Undead Trooper

This article is about the plague-affected stormtroopers.
You may be looking for the Night Troopers, some of whom were turned into zombie, or the Lava Trooper turned into zombie-like by Mother Sssl.

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"Mu… mur… MURGHHHHHHH!"

―An Undead Trooper^[1]

Undead Troopers were stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire who had been infected by the viral agent known as the Sickness and between the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth an outbreak of the virus occurred. After dying a painful death, those troopers had been turned into mindless, walking corpses with cannibalistic urges. Studies revealed that, because of the infection, Undead Troopers were slower than living humans, but had an improved ability to sustain damage.^[1]

The virus allowed the Undead Troopers to communicate telepathically and learn. Acting as one, the Undead Troopers were willing to organize themselves into a deadly swarm and launch coordinated strikes on Imperial and Rebel Alliance forces alike. They even managed to reprogram and hack turret controls and security measures at fallen sectors to their advantage. This gave them the ability to fortify overrun bases against possible counter strikes, using blaster cannons, walls, and shield generators to fight off hostile contacts. Imperial scout troopers and Heavy Weapons Stormtroopers that succumbed to the illness were classified as Scout Undead Troopers and Heavy Undead Troopers, respectively. Their level of skill and coordination earned them the nickname "Army of the Dead".^[1]

History

Hivebase-1

"That's a nanoslime catapult, and those are Hutt clone troopers and OHHHH I think that's a Rathtar melded with an Interrogation droid I am in love…"
"How can you admire these… obscenities?"

―Chelli Aphra and Hera Syndulla, observing the rejected prototypes of Hivebase-1, which included Undead Troopers^[2]

In 1 ABY, a handful of Undead Troopers were kept in frozen containment pods at the Imperial space station Hivebase-1, alongside several failed experiments of the Tarkin Initiative. When a group of criminals associated with the Son-tuul Pride infiltrated the station to recover the encrypted memories of the psychopathic droid 0-0-0, Imperial Commander Yewl would unleash several experiments including the Undead Troopers to catch the infiltrators, but they proved unsuccessful, with the infiltrator's attack resulting in the destruction of Hivebase-1.^[2]

Outbreak on Dandoran and Tatooine

"We've got stowaways partner! Some Death Troopers must have made it onto the transport from Dandoran, and they're almost inside the base!"

―Saponza, as Undead Troopers assault the rebel base on Tatooine^[1]

Sometime between 1 ABY and 3 ABY, an outbreak at the reasearch facility for Project Blackwing on the Outer Rim planet Dandoran led to a brief invasion of Undead Troopers which spread from Dandoran to the nearby planet Tatooine, during which the Undead Troopers were put down by both Imperial forces and a local rebel cell on Tatooine, successfully containing the outbreak.^[1]

Behind the scenes

"You're telling me those Sith scientists, this Project Blackwing, created Death Troopers? On purpose?"

―Undead Troopers referred to as Death Troopers by Saponza^[1]

Undead Troopers first appeared in the Star Wars Legends novel, Death Troopers, as undead stormtroopers infested by a Sith plague dating back to the days of the Old Republic.^[3] They were later canonized in the mobile game Star Wars: Commander, as "Death Troopers," through a limited-time campaign released in 2014.^[4] The Death Troopers were renamed to "Undead Troopers" in a 2016 limited-time event for Star Wars: Commander,^[5] most likely to avoid confusion with the newly introduced elite stormtrooper variant. This confusion was used in-universe as well, with Emperor Palpatine capitalizing on fearful rumors of the undead "Death Troopers" to name the elite black armored variant.^[6]