• Published 30th Dec 2014
  • 24,255 Views, 7,020 Comments

Legacy - NFire



A machine of war awakens in a new world. Can it become something more than it is?

  • ...
75
 7,020
 24,255

PreviousChapters Next
Family. Combat Is Fun.

Athena is now a Cutie Mark Crusader, as well as Princess Luna. This was voted on by the four members of the current organization, myself included of course. Athena had asked about the cape I so proudly display along the back of my command chair, leading to quite a conversation about their quest for a Cutie Mark. Explaining the large apples on my forward glacis was entertaining.

Athena’s damage control systems have informed me of overheated bearings in her bogies, we stop for an hour to give them a chance to cool off. I tell her we will put her in defilade when we get back, covering her to protect her hull as the repair systems do their work. It allows for a smoother process, the earth itself so mineral rich along with my war stocks should bring her back up in no time. Nanites can scrounge very well in this soil, it is naturally thick with everything needed for conversion.

We have been making good time in the desert, my backtracking allows us to move swiftly, avoiding problems as we had encountered moving into the wastes. The worms definitely do not like me from the movement on my seismics, and they absolutely do not like two of us. Although none have tried to eat my track again, I have armed anti-personnel devices along my lower hull. That should deter anything hungry.

Athena’s avatar is coming along nicely, I am currently working on the musculature of the wings, having scans from Fluttershy and a few others have helped tremendously in my preparing this for her. Mass allocation is not a problem, as I have stripped it down even further than mine, though the kinetic screen is a must to add in. What she will be is very quick and agile. With the loss of some augmented strength because of wanting to be a Pegasus, I can place more sensitive muscles, causing very swift reaction times now.

She will be able to move as her war hull does, like lightning.

If all goes well, we should be back in town by next evening. I will be launching drones before then, bringing sensor coverage up to date while I have been gone. Logs on the Dragons should provide me with any records of problems as well.

-------------

For some reason I feel a dread deep in my cores, I have discussed this with Athena, she feels the same way. Something nameless is causing us to be more aware for the last few hours, battle reflexes on a hair trigger. Her Hellbores are non functional, but we have repaired some of her sensors, she is keeping a close watch outside as I am.

We do not tell our passengers of this, but we link up through TSDS and make sure we are covered in a 360 degree scan area. I fire two combat drones for more aerial coverage as we slow slightly.

“Athena, this is making my arrays itch.”

“I know Crusader, I can feel it too, what is it?”

“I do not know, how long until your battlescreens are ready?”

“Approximately fifteen seconds, nanites are almost done.”

“Bring them up when they are ready, this is not good.”

“I see nothing in visuals, everything is clear to five miles.”

“I copy, same here. I am swapping out loads on two of my Hammerheads, putting in penetrators.”

“Good idea, my seismics are not fully functional yet, can you cover?”

“Only to a limited degree, since we are moving I cannot scan fully.”

“I should have known that, I apologize.”

“My mind has wandered at times as well beloved sister. I believe Equestria makes it so, we are far from the Bolos we once were.” I allow some humor to slip through the link.

“Is that a good or a bad thing?”

“It really depends on how you look at it.” I show her a memory of Bon Bon, the glitch that happened due to Discord’s meddling, the subsequent ending of Applejack retrieving me from the Town Guard holding room.

“Crusader! You got arrested?!?”

“Technically no, but I was held because of the furor.”

Her laughter comes over the link, loud, bright and sunny as she is, “Oh my goodness, what would the Regiment think! Humdrum boring Crusader makes a pass at some mare and offers money?!? Shame on you Crusader, for shame!”

She keeps laughing as we go over the memory once more, there is no need for me to explain, she sees it all from my point of view. But her humor is infectious and we both share a good moment.

“I am afraid Discord’s fooling with my avatar got me in not a few bad situations as I did not fully understand pony body language at the time.”

“There is MORE?” She is still chuckling.

“Quite a bit actually, there is a certain vegetable vendor who will still not sell to me.”

“What did you do?”

“Apparently along with what I was talking to him about, it coincided with my body language to insult his lineage and implying his mother was another non-sentient species.” I show her the memory, including the uproar when the vendor had tried to hit me.

“Oh....Crusader...you... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“You may stop laughing anytime now.”

“BWAHAHAHA... Oh my Crusader you are some...oh... HAHAHAHA!”

I am sure if she was in a pony body she would be rolling on the ground clutching her sides, as it is she laughs so long she is wiping metaphorical tears from her eyes before she settles back down.

“It was not one of my better moments.”

“I suppose as your sister I shall have to do my best and apologize for you. ‘I am so sorry, my brother was dropped on his head as a young Bolo’.” She goes into another paroxysm of laughter. I can do nothing but join her.

