![The Clones Who Were Sent to CAPTURE ILUM After Order 66 [481st Legion] - Star Wars](/images/yt/n3/the-clones-who-were-sent-to-capture-ilum-after-order-66-skk5s.jpg)
The Clones Who Were Sent to CAPTURE ILUM After Order 66 [481st Legion] - Star Wars
1,254As the Clone Was came to and end and the Jedi Order was wiped out by the call of Order 66 to the Republic’s clone troopers, Palpatine began making massive power moves across to galaxy in order to solidify his stranglehold and to ensure that the memory of the Jedi Order remained scarred and damaged forever. Part of this program included capturing and taking control of old Jedi temples and locations, like the one on Ilum. After realizing just how important Ilum was, not only in its connection to the force and the fallen Jedi order, but also as a location to mine kyber crystals for the Empire’s upcoming super weapon, the death star… Palpatine acted very quickly, sending his Clone troopers there to secure the site. While stationed there however, something strange happened which caused Palpatine to pull the clone troopers out and replace them all with human-born imperials… So what caused this? Lets find out.
In the days following the end of the Clone Wars and the execution of Order 66, Palpatine immediately began scouring through old Jedi temple vault and archives, looking for the locations of Old Jedi temples, sacred sites and historical monuments so that he could wipe them from the face of the galaxy, and cut their connection from the force off.
After Palpatine discovered the true location of Ilum’s Jedi temple and it’s rich supply of kyber that lined the icy cave systems there, he immediately realized he had to take action immediately to secure his future plans. After coming to this conclusion, Palpatine rapidly dispatched a very large detachment of the 481st Clone Legion to Ilum with the primary goal of eliminating all Jedi survivors who may be seeking refuge in the temple there. What he didn’t tell the troops of the 481st however is that the location held great spiritual importance in the force and was about to become the site of the Empire’s largest strip mining operation to power the upcoming Project Stardust.
Because Palpatine held absolutely zero trust in the Clone Army and their loyalty to him, he refused to let them be the ones in charge of guarding Ilum with its incredible importance to both Sidious’ exploration of the force and the Imperial construction projects which were about to happen there.
After realizing that Order 66 actually worked and could very easily be turned on him if the wrong people found out about it, Palpatine became so terrified and paranoid of the Clone Troopers turning on him with the help of a surviving Jedi on Ilum, he immediately ripped them off world and sent them back to their home units, before being dispersed thinly throughout the galaxy. Sidious needed the Clones spread thinly so that they could not come together to fight against him.