This article is about the Imperial Guard in Space Battleship Yamato 2199. For its counterpart in the original Space Battleship Yamato, see Royal Guard.
The Imperial Guard, also called the Desler Imperial Guard[7] or the Garmillas Empire Imperial Guard[2], was a paramilitary organization of the Greater Garmillan Empire founded under the Desler Regime. Created from Desler's private protection service, it rapidly expanded and became the main homeland security force within the empire, operating as its secret police and intelligence service, even holding control of the National Security Police. Eventually, the Imperial Guard rose to the point of rivaling the enormous military might of the Imperial Defense Force, with Director General Hydom Gimleh plotting to have his organization fully replace the regular forces.
Despite being Desler's primary tool for maintaining unity through the empire, and his most staunch supporters, the Imperial Guard supported the principles of Garmillan superiority in contrast with Desler's policy of assimilation and co-existence with second-class citizens of conquered planets.
Organization[]
The Imperial Guard was headed by a Director General and Imperial Guard Central Main Office, since the Guard's creation up until its dissolution Hydom Gimleh was the only one to occupy the post.[2][8][9]
Under the Director's command stood the Supreme Leader Guard Corps, Eternal Supreme Leader Abelt Desler's personal bodyguards, the National Security Police, and the Garmillas Girl Alliance and Desler Boy Scouts programs. Imperial Planet Security Main Office was responsible for managing the Secret Police and the Control Intelligence Agency, while the Special Combat Guard served as the Imperial Guard's military arm. Under the Combat Guard stood the Guards Astro Fleet, the Guard's primary military formation, the Armed Ruling Division, and the Planetary Security Force.[7] The Imperial Guard also operates the Imperial Guard Race Main Office.[2]
Imperial Guard cloned soldiers were organized by class rather then simply by rank, with certain classes of clones occupying higher ranks by default.[2][10][11]
The Imperial Guard employed political officers.[10]
History[]
Founding and expansion[]
Director General Hydom Gimleh took office as Director-general of the Imperial Guard
In the time before the foundation of the Greater Garmillan Empire, Grand Duke Erich Vam Desler commanded an order of knights, the Baleras Knights, who served as his personal bodyguards. During the Civil War Over the Rights of Succession that followed the death of the Grand Duke, the knights became part of the Abelt Desler Main Faction under Erich's nephew, Abelt Desler. Desler managed to reunify the split Grand Duchy and declared the Greater Garmillan Empire with himself as Eternal Supreme Leader. In his reforms, he abolished the aristocracy and transformed the Baleras Knights into the Imperial Guard. At this time, the young Hydom Gimleh began working behind the scenes. He took office as Director-general of the Imperial Guard, and under his command, the organization rapidly grew in size, becoming a powerful paramilitary force.[2][12]
The creation of the Guards Astro Fleet was highly controversial within the military
Principles of Garmillan superiority and extreme xenophobia took root in the Imperial Guard despite the Desler administration's general policy of peaceful co-existence with conquered alien races. For these reasons, the Imperial Guard only recruited soldiers from pure-blooded Garmillan families, but this became a problem in the guard's early formation stage as most young Garmillans fit for recruitment were taken to expand the regular military, especially the Astro Fleet, causing trouble to arise over ensuring the excellence of recruits. To gain a foothold among Garmillas's youth, the Imperial Guard began to work to make its principles and those of the empire penetrate Garmillan society. In collaboration with the Department of Propaganda, Imperial Guard Central Main Office established the Garmillas Girl Alliance and the Desler Boy Scouts program. The guard eventually created the Guards Astro Fleet as its leading military formation. The fleet's founding brought along a new series of issues: hardened military men within the Astro Fleet resented the idea of a naval unit existing outside of the regular forces, and, as the Imperial Guard itself quickly determined, they simply couldn't provide the manpower necessary to maintain the fleet. For this reason, Imperial Guard Race Main Office made the decision of selecting its best soldiers from every rank, from executive to general officers, and cloning them to provide fleet personnel.[2]
As the Greater Garmillan Empire began to expand its territories following the Desler Doctrine, the guard's secret police began exposing an increasing amount of dissidents with extremely severe methods. While the Imperial Guard was fiercely loyal to Desler and his regime, the Leader's policy of assimilation with conquered worlds didn't sit well with the former aristocracy of the Grand Duchy. Thus, many nobles secretly supported Gimleh and accepted his more violent and repressive tendencies. An outlier among the noblemen was Imperial Marshall Herm Zoellik, Inspector General of the Central Army, who had a personal distaste for the Director general.[2]
Dissidents created various nicknames to deride the Imperial Guard such as “ugly rats” and “death rats.” They also used the code word “Gattapo” to refer to them.[2]
Apex and fall[]
The Imperial Guard deporting civilians to a prison planet deeming them rioters
By 2199, in what turned out to be the last year of the Desler administration, the Imperial Guard had gained enough strength to openly rival the Imperial Defense Force, Garmillas's military, with Gimleh beginning to plot for his guard to replace it entirely.[12] The organization effectively maintained a reign of terror over Garmillas, with dissidents and civilians alike being arrested and interned in prison camps at the slightest suspicion of treason. Not even high military officials could avoid the Imperial Guard. Any form of freedom of speech was denied, and public displays of force, even lethal force, were met with no resistance.[11][13]
