Centran Armed Forces

The Centran Armed Forces, abbreviated C.A.F., was the main fighting branch of the Centrality. Established as an organization for the self-defense of the Centrality created in 2,000 BBY by a – treaty, it initially consisted of volunteers and mercenaries and was divided into a force led by a magistrate and  units controlled by army generals as well as a separate , all three branches supervised by the incumbent Pr&aelig;tor. Typically deployed in smaller fleets or, on the ground, division-size units, the C.A.F. combated Hutt piracy and criminal activities, participated in peacekeeping duties on worlds rimward and guarded key government buildings within the Centrality itself.

After nearly two millennia without significant changes, the rise of the revolutionized the C.A.F. and the Centrality. Thanks to Imperial investments and supports, the armed forces were expanded to a million soldiers and two hundred s by using conscripts from the and purchasing. During the period, the navy saw action in the, an attempt by the Imperial viceroy and prophet  to root out gambler , but failed due to the resistance of the native. The C.A.F. then underwent gradual devolution following the shattering of the Empire in 4 ABY and the subsequent end of financial aid; the economic depression lasted until 15 ABY, when newly elected economic minister Vilos Cohaagen initiated a rearmament and reform program that ultimately ended the recession and extended the armed forces to fifty million men. Then, following the annexation of the two spinward neighbors of the Centrality in 23 ABY, the C.A.F. fought local resistance movements in a colonial war that resulted in losses numbering hundreds of thousands of combatants on both sides. Seven years later, the Centrans were forced to withdraw due to the population's attitude on the conflict, which started a decay of the armed forces that eventually reached its peak in 130 ABY, when most of the remaining units were wiped out during the invasion executed by.

Establishment and initial operations
As expansion trailing from the  reached its peak around 2,000 BBY, the  began to fear from the loss of its  and  in the region. After of confrontation, the two powers agreed to call a  to the  planet  to decide on the future of the region. The negotiating event resulted in the establishment of a non-aligned rimward of the  and coreward of. The resulting entity was named the Centrality and advisors from both s were sent to coordinate the setup of its facilities and national organizations. An of 200,000 and a  of 50,000 was created as part of the treaty to provide a solution to the  that, at the time, plagued the territory.

The new armed forces, their s and heavier armament leased from the Republic, were initially occupied in breaking down the string of pirate bases that had formed along the leading into the Centrality; such establishments consisted of s reinforced with  that could accommodate hundreds of  and about two frigates. The, whose final goal was to make along the Conduit safer, succeeded in destroying 47 of the estimated total of 50 by 1,900 BBY, killing an estimated 12,000 pirates and capturing three s in the process. This allowed for the reduction in s aiming to prevent the supply of such establishments, thus allowing for additional forces to guard key locations.

From 1,850 BBY, piracy reemerged as a threat, as long-range light s originating from worlds continually traversed the void trailing of the Centrality to obtain valuables and  in hit-and-run attacks on Centran planets and merchant shipping. To counter the emerging threat, the C.A.F.'s leadership introduced shipping; s were only allowed to travel in formations of ten to thirty guarded by one or two heavier warships and multiple lighter units and gunboats. Forty percent of all combat-capable ships were allotted to the task, while the resulting reduction of planetary defenses was countered by the construction of s. Around seventy percent of the project was financed by the Galactic Republic, which considered it an opportunity to weaken the Hutt-backed criminal organizations in the region. Apart from monetary support, the Republic also aided the Centrality in acquiring the raw materials, primarily and durasteel alloy, and transporting the resources to their destinations. Until the operation's conclusion, approximately 1,200 Republic s took part, shipping two million tonnes of s and destroying around three hundred pirate craft. The total cost of the construction project, combined with that of the maintenance of the participating ships, numbered thirty billion Centran credits.

Anti-piracy offensive
With the conclusion of the space station project, the C.A.F.'s leadership devised a strategy to assault the de jure neutral worlds trailing of the Centrality that harbored Hutt criminal activities. The offensive was preceded by years of exploration to find safe through the, a region of almost completely empty  in the area. Due to the lack of nearby bases, the cartographers only managed to complete their objective when C.A.F. operatives seized a small Hutt asteroid establishment that could be used as a supply point. By relocating their communications and reconnaissance equipment to the newly captured location, the C.A.F. managed to find the path used by the Hutt-operated vessels and pulled back to after logging the discovery.

Following the charting of the pirates' strike route, a detachment&mdash;two Hammerhead-class cruisers and thirty s&mdash;of the Second Fleet at were moved to Zebitrope to supplement the units already stationed there. The Galactic Republic also sent 500 volunteers and military advisors, who were to help in coordinating the operation. The first engagement took place two weeks after the movements had concluded, when a patrol sweep of two s and ten fighters investigated the source of a signal their sensor systems had detected. The ships came into contact with a Hutt capital ship of unidentified class and opened fire on it, eventually pulling back after more incoming craft had been detected. Hutt casualties numbered around 50 crew members and one damaged, while the Centrans lost two fighters and one of their corvettes.

