Indoctrination

Military Academy of Carida

The landmark Spinara Plateau on the planet Carida is the site of the Imperial Military Academy in Lambda Sector. It is a gleaming citadel which is designed and built to look much older than it is. Its lines and layout echo traditional designs found on the most ancient government and academic buildings on Coruscant and Raithal.

Simple white columns, scrubbed until their marbled surfaces shine, stand starkly over green grassy lanes and mirror pools. Colorful flags representing the most loyal worlds of the Empire fly from poles lining the walkways, and in the grassy center divider of the grand entrance to the complex, a long line of decommissioned Imperial walkers keep a watchful eye on the drilling cadets.

The campus itself contains facilities for both basic and advanced training. Numerous outbuildings, drill fields, rifle ranges, and storage and training facilities surround the main quadrangles. There are several branches and sister facilities: Carida Star Academy, which graduates new Imperial Navy officers; the Imperial Navy Command Officer's School, a graduate facility training prospective ship Captains in the finer arts of naval combat and command; the Imperial Engineering Academy, which trains the Empire's mechanics and engineers; Cliffside, a stormtrooper officer's academy on the edge of the plateau; the Academy of Ordnance; and the elite Storm Commando School.

[OOC Note: By the time of the Second Imperium, Carida's stormtrooper and storm commando facilities might have been converted to Army and Army Special Missions. Need to ask Justin about this.]

The main citadel, located at the very center of the complex, is a veritable fortress in appearance as well as fact. It is an imposing complex, complete with several enormous turrets and many smaller minarets.

The citadel houses not only the academy's administrative offices, but also the planetary government offices as well. The comm center, from whence the HoloNet is maintained, is in the upper levels of the southernmost turret.

Individuals from the Imperial Academy who distinguish themselves academically are awarded the Palpatine Cluster.

Carida
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Heavy
Terrain: Forest, desert, glacier
Length of Day: 25 standard hours
Length of Year: 357 local days
Sapient Species: Human
Starport: Stellar class
Population: 25 million
Planet Function: Military
Government: Imperial governor
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: Military training, high technology weapons
Major Imports: Foodstuffs

Carida is a temperate and pleasant world located deep in territory still held by the Empire. Its greatest defect in terms of attracting immigrants is its heavy gravity field.

The high gravity kept settlers away for centuries; most settlers apparently prefer the slight discomfort of inhospitable climates to heavy gravity, since one can retreat indoors from heat or cold, but gravity is ever-present.

Carida came into its own two centuries ago when the Old Republic Army decided to locate a proving ground installation there. Carida's many terrain features as well as its sparce population made it ideal for testing weaponry and military transports of all sorts.

Over the space of a few decades, an infrastructure grew up around the small base, and other military agencies and defense firms transferred some of their personnel and research facilities to Carida to supplement the proving ground. By the time the Empire grew to envelop Carida, it had a population of 23 million, and several small cities around the globe.

In the Imperial era, Carida came into its own. The Emperor designated Carida as one of his primary military training bases, because its gravity, rather high by human standards, would toughen up his stormtroopers and soldiers.

Carida's untamed landmasses provide an appropriate range of harsh training environments for both man and machine; arctic wastelands, dense and uncharted rain forests filled with primitive predators, carnivorous plants, and poisonous insects, splintered mountain crags, and searing desert hardpan crawling with venomous multi-legged reptiles all push soldiers and their machines to the limit.

Even after Grand Admiral Thrawn's death, Carida refused to be wooed into the New Republic camp. Carida has little to fear from a New Republic attack. It boasts some of the most technologically advanced weapons and crack troops in the galaxy, and has enough food in store to wait out a siege until Imperial reinforcements could arrive.

Despite the presence of a huge standing army, Carida doesn't pose much of a threat to other worlds, since it lacks the means to transport them anywhere.

History of the Second Imperium

Imperial Navy Missions

The Empire seeks to assert and maintain control of all known space. Aside from responding to the threat posed by the Rebel Alliance and hunting it to extinction, the Empire also seeks to control and assure safe passage of commerce. Protecting civilians from the dangers of space remains a primary Navy mission -- piracy has traditionally been the target of Navy attention when no overt military threats loom. Aside from the powerful capital combat ships used by the Navy, the Empire maintains fleets of lighter ships to patrol Imperial space, provide search and rescue services, and generally keep the peace.

The Imperial Navy was build to suppress pirates, or at least that was the excuse for many years, and this duty built its reputation and image across the galaxy. In the wake of their counter-piracy actions, the Navy received a huge increase in voluntary enlistment helping man the rapidly enlarging navy. A large portion of today's command officers and section chiefs signed aboard in this era.

