The Sandtrooper's Story - Part I
Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:57 am
This is an alternate view of the events from ANH and beyond from the perspective of the Sandtroopers.
This cluster (* * *) means a scene shift from one location to another OR a large chunk of time has passed within a given scene.
This cluster (*) mean that a small amount of time has passed within a given scene.
CHAPTER TITLES ARE HYPERLINKED TO THE PDF VERSIONS. Only Chapters that have been re-edited have this link. Eventually, all will have them!
Here is a Story Map that shows the Star Wars universe and the route of our journey.
ENJOY!

The Sandtrooper's Story - Part I
The Sandtrooper’s Story © 2006 W. Jones
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
I do not own Star Wars or its characters. They are and forever will be the intellectual property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm. My original characters in this work are mine, and I claim all ownership and intellectual property rights to them.
Prologue:
Amidst the ranks of the Imperial Stormtroopers there are numerous divisions of Troops specialized and adapted to varying environments and locale. None of the assignments is as grueling as that of the Sandtrooper. Scattered across countless worlds, they live, work and die in places most people would rather forget. They are Imperial law enforcement assigned to keep the peace, maintain order and protect the citizens on their beat. This is the story of such a group . . .
Chapter 1 - Origins (Clickable PDF Download Link)
The core members of this unit arrived on a shuttle flight on a brilliant, clear Tatooine day in the middle of what would become . . .
. . . but I am getting a little ahead of myself .
It was in the early stages of the Clone Wars that the group, which would later become known as Garrison Tyranus, was assembled.
Count Dooku, known also in darker circles as the Sith apprentice Lord Tyranus, together with Poggle the Lesser and his Geonosian design experts, had successfully planned and launched the construction of a weapon that would carry the Trade Federation and his own Sith master, Lord Sidious, into a new era of Galactic Domination and unimaginable power.

The sheer scope of the plan, not only in physical size, but in the scale of the darkness of the deception, was staggering. Over the years leading up to the Clone Wars, many leaders of varying aspects of industry throughout the Republic had been brought together to form the first Trade Federation. The very underlying reason the Trade Federation even existed was to pool the resources needed to bring this sickeningly monstrous undertaking to fruition.
As ore was mined from remote locations and secured for the project, Outer Rim planets were stripped of their raw materials and left as mere shells of what they had once been. These worlds had flourished in the flurry of activity and jobs that buzzed around the project, and all but died out when the mining efforts were withdrawn and the jobs disappeared. They burned brightly while being consumed, just as a candle does, right up to the instant its last light is given, and it extinguishes in a silent puff of smoke leaving only darkness behind. In most cases these worlds were left behind as barren reminders of the blind ambition of the Empire. Breathable gases in extreme cases and moisture on the more fortunate ones had to be coaxed from the atmosphere on these ravaged, now-desolate planets using gas and evaporative collection units.
The new weapon was kept hidden from everyone except those responsible for its design and construction. Once construction began, the designers were the victims of a horrible navigational mishap on a transport shuttle taking them to oversee the construction. It appears that the ship’s nav’ computer was set to jump on a course that took it directly through the center of the Rishi Maze and a tight clustering of stars. The ship was vaporized, and unfortunately, all on board along with her.
In the years that unfolded during the course of the ravaging Clone Wars, many things came to light. General Grievous was sought and ultimately destroyed by Obi Wan Kenobi; Darth Sidious was entrenched deeper than ever in his plan to unravel the fabric of the Republic, and as the beginning of the end, Count Dooku was slain by Anakin Skywalker. Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, was beheaded in a lightsaber battle during a rescue mission to free the then-Chancellor Palpatine from both Dooku and General Grievous.
Although the soon-to-be Emperor lost his Sith apprentice that day, it was an anticipated and acceptable loss he had foreseen. Years before, he had laid the subtle groundwork for the cultivation of the one that would replace him. The troubled victor of the harrowing duel, Anakin Skywalker, whom he had counseled since his youth, would not only take Dooku’s place by Palpatine’s side by his own choosing, he would be instrumental in the complete and utter eradication of the Jedi pawns that stood as protectors of the Republic, directly in the way of his master’s power play.
By the time the Jedi Temple had fallen under Skywalker’s hand, and the very letter of Executive Order 66 was being carried out across the galaxy, the skeletal framework of the project was nearing completion.

