It was around the 5th year since the Galactic Empire came into power, and on the Outer Rim
planet of Eriadu was a family of 3 who made their living as air scrubbing farmers.
Air scrubbing was the practice of recycling air and turning it back into Oxygen, which
was vital on colonised planets that didn’t possess plant life to do that process naturally.
The family of 3 possessed of a father and 2 kids: a 12 year old son and his younger
sister named Xea, with the mother of the family having had long passed away shortly after
giving birth to the daughter.
Anyway, during one late night, a group of rebels were discovered trying to steal some
of the machines used for air scrubbing from the farm.
They had attached cables to a few of the machines and were attempting to air lift them from
their starfighter.
The father of course tried to prevent this, bringing out his blaster rifle and firing
at the thieves who were stealing his family’s livelihood.
During the shootout, one of the cables snapped and caused one of the large air scrubbing
machines to fall right into the family’s home, crushing the bedroom portion of it.
Having been outside during the firefight, the 12 year old boy ran back into the house
only to discover that his younger sister Xea, who had been in her bed, was crushed to death
right before his eyes.
It was at that very moment he knew what he wanted to do when he grew up: to kill rebels.
The rebels ultimately escaped leaving only a father and his son to mourn the death of
their youngest family member.
Shortly after the attack, Imperial forces came to check up on the report that the father
gave, and along with the stormtroopers arrived the Governor of the planet, Wilhuff Tarkin.
While Tarkin was being detailed of what happened from the father, the young boy was fascinated
by the white armored soldiers of the Empire, and after giving a playful salute to one of
them, he decided he was going to become a Stormtrooper when he was older and fight against
the rebels in order to avenge his sister.
A few years later, he was old enough to apply to the Junior Academy in the nearest city
of his family’s farm.
However the boy’s father was strictly against this, not wishing to lose another one of his
children.
But the boy’s determination to become a stormtrooper and to avenge his sister was
too great to be stopped, so one night he snuck out of the farm and ran off to the Junior
Academy and applied to it all on his own, leaving behind only a note to his father of
his departure.
The Junior Academy’s purpose was to weed out the weak among the young teens before
sending them to the actual, adult academies of the world.
The boy recalled the Junior Academy to be a complete breeze, and that he and his peers
were treated extraordinary well, with all of the members of his initial class making
it toward graduation.
Although he had successfully made his first steps into becoming a stormtrooper, the boy’s
father did not attend his graduation or even bothered to show up on the day he was supposed
to leave for the adult academy that was stationed at Eriadu’s capital city.
Such an act left him sad as there were so many things he never got to say to his father,
and he really hated having to leave without even saying goodbye to him.
But he put his emotions aside and got on the transport to tackle his next step into becoming
a stormtrooper.
Also just a heads up, the boy’s real name is never mentioned in the story, however he
did eventually get his operating number TK-462, which is what we’ll be referring to him
from now on.
Anyway, upon arriving to the second Imperial Academy, it’s atmosphere was completely
different from what 462 had experienced at the Junior Academy.
First off the instructor he and his squad were assigned to was an old clone trooper
named Lasser.
And it was quite obvious the retired clone held disdain toward regular Human recruits,
viewing them as house pets that were attempting to train to become wild, dangerous beasts.
To make matters worse, Lasser called out 462 for being the shortest cadet among the class
and that he was going to be out of there within a week.
And from that day on Lasser went out of his way to make 462’s life a living hell.
The clone instructor had the other cadets in the squad beat up 462 every single morning,
an act the other cadets reluctantly obeyed as they themselves didn’t want to get on
Lasser’s bad side.
Although this of course made the training program much harder for 462, it did harden
his resolve to pushing through and graduating as a Stormtrooper.
As to him, had he quit on day one, that meant he took an entire beating for nothing.
And each day after that it just meant more beatings he would have taken for nothing had
he quit later on.
No matter the physical beatings or verbal insults levied toward 462 from Lasser, he
still was determined into becoming a stormtrooper no matter what.
A few years later and there were only a few weeks left before graduation from the academy.
During this time, 462 and his squad were forced to run a 5k in their full armor on the hottest
day of the year.
After they finished, Lasser gave a toast to their accomplishment, though he was the only
one who drank.
After he finished his drink, the clone instructor crushed his wine glass with his feet and then
ordered 462 to put all the glass shards in his boots, and to then have him put them back
on before another race.
