Galactic Empire Special Operations Command

"Pax per prep obstino"

- Imperial Army Special Activities Regiment motto ("Peace through resolve")

The Galactic Empire Special Operations Command, colloquially known as the Imperial Special Operations Command (ISOC), was one of the component commands of the during the Legacy era. It was responsible for the training, equipment, organization, and command of all special operations forces of the, and drew personnel from all three major branches of Imperial military service — the , the , and — to conduct special operations in both the denied and domestic battlespaces. Under, the Special Operations Command was the only branch of the Imperial military legally authorized to conduct special operations in the name of the Empire, and its operators partook in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations across the galaxy.

The senior commander of the Special Operations Command, known as the "Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Special Operations Command", was a full of the Imperial Navy, and would be represented on the seven-membered Council of Moffs, reflecting the prestigious tenure of the Imperial Special Forces. The Special Operations Command was a senior command of the Imperial Armed Forces, and reported directly to the and its commander, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces.

Casus genesis (97 ABY)
The impetus for the creation of the Imperial Special Operations Command, its casus genesis, laid in the turbulent times of the middle years of the. In, a devastating and stunning turn of events would occur when , the Chief of State of the Galactic Empire, would be assassinated through unknown machinations. While the Empire reeled from the decapitation of its executive branch, his successor and son, the fifteen-year-old, would be covertly sworn in, and would resume his father's tenure as Galactic Emperor. The death of his father and the assumption of the title at such a young age would impress the young Roan with unforgettable lessons: that control of the feuding factions of the Imperial government was a political necessity, and that he, as Emperor, must ensure that such an atrocity would never happen again.

Therefore, even at such a young age, the hardened Roan Fel would instigate a scathing design of the while the assassin was sought out. Fel, liberally using his title, administered sweeping changes to the Imperial Armed Forces and to ensure such an intelligence failure would not occur again. The, long an independent Imperial intelligence service, was immediately amalgamated into , which became the centralized apparatus of the Imperial intelligence community. Furthermore, Roan would mandate the creation of the six-membered Council of Moffs, an organized body for leaders of both military and civil services to report to him.

However, one thing was clear: even the vaunted and even elite airborne soldiers such as those of the  had been powerless to stop such an assassination attempt. Immediate change in the Imperial Armed Forces was necessary to forestall another such galactic crisis. The answer was in small, highly-trained teams of humans and aliens, who practiced not mass warfare by press of arms, but instead, used covert force and precise application of force to inhibit terrorism and insurgency within the Empire: Special Operations Forces (more commonly known as "Special Forces").

The precedence for coordinated Imperial galactic special forces was firmly established in the Galactic Republic Special Operations Command, originally implemented in the as unified command to coordinate the operations of the es. However, after the Clone Wars, shockingly, the majority of the Empire's special forces units had receded into the cosmic background. Under the tenure of, who placed little stock in the infantry of the Imperial Military, the only units approximating true special forces were fascimiles such as the es, who were largely used as praetorian guards for ostentatious military commanders, and then veteran stormtrooper corps such as the , which were used as "shock troops" to preface the advance of conventional stormtrooper legions.

In contrast, the Rebel Alliance's special operations forces, the, had been used to dramatic effect against Palpatine's legions of tactically-antediluvian stormtroopers, and New Republic commando units such as "" also had achieved spectacular successes against the waning Empire.

Activation (98 ABY)
Therefore, in a bold move, newly-christened Emperor Roan Fel the Third immediately mandated the formation of an Imperial Special Operations Command, alongside the and the, to train, coordinate, and command newly-activated Imperial Special Operations Forces, in the reminiscence of the Galactic Republic Special Operations Command and its special forces. The first special operations forces activated were the Imperial Army Special Operations Group (after the 1st Republic Special Operations Brigade) and Naval Special Warfare (after the Galactic Republic Naval Special Warfare). Operators for both units were drawn from veteran s, and their Naval counterparts, the, with both commissioned officers and enlisted operators chosen.

After recruitment, both enlisted and officer candidates were passed through a rigorous and newly-formed Special Forces Selection course established on, designed to test the physical fitness, mental fitness, independence, and perseverance of the commando candidates. Stormtroopers who passed Selection were immediately transferred from their former parent units to the 1st Special Forces School on, where they were begin the Basic Operator Training Course and Special Forces Indoctrination courses, where they would begin to learn the tradescraft that discriminated special operations forces from the conventional infantry. Marines who passed Selection were transferred to the 2nd Special Forces School on, where they would undergo parallel training, but with more orientation to combat operations in zero-g.

