Republic Marines

"Marines don't have time for regret. At least, we don't when there's battles to be fought. A rocket-jumper can regret not securing her backup thrusters when her mains misfire, but only for the time it takes for her to get acquainted with the ground. A Mandalorian can regret taking on a Jedi, but only until the Jedi can decap him and kick his bucket."

- Laera Reyolé, to

The Republic Marines, also known as the Republic Marine Corps or simply as "the Corps", was a branch of the, which encompassed its ground forces and shipboard security. Separate from the, soldiers who served in the Republic Marines were considered to be among the best troops that the could field. Generally organized into al- or -sized units, depending on the era, Marines would often see a wider range of duties than their counterparts in the Army.

The Republic Marines served with distinction in many of the galaxy's fiercest conflicts, ranging from the to the, before they were eventually disbanded along with most of the rest of the Republic military. Refusing to become a part of the, most Marines instead became that still held to the traditions of the Corps. However, their tactics and doctrine would be resurrected during the by the s of the Republic's.

Formation
First proposed in the years prior to the by  Sakira Tobonne, the Republic Marines were originally conceived of as an adjunct to the Navy, serving as the main line of defense in the event that a Republic warship was boarded, or as shock troops when boarding enemy vessels. As the Marines proved themselves at the height of that conflict, they were eventually seen as an elite "first response" force that could be quickly deployed to any combat zone in as fast as any sizable warship. As a result of this shift in doctrine, Marine training became some of the most grueling in the Republic; becoming one was seen as a mark of honor not only among the military, but of the citizenry as well.

Old Sith Wars
"The rocket-jumpers have established a toehold, but they're pinned down. Let's go help them punch a hole!"

- Commander Voskel Dun'vei, 2nd Marine Battalion

During the Republic's intervention in the of, the Republic Marines saw action alongside their fellow elites, the s, deploying to  at the height of the conflict. When initiated his  against the, Marine units fought alongside the Jedi against the invading , when they attacked the  on. In the war's final battle, at, three whole regiments of Marines were among the first troops on the ground, securing a safe landing zone and coordinating the by the Republic's capital ships.

Mandalorian Wars
"We're dead if we leave, but just as dead if we stay. D'you want those dogs to sings songs about how they gunned you down?"

- Laera Reyolé, to her squad during the Battle of Onderon

Despite the losses incurred during the conflict initiated by Kun's forces, the Marines continued to hone their tactics and traditions. Lessons learned from fighting such foes as the and the Krath's own elite forces helped the Republic adopt new training methods, allowing the Marines to diversify themselves. By the time the s began preying on worlds outside the Republic, the Marines had reformed themselves into s, each with at least one specialized that included scout/snipers, infiltration experts, and covert intelligence operatives. When the s finally attacked the Republic, units of ground-based Marines fought valiantly, despite being heavily outnumbered. Though the initial Mandalorian blitzkrieg cost the Republic dearly, the Marines helped to prevent total battlefield dominance, often serving as examples for Republic Army units to rally behind.

When and, along with  joined the fight against the Mandalorians, Marine units were sent to take the offensive, even as the Neo-Crusaders continued to push deeper into Republic space. The 3rd Marine Battalion became one of the most highly-decorated units in the Republic at that time after carrying out a series of highly-successful raids against the Mandalorians' supply lines, raids that Revan himself had planned. As the war reached its midpoint, the Republic Army was sent to reinforce strategically-important worlds in order to make them too well-defended for the Mandalorians to risk attacking; meanwhile, Marine battalions were sent to non-essential yet still important minor worlds, in order to entice the Mandalorians into attacking a seemingly under-defended garrison. These trap-worlds sucked up Neo-Crusader resources, pinning them under exquisitely-prepared defensive positions, until elements of the Mandalorians' fleet could come to their rescue. These reinforcements would then be ambushed by waiting Republic warships, forcing the attackers to waste far more resources than these worlds were worth to either take or hold. Unfortunately for the Republic, these bait-and-switch tactics were almost as costly. However their strategic value was in keeping the front stalled, preventing the Mandalorians from accumulating enough reserves to enable a direct assault on the and the Republic capital.

