Awareness floods through my systems as the automated checks flash through in .003 seconds.
The star filled horizon of space is still new to me with only a half dozen test activations, and none done out of the lunar construction yards.
I am Test Unit 001 of the heavy armor program, designed in reaction to the Arachnid deployment of plasma and then tanker bugs on Pluto. However, the invasion of Earth prompted my current mission.
Three of the super transport bugs had entered the atmosphere over Hawaii, and if the Arachnids were allowed to consolidate their hold upon any section of the Earth, SICON raised the odds of never being capable of eliminating the threat.
General Redwing had been given nominal command of the forces in the area and requested my deployment.
Data flowed through my systems as I tied my network into the sensors of the Roger Young and Valley Forge.
My designers had used the lessons obtained from the Cybernetic Humanoid Assault System's prototype in order to allow me full autonomy in the field. The team stated that they were inspired as to the creation of my design from an old series of stories from the days before SICON or interplanetary travel.
Their petition that I be designated a Bolo was something the General found amusing.
.01 seconds after my affirmative to proper activation, the confirmation of my assignment flashed through my communications systems.
My design was meant to work in the same environments that the troopers did, except that I was a heavy armor unit. That design allowed me to perform something akin to a standard grunts drop.
A flash from the thrusters nudged me into my re-entry vector and my mission began.
The iridescent fires across my hull were but the preliminary lightshow as my guidance thrusters rotated me until I was fully inverted and my targeting systems came online as the enemy so far below began to fire bursts of sapphire plasma in the hopes of taking out whatever was being sent to exterminate them.
The twin cannons of my central turret adjusted for optimal firing.
Unlike the tanks that inspired my design, I was not equipped with Hellbores but with antimatter shells as used by the capital ships of the naval vessels.
My lesser weapons began their individual targeting as both barrels unleashed their first shot and the reload cycle began for the .5 seconds between each shot.
As I must confess, my targeting systems are not fully calibrated for entry velocity, one of the many bugs that must be worked out of my design before mass production of my kind can begin, and the weapons detonated off the mark, but even then at 75 megatons apiece, their initial targets were eradicated as well as the island the plasma AA fire was originating from.
Observation of the effects prompted me to reduce the yield by more than half for my next attack rather than eliminate another of the islands.
As my second shots rang out, my defenses activated at the presence of Arachnid fliers designated Kamikaze Ripplers, the designation of which seemed ironic to my processors and the smaller weapons went live as my distance warning triggered.
The warning prompted me to rotate once more and fully flare my retros to prevent a re-entry velocity collision with the big island.
If I was human, the flambe of bugs created by my retros would have prompted a smile or perhaps a smirk.
Shallow water allowed me to cool my heat sinks and send up plumes of steam to conceal partially conceal my exact location, something the Arachnids did not benefit from due to my sensors combined with the orbital assistance from my organic comrades aboard the ships in orbit.
I must state the my enemy is nothing if not persistent, as a veritable wall of warriors and blisters that plagued the grunts swarmed towards me even through the lethal obstacle that was fast depleting, both due to lack of heat and lack of water.
However, the Arachnids did not anticipate the surprises I carry both within and as part of my hull.
The composite materials of my outer armor have similar properties to the materials used by both human and Skinnie shock weapons, allowing me to electrify my outer shell with an output many times that of the smaller weapons, and enough to fry my foes.
My auditory sensors detect a sound not unlike that from the archival footage of the delicacy called fried crickets.
Seismic sensors immediately detected the shifting of earth that signified tankers surfacing from their tunnels and I, again, reduced the yield of my main guns and fired at the source just as the immense beetles rose from the volcanic soil.
The detonations were quite satisfying as I began my advance towards the interior of the island where the transport bugs had landed.
For .006 seconds, as my treads tore into the earth, I ponder whether my foes had souls, and if so where would they go when they met me?
The star filled horizon of space is still new to me with only a half dozen test activations, and none done out of the lunar construction yards.
I am Test Unit 001 of the heavy armor program, designed in reaction to the Arachnid deployment of plasma and then tanker bugs on Pluto. However, the invasion of Earth prompted my current mission.
Three of the super transport bugs had entered the atmosphere over Hawaii, and if the Arachnids were allowed to consolidate their hold upon any section of the Earth, SICON raised the odds of never being capable of eliminating the threat.
General Redwing had been given nominal command of the forces in the area and requested my deployment.
Data flowed through my systems as I tied my network into the sensors of the Roger Young and Valley Forge.
My designers had used the lessons obtained from the Cybernetic Humanoid Assault System's prototype in order to allow me full autonomy in the field. The team stated that they were inspired as to the creation of my design from an old series of stories from the days before SICON or interplanetary travel.
Their petition that I be designated a Bolo was something the General found amusing.
.01 seconds after my affirmative to proper activation, the confirmation of my assignment flashed through my communications systems.
My design was meant to work in the same environments that the troopers did, except that I was a heavy armor unit. That design allowed me to perform something akin to a standard grunts drop.
A flash from the thrusters nudged me into my re-entry vector and my mission began.
The iridescent fires across my hull were but the preliminary lightshow as my guidance thrusters rotated me until I was fully inverted and my targeting systems came online as the enemy so far below began to fire bursts of sapphire plasma in the hopes of taking out whatever was being sent to exterminate them.
The twin cannons of my central turret adjusted for optimal firing.
Unlike the tanks that inspired my design, I was not equipped with Hellbores but with antimatter shells as used by the capital ships of the naval vessels.
My lesser weapons began their individual targeting as both barrels unleashed their first shot and the reload cycle began for the .5 seconds between each shot.
As I must confess, my targeting systems are not fully calibrated for entry velocity, one of the many bugs that must be worked out of my design before mass production of my kind can begin, and the weapons detonated off the mark, but even then at 75 megatons apiece, their initial targets were eradicated as well as the island the plasma AA fire was originating from.
Observation of the effects prompted me to reduce the yield by more than half for my next attack rather than eliminate another of the islands.
As my second shots rang out, my defenses activated at the presence of Arachnid fliers designated Kamikaze Ripplers, the designation of which seemed ironic to my processors and the smaller weapons went live as my distance warning triggered.
The warning prompted me to rotate once more and fully flare my retros to prevent a re-entry velocity collision with the big island.
If I was human, the flambe of bugs created by my retros would have prompted a smile or perhaps a smirk.
Shallow water allowed me to cool my heat sinks and send up plumes of steam to conceal partially conceal my exact location, something the Arachnids did not benefit from due to my sensors combined with the orbital assistance from my organic comrades aboard the ships in orbit.
I must state the my enemy is nothing if not persistent, as a veritable wall of warriors and blisters that plagued the grunts swarmed towards me even through the lethal obstacle that was fast depleting, both due to lack of heat and lack of water.
However, the Arachnids did not anticipate the surprises I carry both within and as part of my hull.
The composite materials of my outer armor have similar properties to the materials used by both human and Skinnie shock weapons, allowing me to electrify my outer shell with an output many times that of the smaller weapons, and enough to fry my foes.
My auditory sensors detect a sound not unlike that from the archival footage of the delicacy called fried crickets.
Seismic sensors immediately detected the shifting of earth that signified tankers surfacing from their tunnels and I, again, reduced the yield of my main guns and fired at the source just as the immense beetles rose from the volcanic soil.
The detonations were quite satisfying as I began my advance towards the interior of the island where the transport bugs had landed.
For .006 seconds, as my treads tore into the earth, I ponder whether my foes had souls, and if so where would they go when they met me?