The Role of the Storm Trooper

The Imperial Storm Trooper is a thinking man, but he serves one specific purpose, to serve the Empire.  Most troopers join the Empire through conscription, but not in the common sense.  From uncharted planets, in uncharted sectors, hundreds of thousands of young candidates are raised for the express purpose of becoming Storm Troopers.  On these planets, large colonies where established long ago in order to raise children under proper ideological and corrective conditions.  These children are brought in from all over the universe by circuitous routes and placed in dormitory style housing and raised in a communal style and recieve para-military training.

            As kids, Stormtroopers live like hardened cell block inmaes only

barely under control.  Hundreds of nast little orphans with only one thing on their

minds: the sheer unparalleled joy of a good raid.  These boys know that they are

special and they strut with the proud arrogance of samurai.  Their military education is picked up as naturally as an infant learns to talk, and any purpose other than their preordained future as commandos is inconceivable.  By the time they are actually contracted into service, each Trooper is anxious to fulfill his common lifelong ambition; to wear the Imperial armor, and to be carried away with the fleet into incredible adventure and battle.  Trainees are generally devoid of imagination, but after years of rough talk and stories of conflicts lost and won, indiviual temperaments emerge.

            Promotion to Platoon Commander comes with battle experience and long

months of straight duty.  Just staying alive long enough helps, most old Troopers are Platoon Commanders.  Real promotion, however, is a step up to the Imperial Guards.  Each guard is assigned to an Executive of the Imperium.  Governor Moff Tarkin's personal guard....forty men.  Lord Darth Vader's personal guard...twelve men.  Snappy uniforms and light duty.  A guard travels with his assignment, usually to the plushest environments.  There are hazards.  The personal ambitions of the leader one is assigned to protect may give rise to litle-publicized but very lethal feuds.  The size of a titled officer's private army is a factor in realizing his political goals, and Imperial Guards often find themselves in the role of hit men.  It is a satisfying position. A Guard never feels he is playing the traitor by assassinating rival Imperial Officers.  Troopers have always been taught that the enemy are worthless insects to stomped out; but a guard who has successfully overcome or defended against other Imperial Guards feels that he has defeated an oppenent worthy of the effort.  A healthy spirit of competition

exists in their ranks.  No one is exactly sure what qualities make a clone worthy of

promotion - a special alertness perhaps - but they are much envied. 

            Only a small percentage of Troopers survive to retirement age.  As Troopers get older, they are assigned to light duties; training, communications, stores.  Eventually they are sent to the Troopers' Rest camp on the holiday planet of Sochi.  For the most part, Storm Troopers remain loyal 'lifers', who will willingly give their lives in service to the Empire.