The Carida Academy, also known as the Imperial Naval Academy, and once known as the Academy of Carida and the Carida Military Academy, was a military academy on Carida which, during the reign of the Galactic Empire, was an Imperial Academy for its military training program. The academy was built on the edge of a cliff. Multiple landing pads emerged from the side of the cliff face. Like the academies at Raithal and Corulag, it was a specialized service academy for officer training. The Army, Navy, and Stormtrooper Corps officers all trained there. Two notable instructors were Captain Tabor Seitaron, who taught military history to cadets there, and Sergeant Triosa Broog, who served as training officer to cadet Han Solo before he was expelled and reassigned to infantry on Mimban for chronic insubordination and recklessness.
Carida Academy was a military academy and university located high in the mountains of Carida, a planet located in the Colonies' Carida system. Once a training camp for the Galactic Republic's army, the Academy of Carida trained students in the arts of warfare and diplomacy. It also had a hyperspace theory and philosophy department.
Carida Academy trained Imperial cadets to be pilots and officers
During the time of the Galactic Empire, Carida Academy included a specialized service academy to provide officer training to Imperial cadets which exceeded basic-training academies like the Academy for Young Imperials on the Outer Rim Territories planet Lothal. It also served as the Imperial Naval Academy for cadets that had enlisted for the Imperial Navy, training Imperial Starfighter Pilots. The cadets were treated as property of the Empire and it was considered that they would leave the academy as either trained military personnel or corpses.
During the induction to the Imperial Naval Academy, cadets had their hair deloused and cut and civilian clothes removed by droids, replaced with white Imperial cadet uniform with black boots. Cadets were addressed by their call number rather than names. The cadets were then put into basic training under a training officer. These involved a series of ground-based exercises that filtered off cadets, one of which involved enduring an assault course in Imperial Army trooper uniform. Cadets who made it through were given back their names and a selection process chose who would go into flight training.
A class leaderboard at Carida Academy
At the next stage of their training, cadets went through more specialized exercises, including underwater training in seatrooper gear, and parachuting. Additionally, they were taught about Imperial starfighters before they went into the cockpits of TIE fighters and put through exercises where they maneuvered between obstacles including turbolaser cannons. One included working as pairs to destroy a shielded cannon. Deflector shield generator domes also served as exercise targets. Another exercise involved travelling across open space or crewing larger vessels such as Quasar Fire-class cruiser carriers if they had recently received discipline. In the meantime, cadets were ranked based on their piloting skills and their academic achievements via class leader boards.
For the next stage of training, cadets were deployed into real combat situations in their own squadrons. Carida Squadron and Onyx Squadron were both academy squadrons made up primarily of cadets. For discipline, cadets could be confined to the brig or ordered to make soup. For more serious infractions such as insubordination, cadets could be dismissed from the Academy and reassigned to other Imperial military service branches.
The Carida Academy's TIE fighter landing field.
The Carida Academy was constructed on the edge of a cliff, with multiple landing pads emerging from the cliff face. The Academy's facilities included an assembly area, brig for holding troublesome cadets, a landing field for TIE fighters, mess hall,, and barracks. The Academy was guarded by stormtroopers and Imperial Navy troopers.
In the earlier days of the Galactic Republic, Carida Academy was a training camp and trained much of the Republic army. During the High Republic Era, it trained students in the arts of warfare and conflict resolution. Since the galaxy at that time was largely peaceful, most of its students came from worlds facing conflict. The Gungan theoretical hyperspace physicist Professor Thaddeus Wolk led the university's hyperspace theory and philosophy department. Around 255 BBY, the human Wilson and Selkath Lalutin held the rank of senior cadet at the Carida military academy.
Chancey Yarrow studied theoretical hyperspace physics at the Academy.
