Most stormtroopers in Star Wars are nameless. They’re the faceless soldiers in white armor, blasting away in the background. But every so often, one of them has a story that cuts deeper than you’d expect — a story that makes you rethink the helmet, the blaster, and the “bad guy” label. TK-462’s life is one of those.
It’s a tragedy about grief, vengeance loop, loyalty, and the cruel irony of becoming the very thing you hate. First told in Star Wars Insider #166, it begins far from any battlefield, on a lonely Outer Rim world called Eriadu.
Table of Contents
How It All Started
TK-462 didn’t grow up on a military base or anything like that. He was just a boy living on an air-scrubber farm on Eriadu with his dad and little sister, Xea. His mom had passed away years before, so the two kids were close.
One night, rebels showed up to steal some of the farm’s air scrubbers — machines that kept people breathing on worlds without enough plant life. His dad grabbed a blaster and fought back. In the middle of the fight, a cable snapped, and one of those massive machines came crashing down right into their house.
Xea had been in bed. The boy ran inside, and the sight he found there would decide his future. From that moment, he knew what he wanted: to kill rebels.
When Imperial forces came to check out what happened, Governor Tarkin was with them. The boy didn’t care about Tarkin’s talk with his father — his eyes were on the stormtroopers. They were strong, disciplined, untouchable. That’s when he decided he’d be one of them.
Getting Into the Empire
His dad wanted none of it. He’d already lost his wife and daughter, and he wasn’t about to lose his son to the Empire. But years later, when the boy was old enough, he slipped away at night, left a note, and signed up for the Junior Academy.
The training there was easy, everyone in his class graduated. His father didn’t show up to see it — and wasn’t there when his transport left for the main Imperial Academy either. That hurt, but he kept going.
The main academy was nothing like the Junior one. His instructor, Commander Lassar, was a retired clone who didn’t think much of human recruits, especially short ones like TK-462. From day one, Lassar made him the target — ordering his squadmates to beat him every morning. The others didn’t want to, but refusing wasn’t an option.
The beatings became routine, and TK-462 pushed through it. He told himself if he quit, all that pain would have been for nothing. That mindset carried him all the way to the end… until Lassar took things further.
The Breaking Point
A few weeks before graduation, on the hottest day of the year, Lassar made the squad run five kilometers in full armor. After the run, Lassar drank a glass of wine, smashed it, and told TK-462 to put the shards in his boots and run again. He made it about 500 meters before blacking out.
He woke up in the infirmary after surgery to reconstruct his feet. The nurse told him he’d be resting until graduation — which meant he’d made it. He thought about his sister and how this was his first real step toward avenging her.
First Steps as a Stormtrooper
His first posting was in the fashion district of Eriadu City. It was mostly catching shoplifters and petty thieves. Not exactly what he’d imagined, but it was service. Then came the call for more troops on Lothal — and he volunteered immediately.
Lothal was different. Back home, Imperial rule had brought order. Here, it was making life worse. Mining operations were draining the land, and people were struggling. Still, when orders came to burn a village suspected of helping rebels, he followed them. He told himself it was for the greater good. The screams stayed with him anyway.
The Last Mission
One day, his squad was told to track down stolen kyber crystals. They found the crate abandoned, but the captain still wanted the thieves. In a resettlement village, the captain dragged a Rodian shopkeeper into the square and threatened to shoot him if no one came forward. Three seconds later, the Rodian was dead.
Next, the captain grabbed a human woman. Before he finished counting, a man rushed out with a blaster. TK-462 reacted instantly and shot him. A little girl ran out from the same building and dropped to the ground beside the man — her father.
The crowd erupted. In the chaos, TK-462 was shot in the chest. He turned and saw the girl holding her father’s blaster, still aimed at him. The armor had stopped the bolt from killing him outright, but the shards inside pierced deep, and he could feel himself bleeding out.
He took off his helmet and looked at her. She didn’t fire again. They both understood what had just happened. He saw in her eyes the same rage and grief he’d felt the night Xea died.
She was now what he had been — a child with a reason to hate, a reason to fight. And for some reason, that gave him a strange sense of peace. As he collapsed, his last thoughts were of finally seeing his sister again.
