Interstellar civilizations are difficult to kill off.
But long ago, so long only one thing in the universe remembers, at least two of them were. That one thing, an ancient machine built by one of the two for the purpose of exterminating the other, has slept for time immemorial. Entire civilizations lived and died during its slumber- but now, it's awake, and it wishes to restore itself to function.
Only one problem: In order to do so, it may be forced to work with the latest interstellar civilization- one torn asunder by war. But will it restore itself in secret, or reveal itself openly? Will it fulfill its purpose yet again, or will it leave them to their own fight?
A crossover with multiple sources, this tale is a re-imagining of a story I never published.
Cancelled after a very long hiatus because of poor writing quality compounded with a flimsy plot. Maybe I'll try something similar at some point.
Wait, are we seeing the POV of 2 different machines? They sound to much alike, need a way to differentiate them.
Is this a BOLO?
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Short answer: No, and yes.
Long answer: We're seeing the POV of one single machine, a Bolo. That horizontal rule represents a time gap of indeterminate length, not a POV change.
How many Bolo stories have you read? This one seems different than the Mark XXX and ups that were in use in the final days of the Concordiat-Melconian war.
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I've read a fair few- and if you've read very many of my stories, you'll know I don't use any of the official Bolos (highest is MK XXXIII, as I recall), but higher make-what-you-want marks. And yes, I know the official subspace com doesn't have indefinite range, and is probably traceable... but this is an AU.
On that topic, I'm curious what tipped you off? Pretty sure Bolos were equipped with their own subspace comms for centuries before the XXXIII, visual sensors since the pre-X ones (back when they were controlled like modern tanks), and ridiculous processing capability since the XXIV (The first truly self-aware Bolo mark; Nike, the true first self-aware Bolo, was an experimental XXIII and possessed more processing power/wisdom than the XXIV). Add that their personalities/methodologies varied almost as much as humans... and I'm curious.
I sense a Wall-E scenario...
What the heck has six legs over on presumably equestria?
Do ponies normally have a hoofgrip that strong? I note that Pinkie had to use Pinkiephysics and suction cups to manage that one, but it may just be that she was playing around there.
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That should answer your first question. Mostly.
That should answer the rest- unlike anypony else, you actually have access to the unpublished story this is a re-imagining of. (No, everypony else, it was never longer than a page, and poorly written. You're not missing anything worthwhile.)
For the other, no, ponies don't normally have a hoofgrip that strong. And note that she's not using her hoofgrip to walk on the tree- no, that's her pegasus magic. (Which canonically, I'm pretty sure, isn't that strong... but the fandom seems to like letting pegasi walk on ceilings.) Of course, she's massively overengineered herself with extra strength- and while she left the magical part alone, that may have adapted itself to her physical abilities, making her magic similarly overengineering-strong. After all, pegasus magic is reliant upon physical strength... and interconnected with the ubiquitous pony magic, like the hoofgrip.
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...Waaaaiiiiit... Is it that one I think it is with the 'cats?
The title makes a lot more sense now.
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Yep.
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I know where you are now!
But a Bolo and Ponies in THAT universe???
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Yep. I figure, why not?
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What tipped me off it was a Bolo? It was an AI war machine that woke up, which is the go-to setup for Bolo stories. But the lack of certain elements (no reference explicitly to the Concordiat, the Dinochrone Brigade, no Mark number, and some non-canon biofabber mods made me pause and wonder if you hadn’t independently come up with the idea. If I’d read any of your stories though I would have known. :)
Is it just me, or are the military higher-ups going to build a commemorative brick wall (to represent the degree of brick-crapping by their strategy planners) when that Bolo leaks something about real-time FTL comms? :D
I can see that happening, since it's already assuming that space station has one. Imagine their faces if it should ask...!
(And then Mesa gets involved because there's a really weird new sentient species they want to sample.)
Well, Mesa is already involved, just not in that way and they don't know it yet. The stations still being in orbit imply that this is early on in the Haven war, so Mesa hasn't started their overt shenanigans yet, and that tech will be even more effective with time to deploy.
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... I was thinking, what in particular tipped you off for this Bolo's status as a non-official Mark. You did mention she
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Worth note: The Bolo is assuming that the brightest artificial sattellite (HMSS Vulcan) is either:
1. An intergalactic starship that would be equipped with FTL comms, or
2. A space station.
After all, while a ship of that size and range wouldn't be built until after FTL comms were, we've built a rather sizable space station around Earth as it is- who's to say we won't build bigger when we make interplanetary travel a reality?
The Bolo also specifically notes the lack of any subspace comms (not its only FTL comm system, but the only one that's working), by the lack of response from any such.
