August Veers was a commissioned officer of the Imperial Army, and would later become the founding member of the Imperial Army Special Operations Group and the first Commander-in-Chief of the Galactic Empire Special Operations Command as the twelfth Grand Admiral of the Imperial Military and the seventh Moff of the Council of Moffs. He was the son of Zevulon Veers and the grandson of the infamous Maximilian Veers. Veers would also hold a Bachelor's in Political Science and a Master's in Macroeconomics from the University of Commenor.
Biography[]
Education[]
August Veers was born in 28 ABY on the planet of Commenor into the Veers family: his father was Zevulon Veers, and his grandfather was Maximilian Veers, a renowned Imperial general best known for the infamous Imperial victory at the Battle of Hoth and who had been a pioneer in the astoundingly successful employment of Imperial AT-AT walkers in the field. However, his grandfather would perish over petty jealousies in the Empire, and Zevulon, seeing how his father had died over such ridiculous feuds, demanded that his son, August, stay out of the Imperial military service.
Zevulon would strongly encourage his son to become an academician, and the young Veers, unlike many in his family, attended a public university instead of a military academy, the esteemed University of Commenor, a galactically-renowned school for the political sciences. August would graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and then would attend postgraduate studies, earning a Master's Degree in Macroeconomics, also from Commenor. Although fully intending to earn his Doctorate, the death of his father Zevulon would lead August uninspired, and without his father's guidance, he entirely threw away his promising career in academia, instead attending the Imperial Academy at the age of twenty-eight to finally experience the military lifestyle that had been denied to him by his father — the lifestyle that had brought his grandfather, Maximilian Veers, such galactic renown.
August would enjoy a prematurely-promoted career in the Imperial Army. His reputation as the grandson of Maximilian Veers surpassed him, although he would surprise many by instead electing to join the Infantry Corps instead of the Armor Corps where his grandfather had made his legacy. He was also lauded because of his Master's degree and his Bachelor's degree, two degrees that many Imperial Army officers didn't have, especially from such a fine establishment such as the University of Commenor.
Early Military Experience[]
After graduating, Veers would be immediately offered a prestigious and cushy position in the famous Novatroopers, but he would defer, not wanting to partake in another honor guard establishment that would be the same as the "soft" academic life he had enjoyed thus far. He instead served his first six years with the Radiation Assault Corps, a very utilitarian and high-risk specialized stormtrooper unit darkly infamous for its very high casualty and cancer rate, for obvious reasons. Promoted to the rank of Captain by the end of six years, Veers would serve in rigorous tours of duty on the planets Qat Chrystac and Mustafar, some of the most dangerous theaters of operations in the entire galaxy.
Next, he would transfer to serve with the Imperial Scout Corps with the scout troopers, where he would stay for over a dozen years — there, he had made positive intellectual contributions, where he helped to re-write the Imperial Field Manuals for scout trooper operations, suggesting new camouflage patterns for the scout troopers, detailing more advanced reconnaissance procedures in urban areas, and also regarding standard protocol for joint attack control and liaison with higher-order commands to leverage artillery or orbital fires and to participate as forward fire observers. Then-Colonel Veers would become well-respected in the Scout Corps for making suggestions far above his pay grade, which ultimately helped to remodel the Scout Corps into a more dedicated reconnaissance role, as it had always been intended to be.
Jump Corps[]
As a newly-minted Brigadier General (High Colonel), Veers would finally transfer to serve with the Imperial Jumptroopers. At the time, the Jump Corps was laughable: the majority of the Army saw them as oversized stormtroopers with rocket packs. The employment of Jumptroopers in the field was highly inefficient, and on planets where the Jumptroopers were stationed, such as Bespin, they were simply relegated as "extra muscle" for stormtrooper field teams, with stormtrooper squads typically having one or two Jumptroopers in the back, flying around and indiscriminately providing ineffective augmenting fires. Not only did this malign the reputation of the Jumptroopers, but Veers saw it as a tremendous waste of the potential tactical advantage that could be provided by the Jumptroopers.
Brigadier General Veers would detach his entire Jumptrooper division from the "conventional" stormtrooper infantry, instead forming Jumptrooper-only battalions on the planets he toured on. Instead, he would form them into "rapid deployment forces" (RDFs): Veers reasoned that they were far too expensive and well-trained to participate in stormtrooper patrols, but that they were perfectly equipped to be rapid-reaction squadrons that could react to emerging tactical situations. Instead of having them participate in standard field duties, Veers wrote operating protocols for jumptroopers to perform "vertical envelopment" as a method of ingress into the field: rocketing off from overhead shuttles and gunships, and plunging into the fray from hundreds of meters in the air. When on the surface, Veers emphasized their mobility: whereas conventional stormtrooper squads could reposition only as fast as they could run, encircled jumptroopers could simply rocket out above the next building, or if needed, dozens of jumptroopers could launch into the air and land on an enemy bunker simultaneously, completing bypassing enemy defenses.
Hostile forces generally surrendered when they saw the skies above them blossom into a rain of thousands of firing jumptroopers, all rocketing to their positions.
In emphasizing warfare that was more maneuvering than brute force, emphasizing tactical positioning rather than press of arms, General Veers unwittingly was advocating special operations tactics for his shock infantry: indeed, his jumptrooper divisions were more akin to commando units than to massive stormtrooper legions. His ingenious tactical methods and novel operating procedures would earn him many victories in the field and numerous accolades and decorations, and he eventually obtained the rank of Surface Marshal and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial 1st Jump Corps (Airborne), commanding Imperial Jumptroopers everywhere in the galaxy.
Special Forces[]
His re-invention of special warfare strategies made him the logical candidate for Roan Fel to head his newly-formed Special Operations Command in 97 ABY. Installed as the twelfth Grand Admiral of the Imperial Military and the seventh and newest Moff of the Council of Moffs, August Veers would become the first Commander-in-Chief of the Galactic Empire Special Operations Command: an unprecedented honor. Many military historian were already comparing him to his grandfather: however, where Maximilian Veers was to the heavy armor divisions, August Veers was to the airborne infantry, a pioneer in the usage of vertical operation-capable infantry in urban combat.
Although the head of the Special Operations Command, Grand Admiral Veers would become notably attached to the Imperial Army Special Operations Group, the first special operations force authorized to conduct surface operations. Veers had a slight favoritism for the Army Special Forces over Naval Special Warfare, as he had never served in a Navy unit all his life and had difficulty familiarizing himself with spaceborne counterterrorism and special operations.
Behind the scenes[]
August Veers was named in part after Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, the first Emperor of the Roman Empire.