There are several sources of Stormtroopers. One of the most widely publicized is volunteers from the Army, Navy, COMPForce and other branches of the Imperial military and para-military forces, including Customs, Space Rescue Corp and the Sector Rangers. These already trained and experienced individuals bring with them prior exposure to combat and non-combat situations that is often lacking in the green candidates. To be chosen, these men must be single, without significant family ties, have passed loyalty examinations and show significant motivation. These men, the "Free Recruits" (FRs), comprise roughly 13% of the recruits
The next area recruits are drawn from are the prisons of the Empire and it's subject worlds. Prisoners who are convicted of violent crimes and show a high enough degree of skill and/or lack of feelings about thier crimes are sometimes selected. These individuals have thier personalities and parts of thier memories wiped and replaced with ones that are more appropriate for a Stormtrooper. These individuals have repeatedly shown thier willingness to commit acts ranging from gassing civilian populations to using juveniles for living shields, without the least amount of regret, which is often present within the Free Recruits. Others of these are drawn from captured rebel ranks, and show moral that is high even for members of the ISTC. These "Grey Recruits" (GRs) make up roughly 38% of the Corp's training population.
Finally, there are the "Birth Recruits" (BRs). Many of these are individuals born on isolated colonies which have only recently been rediscovered by the Empire. Other are the young children of dissidents and rebels (captured when "safe" regions are taken), those abandoned by their parents, some of the orphaned children of COMPNOR and military families, and those orphaned by Imperial conflicts. (During a Base Delta Zero operation, teams of stormtroopers are sent to succure the maternity wards of local hospitals, along with schools and services that provide child care, and capture all children.) These children are rarely older than the age of eight standard years when they are "brought in from the cold". They are raised until the age of thirteen in totally isolated communities. From there, they enter military training. These troopers have little or no memory of anything before the Empire entered thier lives, and practically worship Palpataine as a god.
During this period, recruits learn how to use thier weapons, and maintain and use thier armour's systems, along with thier specialist training. A company of Stormtroopers will have someone who is trained in a certain military skill, ranging from piloting a combat speeder to mining a bridge to using long range communications systems.
After three years in the line legions, less than 40% of any training rotation's graduates are still able to function in the field. These men are considered to be true Stormtroopers, proven in battle, loyal, creative and combat ready. These men form the core of the leadership for the line legions, and make up the body of the assault legions.
At this time, a trooper can test for any of the following specialized branches of the ISTC: Desert, Cold or Aquatic Assault groups, the Space and Radiation Zone troops, the Guards (which include the Firetroopers and the Imperial Guard), the Storm Commandos, or the Royal Guard.
Please refer to the appropriate documents for the training and equipment of the special assault legions.
From within the legions comes thier greatest equalizer- thier information systems. Stormtroopers are often accompanied by one of several models of observation droid. These droids also have several functions. They can be sent ahead fo the lead squad to recon an area, or sent through ducts and pipes for real-time intelligence. They are usually fitted with long-range comlinks. Finally, some models are armed, or have other specialized functions (security circumvention, medical support, etc.). Any of the troopers of the unit that a properly equipped droid is assigned to can splice into it's sensors, as can the battlefield/mission commander.
This one man is perhaps the most important individual in an operation. He can "see" and "hear" what any of his troopers do. He can also access sensor feeds from passing fighters, orbital ships, surface emplacements, medevac droids, everything. His computer (if properly equipped) can supply the average trooper with maps and floor plans to any place they happen to be, weak point for vehicles and organisms, and a host of other data, which gives them an incredible edge. This computer module is designed to be transported by most shuttles, dropships and command vehicles in the inventory, and is directly hardwired into Imperial garrisons and Star Destroyers. For smaller vehicles (such as the Chariot, Hoverscout and HMR-V), a smaller, less powerful unit available. This can also be loaded into a drop pod and carried on a standard 500kg personal repulsor lifter, or by eight troopers in litter fashion, but is suitable for a smaller area of operations than the full-sized computer.
For missions where even signal silence is preferable, or other reasons, a smaller unit can be strapped between the environmental canister and the utility belt of stormtrooper armour. This package is preloaded from a larger system, and can only hold .5% of the data in the largest system, or the equivalent of a 10km by 10km map, with all features down to two meters in size and fifteen-thousand characters of text data or the equivalent of the above. This module is especially popular with Desert and Cold Assault troops and Storm Commandos, and is an integral part of the Spacetrooper power armour.
Even when these systems are unavailable, there is still a great deal of information about thier objective known to Stormtroopers. They undergo narco-hypnosis prior to a mission, allowing them to learn, without question, the mission plan, the primary and secondary roles of the individual trooper, a basic map of the area, area specific survival information, and whatever else command decides he needs to know.
Finally, every Stormtrooper receives speciality training in several fields. This allows a typical platoon of Stormtroopers to have someone trained to handle a heavy gun, fly a shuttle, mend wounds or blow up a bridge. This is purposefully overlooked in documents about the Stormtroopers, and few who have not worked with them are aware of this. This wide selection of talents have prevented many s mission from failing.
External support comes from a shadow organization of transports crewed by droids and "reconditioned" smugglers. They are primarily responsible for setting up supply caches (the locations of which are part of the pre-mission briefings), and conducting resupply efforts for the ISTC. Their missions are conducted with the utmost silence, with only the highest ranking officers of the ISTC and a handful of the Emperor's advisors being aware of it's existence. This is done to maintain the appearance that the ISTC needs few supplies. A few fanatical, and less than sane, members of the ISTC even believe that thier supplies are the physical manifestation of the Emperor's will, as they almost never see a resupply ship.
This organization also extends to R&R. While Stormtroopers do not partake of leave like other members of the Imperial Armed Forces, they do get a break about once a year. Individual platoons of Stormtroopers leave on special shuttles, for modified cruise liners, space stations and even worlds whose existence is classified. There, every form of entertainment, no matter how deprived and debased, awaits the weary troopers for the next two weeks. By the time thier "recess" is over, they are ready to face another ten or eleven months of active operations.
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