After several of these grueling battles of attrition, Revan had succeeded in blunting the Mandalorian offensive, and began to take the initiative. Now trained in rapid planetary assaults and supplemented by Jedi commanders, the Republic Marines proved essential to establishing toeholds and landing corridors on contested planets, allowing Army units to reinforce their positions and retake world after world. The Neo-Crusaders did not give ground easily, and increasingly Marine units were sent in flank and harass the supply lines of the retreating Mandalorians. Serving as snipers, sappers, and shock troopers, they isolated Mandalorian units from one another, allowing each to be tackled separately, without support from their fellows. In the war's final campaign, Marine units served as the spearheads of the assaults on and, taking heavy casualties on the jungle moon against the deeply-entrenched and well-fortified Neo-Crusaders. With reinforcements from the Army, as well as new units of combat droids, the Republic took back what would later be known as "Bloody Dxun."

The, however, would bear witness to the Republic Marines' most humiliating defeat. A force of Mandalorian warships, under the command of and crewed by elite assault units, ambushed an entire Republic task force, boarding Republic vessels before their crews could be properly alerted. The Marines stationed aboard those ships fought with desperate courage against the hardened veterans of Fett's forces; despite their heroism, however, the force of some twenty-four warships, including its commander, was lost, with the few survivors who managed to escape the carnage fleeing in hyperdrive-equipped shuttles and starfighters. By the time Revan had finished preparing his at, few combat-ready Marine units were left among his forces. Instead of keeping them spread out amongst his fleet, he consolidated them, sending them back to worlds on the edge of Republic space to serve as garrison units. Most Marines, unaware of what their commander had in mind, treated this shift as having been caused by a failure on their part. The news of the Mandalorians' defeat and the casualties suffered by both sides, however, quelled these thoughts; senior Marine commanders recognized that Revan had been attempting to preserve what he had come to see as a bulwark against future attacks.

Jedi Civil War
"We had thought that we'd won the war, but that was a lie. Those who had led us, who had sent us into the thickest fighting that sentient beings can engage in, had gone away, only to return as tyrants. You're damn right we weren't going to take that lying down."

- Marine Sergeant Denaas Bekuur, in his memoirs

During the year between the victory at Malachor and the assaults by the newly-crowned Darth Revan, the Marines rebuilt their forces, drawing exceptional troops from throughout the Republic's armed forces to bolster their ranks (a tradition that had begun in the wake of the Great Hyperspace War). To the Marines' great surprise, the initial offensives did not target worlds upon which they were garrisoned. Instead, Revan had focused his attention on strategic worlds that sat upon the intersection of vital galactic trade routes, or planets that already boasted a fully-functional military-industrial complex and defense network. Revan's surgical strikes threw the Republic, which was still reeling from the devastation wrought by the Mandalorians, into near-chaos, with the Sith forces under his command putting together an impressive number of victories. While some Marine units, particularly those who first came into contact with Revan's new, joined their old commander and forsook the Republic, the vast majority remained faithful, almost fanatically so.

Proving once again their versatility, loyal Marine battalions undertook their own counterattacks, driving small wedges into the Sith front. One of the earliest of the war's Republic victories, which came within weeks after the, was secured by the hardened veterans of the Marines' Third Battalion. Acting on intelligence gathered by the battalion's commanding officer, who had led Besh Company during the previous war and had trained briefly as a Jedi during the short-lived peace, the force of fifteen hundred soldiers attacked and seized the Sith supply depot on. Though the initial plan was to cart away what supplies they could before demolishing the base, the battle was interrupted by the arrival of a Sith task force of. In the vicious space battle that followed, Republic warships, who had been waiting in ambush for just such a contingency, pounced on the new arrivals, eliminating the threat in a one-sided victory made possible through. Further information gathered during the raid led to the Republic victory at the ; the resulting campaign was the first serious counter-punch to be landed by the Republic against the Sith armadas.

In 3,956 BBY, with the war going poorly for the Republic, the Jedi Order conceived a daring plan to capture Darth Revan. The hope was that, in depriving the Sith of its greatest leader, strategist and tactician, a power struggle would ensue that would cause the expanding Sith Empire to lose focus and turn on itself. As a small force of Republic warships engaged the squadron of Sith vessels under Darth Revan's command, a trio of assault shuttles, aided by the of Jedi Knight, managed to board the Sith flagship. As Bastila, accompanied by two other Jedi Knights, made their way to the bridge, the three squads of Marines that had accompanied her did their best to cause as much havoc as possible, in order to draw away as many Sith troopers as possible to provide the Jedi with a clear route to and from the bridge. When Darth Malak took this opportunity to betray his master by firing on the flagship's bridge, Bastila alone survived, and carried the comatose Revan back to the hangar deck and their transportation. The Marines assigned to her command held fast, enabling the Jedi to escape with the barely-alive Dark Lord. As the shuttles made their escape, explosives planted by the Marines were detonated, blowing the flagship to free-floating hydrogen; this masked their escape, and permitted the battle-bloodied Republic force to make a hasty retreat.

