The Essential Guide to Warfare: Star Wars

Having established the foundations of the Empire during the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine moved quickly and ruthlessly to build on those foundations after the Declaration of the New Order.

Palpatine’s wartime Governor-Generals were now a permanent class of regional governors, charged with keeping the peace, coordinating the Empire’s vast military resources, and upholding the tenets of the New Order. Palpatine struck a conciliatory tone in his first meetings with Senate leaders, promising that he would not disband the ancient legislative body and would seek its counsel in enacting new laws. But he also warned that his judgments would now be final: Imperial decrees would be issued without debates, court proceedings, Senatorial overrides, or chatter about constitutional pre-cedent. Those inclined to protest undoubtedly paused to consider the fate of sixty-three Senators (all signatories of the Petition of 2,000) who had been arrested on charges of conspiracy and treason.

While the Senate would continue to exist for years, Senators no longer had control over their sectors’ military forces, or any legislative ability to shape Imperial policy. Once the Sector Governance Decree was enacted, a frustrated Mon Mothma of Chandrila noted, as a practical matter the Senate no longer existed.

Indeed, the Sector Armies organized to fight the Clone Wars remained, and responsibility for supporting them fell not to the Senate, but to twenty of the most powerful new regional governors. The oversector boundaries of the Clone Wars would be realigned with navy commands and morph as the Empire’s priorities changed, with some growing and others disappearing entirely. And Wilhuff Tarkin, the Moff of Greater Seswenna, suggested a reorganization of the oversector system that included the concept of flexible priority sectors in which the Empire was pursuing active military campaigns or special projects. When Tarkin’s plan was accepted, oversectors became a permanent part of the Empire, and the Moffs who controlled them—including Tarkin—were given the new rank of Grand Moff.

Most of the megacorps and guilds that had supported the Separatists vanished, as the Empire either nationalized them or forced them into treaties that distributed their holdings to Loyalist corporations such as Kuat Drive Yards, Sienar Fleet Systems, and TaggeCo. At the suggestion of the ambitious Baron Orman Tagge, Separatist-aligned corporations were stripped of their holdings in the Corporate Sector, with an expanded Corporate Sector Authority created to reward Loyalist firms. The Loyalist megacorps found themselves substantially wealthier, but the fate of entities that had backed the Separatists provided an object lesson in the perils of opposing Palpatine.

Other changes were afoot. Republic Intelligence became Imperial Intelligence, known as the Ubiqtorate. Most of the old Republic ministries reported to the Emperor and his top advisers through the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, or COMPNOR, whose purview included not just the bureau-cratic functions of government but also control of the arts and youth education. Access to the HoloNet was restricted. And Coruscant itself became known as Imperial Center.

In the decades before the Clone Wars, most of the Outer Rim barely acknowledged the crumbling Republic’s authority, and worlds as far Coreward as Gyndine were controlled by the Hutts. The war against the Separatists changed this state of affairs: Republic forces marched up the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route to the Corporate Sector and the Tion Hegemony; the front lines in the New Territories were pushed as far as Mygeeto; and the Republic created substantial power bases around Eriadu and Rothana. But a military occupation wasn’t the same as a stable system of laws. And while the Hutts had seen their sphere of influence shrink drastically, many Rim worlds remained lawless, paying the newborn Empire as little mind as they had the Republic.

Things were about to change. The Clone Wars were over, but Kuat Drive Yards and Sienar Fleet Systems kept producing warships and ground vehicles at a rapid pace, while new clones continued to emerge from a number of facilities. The reason for this continuing mobilization was simple: Palpatine was determined to extend Imperial rule throughout the civilized galaxy.

Less than a year after the Declaration of the New Order and the Jedi Purge, Imperial forces divided troublesome areas of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim into a number of oversectors, taking aim at Separatist holdouts as well as pirates, slavers, and criminal gangs. During the Galactic Civil War, the Empire’s defenders often recalled this period fondly, nostalgic for the years in which the starfleets and soldiers of the Empire ruthlessly rooted out Separatists and criminals and restored the rule of law in the outlying systems.

The bulk of the Imperial fleet still consisted of Victory- and Venator-class Star Destroyers, but as the pacification of the Rim continued, Imperial-class Star Destroyers joined more and more task forces, and squadrons of TIE fighters flew alongside older V-wings and ARC-170s.

