Alpha-17

Alpha—a name that came from his designation Alpha-17, which in turn could be shortened to A-17—is an Alpha-class Advanced Recon Commando in the Republic's clone army during the Clone Wars.

Alpha, as was the case with the rest of the ARCs, first saw action with the Separatist invasion of Kamino. As the Confederacy's droid forces pushed towards the heart of Tipoca City, the Kaminoan Prime Minister, Lama Su, activated the ARCs and authorized their deployment to hot-spots across Kamino in a last-ditch effort to save the planet's precious cloning facilities.

During the fighting to push the droids from Tipoca's central armory, Alpha teamed up with Jedi Master Shaak Ti, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Kenobi's Padawan, Anakin Skywalker. When the city's clone stocks became compromised, Alpha rigged the lab to self-destruct, much to the dismay of the Jedi. After remarking, "They grow up loyal to the Republic, or they don't grow up at all," it was clear to the Jedi that they were not dealing with an average clone trooper. Ti wished there was another way, so Alpha made a strategy for Obi-Wan and Anakin to collapse the transparisteel walls linking the facility while Ti held back the ocean before they sealed the place off. When the plan worked and the attack was successfully repelled, Alpha then aborted the detonation sequence.

Following the mission to Ohma-D'un, Alpha was once again chosen by Kenobi and Anakin to accompany them on another important mission. This time, the three were to lead the assault on the obscure Outer Rim world of Jabiim, which had recently declared its allegiance to Count Dooku's Confederacy. The initial days of the assault saw victory after victory for the Republic, but, as the rain continued to pour, their assault vehicles became bogged down in the mud and became an easy target for the Jabiimi guerrillas. As Republic casualties mounted, the rebels, their forces now bolstered with the addition of Separatist battle droids, stepped up their attacks. The Republic was dealt its greatest blow with the apparent death of Obi-Wan and Alpha while they were clearing out a downed All Terrain Armored Transport.

Neither Obi-Wan nor Alpha, however, died in the explosion that supposedly took their lives. In truth, they fell into Separatist custody and were transferred to a secret prison on Rattatak. Once there, Asajj Ventress, the dark Jedi from Ohma-D'un, tried to beat and torture the two of them into revealing sensitive information regarding Republic troop movements. Before she got the information she wanted, however, the two of them escaped under the guise of a prison break. Having fought their way off Rattatak and away from Ventress with the help of Anakin and Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, the two found their way back to the Republic and to the Grand Army.

Following the ordeal, and after several weeks in a bacta tank, Alpha was sent back to Kamino, where he was to train current and future generations of clone commanders. He followed Anakin's previous suggestion that he give them names, was promoted to the rank of captain, and became lead instructor of the Tipoca City training facility. Commanders Cody of the 212th Attack Battalion, Neyo of the 91st Reconnaissance, Bacara of the 21st Nova Corps, Gree of the 41st Elite Corps, Appo of the 501st Legion, Rex of the 501st Legion, Bly of the 327th Star Corps, Faie, and many more were among the first hundred to be enrolled in and graduate from his experimental training regimen, known as the ARC training program. Of those first hundred, a few were hand-picked by Alpha and assigned to Squad Seven, with Commanders Davijaan and Cody as its leaders.

Alpha was often considered to be aggressive, yet good-humored; as noticed and mentioned by Padawan Commander Anakin Skywalker during the beginning of the Clone Wars on Jabiim. Hence, he was often annoyed, frustrated, or became stressed as a result of the war, but had a good laugh to relieve stress.

He uses a DC-15s blaster carbine that fires blue laser bolts.

Advanced Recon Commandos, also known as Advanced Recon Clone troopers, or simply ARC troopers, were an elite variant of clone trooper in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. Although much rarer than other clones on the galactic scale, they were also among the most skilled soldiers in the galaxy.

The Low Altitude Assault Transport (LAAT), also known as the LAAT-series gunship nicknamed "Laaties" by some clones, was a gunship series used by the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. The series was produced by Rothana Heavy Engineering. The LAAT series of gunships was designed to transport and support up to 30 clone troopers in combat.