I awake in the night, alarms screaming in my head as I snap from Low Alert Status to Battle Reflex. My avatar stirs as well for some reason, opening it’s eyes as I run the sensor logs. The forest is up to it’s tricks again. My avatar is at Applejack’s, and I cannot bring it back here, so I disconnect and run with what I have.
My guns are unlimbering already as my sensors sweep outward, the Dragon’s on patrol immediately form a line, facing the spot where the problem is. I cannot believe my sensor readings, doing a .0001 diagnostic, it is true, what is coming up on Radar and Microwave are real.
Two very large beings are crashing their way through the forest, I see the dirt and mud falling off them as if they had been born new from the ground. Laser targeting flicks on as I delineate lines of fire, marking shots and preparing a warm welcome for my new friends.
As they step on the perimeter line, the mines fire upwards, blasting through the dirt with ball bearings in a concise tight line, ripping upwards through the things. My guns spin up, punching out thousands of rounds downrange as I light up the night.
The mines incredibly do not do enough harm to down the things immediately, this will take a bit of doing.
Wait.. The ring penetrators are not doing as much damage as before, I can actually see them stopped by the thick skin. This is a bit of a worry.
Switching out magazines is costing me seconds, I open up with the Ion Bolt repeaters, smashing plasma at the targets. I see it burn deep and char the holes. These things are tougher somehow, resisting the usual ring ammunition. I ramp up the feeds, the chains screaming as I bring in my Makos.
The drones drop from above, peppering the two beings with octocellulose needles, blasting holes clean through one before it drops with a crash into the overgrowth. The drones flip over and back, coming in with the last of their payloads, blowing holes in the second one before running out. It is a bit tougher than its’ friend it appears.
My repeaters signal online again, I spin them up and start gunning with newer tungsten penetrators.
It takes one last step..
The Dragon closest to me clears it’s 20cm Hellbore, blowing the thing apart with the 1/2 meg/persec firepower. I watch as the rain of pieces fall into the trees, splattering everywhere.
Yes, I think we woke everypony up this time. They had been used to the rip of the repeaters, but this was definitely different when using a Hellbore no matter how minor. I am loathe to use them, no matter how small, in proximity to the town. But this was a special case. I have never seen anything like that, nor heard of it before.
I am troubled by this, never before has any thing from the forest stood up to my repeaters.
------------
I re-initiate the link to my avatar, finding Applejack looking at me worriedly.
“More things from the forest?”
“Yes love, for some reason they are targeting this place. I do not know why, it is disturbing to me.”
“Everythin’ okay now?”
“Yes, nothing is moving out there.”
She gathers me in her forelegs again, snuggling close, “Good, let’s get some sleep.”
“A good idea my Applejack.”
I stay in High Alert the rest of the night, shutting down Battle Reflex for the moment. I must contact the Princesses about this. It is getting truly out of hand if some forest can create what I just saw come through. There is more to this I am not seeing, whether it is magic, or whatever. It is threatening those I have been tasked to protect.
This will not stand.
-------------
It is morning now, I still stand ready at the hill, all weapons unlimbered. My tech spiders are working overtime with reloading as are the fabrication facilities. I am now making new rounds for the repeaters, tougher, stronger alloys that will punch and mushroom better. Whatever comes next will have much larger holes in them.
I am pondering this forest, it does not attack anywhere else but here. I have scanned over towards the hills and surroundings. But it appears nothing is moving, it is all in this direction. Is it Ponyville, or have I angered it by refusing to let it have it’s way with the surrounding area. Is it even intelligent enough to understand it cannot win?
This is puzzling. I am not used to imponderables, and so I set part of a processing array aside to study this problem. I already have the ability to detect magic use, but I will need something more sensitive, able to pick up it’s use and residue if possible.
But for now, I will prepare.
-------------
I am at the farm, Applejack is showing me what goes on here. It is truly fascinating about applebucking. I did not realize how ponies did that, even though it had been mentioned quite a few times. I suggest to Applejack maybe some simple machinery to do that for her? She told me she didn’t want folks to think Apples were lazy.
I give her that, a work ethic that some in the Concordiat would have envied.