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No mention of infinite repeaters or Hellbore or any of the other usual hardware being listed as functional/nonfunctional. Plus the biofabber capacity which I never saw in any Mark ever and I’ve read every Bolo story Baen has published. :)
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Ahh... all of which were completely unrelated, but that works, I suppose
The Hellbores/Ion Bolt repeaters/etc weren't mentioned except in a blanket statement, as none of them are working. She didn't see any reason to specify.
The biofabricator... is an independent, non-autonomous machine the Bolo has acquired wireless (subspace com counts, right?) control of. Sure, just about every one of my Bolos are equipped with medical nanovats, something I'm pretty sure none of the official ones were equipped with, but...
I mean, official Bolos were basically bricks of armor and magazine space with guns piled on top- never made much sense to me, as a programmer. My Bolos are true mobile fortresses, complete with cargo compartments, passenger compartments, passages, serviceways, troop compartments, everything a Bolo and its regiment of soldiers- provided for when they need to look inside a building or something- might need. Including, of course, a full-service "damage control" self-repair system... which can easily double as a manufacturing system of limited capacity, thanks to its use of general-purpose "tech spider" manipulators and nanotechnology to do it all. Of course, some of my Bolos are equipped with dedicated manufacturing capacity separate from the repair facilities... which it most often uses in conjunction with such, as said manufacturing capacity- usually involving nanites, but not only- is faster than simply nanofabricating, say, optical sensors. Often faster/easier to fabricate & install than to nanorepair.
Mind, not one of my Bolos has had a regiment of soldiers when it showed in any of my stories... Probably because they are, without fail, recovering from a very long period of inactivity, and usually having to repair significant damages caused by erosion or decay rather than weapons fire. Probably why they've also never had a commander assigned when they appeared... (Some acquired pony commanders later).
I'm tracking/favoriting this story as well. I'm a sucker for BOLO's and this is an interesting angle. crippled, but with... a different way of getting operational.
I hope to see more of this soon! i eagerly await the progress of this bolo and their proxy.
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Me too.
Unfortunately, it won't be too soon. I've got some 7 or 8 (don't remember how many) books to read through before I'll have enough context for the next scene.
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Fair enough. Just glad to see you continuing it.
Okay, so this is probably in the original series, not the followalong YA novels. At least if the sign language is accurate to canon.
Man, it's been a while since I read that, isn't it?
I actually found a Worm/MLP story recently, by the way. Those are as awesome as I hoped. And no, that's not the source. I was mentioning something to the author.
Hope you restart this soon. I love your bolo stories.
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Yeah... I'm actually starting to get back into the Bolo swing, after quite a while on my HP stories. This one in particular is going to be a pain to continue- it's held by writer's block, and it's a very large, heavy block. Large enough I may have to go back and rewrite parts once again...
This is interesting I take it the small ones are the ponies but they stick to forests in this universe? Or the two legs are them and they are called that because they are anthro? I’m a bit lost on who is who but other then that enjoyable so far.
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... No, unfortunately. This is a crossover with David Weber's Honorverse (set on the planet Sphinx, Honor Harrington's homeworld), and the creatures... Well... The small ones are Sphinxian 'treecats', and 'two-legs' is what those treecats call humans. The MC is the only pony present.
10024644 well then...kinda disappointing perhaps ya can add ponies somehow I mean from what I gathered his main body and his new body are across the stars from each other so maybe his main body will land on equis or something? Just a thought.
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Her main body is currently on a barren planet...
And yes, I do plan to introduce Equestria at some point, as she undoubtedly seeks to discover where the blueprint she used came from. Or, perhaps, gets little directive hints from her new pegasus magic...
10024652 Oh it’s a her. Interesting the personality with its bland emotion and all lead me to think it’s a male. Still rather interesting.
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Yeah... one of the reasons this story is stuck on writer's block, unfortunately. She's bleached herself out with logic by quite a bit, in the effort to survive/restore- once she starts getting any significant certainty (say, living favorably with an interstellar civilization), her calculations will start taking a second seat, and her personality coming through...
10024670 ah well at least you marked it as hiatus and respond instead of just leaving it marked as incomplete and not even responding.
10024755
Yeah...
I really do want to get back to this sometime, but I can't seem to decide how it should go forward. I have, however, been able to decide I need to retcon some of the events that have happened, and change the timeperiod it takes place in...
10024756 Your story mate all we can is give ideas.
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So happens that's what it needs, really...
10024761 Well hope ya feel up to continue this sometime until then I shall scour the lands of fimfiction for stories to read.
This story reminds me a part of a book called A beautiful friendships
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Yeah, I read that too... loved it.
Unfortunately, I'm no good at emulating David Weber just yet... so this story is on hiatus until I'm better able to A. Avoid writer's block, and B. Make it worthy of its source.
It sounds like you have reached it in my book keep up the good work