In 19 BBY Imperial forces pushed into the Rim on three fronts. The Ciutric theater had become a rallying point for Separatist forces that had abandoned Muunilinst and Mygeeto, crossed the Void of Chopani, and joined forces with pirates and Thalassian slavers, attracting funding from shadowy interests on Celanon and Serenno. Destroying these forces fell to Crimson Dagger Command, which mobilized from Axxila. Admiral Terrinald Screed’s starfleet engaged the holdouts, with ground operations falling to General Hurst Romodi. Screed triumphed at the Battle of Vinsoth and pursued the Empire’s enemies to Binquaros, where the Muun leadership dug in for a siege. Leaving Romodi to move in with ground forces, Screed pursued the holdouts’ task force of Banking Clan frigates, Commerce Guild destroyers, and Thalassian privateers to Bimmiel, where he annihilated them.

But disaster struck while Screed was engaged: Other Imperial units had driven pirates and Mandalorians from the Salin Corridor, winning engagements at Fenion, Phindar, and Sheris. But the fleeing pirate fleet bested Screed’s rear guard at Botajef, and broke Romodi’s siege at Binquaros with the help of mercenaries hired on Serenno. The freed Separatists fled for the Unknown Regions, but a pirate captain betrayed them and they were intercepted at Vardoss, where Screed and Romodi put an end to them.

The sectors of the outlying Mid Rim beyond Kashyyyk and Lantillies had seen some of the fiercest fighting of the Clone Wars, as the Confederacy of Independent Systems sought to protect its industrial worlds. Costly Republic victories at Jabiim, Saleucami, Felucia, and Boz Pity had eaten away at the so-called Foundry of the Confederacy during the Outer Rim Sieges, and the area had seemingly fallen when the droid armies were shut down via a signal from Mustafar. But the Sy Myrthian leader Toonbuck Toora was determined to fight on, and managed to reactivate significant numbers of ground forces, naval units, and factory worlds.

The Twelfth Sector Army, relocated to Charros, ground down Toora’s forces over several months of fighting, with Admiral Adar Tallon and General Jan Dodonna prevailing at Diado and Metalorn, besieging Sy Myrth under Dodonna’s expert direction, then chasing down Toora’s flagship Defiance’s Banner with a task force led by the Praetor-class battlecruiser Battalion. Toora’s fleet was cornered at Trasemene and ripped apart by the Battalion’s batteries, ending the Sy Myrthian Insurrection. (A few dead-enders would continue to harry the Republic from the lawless Kreetan Narrows in Hutt Space, ultimately leading to the area’s seizure by the Empire.)

The third confrontation of 19 BBY pitted Imperial forces against remnants of the Trade Federation. The Federation had ceased to exist when Acting Viceroy Sentepeth Findos signed a treaty giving the Empire control of its resources. But Marath Vooro, the cartel’s customs vizier, refused to acknowledge that treaty—and retained control of Trade Defense Fleet units and droids at Enarc. Vooro’s defiance cheered Separatist sympathizers, but he had no effective commanders to back up his words, and a starfleet under Octavian Grant smashed his forces at Farstine, then pursued them down the Five Veils Run, capturing Vooro in the fringes of the Hook Nebula.

The exploits of Romodi, Screed, Tallon, Dodonna, and Grant were celebrated in the Core, but the next year brought two new campaigns. Forces under Admiral Wullf Yularen faced off against an ominous union of Sikurdian pirates, Zygerrian slavers, and Tervig slavers. Their gangs had turned the Listehol Run and the Shaltin Tunnels into perilous trade routes for shipping, and were raiding the newly reorganized Corporate Sector. Given command of a fleet of Invincible-class heavy cruisers earmarked for the CSA, Yularen and a young captain named Bannidge Holt complemented the ancient battle wagons with squadrons of TIE fighters launched from a small complement of Venator-class Star Destroyers. Their fleet withstood a Sikurdian swarm at the Battle of Sagma, interdicted Zygerria (which negotiated peace with an Imperial adviser who arrived backed by stormtroopers), and served as a base of operations for raids on Tervissis. Tervissis would prove intractable and eventually be invaded in 13 BBY.

The second campaign of 18 BBY, the Noolian Crisis, came in the Mid Rim. After the fall of Ando, Aqualish and Harch raiders harried Imperial forces in the southern Slice, launching hit-and-fade attacks on medical facilities and the supply chain. Funded and armed by secretive enemies of the Empire, the Aqualish seized Nooli, Galboron, and several outlying worlds in Bothan space before being defeated in the Battle of Galboron by a task force led by Captain Par Lankin.