The change in leadership of the Sith Empire caused unexpected complications, however. Darth Malak, who was not as skilled in strategy or tactics as his former master, preferred to engage in wholesale slaughter when he encountered worlds that would not immediately surrender to him. While the Jedi Order did its best to find a way to halt this new and incredibly destructive advance, the Marines took the brunt of it. The Sith Empire began to focus less on taking and holding strategic worlds in favor of consolidating its territory. Marine units who had thought themselves far from the fighting soon found themselves under siege by fanatical Sith troopers. Though outnumbered and outgunned, the Marines were much more highly-trained than their attackers, and held out as long as possible before eventually being overrun and destroyed. Despite this onslaught, some garrisons managed to hold their worlds until relieved by Republic forces, but these victories were incredibly rare.

Years between the wars
"The Marines' countless sacrifices throughout the war has ensured their existence for the next thousand years."

- Supreme Chancellor Cressa

With most of the galaxy still on the defensive as the Jedi Civil War came to its sudden conclusion, the Marines suddenly found themselves a shattered force, stretched out across the galaxy in a thin red line. However, with the end of hostilities also came a shift in government policies, as program after program was launched to breathe life back into the struggling Republic. Under the leadership of a new, , a titanic effort to restore worlds ravaged by the Mandalorians and Sith was undertaken, beginning with. This new program of rebuilding came at a cost, however, as the Army and Navy and, by extension, the Marines, were left without adequate resources to recover from the immense losses incurred by the two recent and devastating wars. Warships were pressed into service as cargo haulers as flora and fauna was imported from verdant worlds to those left scourged by conflict, with the Marines stationed aboard serving as impromptu cargo handlers. Despite having won, the morale of the military was ebbing, and many soldiers, from all branches, left the government to find employment as private security, enlist in mercenary companies, or, when there was no other option, to sell their guns to criminal groups, pirate bands, and raiders.

After many years, however, due in no small part to the actions of the, the Republic was able to once again assert itself as the dominant power in the galaxy. The military was given its proper due, and the Marines were once again held in high regard along with other elite units of the Republic. After nearly two millennia of peace, however, the forces of the Sith began once again to threaten the Republic. These "New Sith", however, were not as strong as the Mandalorians and those under the Dark Lords Revan and Malak, and were never able to force the Republic into the terrible state that it faced during the worst of the assaults from the past. For nearly nine hundred years, with few exceptions the Sith were but a nuisance for the border regions, butting heads with Marine units scattered throughout the frontier. When Lord formed his, however, a string of offensives and counteroffensives saw heavy involvement by the Marines, as they fought in ship-to-ship battles and as vanguards for the Army and the forces under the command of the Jedi Order. During the, Republic Marines served all manner of roles, including support for the Jedi as well as the protection of supply lines.

Dissolution and rebirth
"The Ruusan Reformation was greeted with great fanfare by the citizenry of the Republic. But, given all that I've seen, one cannot help but wonder if it was in fact a mistake. The Jedi became bogged down in the everyday currents of galactic affairs so much, that they became blind to threats from within, and because of this, they were nearly destroyed."

- Luke Skywalker, c. 44 ABY

With the victory of the Jedi over the Brotherhood of Darkness, many war-weary citizens from throughout the Republic began to clamor for reform. With no discernible threats to galactic stability in sight, the Senate instituted the, which saw the entire military of the Galactic Republic abolished, with peace being maintained by the newly-organized and the Jedi Order, who had chosen to undertake a greater hand in policing the galaxy. In the thousand-year peace that followed the Reformation, the traditions and honors of the Marines were all but forgotten.

However, with the rise in power of interstellar corporations and their droid armies, which culminated in the pan-galactic, the legacy of the Republic Marines was once again brought to the fore. As the s of the diversified in the face of the shifting tactics and doctrines of the ' droid and naval forces, a new brand of  was created. Formed from an elite division of clones under the leadership of Jedi Master, these troops were cross-trained in a wide variety of environmental combat, including harsh-weather and shipboard fighting. After the war's end and the Republic was remade by into the, these marines continued in Imperial service.