The skirmish prompted the Centran Armed Forces to review their tactics, as the tactical branch of the leadership declared that the previous method&mdash;the use of light warships and fighters&mdash;was vulnerable should the patrol encounter larger enemy vessels. To provide a fix for the issue, the C.A.F. resorted to pulling the patrols back to a radius of no more than ten s around the object to be protected, allowing the heavier units stationed there to intervene in a shorter time interval if called. In the following month, 23 skirmishes were reported, of which twelve required assistance from more powerful warships; total Centran loss was fifteen fighters and a corvette, while Hutt casualties were reported to be at least twenty fighters and two larger craft. The increasing losses on the Hutts' end resulted in the use of more ships during movements and the reduction of the number of reconnaissance missions. The primary targets of pirate attacks also changed: the raiders shifted their focus on planets near the rimward end of the Open Sea, such as and, a feat made possible by charting a hyperspace route through the region, which branched off the original lane leading to Zebitrope near the Open Sea's westernmost point. The C.A.F sought to find and block the point of divergence, but the advance was stopped by a line of Hutt stations trailing of the Centran border, which caused the fleets to get bogged down in advancing from asteroid to asteroid to root out the pirates stationed in them. The strategic situation remained unchanged until around 1,700 BBY.

Breakthrough and termination of Hutt activities
In the following 1,700 BBY, the Centran Armed Forces received twenty  from the Galactic Republic, along with communications equipment and other shipboard auxiliary systems. The strengthened Centran fleets managed to destroy the remaining Hutt establishments blocking further advance towards the pirates' point of origin and the C.A.F. moved into the area, constructing bases on smaller asteroids and comets to aid in supplying the forces spearheading the assault. The naval base at Tund also dispatched units that proceeded along the raid route leading to ThonBoka; the two fleets met at the union of the two routes in 1,690 BBY. Approximately two hundred Hutt spacecraft had been destroyed during the operation, with Centran casualties numbering 4,000 personnel and around 170 ships.

Further conducted in the vicinity of the Alik Nebula&mdash;declared a neutral zone separating Hutt territory and the Centran &mdash;revealed Hutt fortifications and warships in the area; agents dispatched to the local, Ebusk, reported the presence of Hutt , officers and miscellaneous military personnel. The C.A.F.'s high command feared that the concentration of forces may be preparing for a retaliative attack on the Centrality as a prelude to a full-scale war against the Galactic Republic and contacted the latter party, providing it with copies of intelligence reports and reconnaissance data and requesting aid in the form of capital ships. The Republic government, preoccupied with investigating a possible Sith reemergence on, stated that it was, in its current state, unable to supply warships free of charge; as a compromise, the manufacturer of the Hammerhead class, , donated ten newly produced cruisers that were to be paid for over a period of fifteen years.

The Centran Armed Forces then initiated a operation by inserting over 100 personnel of the covert operations branch supported by hundreds of intelligence operatives and at least five s. The s executed raids and attacks on warehouses, command outpost and docks and sabotaging ships and equipment necessary for the handling of goods and machinery. The actions, codenamed Operation Sparkle, were called off a year later; until then, the participants destroyed or rendered unusable over 8,000 tonnes of Hutt supplies and equipment, more than 200 military personnel and conducted 1,200 actions of sabotage, with their own losses numbering 50, 120  and 10. The wounded were treated at a makeshift hospital disguised as a restaurant operating in the capital city of Ebusk before being extracted over the course of weeks. One of the s was detected by the Hutts and shot down, killing a further twenty medical personnel and victims, after which the site of the takeoffs and landings was moved to a forested mountain range ten kilometers from the capital, where the Centran craft landed in a clearing.

The decades that followed saw skirmishes along the border, both Centran raids on Hutt stations and Hutt sneak attacks on the Centrality's fleets. The standoff only ended in 1,600 BBY, when the Republic dispatched a flotilla to ensure the neutrality of the Alik Nebula, which resulted in the near-complete removal of Hutt military from the region and mutual supervision by both parties. As a result of the retreat, the ordered the cessation of invasive action in and around the Centrality; logs of the meeting and the decision were classified and would only be leaked a millennium later.

Reorganization and inner tension
As Galactic Republic intelligence determined that Sith activities had restarted in and its proximity as well as other Outer Rim worlds, the leadership Centran Armed Forces decided to conduct a restructuring of all branches to be able to combat the possible threat more effectively. The navy's capital ships, which had been operating alone or supporting smaller formations, were regrouped into blocks of five to ten warships and their support units, while the size of a stock division was increased from 3,000 to 5,000. The plan also saw the expansion of the special forces with a thousand additional soldiers and the purchase of modern military vehicles and spacecraft from various Republic shipbuilding enterprises.

