Third Empire Stormtrooper

"They are a new breed of Stormtrooper. A new face of evil."

- Maria Vol Eden The Third Empire Stormtrooper Corps was a force of both volunteers, conscripts and eventually Clones that formed the backbone of the Third Empire Army and Navy. Though modeled off of the Clone Troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Stormtrooper Corps of the Galactic Empire, Third Empire Stormtroopers were an entirely new force, requiring to be built from the ground up as the terms of the Galactic Concordance forbade the usage of Stormtrooper Corps within the Imperial Remnant.

Origin
In 5 ABY, following the disastrous battles of Jakku and Utapau, the council of Moffs and the remaining Admirals of the battered Imperial Navy were left divided on the issue of whether or not to continue fighting the newly forged New Republic and its emboldened ally, the Dominion of Free Systems, or to surrender with terms while such an option was still feasible. Soon after these losses, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda and Supreme Chancellor Mon Mothma would meet and discuss the terms of surrender, leading to the signing of the Galactic Concordance.

One of the terms stipulated in the treaty was the dismantling of much of the remaining Imperial fleet and the dissolution of the various Stormtrooper Corps operating within what was now dubbed the "Imperial Remnant". Though this was a vastly unpopular condition, acting as one of the driving motives for a large chunk of the Imperial Fleet to retreat to the Unknown Regions, it was eventually met. Though some Military leaders would attempt to maintain a number of Stormtroopers, these were inevitably discovered and forcibly dissolved for the sake of peace as some semblance of autonomy from the New Republic.

However, by the year 22 ABY the hawkish Imperial Crimson Fleet had begun the reconstruction of the Stormtrooper Corps, styling them "Crimson Stormtroopers", though this was a front maintained by a secret alliance between the Fleet's Admiral and the Sith Lord Darth Petruv. The Admiral, who had longed harbored designs to do away with Petruv after the Sith Lord was no longer of use, wrongly believed that these Stormtroopers were intended to become the mainstay force of the Imperial Remnant. Petruv, however, intended them to be the mainstay of his own, future empire that would rise from the ruins of the Remnant. It was Petruv's vision that was realized, in the year 34 ABY, with the destruction of the Hosnian System, and the New Republic along with it. With the First Order "victorious" in its Cold War against the New Republic, more accurately Leia Organa's Resistance, the Imperial Remnant began to collapse upon itself, with the various factions divided over whether to declare their allegiance to the First Order or attempt to make their own way. Most chose the First Order while those that didn't rallied to the side of the Tantis, just in time for the second phase of the Corps creation to be complete; the arrival of 500,000 units (Ten squads of Ten Troops as well as the necessary support vehicles and crew) of a new batch of Clones created specifically for the new Stormtrooper Corps. Kirza Tantis was quickly assassinated, as he began his plot against Petruv, by his own wife, who had been turned into a Mind-controlled sleeper agent by Petruv's fellow Sith Darth Dreyvus, with Petruv stepping out of the shadows to assume direct leadership over the Crimson Fleet. Though a few supporters of the Admiral defected to the First Order, most recognized Petruv's authority and pledged themselves to the Sith Lord and his new order; The Third Empire. And thusly, the "Crimson Stormtroopers" became recognized as the Third Empire Stormtroopers.

Organization
Despite being based upon the corps utilized by the Galactic Empire, the Third Empire Stormtroopers also drew inspiration from the preceding force, the Clone Troopers of the Galactic Republic, and the Stormtroopers utilized by the Third Empire's rival force, The First Order. As a result of its smaller size, in turn due to the initially clandestine nature of the Corps, a greater emphasis was placed on creating an elite and flexible fighting force capable of a wide variety of tasks on a tactical, and operational, level. This philosophy continued even after The Third Empire was officially formed and the corps was bolstered by a new generation of Clones.

Stormtroopers were organized into Squads of Ten, Ten of which comprised a "Unit" as the cloners initially dubbed them (later a Company) of which ten comprised a Battalion, with each squad containing both a Squad Leader, identified by a Yellow shoulder guard, and one specialist trooper, armed with a weapon more suited to a specific battlefield role such as a Heavy Gatling Blaster or Flamethrower. Additionally, one Squad in each Unit was also required to comprised wholly of a new generation of Jet Troopers, adding to the tactical capabilities of a single company.

The new Stormtrooper Corps as a whole was almost entirely loyal to Darth Petruv, openly declaring as such when he became the Emperor of The Third Empire. In the event that the Emperor were ever killed or otherwise incapacitated or separated by the Chain of command, control of the Corps would pass to his appointed hand, usually a Sith within the Empire. While many of the holes in the command structure were readily filled by qualified members of the former Remnant's military, a new generation of officers were also trained for the role and many of Petruv's Sith, or Sith alligned, agents were also inserted into favorable positions within the Chain of Command.