I get the impression Storm Commandos had their own ships so they could sneak into things. Oddly enough, that makes them the Imperial version of Wraith Squadron. We need an Imperial March/A-Team Mash up!
Forgot about the Hunters, ha. Republic Commando made me prefer the idea that special forces were deployed in TIVs and the like.
These guys Spoiler lead squads of Shadow Troopers in TFU. Would that make them a part of the same unit, or at least fellow special forces?
You would think! However, Shadow Troopers report ONLY to the Director of Intelligence. My theory? They were snooping on Vader for Palps.
Just finished the Inferno Squad novel. It raises a couple of questions for me 1) How common is it for officers to switch services/job functions? The Admiral forming his little team was the impetus in the case of Inferno Squad but in the case of Del Meeko he was several kinds of trooper before becoming an starship engineer. It seems that highly skilled Imperials can jump between services and job functions very easily. Obviously the four squad members are presented as exceptional military polymaths but can someone just a bit down the bell curve have the opportunity to switch jobs. 2) The flip side is Admiral Versio just drafting the four individuals he wants for his squad. Does the line the squad repeat as a standard response to praise, 'I serve at the Empire's pleasure' really mean the bosses can move them wherever they want regardless if they are assigned to another service? Just how separate are the Navy, Army, Star Fighter Corps, ISB, etc if this is the case? Also I noticed the white uniform ISB/Millitary Intelligence discussion in this thread. There is a description of Lt. Marana's white uniform while she is still working as a Naval Intelligence Analyst before the formation of the Inferno squad spec ops team.
I like the idea of Storm Commandos being Imperial Intelligence's version of the CIA's Special Activities Division or American Marines or Russian Spetsnaz, and maybe an in-universe counterpart to Inferno Squad, albeit in a larger and less renaissance man style. Have Shadow Commandos be gathered from across the Stormtrooper Corps for their varied abilities (like Speacial Activities), but unlike the "elite of the elite" Inferno Squad or Intelligence's own Death Trooper detachments, have more diverse specializations and a wide range if actual skill sets, so you have different groups of Storm Commandos who can range from skilled infiltrators without necessarily superior combat training to squads of mostly pilots with only decent ground combat skills to hardcore ground pounders, etc., kind of like Spetsnaz. It would kind of make sense for the ostensibly more practical Imperial Intelligence to want a larger, more expendable force to accomplish the same mission objectives Inferno has across a wider theater, and it would allow for Storm Commandos to better fit their Legends portrayal as a kind of Imperialized Rebel troopers; soldiers who make up for reasonable shortcomings with lateral tactics and guerilla warfare. TIE Hunters and Escort Carriers would make sense as small, sneaky attack vessels, and you could modify them to better explain why they weren't mass produced; maybe the Hunters lose significant speed and manuverability compared to regualr TIE fighters when in attack mode, but are totally unarmed when in maneuver mode. If regular Imperial military forces are the sword, and special ops units like Inferno Squad and Death Troopers are the scalpel, Storm Commandos could be the dagger. If I recall correctly, we've generally seen that Stormtroopers can be transferred between almost any branch at any time, and Rogue One's essential guide may have suggested that *all* Stormtroopers are expected to eventually qualify in some specialization (shore trooper, sand trooper, snow trooper, etc.). We've seen Stormtroopers report directly to ISB officers, Navy officers, and army officers. Presumably the same thing applies to skilled officers. And in general, since the Empire has a generally chaotic and competitive hierarchy, it would make since for individual skilled soldiers to be pulled this way and that by progressively higher ranking factions and leaders as an example of the infighting and cloak and dagger movements of Imperial politics. Garrick Versio may have been able to assemble his team shortly after becoming Admiral because of his rise in status and because he has the support of others for a response to Yavin; it's entirely possible that if Vader wanted to take Inferno Squad away from Versio, he could, and Versio holds onto it because of its successes and because there's so few people who can pull rank on him. And it seems we do have ISB and Intelliegnce wearing identical uniforms, even down to high ranking members of each being able to wear stuff like capes. Perhaps it's a visual representation of how redundant their responsibilities are, and for how Palpatine might be threatening them with an absorption by the other?
godisawesome I'd argue that Shadow Troopers fit the Special Activities Division perfectly. They work for an intelligence organization. They're covert ops forces. They perform tasks the Empire doesn't want to be connected to.
I like the confirmation about the uniforms. It's consistent with Legends, too. Missa ab iPhona mea est.
A question I've had for a while - in Legends, was it ever made clear where the various department heads (Isard, Hethrir, Cronal et al.) ranked relative to the Grand Admirals and Moffs? Higher? Lower? Different command structure entirely?
Ysanne Isard became the leader of the Empire at a time when several Grand Moffs and even Grand Admirals were still alive and in the Empire. Going off of her position, I'd guess she outranked them.
I think her rank equivalent was Grand Admiral but she took the position of Regent after killing the Triumvirate.
Should we consider the "Walrus Men" uniforms part of the Imperial military or political hierarchy, as hypothesised here? http://boards.theforce.net/threads/how-good-bad-was-the-empire-actually.50044836/page-3 Personally I think it's a more generic uniform, whose commonalities with the Empire's ones are explainable a different way - perhaps through mimicry. They know the Empire is at least mildly intolerant of anything that looks too alien - with them concluding that the best way to minimise Imperial intolerance, is to look as close to Imperial as possible without actually being so. Or - inversely - the Empire adapted its military uniform design from Republic-era bureaucracy uniforms.
Going back a few pages, From a Certain Point of View confirms that at the time of the Death Star's destruction: -General Cassio Tagge is the Chief of the Imperial Army -Admiral Conan Motti is the Chief of the Imperial Navy both are included in the Joint Chiefs.
Kind of goes without saying. The top-officer of a military branch does not typically have a personnel command or direct control of a unit.
Did anyone notice that in Thrawn, the Imperial Navy rank structure is Lieutenant Junior Grade < Lieutenant < Captain < Lieutenant Commander < Commander < Commodore?
That seems to be the common rank structure ever since The Clone Wars show: Commander outranks Captain (Cody over Rex); also in TLJ where Poe is demoted from Commander to Captain.
I was wondering-do most of the courtiers on the imperial palace have some sort of actual job or do they just sort of hang around?
I imagine some of them were representatives from planets, systems, civilian organizations, etc, hoping to get an audience with the Emperor or his closest advisors. And some of those advisors were around just to deny them such privilege, spy on them, figure a way to gain advantage from their particular situation, etc. Imperial Court politics have long intrigued me... it would be amazing to know more about the dignitaries and their relationship with senators, ministers and so on. Being a fan of Sate Pestage, Ars Dangor and that bunch, I would really love to see a little more of them in canon, beyond what we got from them in the Tarkin novel!
Yeah you have Palpatine who probably doesn't care much at this point for mundane politics, Sate Pestage and the imperial council, the moffs, imperial senate(before its dissolution), heads of the security agencies like Cronal or Isard and of course the imperial hands. But yeah imperial court politics and factions is something I wish we had seen more of.
The misuse of Commander is always something that will bother me. The ranks should be Lieutenant - Lieutenant Commander - Commander - Captain - Commodore etc. So while a Captain may command a Star Destroyer, a light cruiser may only have a Commander or Lt Commander in charge. Oh, and Commander is a Navy rank, not Army. I can accept it for the GAR, as the General ranks were taken by Jedi, so Commander level fell to senior Clones or less experienced Jedi. That and the GAR didn't seem to have an Army/Navy split.
