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The Road To Damascus

Bolos I: Honor of the Regiment

The Mark XV B - M & R

The Resartus Protocol was a final safeguard built in to each Bolo CPU in case of a more general, long term, low profile malfunction.  It was the result of planning and debate fromn the earliest Bolos and A.I.s,  It was NOT an intellectual protocol but an emotional one.  it involved the emotion and quality of "Loyalty".  It determined the character of Bolos.  It was finished and installed with the first batch of MK XV A.I.s. 

BOLO MK XV/B, /L, /M

A quantum leap in Bolo technology, the Mark XV was the standardbearer of the Concordiat during humanity's greatest wave of interstellar expansion. Very few non-human species encountered during this period could match the Mark XV's capabilities; none could exceed them. This was the first Bolo which did not require an onboard human crewman, due to advances in cybernetics and secure communication links (first short-range subspace com capabilities), which permitted increasingly sophisticated computerized pre-battle planning coupled with unjammable remote human control to correct for unanticipated problems.

Main armament was one 25cm Hellbore with line-of-sight capability, backed by laser cluster "gatling" infinite repeaters (total of fourteen in the Model B) and four 20cm howitzers in individual secondary turrets. The 25cm Hellbore remained incapable of engaging orbital targets from planets with atmosphere due to as yet unresolved attenuation and dissipation problems with the weapons's plasma bolt "packaging," but there were few planetary targets with which it could not deal.

Tactical and theater bombardment capability was roughly equivalent to the Mark XIV's, but the Mark XV had no strategic bombardment capability. The Mark XV's six track systems each had and independent power train, and the vehicle carried both primary and secondary fusion plants. Cybernetics were divided between two totally independent command centers as protection against battle damage, and durachrome was wholly abandoned in favor of a much tougher flintsteel war hull.

Early models of this mark saw the last use of anti-kinetic reactive armor. Major improvements in suspension were required to deal with unparalled battle weights (1,500 tons in the Model B, rising to over 3,000 in the Model M), but road speed held constant at approximately 65 kph (with brief "sprint" capability of over 80 kph) over the life of this Mark, although the "lightweight" Mark XV, Model L, EW platform, at barely 1,100 tons, was 37 percent faster. Cross-country speed was equivalent to road speed except in very rugged terrain. This Mark enjoyed a very long, very stable evolutionary history (mainly because the Concordiat didn't run into anything the Mark XV couldn't handle for a very, very long time.

  • human crew not needed.
  • secure communication links.
  • four 20cm howitzers.
  • 14 "gatling" laser infinite repeaters.
  • six independent track systems.
  • primary and secondary power plants.
  • two independent command centers (battle damage redundancy).
  • flintsteel war hull.
  • anti-kinetic reactive armor phased out.
  • improvements in suspension.
  • unparalled battle weights.


Bolo Mark XV/BM (Resartus)
Year of Introduction 2396
Weight 1,500 tons (1,000 tons for the L model, 3,000 tons for the M)
Road Speed 65 (89 for the L model, 65 for the M)
Sprint Speed 85 (116 for the L model, 85 for the M)
Indirect Fire Tac/Theater (none for the L model)
Self Aware No
Armament

1x 25cm Hellbore (35cm on M model)

4x 20cm howitzers

VLS missile system

14x gatling laser Infinite Repeaters (16x on M Model)

(8x 18cm BL mortars on the M Model)

(L model was armed only with Point def/AP)

"Resartus"

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