Raw materials were flooding in from the Mining Guild to a remote construction location to continue the work. The surreptitious project had been so expertly protected and hidden from even the Jedi by Darth Tyranus, that Emperor Palpatine commissioned a Garrison from among the handpicked members of Darth Vader’s 501st Legion, the very troops that had stormed the Jedi Temple, and placed them in charge of security for its construction.
To honor his fallen apprentice, he anointed the newly formed group: GARRISON TYRANUS.
The construction scale of the project was enormous, never before equaled in all of recorded history. The final product would be roughly the size of a Class IV moon. Shortly after the end of the battles on Kashyyyk, many of the Wookiee survivors were enslaved and taken to work on the construction. To maintain secrecy, the scale of the project was shrouded even from those troopers working on it.

With the birth of the Rebellion, supply lines were compromised in some sectors. The rebels had no idea what supplies they were diverting or destroying. They simply knew the cargo was Imperial in nature, and attacked the defenseless federation convoys. It spooked many of the regular suppliers. Those that remained, smugglers for the most part, were less than reputable and suspect in and of themselves.
There were several instances of small, unorganized uprisings among the Wookiees in the years that followed, which were dealt with swiftly.
One smuggler, so troubled by what he saw, stormed the slave quarters, freeing several hundred of the hairy giants and making an escape with at least one of them. Most of the delivery manifests were destroyed in the raid, and the pilot was never identified.

Those manifests that were recovered showed shipments from Dantooine and Tatooine to our location with continuing flightplans to the Endor system. Sometimes there were projects that were kept secret from even the elite, until we became needed.
With the birth of the Rebellion, supply lines were compromised in some sectors. The rebels had no idea what supplies they were diverting or destroying, they simply knew the cargo was Imperial in nature, and attacked the defenseless convoys. It spooked many of the regular suppliers. Those that remained, smugglers for the most part, were less than reputable and suspect in and of themselves.
While we earned a reputation to be feared as a Garrison, and were able to maintain security of the project, we did not have the numbers needed to repel any serious external assaults or onboard insurrections should they have arisen. The project had also grown too large to keep concealed from long range scanners. There were Loyalists from Alderaan and many other inner systems that were merging efforts to scan for possible remote building sites. They feared the very covert operations that were currently under way, and acted to protect what remained of the Republic.
They hoped to one day regain the peace they had known before the Empire. Remote listening posts, comp scanners and orbital signal-jamming platforms were deployed to assist in keeping the draped veil securely in front of our project. Behind the shroud, armored ground assault vehicles, TIE squadrons, speeder bikes and a weapons stockpile including hand-to-hand weapons and sonic charges was amassed to ensure security.
And so our task progressed for nearly 20 standard years from start to finish. It was a constant battle to maintain security and order until the most magnificent killing machine ever devised was completed and its name revealed . . . Death Star.

Once the battle station was completed, Garrison Tyranus was reassigned to other duties close to the dark, masked Sith Lord. Some were dispatched to temporary assignments on the new battle station, some to duty onboard Star Destroyers with the remainder being assigned to various other posts, depending on their training and specialty. There had been small outposts guarding the mining of materials on Tatooine and Dantooine, among others. Some of the members of TYRANUS were assembled into a small patrol unit, assigned to re-establish an Imperial presence in the closed outpost on Tatooine.
It was with the formation of this new unit that my standing transfer request had finally been answered. It was late in the day, and I was just returning from a 3 day mission in the caves, when my CO confirmed the transfer for me, “Deckard, I just got the holonet confirmation of your transfer approval. I don’t remember signing off on this, but I guess I must have if it is going through. How did things go on this mission?â€
This cluster (* * *) means a scene shift from one location to another OR a large chunk of time has passed within a given scene.
This cluster (*) mean that a small amount of time has passed within a given scene.
CHAPTER TITLES ARE HYPERLINKED TO THE PDF VERSIONS. Only Chapters that have been re-edited have this link. Eventually, all will have them!
Here is a Story Map that shows the Star Wars universe and the route of our journey.
ENJOY!