Chancey Yarrow was a doctoral student at the Carida Academy researching the use of artificial gravity wells to pull starships out of hyperspace, but her topic was considered insane by her faculty and peers. To please the Academy's requirements, Yarrow pretended to change her topic but secretly continued her research into gravity wells. When her misconduct was discovered, she was expelled. Yarrow subsequently sold her skills and expertise to the Nihil marauders and the Graf family.
Around the same time, the Twi'lek Lourna Dee enrolled in the Carida Military Academy using the name of her deceased brother Inun, after being freed from a Zygerrian camp by Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis and his Padawan, Dal Azim. Dee eventually fled the academy after getting into a serious fight with two older cadets who had been bullying her, seriously injuring them before escaping in a stolen starfighter, subsequently becoming a mercenary.
During the late days of the Republic, Kendal Ozzel, the son of a wealthy family on Carida, attended Carida Academy, as well as a number of schools in the Core Worlds. After Ozzel became an officer in the Republic Military, he was assigned as a teacher at Carida Academy by his superiors due to his limitations in leading a field mission. The Confederacy of Independent Systems was founded in 24 BBY as an opposition to the Republic, sparking the Separatist Crisis. In the midst of the political turmoil, the Military Creation Act was proposed in the Republic's Galactic Senate. Benefiting from it the Carida Military Academy, the Carida government backed the bill and offered more than two million credits to the campaign supporting it.
The Separatist Crisis ended with the outbreak of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY. In the chaos of the war, Ozzel went into active service. Sometime during the conflict, a protest against the increasing militarization of the Galactic Republic was held at the Carida Academy. The father of Cassian Andor was killed during the protest.
The Republic was replaced by the Empire in at the end of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY, and the Empire continued to use Carida Academy as a training place for Imperial officers and naval personnel like pilots. Niles Gavla and Danith Nodar were graduates of the Imperial Academy. Captain Tabor Seitaron, a veteran of the Republic and Empire's navies, taught military history in Carida Academy after retiring from active duty by 14 BBY. In his classes, he had a tendency to mark down students who regurgitated the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order's official version of history over what he believed had actually taken place, one of those being Tian Karmiya. Karmiya was rumored to have reported two cadets who were doing better than her for selling their answers, getting the pair expelled and taking their place.
In 14 BBY, a rebel cell led by Berch Teller led a campaign against Imperial installations with the help of an informant in the Empire's ranks, Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit, using Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's stolen starship Carrion Spike. However, they led Rancit into believing that they were going to attack the Carida Academy with the Carrion Spike. As a result, the Academy and Carida were placed under alert and Imperial forces were dispatched to defend the Academy. Rancit intended to destroy the Carrion Spike and insurgents in order to conceal his role in aiding the insurgents. However, he was exposed by the Sith Lord Darth Vader who took control of Rancit's Secutor-class Star Destroyer and executed the Vice Admiral. The Carrion Spike was subsequently recovered.
Han Solo was an Imperial cadet before becoming a smuggler and rebel leader.
To escape his homeworld of Corellia, the criminal Han Solo enlisted into the Imperial Navy in 13 BBY and became an Imperial cadet at the Carida Academy. His class included Beilert Valance from the planet Chorin, the twins Lyttan and Tamu Dree from Boiyuh, Kanina Nico from the Huru system, and Jarwen. Solo continuously came at odds with his fellow cadets during basic training, notably Valance, as well as his training officer, Sergeant Triosa Broog.
Solo eventually chose to try and desert on a TIE fighter. Although his escape attempt failed, he was able to outfly all of the pursuing security with the exception of Flight instructor Yurib Nakan. Solo was put into the brig with the common punishment for desertion being termination. However, Nakan saw great abilities in Solo's flying, as well as rebelliousness that reminded the instructor of himself. Solo, Valance, Nico, Jarwen, and the Drees continued through to flight training, Valance being the top ranked in their class. Although initially at the bottom of the leaderboard, Solo began climbing up to second through her performance in flight exercises alone.