Organization and tactics
"Luck is the difference between a good battle plan going bad, and a bad one going well."

- Marine axiom

The Republic Marines were first formed within the Republic Navy as adjuncts to a warship's security personnel. Trained in close-quarters combat, they became effective at repelling boarders and even at boarding enemy warships. Sakira Tobonne, who had originally outlined the concept of the Marines and served as their first Commandant, soon realized that these skills would translate well to urban warfare.

Tactics
In the years leading up to the Mandalorian Wars, the Republic Marines diversified radically. While they had always&mdash;and continued to be&mdash;experts in small-unit tactics on dense urban battlefields, a greater emphasis was placed on flexibility and initiative. The regiment was abandoned in favor of the battalion as the largest self-contained unit, with emphasis placed on company and platoon commanders becoming more proactive and able to adapt to changing circumstances. While still considered a part of the Navy, the Marines adopted such tactics as scout/sniper pairs, infiltration and extraction teams, as well as commando operations which included sabotage, high-value target neutralization options, and raiding of an enemy's vulnerable rear areas. This model for organization and operation remained largely unchanged throughout the rest of the history of the Republic Marines, due in large part to its success against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders and the Sith Empire under Darths Revan and Malak.

Unit structure and ranks
The Marines, who used the same rank system for officers as the Navy, were originally organized into regiments, each normally commanded by a captain or full commander. Each regiment was typically divided into smaller, autonomous units: Units operating separately also mustered with enlisted and commissioned support staff: this included executive officers for battalion, company, and platoon-sized units, as well as adjutants, armorers, weapon and equipment riggers, as well as vehicle and heavy-weapon crews where applicable. Medical services were provided by corpsmen from the Navy, and were not usually attached to specific units.
 * Two battalions, each under a lieutenant commander, made up a regiment
 * Three companies, typically led by a full lieutenant, comprised battalion
 * Three platoons, led by ensigns, made up a company
 * Three twelve-person squads, under staff sergeants, constituted a platoon

The larger warships in the Republic Navy could muster a full battalion, however, most ships maintained only a company-sized presence. Worlds on the fringes of Republic space might garrison a regiment of Marines, alongside two or more regular Army divisions depending on population and strategic value. Small outposts, such as those which contained listening posts, were often staffed only at the company level. When the Marines abandoned the regimental-sized units, the rank scale moved up one notch, which was to say, a battalion would be led by a full commander, while a platoon would serve under a junior lieutenant, with an ensign as executive officer. The battalions themselves were also increased in size. The new chain of command became: This updated organizational system served the Marines well in the wars to come, when small-scale actions could have profound consequences for future or concurrent campaigns.
 * Four companies, led by lieutenant commanders, per battalion
 * Four platoons, led by junior lieutenants, per company
 * Three squads, led by staff sergeants, made up a platoon
 * Each squad, subdivided into three four-person fire teams, were led by corporals.

The Marine Aerospace Wings
During the reorganization prior to the outbreak of hostilities with the Mandalorians, the Marines expanded to include several wings of starfighters, to be equipped with the brand-new. Up until then, the Marines had also relied on Navy assault shuttles piloted by Navy crews, and it was realized that extra aerial support was needed for Marines to be effective in areas of active hostilities or contested landing zones. Since Navy starfighter pilots were expected to be proficient in with enemy starfighters in addition to attacking enemy capital ships, they did not have the level of atmospheric combat training that the Mandalorians demonstrated in their raids against the outlier worlds beyond the Republic. What was more, they did not have the same level of expertise with direct ground support operations. In addition, a specialized class of dropship, the T-32z Jarhead-class assault lander, was designed, with pilots initially drawn from the ranks of Navy Search and Rescue units. Some of the more daring smugglers, in lieu of prison time, were given the opportunity to serve as Marine dropship pilots, passing on tactics to the new generation that would eventually replace them.