But no campaign captured Imperial citizens’ imagination like the Western Reaches Operation of 17 BBY. In the final days of the Clone Wars, the remnants of General Grievous’s forces had fled Rimward of Bomis Koori, seeking shelter amid the area’s pirate bases and slaver nests.

Palpatine was determined to pacify the Western Reaches, and handed responsibility for the operation to Wilhuff Tarkin, based at Eriadu. Mindful of the number of Separatist dead-enders and pirate bands in the region and the lack of reliable Planetary Security Forces, Tarkin appealed for substantial military resources. He got everything he asked for and more: The newly minted war heroes Screed and Holt were given command of naval operations, with Romodi appointed to lead the ground war.

Their exploits were adapted into breathless holodramas such as The Charge at Feather Nebula and The Guns of Kelrodo-Ai, which also featured a canny starfighter pilot named Shea Hublin. The battles of Ord Vaug, Halm, Pendaxa, and Ichtor soon became famous, and Imperial citizens of a certain age would always remember where they were when they heard that Holt had been killed and Romodi badly injured by an Iska pirate ambush at Bryndar.

Screed and Hublin smashed the Iska pirates at Fanha, with the pirate lord Guun Cutlax escaping into the lawless Atravis Sector, where he linked up with Separatist holdouts led by the rogue Aqualish general Kendu Ultho. Hublin’s squadrons shredded Cutlax’s privateers at Tosste, and the endgame came at Ogoth Tiir, where Ultho was killed and his remaining forces captured.

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WAR PORTRAIT: ADMIRAL SCREED

Terrinald Screed rose to prominence as one of the heroes of the Clone Wars and the Empire’s Rim campaigns, but fell out of favor and died a victim of a squabble between post-Imperial warlords.

After studying at Prefsbelt and Carida, Screed became a member of the Republic’s Judicial Forces, and was decorated for leading the fleet action that broke the Biskaran Pirates’ siege of Niele in 35 BBY, losing an eye to a Biskaran vibro-ax. The scarred young officer with the cybernetic eye then became an outspoken Militarist and one of Senator Palpatine’s earliest allies, campaigning publicly for the Military Creation Act.

Screed was granted a captain’s rank in the Republic Navy, and he and his fellow captain Jan Dodonna won distinction battling Dua Ningo’s Bulwark Fleet. Screed and Dodonna checked Ningo’s forces at Ixtlar, Alsakan, and Basilisk before a decisive confrontation at Anaxes, where Dodonna engaged Ningo’s warships long enough for Screed to ambush the Separatists, emerging from hyperspace in perfect position to fire a fusillade that ripped through Ningo’s battle cruiser Unrepentant. Screed launched his attack at point-blank range, and the bridge of his own flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer Arlionne, was torn open by the explosion of the Unrepentant. He suffered near-mortal injuries, but laboriously traversed the Azure Walk on Anaxes to receive the Holt Cross just three weeks later, agreeing only to be supported by his fellow honoree Dodonna, since “I have leaned on Jan in far more dangerous instances than these.”

Screed took over command of the Coruscant Home Fleet, an important posting that also allowed him to recover from his injuries. Made an admiral in the New Order, he served with valor at Vinsoth, Bimmiel, Vardoss, and in the Western Reaches.

It was an impressive list of accolades, but also the pinnacle of Screed’s career. Within a decade the admiral had become a slave owner and mastermind of dodgy economic schemes in the Outer Rim, seeking worlds that the Empire might exploit and thereby keep his own coffers overflowing. No year went by without the scarred old officer being trotted out for some fete in the Core Worlds, but the man who had been one of the most articulate Militarists now rarely spoke, and was soon back aboard his Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Demolisher searching for new sources of plunder. After the Battle of Endor, he sought to attract forces to his banner, but was captured and killed by Zsinj.

After his defection to the Rebel Alliance, Dodonna was once asked what had become of his old friend. “No man becomes what he despises all at once,” he replied. “It happens little by little, through the smallest betrayals and abandonments. I think Terrinald knew on some level that the New Order he had done so much to support was hollow and built on lies, as I discovered. But his conclusion was different from mine—Terrinald concluded everything was built on lies. And in a galaxy like that, a man may as well become a liar himself.”