The Sandtrooper's Story - Part I
The Sandtrooper’s Story © 2006 W. Jones
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
I do not own Star Wars or its characters. They are and forever will be the intellectual property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm. My original characters in this work are mine, and I claim all ownership and intellectual property rights to them.
Prologue:
Amidst the ranks of the Imperial Stormtroopers there are numerous divisions of Troops specialized and adapted to varying environments and locale. None of the assignments is as grueling as that of the Sandtrooper. Scattered across countless worlds, they live, work and die in places most people would rather forget. They are Imperial law enforcement assigned to keep the peace, maintain order and protect the citizens on their beat. This is the story of such a group . . .
Chapter 1 - Origins (Clickable PDF Download Link)
The core members of this unit arrived on a shuttle flight on a brilliant, clear Tatooine day in the middle of what would become . . .
. . . but I am getting a little ahead of myself .
It was in the early stages of the Clone Wars that the group, which would later become known as Garrison Tyranus, was assembled.
Count Dooku, known also in darker circles as the Sith apprentice Lord Tyranus, together with Poggle the Lesser and his Geonosian design experts, had successfully planned and launched the construction of a weapon that would carry the Trade Federation and his own Sith master, Lord Sidious, into a new era of Galactic Domination and unimaginable power.

The sheer scope of the plan, not only in physical size, but in the scale of the darkness of the deception, was staggering. Over the years leading up to the Clone Wars, many leaders of varying aspects of industry throughout the Republic had been brought together to form the first Trade Federation. The very underlying reason the Trade Federation even existed was to pool the resources needed to bring this sickeningly monstrous undertaking to fruition.
As ore was mined from remote locations and secured for the project, Outer Rim planets were stripped of their raw materials and left as mere shells of what they had once been. These worlds had flourished in the flurry of activity and jobs that buzzed around the project, and all but died out when the mining efforts were withdrawn and the jobs disappeared. They burned brightly while being consumed, just as a candle does, right up to the instant its last light is given, and it extinguishes in a silent puff of smoke leaving only darkness behind. In most cases these worlds were left behind as barren reminders of the blind ambition of the Empire. Breathable gases in extreme cases and moisture on the more fortunate ones had to be coaxed from the atmosphere on these ravaged, now-desolate planets using gas and evaporative collection units.
The new weapon was kept hidden from everyone except those responsible for its design and construction. Once construction began, the designers were the victims of a horrible navigational mishap on a transport shuttle taking them to oversee the construction. It appears that the ship’s nav’ computer was set to jump on a course that took it directly through the center of the Rishi Maze and a tight clustering of stars. The ship was vaporized, and unfortunately, all on board along with her.
In the years that unfolded during the course of the ravaging Clone Wars, many things came to light. General Grievous was sought and ultimately destroyed by Obi Wan Kenobi; Darth Sidious was entrenched deeper than ever in his plan to unravel the fabric of the Republic, and as the beginning of the end, Count Dooku was slain by Anakin Skywalker. Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, was beheaded in a lightsaber battle during a rescue mission to free the then-Chancellor Palpatine from both Dooku and General Grievous.
Although the soon-to-be Emperor lost his Sith apprentice that day, it was an anticipated and acceptable loss he had foreseen. Years before, he had laid the subtle groundwork for the cultivation of the one that would replace him. The troubled victor of the harrowing duel, Anakin Skywalker, whom he had counseled since his youth, would not only take Dooku’s place by Palpatine’s side by his own choosing, he would be instrumental in the complete and utter eradication of the Jedi pawns that stood as protectors of the Republic, directly in the way of his master’s power play.
By the time the Jedi Temple had fallen under Skywalker’s hand, and the very letter of Executive Order 66 was being carried out across the galaxy, the skeletal framework of the project was nearing completion.

