BOLO MK XXVII to XXIX (Invictus),(Triumphant),(Victorious)

The Mark XXVII (Invictus), XXVIII (Triumphant), and XXIX (Victorious) marked a temporary reversion to the older practice of assignint mark numbers on the basis of armament and function rather than psychotronics technology. All three had essentially identical cybernetics, which concentrated on further improvements to their hyper-heuristic packages, but the Mark XXVIII and XXIX also incorporated a complete changeover to molecular circuitry throughout, aside from the power linkages to their energy armaments. All three of these marks were used in the new, independent brigades which replaced the old regiment structure of the old Dinochrome Brigade, but, in some ways, the units marked a reversion to the old "specialist" designs. All mounted the new 110cm "super" Hellbore (2.75 megatons/second), but the Mark XXVII was a "light," fast Bolo, with greatly reduced secondary armament, limited indirect fire capability, and a vastly improved sensor suite, intended to serve in a scouting and screening role for the independent brigades. (This function had been performed by light manned or unmanned vehicles, and the old Mark XXI/I, with psychotronic upgrades, remained in service for special forced applications. The new strategically self-directing Bolo brigades, however, required an internal scout element, one not limited by "stealth" considerations and capable of fighting information if at need.)

The Mark XXVIII was the "generalist" of this trio of marks, with much the same armament of the old mark XXIV, although that armament was even more deadly and effective under the control of the improved psychotronics of the newer units.

The Mark XXIX was an unabashedly "heavy" Bolo-indeed, it remained the heaviest Bolo ever deployed prior to the Mark XXXIII. It reverted to the twin Hellbore armament of the Mark XXIII (though still 110 caliber), coupled with a much enhanced indirect fire capability, and an integral logistics/maintenance function which it could extend to oter units of the brigade. (The maintenance/repair function became standard in all succeeding Bolo designs.) The independent brigades normally consisted of four regiments of three 12unit battalions each: one of the Mark XXVIIs, two of the Mark XXVIIIs, and one of the Mark XXIXs. Weights for these Bolos were 11,000 tons (maximum normal speed 110 kph) for the Mark XXVII, 15,000 tons and (maximum normal speed 90 kph) for the Mark XXVIII, and 24,000 tons (maximum normal speed 75 kph) for the Mark XXIX.

Some BOLO MK XXVII to XXIX units:

Because people hated their presence and apparent uselessness so much, the Mayor told Rommel and O'Harrigan to leave the vicinity of port City. This gave them an excuse to 'have fun' and both were thrilled with the idea. They decided to investigate and map every nook and cranny of the landscape, and intended to run every kind of simulation and scenario they could think of, also to try to use some of the pre space era tank commander Erwin Rommels' tactics. At the same time they would maintain a constant defensive vigilance for the planet. They requested and some residents agreed to be agressors to help Rommel and O'Harrigan practice. They disappeared into the desert, and spent their time engrossed in practicing their simulations, but they had plenty of time and liked to in friendly ways stalk farmers, or pop out out of apparent nowhere. They liked the challenge of helping humans in distress if they could, so they performed acts of public aid/emergency relief in in situations where they capable of helping. People were finally thinking that maybe the two were finally making good use of their time, and were finally beginning to hint on some form of appreciation for their presence as guardians.

Suddenly one day, a strange ship was detected by Rommel. It had stealth devices to help conceal it. It ejected numerous smaller ships: some were armor carriers, others were command ships. They took out Port City's ground defenses with ease, but they were unaware of Rommel's presence. The ship and everything it dropped off were strange looking, but under close examimation Rommel deduced that they were human design with features meant to appear alien, and that they were all automatic, unmanned and controlled by the ships' AI or the smaller subcommand ship AIs. Their attacks made it obvious that their goal was to destroy the human population of Bachman's World, probably a takeover for a corporate usage, another hunch of Rommel's.

