Stormtrooper Corps/Legends

"What a disgrace to the heritage and legacy of a once truly incredible fighting force."

- Commander Cody

The Stormtrooper Corps was an independent branch of the Imperial Military that operated alongside the Galactic Empire's Army and Navy. Though they functioned under their own command structure, Imperial stormtroopers ultimately answered directly to Emperor Palpatine, the architect of the New Order that incorporated most of the known galaxy under Imperial rule. Stormtroopers served as elite shock troopers throughout the Empire's existence, and were especially noted for their uncompromising loyalty to the Emperor, who's will they enforced on both the military ranks and the galactic populace alike.

Originally composed of the Republic clone troopers that survived the Clone Wars, the Stormtrooper Corps gradually expanded its ranks to include cloned soldiers from different genetic sources. Further changes in policy led to the recruitment of birth-born Humans as enlisted troopers. Before long, the original clones of the Jango Fett line were reduced to a small minority status in the army that they once held as their exclusive province.

Though numerous and well-armed with advanced weaponry and armor, stormtroopers were generally less respected as soldiers than their clone trooper predecessors. Commander Cody, one of the last clones who remained in service years after the formation of the Empire, noted that the operational effectiveness of the Stormtrooper Corps had been severely diminished over time, a setback that he blamed on the infusion of Human recruits into the stormtrooper ranks.

With few exceptions, stormtroopers were exclusively Human throughout the existence of the first Galactic Empire. Under the Empire's successor states, however, non-Humans were permitted to serve as stormtroopers in the Empire of the Hand, the Imperial Remnant, Roan Fel's revived Empire, and Darth Krayt's Sith Empire.

History
"Those blasted Stormtroopers grind my gears down to nothing!"

- Unidentified Mos Eisley Salvage Yard security droid referring to the local stormtrooper platoon's treatment of him

The Stormtrooper Corps was the successor of the Grand Army of the Republic of the Galactic Republic. During the time of the Republic, clone shock troopers were already being referred to as "stormtroopers," and the usage was passed on to several other high-ranking clone units, notably the 501st Legion, immediately after the Declaration of a New Order. Another notable unit of the Corps was the 105th Stormtrooper Platoon.

For approximately ten years after the birth of the New Order, the Empire's elite Stormtrooper Corps remained as the exclusive province of Jango Fett's clone progeny. But after the "unofficial" events of the Battle of Kamino, in which a special detachment of the Imperial 501st was required to annihilate an army of rogue clones (referred to as Anti-troopers), the ranks of the stormtroopers would start including new clones from different genetic templates and even non-clone recruits/conscripts. By the time the first Death Star was complete, the Fett clones had become a minority in the very army they once filled as a whole.

Members of the Corps were chosen for their dedication, bravery, and intelligence, becoming indoctrinated in the tenets of the New Order and becoming graduates of difficult and prestigious military academies such as the Academy of Carida. Others were specially-trained clones. The Corps suffered heavy losses during the Galactic Civil War, to the point of them being incredibly rare by 22 ABY.

By 130 ABY, the Corps had apparently been disbanded, with the stormtroopers becoming part of the Imperial Army hierarchy. However, the individual stormtrooper units (such as the 501st and the 407th Stormtrooper Division) remained in existence and were still considered elite shock units by the Fel and Sith Empires.

Order of battle

 * Squad&mdash;9 units: 8 troopers, including a corporal, led by a sergeant.
 * Platoon&mdash;38 units: 4 squads (36 units: 32 troopers and 4 officers) led by a lieutenant and a sergeant major.
 * Company&mdash;153 units: 4 platoons (152 units: 128 troopers and 24 officers) led by a captain.
 * Battalion&mdash;613 units: 4 companies (612 units: 512 troopers and 100 officers) led by a major.
 * Regiment&mdash;2453 units: 4 battalions (2452 units: 2,048 troopers and 404 officers) led by a lieutenant colonel.
 * Legion&mdash;9813 units: 4 regiments (9812 units: 8,192 troopers and 1620 officers) led by a high colonel.

Divisions

 * Stormtrooper Command
 * Storm commandos
 * Strategic Insertion battalion

Behind the scenes
The Stormtrooper Corps is roughly analogous to the following real-world organizations:


 * The Stormtroopers (in German Stoßtruppen, "shock troops") were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I, who operated in companies of Sturmtruppen ("assault troops", more often and less exactly Storm Troops).


 * The Waffen-SS Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was a praetorian guard created by Nazi Germany's leader Adolf Hitler, which was separate from the Wehrmacht.


 * The U.S. Marine Corps is a semi-autonomous force that fights alongside the other branches of the armed forces, responsible for strategic amphibious assaults and boarding actions.


 * The later Legacy-era stormtrooper forces are more comparable to the real-world U.S. Army Rangers in that they have become an elite form of infantry as an integral and subordinate part of the Imperial Army command structure. The 501st, on the other hand, was more semi-autonomous, similar to the U.S. Marine Corps functioning as the Emperor's praetorian guard alongside the Imperial Knights.

Appearances
All sources, in which Stormtroopers appear.