qualifying phase of the test, you will be allowed to accompany the
AT-AT in one of my'combat battalions. Good luck to you all, but
take a good look around you-fewer than one person in ten will
successfully complete this arduous training." He scanned the room
as though he could look into each recruit's face. Davin sat rigid
in his seat and tried to meet the holo's eye, but the image
dissolved from view.
A murmur ran through the ship. The recruits leaned over their
seats and whispered excitedly to one another. The man next to
Davin turned, his face flushed. "An AT-AT! Can you believe we've
been picked for the chance to command one of them?"
The image of the monstrous vehicle stepping across the rocky
terrain still burned in Davin's mind. Through all of his training
experiences, nothing had sparked the fire in him as had the sight
of the AT-AT. It was almost as if his destiny had been unfolded
right inside the sleek executive transport.
"Yeah," whispered Davin, "and I'm going to make sure I'm not
one of those nine recruits who washes out."
The AT-AT control room seemed large to Davin Felth.
Multicolored touch-sensitive controls covered the walls and
ceiling; the rectangular viewport at the front of the control room
was as tall as Davin. Two swivel chairs sat at the front of the
viewport, allowing the pilot and copilot access to all the
controls, yet giving them a spectacular view of below. They were a
good five hundred meters above the ground in the AT-AT control
"head," docked at the training base.
Davin felt a shortness of breath, as if he had walked into some
sacrosanct place; but it was more than that. He slowly stepped
forward and ran a hand over the right-hand seat. He felt rich
dewback leather - only the best for Colonel Veers's recruits!
"Do you like it?"
The voice startled Davin, and the past months of training made
him cringe at the blast he knew was to come. "Yes, sir."
The instructor joined Davin and spoke quietly, as if not to
disturb Davin's sense of awe. "I don't think I'll ever get used to
the feeling I get when I climb aboard." He glanced at Davin. "And
that's one of the attributes we look for in our recruits, Davin
Felth. If they do not respect the AT-AT, then they approach their
assignment as just another duty. They might as well stay in their
virtual reality chamber, playing like children. We only want the
best to pilot the AT-AT, because when something goes wrong that
you can't fix by VR, then it's the best who survive."
He reached up and ran his fingers over an array of lights. A
low sound thrummed through the floor as the instruments powered
up. The instructor swung the chair around and flicked at the
lights in front of him. "Do you want to take her out?"
"Yes, sir!" said Davin. He eagerly climbed into the copilot's
seat and waited for instructions. When none came, he remembered
the lessons he had been taught in the VR simulator, and quickly
helped the instructor with the checklist. Within minutes they were
ready to ease the AT-AT out of the docking bay.
Davin watched the screens inlaid above the viewport; he saw
images broadcast from the docking area.of the AT-AT from all
different angles. In the seat next to Davin, the instructor
effortlessly ran through the sequence to back the AT-AT away from
its berth. Although the AT-AT was completely controlled by
artificial intelligence, Davin appreciated for the first time the
enormity of the task of running a machine that held nearly as many
moving parts as the human body. The human presence on board served
as a foolproof backup.
"Let's take her up into the hills," said the instructor. "I
want to run through some target practice. I'll let Base know our
call sign is Landkiller One."
The view outside of the viewport raced across the molecular-
thick window as the AT-AT lumbered away from the base. They
quickly left behind the syngranite buildings and roads and turned
into the rugged hillside.
The ride was smooth. The AT-AT stepped across chasms so deep
Davin couldn't see the bottom. They climbed the ridge and dropped
down to the valley on the other side; boulders littered the
hillside. They were in the middle of a barren wasteland. Sheer
rock rose up on one side of them, and in the distance, Davin saw
red and silver rock formations jutting into the air, looking like
a forest of multicolored needles. Davin glanced at the clock-they
had only left the base ten minutes before, but already they were
out in the wilderness.
Little by little the instructor allowed Davin to take over the
AT-AT controls. Piloting the AT-AT was just like using the virtual
reality simulator, but Davin knew that any misjudgment would be
disastrous. Davin devoted his entire attention to monitoring the
myriad instruments.
"You're pretty good at this," said the instructor after a
while. "Not many recruits are as comfortable as you."
"Thanks," said Davin, not breaking his concentration.
"Keep at this heading," said the instructor, pushing up from
his seat. "I want to check the weapons cache. We're coming upon
the target range and the terrain doesn't change any from here."
"Yes, sir."
"Just call out if anything goes wrong; I'll be right back. But
don't leave the controls-no matter what happens."