Rommel shot down some smaller AI ships without the mothership knowing what happened, and took control of those ships' command of alloted mechs. He did this several times, but by the fourth time, the mothership figured out is was due to an anemy, and it identified that he was a Bolo. By the fourth batch of mechs to control, Rommel's processing was becoming taxed and needing extra memory to maintain control and he began losing personality and higher mental functions, and in this condition, some of those files could become overwritten. Rommel told O'Harrigan he had some extra space not normally used, and so O'Harrigan began to copy Rommel's personality files to that location, and then in order to have a chance to beat the enemies, he gave Rommel more groups of mechs to control, and Rommel agreed to have O'Harrigan make main decisions since Rommels memory and higher functions were so overtaxed. They both fought exhaustingly until finally the mothership was destroyed and all the mechs under its control stopped. O'Harrigan immediately dropped Rommel's command load, but Rommel already seemed to have lost his personality, and O'Harrigan began to feel despair and loss and collasped into sleep from exhaustion - until Rommel's regular voice woke him. Rommel's personality was back!

A Xi-shang missile attack had torn up metal on LRS's back and stopped her Hellbore turret from being aimable, and her own repair systems did not have the capacity to restore its movement. Laura required repairs by Tech Sven Todd and his team to bring her Hellbore turret back to rotating functionality.

Meanwhile Laura hid among herds of huge metal shelled Opopogos in the vast swamplands to blot out her tracks and hide her metal hull from sensor detection. While hiding out she destroyed some scout aircraft trying to seek her out. Kai Sabre Cheng-Sze was on duty in the swamps to stop the repairs from happening and hunt LRS down and destroy her since at present it was currently more than a match for Laura minus her Hellbore.

Bolo Tech Todd snuck around in the swamps seeking out LRS, and also managed to catch a fever inducing illness from the place. Most of his team was killed by Cheng-Sze who was also sneaking and hiding about in the swamps, hunting. He barely managed to survive encounters with Cheng-Sze and fearsome predatory wildlife in the swamps, but finally Laura arrived near his location, and he boarded her in a worn out, sick, terrified, and wounded state. Fighting a fever, he went to work on repair. Much of the work he did still did not allow the turret to be able to budge so he went outside on LRS's hull to see from the outside and noticed the torn up metal from the previous missile attack had jammed her turret. The only thing he could do was lodge an explosive device into the best place he could find to blast the metal away. It worked. After being returned turret functionality, LRS engaged and destroyed the weaker and over confident Kai-Sabre Cheng-Sze who did not realize her Hellbore was operable until it was too late.

After his work was done exhausted Tech Sven lost consciousness from weariness and fever, and Bolo unit Laura Secord continued on to destroy Kai Sabre Temujin who guarded the spaceport, then took out Kai Sabre Sun Tsu and any other important strongholds, and allowed for the planet to be recovered to its proper owners ands its people freed from bondage and servitude.

The sudden explosion of nuclear warheads near the vicinity alerted sensors within the long dormant Bolo, and initiated its startup sequence. It came to realize that it had been asleep for 11783.8 years, and that it had corroded with age and its ammunition to aged to be used.

The Bolo began to move forward to tear open the cocoon it was sealed inside of for so many years. As it did so it heard screams and discovered that it had halfway ran over a woman. The Mark XXIX found that a group of humans, mainly children, were hiding out in its cave complex to shelter themselves from the bombardments. The Bolo began to question them, and they it. They were not sure if it was an anemy, and the Bolo felt likewise until it recieved enough information from them.

The group had nanite technology with they used to help them to carry out tasks and survive. Nanites were keeping the now dying woman alive, but the radiation in the air from the nuclear attack was killing them. The woman told the Bolo that the nanites could be used to help repair it to battle condition. The children were against the idea because they knew it would mean the death of their friend and leader, and thought the they Mark XXIX was being selfish.

The Bolo and woman agreed to send the nanites to repair the Bolo so it could fight whatever was attacking the planet. As the nanites interfaced with the Mark XXIX, a connection was established between the Bolo and the woman, and they briefly read each other's thoughts. She was frightened by the Bolo's ferocious battle instincts and warned it not to indulge in violence. The Bolo apologized, and learned from her what it could before her life slipped away.

After the repairs, the Mark XXIX identified and assessed the invading threat and left the children in its cave while it went out to destroy the enemy.