David Weber - Bolo! by Weber David

Author:Weber, David [Weber, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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"Ever met a Mark XXVIII, ma'am?" Sergeant Alf Tobias asked respectfully as he and Maneka walked across the Company parade ground towards the looming mountain of weapons and alloy which awaited them.

"On active duty?" Maneka asked, glancing at him, and he nodded.

"Only once," she admitted. "I did work with a couple of retired Mark XXVIII AIs at the Academy, though."

"You did?" Tobias cocked his head at her. "That's good, ma'am," he told her. "I know the XXVIII's not exactly first-line equipment anymore, but I always thought they had . . . I dunno, more personality, maybe, than the newer marks. 'Course that may just be because they've been around so much longer, I suppose. Lots of time to develop personality quirks in a century or two."

"I imagine so," Maneka agreed, remembering the "staff" Bolo AIs retired from their war hulls and assigned to the Academy to interact with its students. One, in particular—28/B-163-HRP—had had a delightfully acerbic personality which made her cognomen of "Harpy" a perfect fit. Maneka doubted she would ever forget the afternoon Harpy had spent critiquing one Cadet Trevor's less-than-brilliant solution to a tactical problem, and she smiled as she looked back at the sergeant.

"Personally," she said, "I'm glad the Brigade started retiring and upgrading software instead of just burning personality centers, Sergeant."

"You and me both, Ma'am," Tobias agreed in turn, giving her a look which held a hint of approval.

"Never did seem fair to just throw 'em away when they got too old," he continued. "Of course, the older models—before the XXIVs and XXVs—probably had too many inhibitory features to make upgrading their AIs into new marks practical. They weren't really designed to be upgraded in the first place."

"I know." Maneka started to say something more, then changed her mind as the two of them stepped into the shadow of the looming Bolo. She half-expected Tobias to immediately introduce her to the huge combat machine, but the sergeant waited patiently for her to absorb its full impact, first.

Unit 28/G-862-BNJ was a 15,000-ton Mark XXVIII, Model G, Bolo, one of the old Triumphants. His hull measured eighty-seven meters from his much-decorated prow to his aftermost antipersonnel clusters and point defense cannon. His bogey wheels were almost six meters in diameter, his tracks were eight meters wide, and the top of his center-mounted main battery turret rose twenty-seven meters above the ground, yet he was so broad and long that he still seemed low-slung, almost sleek. His indirect fire system was divided, with his four 30-centimeter rapid-fire breech-loading mortars mounted forward of his turret, and the twenty-four cells of his vertical-launch missile system mounted behind it. The secondary weapons of his infinite repeaters bristled in a lozenge pattern around the central turret, eight 10-centimeter ion-bolt rifles in four twin turrets on either flank, with a pair of single turrets mounted on the centerline fore and aft of the main turret. The broadside turrets were echeloned to allow at least five infinite repeaters

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