The expansion of the military was viewed by certain student groups and pacifist political parties as the first step on the route to the devolution of local democracy and rioting spread across the Centrality. The attendants of the universities of attacked police stations and government facilities, while ten thousand people attempted to storm the parliament on Erilnar to keep the politicians hostage. In response, the law enforcement units were bolstered by soldiers armed with non-lethal weapons, such as sonic rifles or stun guns, thus reducing the number of protester encampments. Proprietary organizations dealing with riot control were also established, including the SRCTF&mdash;Special Riot Control Task Force, a rapid response detachment consisting of police officers receiving military training&mdash;the Political Security Group&mdash;a branch of the special forces concerned with organizations thought to be preparing for of the government&mdash;as well as a civilian company coordinating the equipment purchases of law enforcement units. The Centran on Junkfort Station became the gateway to the galaxy for these projects as the receiver of foreign transports and intelligence.

In 1,549 BBY, the Political Security Group zeroed in on Leonard Gashkiy, a lesser leader and weapons dealer who was observed several times in the Centrality, often with transports. The Centran Armed Forces' intelligence department determined that he was funding and arming a Hutt–dominated opposition cell preparing for a coup. A plan was made to or  Gashkiy, but he traveled to  in 1,548 BBY for a longer absence. Due to pressure from the government and the high command, the Centran special forces devised a to neutralize him; the operation was carried out the same year and resulted in Gashkiy's death, along with the loss of fifteen agents. A total of thirty-two persons deemed dangerous were assassinated until 1,500 BBY.

New Sith Wars
In 1,466 BBY, the Galactic Republic suffered a defeat in the from the, losing more than 500,000 soldiers and thousands of Jedi, which was followed by Sith advance in the  and the. The Republic withdrew its forces from several Rim outposts to s of particular economic or strategic significance, which resulted in the ceding of Dac and much of the to the Empire, thus allowing the Sith to engulf the  as well as the,  and s and attack the. Imperial strategists intended to continue advancing into the sectors Rimward of Hutt Space, which required the capture of the Centrality to improve supply conditions and reduce the danger of outflanking by the Hutt fleets that had moved in to protect the independence of Junkfort Station and guard the Triellus. Centran intelligence relayed the information about the Sith plans to the navy's high command, which convinced the parliament to provide a five-billion-credit boost to the military budget. The funds were used to renovate the fleet's capital ships and the aging space stations along the Arleen Loop together with fortifying Oseon, the planet that guarded the sole entrance to the Centrality. The preparations were aided by the Hutts&mdash;whose Grand Council gave up the previous policy of attempting to politically undermine the Centrans&mdash;with loans and warships.

From 1,450 BBY and onwards, the Centran High Command started to dispatch expeditionary forces to planets spinward of the Centrality to train the local armies and prevent Sith infiltration. The operations, which spanned much of the Shadola sector, resulted in the destruction of several suspected Imperial bases, though the of a hidden establishment in woodlands on the world of  sparked criticism from local inhabitants and media, which ultimately resulted in the substitution of the Centran forces on the planet with Hutt–owned militia. By 1,400 BBY, about 60,000 soldiers of the C.A.F. were involved in in the Shadola and&mdash;to a lesser extent&mdash;Jubilar sectors, supplemented by 40,000 Hutt mercenaries and troops. The Galactic Republic, preoccupied with preventing Coreward Sith advance along the Hydian Way, sent two relay satellites to make up for the lack of reliable faster–than–light communications methods in the area. The units were organized under the &aelig;gis of the Joint Peacekeeping Initiative&mdash;JPI&mdash;led by the rotating position of high general.

In 1,370 BBY, Maldra IV was attacked by an Imperial fleet of two cruisers and an invasion force of 8,000 troopers led by two Sith underlords. The Centran admiral responsible for the worlds's defense chose to avoid imminent spatial engagement with the superior enemy forces, instead waiting for the Imperials to deploy the ground forces after which he launched an assault with a Hammerhead-class cruiser and camouflaged artillery batteries located in the mountains. The Sith warships were caught with their shields down and both suffered damage, allowing the peacekeeping units to move in and destroy the remaining ground forces that had scattered following the downing of their craft. The incident prompted the Sith Empire to temporarily cease attacks in the region, a decision further influenced by the arrival of Republic reinforcements to the Perlemian. The area was spared of further damage in the conflict, as Imperial actions were limited to raids or espionage on backwater worlds, easily repulsed by the combined JPI forces. Following the defeat of the Sith at in 1,000 BBY, the Joint Peacekeeping Initiative was formally disbanded by its members, as the threat the Empire had presented disappeared.

Great Peace of the Republic
Following the end of the New Sith Wars, the Centran Armed Forces organized a project to deliver consumables, medicine and other supplies as well as raw materials needed for reconstruction to nearby worlds that suffered damage during the war. Participation in the program was free of financial restrictions, with the only condition being the permission of Centran military presence on the planet for an unspecified amount of time. The C.A.F. gained about 70 additional bases from the initiative.