Walkers of Sigma 957 / WOS9

Back before the Vanduul swarms struck the UEE, pirates were the only real concern for merchants. Space is vast, and it became increasingly easy to stalk a known trade route and steal some easy cargo. Merchants with some forethought would always hire security escorts, but if credits were low or no one was available, it was a sad fact that the cargo vessels would be sent out anyway. It was just a roll of the dice to see who made it safely, and who ended up in the scrap heap.
The Walkers did not start out as a military contractor, far from it actually. They were deckhands for Covalex shipping, and made their living loading and unloading cargo ships. They would man tractor beams or move the boxes manually. It was back breaking, hard work, but it put food on the table.
One day a brand new tool came to the industry platform, The RSI Titan suit. It was a fully loaded power suit that could lift even the heaviest of cargo boxes with ease. And Despite the price tag on each of these suits, Covalex purchased a few, and because of their tenure, the Walkers were allowed to try them out. Boxes started getting moved with increased efficiency and Covalex decided that they would purchase a few more.
This would prove a massive oversight on their side because the money that went towards the extra Titan suits was supposed to be used to hire security escorts for the next shipment that was scheduled to go out. One shipment in question was a large order of ship weapons that were going to be used to overhaul some new hotshot’s fleet of light fighters.
At the end of the day, there was money to be made and the higher ups didn’t much care how the shipment was moved, they just wanted time schedules met. So a large shipment of weapons was being moved without a security escort. To the credit of this cargo fleet, they did what they could to make sure all of the turrets had a warm body in the gunner seat.
The flight was going fairly well, they had managed to make it about half way to their destination without incident. But then it happened the low rumbling of a ship that can only mean a forceful exit from quantum space. It’s a feeling that no one ever really forgets. Some of the more veteran haulers where familiar with the feeling, while the greenhorns began to panic. The gunners were given instructions on who to target and told to buy the fleet time to escape back into quantum space.
The fight was brief. A few pirate ships were shot down, but it didn’t take long before most weapon systems went dark aboard the cargo ships. The pirates hailed the beaten and bruised ships. They gave the usual demands “Power down your weapons and shields. Open your cargo doors and get ready for boarding. Don’t make any trouble and you can all go home”.
Dealing with pirates is always tricky. One might actually intend to let you go after they loot all your cargo, but another might just as easily decide that your ships weight in scrap might be a good profit. Either way the Walkers didn’t feel like taking the chance. They had a total of four Titan suits onboard one of the cargo ships, they had no weapons to speak of, but they were designed to withstand impacts from cargo and mining accidents so with a bit of luck it could substitute for armor for the operator inside. All four Titan suits dropped one of their two cargo arms and swapped it out for the traditional hand attachment, and when the first pirates breached the crew quarters they let loose with bone shattering haymakers. The light armor of the pirate’s helmet never stood a chance.
Now armed with the rifles of the pirates, the Walkers made their way to the cargo bay closest to the crew quarters where they could look out across space and see a cargo ship 300 meters away having its load of weapons being offloaded by pirates. With the sun behind them, the Walkers had a decent chance of not being seen and, after scrambling together a plan, they leaped into space and floated toward the cargo ship.
With a loud “clunk” the Titan suits clamped down with their mechanical feet and attached themselves to the hull of the distressed cargo vessel. They used the robotic fingers to punch in the code needed to open the cargo bay and climbed inside. Bullets pinged off the utility plating of the suits as the Walkers advanced slowly. With the suits keeping their aim steady, the pirates fell one by one
The rest of the pirate vessels decided this new development was not worth the time investment and started to open fire on the cargo ships, but it was too late. The walkers had caused enough of a distraction to allow the cargo ships to seize the window of opportunity and make their escape to quantum space amidst the confusion.
Once the cargo was delivered, the Walkers received heavy praise from the surviving crew of the cargo fleet. Covalex gave the Walkers a bonus for “initiative in a tense situation”. For many people, that might have been it, The Walkers could have taken their pay and went on with their lives. But they wanted to do more. They were aware of how often unprepared cargo fleets were caught by pirates.
They went straight to Robert Space Industries with the video recording of what had happened with the cargo fleet. It didn’t take long before prototypes of weaponized versions of the Titan suit were in development.

Fast forward to today and the Walkers are the leading name in mechanized combat units. Their aim to provide aid to those who find themselves in a hard spot. When asked “why” the founder responded with this.

“When all others fall short. We aim to stride above.”