Taldryan Army

Clan Taldryan's Army Service is an integral part of the Taldryan Security Service.

Information

The Army makes up the the largest part of the Taldryan Security Service, and is responsible for ground-based military operations. It's soldiers are ubiquitous in Taldryan territory, all clan members are very familiar with their black and gray uniforms. Organizationally the service is roughly modeled upon the Imperial Army, however in an appropriately simplified manner. The Army is commanded by Surface Marshall Travik Korr, who reports directly to Taldryan's Consul.

Army/Clan Interaction

The Army service is both independent of, and dependent upon, the Dark Jedi of Clan Taldryan. It's units are made up of entirely non-Jedi personnel and officers, fully capable of operating on their own. However, during large conflicts or particularly important engagements, Clan Jedi may be assigned to embed with individual units to bolster their strength. All Army units rotate through training modules designed to teach them the best ways to fight with Jedi support, and therefore can easily accommodate embedded Clan members.

The Army's officer core retains operational command of all units, regardless of embedded Jedi. While nearly all of the Clan's Jedi have combat skills, most lack essential tactical and strategic training, which is not offered until they have reached a moderately high rank or have specialized in combat command. Embedded Jedi often work with unit commanders during engagements, but they cannot overrule the Army officer's decisions. The Jedi themselves obey their own chain-of-command as set forth in the House and Clan system, and orders from the Clan command supersede Army orders. While seemingly complicated, the highest levels of Clan and Army command have vast experience in coordinating their forces and when they are deployed, Jedi-embedded units have been incredibly successful.

Command Structure

The command structure of the Army service is divided up among unit commanders who report up the chain of command to the Regional Unified Commands, who themselves report to Surface Marshall Travik Korr, the Army Command Council, and Clan Taldryan's Consul. The unit commanders are as follows:

Unit	Commanded By
Squad	Sergeant
Platoon	Lieutenant (1st or 2nd)
Company	Captain and staff
Battalion	Major and staff
Regiment	Colonel (Lt or Full) and staff
Battlegroup	General (Brigadier or Major) and staff

These organizational groups and their leaders can be found scattered throughout Taldryan's territory. To more easily supervise and conduct operations in the various areas, the territory controlled by the clan is divided into Regional Unified Commands. These commands are of various sizes – some may consist of a single continent upon a planet, other may consist the entire surface of a planet – determined by the population of the area and security needs. These Regional Unified Commands are headed by a Lieutenant General, full General, or High General.

The regional commands are coordinated by the Army Command Council. The Council is headed by Surface Marshall Travik Korr, and generally consists of six to eight General's along with their staffs, who plan and coordinate all of Taldryan's operations at the strategic level. These officers receive their training at the Taldryan Military Institute as all Taldryan Security Service officers do, but they also complete advanced War College courses in strategic planning and operations. Surface Marshall Tarvik Korr supervises and guides the actions of the Command Council, and brings all important operations to the Consul for final approval. The entire command structure can be seen here:

Taldryan's Army Command Structure

Taldryan's Army Command Structure

Recruitment and Training

Taldryan's Army Service fills it's ranks with a combination of volunteers and conscripts. Volunteers are preferred, and they make up the majority of the army's active soldiers. Enlistment centers are scattered throughout the clan's territories, and ever-present recruitment officers roam wherever potential soldiers can be found. Taldryan pays it's soldiers quite well, which makes an army career highly sought after on most planets. Making it into the Taldryan Military Institute and becoming part of the clan's officer core is the highest goal of many citizens, ensuring lifelong respect and a comfortable lifestyle. Conscript soldiers make up a much smaller portion of the army, and only serve in non-combat assignments. They are used to make up shortages in areas with few available recruits, or to fill essential logistical positions during wartime.