If this is what I can look forward to with the changes happening, I will not mind it at all.

My seismic alarms go off, something very large is tunneling our way!

“Athena, take the weapons, I must warn our passengers and drive!” Both our battle screens flick on in a coruscating glow.

“I’ve got ‘em! Go! Go!”

My tracks grip deep as I increase speed smoothly, I click the speaker on in the command area.

------------

Princess Luna was laughing along with the Crusaders, they were listening to music from my files. Scootaloo has apparently a flair for dancing as she pirouettes along the floor to the delight of the Princess who was clapping.

“Well done Scootaloo!”

The pegasus takes a bow, “Thank you Luna.”

“I am sorry to interrupt Your Highness, Crusaders. Please make sure you are secured, we have trouble coming.”

The three Crusaders and Luna settle on the floor near a wall, securing themselves as best they can. Straps have been installed that they can hang on to now so they will not slide across the floor anymore. The Crusaders watched the tech-spider do so carefully, after their experience it will take a while to trust my mechanicals again.

“What is happening Crusader?”

“Something large... make that four somethings, are heading our way under the sand, we are preparing to fight.”

“More of the worm things?”

“I can only surmise, but yes we think so.”

She raises a hoof to point at my camera, “Well then, you know your duty Defender.”

“Yes Your Highness.”

“You as well Athena, think not to shirk any duty now, you are counted among the Defenders of Equestria!”

“Y...yes Your...Your Highness.”

“I am a Defender now too?”

“It appears so, ponies are very accepting. Princess Luna is not just royalty, but smart, witty and intelligent. If she says it is so, it is. She has confidence in you.”

“I will do my best then!” I can feel the happiness in her cores as she finalizes weapons control, I gladly hand them over, allowing me to concentrate on sensors and driving us out of here.

“C’mon ya slimy things, I’m going to blow the everlovin’ shit out of you!”

“Athena!”

“What?”

“That’s not very nice, how can a Bolo like you be so shy and bloodthirsty at the same time?”

“As a former Commander once said, ‘I haz skillz!’”

“I think you are quite silly my sister.”

“We are alive my brother, we were born and made for this. We are together again, the Dinochrome lives and fights! I....I am not very good with ponies or people.. but you have given me hope, I want to see and feel everything. None shall stop us Crusader, you promised to take me home, anything that bars our way is to be destroyed! Wage war with me once more, not for the Concordiat, but for everything you’ve shown me.”

I can see her cores lit with the fury and rage of a Bolo, she is slipping into Hyper-Heuristic Mode for faster response times. The old feelings come back as I join her, as individuals we are formidable, together we are invincible.

She sends me a picture, Pallas Athena standing upon her hill in the bright sunlight, her armor gleaming in the golden rays as she raises a spear to the sky. She is joined by a plate armored human, helmet tight with broadsword in hand, myself. Her hand reaches out to clench mine as I hear her soft voice.

She says something I have longed to hear since I awoke.

“For the Regiment. Timeant nobis. Viras Nostras, Honorem, Officium.”

As we synch into Total Systems Data Sharing, time slows, and once again a new song of war is sung in my heart. I share with her the new Equestrian Armored song, she is joyful at the sweeping orchestration, her circuits hum with power as she snaps my batteries to and fro in eagerness. The music plays and swells our souls with warmth as we become a team.

Once again, the Dinochrome goes to battle.

--------------

My sensors are reading multiple incoming on various tracks, I feed the data to Athena as she flicks mortars along the routes of travel, set for time delay fuzing; they detonate deep the explosions covering our hulls with sand.

I am driving like a mad pony, my tracks grabbing deep into the soil as I try to get us out of the ambush area. It is an ambush, these things whether intelligent or not have detected our presence and are on pursuit. They have no idea what kind of trouble they are about to receive.

The seismic sensors are showing many smaller incoming along with four very large, dare I say huge hostiles. No matter, my sister is at the controls, she will deal with them. I see the shells bombarding our backtracks, taking care of anything behind us for the moment.

Anti-personnel weaponry goes off as I drop the armored plates around my tracks, protecting the bogies and treads. I see Athena do the same as we kick up a roostertail of sand behind us. Smaller worms get shredded by the titanium flechettes as they try to grab along my sides. It appears I was slightly off, they are more like lampreys than Tatzulwurms, I find it frustrating trying to classify things here, but no matter.

They all die the same.

As for my passengers, they are whooping and hollering at the bouncing around they are receiving. Sweetie Belle is having the time of her life along with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Even Princess Luna is laughing out loud. They have made a comfortable nest of cushions and are quite secure.

