Coastal defender stormtrooper

**Coastal defender stormtroopers**, more commonly known as **shoretroopers** and also known as the **coastal guard**, with those stationed on the planet Scarif referred to as **Scarif stormtroopers**, were a specialized variant of the Galactic Empire's stormtroopers trained and equipped for combat in tropical environments. Organized into the Coastal Defense Division, shoretroopers operated effectively as sergeants, which allowed them to command small 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.

## 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. Del Meeko, later a member of Inferno Squad, served as a shoretrooper on Scarif prior to becoming a TIE fighter pilot. In 0 BBY, 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.

In 0 ABY, shoretroopers came into conflict with Rebel leaders Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker after they crashed on an ocean planet.

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.

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. The First Order military also fielded mountain troopers who wore armor that resembled that of the Imperial shoretroopers.

## Armor and equipment

Shoretroopers wielded both the E-11 medium blaster rifle and the upgraded E-22 reciprocating double-barreled blaster rifle while stationed on Scarif. 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.

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 chest plates and onto the top of their shoulder guards. Squad leaders also sported a kama attached to their belt. Shoretrooper captains had almost all of their chest plates 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, there 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, shore troopers could be seen utilizing the E-11 blaster pistol. The shoretrooper variant could also be seen with a white line going across their upper-chest plate, a red band on their lower-right arm, a bag on their upper-right leg, and white shoulder armor in which the shoulder armor on the left has two black stripes going across it. They are also seen to be a commanding role as they have the ability to order around KX-series security droids. Yet another variant can be found on Niamos which use a stun baton, an E-11 blaster pistol, feature a white band with two black lines on the edges of it on their upper-left arm, and a red band on their lower-right arm. They also appear to be used as a policing/security role.

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

## 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. The shoretroopers were identified by name in the third episode of *The Star Wars Show* on May 25, 2016.

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."

There is currently no canonical explanation for the white/off-white stripe variant of Shoretrooper armor as seen worn by this trooper in the Andor episode "Announcement" yet, however a very probable theory is that it represents military police (like the white stripe painted on older US Army M1 helmets). Also, real world military police are issued sidearms typically over rifles, so this variant of Shoretrooper having a pistol as a primary weapon also reinforces this theory.

## Notes and references

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6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Databank`
7. ↑ *Battlefront II: Inferno Squad*
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story*
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10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `The Believer`
11. ↑ *Poe Dameron* 8
12. ↑ Template:HasbroCite
13. ↑ NEW Star Wars Launch Bay Rogue One Additions & Changes Update
14. ↑ Error on call to template:cite web: Parameters **archiveurl** and **archivedate** must be both specified or both omittedWard, Amanda (2016-10-06). HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HASBRO PANEL AT NYCC!. *Making Star Wars*. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017.
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16. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Battlefront II`
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