BOLO MK XV/R Horrendous

The Model R was the final variant of the Mark XV. Main armament was upgraded to one 50cm Hellbore (which, unlike earlier models' weapons, could engage spacecraft in low orbit even from within planetary atmosphere), and ablative appliques were fitted over the Model R's flintsteel war hull in light of increases in infantry and light-vehicle energy weaponry. The preceding Model Q had seen vastly upgraded EW capabilities and the first appearance of heuristic cybernetics designed to run continuous analyses of pre-loaded battle plans against actual battle conditions in order to suggest improvements to its distant human commander. Under express human pre-battle authorization, the Mark XV/Q and /R were capable of reconfiguring their battle plans on the move without further human input. Although not self-directed,the final models of the Mark XV gave a very good impression of a war machine which was. Weights climbed sharply - the Mark XV/R reached 5,000 tons -but maximum road speed held fairly constant at 65-70 kph, despite weight increases.