The Imperial boarding of the Tantive 4 and the firefight that ensued inside is the first
sequence where we see Stormtroopers and the Rebels face off against one another in Star
Wars.
So what was this confrontation like for the soldiers amidst the battle on both sides?
What were they thinking during the fight and how did they feel afterwards?
On the Empire’s side, the morale of the troopers was quite high right before they
boarded the Tantive 4.
In the book From a Certain Point of View, we follow the perspective of a stormtrooper
named Tarvyn Lareka.
He was a young man in his early 20s and he was filled with excitement as he was just
transferred to the 501st Legion, also known as Vader’s Fist.
Just a side note, in Canon the 501st Legion was not exclusively made up of Jango Fett
clones like it was in Legends, but rather it was likely mainly made up of regular Human
recruits.
Anyway, being in Vader’s legion was Tarvyn’s dream from his early cadet days, and the boarding
on the Rebel Tantive 4 vessel was going to be his first fight in this new unit.
He was so excited that he was beyond thankful for the helmet he was wearing, as it hid the
huge smile on his face.
As well as the voice modifier as it masked the excitement of his voice.
Once the firefight began, Tarvyn was surprised just how fast it erupted and ended, barely
giving him enough time to fully comprehend what had happened.
He later witnessed Vader’s interrogation and swift execution of the ship’s captain,
Antilles.
His squad was then ordered in finding the Princess of Alderaan.
While he and his squad cleared the hallways, Tarvyn began to somewhat sympathize with the
rebel fighters, remembering how when he was young and naive that he too had ideas of defiance
and unhinged adventure.
But despite these thoughts, he was happy that he was wise enough to remain loyal to the
Empire, proud actually as he fully believed in its cause in bringing order to the galaxy.
He then thought about his mission in locating the Princess.
He had doubts of whether or not she was actually a rebel fighter or just an innocent diplomat
that got mixed up in all of this.
When he and his squad located Leia, Tarvyn was surprised at how beautiful she was.
He initially imagined her being a big, muscled woman who wore combat armor.
But instead he saw a girl only a few years younger than himself and one that looked so
fragile that she could shatter from a single push.
The sergeant of his squad took aim but wasn’t quick enough as he got blasted by the princess,
requiring Tarvyn to take the initiative and take the stun shot instead, successfully stunning
Leia in the process.
After checking to make sure Leia was still alive, Tarvyn and his squad checked their
sergeant, discovering he was in fact dead.
They were shocked at his death, as the armor they wore was supposed to diffuse most blaster
shots and only leave them with external injuries at worst.
His death signified that the Princess was an expert shot, as she hit him precisely in
an armor chink that held a far less success rate in protecting the trooper.
The sergeant’s death angered Tarvyn as he remembered him being a cheerful and uplifting
man back at the barracks.
Once Leia started to regain consciousness, Tarvyn cuffed her and told her that she was
going to be transported to Lord Vader.
As the troopers escorted her, Tarvyn removed his helmet as a means to show Leia that there
were in fact people under the armor as a way to bring her guilt over killing their sergeant.
However, this same action reminded Tarvyn of his own humanity and he began to feel bad
about Leia’s fate, knowing she was likely going to be brutally tortured by Vader.
He couldn’t imagine how such a young girl was going to handle such a horrible experience.
A few moments later, and Tarvyn realized how awful it made him feel to confront the rebels
in such a close and intimate way.
He still was loyal to the empire, but he didn’t want to come face to face with the enemy right
before he would be ordered to kill them.
After his squad departed from the rebel ship, Tarvyn asked to be reassigned to a different
unit of the legion.
He later became a TIE pilot, which allowed him to still serve the empire without ever
having to confront the enemy in such a manner that would make him sympathize with them.
On the Rebels’ side, the men and women inside the Tantive 4 were already on edge and tensed
up hours before the actual firefight that’d eventually take place inside their corvette.
Not only had they just barely escaped from the center of a massive space battle over
Scarif, but they were on a ship that had just reached the most wanted level in the entire
Empire as it contained the plans of the Death Star and was being actively chased by the
Emperor’s main enforcer Darth Vader.
The few crewmen aboard that caught a glimpse of Vader cutting down their fellow men were
shaken up at the unnatural, inhuman destruction they witnessed.
Some referred to Vader as a dark angel of death; and knowing he was right on their tail
was ever more frightening.
The only calming factor in the entire ship was Princess Leia’s collected appearance,
though deep down it was likely she too was as sacred as everyone else.
To make matters worse, the Tantive 4 was low on fuel.
It barely made its way into the Tatooine sector before running low on power and being forced
to exit out of hyperspace earlier than it would have otherwise.
Instead of exiting hyperspace right before the orbit of the planet, it jumped out a few
thousands miles away, requiring the ship to use its regular engines to close the distance,
which was estimated at about 8 minutes to do so.
The rebels hoped to reach Tatooine in order to scatter on the planet and find unmarked
vessels to escape on instead.
But that never ended up happening, as Vader’s Star Destroyer caught up with them moments
later and caught the ship in a tractor beam.
Once everyone realized that the Tantive 4 was caught in a tractor beam, nearly all hope
was lost.
Some scrambled to their holopads to make last second goodbye messages to their friends and
families, hoping that somehow their final messages would make it back to their loved
ones.
The escape pods were prepped but were only available for the civilian and diplomatic
passengers onboard.
Everyone else, guards and crewmen, were required to defend the hallways and give as much time
for the high level personnel to escape with the plans.
Some rebels who were from Alderaan were in a way glad that their final moments would
come in defending their princess and for a cause they deeply believed.
Once the Imperial attack started, there wasn’t much time for the rebels to make any more
thoughts as most of them were mowed down.
A few rebel troopers hid within the confines of the ship, attempting to ambush the Imperial
invaders.
But they were all later either killed or captured by the stormtroopers.
Those captured later endured painful interrogations, and were likely executed shortly afterwards.