Raw materials were flooding in from the Mining Guild to a remote construction location to continue the work. The surreptitious project had been so expertly protected and hidden from even the Jedi by Darth Tyranus, that Emperor Palpatine commissioned a Garrison from among the handpicked members of Darth Vader’s 501st Legion, the very troops that had stormed the Jedi Temple, and placed them in charge of security for its construction.
To honor his fallen apprentice, he anointed the newly formed group: GARRISON TYRANUS.
The construction scale of the project was enormous, never before equaled in all of recorded history. The final product would be roughly the size of a Class IV moon. Shortly after the end of the battles on Kashyyyk, many of the Wookiee survivors were enslaved and taken to work on the construction. To maintain secrecy, the scale of the project was shrouded even from those troopers working on it.

With the birth of the Rebellion, supply lines were compromised in some sectors. The rebels had no idea what supplies they were diverting or destroying. They simply knew the cargo was Imperial in nature, and attacked the defenseless federation convoys. It spooked many of the regular suppliers. Those that remained, smugglers for the most part, were less than reputable and suspect in and of themselves.
There were several instances of small, unorganized uprisings among the Wookiees in the years that followed, which were dealt with swiftly.
One smuggler, so troubled by what he saw, stormed the slave quarters, freeing several hundred of the hairy giants and making an escape with at least one of them. Most of the delivery manifests were destroyed in the raid, and the pilot was never identified.

Those manifests that were recovered showed shipments from Dantooine and Tatooine to our location with continuing flightplans to the Endor system. Sometimes there were projects that were kept secret from even the elite, until we became needed.
With the birth of the Rebellion, supply lines were compromised in some sectors. The rebels had no idea what supplies they were diverting or destroying, they simply knew the cargo was Imperial in nature, and attacked the defenseless convoys. It spooked many of the regular suppliers. Those that remained, smugglers for the most part, were less than reputable and suspect in and of themselves.
While we earned a reputation to be feared as a Garrison, and were able to maintain security of the project, we did not have the numbers needed to repel any serious external assaults or onboard insurrections should they have arisen. The project had also grown too large to keep concealed from long range scanners. There were Loyalists from Alderaan and many other inner systems that were merging efforts to scan for possible remote building sites. They feared the very covert operations that were currently under way, and acted to protect what remained of the Republic.
They hoped to one day regain the peace they had known before the Empire. Remote listening posts, comp scanners and orbital signal-jamming platforms were deployed to assist in keeping the draped veil securely in front of our project. Behind the shroud, armored ground assault vehicles, TIE squadrons, speeder bikes and a weapons stockpile including hand-to-hand weapons and sonic charges was amassed to ensure security.
And so our task progressed for nearly 20 standard years from start to finish. It was a constant battle to maintain security and order until the most magnificent killing machine ever devised was completed and its name revealed . . . Death Star.

Once the battle station was completed, Garrison Tyranus was reassigned to other duties close to the dark, masked Sith Lord. Some were dispatched to temporary assignments on the new battle station, some to duty onboard Star Destroyers with the remainder being assigned to various other posts, depending on their training and specialty. There had been small outposts guarding the mining of materials on Tatooine and Dantooine, among others. Some of the members of TYRANUS were assembled into a small patrol unit, assigned to re-establish an Imperial presence in the closed outpost on Tatooine.
It was with the formation of this new unit that my standing transfer request had finally been answered. It was late in the day, and I was just returning from a 3 day mission in the caves, when my CO confirmed the transfer for me, “Deckard, I just got the holonet confirmation of your transfer approval. I don’t remember signing off on this, but I guess I must have if it is going through. How did things go on this mission?â€