The Marines' Aerospace Wings were designed to correct this deficiency. By recruiting new pilots from the circuits of the galaxy, the Marines were able to quickly field a force of combat-ready pilots who were as comfortable flying through the narrow artificial canyons of a city to attack a strong-point as they would be in the vacuum of space. With the exception of dedicated atmospheric and ground-attack training on top of standard space combat tactics, Marine aerospace units were readied and organized on broadly similar terms to their Navy counterparts. Aerospace Wings themselves were typically administrative units only, with the bulk of operations occurring at the squadron level. On large Republic capital ships, a squadron of Marine-piloted Aureks would be assigned to supplement the Navy starfighter units already stationed on board, and would typically take orders from the senior Marine commander. Individual squadrons would also be assigned to ground bases already garrisoned by Marines.
 * A wing, led by a captain, included three to four squadrons
 * A squadron, commanded by a lieutenant commander, included twelve starfighters
 * Each squadron was typically subdivided into three four-ship flights, led by full lieutenants

Blasters and other weapons
When they were first formed from the ranks of the Army and Navy, the Republic Marines made use of the same weapons and equipment as the forces they were recruited from. Eventually, after having honed their tactics and doctrine, they began to favor weapons of two distinct types: those that offered solid short-range stopping power, such as and light, rapid-fire, and high-powered  that could deliver reliable accuracy at ranges in excess of one and a half kilometers. Pistols and carbines were favored for close-quarters combat (CQC in Marine parlance), such as that which typically took place in boarding actions or room-to-room fighting in urban centers. Blaster rifles, on the other hand, saw the lion's share of service while a Marine unit was stationed out in the field, away from the more civilized parts of a planet. Specialized detachments used highly-modified versions of these long-range weapons, the result of which further increased their power and range; a trained Republic scout/sniper team, outfitted with such a rifle, could reliably inflict lethal damage at ranges exceeding three kilometers in ideal conditions.

Though Marine doctrine and ethos favored precision and mobility over brute strength and overwhelming firepower, the need for and usefulness of heavier types of weapons was still acknowledged. Depending on circumstances, a squad could include from one to three Marines outfitted either with s, s that could lob a variety of ordnance types, portable anti-vehicle missile platforms, or a combination of these types. Field units tended to assign their heavy weapons to a single fire team, who would employ their repeaters as a mobile base of fire to cover their comrades' movements on the battlefield. Marine companies and platoons stationed in space, however, placed a much smaller emphasis on the use of larger-scale weapons, as a misplaced explosive projectile could rupture the hull of a starship, or else accidentally damage components that were vital to continued operations. While shipboard units still maintained their allotment, these were typically kept in reserve, used only on those occasions when they would be called upon to fight on the surface of a planet or moon. Training in heavy weapons use was typically elective, with Marine volunteers taking courses in the use of various types after having graduated from boot camp.

Armor and gear
In addition to blasters or heavy weapons, Marines typically carried explosives that were somewhat more powerful than those carried by their counterparts in the Army, including low- to medium-yield s. Each squad included at least one demolitions specialist, who could draw upon the pool of ordnance carried by his or her fellows to achieve any number of objectives, often in non-conventional ways. Most Marine line soldiers also carried s, which were employed not only as last-ditch weapons, but also as tools. By the time of the Mandalorian Wars, the Marine Utility Knife Mk. I had been developed and circulated into general service; this item, sixteen centimeters long and nearly five centimeters thick, housed a folding vibroblade of some ten centimeters, in addition to a small hydrospanner, and other miniaturized tools useful in affecting field repairs to damaged weapons and equipment. While not as effective against as a blaster or, the blade could prove lethal if inserted into the gaps between armor plating. Filling out the typical assortment of field gear, each Marine was issued a multifrequency comlink, a grapnel hook and liquid cable, an emergency medical kit with kolto injector (later replaced by bacta), and extra power cells and gas cartridges for their weapons.

Training
"Marine training ain't for the faint of heart, and it ain't for the guy off the street, either. It takes guts and dedication to cut it as one of us, and if the DIs don't sense it in you...well, you've had it."

- Marine Sergeant Denaas Bekuur, in his memoirs

Basic training
The level of training given to Republic Marines was intense and grueling, both physically and psychologically. The Basic Marine Training Regimen, often referred simply as boot camp, lasted six months from time of enlistment to graduation as a Marine private. The very first week, referred to recruit and drill instructor alike as Hell Week, revolved around an initial twenty-four hour period of nonstop physical exercise that were interspersed with obstacle-course running under simulated combat conditions provided by live-fire blaster weaponry. The rest of the week was never the same for each training cycle, with the various platoon DIs mixing things up as they saw fit to impress upon the recruits exactly what they could expect to experience in wartime. Recruits who were unable to complete Hell Week due to accidental injury would be given the chance to go at it again, but those who chose to quit voluntarily were shipped off to the Republic Army or Navy due to the fact that they had still agreed to a term of military service. If a recruit made it through, which seventy-five percent of trainees did, then they passed through three separate phases, each two months long.

