Coastal defender stormtrooper

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Coastal defender stormtroopers—more commonly known as shoretroopers^[1] and also known as the coastal guard,^[10] with those stationed on the planet Scarif referred to as Scarif stormtroopers^[11]—were a specialized variant of the Galactic Empire's stormtroopers trained and equipped for combat in tropical environments.^[2] Organized into the Coastal Defense Division,^[9] shoretroopers operated under the command of sergeants, leading squads of regular stormtroopers. One of the notable aspects of coastal defender stormtroopers was that the position they served in was temporary and subject to change along with their rank. On a galactic scale, shoretroopers as a whole were scarce, as the conditions for necessitating their employment were few and far between, as few stations or garrisons were located on coastal/tropical planets.^[1]

History[]

Many coastal defender stormtroopers were stationed at the top secret Imperial security complex on the tropical planet Scarif, where they patrolled the beaches and bunkers of the facility.^[6] Del Meeko, later a member of Inferno Squad, served as a shoretrooper on Scarif prior to becoming a TIE fighter pilot.^[12] In 1 BBY,^[13] shoretroopers participated in the Battle of Scarif against the Rebel Alliance, where many of them were killed when the Death Star blew up the Imperial security complex to wipe out the remaining Rebels.^[14]

Around 0 ABY,^[13] shoretroopers came into conflict with Rebel leaders Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker after they crashed on an ocean planet.^[7]

During the New Republic Era, shoretroopers served in an Imperial remnant, and were also deployed to Morak to protect the mining facilities from insurgent and rebel attacks in 9 ABY.^[8]

During the Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order, Agent Terex of the First Order Security Bureau had possession of a shoretrooper helmet aboard the Carrion Spike that was displayed next to the helmets of an Imperial Royal Guard, an AT-AT pilot, a death trooper, and others, along with a custom set of armor.^[15] The First Order military also fielded mountain troopers who wore armor that resembled that of the Imperial shoretroopers.^[16]^[14]

Armor and equipment[]

Shoretrooper Squad Leader - Hasbro — A shoretrooper squad leader

Shoretroopers wielded both the E-11 medium blaster rifle and the upgraded E-22 reciprocating double-barreled blaster rifle while stationed on Scarif.^[17] They also carried a C-25 fragmentation grenade, a highly explosive grenade that was used to destroy SW-0608, an Imperial cargo shuttle the Rogue One team used to bypass the Empire's Shield Gate in orbit over the world.^[14] Other equipment used by shoretroopers included a zap rod-like baton weapon^[18] and the E-11P blaster, a type of blaster pistol with water-sealed cooling vanes, which themselves were complete with sand filters.^[19] When not in use, the pistol was worn on a holster.^[18]

There were at least three distinct ranks of shoretroopers, all with unique markings on their shoretrooper armor. Regular shoretroopers featured sand-colored armor, with a red band around their right arm and a white stripe around their left shoulder guard. Squad leaders were identified by a sand blue stripe that went along the top of their breastplates and onto the top of their shoulder guards. Squad leaders also sported a kama attached to their belt.^[20] Shoretrooper captains had almost all of their breastplates blue, along with a small plate of armor that was on their left side. Their right shoulder guard was sand colored, but their left shoulder guard was all sand blue, save for the white stripe. Further down the same arm were stripes of sand blue and yellow. They also had limited or no upper leg armor for swifter movement in battle, similar to scout troopers.

On Niamos, some shoretroopers utilized an unidentified Blaster Pistol. The shoretrooper variant could also be seen with a white line going across their upper breastplate, a red band on their lower-right arm, a bag on their upper-right leg, and white shoulder armor, the left of which had two black stripes across it. They also held a rank of lieutenant or higher,^[1] with the ability to order around KX-series security droids. Shore troopers guarding the Niamos Courthouse used a stun baton with the same unidentified Blaster Pistol, and featured a white band with two black lines on the edges on their upper-left arm, and a red band on their lower-right arm.^[5] They appeared to have a policing/security role.^[1]

Beachwarfare — Shoretroopers involved in a coastal operation

Although their armor had more capabilities than standard stormtrooper armor, it proved no stronger, as shown on Scarif. Shoretroopers also used different armor load-outs or weapon configurations based on the conditions of where they were stationed or served.^[1] A type of shoretrooper was the Heavy Shoretrooper, who specialized in heavy weapons and were equipped with extra ammo.^[2] Another type of shoretrooper was the shoretrooper sniper, who was trained to use long-range weapons.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

The first footage of the shoretrooper was shown in the teaser trailer for the Star Wars standalone film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, on April 7, 2016.^[21] The shoretroopers were identified by name in the third episode of The Star Wars Show on May 25, 2016.^[22]

According to Production Designer Doug Chiang: "Glyn [Dillon] actually modeled the color scheme on the [WWII fighter] Messerschmitt, where the base color that was sort of tannish, but then it had patches of this blue and orange that were so elegant. Again, it makes that reinforcement of connecting it with something that we know from history, it makes that connection to Episode IV, which was World War II technology, vehicles, and colorations. So the shoretrooper, I think, is a wonderful blend of all those requirements into something new."^[23]