Captains Screed and Dodonna receive the Holt Cross on Anaxes (Chris Scalf)

The forces commanded through various oversectors became collectively known as the Imperial Starfleet, and took their orders from the Admiralty on Imperial Center. But the Empire’s Moffs objected that the starfleet often robbed them of resources without sufficient consideration for their local needs. After some Moffs sought to raise local militias, the Empire stepped in and created Sector Groups directly controlled by the Moffs, though their decisions were carefully scrutinized by Imperial advisers.

These Sector Groups were largely drawn from the Planetary Security Forces, which had been nationalized in the final days of the Republic. Their combat and defense missions were split between separate fleet components, known as “superiority” and “escort.” Superiority fleets were built around the new Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Officially, each was assigned a battle squadron of eighteen smaller ships, but in practice Star Destroyers were normally accompanied by just two or three escorts, if any—an Imperial Star Destroyer was designed to operate without support, and was too fast for any escorts except the speediest light cruisers. While superiority forces were officially assigned to fleet combat, they were normally used as mobile reserves, projecting Imperial power in response to local threats.

Escort forces, on the other hand, were designated for combat against pirate gangs and Rebel raiders, which in practice meant they were the Empire’s first line of defense, protecting civilian freighters, attacking corsairs’ hideouts, and serving as guardships at remote outposts.

The Empire’s early escort squadrons leaned heavily on old Trade Defense frigates and Corellian corvettes, but Kuat Drive Yards soon introduced cheap new designs. The EF76 was an ungainly combination of weapons, sensors, and TIE racks that became the most effective light warship of recent centuries, while the escort carrier was basically a vast hangar bay with engines at the back, designed to counter Rebel attacks with a swarm of TIE fighters.

Dreadnoughts and battlecruisers await refueling at Naval Station Validusia (Ansel Hsiao)

Despite the Imperial Star Destroyer’s fearsome reputation, the most common warship in the navy was the Sienar IPV-1, a corvette-sized patrol craft with a small flight crew, impressive performance, and heavy armament—but no hyperdrive and only light shielding. Deployed in sufficient numbers, IPV-1s were capable of defending systems against almost any opposition, and skirmish lines of up to twenty-four ships were found everywhere the Empire wished to retain a military presence.

The reorganization of the navy into Sector Groups brought command complications, requiring large numbers of new flag officers. While senior captains remained in charge of battle lines, new brevet ranks were introduced at the squadron and task-force level—although in practice these were sometimes consolidated into a single level of command. Command of a Sector Group belonged to a High Admiral, but this was often a ceremonial post occupied by a Moff. Where this was the case, or where there were separate superiority and escort fleets in a sector, senior officers were appointed as Fleet Admirals, devaluing the former rank of regional commanders.

Separate fleet commands were also created to organize army assault ships and repair docks, but the most important non-combat battlegroups were the Support Fleets, charged with securing the logistics of the entire Empire. This burden fell in equal part on Corellian corvettes and massive FSCV transports.

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IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER

Embodying Emperor Palpatine’s power and ruthlessness, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer came to symbolize the Empire during the Galactic Civil War. Other capital ships of its time were larger and more powerful, but the Imperial Star Destroyer was the backbone of the Imperial fleet. The appearance of an Imperial Star Destroyer’s dagger-shaped hull above a rebellious world meant that its citizens had attracted the Emperor’s baleful eye.

Bristling with turbolasers and ion cannons, a Star Destroyer could fulfill a number of combat roles. Its powerful weaponry—improved in the Imperial II model—allowed it to assault other ships of the line or planets, while its speed and suite of tractor beams proved capable of apprehending small, nimble craft. Its complement of soldiers, AT-ATs, and even a prefabricated garrison base made it an effective transport for ground assaults. And its complement of seventy-two TIE fighters made it a reasonably effective carrier.

The Imperial Star Destroyer emerged from designs pursued by Kuat Drive Yards and Rendili StarDrive during the Clone Wars, with the Acclamator-class transport and Venator- and Victory-class Star Destroyers serving as predecessors for a new, sixteen-hundred-meter warship designed by KDY’s Lira Wessex and originally known as the Imperator class. The first ship of the new class was the Executrix, with the Exactor—the first of Darth Vader’s many Imperial flagships—second to glide away from KDY’s docks. (A related design, the Tector class, was produced in much smaller numbers.)

