Daro, a planet of the terrestrial type, could be found in the Ojoster sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Its surface was largely dominated by forests that blanketed its mountainous landscape. According to available galactic data, Daro was considered uninhabited, lacking any settlements or installations. This made Daro an ideal location for concealing secrets. Consequently, in 19 BBY, the Galactic Empire took control of the planet and constructed a highly classified military base within a mountain as part of Project War-Mantle, with the goal of replacing their clone trooper army with soldiers acquired through conscription. The facility was staffed by a team of fifty clone commandos who were responsible for training the next generation of Imperial troopers, known as the TK stormtrooper.
Early in the training of these recruits, Gregor, a clone commando, made an attempt to leave the base and desert from the Empire. Although he was apprehended and imprisoned, he managed to place a distress beacon outside the facility. Its signal reached Rex, the former Clone Captain. Unable to personally retrieve Gregor, Rex instead dispatched the renegade commandos of Clone Force 99 to Daro. Upon their arrival, the squad discovered and infiltrated the Empire's facility, successfully freeing Gregor from his prison. However, their presence was detected by Imperial forces, leading to confrontations with stormtroopers and commando units attempting to stop them. Ultimately, the team managed to leave Daro, except for their leader, Hunter, who was captured by the Empire.
Daro, a terrestrial planet, was situated in the New Territories section of the Outer Rim Territories' Ojoster sector, specifically in grid-square N-6 on the Standard Galactic Grid. It possessed a Type I atmosphere that was breathable by humans, and it orbited a star. The planet's terrain was characterized by expansive green forests and jungles composed of pine trees, ferns, and various other plants, which served as habitats for carrier butterflies and massiffs. These forests covered the majority of Daro's landscape, which also featured prominent rocky mountains and buttes, with their cliffs often enveloped by the extensive root systems of the trees. The planet also had snow-covered areas in its higher regions and numerous bodies of water of varying sizes scattered throughout the forested regions.
In the early days of the Galactic Empire's rule, specifically in 19 BBY, official galactic records classified Daro as an uninhabited planet, with no existing settlements or installations. Given this information, which suggested it was suitable for covert operations, the Empire decided to occupy Daro and establish a highly secretive military base inside one of its mountains, fortifying it to make it nearly impenetrable. This facility was part of a top-priority training program known as Project War-Mantle, aimed at replacing the Galactic Republic's aging clone trooper army with a more economical military force composed of conscripted soldiers from across the galaxy. To execute this plan, a group of fifty clone commandos and clone officers were deployed to Daro to train the initial one thousand recruits, who were destined to become the next generation of Imperial soldiers—the TK stormtrooper.
Not long after the training began, the Imperial clone commando CC-5576, known as Gregor, attempted to desert. After escaping from the base, Gregor was pursued by stormtroopers who used massiffs to track him. During the nighttime chase, the Imperials managed to incapacitate Gregor and drag him onto a shuttle, where he was subsequently imprisoned at the facility. Before his capture, Gregor managed to plant a distress beacon that sent a signal to Rex, the former Clone Captain who was leading a resistance network against the Imperial regime. Unable to handle the situation himself, Rex contacted Clone Force 99, the renegade clone commandos also known as the Bad Batch, and tasked them with rescuing his old friend. The former captain provided the Bad Batch, aboard their shuttle, the Marauder, with the signal beacon before ending the transmission. The group pinpointed the beacon's location on Daro and briefly debated whether to proceed with the mission due to the limited information, as Daro was supposedly uninhabited. Ultimately, the clones decided to travel to the planet.
The Marauder then exited hyperspace and entered Daro's atmosphere, flying at a low altitude to avoid potential tracking scanners. After landing in the planet's forests, the Bad Batch disembarked and began searching for the beacon. Omega, the young female clone, eventually located it, while Wrecker wondered about the missing [trooper](/article/trooper]'s whereabouts. Hunter, the squad's leader, used his tracking skills to survey the area and determined that the trooper had been captured after a pursuit, heading in the direction he had been dragged. As the squad followed, Hunter used his enhanced senses and realized that something had been constructed inside the mountain, which confused the clones since Daro was supposedly uninhabited. With their scanners being jammed, Omega and Wrecker were ordered back to the Marauder, while Hunter, Tech, and Echo proceeded to climb the mountain, where they discovered the Imperial base.