Army training is divided into two basic categories, individual and unit. All recruits are initially sent for ten weeks of basic combat training, followed by additional individual training for their specific specialization (Infantry, Artillery, etc). After individual training is completed, recruits are sent to one of the various Collective Combat Training Centers, where they spend ten weeks learning small unit tactics and maneuvering. This is done through a combination of classes and highly realistic, stressful, and demanding live-fire exercises. After completing this training, the recruit is officially graduated as a soldier and assigned to a unit. Once in-unit the soldiers training will continue on, as one of the Army's prime directives is “always be prepared”.

Special Forces

All Taldryan Army recruits are tested upon enlistment, and any male between the ages of 18 and 30 who scores in the top fifth percentile and meets the physical standards is automatically entered into the army's Special Forces. Special Forces units are tasked with ten specific missions: unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, direct action, guerrilla warfare, information operations, assassination, combat search and rescue, hostage rescue, security assistance, and force sensitive operations.

Their training begins the same as any other army soldier, basic training and infantry training combined in a 20 week-long course. After this is completed, they are sent to the Special Forces Qualification Course to participate in a demanding two month long small unit tactics course. Immediately after the completion of the small unit tactics phase, recruits are given survival, evasion, resistance and escape training, followed by lethal hand to hand combat techniques, and finally advanced weaponry and demolitions instruction.

After this training has been completed, the soldiers must choose which of the five Special Forces specialties they will receive instruction in: Officer, Weapons, Medical, Communications, and Engineer. This specialty training is crucial to the successful operation of the teams and is therefore very long and intense – generally it takes 60 weeks. Finally, all soldiers receive direct instruction by Taldryan's Dark Jedi combat instructors - they are given extensive knowledge in combating the Jedi arts, and are trained to resist most forms of mental control. The training is finalized with a series of large-scale, live-fire training exercises, after which the recruits are added to the active Special Forces pool.

Special Forces teams typically consist of eight to twelve men of mixed specialties, commanded by a Captain and Master Sergeant. They are stationed throughout Taldryan's territory and can be deployed anywhere they are needed within hours. They are one of the clan's greatest assets, and have proven their worth in battle many times over. Special Forces units have reported incredibly few mission failures, leading many Army officers to become much more willing to use the elite troops when a situation arises. In addition, many teams have proven themselves very capable of killing Dark Jedi, leading SpecForce command to designate specific teams as “Jedi Capable” - this has become the highest honor a team can earn, and is therefore sought after with a vigor by every active team.

Equipment

Soldier's Equipment

Taldryan Army Soldiers are the standard infantry of the Taldryan Security Service, and the most common soldiers found on Taldryan-controlled worlds and facilities. The equipment used by all of the Army soldiers is uniform based on squad type (Scout, Sharpshooter, Artillery, etc). They wear standard-issue uniforms enforced with plasteel combat armor. Standard armament includes a BlasTech E-14 Carbine and concussion grenades, and officers often carry a blaster pistol as a sidearm. In addition soldiers will carry field backpacks (containing a tent, water, rations, blaster power packs, and a glowrod) and a comlink.

Vehicles

The Army utilizes a wide array of ground vehicles, mostly of the Imperial-variety. These vehicles are assigned to individual units as necessary for specific missions, and together in armored units. Here is a brief list of some commonly used vehicles:

• Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry
• Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery
• Self-Propelled Medium Artillery
• 1-H Imperial-class Repulsortank
• 1-M Imperial-Class Repulsortank
• All Terrain Armored Transport
• All Terrain Anti-Aircraft
• All Terrain Scout Transport
• All Terrain Attack Pod
• All Terrain Reconnaissance Transport
• All Terrain Personal Transport
• TIE Crawler
• Heavy Assault Vehicle/repulsorlift A9 Floating Fortress
• Light Assault Vehicle/repulsorlift QH-7 Chariot
• PX-4 Mobile Command Base

Rank Structure

Enlisted

Ranks
Recruit
Private Second Class
Private First Class
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Master Sergeant
Sergeant Major
Command Sergeant Major

Officer

Ranks
Recruit
Second Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
High Colonel
Brigadier-General
Major-General
Lieutenant General
General
High General
Surface Marshall