The combination of KDY’s history of warship customization and the Empire’s insistence on using inter-changeable components led to many variations on the basic Imperial-class model, as well as much smaller and larger hulls built along the Star Destroyer’s wedge-shaped lines.

Smaller members of the KDY Star Destroyer “family” included the four-hundred-meter Imperial II-class frigate and the five-hundred-meter Pursuit-class light cruiser, while a trio of six-hundred-meter cruisers—the Enforcer, Interdictor, and Vindicator classes—were common sights on the galaxy’s star lanes. Far larger warships also followed the famous Star Destroyer design, among them the eight-thousand-meter Mandator-class dreadnaught, a successor to KDY’s Procurator-class warship. And then, of course, there was the nineteen-thousand-meter Executor-class Star Dreadnought. These titanic battleships, the largest built by the Empire, served as sector command ships and mobile headquarters, but their true purpose was to terrorize the Emperor’s enemies and convince them that resistance was impossible against a military that could construct such monstrous craft.

Imperial-class Star Destroyers and other ships of this extended family remained common sights in the fleets of the New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and Galactic Alliance, with new models such as the Republic-class Star Destroyer and the Galactic-class battle carrier serving alongside them.

IMPERIAL STAR
DESTROYER

The Republic had had no centralized military between the Ruusan Reformations and the Clone Wars, but the Imperial military inherited a long-established system of schools and officer-training academies that had served the Republic’s Judicial Forces, Planetary Security Forces, and the galaxy’s mercantile fleets and hyperspace scouts. These schools had kept the culture and traditions of the army and navy alive, and the Empire built upon their efforts to create an academy system that ensured a steady flow of capable officers.

Young men and women without wealth or connections who sought a military career had to begin their journey at a military school, pilot institute, or training academy maintained by an individual planetary or system government. The quality of these institutions varied hugely; some degrees were considered impressive, while others were bemoaned as a waste of a good piece of flimsiplast. Cadets who did well in such schools or began with family connections attended regional sector service academies, where they went through basic training, learned military history and theory, and were subjected to tests and evaluations aimed at determining what military career might suit them best. Under the Empire, some general-service sector academies remained, but many were accredited as Sector Naval Academies or Army Officer Training Academies, feeding the two main branches of the military.

Cadets with top scores were invited to take entrance examinations for the main service academies, at which the Empire groomed its most promising officer candidates. (Occasionally youths with exceptional abilities or political connections received direct appointments.) There were two main service academies, supported by a number of schools for specialists, cross-commission training, research and development, and investigations into strategic analysis and theory.

Cadets rarely applied to a specific service academy; instead, upon acceptance they were scrutinized by intake officers, who assigned them to a specific academy and recommended the duration and nature of their initial training program. The reasons for intake officers’ decisions were endlessly debated by cadets; the process was sometimes political, but more often reflected a genuine desire to get the most out of the Empire’s considerable investment in a cadet. Once assigned to a service academy, some cadets were graduated, commissioned, and posted to active duty after a minimum term, while others might be transferred repeatedly among academies and assigned different courses of study.

The Imperial Army Academy was on Raithal, in the Colonies. Most of its cadets endured a grueling one-year training program that included simulations and live-fire drills in drop camps on a variety of worlds, as well as rigorous psychological examinations and indoctrination in the precepts of the New Order. Raithal trained ground troops for the Planetary Security Forces and Judicials, and was initially reserved for non-clones preparing for careers in the Imperial Army, as opposed to the all-clone Stormtrooper Corps. But as non-clones entered the stormtrooper ranks, Raithal cadets began to be tapped for stormtrooper training on Carida. Particularly promising cadets or those seeking specialized army careers might also go on to Carida, though most were assigned to Corulag.

The location of the Imperial Naval Academy was officially classified, but any youth dreaming of a starfleet career knew it was located on Prefsbelt—as with Raithal, Judicial and Planetary Security Force cadets had trained there for generations. At Prefsbelt midshipmen began with academic study and tactical simulations, before moving on to leadership courses and active service rotations as ensigns. Most entered naval service after three years at Prefsbelt, but some did shorter stints, shifting to a flight school or continuing their studies at Carida, Corulag, or Anaxes.

