A Legacy of War

by Revan

Chapter 2: Rescuing

I steadily plow through the earth, my primary Hellbores turned backward and locked down. I tunnel towards the closest edge of the city, aiming to break through to the surface at a point 3 kilometers northwest of the city limits.

My sensors note that a portion of the tunnel behind me has become destabilized, the roof first rising due to semi-solid subsurface strata, and now collapsing in on itself, with the floor subsiding under the weight. Unfortunately, a building is now sliding in, with sapient lifeforms inside.

I cannot do anything for the trapped lifeforms directly, but I have other options. I slide open a hatch on my rear deck, and deploy two Dragon hovertanks, each one equipped with a 20 centimeter Hellbore. I would rather deploy reconnaissance drones, but the compartment's hatch is currently blocked by falling chunks of earth. I will have to make do with the Dragons. They function as extensions of my consciousness, and I direct them back down the tunnel even as I continue to bore forward through the rocky dirt.

---

The floor had tilted, and now everyone in the cafeteria was sliding towards the lower edge.

"DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON??!!!" Flash Sentry hollered.

The only answer he received was an incoherent jumble of denials, screams, and prayers as the floor tilted even more and everyone entered freefall.

Then there was a massive THUNK, and the sense of motion stopped as people hit the cafeteria wall.

Sunset Shimmer raised her head, somewhat dazed, and coughed, blood trickling from her nose. She looked for her friends, but then a set of vibrations began, and she turned around just in time to be lifted up by a suddenly emergent black metallic form.

---

My Dragons have successfully punched though the walls of the building, providing an avenue of escape for the trapped lifeforms.

However, there is a complication.

One of the lifeforms, which looks remarkably similar to my human creators, is now riding on top of one of my Dragons, and seems to have no intention of getting off.

Since Dragons, being combat vehicles, are not equipped with speakers, I direct it back down the tunnel towards my hull, while the other continues to punch through the structure.

---

Sunset clung on as the strange metallic mass suddenly whirled around and began to backtrack through the series of holes punched through the school building. It entered a tunnel composed entirely of earth, and headed smoothly and rapidly forward.

It soon became too black to see, and Sunset wondered, Where in the world is this thing taking me?

Comments

[hakim35]

This story is good but where can find the original work on bolos

[The Collector]

6211312
They are published stories by Keith Laumer. I believe that the first book is "Bolo Rising", but I may be wrong. Here is a listing of the names of the books, if you're interested.

[michaelb958]

...short chapter much?
Not that that's a disaster, but, well, this is so far on the short side that it's just unsatisfying. I believe the cool kids say 'MOAR'.

[krazykidfannumber2]

In Legacy, a group of Dragon Tanks actually ran over a group of enemies. The tanks apparently were also capable of carrying ponies inside them much like a regular tank. Are they able to have their movement systems reconfigured? Also they had a limited AI alowing them to function autonomously and had external speakers alowing them to speak. The simple AIs in the tanks referred to Crusader as the "overriding intelligence" and were still able to be remote controlled by Crusader. Is there a difference between these Dragon tanks and those of a MK. XXXV Bolo?

[Bronzer]

I thought Dragons had a 20mm hellbore, not centimeter. Probably wrong, but since they were meant to work with infantry the small hellbore would make sense given their secondary and tertiary weapons.