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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.