As they approached, the squad noticed clone commandos leading groups of what they believed were clone troopers wearing updated armor. Hunter almost called off the mission, as the Bad Batch was unsure if CC-5576 was still alive and they would have to infiltrate the base without information or reinforcements. However, he remembered how they had rescued Echo in a similar situation. The squad then entered the base via turbolift and lost communication with their shuttle, sneaking through corridors to avoid Imperial troopers. They reached a control terminal, where Echo bypassed the new Imperial encryption and found the muster report listing the base's personnel. By further probing the base's network, Echo was able to locate CC-5576 in a holding cell in Cellblock 25, four levels below their current position.
The Bad Batch entered the cell block, knocked out the guard on duty, and deactivated the ray-shielded entrance to the cell. They then returned to the turbolift with CC-5576, learning his name in the process. To avoid other Imperial squads that he discovered were gathering for an inspection, Tech created a diversion to redirect them. He issued a Code-16 across the facility from a central computer, but since Republic codes were no longer valid, it triggered a security alert that drew stormtroopers to their location. Chased across the sixth level, the Bad Batch incapacitated several stormtroopers and realized that their attackers were non-clone soldiers, who Gregor explained had been recruited to replace the clone army.
As the Bad Batch fled from more Imperial units, they exchanged blaster fire with their pursuers until they reached the turbolift. While ascending to the main level, Gregor explained that the Empire intended to replace the Republic's clone troopers with an endless supply of less effective conscripted soldiers. At the top level, the turbolift exposed the Bad Batch to another squad of stormtroopers led by Scorch, a clone commando, forcing them to retreat and take an alternate route while being chased by Scorch's squad. Scorch briefly stopped the Bad Batch by shooting Gregor before being stunned unconscious. Encountering yet another squad, the Bad Batch fled into a control room that they realized was connected to the outside via reactor vents. The clones then proceeded to the exhaust port where they could contact the Marauder for extraction.
At the exhaust port, the squad hailed Omega and Wrecker to be retrieved. While they waited for the shuttle, a group of stormtroopers breached the control room and notified Imperial forces of their target's location. Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry gunships and V-wing starfighters were mobilized to intercept them. Wrecker provided cover fire from aboard the Marauder to hold off the stormtroopers, giving Gregor and Tech time to board the shuttle, with Tech taking the ship's controls as aerial forces approached.
Tech then steered the Marauder away to draw the Imperial starfighters away from the mountain, leaving Hunter and Echo to fend off the stormtroopers and engage a clone commando in hand-to-hand combat that resulted in the latter falling off the cliff. The shuttle destroyed multiple Imperial fighters in pursuit but sustained significant damage to its engines and began losing power and its deflector shields. After eliminating the other fighters, the Marauder returned to the exhaust port, where Echo boarded the ship. However, Hunter slipped and fell into the forests below after the shuttle shook from the blaster fire of another starfighter unit. After Imperial troopers captured Hunter, he ordered the Bad Batch to depart Daro for hyperspace, which they initially refused. Hunter was then taken inside the Imperial facility. Soon after, Crosshair, the Imperial Clone Commander and former member of the Bad Batch, was informed of the capture and traveled to Daro. Although he had hoped that the entire squad had been captured, Crosshair took Hunter into his custody as part of a plan to lure the other clones. Around 18 BBY, Rex brought the Clone X trooper CX-1 to his network's base in the B'omarr Monastery on the planet Teth and questioned him about the location of other troopers of his type, including whether they were based on Daro.
Daro was inhabited by humans. The Galactic Empire's military facility on the planet housed a force of fifty clone commandos, one thousand non-clone soldiers, and other clone officers.
Although Daro was officially listed as uninhabited, the Galactic Empire established a secret military training facility inside one of its mountains early in its reign. The mountain's natural structure significantly fortified the base, making escape difficult, with only two exits: one upward and one through the reactor exhaust port.
Daro was first seen in "War-Mantle," the fourteenth episode of the Star Wars: The Bad Batch animated series' first season, which was written by Damani Johnson and broadcast on Disney+ on July 30, 2021, and served as the episode's main setting. Jim Moore of Lucasfilm Animation created concept art of Daro's overall planetary view, titled "planetballDaro," as well as three concept illustrations of mountain buttes, dated May 5, 2020. Jason Pichon, Matthew Mossman, and Colas Gauthier, fellow artists at Lucasfilm Animation, created concept illustrations of the planet's buttes and forests, as well as the mountain butte base, dated May 4 and May 6 of the same year, respectively.