Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/December 29, 2009

This stormtrooper from Alderaan was a soldier and TIE pilot in the Galactic Empire. Although originally a servant in the household of the Royal family of Alderaan, he left the world to become a trooper in the Imperial Military. The soldier found a sense of belonging in the Empire, something that he had not been able to discover on his home planet. Eventually, the soldier received word of the Destruction of Alderaan, a massacre carried out by the Empire with the use of the Death Star. Although the Imperials had obliterated his home planet, the soldier still stayed loyal to the Empire. He was still working as a stormtrooper a short time before the Battle of Endor when he was assigned to the planet Yinchorr, under the command of Imperial Governor Marcellin Wessel.

While serving under the governor, the soldier became involved in a plot to assassinate the Rebel leader, and fellow Alderaanian, Princess Leia Organa. Wessel lured Organa to Yinchorr on the pretense of a meeting with the native Yinchorri. When Organa arrived, her shuttle was shot down by the solder, but she survived. The soldier rescued Organa from the wreckage, intent on bringing her back to Wessel for interrogation. During the trek back to Imperial headquarters, the soldier revealed that he was from Alderaan, gaining Organa's contempt due to his continued service to the Empire. During their trip across the Yinchorr desert, Organa eventually swayed the soldier's resolve. After turning Organa over to Wessel, the soldier was shocked when the governor decided to immediately execute the Rebel leader. Changing his stance, the trooper freed Organa, and asked to join the Rebellion. As the two attempted to flee Yinchorr in the Millennium Falcon, however, the soldier was hit by blaster fire as he was about to climb the ship's boarding ramp. Organa tried to hold onto the man as the Falcon departed the planet, but he proved too heavy. The soldier slipped from the princess' fingers and fell to his death.