Basic Physical Training
Upon the completion of Hell Week, the recruit would pass through Basic Physical Training, or BPT, where they would learn Marine-style calisthenics and other forms of physical exercise intended to condition their bodies for long periods of stress. This period also covered basic hand-to-hand martial arts, wherein recruits learned unarmed combat training that drew inspiration from the various forms. While it was not as graceful, it put more emphasis on power and ending fights quickly in keeping with Marine doctrine. Also during BPT, recruits would be exposed to all manner of potential irritants and impairments, such as flashbangs and gas grenades, in order to experience their effects under controlled conditions. In the last two weeks of Basic Physical Training, the recruits would be issued their first suits of training armor, which was actually heavier and more cumbersome than those issued to line units, in order to acclimate to the idea of being so encased. For those two weeks, recruits were not allowed to remove the armor under any circumstances, except for doffing their helmets during mealtimes.

Basic Combat Training
After completing the BPT courses, recruits would enter Basic Combat Training, or BCT. During this phase, recruits would learn to master blaster pistols and rifles as well as the basics of melee combat with vibroblades. Physical exercises were continued, though less intense, and mainly as a means of continuing to keep recruits in shape and into the habit of staying in shape. Blaster marksmanship was seen as the keystone of a successful Marine; thus, this phase was the most critical time for any recruit despite their potential in any other field. Recruits were drilled extensively on the proper maintenance and field repair of common types of blasters, so that they could be better acquainted with that type of weapon. Marksmanship training also included shooting at stationary and moving targets from stationary and moving positions, and targets included such things as blaster s that fired back.

Advanced Combat and Tactical Training
Recruits who passed their Basic Marksmanship Test went on to the final phase of basic training, Advanced Combat and Tactical Training, or ACTT. At the beginning of this phase, the drill instructors would pick temporary squad and fire team leaders from within their units, assigning them to oversee the other recruits; these training NCOs were typically selected from among the best performers and encouraged to explore the concept of combat leadership. ACTT continued to emphasize the honing of a recruit's marksmanship skills and proficiency with other types of weapons, but it also introduced the many-fold problems and theories of battlefield tactics and strategies. This phase typically took recruits away from the well-established courses and training areas of a Marine training facility and out into the field, where they would learn about terrain and how to use it as cover and concealment. Other training included tactical formations and deployments, including rappelling training for use when deploying from assault landers or other forms of shuttlecraft, as well as simulated combat drills using practice weapons and target harnesses in platoon versus platoon actions.

The Blast Furnace
Upon the successful completion of Advanced Combat and Tactical Training, Marine recruits were taken through a last phase of training before being inducted into the Corps. This seventy-two hour period, nicknamed "the Blast Furnace," was intended to serve as the final test of everything the recruits had learned during boot camp. During the three day exercise, no recruit was permitted to sleep, and they were given only two high-calorie meals at twenty-four and forty-eight hours in. The first day consisted of forced marches in full armor and field gear, capped off with a night obstacle course run under live-fire conditions. Afterward, the recruits would share their experiences amongst themselves and their DIs, exchanging ideas and feelings about the progression of their training. At dawn the next day, the recruits would go through a series of field problems, once again using simulated weapons and target harnesses. These were also interspersed with more forced marches, and the field problems lasted well into the following night. The last day combined marching with more tactical problems, but the marches were plotted and the battles were led by the recruits themselves with no intervention or advice from their DIs. After completing the grueling course, the gathered units of recruits were pronounced true Marines in a quiet ceremony by the base's commanding officer.

Behind the scenes
The Republic Marines, as envisioned by fan fiction author Sean "Goodwood" Nash, are based heavily upon the as well as the Systems Alliance Marines from the computer and video games ' and ' developed by. First mentioned in the short story Star Wars: Death and Life, the Marine Corps itself was fleshed out considerably in the novellas and novels that followed within the Tales from the Corps series, also written by Nash.

Within the context of the  universe, the Marines were intended by Nash to bridge what he saw as a critical gap in the way galactic military forces operated, both in peacetime and in war. The only reference for an organization like the Marines in, as far as he is aware, was the Galactic Marines formed from a legion of clone troopers during the Clone Wars, and their Imperial counterparts, the latter of which only sees use in the computer and video game  and.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Death and Life
 * A Marine Went to Jedi Camp
 * Star Wars: Saber Battalion
 * The Last Full Measure
 * The Great Leap Forward