Stormtrooper Corps (SWAU)

The Stormtrooper Corps was an independent military branch within the Imperial Military of the first Galactic Empire, and later the reconstituted Empire under the Fel Dynasty. They functioned under their own command structure, though they de facto answered to the Emperor. The stormtroopers were the elite shock troopers of the Empire and the chief enforcers of the Emperor's will, regarded in the utmost respect by those in the military and the civilian population alike. Their uncompromising loyalty to the Empire and its leader are traits that every Imperial soldier looked up to. The stormtroopers' ranks were numerous and were fitted with advanced armour and weaponry, and were among the most elite of the Imperial Military.

When the stormtroopers were first formed, they consisted of all the former Republic clone troopers that the Empire inherited after the Clone Wars. They were kept as a separate branch of the Imperial Military, as the Imperial Army was created brand new to incorporate enlisted soldiers from the Imperial populace. The last mass-produced batch of Fett clones were created in 12 BBY, the same year a rebellion occurred on Kamino headed by renegade scientists who created clones bred to take arms against the Empire. Afterwards, the Emperor decided a singular genetic template was too susceptible to corruption and enlisted many other people to serve as genetic templates; not long after however, the Stormtrooper Corps would take in many enlisted soldiers in order to inflate the numbers of the Corps as a psychological tactic, and the cloning of soldiers would be drastically reduced, with new clones bred only for special forces and experimental units. As the Stormtrooper Corps became more and more diverse, tensions between the original Fett clones and the new recruits coupled with the noticeably-reduced quality of the newer soldiers threatened the integrity of the organization by the Battle of Yavin, leading to the Stormtroopers losing their.

Weapons
The Stormtrooper Corps' standard weapon was the E-19 blaster carbine, which was a weapon system improved from the E-11 blaster carbine, the quintessential Imperial blaster that was standard-issue for decades. The E-19 replaced the E-11, E-15 and E-11D blaster carbines, all of which still exist in the Imperial military and planetary militias in varying quantities (though are planning to be completely phased out in the Army). Stormtroopers also make use of heavy repeating blasters, including the ARC-199 and DLT-19 light repeating blasters, and specialized Heavy Troopers used rocket launchers and heavy repeating blasters.