With the relative subsidence in pirate activity, the Rebellion has taken the pirate's former place in the Navy's role. This has proven a boon for the pirates, who are making a comeback not only in frontier sectors, where they are always a hazard, but also in the Coreward worlds. While pirate armadas like those of Nanth'ri Raiders or Riders of the Maelstrom are not an immediate threat, individual raiders and small gangs are.

The pirate-suppressing mission has left a deep impact on the modern imperial navy, especially at the system force level. While much attention is paid to the impressive Imperial Star Destroyer, the backbone of the Navy, it is the escort force which makes up the meat of a sector group. Escort forces, originally designed to counter piracy, are included in every fleet and are reflections of the need to spread as much firepower across a sector and maintain a presence in as many systems as possible. The superiority force, built around Star Destroyers, uses a modern strategy of massive firepower concentration, and reflects a combat mission. Critics of current policy have suggested that the Rebellion would be better suppressed by tactics similar to the anti-piracy methods of prior years, not political shows of military might.

While a great deal of the Navy's efforts have recently been diverted to suppressing the Rebellion, its other missions are not forgotten. Naval countermeasures come in four basic varieties, patrols, escorts, traps, and suppressions, carried out by the escort forces.

Patrols: One of the more-unusual procedures the Navy follows is to send lines out to look around in the minor, remote, empty, and uninteresting systems. These are the sorts of systems attractive to pirates and Rebels. Patrols occasionally drop out of hyperspace in the middle of deep space just to make sensor sweeps along a major trade route, because these are the sorts of places pirates set up blockades. It's not usually interesting work, but it can pay dividends. Smugglers, pirates, Rebels, and illegal slavers have been caught by surprise when an Imperial patrol quietly entered a system. These patrols are not frequent or very thorough, but they have their uses. The typical patrol is made up of a pursuit, recon, or skirmish line. If a contact is made, the patrol must reconnoiter and evaluate the enemy force. A weak force is simply destroyed. Against a stronger force the patrol retreats to send a suppression mission force. As the line is usually operating from a squadron on local maneuvers, the suppression force can often arrive before the enemy can escape.

Escorts: An effective method of securing against raiders is to simply escort commercial ships. The Navy positively hates to do this, as it ties up a huge proportion of its ships. This is exactly what the Rebellion wants, and is one of the main reasons they stage hit-and-fade attacks, and use privateers. Most commercial shipping is essentially on its own, but Imperialized corporations occasionally demand protection from raids.

Traps: Imperial ships occasionally perform operations designed to trap Rebels, smugglers, and pirates. There are a few variations:

Interdiction. The development of the Interdictor cruiser allows Imperial forces to set mass blocks in shipping lanes without bothering with small planetoids. Such checkpoints are set up at narrow sections of the hyperlanes and system approaches several light-minutes away from the jump zone. When a ship drops into realspace it is docked, boarded, and ruthlessly examined. Identification is thoroughly checked, ship's registry double-checked, and the ship itself is well-scanned. Irregularities are not forgiven, and bribery is far less effective than usual under the watchful eyes of so many stormtroopers, Navy troopers, and officers. This is one of the more intrusive activities of Imperial power. Such random spot checks can be highly effective if carried out in the right areas.

Baiting. The Navy occasionally uses an upgraded support fleet freighter, sending it out into space after leaking data on its cargo to known or suspected pirates or Rebels. This attracts raiders often enough to be worth the effort. Once engaged, the heavily armed and shielded freighter sends a subspace code to its escort, and returns a devastating amount of fire while the escort micro-jumps in to assist. Relatively few pirates or Rebels are captured this way, but it is believed to keep their tension levels higher.

Suppressions: Imperial Intelligence, the ISB, and the Imperial Navy occasionally uncover a particularly noxious pirate base or shadowport. A suppression operation is then planned and executed. This usually involves elements from superiority forces, as this more closely matches their mission. Battle squadrons, including a Star Destroyer, or heavy squadrons are normally dispatched on such a mission. Pirates are unable to withstand such a concentrated assault. The Ettyrmin Batiiv and Uogo'cor suppressions are excellent examples.

Navy Principles

One of the founding principles of the Imperial Navy was the suppression of piracy, and this duty built the agency's reputation and image across the galaxy -- an image that still brings millions of recruits into Naval service every year. This mission is currently secondary to suppressing the actions of the Rebel Alliance, but still lies near to the heart of the service. Not surprisingly, a number of old-school Naval officers refer to the Rebels as pirates.

