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As Davin settled into his seat, a holo appeared in the middle of the aisle. Tall and gaunt with sunken eyes, the holographic image of the man was dressed in the tight black uniform of a ground commander. The image spoke with forcefulness.

“I am Colonel Veers, commander of the Emperor’s AT-AT forces. You trooper candidates have been selected for your ability to learn quickly and put the requirements of the mission over your personal needs. No matter how superior our space forces may be, it is the brilliance of the ground troops, ferreting out the enemy from their dug-in encampments, that will win this conflict. The ground forces are the true backbone needed for a total victory—and you have been selected to man the flagship of the ground troops: the All Terrain Armored Transport, the AT-AT!”

Colonel Veers’s image was replaced by a four-legged metal behemoth, lumbering across rugged terrain. It moved in mere seconds distances that would have taken men on foot an hour to traverse. Twin blaster cannons fired laser pulses from the vehicle’s metallic head; two uniformed crewmen could be seen in the command module in the AT-AT’s head. The recruits in the executive transport drew in their breath in a collective gasp at the sight.

Colonel Veers’s voice continued. “You will undergo six weeks of intensive training in the virtual reality simulators before being allowed in the AT-AT even as an observer. If you pass the 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.