Death troopers were an elite variant of the Galactic Empire‘s stormtroopers specializing in stealth, espionage and lethality. Operating under Imperial Intelligence, they served as protective detail for significant Imperial officers and members of the Tarkin Initiative, as well as special-assignment commandos. They wore black suits of body armor and specialized helmets with vocal scramblers, micro-motion sensors, and heads-up displays with data on enemy and friendly positions on the battlefield. Death troopers were trained in unarmed combat, heavy weapons, demolitions, improvised weaponry, guerrilla warfare, and marksmanship. Experts at covering their tracks, death troopers left little to no evidence of their missions. Identifiable by their distinct black armor, death troopers struck fear in the heart of anyone who crossed the Empire.

Did you know that the Death Troopers of Rogue One were named after the zombie stormtroopers from the novel Death Troopers? Emperor Palpatine decided to name the elite soldiers after a rumored Imperial research project that was said to resurrect dead tissue. But the Doctor Aphra comics showed us that there might be something to those rumors, as a couple undead looking troopers were discovered on a classified Tarkin Initiative facility called Hivebase One…