Chapter 2
The mare awakens slowly. During her daytime slumber, my nanites have continued their replication. I have elected to remain in place; if I move while she is asleep, her position could be jeopardized. I have continued producing nanites, and sent some into the soil. At this point, I have a plate of food for her, being delivered by a brand-new tech spider. She is likely quite hungry; I do not, at this time, have more than a half glass of water for her. I wish I had proper dishes to serve her on; as it is, I am serving her with a plate made of duralloy. While it will no doubt withstand culinary activities, I vastly prefer more proper ceramic or glass dishes. I have provided a set of utensils, also duralloy, though I do not expect she will be able to use them very easily. Her new precision-engineered duralloy hooves might have built-in mag-locks with intelligent software and a connection to her nervous system, but she is likely unaware of this.
Speaking of which, her upgraded skeleton does contain a few other things- including its own damage control system, and a small suite of medical nanites all to itself. All solar and battery powered, as absorbed through her hooves. With these, she should be significantly harder to defeat than any normal pony. I considered improving upon other parts of her body as well, but decided against; her skeleton, at least, is inert. It will offer no greater- or lesser- strength than she is used to, even if it might be exponentially more difficult to break a bone. I included damage control mostly as a way for them to heal; her solar hooves have been colored to match the originals as closely as possible. The medical control package was an add-on; however, as a simple heal-faster tool, this should not be significant enough to catch her attention. It should, however, allow her to survive most of the impacts her new skeleton can. Other ‘improvable’ parts, such as her muscles, might confer far greater strength than she is used to- likely causing more problems than it would fix. Besides, her skeleton was in fragments, and I needed the materials; her muscles were only bruised, but otherwise still holding together decently well. Why fix something that isn’t broke?
I’m about to find out if she is arachnophobic. Hopefully, she is not.
Fluttershy yawns lightly as she awakens, stretching her sore muscles before she reexamines her situation. Still alive, check. Safe from attack, check. Still feeling weak, check. Hungry, check check.
She scowls slightly at that last decision- and freezes as her ears pick up a tiny clicking noise from above, approaching fast. Her eyes widen slowly, her heart racing- and suddenly, a metal spider, roughly the size of her head, scuttles around one of the giant beams she’s hiding between, carrying what looks like a delicious meal in two of its legs. She watches silently as it marches right up to her, deposits the plate in front of her, and returns from whence it came.
“Is… Is this for me?” she asks quietly, some seconds after it disappeared.
No response comes back, so she approaches the food and digs in. It turns out to be an excellent salad- and she bunkers back down again, resting further. She doesn’t sleep this time, though- and makes sure to thank the metal spider when it returns for the empty dish.
It isn’t long before she is alerted by a deep rumble and a vibration in the armlike thing she’s hiding on. Keeping herself stable is easy; however, when she looks down the arm, she realizes exactly what the vibration is.
It’s moving. The giant wheel thing she had been pinned against is rotating, rolling… She can see the even larger slabs of metal it rides on underneath, and another wheel further along. She watches in silence. Exactly what had landed on and nearly killed her?
It eventually stops moving, and Fluttershy hasn’t moved an inch. She hears water nearby, just in time to realize just how thirsty she is. She stands slowly, once again, and tests her wings. No lift. She checks her flank, to find her cutie mark is still only barely visible. She knows what this means; she has seen many other ponies that have had the same spell cast on them.
She can’t fly, and won’t be able to for weeks.
The spider rounds the corner again, carrying a second dish of food and a glass of water. This time, it doesn’t dump and run as it did the first time; it holds them out to her in what could only be an offer. It even says something, but she hasn’t a clue what it means- another reminder her magic is inoperable. She accepts the offering graciously, expressing her thanks through body language as much as possible- and shrinking away from the unmistakable bow it then directs at her.
Halfway through her meal, she realizes something. If her magic is gone, how is she holding this glass with one hoof? The normal, magical hoofgrip is one of the last things to recover from that dastardly spell- sometimes taking as long as two months!
She has paused in the middle of her meal, staring at the glass of water in her hand. The glass itself is duralloy-laced, allowing her hoof mag-locks to grip it. It seems, up until this point, she has accidentally used the maglocks and overlooked them as part of her normal magic. If she realizes the maglocks will lock onto almost any metal surface, unlike her magic, perhaps I can get her to walk across my underside to the nearest personnel hatch? Just getting her off of my lower suspensions will improve my maximum safe velocity by almost six times!
