Imperial Intelligence

"My lord, Military Intelligence was in the process of conducting an inventory of caches of armaments, vehicles, and supplies that had been left abandoned during the war on a host of contested worlds, from Raxus all the way to Utapau. In the case of the HoloNet jamming devices, MI wasn’t certain if the cache had been on Murkhana for several years, or if it was of more recent origin, and worthy therefore of further investigation. Given that an investigation of that sort fell outside its purview, MI relayed the matter to Imperial Security."

- Case officer Stellan provides a briefing to the Emperor

Imperial Intelligence, also known as Military Intelligence (MI), was an espionage organization of the Galactic Empire that provided services to the Imperial Military, the Joint Chiefs, and Emperor Sheev Palpatine. It had oversight of the operations of the Naval Intelligence Agency which was briefly made its own separate organization before being folded back under Imperial Intelligence. The Imperial Security Bureau was a sister agency and rival to Imperial Intelligence over resources, abilities, and areas of responsibility.

Description
Imperial Intelligence was the espionage service of the Imperial Military of the Galactic Empire. Imperial Intelligence focused on issues regarding the Imperial Navy such as threat reports, analysis, managing assets who gathered information, and providing briefings to the Joint Chiefs and Emperor Sheev Palpatine. Imperial Intelligence's specific purview meant that it had to refer other intelligence matters to the Imperial Security Bureau causing friction between the two organizations. A part of Imperial Intelligence, the Naval Intelligence Agency was briefly made its own separate organization, though it continued to be referred to as "Military Intelligence," before being folded back under Imperial Intelligence. The death troopers, who wore a specialized stormtrooper armor with a dark gleam, were the elite soldiers of Imperial Intelligence.

Another branch of Imperial Intelligence was the Imperial Information Office, whose personnel wore AJ^6 cyborg constructs, brain implants which could connect to computers and download information, to increase efficiency. Imperial Intelligence's resources including IGV-55 surveillance vessels, which were used to monitor communications and scan data for signs of rebel activity and sedition.

Origins
Imperial Intelligence was organized out of Republic Intelligence after the transformation of the Republic into the Empire at the end of the Clone Wars. Although their missions differed slightly, there was a rivalry between the Intelligence and the Imperial Security Bureau, a sub-agency of COMPNOR. Intelligence agents often derided the Security Bureau's obsession over treason. A common joke among them was that it took two ISB agents to change a lightbulb: one to remove it, and another to accuse the first of disloyalty. One Day after the formation of the Empire, Imperial Intelligence arrested 63 senators on charges of conspiracy and treason. Several senators were part of the Delegation of 2,000, a group of senators who attempted to limit Palpatine's growing political power.

Berch Teller's campaign
Five years later, when Governor Tarkin and Darth Vader visited Murkhana on an investigative mission, former Republic Intelligence officer Berch Teller and a few of his accomplices, including Anora Fair, hijacked Tarkin's vessel, the Carrion Spike. They killed the ship's captain and comms officer, along with two stormtroopers, before taking off. The Imperials forced a local Sugi crime lord to give up his ship to them, and attempted to stop the captured Spike. However, Teller and his crew got away.

After the successful hijacking, the insurgents of the Carrion Spike went on a campaign of destruction against various Imperial targets, such as Galidraan Station. Imperial Intelligence attempted to track and analysis their activities in order to capture them. The hijacker's information, however, was supplied to them by Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit, the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Agency. However, Rancit was revealed as a traitor and executed on Vader's orders. He was replaced by Wullf Yularen and Naval Intelligence was brought back under Imperial Intelligence.

Fighting the Rebellion
On Empire Day in 4 BBY, the Rodian Imperial Information Office employee Tseebo fled into hiding with invaluable data on the new TIEs and raptors, schedules of troop movements, tactics, strategies, and a five year plan for the planet Lothal and every other world in the Outer Rim Territories. Tseebo escaped offworld into hiding with the help of the Spectres rebel cell.

In 2 BBY, Imperial Controller LT-319 and the crew of his IGV-55 surveillance vessel embarked on ambitious scheme to hijack the Spectres' C1-series astromech droid Chopper and use him to obtain intelligence on the Phoenix Cell's hidden base. However, they were defeated by Chopper's rebel comrades and the former Imperial RA-7 protocol droid AP-5. Chopper's master Hera Syndulla retaliated by transmitting back the data feed to LT-319's ship, creating a data surge that destroyed the vessel and all hands aboard.

In 1 BBY, a squad of death troopers led by DT-F16 was tasked with guarding a kyber crystal being transported aboard Freighter 2716 to the Tonnis sector for the secret Death Star project. Several of DT-F16's troopers were killed by the Partisan leader Saw Gerrera and the Spectres Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger. DT-F16 survived and took over the defense of the ship. After Gerrera destabilized the crystal, DT-F16 and the ship's stormtroopers tried to flee aboard a Lambda-class shuttle but the Spectres managed to escape with several liberated civilian technicians and engineers. DT-F16 was killed along with the Imperials aboard Freighter 2716 and Captain Slavin's Imperial Star Destroyer.

During the final construction stages of the first Death Star, Director Orson Callan Krennic was accompanied by a squad of death troopers, who served as his personal bodyguard. Under Krennic's orders, these death troopers executed several scientists to punish their team leader Galen Walton Erso for conspiring with the Rebel Alliance. Later, these troopers fought rebel ground forces and perished during the Battle of Scarif.