(Two other main service academies attracted cadets, though they were far less prestigious than Raithal and Prefsbelt. The Imperial Exploration Academy, which turned out scouts for the Imperial Survey Corps, had its headquarters on the Inner Rim world of Vanik, while the Imperial Merchant Galactic Academy was located on Rhinnal. The Merchant Galactic, a civilian auxiliary of the navy, specialized in military transportation and logistics, with many of its graduates serving aboard commercial freighters after fulfilling their obligation to the Imperial Supply Fleet.)

Graduates of Raithal or Prefsbelt might go on to one of the Empire’s three specialized military schools, all of which had deep roots in the Republic military. Corulag trained navy midshipmen, army cadets, flight school pilots, and specialists from all services, with an emphasis on active training. The embodiment of naval tradition, Anaxes offered active training and combat simulations, served as a think tank for promising cadets and active-duty officers, and tested new warships and equipment via training cruises.

Carida’s Republic Defense Academy had been created to train PSF and Judicial ground forces, and during the Clone Wars it specialized in training non-clones to lead clone divisions, a mission it continued with the Stormtrooper Corps. Over time Carida became a training center for clones bred for greater independence and leadership, the equivalent of the Republic’s ARC troopers, with live training supplementing lessons learned through flash instruction.

Once the Empire opened the stormtrooper ranks to non-clones, Carida drew the best and bravest army cadets, with its two-year stormtrooper training program legendary for its brutality. Carida turned out more than just stormtroopers, though—numerous army, navy, and flight school cadets spent semesters there, and the planet was the headquarters of the Imperial Engineering Academy.

Lastly, there was the Empire’s flight school system, reserved for top graduates of the Sector Naval Academies and Prefsbelt. Few flight schools had fixed locations; most were based on capital ships, including Imperial Star Destroyers, Venators, and a handful of captured Lucrehulks. The most prestigious was the Vensenor Flight Academy, housed on the Venator-class Star Destroyer of the same name.

Horizontal lines that do not align in the “plack” section indicate where the relationship between position and rank can vary.

In theory, the plack is associated with line rank, but officers with the position of fleet admiral and ship’s captain always wear the insignia of a full admiral and a senior captain (or captain of the line), respectively.

Code cylinders are encrypted devices designed to regulate computer use aboard Imperial Navy ships, also used as rank identifiers. The additional override cylinders of flag officers relate to their fleet responsibilities. Typically, new code cylinders are issued with every new assignment, and officers not on active duty do not normally wear them. They are worn in small pockets near the shoulders of the uniform tunic, with the first one always placed on the left-hand pocket beside the rank plack. Specialist code cylinders are worn in the same positions, but serve purely as insignia.

Position is an officer’s current assignment to a specific ship or unit, as opposed to permanent rank. The positions of Warlord and High Admiral are essentially honorary, normally held by Grand Admirals and Moffs.

A Fleet Admiral commands a fleet, and is usually the senior officer in a sector. The main practical sub-unit of the fleet is the squadron, and its flag officer is usually called the commander, although he is officially appointed as its admiral.

Between the fleet and the squadron there is an extra level, the Systems Force, the overall commander of which is styled a systems admiral or commodore. In practice, however, most Systems Forces contain just one squadron, and the systems admiral and squadron commander are the same officer.

Below the squadron level, small groups of escorts or light cruisers are commanded by senior captains, while the commanding officer of a ship is always the captain, and officers serving in a ship’s crew are known generally as lieutenants regardless of rank, although ensigns can be addressed as midshipman.

Line rank is held by line officers, the men who command the bridge crew, captain ships, and hoist their flag over fleets. There are very few officers with permanent line ranks above senior captain (formally known as captain of the line).

Specialist rank is for personnel of the Flight, Support, and Engineering branches. These ranks are similar to the Imperial Army. The few specialist officers raised above the rank of general are promoted into the line at the rank of vice admiral, though they retain the honorific branch titles of air marshal, war commissar, and master engineer.

The junior ranks of specialist officers, captain and below, are prefixed by flight, support, or engineering according to branch. Flight Branch pilots also have their own positional titles: squadron leader, wing commander, and group captain.

Some specialist officers use additional code keys not shown in the table. Generals with large base or project commands will receive the code cylinders of a squadron or fleet commander. TIE squadron leaders, normally flight captains, use the insignia of a ship’s captain, as a fighter unit is considered the equivalent of a small-ship command.