"Yes, sir." Davin tried to keep his excitement in check. The AT-
AT almost functioned on its own, but Davin still felt heady being
in command, alone in the command center. Step by monstrous step,
the AT-AT lumbered across the barren terrain. Looking out over the
rugged land, Davin could imagine himself commanding a fleet of AT-
AT's, massing against the Rebels-
Davin caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. A
dark speck, then suddenly three more, swooped down out of the sky.
They headed straight for the AT-AT.
Davin glanced at his radar screen-nothing showed up. He punched
up his scanning instruments and got the same response nothing at
all in the EM, gravitational, and neutrino spectrums.
Davin frowned and called out to his instructor, "I've got a
visual on some fighter craft heading this way, but they don't show
up on scanners. They're closing fast."
Davin didn't get an answer from his instructor, still back in
the weapons cache. The only sound Davin heard was the muted
rumbling of the AT-AT's power system, and die slight jarring that
came over the electronically cushioned ride.
Davin turned in his seat. "Sir? Are you there?" The door to the
weapons cache was sealed; Davin turned back to the front. The four
fighter craft grew closer. He slapped at the intercom and
broadcasted throughout the AT-AT. "Sergeant!" Still no answer.
The four ships split off in two pairs, each vessel turning
sideways as they came directly for the AT-AT control chamber.
Bright pops of blaster cannon erupted from the fighters as they
fired
upon Davin's AT-AT.
"Hey!" Davin felt anger and fear surge through him. "Sergeant,
we're being attacked!" The vessels thundered past the AT-AT,
causing the giant war machine to sway slightly in the fighter's
turbulence. "What's going on? Are we in the target area or some
thing?"
Still not getting a reply, Davin nearly unbuckled to go look
for the AT-AT instructor. What if something had happened to the
man? The instructor would know what to do. This was crazy!
But when Davin saw the fighter craft swoop up again in front of
him, he sat frozen in his seat. The four fighters were coming in
for another strafing run. Davin forced himself to grab at the
communicator. He flicked to the AT-AT Base frequency. "Distress,
Distress -this is Landkiller One! Attention, Base, we're under
attack. There must be some kind of mistake. I say again,
Distress!"
Only the sound of white noise came over the speaker; even the
emergency holo did not function.
Bright pinpoints of light once again erupted from the head of
the attacking fighter craft. Davin tensed himself as the AT-AT was
rocked with the impact of a blaster cannon. A shrill alarm blasted
above his head as the acrid smell of oily smoke rolled throughout
the control room. "Sergeant-help me!" The warbling sound of
another alarm pierced the air; synthetic voices announcing damage-
control procedures came from the rear of the control room. Twenty
diings seemed to happen at once.
Throughout all the confusion, Davin spotted the four fighter
craft rolling up from upon high and diving down to make another .
. . and perhaps their last . . . strafing run.
Davin grew suddenly angry at all that had gone wrong.
Throughout his short career as an Imperial military man, he had
been drilled that the only way to survive was to follow
procedures. But here was a situation that had not been covered in
any textbook or testing sequence! He was out on his own, and as
crazy as it seemed, someho w the Rebels must have found their way
to the Imperial military training planet. How else could he
explain the fighter vessels not showing up on radar?
Davin pushed all concern aside and armed the AT-AT fire
controls. If he was going to be shot at, he wasn't going to go
down without a fight. The automated fire-control system was of no
use since the enemy craft did not show up on any of his scanning
instruments.
Slaving the blaster cannon controls to follow his line of
sight, he let loose a salvo of high-energy laser blasts. The
bundles of energy shot past the attacking ships. Although his
shots missed the fighter craft, the attacking ships split up. Had
they not expected him to fight back?
The fighters flew past him, again coming so close that the AT-
AT shuddered because of the passing crafts' shock Wave. Davin
slapped at the emergency beacon, sending out a continuous squawk
over the airwaves. At the same time, he halted the AT-AT's forward
motion, slaving the AT-AT's entire computer resources to fight the
incoming attackers.
Since he had to rely on his eyesight and none of the
instruments during die battle, Davin decided to put himself at the
greatest advantage. He ordered the AT-AT to kneel, dropping as low
to the ground as possible. Slowly, with jerky motions, the huge
behemoth staggered to the ground.
Davin brought the war machine's head down flat with the body
until there remained no part of the AT-AT that the fighters could
fly under. By the time the four fighter craft came back around for
another attack, Davin's AT-AT lay hunkered on the ground.
The fighters grouped together for a high-angle dive-bombing
run. As they approached, Davin knew they could not fly under the
AT-AT.
Davin forced them to make a suicide attempt on the control
chamber.
Davin jammed his finger down on the firing control. The AT-AT
rocked with the recoil from the laser cannon. An explosion burst
across the screen as he hit two of the fighters; a third fighter
tried to steer away from the flying debris, but his wing clipped
the ground and cartwheeled into a rocky cliff.