The first graduates of the 1st Special Forces School would begin the Imperial Army Special Operations Group and the first graduates of the 2nd Special Forces School would begin Naval Special Warfare, and the resurrection of the supermassive Galactic Republic Special Operations Command had begun.

Early History (98—99 ABY)
"Upstarts! No one crosses the 501st Legion..."

- General, complaining to his subordinate officers on the unfair privileges imparted to the early Special Operations Command

The first operations of both the Imperial Army Special Operations Group and Naval Special Warfare would begin in, after Selection, Operator Training, and Indoctrination had produced the first batches of Imperial commandoes. However,, who had been responsible for the formation of the Imperial Special Forces, would insist on having the young organization under his tight and personal control, partly in memory of his father, of which he was sure would not have fallen if there had been Imperial commandoes patrolling the galaxy and stamping out all terrorism or insurgency that threatened the Empire before it could reach that scale.

As a result, the Special Operations Command would become somewhat of a joke, with Emperor Fel labeled the "Armchair General", a reference to the fact he had no military experience, and yet was attempting to coordinate several hundred thousand Soldiers and Marines. Because of Roan's favoritism, Special Forces officers were often quickly-promoted well before their time, but their operations were only partially effective under Fel's backseat driving, although there would be a notable success when a Army Special Forces team in, through quick work, would prevent the kidnapping of the Imperial ambassador to. However, largely as a whole, the Special Operations Command was hindered by Fel's lumbering bureaucracy, although Special Forces officers were highly-promoted within the organization.

Fortunately, members of the began to oppose Fel's backseat command of the Special Operations Command. Not only were the newfound Imperial special forces operationally clumsy because of his tight oversight, but the Special Operations Command, with its extravagant promotion and inside connection to the Emperor, was being seen by the more largely and largely as a Praetorian guard to the Emperor — highly-trained commandoes who answered to the Galactic Emperor and whose unconventional nature made them outside of the traditional chain of military command. Eventually, Moffs would begin to fear that Emperor Fel was marshaling a paramilitary army within the Imperial Special Forces that would eventually be used to dethrone them, if power struggle games between the galactic throne and the Moff Council became too fierce.

Therefore, the Council of Moffs unanimously submitted a correspondence to Roan Fel insisting that for the sake of "military uniformity", that the Special Operations Command's status as the Emperor's personal attack dog be called off, and instead that it be subjected to the traditional chain of military command, answering to the (and more importantly, the ) and not the Emperor and his aides. In their proposal, they also stated that having the Special Operations Command under the control of career military commanders (unlike Emperor Fel) would increase the efficiency of their special operations and allow the Special Operations Command to fulfill its full potential. However, in reality, the Special Operations Command, with its highly-trained and well-armed infantry commandos, had become a threat to people like General, commander of the — whereas the 501st Airborne Legion would typically be called to extinguish insurgency, now, it was the Special Operations Command that got the call; the careers of very senior Army Generals and stormtrooper commanders were now at risk by Fel's radical paramilitaries. These very same Generals such as Jaeger wanted Fel to relinquish the Special Operations Command from his grasp, and then intended to scatter the Imperial special forces far and wide, allowing the elite stormtrooper divisions to now be the first responders to terrorism.

Emperor Roan Fel, in another one of his notorious power games, would accede to the Moffs, but with an added condition, a thorn in the Council's side — that the Special Operations Command be a full unified command of the Imperial Armed Forces, equal in status to the and the, which were both millions of times larger. Furthermore, he dictated that the Commander-in-Chief of the Special Operations Command would be one of the twelve s and would become the seventh and newest member of the exclusive.

This was a tremendous effrontery to many stalwart Army Generals and Navy Admirals, since both the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy were millions of times larger than the Special Operations Command: it was too difficult to train enough special forces operators to accrue large batches of them, unlike the Army legions, who were typically packed with recruits who had signed up right after they had reached the age of legal consent. It was even more insulting, as now, the Special Operations Command would have a senior commander who would be equal in military rank to distinguished figures such as, the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Furthermore, if the Special Operations Command was accrued a new seat on the six-membered Council of Moffs, the very small and renegade Special Operations Command would be represented in the highly prestigious council, whereas other uniformed services of the Imperial military such as the and the  would be entirely overlooked on the Moff Council, which would consist of: the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces, the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Army, the, the Chief of State of the Diplomatic Corps, and the Director of the Imperial Mission — and now, the Commander of the Special Operations Command, an infinitesimal subdivision of the Imperial military. "This intelligence agency has noted the striking similarities in the dispositions of Jacen Solo and current Galactic Emperor Roan Fel, both Force-sensitives who had political enemies they wished to subvert — and also between the of old and the current "Imperial Special Operations Command", both consisting of commandoes beyond the control of the Imperial military..."

