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The bipedal vehicle known as a "walker" began its development in
3276, when John B. Walker (3241-3313 I.C.) of Bragen Mills, Prostin,
Mielspiel, Micc, Charlu, created a very large, modular, somewhat
tank-like weapons platform that could be outfitted for various
purposes, mostly involving very heavy firepower. After fifteen years of work on progressive models and disgusting amounts of money (thanks to Walker's investments in the massive Core Mining conglomerate, a company whose every employee should die in a fire,) Walker completed a hulking, heavily-armed, bipedal walking machine--the Walker Industries BP001 Walker. It took a while to catch on for military purposes, but Core Mining bought several hundred and refitted them with various mining and harvesting tools. With its ability to step over obstacles that their vehicles would normally have to drive around, despite its awesome size, it caught favor with the Mieli military, whose political dealings with several nearby countries were quickly failing and war was obviously on the horizon. The Walker was heavy and slow, and nearly useless without a complement of tanks and infantry to support it, but with said complement, it was an instrument of great fear and destruction, and helped Mielspiel quickly end the growing conflict. The thing about holding a monopoly on terror-inducing bipedal war machines is that one can charge exorbitant amounts of money to fund further development of terror-inducing bipedal war machines. With the BP001's growing popularity, Walker Industries grew and furthered development of a wide selection of both general-purpose and specialized bipedal vehicles, of all shapes and sizes. As the machine's popularity grew to other worlds, several other companies began development of their own bipedal vehicles. The first of these was Ziljing Industries, with a double release of the LCM0, a direct competitor for the BP001, and the S1 Personal Armored Combat Suit, a nearly man-sized, modular powered suit for infantry use. Because of the original Walker Industries model's name, "walker" came to be an accepted generic term for such bipedal vehicles, but, as the BP001 has been phased out of production for almost four hundred years, the true Walker has become a very expensive, highly sought-after collector's piece. |