At this point, her onboard nanites have completed the repairs I started; she is healthy, physically. I have also acquired a very limited quantity of minerals from the soil; I now have almost three hundred rounds for my anti-personnel flak cannons, approx. 0.23 rounds per weapon. By disintegrating more of my armor, I have sealed the innermost layer- and am currently taking aboard water, processing it for hydrogen gas- to be used for fuel… And energy weapon ammunition. I do not expect to need my main batteries against this bronze age enemy, but my smaller energy batteries may be used for surgical strikes near allied units. In this single day, I have charged up enough power- even with DCC usage- to ignite one of my reactors; I order this done.
Even as this happens, more nanites drop into the soil. There are more minerals here than in the prior location, but it is still poor; I acquire enough nutrients for my charge’s next three meals, but I must disintegrate more armor to accumulate the materials required to assemble a recon drone. The spell that brought me here has given me full files on every race except the ponies, on which I was only given a chart of names (and titles) to special abilities. I know not where the pony army has gone, and must locate it. I will hold my position, with my forward port tracks partially submerged in the ocean here, until I finish processing fuel & ammunition or until I need to travel elsewhere.
I finish assembly of my drone, top off its power cell, and launch it just seconds after fusion ignition goes poorly, but successfully. The drone engages stealth as soon as it leaves my Drone VLS, engaging immediately in a sweep of the area. If there is an enemy nearby capable of threatening a Unit of the Line like myself, I must know. If there is a threatened pony holdout nearby, I must also know of this.
Fluttershy finishes her meal slowly, now taking note of everything she is or isn’t able to pick up. Her normal hoof magic allows her to grip any small object, like the dishes this meal is served on- or her mane. Only problem is, while she can grip her own leg, as expected, she can’t seem to catch her mane. She looks over the dishes again- the plate and fork are definitely metal, but the cup is glass- and her leg is regular flesh and bone. So, why is her hoof working on some things and not others?
She feels and hears a sudden rumble coming through the metal object she’s standing on. It also vibrates slightly- and when her hooves strike down on the surface, she feels the vibration traveling up her legs, until it goes away just seconds after it starts. The most interesting part, though, was that the dishes had bounced and clattered, but her hooves had landed and held solid, as if it wasn’t moving at all. She lifts a hoof, looking at it, and looks at the beam next to her. Her magic had never let her grip anything near so large as a floor before.
She places her hoof against the vertical surface of the beam and pulls lightly- but it doesn’t come. She gives it a good tug, but it refuses to come off until she lets go. Her power had never let her grip walls before- and her grip had never been that strong, either. She glances over at her dishes again, and places both forehooves against this beam. She tries pulling down, but they don’t slip. She stretches upwards, and places one of her hind hooves against the beam, now standing on only one.
The hoofgrip is generally nonexistent in the hind hooves- but it also holds to the beam. She places her weight on it… And finally lifts her last hoof, placing it on the beam as well. She then takes an experimental step- and finds it works flawlessly. Like her hooves are simply attaching themselves to the metal surface. She's standing on the wall.
She hears the spider thing coming again- and watches it as it approaches, picks up the dishes again, and starts its return journey. She walks herself over to the corner it disappeared around, finding it interestingly easy to walk on the ceiling. However, the spider is long gone when she rounds the corner. She looks around, standing upside-down on the beam- and spots another of the spiders, not far away, waving to her. Only problem is, there’s a huge gap in the ceiling between them. She walks to the gap, peering up it- and finds only a massive amount of space. It does seem, however, that she will be able to walk her way around to the massive, upside-down platform the spider is standing on. This she does- though the climbing takes a while, as she only barely has the strength right now.
While she’s walking across the giant platform thing, it begins to move once again. She squeaks with fright, swaying as it starts, but holds on tight with her hooves. When she looks around, she sees the giant objects moving- including the space where she was. Some kind of giant cart, perhaps? Twilight had told her about some new ‘smoother-riding carts’, with some kind of ‘spring’ between the wheels and the body… Twi had even demonstrated the spring, before realizing- once again- that her pegasus friend holds no interest in such topics.