- Anonymous internal memo to the

However, to Fel's benefit, paranoia was sweeping through the Council of Moffs, as several hysterical agents purported to have "incontrovertible intelligence from highly-placed sources" that Emperor Fel would be using his "private army", the Special Operations Command, to instigate a coup to overthrow the Moffs — fittingly similar to how  had used his own secret police organization, the, to launch a coup against Chief of State Cal Omas sixty years earlier. These wildly-inaccurate Intelligence correspondences would make the majority of the Moffs fear that Army Special Forces teams were going to show up on their doorsteps in days, and forced the hand of the Moffs to accept Fel's compromise — the Special Operations Command would become under the control of the (and therefore would be unable to launch a coup against the Moffs) — but in exchange, the Commander-in-Chief of the Special Operations Command would be both a Grand Admiral and the seventh Moff.

The pact would be finalized in early, with a Army Special Forces officer, General August Veers, the descendant of the esteemed , assuming the rank of the twelfth of the Imperial Military and as the seventh and newest installation to the.

Reorganization of the special operations forces (99 ABY—102 ABY)
"Green light for incursion — repeat, green light for incursion. Weapons free."

- Grand Admiral August Veers authorizing the Naval Special Warfare operation to retake the

Under 's unofficial tenure as "Armchair General" of the Special Operations Command, its two component special operations forces, the Army Special Operations Group (Army) and Naval Special Warfare (Navy) were moreorless performing the same operations — providing security for governmental dignitaries, counterterrorism, etc... — despite the fact that they were vastly different organizations: Naval Special Warfare, like its predecessor in the, was composed of Marines that were trained to practice direct action operations in deep space and zero-g, and for combat actions on space stations or spaceships. Meanwhile, Army Special Forces operators had been trained primarily for fighting on planetary surfaces. The delegation of Naval Special Warfare commandoes to planetary operations largely forfeited their expertise, reflecting Roan Fel's unfamiliarity with how to run a day-to-day military command.

After Grand Admiral August Veers assumed the position of the first Commander-in-Chief of the Special Operations Command, he would instigate reform within the fledgling organization: the Army Special Operations Group would become the dedicated counterterrorism force for all surface actions, while Naval Special Warfare would become the dedicated counterterrorism force for all spaceborne actions. The exosphere of a planet's atmosphere became the dividing line between the jurisdiction of the two special operations forces: any Special Operations conducted by the Empire in the atmosphere or on the surface were the jurisdiction of the Army Special Operations Group, whereas any special operations conducted by the Empire in an orbit of a planetary body or anywhere in space would become the jurisdiction of Naval Special Warfare.

This would greatly simplify the chain of command of many Imperial special operations. The Army Special Operations Group became responsible for the protection of government VIPs on the surface and for the famed "terrorist hunt" chases in yonder mountain ridges on backwater planets, while Naval Special Warfare took place in resolution of the hijacking of civilian freighters, and in boarding actions of ships suspected to carry armaments or weapons of mass destruction.

Soon thereafter being amalgamated into a military chain-of-command, the Imperial Special Forces would achieve notable victories, such as the rescue of after he was kidnapped by terrorists on, and then the recovery of the , a Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer that had been hijacked by n fanatics while it was patrolling the. The Imperial Special Operations Command soon became a prized asset to the Empire, threatening the Emperor's exacting and furious retaliation upon all terrorists and insurgents who sought to undermine the peace. While a very new and inexperienced organization, soon, Imperial commandoes would become respected by their counterparts in the, with whom they were at peace as of 99 ABY.

Eventually, under a program to ease political tension between the Galactic Alliance and the Empire, select Imperial commandoes would undergo training with the and the Galactic Alliance Navy Strike Troops, with their more experienced Galactic Alliance counterparts mentoring and training them in the clandestine arts of direct action and special reconnaissance.

