors of actual warfare. To prove he would not order his commandos[2]—including the men of Omega Squad[3]—to endure any hardship he himself was incapable of, Sergeant Kal Skirata of the Cuy'val Dar endured The Sickener, the seasoned Mandalorian vomiting in the process[4] before his troops, thereby earning their trust and respect.[2]

Behind the scenes

The Sickener was first mentioned in the 2004 novel Republic Commando: Hard Contact, written by Karen Traviss.[3]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The New Essential Chronology places the beginning of the Clone Wars in the year 22 BBY. Furthermore, Republic Commando: Hard Contact portrays the clone commandos of Omega Squad as having been trained at The Sickener before and active at the opening of the Clone Wars; therefore, The Sickener must have been created by 22 BBY.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 150 ("Sickener")
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Republic Commando: Hard Contact
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Republic Commando: Triple Zero
  5. ↑ The Essential Atlas