When she looks ‘up’, the ground is practically flying past. Whatever this thing is, it’s rolling about as fast as she can fly- that is, if she were to fly as fast as she can with a stiff breeze behind her. She holds her wings in tight, reminding herself that her magic is gone right now- and realizes that the spider thing, still standing firm on this metal platform, is standing rather invitingly next to a circular hole, through which light is spilling. One more glance at the moving ground underneath her and she walks towards it. Hopefully, it’s less scary- and dangerous- through the hole.
Confirmed, she understands basic gestures made by tech spiders. She has shown no understanding of Concordiat Standard; I tried communicating with her in it, through a spider, when I delivered her most recent meal. Now, she is walking towards the nearest personnel hatch, which I have a spider guiding her towards. My fuel tanks are 23.91% full; I have processed enough energy ammunition for 4.93 seconds of sustained maximum-rate fire on all functioning Hellbores and Ion Bolt repeaters.
More importantly, my drone has found another pony. A pony that appears to be evading capture by the same force that harmed my charge so. This one is persistently racing in and out of the enemy lines, dealing blows where she can and withdrawing before she is struck- but I can see the effects of exhaustion, and her facial expression shows far too much determination for her to take retreat- or surrender- as an option. The rest of her force, it seems, has already been defeated; I observe the trampled bodies of 293 additional Pegasi underneath the hostile army’s feet. The thermal camera confirms their deaths; the last one will have made his final breath almost fifteen minutes ago. I abandon my refueling tasks and set into motion. I do not have line-of-sight to the battle; however, I will take a position of advantage on a nearby cliffside, from which to make my shots.
My charge is, predictably, disconcerted by my motion- but quickly resumes her walk. It seems she is interested in the safety presented by my hull. Even as she does this, though, I notice patterns in the enemy- and in the attacks performed by the determined pegasus.
A golden necklace, with a pink butterfly-shaped gemstone on the front. This appears to be her goal- and it seems the enemy knows this. She is wearing a similar necklace, though hers has a red lightning bolt gemstone.
Possibly more valuable, however, is that she seems to be bilingual. She’s yelling in the same language as my charge- but she’s showing full understanding of one- and only one- of the languages her adversaries are laughing at her in, contained in my database as ‘Griffish’. The Enemy seems unaware of her understanding. I adjust my fire plan; my energy ‘surgical’ strike will eliminate approximately 99.43% of the remaining hostile force- leaving only a couple dozen for her to fight. I am also reprocessing some of my antipersonnel flak ammo into ammo for my ring penetrators, as these less destructive weapons are suitable for sniping.
My charge reaches my interior safely, and I increase my speed smoothly- I no longer have to worry about a sudden bump overpowering her small maglocks. I recharge them inconspicuously as she follows the spider up to one of my passenger bays.
As I climb the hill towards the cliff, I continue to watch the battle. I identify numerous weapons among the Enemy that could kill her very easily from afar- however, it seems the enemy is having fun playing with her for now. They’re regularly switching out soldiers for her to beat on, shifting in such a manner as might be difficult for her to keep track of. During the time it takes for me to move into position, fully 37 soldiers cycle through- and as I reach my spot, the third one I saw goes up against her again.
She has been exercising continuously evolving patterns against them. However, she still demonstrates full knowledge of the blows she dropped on this particular Minotaur earlier- and, in a vicious exploit attack, she snaps off a horn she cracked earlier and follows this up with a sharp kick to the head, knocking him out cold before his comrades can react. I hold my fire; I do not wish to startle her with my fire while she is still tangling with enemy troops.
Speaking of enemy troops, some have turned their crossbows on me; I have been spotted. Not that their ballistas do any more damage against my active battlescreen than the few longbows fired, whose arrows fall short of my position. Amusing, really.
The battling pegasus breaks free once again, zipping out of her foes’ melee weapons’ reach. I immediately open fire, and the enemy force is reduced to a couple dozen- six near the pegasus’ current position, fourteen and a half by the necklace. That soldier’s legs have gone missing- as does his head, when my ring penetrators strike home.
Even as I do this, I attempt to coax my passenger onto my hull. The enemy has not a weapon that can reach her. She does come- but when she reaches the hatch, what she sees first is the hostiles still on the ground- and she retreats instantly back inside. I had hoped she would see the Pegasus, now rising like a missile, butterfly necklace in her hooves. As it is, she has not given me a cry that I can relay to the departing pony- who turns and files off immediately.