The Guards Astro Fleet before the destruction of Alteria
Ditz was held captive on Prison Planet 17
In April of 2199,[14] Gimleh personally led the Guards Astro Fleet to sedate a revolt on the colony planet Alteria. The planet's colonial governor was executed for his failure to stop the rebels, and the surface was bombed with no regard for the native alien population or the Garmillan colonists on the world. In Gimleh's own words: he had not sedated the revolt; he had "annihilated the planet". This event led to a complete split among the empire's military and civilian leadership, with the moderates being utterly disgusted by the guard's action while others staunchly supported them, claiming that only through fear could Garmillas exert its rule on its colonies.[13] Around that period, the Imperial Guard arrested Admiral Gul Ditz, Supreme Commander of the Astro Fleet, under the charge of conspiring to assassinate the Eternal Leader.[15] Even after the true culprit, Imperial Marshall Zoellik was found out, Ditz was not released from prison. Instead, the Imperial Guard began arresting all officers loyal to the Admiral. With Zoellik executed for his treason, the organization took control of the Central Army's Homeland Defense Fleet. Additionally, most of the Astro Fleet had remained stuck months away from Garmillas after a devastating Earthling attack at the subspace gate network, and with its Supreme Commander in prison, the empire's navy was incapacitated. Effectively, the Imperial Guard was the only remaining military force in the Greater Garmillan Empire.[5][16]
Gimleh seemingly dying in his flagship's explosion
In July,[17] the Earthling battleship Yamato, which had already dealt heavy blows to the Garmillas Empire,[16][18] began closing in on the Salezar system. The Imperial Guard, led by Gimleh, took control of the imperial planet's defenses.[19] During the battle, Gimleh mainly used his fleet to protect Baleras II, a space station that was to become the empire's new capital, merely sending a couple of vessels to chase Yamato as it raided the imperial capital Baleras. However, this would prove fatal. Being too close to Baleras II, the entire Imperial Guard fleet was caught in the station's destruction. Both Gimleh and Desler were believed to have been killed in Baleras II's explosion.[4]
After Desler's fall[]
Gimleh and two Imperial Guard soldiers in 2203
Following the fall of Desler's regime and the apparent death of Gimleh, the guard was seemingly disbanded by the new provisional government.[4][20][21] Most Imperial Guard soldiers went AWOL and joined various factions. A group of Supreme Leader Guard Corps operatives followed their Eternal Supreme Leader in exile and were killed aboard the Deusura II during the Battle with Desler in Subspace in September 2199.[20] Other soldiers joined the secretly-still-alive Gimleh's Desler Regime Revivalists group, an underground organization that for the next four years, aimed at restoring the dictatorship.[22] Some Imperial Guard ships joined other vessels from the Imperial Defense Force and disappeared from all radars for the following four years. By early 2203, they had fallen under the control of Lieutenant General Ghader Talan and reunited with Desler, forming the first nucleus of the Desler fleet.[23][24]
The Imperial Guard's logo and uniforms continued to be used by some soldiers of the Desler fleet. In at least one case, the insignia was even worn by officers who weren't originally part of the guard.[22][25]
Uniform and Protective Gear[]
Notes[]
- The Imperial Guard largely parallels Nazi Germany's Schutzstaffel: Originally founded as a small protection force to guard their own political leadership, but grew to become a massive paramilitary force, eventually rivaling their regular military counterparts in aspects of numbers, power, training, prestige, equipment, and employment in combat actions, yet still answering only to their own leadership and never the regular military chain of command.
- Gattapo is a reference to Nazi Germany's secret police, the Gestapo.
References[]
- ↑ The June 2013 Dengeki Hobby article on the imperial guard states that it was created during Abelt Desler's reformation of the Garmillas Grand Duchy when he came to power, the official timeline for the Desler Era sets those events in 2188
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Dengeki Hobby, June 2013
- ↑ The Imperial Guard was seemingly dissolved by the Garmillas Provisional Government, with all of its soldiers either siding with the Desler Regime Revivalists or the Desler fleet
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "One Man's War"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "They're Coming!"
- ↑ "The Sun Sets on Pluto
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Complete Works Vol.2 p.143
- ↑ "Wish Upon a Star"
- ↑ Garmillas Mecha Book p.182
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Graveyard of the Universe"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "What Lies Beyond"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Garmillas Mecha Book p.169
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Point of No Return"
- ↑ Day count at the end of "The Whisper of the Witch"
- ↑ "Out of the Forest of Memory"
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Over the Black Light"
- ↑ "The Era of Space Battleship Yamato: Choice of 2202"
- ↑ "The Sun Sets on Pluto"
- ↑ "The Planet That We Head For"
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 "The Forever War"
- ↑ "Tension – Reach the Embassy on the Moon"
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Farewell, Teresa! Flowers for Two Deslers"
- ↑ "Desler's Challenge!"
- ↑ "O Teresa, Cry for Desler!"
- ↑ "Galactic War is About to Begin! Assemble the Yamato Fleet!!"
Japanese language information[]
- 親衛隊 Shin'eitai (Imperial Guard)
- デスラー親衛隊 Desurā shin'eitai (Desler Imperial Guard)
- ガミラス帝国親衛隊 Gamirasu teikoku shin'eitai (Garmillas Empire Imperial Guard)