The Navy claims the right to halt, board and search any ship upon demand. It demands to do so frequently. Search by the Imperial Navy is never pleasant. There's no court to hear protests against the acts of Customs officials. The Navy reserves the right -- and often exercises it -- to seize cargo and valuables without explanation, to gun down those who object, and to plant contraband to justify the seizure of a ship.

There's only one thing that prevents Naval officers from abusing their authority too greatly: the penalty for corruption is death. Officers who get a reputation for abusing their powers for personal gain have very short careers. On the other hand, as far as the Navy is concerned, anything which injures the Rebel Alliance or its sympathizers is fine.

Navy Mandate & Mission Detail

The Navy's mandate is to secure orbital space around inhabited planets, to investigate any vessels which in the opinion of the commanding officer appear capable of disrupting the security of orbital space, and to engage hostile vessels, destroying or seizing them as deemed necessary. In addition, the Navy is to establish patrols within a sector to locate known enemies or for the early detection of patterns of space activity which could indicate a hostile presence. Space superiority is clearly the Navy's most important mission, and the one which generates the most enthusiasm from crew and officers.

A mission which has been de-emphasized is the protection of scientific missions, as well as acting as the official clearinghouse for information on new worlds. As the Empire has practically ceased to sponsor exploration, this mission has atrophied to the point that many of the newer commanders are not even aware that such missions are part of the Navy doctrine.

If the Army is to be deployed on the surface of a world, the Navy is to provide combat support as soon as the orbital space is secured. Support for Army operations is to take precedence over establishing patrols until such time as the commander of surface operations indicates he has the situation under control, although such support operations are not expected to be exclusive of patrol activities.

If Army commanders deem the surface situation to be beyond hope of victory, or if the proper political authorities directly command it, the Navy is to execute a series of punitive attacks upon the target. The attacks are given code names which vary according to the mission and change frequently. The only code name which has not yet changed is "Base Delta Zero," the code for complete destruction of all "assets of production," including factories, arable land, mines, fisheries, and all sentient beings and droids. The code name has not yet changed so there can be no possibility of confusion when a Base Delta Zero is ordered.

The heart of Navy doctrine is the mission detail. The commander at every level can create temporary organizations called "mission details" which violate the standard OB.

The concept behind the mission detail is simple for a commander to carry through:

1. Evaluate the mission.
2. Assign a detail which would best accomplish the mission.
3. Retain sufficient ship strength to meet other expected obligations.

There is a saying among Navy staff officers and commanders: "The first step leads to work, the second to promotion, the third to court martial." While extensive training docs exist to teach commanders how to perform these three steps, the third step remains as much a product of instinct as training.

Military Folklore

There is a bit of military folklore about the difference between the structure of the Army and of the Navy. An admiral had just finished listening to a general explain the Order of Battle for a Sector Group, including virtually every conceivable configuration by mission type. This general concluded proudly by calling up numerics which showed that every unit deviated less than two percent from the projected strength on the Order of Battle.

The admiral took the podium and holoviewed the naval plan for a Sector Group. After a brief explanation of the theory, the admiral then used his Sector Group as an example of how the naval theory was modified in practice. The general became increasingly impatient as the admiral listed exception after exception. Finally the general interrupted the admiral.

"You don't have an organization, Admiral!" What you have is nothing like the Army!"

"Yes General, the Army has its organization. We in the Navy must content ourselves with the control of all known space."

Ship Command

Attaining the rank of ship's captain is considered the culmination of a naval career. When a person earns command of a ship, he has attained a position of honor, regardless of the size of the ship. There is a certain amount of chauvinism on the basis of ship size and power, but being the captain of a KDY Lancer often carries more prestige than being a staff officer of any rank. For this reason the Navy often understands if a ship's captain will turn down a promotion to a staff position, or even turn down a transfer to the command of a more modern or more capable ship.

The Navy honors these men rather than viewing them with suspicion. It benefits the Navy to have men who intimately understand their ship and crew in order to gain the greatest possible performance from them.

In the Imperial Navy, your character is placed in command of one capital ship to start with. As you participate in missions and adventures and earn credits you can buy more ships for your own PERSONAL battle line. Personal ships you buy can be named, modified, or altered anyway you like as long as you have the credits. As you participate, you may advance in rank. This will expand your authority over larger groups of TEMPORARY ships. Temporary ships are just ships you can order around. Unlike personal ships, they don't belong to you and are not subject to any modifications.

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