The remaining fighter bore down on him. He flew in low,
wobbling in the hot layer of turbulent desert air. Davin waited
until the fighter was nearly upon him before firing. The craft
kept close to the ground, as if expecting Davin's AT-AT to rise
and start shooting.
Seconds later, the last fighter plowed into a rock formation,
erupting with a violent burst. Red-orange flames shot out, then
quickly disappeared from view.
Davin sat in the sudden quiet. Moments ago the control room had
been filled with a cacophony of alarms and the sight of four
fighter craft attacking the AT-AT. But now, there was only the
distant throb of the onboard power plant.
Davin felt drained, too tired even to call Base and report what
had happened. But he knew that he must, for if these four Rebel
craft had somehow managed to evade the Imperial defenses, then no
telling how many of the dangerous vessels would be lurking in
orbit.
He picked up the communicator when he heard a sound behind him.
Davin turned. "Sergeant?" In the shock of battle, he had
completely forgotten about his instructor being lost in the sealed
weapons cache.
His instructor stood with his hands on his hips, grinning
wolfishly. "Good job, Recruit Felth. You've got a command party
landing on the AT-AT command module, so open up the top hatch."
"Yes, sir." Dazed and confused, Davin did as instructed. Once
outside, he searched for the wreckage of the fighters that should
have covered the landscape . . . but he was stunned to see
nothing.
"You're the first recruit to bring down all four fighters,
Davin Felth. This AT-AT was specially designed to simulate that
battle-it was all projected via virtual reality into the control
head." It was almost too much for Davin to comprehend.
Recovering from the fact that he had not been in an actual
battle, Davin stood with his instructor on top of the AT-AT's
sprawling metallic head. Davin squinted in the sunlight; the dry
desert air smelled enthralling to him after the stuffiness of the
damaged control room. A dot appeared above them, dilating in size
until Davin could make out the bottom of an Imperial command
scout. Davin and his instructor stepped back. After the command
scout landed, a door hissed open and a ramp extended to the
surface.
Two white-armored Imperial stormtroopers marched out and stood
at rigid attention on either side of the opening. Davin gasped as
he recognized the man emerging from the ship. "Colonel Veers!"
Davin snapped to attention and saluted.
Veers strode up and returned the salute. He looked Davin up and
down. "Recruit Felth, is it?" "Yes, sir," stammered Davin.
"This kneeling maneuver with the AT-AT - how did you come up
with that idea, recruit?
"
Davin opened his mouth but he was at a loss for words.
"Well," growled Veers. "Out with it, recruit!"
"I - I don't know, sir. It just seemed the logical thing to do.
It was the only way to keep the fighters from finishing us off, by
not allowing them underneath the AT-AT."
Veers sounded strangely cold. "And what would that do,
recruit?"
Davin shrugged, thrown by Veers's line of questioning. Why, he
had fought off the fighters, hadn't he? And won! "Well-"
"Address the colonel as sir!" corrected his instructor,
embarrassed to be speaking in front of Veers.
"Thank you, Sergeant," said Veers. The colonel drew close to
Davin and steered him away from the others. When they were some
distance from the instructor and Imperial stormtroopers, the
colonel spoke softly. "Now continue, recruit. What is so special
about not allowing the fighters access to the AT-AT underbelly?"
Davin stiffened. "I lost track of them when they flew
underneath. Once the fighters were under the AT-AT, they could
have done just about anything they wanted."
Veers seemed about to lose his patience. "Such as-?"
Davin felt his face grow warm as he scrambled to think of
something, anything to appease the colonel. "Such as ... tying up
the AT-AT legs, sir," Davin blurted out. "All they needed was
some cable and they could have easily tripped the AT-AT."
A strange look came over Colonel Veers. The thin man smiled
tightly and looked Davin over. "Very well. Thank you, recruit.
That's very enlightening." He raised a finger to his lips. "Keep
this classified until my battle staff can analyze the
implications, understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
Veers turned to go. Raising his voice, he nodded at Davin's
instructor as he spoke. "Have Recruit Felth report to Assignments
when he returns. A man of his caliber deserves immediate
recognition. My staff will have an assignment worthy of his
talents ready when he returns."
"Yes, sir," said the instructor.
As an afterthought, Veers raised a finger. "And impound all the
datacubes on this simulation. Have them sent to my command
headquarters. Understood?"
"Yes, Colonel."
"And quickly. I have been dispatched for temporary duty as an
advisor to the Emperor's new Death Star. I want this accomplished
before I leave."
When the scout ship disappeared from view, Davin's instructor
Star Wars - Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina Page 29
