Shiraya's Odyssey
Jedi Underground Network: Militia Auxiliaries
“When the light cannot stand openly, others stand for it.”
The Militia Auxiliaries are not an army, nor are they an organization that can be traced through official channels. They have no charter, no standardised ranks, and no public mandate. Yet wherever the Jedi Underground Network maintains its quiet lifelines, militia fighters are often nearby - unseen, unmarked and indispensable.
They exist because there are limits to what can be done openly. While the High Republic and the Jedi Order strive to preserve stability and legitimacy in the open, the Galaxy’s growing instability has created spaces where forces will be stretched thin. In those places, the Underground acts discreetly and the militia acts in its shadow.
The militia’s role is not conquest, enforcement, peacekeeping or expansion. Their purpose is movement and protection. They escort displaced civilians, Force-sensitives and political refugees along Underground routes. They guard hidden sanctuaries used for recovery and regrouping and, when those locations are compromised, they hold ground long enough for others to escape. Success is not measured in enemies defeated, but in how quietly people disappear from danger. They do not remain once their task is complete. Staying too long draws attention, and attention destroys networks.
Doctrine
The creed of the Militia Auxiliaries is deliberately narrow and shaped by hard experience. They intervene only when necessary, withdraw as soon as possible, and avoid prolonged engagements at all costs. The militia does not seek decisive battles - it seeks delays, diversions and safe exits. Every action is evaluated by a single question: does this buy time for others to survive? Heroics are discouraged. Recognition is irrelevant. The mission is the only priority - and the mission ends the moment civilians are no longer at risk.
Composition
The Auxiliaries are volunteers, united not by ideology, but by conviction.
Their members come from every corner of galactic society:
- Former planetary defense soldiers unwilling to abandon civilians.
- Spacers and smugglers who have seen too many refugee holds filled.
- Medics and engineers who learned that neutrality still costs lives.
- Refugees who were saved once and refused to walk away afterward.
Organization
Militia Auxiliaries operate in small, compartmentalized cells designed to survive isolation, compromise and sudden loss. These cells are deliberately flexible, and built around function rather than rank.
While titles vary by cell and region, the following roles are commonly recognized:
Cell Coordinator
The primary point of contact with Underground liaisons. Responsible for mission timing, route changes, and withdrawal decisions. Coordination, not command.
Escort Lead
Oversees convoy movement and close protection of refugees or assets during transit and also aiding Underground Jedi by sending Auxaliaries on certain missions where extra firepower would be needed. Makes real-time decisions under pressure.
Rear Guard / Breaker
Tasked with delay actions, chokepoint defense and drawing pursuit away from evacuation routes. This role carries the highest risk.
Pathfinder / Scout
Operates ahead of movements, identifying threats, compromised routes or hostile surveillance before the main group advances.
Support Specialist
A catch-all role covering medics, mechanics, slicers, sensor operators, and pilots - the personnel who keep people alive and routes open.
Authority within a cell is situational and practical. Leadership shifts as conditions demand. Survival, not hierarchy, defines command.
Appearance & Equipment
Uniformity would make them visible and visibility gets people killed.
Militia auxiliaries use whatever equipment can be sourced locally, modified discreetly, and discarded if necessary. Weapons are mismatched, armor is concealed beneath civilian or spacer clothing, and transports are chosen for how ordinary they appear rather than how heavily armed they are. To observers, their operations often look improvised. In truth, they are deliberately unremarkable.
Nothing about them should invite a second look.
Relationship with the Jedi
The bond between the militia and the Underground Jedi is one of mutual respect, not command. Jedi do not treat auxiliaries as soldiers and the militia does not expect Jedi to solve every crisis through the Force.
Jedi provide warning, foresight, and awareness of threats beyond conventional means. The militia provides presence, numbers, and the willingness to stand openly where sabers should either not be seen or where extra blasters can make a difference. Each understands the risks the other carries and why neither can replace the other.
Reputation
Most militia members will never be named. Their actions are rarely recorded and often misattributed - to pirates, local defense forces, or spontaneous resistance. This anonymity is not a failure of recognition, it is the shield that keeps the Underground intact. To refugees, they are simply the ones who stayed behind when the doors closed.
To those who hunt the Underground, they are a persistent irritation - a problem that appears briefly, disrupts plans, and vanishes before it can be identified.
To the Jedi who walk in the open light, they are a quiet truth: that ideals endure not only through belief, but through ordinary beings willing to stand in the dark so others do not have to.
Credit to:
Avelion
for this beautiful write up.