IM-455 modular garrison

The prefabricated garrison base was the Empire's standard base deployed on planets to keep the peace and serve as a home for its troops.

Characteristics
Garrison bases consisted of eight levels, topped by a sensor and communications tower. Levels one through to five, all identical in size and shape, consisted mainly of the large surface vehicle bays where all the surface vehicles were stored, maintained and deployed from. They also contained most of the personnel quarters as well as the armory, detention cells and most other key base areas.

Level six held the officer's quarters, TIE fighter pilots' quarters, command rooms and so on. Level seven consisted entirely of the TIE fighter hangars. Level eight was the deployment chutes and control rooms for the base's TIEs. TIEs were launched, retrieved and manipulated by the base's powerful suite of tractor beam projectors. Garrison bases also had underground sub-levels which contained the generators and main infrastructure.

Personnel


Imperial garrisons were commanded by a major general and housed 2,800 base personnel divided as follows:


 * 300 command personnel
 * 500 support/services personnel
 * 200 technical personnel
 * 200 science personnel
 * 100 medical personnel
 * 100 gunners/weapons technicians
 * 80 walker technicians
 * 70 trade mission/diplomatic personnel
 * 60 ground crew technicians
 * 25 controllers
 * 25 sensor technicians
 * 10 speeder bike technicians
 * 50 Imperial Intelligence officers

Combat forces

 * 50 walker crewers
 * 40 TIE fighter pilots
 * 800 stormtroopers
 * 200 perimeter support troops
 * 150 base security/detention troops
 * 40 scout troopers

Vehicle complement

 * 30 TIE fighters and 5 TIE bombers
 * 10 AT-ATs
 * 10 AT-STs
 * 40 speeder bikes
 * 60 landspeeders
 * 100 miscellaneous vehicles (construction, cargo, maintenance, etc.)

Defenses
Garrison bases were equipped with three heavy twin turbolaser turrets and six heavy laser turrets, as well as tractor beam projectors.

Though shielded, garrisons also possessed extensive ground defenses such as anti-infantry and anti-vehicle minefields and a ten-meter high electrified death fence. This had variable power settings, so it could either severely shock an individual or fry them outright in an instant, depending on the base commander's choice.

To get through the fence and into the base, units had to pass through force field gates. These were flanked by 2 guard towers with stormtroopers on constant duty and positioned evenly around the fence's perimeter. Running behind the fence and parallel to it was an elevated catwalk patrolled by stormtroopers with guard towers (each equipped with electrobinoculars, floodlights, and alarm systems) spaced every 100 meters.

Some garrison bases were positioned to use the terrain to their advantage, such as setting them into mountainsides or on outcroppings. These tailored their ground defenses accordingly. Garrison bases also possessed air recyclers and advanced environment and filter systems allowing them to be deployed almost anywhere, from hostile worlds to asteroids.

History
Boba Fett once took an assignment to capture a criminal, conveniently the brother of a base commander, on the order of Jabba the Hutt. His actions to capture the criminal forced him to destroy most of the base, including two AT-ATs, two AT-STs, and the commanding general. The engagement gave the criminal the time he needed to escape.

Star Destroyers like the Imperial-class could carry one of these installations, while an Executor-class Star Dreadnought could carry up to three. Prefabricated bases were dropped from orbit in ready-made pieces and assembled on-site by Imperial engineers and construction droids. The Y-85 Titan dropship was essential to this purpose onboard Imperial ships larger than Star Destroyers.

Appearances

 * Force Commander
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * The Truce at Bakura
 * Tales from the New Republic
 * No Disintegrations, Please
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command

Notes and references
Imperiale Garnisonsbasis