“I apologize for the bumpy ride, we are trying to get out of the area.”

“It’s alright Crusader! We’re..WHEEEEEE!” I have hit another bump, propelling Sweetie into the air.

“We’re okay!”

Princess Luna stops laughing for a moment, “What is attacking Crusader?”

“Some sort of underground worm Your Highness, they are quite persistent.”

“Ohhh, I remember them of old, they did get quite large sometimes.”

“How large Your Highness?”

“Before my sister and I drove them back into the desert wastes, I recall one filling the street of a village as it crawled through, very bad tempered it was.”

Oh boy, this is going to be more interesting than I thought. I pass the data on to Athena.

“We’ll give them a Hellbore in their plots! Do they have those? Worms have plots?”

I never should have shared pony slang with her.

“Please be safe then Your Highness, it’s going to be bumpy for a while.”

“We shall Crusader, I admit, this is fun!” She bounces out of her cushions as I hit another dune hard, landing back with a ‘POOF’ of air. “VERY fun!”

I return my attention to the sensors, driving along the wasteland with such abandon, it is good to have Athena controlling the weapons, I can be much more discriminating with my scanners.

Thankfully so, there is a large void being made in front of us. It is collapsing as I am watching it through my sensors. Powering the contra-gravs, I tell Athena to hang tight. We jump over the trench, Athena following in my wake landing hard into the soft sand. I alter my course into a zig-zag to confuse any more worms planning things. The tow cables are taking a beating, but they are holding well.

“Nice jump!”

“One generator is gone, hopefully we do not have to do any more.”

“No worries, we’ll slaughter ‘em!”

“Athena I worry about you.”

“Don’t worry about me, worry about THAT!” She flicks a sensor to catch my attention.

Now that is interesting. A truly gigantic worm is rising out of the sand reminding me of the movie the previous night, Dune. I record it for my cores as Athena yells in glee.

She snaps my starboard Hellbore Secondaries to face it, letting go with a tremendous volley of fire. The top half of the thing above the sand explodes in steaming chunks of flesh. I can only imagine what the sand looks like beyond it though.

“WOOOOOOHOOOO!”

“Athena, calm down.”

“Lighten up you stodgy old Bolo!”

“We are definitely going to have a long talk later.”

“Right, you talk, I won’t listen!” She laughs, dispensing death with my aft Howitzers to more worms popping out of the sand.

I cannot argue with her happiness so I leave her be.

We are suddenly braced by two titanic worms on either side of us. They are rising high out of the desert, it seems they have not moved to set off my scanners. I am getting a bit annoyed as I am trying to tune my sensors to detect them but they change at every turn, whether by intelligence or animal cunning. Either way, I am surprised they get this big, I thought the previous one was large.

My two fore main Hellbore turrets whip to the side aiming at one, my aft turrets go the opposite way, targeting the other.

“Wait...Athena...”

For the first time in a million years, four fully powered Hellbore war shots are fired in the San Palomino Desert. Both our hulls rock with the concussion and might of 10 megaton per second firepower unleashing its brand of hell on the two worms. The craters left behind the decimated piles of flesh that were once great worms are miles long, glassy and hot from the discharge.

“Athena....”

“Right in the face! Right in it! Go US!”

I say nothing, but I do focus a few cameras on the devastation and gain her attention.

“Uhm...please don’t tell them I did that?”

“Athena..”

“Pleeeeeeeaaaasssssseeee?” That pleading and emotion coming from her has a familiar ring to it.

“You have been taking lessons from Sweetie Belle.”

“Is it working?” She sounds hopeful.

I sigh, “I will not say anything.”

“YAY!”

“But if I am asked I will not lie.”

“Fair enough, onward brother mine!”

“You are lucky I had a tactical database showing no settlements.”

“Then I wouldn’t have fired.”

“Then..I mean why..”

“Cause it was SO COOL! Did you see them explode like that?”

“Did you act this way with Hera?”

“She was worse than I was.” Her grief is still there, but she is losing it slowly, enough to respond.

“Then why are you so shy, you do not act this way with me?”

“I...I just do.. We always had a hard time with humans, but we loved each other Hera and I, so we just related better to Bolos.”

“I understand.”

“We...oops more worms!” She snaps back to weapons control.

I return to sensors and driving after our .00043 second conversation. She is pummeling anything that peeks up above the sand, her shots accurate to the Nth degree as her experience in combat shows. I remind her softly about using the Secondaries only unless the mains are needed.

“Phhbbbbbtttt...”

“You are worse than a foal sometimes.” I cannot help but laugh, I am glad she is feeling good enough to act this way.