Despite the unimaginable pain the glass shards gave him, 462 was able to run about 500 meters
before falling unconscious due to the torture the glass shards were giving his feet.
He later woke up in a medical bay where a nurse explained to him that a surgery was
performed to reconstruct his feet.
The very first thing 462 wanted to do was confront Lasser, but the nurse told him he
needed to rest for 2 weeks, and that he’d be out of her care right after he graduated.
The comment surprised him and blew away all other thoughts.
He couldn’t believe he was actually slated for graduation despite his failure in the
race.
He was finally going to become a stormtrooper.
He then thought of how proud his sister would have been for him at that moment, and at last
he was going to avenge her death.
A few weeks later, and 462’s first assignment as an Imperial Stormtrooper was within the
fashion district in the capital city of Eriadu.
There he spent much of his time arresting shoplifters and petty thieves.
While he was happy to serve the Empire in anyway he could, he was a bit disappointed
in his assignment as he had hoped to be doing a bit more, like being in the frontlines and
actually confronting enemy fighters.
Though the day for that chance came fairly quickly, as a report arrived that the Empire
needed more troops on the planet Lothal.
462 was among the very first to volunteer and was swiftly transported toward the new
planet as a result.
When he arrived he noticed the rough living conditions the people were in.
While the people of his homeworld seemed to have been benefiting from Imperial rule, the
same could not be said of the people on Lothal, whose lives seemed to be worse off due to
the large scale mining operations that were being done on their planet by the Empire.
When 462 was placed within his new squad on Lothal, one of his first missions was to destroy
and burn down an entire village out in the far lands that was suspected of helping the
local Rebels.
462 tried to justify the act as something that was for the greater good of the Empire.
To him, it was like exterminating the diseased animals of a farm, as well as any animal that
was near the sick just to be safe, as doing so was the only sure way of saving the rest
of the livestock.
Although he had convinced himself that destroying the small village was going to save more lives
down the road, he still couldn’t get the screams of the children out of his head, and
he hated how he was the one who had to live with these horrors and not the Imperials on
the top who had given the command.
One day 462 and his squad were ordered to retrieve a crate of stolen kyber crystals.
Lucky for them they ended up finding it abandoned, as apparently the original thieves panicked
and left the crate behind.
But still on orders of finding the rebel thieves, the captain of 462’s squad went into the
town the thieves were suspected of hiding in and grabbed a random Rodian shopkeeper.
The captain then placed his blaster on the Rodian’s head and announced that he was
going to pull the trigger on a count of 3 unless the original thieves of the kyber crystal
crate gave themselves up.
He reached the count of 3, and no one came up.
So the Rodian was shot, and then the Captain grabbed another random person and started
the counter again.
However, this time when he reached the count of 3, a random man from a nearby building
took out a blaster and aimed it at the stormtrooper captain, but before he could fire his blaster
he was instead quickly shot on the spot by 462.
The man from the building quickly fell down, dead.
Shortly afterwards a little girl came from behind, and tried to get him up.
It was his daughter, and upon realizing her father had died, she just fell on top of him
crying.
462 and the rest of the town square saw this, and thus chaos erupted as among some of the
crowd began to attack the other stormtroopers.
As he started to provide cover for his comrades, 462 was then shot right in his chestplate.
He had just enough time to turn his head to see who it was.
It was the little girl, the one whose father he had killed.
She was barely holding her father’s blaster, which was as big as her, and had it aimed
right at the blaster hole within 462’s chest plate.
While the chest plate prevented the blaster bolt from blowing a giant hole into his body,
it did shatter the insides of the armor plate, resulting in the small shards penetrating
his flesh and causing deep internal bleeding.
As he fell down to his knees, 462 took off his helmet and looked at the little girl.
She was staring right back at him, and did not shoot another blaster bolt.
She knew he was going to die, and so did he.
462 didn’t blame her for what she did, and he knew exactly what she was feeling at that
very moment, she was just like him all those years ago.
Just instead of rebels killing his young sister, it was a stormtrooper who had killed her father.
462 then began to smile, which confused both the little girl and even himself, as he didn’t
really know why he was happy right before his death.
Perhaps it was because he knew the little girl was going to grow up wanting to kill
Imperials now, and that he was the one who gave her that fiery purpose that was going
to be with her for the rest of her life, the same way the rebels long ago gave him.
And for that he felt satisfied.
In the end, 462 eventually succumbed to his injuries, with his final thoughts being that
he was finally going to join his younger sister in whatever afterlife there was.