Prefsbelt began as a secret—a green world far beyond the galactic frontier, colonized by Republic citizens fleeing the tyranny of the Pius Dea cultists in the 11,600s BBY. The name is a corruption of Prefid’s Belt, a constellation in the skies of Fedje that includes Prefsbelt’s sun.

In the 10,970s BBY, the Renunciate Admiral Pers Pradeux discovered Prefsbelt’s location and made the world a retreat for Renunciate naval officers plotting the overthrow of the Faithful. After the Renunciates’ victory at Uquine in 10,966 BBY, Pradeux and his fellow officers reorganized and rebuilt the Republic Navy during a series of meetings at Prefsbelt, forging the traditions that continued to underpin the service millennia later.

Prefsbelt’s significance made it the logical site for the Republic Naval Academy, but for more than a millennium its location remained a closely guarded secret. While the secrecy didn’t last, the Academy’s presence on Prefsbelt remains officially need-to-know, and no well-bred midshipman or officer would refer to the two in conjunction.

Anaxes may be the pinnacle of naval pomp and circumstance, but Prefsbelt is richer in tradition. It’s a pleasant world, with the Academy sprawling across the hills around Castle Pradeux, whose ancient stones are dwarfed by soaring buildings and towers as well as by the 12 Mounts, named for great naval battles. A kilometers-long passage from Castle Pradeux leads into the heart of the range, and the night before graduation awed midshipmen walk the pitch-black passage in silence, emerging in the dimly lit Naval Crypt, where the Father of the Navy himself is entombed. There, each midshipman dedicates himself or herself to the service.

After graduation the midshipmen recess down the Incline, dotted with monuments and historical artifacts, and are conveyed by hovertrain to the bustle of Prefsbelt Green. There they ascend the skyhook to Prefsbelt Black, where they receive their orders and are assigned to warships. Few will ever see the Academy again; most will remember it fondly throughout their days.

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WAR PORTRAIT:
WULLF YULAREN

Wullf Yularen grew up on Anaxes, the son of the legendary Thull Yularen, who followed his lengthy service in the Republic’s Judicial Forces by becoming an instructor at Anaxes. At the Yularen estate in the Sirpar Hills, young Wullf diagrammed famous naval battles with tabletop toys, quizzing his father about how Darsius deployed his cruiser line at Brightday and learning tales of naval traditions dating back to the Pius Dea Renunciates.

Yularen’s surname could have won him an easy Judicial posting, but the son didn’t need to be told that wasn’t proper: After graduating from Prefsbelt, Wullf immediately opted for the Planetary Security Forces and sought a dangerous posting in the wild and woolly Kwymar sector. There he routed slavers on the Listehol Run and destroyed a number of Sikurdian pirate nests in Wild Space.

Yularen resigned his rank for a position in the Senate Intelligence Bureau, where he spent a decade pursuing an anti-corruption agenda with the same discipline he’d brought to naval service. Unfortunately, he did his job too well, making powerful enemies in both the bureau and the Senate. Yularen found himself blocked and sidelined—at which point he acquired a powerful patron in Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who tapped him for a special unit investigating corruption and Separatism.

The Senate saw Palpatine’s special unit as a threat to its power and prerogatives, and managed to starve the new service of credits and reduce it to a shell. Forced into early retirement, Yularen stewed on Anaxes, but Palpatine soon called upon him once again. He persuaded him to accept a place in the new Republic Navy, promoted him to admiral, and assigned him to Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi cruiser.

Yularen admired Skywalker’s abilities and his unshakable faith in himself, but he was horrified by the Jedi’s routine flouting of orders and casual attitude toward security. As the Clone Wars ground on, Yularen came to wonder if the Jedi weren’t an impediment to an efficient, secure war effort—they followed a separate chain of command, one not always responsive to orders from Coruscant.

After the Declaration of the New Order, Yularen saw the chance to revive his anti-corruption efforts. The Republic’s crooked ministers and bureaucrats had blocked the efforts of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, but they wouldn’t dare resist the orders of Emperor Palpatine. Yularen became an agent in the new Imperial Security Bureau and worked with quiet efficiency to purge the Imperial military and ministerial ranks of all those with ties to the underworld or Separatist leanings. By the time of the Battle of Yavin, he had become a colonel in the ISB, and won a coveted assignment to the Death Star battle station.

Wullf Yularen is briefed by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the field (Bruno Werneck)