A single ion bolt eliminates the remaining hostiles before I order my drone to follow and explore the surrounding terrain for resources. Some of my counter-grav coils are damaged, thence nonfunctional; as such, I remain fully capable of flight, though only to approximately one third of road speed- not remotely close to my normal airspeed. As such, my chosen cliffside presents no obstacle.
I have landed in a world where humanity does not exist and, I can confirm, these are the ponies I am to protect. However, as a MK XXXVII Interplanetary Siege Bolo Unit, I require a commander. Thus, I select the one pony I know I can make myself understood to. She will be my commander- and I am able to pull her DNA from a feather a centaur managed to rip out of one of her wings. Even if I lose track of her, I will be able to identify her. Jackpot- an ore vein!
I was right; she unwittingly leads my drone straight to a pony holdout.
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Still have very little idea what is happening, in part by not knowing the crossover source at all, but the story is staying consistent with itself thus far. Enemy force seems very indistinct and ambiguous at present.
Some kind of huge, self-restoring, advanced autonomous AI-driven tank is what I'm getting so far. Maybe a mobile fortress. All told, the way it is coming across is intriguing, if out of place for the setting. Although, I could see it being Discord summoning something that turns out to be ludicrous levels of overkill.
I'm looking forward to learning what is going on. Here's to hoping the stumbling feeling transitions over time.
8694921
Yes.
The enemy force is intended to be ambiguous; this lets me dodge the bullet about exactly what defeated Discord.
As per what it is, you're prettymuch dead on. Including the part about overkill- if Bolos are good at anything, that's it.
This story is a crossover with Keith Laumer's Bolo-verse- and my writing tends to assume a certain amount of familiarity. If you want, Bolo! by David Weber (possible spoiler) is a good collection of Bolo stories- and, as a matter of fact, the only one I've read.
I have read Weber's book as well. Sad ending, though.
...You're not planning that, are you?
I like this so far. One thing though, is that Tirek seems to usually be spelled with an "i" rather than "y". I feel sad about Discord's death, though.
Who else has survived?
8695797
I agree, a sad ending, as most Bolo stories have. This story is not planned to be such a tragedy.
As for Tirek... I didn't realize I spelled it with a Y.
As for the survivors... Nopony else important has died, yet.
8696020
Knowing Discord, I kinda hope he ends up coming back to life in a way not even he could have predicted.
How does the chapters-read detector work, anyway?
8696271
I do actually have a plan for him.
As for the chapters read thing... I don't know. I think it's whenever you spend a certain amount of time or something, but haven't experimented. Out here on the story page, they're checkboxes- you can flag them as read/unread, regardless of detected- or actual- status.
8696288
Best I can figure, it is at minimum time based. Since the site has a progress bar at the top of the screen, I would have involved that too in some way if I designed it. Wish I could figure out the algo, though...
Anyway! I have started reading Legend, and I must say that the idea of the tank never having LEFT earth actually fits only too well. What if the franchise was really post-apocalyptic and the ponies used to be humans, before the secrets of the Thaum and Weave were unlocked? Of course, the Precursors would have referred to that as "Applied Quantum Mechanics"...
8696345
Possibly, yes. Though the second half of that looks like it might belong in Nfire's comments section, rather than mine XD
HAHA you won't need that much
8778678
Pfft. .5 seconds is overestimating things, especially with the Hellbores.
8778678
8782793
Yes, he has enough ammo for a full 4.93 seconds of sustained, maximum-rate fire... and all his Hellbores have a cycle time of four seconds exactly. Yes, that is more firepower than he could possibly need in this entire war- but so? It pays to be prepared!
... At least, that's how he sees it.
In short, yes. A single shot from a single main battery Hellbore would probably burn as much ammunition as it would take to single-hoofedly win the entire war on ion bolt repeaters alone. He has eight such main batteries. Then he has secondaries... Tertiaries... and even quaternary Hellbores, though those are all the way down to 5cm.
So... Since this single shot would likely take a span measured in single digits of milliseconds to occur, and he can fire all eight simultaneously, even as short as 0.006 seconds would still be overestimating things.