Davin Felth/Legends

Indistinguishable from one another in their black and white armor, their skull-like helmets glaring, stormtroopers are a weapon of fear and an example of complete, unquestioning conformity. But for Davin Felth, a trooper on Tatooine, mindlessness came to an end when he first came face to face with the Force and the Rebellion. Felth joined the ranks of the Galactic Empire as an 18 year old; and like many others, he had the desire to serve his government, gain usable skills, and work toward a command position.

Although he looked forward to the experience of the Imperial Academy, within thirty seconds of arriving on the military training planet of Carida, his enthusiasm disappeared. For the next six months, Davin did whatever was necessary to survive, to make his superiors happy, to become a stormtrooper. His roommates were the tall, red-headed Geoff f'Tuhns, and the smaller, muscular Mychael Ologat. Despite the many discomforts of the academy life, Davin excelled and was placed with other top recruits in the special training for Colonel Veers's All Terrain Armored Transport detachment.

Davin was one of the few who finished the AT-AT training. On a dry run, during which he commanded one of these massive machines, Davin was surprised when four fighters attacked him. Resisting panic and brilliantly planning his strategies, the trooper destroyed the four ships. Shortly after that, he found out that the ships had been simulations, and that he had been tested by Colonel Veers. The officer pulled Felth aside from others, questioning his tactics: the young man had revealed potential flaws in the AT-AT design.

Oddly enough rather than rewarding the exceptional student, Veers had him immediately assigned to a stormtrooper unit. Sent to the arid planet of Tatooine, Davin was assigned the number 1023, as stormtroopers were not referred to by name. He was issued the armor of the desert-sands stormtroopers, commonly called sandtroopers.

He was then reassigned by Captain Terrik to the scout unit Zeta. Terrik led the Zeta unit and oversaw Alvien and Drax Squads. Their task was a search-and-destroy mission to find an escape pod that had jettisoned from a Rebel ship.

Imperial computers were already mapping trajectories for the pod as the troopers touched down in the desert. Giant dewback lizards had been grav-lifted in to help the sandtroopers cover more territory among the dunes. Hours passed, and they continued their search of the endlessly shifting terrain. After one false alarm, it was Davin who found the escape pod, and moments later he found something even more important: a piece of an R2 unit. "Look sir, droids," he told Terrik.

Zeta unit followed a set of wandering tracks that eventually led them to a giant ore hauler that the Tatooine natives, the Jawas used as their home and mobile droid-scavenging facility. Davin and his fellow troopers searched the sandcrawler but could find no sign of any R2 units, nor the protocol droid they were also seeking.

Terrik questioned the Jawa leaders, however, ascertaining that two such droids had been sold to moisture farmer named Owen Lars.

As his men moved on, Terrik ordered the stormtroopers to open fire on the Jawa sandcrawler and kill all inside, then plant evidence that would make it appear that the roving Tusken Raiders had attacked the diminutive scavengers. Davin's heart was heavy; he hadn't joined the Imperials to kill innocent beings.

Davin and the other troopers boarded cargo skiffs and quickly thereafter arrived at the Lars homestead. After the troopers ransacked the house and garages looking for the droids, the feisty moisture farmer did the unthinkable: he spit upon Captain Terrik, cursing him. Davin knew that was going to come. As he boarded the skiff to go to the Mos Eisley spaceport, Davin tried to block out the carnage that followed; troopers mowed down the farmer and his wife, razing their homestead with blaster fire. Davin asked himself what he would do if he was asked to kill in this fashion.

Once they arrived at the busy spaceport, Alvien Squad was assigned to checkpoints of entrances to the city. Drax and Zeta Squads' was to patrol and search door to door. Felth questioned a gigantic hairy Talz, Muftak, then conferred with his superior, Lieutenant Alima.

While on patrol, Davin and his backup, 1047, responded to screams from a local cantina. Davin inspected the bar, seeing and old man and a young boy leaving as he entered. Nothing in the establishment seemed out of the ordinary, though, and Davin returned to the streets.

Shortly afterward, a crazed Jawa made an abortive attack on the troopers. Trooper 1047 fired, killing the creature and making Davin wonder again about the overpowering presence of death he was facing as a stormtrooper. Was this what the Empire was about?

Later that day, a call through the comlink brought all the troopers to Docking Bay 94, where the droids had been found. In the firefight that followed, Davin recognized the men from the bar, including an athletic-looking smuggler and a Wookiee. His superiors said they were Rebels. Could these few individuals, have caused the Empire so much trouble?

As the fighting went on, Davin was forced to make a decision. Captain Terrik had drawn a bead on the smuggler from the cantina and was sure to kill him. But Felth made his first kill, shooting the captain in his back.

As the freighter took off and the troopers retreated, Davin was filled with a new sense of purpose -- he had found a new cause. The Rebels were right -- the Empire was evil. But maybe, by leaking information to the Rebellion from within the ranks of the Empire, the stormtrooper named Davin Felth -- not 1023 -- could regain his drive and reclaim his life, therefore starting his duty as a Rebel Spy.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
 * Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe
 * When The Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale
 * Star Wars: Force Commander