Walkers (CABE 'verse)

Walkers are wild semi-intelligent animals that live on the planet G0-CVII. They get their name from the Imperial AT-AT walkers, which they somewhat resemble.

Walkers are omnivorous mammals with six legs. Their skin is thick and leathery, and a nearly uniform medium-gray. Infants stand about 1 meter tall and weigh approximately 100 kilograms. They are born without teeth, but cut two rows of teeth within their first two months of life. They take two years to fully mature; in the first year, they double in height and gain two more rows of sharp teeth. In the second year, they double in height again, reaching their adult height of 4 meters. Also in the second year, walkers can conceive babies, which will be born the following spring.

Each herd has a queen, whose oldest female offspring will become the queen in her place once the queen dies. Infant queens are born with a single horn in their foreheads that can be used to mark walkers of other herds as part of their own herd, which offers them protection and food sharing. Walkers are monogamous and the females select male mates as babies. If the male dies, the female can choose another; if she dies, he is open for being claimed by another. Females fight against each other for ownership of any particular male if more than one wants him.

The infant queen loses her horn when she becomes the herd queen. Her mate is the king, and other males will defer to him.

Jacen and Anakin Solo were rescued by a herd of walkers in 28 ABY when being pursued by Lord Welk and twenty-four Stellar Imperial troopers. The walkers were starving and intended to eat the Solo brothers, but when the troopers came, they left the two young men alone to pursue the more numerous Imperials. All but Welk himself ended up eaten. General Melany Baclaw, the last survivor besides Welk, injured Anakin Solo, but the walker queen ate her before she could kill him, and the queen and one younger walker carried him back to his camping area so Jacen could tend to him. Jacen cut off Melany's legs right before the queen devoured her, though, and the queen left her legs for Jacen (who did not eat them.)

Later, the Solos found the same herd, now with a new group of babies. The infant queen marked Jacen and Anakin as members of the herd, which left bluish tattoo-like marks on their shoulders that faded slowly over a few years.

All of the adult walkers were killed when Melany Baclaw's sister, Darth Inferna, returned to G0-CVII with Welk. She shot them all down from the safety of her ship, and Jacen convinced the younger walkers to flee while they still could. This saved the herd from extinction.