Trooper (comic)

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Trooper is a comic story that appeared in Star Wars Tales 10 and was collected in Star Wars Tales Volume 3. The story was written by Garth Ennis, art by John McCrea, colors by Brad Anderson and letters by Steve Dutro.

[edit] Plot summary

As the Tantive IV is about to be invaded, one of the stormtroopers prays that he will not be called upon to go in first. He remembers that every single time he has ever been on this kind of mission, the first one to go in was the first one to be shot.

He thinks back to his early adulthood living on Greater Marianas where he worked with his father as a hunter. His father lived completely off the land, ate meat, wore hides and traded more of them for gas for the speeder so he could hunt some more. The trooper remembers the speech his father always went on about: "Every Man is born the same son. A sentient bein' livin' free beneath the stars. No matter how rich or poor he grows to be, that right there is the last thing you can take from him—an' anyone who'd try, they're the lowest trash there is."

The trooper reflects that he'd hear that twice on a good day. One day they returned from the hunt to find a crowd gathered around an Imperial Officer and some stormtroopers. The planet is being taken over and put under the protection of the Galactic Empire. When some of the crowd begin to argue, a stormtrooper shoots an agitator, the father of the main character. He looks back on this moment and remembers that everything he had ever known was lying in the dust by his feet. As he recalled, "Pa had the freedom he was born with—the other guy had a blaster."

As the Imperial officer and his Stormtroopers turn to leave, he tells the officer "I'd like to go with you sir." The officer tells him if he wants to join the Imperial Forces he must first follow orders. The officer tells him to shoot another one of the crowd. "To me, it wasn't evil. It was nothing more than common sense. A way off Greater Marianas," he thinks.

The trooper remembers his harsh training regimes and how he was told he did not matter, that defeating the enemy was most important. As he remembers this he notices that Darth Vader has arrived. He consults the stormtrooper Sergeant and as he thinks to himself that "the kid behind me makes a mess in his reflec and I curse the day I ever joined the Empire."

He looks back on his life as a trooper again but is brought back to reality as the Sergeant tells him to go in first. He swears to himself that if he gets out of this alive he'll jump ship and escape the life of a trooper. He looks at the explosive in his hand. The way it explodes is supposed to blow doors inward so that defenders flinch. The trooper has noted that they never do.

But this time it works. The defenders flinch and he gets the extra second. The sergeant's helmet is blown apart behind him and he fires at Rebel after Rebel. As he rushes down the corridor, "the most beautiful girl he has ever seen shoots him in the face—" As the other Stormtroopers shoot her and tell each other "She'll be all right" the trooper lying on the ground thinks, as the world blackens around him, "But I won't."

[edit] Appearances