At least on the Stormtrooper front, I kinda get like the vague sense that it was maybe meant to be a game based on the Empire's attempts to chart the Unknown Regions?
For those unfamiliar, in Star Wars the 'Unknown Regions' are areas of space that are minimally understood at best, and otherwise largely unknown in terms of what's simply there - hence the name. The largest chunk of it is in what's considered the 'galactic west' (as in, the left side of any map of the Star Wars galaxy), and in the old EU it was a common favourite for writers who wanted to introduce some weird shit. It was also a favourite place to have Imperials that were away from the action of the Galactic Civil War proper, owing to Timothy Zahn applying such an explanation to the fairly beloved character of Admiral Thrawn.
So yeah, that art reads to me like Stormtroopers stationed in the Unknown Regions, recruiting species that no-one back home has ever seen before, and fighting monsters that freak them the fuck out. Wonder if Mnggal-Mnggal would have appeared at one point.