Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran looked at his electronic playing cards. Currently he was in the ISD Halcyon Warrior's AT-AT pilot barracks playing sabacc with all of the AT-AT pilots. He was friends with them because one day he found a pilot that his father knew when he was in the army. That pilot sort of brought Echelon in to the AT-AT pilot circle. They were nice. They told him about the army battles they were in, and where they got to go. They also gambled a lot. Echelon also liked them because they drove big machines, and vehicles facinated him.

He looked at his cards and rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe his bad luck. He had a horrible hand, and his buddies were raising the pot, so for the fourth time in a row he folded.

"Again!" shouted one of the pilots.

"I've never seen someone fold so many times," said another.

"Well...I love sabacc but it treats me worse than bantha fodder," Echelon said. "I've got nothing to do, so I hang out with you guys and waste my creds."

A friend of Echelon and a pilot known as Kresh leaned over and said, "I'll give you something to do. My AT-AT's engine system needs to be repaired. It's been acting kind of funny. Can you do that?"

Without hesitation Echelon replied, "Sure. It would be better for me to do that than waste credits with these yahoos."

"Thanks! Let me just finish my hand."

After Kresh lost 250 credits, he led Echelon down a hall and into a turbolift. He pressed several buttons, and the lift sped down with a jolt. Several moments later, the door opened and led them strait into the AT-AT storage room. The room was about the size of a small hangar, and there were several kneeling AT-ATs. A boarding ramp came out of the bottom so the pilots could get in them. Kresh led Echelon all the way to the end of the room where Kresh's walker stood. It was 22.5 meters in height, and it was absolutely massive.

"There she is," Kresh said in his strange accent.

"That thing sure is big!" Echelon replied.

"She. Not thing," Kresh corrected.

"Sure..."

They walked up the boarding ramp as there boot "clanked" against the metal. Inside Kresh brought Echelon to the back of the walker. They passed the soldier housing area where stormtroopers would stand. Then it hit him.

My dad was killed coming out of an AT-AT. A rebel grenadier blew him up as well as several other soldiers.

He pushed the thought out of his mind and followed Kresh. At the back Kresh opened up an access port to the drive motors.

"Here you are," he said.

"Alright. I'll do my best. I think it just need the routine matinence procedure," Echelon said as he grabbed a flash light from the onboard repair kit.

Fill the fuel slug tank, clean the fuel slug tank valve, lubricate the drive motor's main axel, and fix anything else that I come across.

"Alright, first I'm going to lubricate the drive motor's main axel. That will create less friction on the motor, and it should run smoother," Echelon said as he grabbed the on board lubrication.

The whole axel was in view from the the access port, and it was connected to both drive motors. On both ends of the axel there were large gears that connected to the inner workings of the legs. Thus the drive motors drove the axel and the axel drove the gears which drove the legs.

Echelon reached down and sprayed a white foam on the points where the axel touched the drive motors.

"This lubrication should last around...oh....6 months."

"That's good."

"Hey, while I work, tell me about how you got to your position now."

"I'm flattered! Well I finished Basic training when I was 21..."

Echelon grabbed a fusion cutter and reached down into his port. He was going to cut open the fuel slug tank valve. This started the tube that brought the solid propellant from the fuel slug tank to the drive motors. The valve sometimes got all gunky and clogged.

He found the valve a cut it open. Inside it was full of clogged dark blue gunk. He put on some rubber gloves and started to pick the gunk out.

"...from there I became a stormtrooper, but I had a real dream. I wanted to pilot my own AT-AT."

"I've got a dream too," Echelon said as he plopped a lump of gunk into a bucket, "I want to be a Bridge Officer, and after that, I want to command my own capital ship!"

"Let me finish. I had to work hard for it. And so will you."

"Trust me I'll do anything for it. Even clean out disgusting blue gunk from an AT-AT."

After several more moments, Echelon had cleaned the valve out. He used the fusion cutter to seal the cut, and he started for the next task.

"Now I'm going to refill the fuel slug tank. Follow me."

As they proceeded out of the AT-AT, Kresh continued his story.

"After I told my officer where I wanted to go, he said that I had to show him that I was worth it. He said that I had to achieve a higher rank first..."

Echelon walked over to the wall behind the AT-AT. A large tube hanged down from the wall next to a metal platform. He walked up a staircase to the metal platfrom and hooked the tube up to the back of the AT-AT. He pressed several buttons on a keypad, and a blue substance came out of the wall, through the tube, and into the fuel slug tank. After several moments, the refueling was done, and Echelon unhooked the tube from the AT-AT.

"...when he told me that I was crushed. I thought that I would never achieve a higher rank. With blood, sweat, and tears I got there, and achieved my dream."

"Hopefully I'll be able to do that," Echelon said as he came down the stairs. "Your all good. Hopefully your engine will perform perfectly."

"Thanks Ech. I knew I could count on you."

"Your welcome. Hopefully someday I'll be a good engineer."



That night, Echelon dreamed of being a Bridge Officer. He knew he could achieve it, but like what Kresh said: "With blood, sweat, and tears".

OOC:

Word count: 1,050. Once again, there wasn't much information about the drive motors or the fuel slugs so I had to go improv. Hopefully it will all make sense.