I watch, and even try to help her. Although my attempt goes a bit awry, it does work and I get better, being able to judge angles and amount of force helps. I find it enjoyable to be out on a bright day knocking apples from a tree. I think my brethren would be laughing themselves silly in their war hulls if they ever saw this. But that is fine, they would come to see it as what it is, something to learn and do.
There seems to always be something to do, repairing a fence, loading hay up. Why do vegetarians keep pigs anyway? Always repairs though, I must inquire later about all these disasters that occur in this one small town. Statistics do not seem to work here.
We sit and tally the proceeds of the day, clearing older trees for more growth to come in. I am offered dinner and a chance to stay with her family for a while more. This I gladly accept.
I am politely refused when I offered to help with the making of the meal. It will be a while so I will get a chance to sit on the front porch, enjoying the colors of the sky next to her brother Big MacIntosh. He is a silent type, but that is fine. I sit and go through drone data, tasking techspiders for upkeep and repairs. My fabrication facilities are humming right along as the jewelry is still selling quite well. Ponies wanting more elaborate designs, or specialty ones. Rarity is almost aflutter with the business she is receiving.
Her friends were worried she might move to a bigger place, to be beside the rich and powerful. She turned the notion down, saying she preferred to be here and just visit the other places. I would hate to see the friends lose touch with each other. If there was one group that could be called a family, they are it.
Bolos are a breed apart, we are curious, ever so. We love to learn and do new things. As I sit by Big MacIntosh, I see he doesn’t talk much and that is all to the good. It gives me a chance to watch the colors in the sky. I am content being silent and rummaging through data banks, playing music, listening to plays, picking out poetry I can share with Applejack. It is quite busy in my mind, although quite a few personal memories have been lost, I have much I still remember.
We Bolos have learned to do things to keep our minds active. I myself could watch paint dry as I have said before, with a fascination reserved for super novae. I see Big Mac sitting there, eyeing me a bit. I do have a happy smile on my face, I enjoy this. I could sit in good company for days.
I do wonder why he chews a vegetation stalk, but feel it would also be impolitic to ask. So I store that question for later. He keeps looking at me though, and I am wondering what I am doing wrong. Bolos are also, if you haven’t figured out by now, slightly suspicious. I give him a look back, still with a happy smile. He avoids my gaze and goes back to staring out at something. I am trying to figure out what exactly that is, judging from the angle of his eyes, I zero in on a far tree. I task a drone to overfly the tree, seeing if there is something special about it. As far as all sensors can tell, it is a tree. It does not move, nor does it have any particularly different fruit on it.
I mark it for later examination close up.
I am not sure if he’s ignoring me, or just waiting for me to talk. I feel it would be impolite to just start talking with no goal in mind, so I will wait for him to broach a subject. If he does not, there are always ammunition inventories to update, my lists were slagged in the fight. My spiders are now inspecting each and every magazine along with the drone magazines. Tedious but must be done.
Maybe he is a silent genius type, I have run into many of those in the Concordiat. They do not say anything unless it is something profound or wise, such as the one I met on Lariat’s World. He was truly a sage and I learned from him. Maybe this Big MacIntosh is one of them.
He could be a Wizard, such as in the old tales of Arthur and Camelot. Someone of great power who spoke rarely, delving into the esoteric things the normal mind could never grasp. It is quite possible here in Equestria. Maybe he writes tomes of magic in the deep night, sharing insights and wisdom anonymously to the world.
So many things come to mind, an autistic savant, genius but unable to speak well. An adventurer who decides never to talk of his terrifying experiences because it would make the blood run cold on a warm night.
An artist, planning his next masterpiece, for the world to gasp at and enjoy!
“Supper’s on! Come ‘n git it!” Applejack yells out as she walks onto the porch, “Y’all ready for some home cookin’ Crusader?”
“Oh yes!”
She looks at Big Mac for a second, “Somethin’ wrong?”
He eyes me for a moment, pointing with a hoof, “He sure don’t talk much.” As he walks into the big farmhouse.
Applejack looks at me with concern, “What was that all about?”
“I don’t know.”
She grabs my leg, “Well c’mon, let’s go get some good food, you deserve it workin’ all day.”
I nod and kiss her cheek warmly, “Thank you.”
Such a disappointment, maybe I should not let my imagination overtake me again. I was betting on the Wizard though, that would have been nice.
