Captain Sam Chun rode in the pilot cab of the lead Walker, sitting cross legged on a wraparound padded chair. It was a comfortable ride despite the Walker's clumsy lumbering gait. He wore black restraining belts that crossed over from his shoulders and attached to the base of the chair on opposite sides, but he didn't think he would need them today. The belts were only there in case the Walker toppled over on rough terrain, and there was no danger of that happening on the Old Quarter's smooth, dusty roads.
A wide instrument panel wrapped around him at chest height, providing a summary of the Walker's shields status and weapons systems. Above the panel, reinforced glass curved across the front of the Walker's head offering a wide view of the world outside.
Two long thin drive sticks stood proud of the floor, with black rubber handles in front of his knees. Chun held a stick in each hand, keeping a tight hold of the finger grips as he guided the Walker's massive legs where he wanted them to go. When he pushed the sticks forwards, the Walker strode on through the Old Quarter's narrow tangled streets, towering above the multicoloured box cabins below.
He was making good progress at first, but then he came across a street that wasn't quite wide enough for the Walker's thick legs. Chun tapped his console, pulling up the targeting system, and selected one of the yellow box cabins below. When he pulled a trigger on the right stick, it blasted the building into a thousand pieces, sending fist-sized rocks bouncing across the street. With the box cabin out of his way, he now had a clear path ahead once more.
The people were screaming again. It was worth destroying a few buildings once in a while just to see them running in all directions, fleeing in blind panic. None of them tried to put a fight. A few little droids attacked once in a while, but so far there had been no meaningful resistance.
A bright orange light blinked in the corner of Chun's instrument panel. Incoming fire had been detected from the street below. Searching the displays in front of him, he located the view that looked straight down from the Walker's head. A group of security forces were firing plasma arc rifles from the street below. They were wasting their time. Their weapons would never be able to penetrate the Walker's powerful shields. Chun didn't understand why they were even trying to use such low powered weapons against him. He was starting to believe that maybe they were even more stupid than Jacob had implied.
Chun tapped a button on the side of his left stick. The infrared sensors locked onto the heat signatures of the soldiers below, and half a second later twenty-two explosive devices struck their position. A series of loud explosions rocked the ground, sending bodies flying through the air. The orange light on his instrument panel blinked out.
Chun adjusted the Walker's route, heading for a wider road on his right.
A loud buzz sounded in the cockpit overhead. Chun reached up and flicked a switch to accept the incoming call.
'Chun here,' he said.
Jacob's voice came through the overhead comms link. 'I have you on screen. Go easy on the civilians. We might need their support later.'
'I'm minimising casualties in the city,' Chun said.
'What level of resistance have you seen so far?'
'Nothing much. There were a few humanoid droids taking pot shots at us earlier but they've backed off now.'
'If they come back, realign their targeting systems to aim at their own people. You should be able to connect directly to their droids with those codes I sent you. Gail Thompson had her uses, even if she was a stupid bitch.'
'Okay,' Chun said. 'But I thought you wanted to hold off on that until later?'
'The time for waiting is over. Do you have anything to report?'
'The security forces don't seem to be trying too hard to stop our advance. Maybe they're giving up already.'
'They're not giving up. They want us to pass through the city quickly to minimise civilian casualties. That's why I chose this route. If we had attacked from the North we would already have met much stiffer resistance. Ethics are an expensive luxury to maintain. Central Command will pay heavily for theirs.'
Chun angled his sticks forwards, pushing the Walker north towards the towers in the distance. He glanced at the instrument panels, watching people running into the street below. They stared up at the Walker and then panicked, fleeing down a side street as fast as their legs would carry them. One of them was limping as though he had a broken leg. The others slowed to help him stumble away.
'We should reach the northern edge of the Old Quarter soon,' Chun said. 'That'll put us right on the edge of the Grand Plaza. Our shields won't hold out for long once we are in range of the tower guns.'
'I know that,' Jacob said. 'You won't have to hold out for long. Just do what I told you to do.'
'Okay.' Chun said, shaking his head. Jacob was a difficult man to please at times. He had a habit of keeping important information to himself. It made everyone's job that much harder. None of the captains knew enough to make any informed decisions on their own. That was just how Jacob liked it. They had no choice but to trust that he was guiding them on the right path.
Chun looked down at his instrument panels. A crowd of people had started cheering to the West. 'Who are those fools?' he said.
'Looks like you have a fan club,' Jacob said. 'Did you think everyone in the city would hate you?'
'I hadn't put much thought into it.'
'Not everyone despises the Kamari. There are those that see us as no worse than the security forces. To them we offer an alternative to the status quo, a new chance for a better way of life.'
Chun shrugged. He didn't much care whether the people liked him or not. He had a job to do and he was going to do it.
As the Walker strode forwards, the cheering faded, and the men's faces turned to concern. After exchanging worried glances they turned and ran away to the West.
Orange lights flickered in front of Chun's eyes. He recognised the attack pattern even as the curving trajectories spread across the instrument panel in front of him. Around thirty Popper Bombs detonated across the front of his shields, causing a violent static storm. The sky turned red outside as the Walker's reinforced cockpit automatically dimmed to cut out the blinding white light. Chun couldn't help closing his eyes even though he knew it wasn't necessary. Self preservation wasn't a habit that he was in a hurry to unlearn. His seat shook under the barrage of explosions, and when he opened his eyes he saw red lines rippling across the outer surface of the cockpit.
Chun stretched his fingers and transmitted the codes to reprogram the Marker Droids' targeting systems. If the security forces wanted a fight, that was what they would get.