Desert Sands was an Imperial sandtroopers unit that served during the Galactic Civil War. The unit was a specialized desert stormtrooper variant with modified armor and equipment to withstand the harsh climates of desert planets like Tatooine, along with heavy weapons, survival gear, and shoulder pauldrons denoting rank. The unit included mounted Dewback troopers with its regular contingent. In 0 BBY, the unit was ordered to land on Tatooine in a Sentinel-class landing craft, tasked with locating Tantive IV's ejected escape pod to recover the stolen Death Star plans. When Desert Sands located and searched the escape pod, the plans were gone. They did however discover a trail leading away from the crashed pod, as well as evidence that the pod's occupants were droids. The troopers followed the trail through the desert, and discovered that one droid had been intercepted by a Jawa sandcrawler. They eventually tracked down the sandcrawler, where they learned that the droids had been sold to moisture farmers. Desert Sands then attacked the sandcrawler, leaving no survivors. Desert Sands proceeded on to the moisture farm that had purchased the droids. On arrival, the unit failed to find the droids yet again. They blasted the homestead, and murdered its only inhabitants - Owen and Beru Lars.