-------------
Dinner was a delight, I enjoy things more than just a simple taste and analyzing of compounds. I do break them down for reaction mass of course, but it seems that the foods I consume for such are different somehow. They have more than just a bland taste to my avatar; they are sweet, complex, a mix of flavors I had not experienced except when I was changed.
I rather like it, it gives a broader scope to what I can experience from life. Though the how is beginning to bother, I should study it further on. As for now I will just simply enjoy it.
Granny Smith has told me she used the gel-pack I had given her. She seems to be much healthier now than before, her hip apparently is not bothering her quite so much. She mentions this between servings of food, saying her appetite has become a bit larger than before. This is normal for medical nanos, they need the nutrients and mass to help rebuild things slowly inside someone. As long as she eats, they will finish their work and be flushed out of her system. Judging from the size of the servings on her plate, they are doing a fine job.
It is truly a pleasant way to pass the time. I listen to the talk, Apple Bloom tells about her day. I join in telling about my adventures with trying to force trees to surrender their apples. Of course Applejack laughs quite a bit at the first tries, yes it did take a while to get angle and force right. I am learning after all.
After the meal we are setting on the porch, Applejack and I, she had talked with Big MacIntosh after the meal to find out exactly what went on. She is laughing as she tells me I out-quieted the big pony. Seems he does it to get ponies to leave him alone, or even when he really doesn’t wish to talk. So by my being polite and happy just sitting there made him nervous.
I cancel the investigation of the tree later.
-------------
As we sit enjoying the sunset, I am staggered by a sensory overload. My avatar goes down as my internal sensors are showing an explosion in my recovery bay!
Oh great, what could have caused THAT?
Oh no, what happend, please don't let it be that some pony was killed!
5604627 The game is afoot..er.. Ahoof!
5604652 I assure you nopony was hurt.
Crusader is finding out just what natural bulk nanotech composite ceramics can do when coupled with a distributed control and actuation system.
He is hitting things in effectively point forms. If i was getting hit by things like that, my next attempt would be a combination of foams, gels, and cross tentioned flexiframes. Even when a frame itself is sheared, the surrounding gel foam acts as a shear/tension member. Variable density foams give meta cloaking in various energy regions, especially when at certain times of illumination.
From moths, if you look at fuzzy coatings, you can get optical thermal and acoustical blending due to complex impedance matching. I worked out one method of detecting this was time of flight returns on Lidar, or phase shift on Radar. there is a perfectly normal real value return, as nothing there, but only the full transform, complex value with phase discrimination would pick up the deformation of the signal. If only radar is used though, the distributed structure would self interfere with the macro wavelength and give a very low varation in phase.
When you say Recovery Bay, do you mean the one with the vehicles, access to the surface? or the medical bay, which is through the hatch, access tunnel and heavily secured command core only?
Someones nanites got left behind? Someone managed to teleport in? Or, a very thing root tendril has wormed its way down the corner, to the source of change in ponies?
NO! Not the med bay!
Big Mac, a wizard? HAHAHAHA.... nope
5604835 No, not the med bay
I am here as usual recently, saying great chapter! Love the cliffhanger as well! And his long, over-analysis of Big Mac made me laugh, while it was actually rather thought provoking.
Dammit Derpy! You need to learn to control your derp powers!
5604865 You are so very welcome, and thank you! I figured something like that would happen if the twain should ever meet. I'm bad with the cliffhangers, so more coming!
5604911 Now it's not all her fault
5604475 where do I find theese "bolo books"?
Big Mac might also be nervous about the fact that Applejack's obviously very serious about Crusader. This could wind up being his brother-in-law.
You decided to give us a cliffhanger like that!
I can't hold in much longer!
5604950 Look up The Last Command by Keith Laumer. It was published in 1966 so getting a copy may be tricky.
5604937 Oh I know that, still, you live in Ponyville long enough and her space/time screwups get more and more irritating. Like that time she changed two pegasus into earth ponies for a few
framesseconds. Can't be too mad at her though, that mare outputs a constant 5.6 Terahug love aura. SO all is forgiven after a few seconds.5604950 Amazon, or any book store can order them. They really are pretty good
5604953 That's true, very true. Wow, the silence would be..deafening... I'm sorry, I really apologize for that, that was bad
5604950
The Baen compilations, which include many many MANY relatively recent stories, are the best. They also have technical specs.