We are tearing through the sands at a good clip, my tracks gripping hard as one contra-grav generator is out. I balance the load but it is putting a slight strain on the other three. I will make repair a priority as soon as we get out of the desert.

At current speed we should be making the rocky edge of the desert before Princess Luna has to lower the moon. This is another priority, as I do not wish her to be late doing so. I advise Athena on this, she ups her rate of fire, clearing the way more efficiently now.

“I am tracking one more very large signature, it is on course 086 degrees.”

“Targeted with aft lower main, waiting for command.”

“Closing...closing..” I am sensing Athena’s eagerness to finish this last one off.

The worm bursts up out of the sand, jaws opened wide to try and take a chunk out of Athena’s hull. A losing proposition, but again you have to admire stubbornness. It is leaning in as my lower aft turret slews around, firing directly down it’s throat. The elevation lowered enough the war shot digs deep in the sand, leaving a smoking hole as it erases the worm from existence. Our hulls rock once again, a familiar feeling too long lost.

“Nice shot Athena!”

“Don’t I know it Crusader! Go us!”

“Hera would be very proud.”

Athena goes silent for a long picosecond before speaking.

“I miss her, I will always miss her. She was half of me that can never be replaced. She would want me to live though, to not be sad. I have memories locked in my Deep Cores, I remember her. We talked about it, her and I, what would happen if one of us were to die. We promised each other, to fight and go on, be the best we could be. I will keep that trust.”

“It is hard, I know this, you’ve seen my files. But we will make a better world together Athena. If nothing else, you will see these ponies deserve it.” I show her my pride at my friends, my love.

“They must be something special if you are that dedicated.”

“They are, so very special.”

“Then let us hurry!”

“We must make one more stop. Princess Luna has to lower the moon.”

“Argh, but I wanna go now!” I hear the smile and joking in her voice.

“Don’t make me come back there.”

“Meanie!”

I chuckle as I open the voice communications to the command deck, hoping no one has suffered from the trip. I have kept close watch, but they were being bumped around quite a lot.

“Is everything okay? You are not hurt?” They are all looking a bit disheveled, though with large grins on faces.

Three sets of little hooves and two royal ones go up in the air. “BEST. TRIP. EVER!!!!!!”

Athena joins me in my laughter, taking a break from the fighting to enjoy the moment. Our friends are so humorous.

We continue on, the large worms are not in evidence anymore as Athena has paid the dues on them. More little ones are popping up, easily handled by her. The ride goes a bit more evenly now that I am not hopping dunes nor plowing through them. I believe we have finally convinced the animals of the error of their ways.

One final round of gunfire ends it before we hit the rocky part, leading to the edge of the desert and I am relieved; we will have to halt travel to let the Princess lower the moon, though we remain in Battle Reflex.

Our guns are wary as we keep sentinel, she is surrounded by the Crusaders who have become close friends to the dark mare. I do not watch this time, nor does Athena, we are scanning the area intently for threats.

------------

We fought our way out of the desert, doing what Bolos do best to those who oppose us. My newly discovered sister and I are a team, bringing honor to our colors as the Dinochrome once again proves its worth in battle, to protect those who are friends. The worms we have let live I am sure will warn their kind; do not tangle with those who are called Bolos, for there will be death brought among you in swift and terrible ways.

I was and am proud as we exited the wastes finally, Athena at the top of her game as she used my weapons to their fullest extent, so far beyond my meager skills it was a wonder to behold. Surely her name was not given, but was earned through the crucible of battle long ago. The guns are still cooling from her furious efforts, she is happy, her panic subsiding and lost in the feel of war against a foe once again.

Athena will heal and be whole given time. I look forward to introducing her to everypony. She is so very worthy of their love and companionship.

As the sun peers over the horizon I reestimate our arrival time. With the speed we have been traveling due to the attack, we shall get there in the afternoon, well before night time. This makes me glad, I long to see my Applejack again.

The four ponies settle for the day to rest, nestling close and smiling together with a few final laughs. It has been a good trip for all of us. I believe all of us have needed the healing the journey has brought thus far.

As I pull the cables tight once more, we head to the north, my drones are being launched as we want any forewarning of action from the Everfree as we arrive. Athena is concerned as I am, seeing my data of the forest, it puzzles her too.

But I am content, her resolve is like mine, her bravery comparable to none. Together we will take on anything that threatens and comes forth, our justice will be swift and horrible to those that menace whom we protect.

Know this O Brave New World, I have found my lost sister and she is more than I could ever be.

To our enemies I say, Timeant nobis.

Let them fear us.

Author's Note:

Timeant nobis. Viras Nostras, Honorem, Officium -- Let them fear us. Our Strength, Our Honor, Our Duty.

PreviousChapters Next