Background
Within the Imperial Navy is the Imperial Gunnery Corps - home to the Imperial Gunners stationed aboard thousands of Imperial starships, space stations and other installations. It is said that many gunners in the Imperial Navy are either TIE Fighter pilots in training, or persons who have not made the piloting grade, yet still have exceptional weapons skills. Navy Gunners possess a fierce loyalty and sense of duty to our great Empire, equal to that of the Starfighter Corps.
Imperial Gunners are commissioned officers, generally of the rank of Cadet, Ensign/Mid-Shipman, or Sub-Lieutenant.
A Gunner's job is more than just aiming a weapon and firing it at a designated target. Most
gunners are part of weapon crews, in charge of operating larger weapons-stations. A
weapons-station can require four-man crews, or, in some cases, substantially larger crews to
operate effectively. Although many weapons are fully-automated, crews must monitor energy
flows, receive and prioritize target information, assist the targeting and tracking computers, and many other critical tasks. There are huge amounts of information sent to a gunnery station
during combat. Orders from fire control centers, data from remote scanners, and reports from
power generator rooms are just a few examples of the information crews have to process quickly and efficiently. The crews also have limited capabilities to repair their stations if the weapons are damaged during combat.