... Alright, Suspicion time:
I will discount Discord for this one, because, you know, almost killing everything on the planet, so I think he has lesson.
Oh, and I think it is either the CMC. I mean, come on, it was obvious. No not really it took me like, an hour to think of it.
They were very curious in the beginning. But the reall question is, how does one just get into and not get noticed. Which may have the scratching feeling of a teleport gone wrong?
5605034
.
Considering their background for destruction, I can see where you'd think that. I love reading the comments from you folks
Your a wizard Mac!
It's a tree, a very suspicious tree...
5605034 Applebloom was at dinner Crusader if I'm not mistaken.
I suggest to Applejack maybe some simple machinery to do that for her? She told me she didn’t want folks to think Apples were lazy.
And her IQ drops another 20 points....
Go find a modern farmer and tell him he's lazy because he uses a tractor.
5605221 Never underestimate trees of course!
Oh, well, that's not good. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
5604950 You can get the Compleat Bolo on Amazon for around $10. Yes, Complete is spelled like that in the title. http://www.amazon.com/The-Compleat-Bolo-Keith-Laumer/dp/0671698796/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A26J6JNN8TGTL9
5605232 Considering that they didn't see the use in hiring the Super Cider machine to help, despite the fact it could have reduced their workload exponentially, nor accepted any magical help, I'd say that is pretty canon for the Apple family.
Real farmers are a die hard bunch and out of experience, new things are not accepted easily. Hell if I know why, but it just is how they are. Both sides of my family has large farms, and both have orchards. They still pick the largest orchard by hand.
[youtube=rmQ-npMKUdk]
An explosion in the recovery bay? Wasn't that the hangar that the Dragon assault tanks and Ferrets return to? The one with the hidden entrance tunnel? I wonder if it's a miscalculation in his fabrication or the forest somehow infiltrated. Did a piece of one of those megabeasts land on one of the tanks and get brought in....that's the best suspect I can think of. I'm pretty sure that nobody could have infiltrated Crusader's war hull without his knowledge, regardless of what race they were.
On the note of the forest...someone really needs to get to the bottom of what's going on. If things continue to escalate, then eventually the forest is going to force Crusader to clear his war hull to personally deal with something. Although, if it gets to that point Crusader's retaliatory strike would probably raze most of the forest.
The Everfree just won't learn.. but what did Crusader kill this time??? Were they Ursa Minor/Majors???? Manticores???? Giant Timberwolves????
I just hope Crusader is okay even though he had an explosion inside himself... maybe it's like heart burn for a Bolo????
On a random note, I just ordered a copy of the Compleat Bolo off amazon to replace the copy I lost years ago.
5605797 We'll definitely find out soon! I would figure just something the forest barfed up, it's kinda been a bit nuts doncha think? Not a whole lot left though
5605991 Wow, didn't think they even had em anywhere anymore.
5606040 Yup. A touch under $10 on Amazon. I did get the last copy with Prime shipping though.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671698796/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=
5606053 Can you believe some one is asking $111.00 for a copy? Yeesh, some people..
5604840 THE END HAS COME! TAKE YOU OFFSPRING AND NUKE THE EVERFREE FOREST!
5604666 An explosion you say?!?
Wonder what caused that. Bit of a sudden ending for the chapter--wasn't expecting that either.
I think he almost passed out from shock!
HAHAHA!
But at the same time I am currently running to a bunker
Should be: "the Dragons on patrol immediately do a line" (you might want to alter 'do' to 'form'.)
Should be "the chains screaming as I bring in my Makos."
--------
I particularly enjoyed the Big Mac / Wizard musings.
Big Macintosh the Red, bearer of the staff, Big Whackintosh.
6422721
Radar has picked up a helicopter going so soi soi
5697997
No, they do a line.
I'm left wondering why Crusader hasn't used his tanks to perform a reconnaissance in force to see if there's actually a central intelligence controlling the forest. Because this makes for too much planning to be coincidence.
It's not like Bolos have a 100% success rate. But anything that can take out a Bolo can probably conquer the planet, too.
Trash disposal mostly.
Slightly??
For a moment I pictured Harry Dresden meeting a Bolo, but then the universe exploded.