Toper (CT-4759) served as a navigation officer in the Republic navy helding the rank of lieutenant. With the end of the Clone Wars Imperial command demoted him to ensign and designated to complete equipment repair requests :( he is not happy with it you know
Databank of The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Coruscant Command HQ
— Excerpts from GAR-AAR-**-**-SL by captain CT-4321
4th company under the command of Jedi General Thoit Doqwa, led by captain CT-4321, conducted a deliberate assault to seize and clear Tehcno Union command post TZ-21, located in grid sector Suolriep, Saleucami.
...
This operation must be characterized as a tactical defeat. The total losses are hereby documented in Appendix 3 of this report.
...
The failure of the operation is attributable to two principal factors. Firstly, [REDACTED]. Secondly, [REDACTED]. The tactical approach adopted by the command element was fundamentally unsound and ill-suited to the operational environment.
***
— Excerpt from CF-5721-ICR-9 by Dr. S. Eronty, Forensic Pathology Division
On [REDACTED] at approximately [REDACTED], the decedent, designated CT-4321, was discovered in his assigned quarters within Barracks 7, Tipoca City. The decedent was found recumbent on the bunk. A single contact gunshot wound was observed at the right temple, with associated stippling and ballistic exit trauma to the left parietal region.
...
A standard-issue DC-17 sidearm was recovered on the floor [REDUCTED] from the decedent’s right hand. A weapon’s serial number matched the service firearm assigned to CT-4321.
...
The decedent’s personal datapad was recovered from the [REDACTED]. The last recorded entry reads verbatim:
“They all died. Horribly. No one gonna believe me, but I saw Doqwa [REDACTED]. I have a bad feeling this is not the end. I'm the last survivor. Still here. That’s the cruelest part. [REDACTED] What a clone like me could do? [REDACTED] See you around. Chisel out.”
***
Hangar of the Venator-class Star Destroyer "Rampant", sector Suolriep, orbit of Saleucami, 743 days after Geonosis
The hangar was bustling. Most of the clones loitered around the perimeter, making final preparations before the landing on Salukemai. This operation called "Silent Landing" was planned based on intelligence gathered by a small group of soldiers who, under the command of Jedi General Doqwa, had been disembark on the planet ten rotations ago.
“At least one of us looks like a Republic sex symbol in gloves, not like a punching bag”. Toper nudged Chisel and grinned, pulling of his leather gloves.
He held out his hand to him.
“So what? You hardly ever wear them anyway.” Chisel gripped the outstretched palm with his own fabric-covered.
“They make the hands sweat and you know it.”
“Nuh-uh.” Chisel could go on for hours about how important gloves were for an ordinary trooper. After all, on the battlefield, they protected his already rough hands. Toper, in turn, constantly felt his palms slowly perspire inside that black leather. The only advantage of those gloves was how they looked on him, otherwise, Toper preferred to work without them.
“Besides,” Chisel continued quickly looking over his armour, “it's not the gloves that make me look like a punching bag.”
Toper smirked.
“You mean your face, eh?”
Chisel's mentioned face lighted up with a little smile, missing a front tooth that was knocked out during a sparring back on Kamino. Maybe it was his face, indeed.
They both laughed.
“Briefing in five minutes,” Chisel said. “I should probably go.” He squeezed the helmet, which was crossed with neatly painted green lines, slightly in his hands. “It'd be awkward if the captain was late for it.”
“Awkward isn't the right word. It's more...well... reassuring. Maybe they'll finally see that their cap is a person too, not a protocol droid.”
Chisel chortled with laugter.
“Hey, I'm serious," Toper continued. "You're never late for them.”
“And I don't plan to be.”
He was already pulling on his helmet walking toward the assembly point when Toper called out to him:
“Protocol droid.”
“Yeah, yeah, droid,” He chuckled. “See you around.”
“See y'a, Chis.”
He almost stepped out of the hangar when glanced back at Chisel's shrinking figure. Once he's back, we'll go grab a drink, he thought.
— Excerpts from a letter of recommendation by Republic Navy Commander Hogan Bolt, Corulag Academy, Curamelle.
"...consider him one of the most gifted cadets to pass through our programme. Cadet Sobers has distinguished himself in advanced astronavigation..."
"In the Battle Strategy curriculum, he revealed himself to be a strategist of considerable brilliance, one possessed of the capacity to formulate decidedly unorthodox — yet unfailingly effective — courses of action under conditions that demand instantaneous judgement."
"...the cadet’s temperament is ideally suited to command. He possesses a calm, restrained personality that...."
If you were to put Toper and Chisel side by side and asked which one had the bearing of a naval officer and which seemed like a regular trooper, you’d be wrong to assume Chisel was the officer.
He does, admittedly, possess the skills that could make him a naval officer and let’s be honest he would make a great one. He’s punctual, level-headed, carries himself well and, most importantly, he adores military regulations and would sleep with them under his pillow if he had a paper copy!! However, being in the navy means a different specialisation. A different specialisation means being further from "his brothers". And "his brothers" mean a great deal to Chisel. He commands a quiet respect among them and understands them. His calm confidence draws people in and he is unquestionably the leader of his squad, just as he is unquestionably a good captain. The others listen to him, rally around him. Chisel feels his connection to his brothers profoundly, which is why commiting after his squad was killed on Saleucami seemed to him the only way out. From the very beginning, Chisel understands that he wants to be alongside his brothers: to fight and die with them and deep down he feels it would be wrong to watch it all from above (read: space). So Chisel doesn’t want to be a naval officer despite having the aptitude to become one. Soon after a round of initial testing reveals in Chisel precisely these aptitudes, he is sent to take more thorough tests.
Chisel and Toper are from different squads?units? and in his own, Toper isn’t exactly an outcast. No. Nobody openly bullies him, the group doesn’t turn on him, but he has a sharp tongue. He loves to spout all sorts of things, often kinda brash and crude, which in the eyes of his brothers makes him a complete idiot (they frequently try to shut him up every time he opens his mouth). He doesn’t build the same close bonds with other clones that Chisel does. And he certainly doesn’t feel that “belonging to his people”. He, for sure, wouldn't be impressed by Fives saying: “We are one and the same. Same heart, same blood.” In fact, he doesn’t dwell on his relationships with the other clones at all. Most of them see Toper as "oh, that chatterbox clone?? Yeah". And Toper, in turn, sees them as...dunno...clones? But here’s the thing: he doesn’t exactly suffer for it. So, yep, before meeting Chisel, Toper often hangs around on his own.
About children like Toper, teachers at school tend to say: he uses his brain for the wrong things. He enjoys trying not to get caught by the kaminoans past curfew and he loves listening to the stories bounty hunter instructors tell about other worlds. Those, perhaps, fill him with a particular interest. That's why he’s so curious about what corellian whiskey is, what the shipyards are like and what’s out there in space. After Toper was noted as a cadet capable of becoming a naval officer, he, like Chisel, is sent for testing and that is where they meet.