During an exercise where pilots were put into pairs, Jarwen was killed, and Solo saved Tamu's life during a flight exercise, earning him the respect of the Dree brothers. However, the cadets in the exercise ultimately failed, and were tasked with making soup for the rest of the cadets in the academy. While Valance was relieved earlier to TIE fighter training, Solo, Nico and the Dree brothers were tasked with delivering the training squadron including Valance aboard Imperial Cruiser 07200823, a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier. During the mission, the four visited a Pantolomin cruiser where Solo escaped the Ithorian criminal Pjolan, who was seeking to collect Lady Proxima's bounty on Solo.
As their training progressed, Solo and his fellow cadets were later assigned to Carida Squadron, which participated in the mission on Qhulosk on the planet Qhulosk. During the battle, Valance was shot down, leading Solo and his cadet companions to defy orders by embarking on a mission behind enemy lines to rescue Valance. Despite saving Valance's life, Solo was sent to the brig for insubordination. Meanwhile, Nico intentionally disappeared on the rescue mission to return to her homeworld, and Tamu Dree was transferred into the medical branch his brother remaining at Carida. Valance himself was left with a missing eye and right leg, being informed he was permanently grounded due to his failure during the battle. The Imperial Army being his most ideal prospects for Valance, but he was determined stay on track for an Imperial Navy career.
Tarl Sokoli bumped into Cadet Valance during his visit to Carida Academy
Solo remained at the Academy, and Valance began working towards being fly-worthy again. One day, Captain Tarl Sokoli, the officer who inspired Valance to join the Empire, visited Carida Academy for a talk. Valance rushed to attend it, with Solo joining him, when the pair bumped into Sokoli himself. Valance told the captain about how he was an inspiration, but Sokoli, having become disillusioned and cynical about the Empire's cause, apologized for inspiring the cadet and told him he would never fly again.
Solo and Lyttan Dree were eventually assigned to Onyx Squadron, under Onyx Leader Ubbel for a mission flying TIE/rb heavy starfighters. During the mission, they skirmished with raiders, and Solo disobeyed orders and broke formation to save Dree. As a result, Solo was put on trial under Commodore Almudin, who had him expelled from the Academy and reassigned to the Imperial Army on the planet Mimban. Dree was successful in becoming a TIE pilot in the Imperial Navy, eventually joining in the Empire's 204th Imperial Fighter Wing.
Rac Syrmo and Bansu Ro are told about their reassignment by Yurib Nakan.
In 5 BBY, Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko of the Academy for Young Imperials on Lothal described the Carida Academy and the Raithal Academy as potential destinations for Lothal cadets who had progressed sufficiently in their training. During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Bansu Ro and Rac Syrmo were among a class of cadets being trained under Nakan. The pair were at heavy competition with each other, and became the top ranked in the class.
However, Ro's career prospects were tainted as his family had sided with rebels, setting him on course to be a shuttle pilot. That was until the Imperial Navy chose to commandeer the class for the war effort. The 204th had suffered two casualties, one of them being Dree, and requested to take in Ro and Syrmo as the top two in their class. The pair were informed of their immediate transfer following a training exercise in TIE fighters.
Cadets take off from the launch deck flying a TIE/rb Heavy and TIE/ln fighters.
Carida Academy was first mentioned in the 2014 novel Tarkin, written by James Luceno. It was subsequently identified in the 2015 novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, written by Alexander Freed. The academy made its first appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition, a novel written by Mur Lafferty and published on September 4 2018 which served as an extended adaptation of Ron Howard's film Solo: A Star Wars Story, released earlier that year on May 25.
Carida Academy was first visually depicted in Han Solo - Imperial Cadet 1, the first issue the Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet comic series, written by Robbie Thompson and published by Marvel Comics on November 7 of 2018. The comic issue identified it as the Imperial Naval Academy. The 2021 novel The High Republic: Out of the Shadows, written by Justina Ireland, introduced the name Academy of Carida, while the 2022 audio drama The High Republic: Tempest Runner, written by Cavan Scott, identified it was the Carida Military Academy.
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