In, the Special Operations Command would recognize an impediment in the operations of the Army Special Operations Group on planetary surfaces — that their methods of insertion and extraction from denied areas was extremely hindered. There were few Army aviators who were rated to perform high-risk incursions into denied airspaces, as Army aviators were typically far less-well trained than their Navy counterparts in the Pilot Corps. However, special operations commanders would realize an ingenious solution with the Imperial Navy Search and Rescue program, a program designed by as part of his "" initiative to win the minds and hearts of his citizens — the creation of a sophisticated Navy unit which was responsible for searching for lost civilian spacers and freighter pilots in space or in the atmosphere, and then extracting them back home. While Search and Rescue was a strictly-noncombatant unit designed specifically to save the lives of civilian pilots, the Special Operations Command realized that there already existed a body of elite Navy pilots and navigators who had the potential to insert or extract Army Special Forces personnel; and to search for them, if they became lost in the fierce fighting.

Preface
A result of dramatic reform throughout the Imperial military after the ascension of Galactic Emperor Roan Fel to the Imperial throne, the Imperial Special Operations Command would be a newly-activated joint forces command that would assume control of special missions units attached to the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, and Imperial Intelligence, coordinating Imperial special operations cohesively across a galactic scale. This uniform organization was performed to synchronize Imperial special operations and to encourage the joint-arms integration of special forces from all three major branches of service, to create new joint-capability special forces units.

Other Imperial military services, such as the Imperial Engineering Corps and the Imperial Surgical Corps, which did not possess direct-action units, did not directly contribute to Special Operations Command's frontline combat units, instead often rendering auxiliary support through noncombatant means. During the Legacy Era, the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps would be subordinated underneath the Imperial Army, therefore placing Army stormtrooper units within Special Operations Command's jurisdiction.

The position of "Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Special Operations Command" was typically held by a High General of the Imperial Army or a of the Imperial Navy, due to the high demands placed upon the Special Operations Command during the unique challenges to Imperial stability during the Legacy Era. The commander-in-chief was typically closely connected to the Director of Imperial Intelligence, due to the close association between Imperial special operations as well as Imperial intelligence-gathering. The collaboration between the two commands was such that even certain Intelligence special units were placed under the formal command of the Imperial Special Operations Command.

Imperial Army

 * 501st Storm Legion (Airborne): Elite stormtrooper corps established since the, responsible for the fielding of highly-mobile veteran infantry units during the . Fields airborne-capable parachutists, amalgamating the mass firepower and manpower of the with the special operations capability of the Special Operations Command.
 * Army Special Operations Group: Principal Army special operations force, mainly practicing advanced special operations such as counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, unconventional warfare, and security operations in both the friendly and denied battlespaces. Precedent and parent organization for the Tactical Applications Division.
 * Army Special Activities Regiment (SABER): Premier Army special activities division, performing sensitive operations in support of and 's Sith Order. Responsible for selective counterforce operations against hostile Special Forces units, and for clandestine penetration, prosecution, or kidnapping of enemy high-level personalities.

Imperial Navy

 * Naval Special Warfare: Premier Navy counterterrorism unit, prosecuting advanced special operations requirements. Performs high-risk naval special operations in unconventional environments, such as boarding of hostile warships, zero-g operations, assault of hostile space stations, assault of orbital platforms and sattelites, extremely high-speed orbit-to-surface insertion, and maritime and riverine operations. Successor of the 3rd Special Forces Group of the former Galactic Republic Special Operations Command, 1st Special Operations Brigade.


 * Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR): Unique Navy special operations force instituted by the direct mandate of Galactic Emperor Jagged Fel and the "" doctrine. Originally implemented to rescue stranded civilian ships, later adopted by the Special Operations Command to also perform high-risk rescue missions to retrieve lost and besieged commando teams in hostile environments.


 * Marine Advance Force Operations: Principal Marine—Navy surface reconnaissance force, responsible for preparation of surface battle-spaces for Navy units in orbit. Primarily provide special reconnaissance, practicing clandestine orbit-to-surface insertion and then proceeding to liaison with Navy Star Destroyers and fighter wings, coordinating orbital gunfire and fighter strikes on planetary targets.

Imperial Intelligence

 * Special Clandestine Activities Regiment (SCAR): Elite special activities division of, responsible for the collection of human intelligence and more specialized forms of intelligence, and also authorized to conduct special activities not officially sponsored by the Galactic Empire, such as assassination, espionage, extortion, and kidnapping.

Behind the Scenes

 * The elaborate ranking hierarchy of the Galactic Empire Special Operations Command drew from multifarious sources: the rank insignias themselves were either from Halo 3 or were photoshopped from the game, and the rank titles were mostly based on the ranking structure of the United States Armed Forces, although there were contributions from the  and also Mass Effect.