Bolo Brigade by William H Keith Page B

blue-violet beam lanced from the nearest machine, sparkling as it burned a thread of illumination through a drifting haze of smoke, and a one-story building exploded in flame and whirling splinters of wood.
    "They hit us a few minutes ago," Captain Hemingway's voice continued, speaking over the vid scene of fiery devastation. "Eight of them, though we have reports of more moving around on the ridge above the camp. They came through the west fence, laying down a barrage of beams and missiles that—"
    Another burst of static buzzed and hissed, dissolving the picture in a storm of crackling, electronic snow.
    "What is that?" Fitzsimmons said. "Why is it doing that?"
    "Particle beam," Sam Carver said at his back. "Either a proton cannon or an electron beam. It's like lightning. Puts out all kinds of electrical interference."
    " I know that," Fitzsimmons said, a bit testily. "What is this civilian doing in here?"
    "I asked him," Alexie said. "He might have some insights into what's happening that we would miss."
    "We seem to have lost contact, ma'am," the communications tech said from his console. The screen continued to display an uninformative blanket of white noise and snow. "They're just . . . gone!"
    "Did he say who the attackers were?" Fitzsimmons wanted to know.
    "He didn't know, Major," Alexie told him. "I've never seen anything like that. Have you?"
    "N-no," Fitzsimmons said.
    "I think we know now what it was that knocked out Endatheline," Sam said.
    Fitzsimmons turned sharply. "That's right! Their Bolo couldn't stop those things there. We should warn Hemingway right away!"
    "I think we're too late, Major," Alexie told him. "If he's already deployed his Bolo, there's not much we can do."
    "I don't think we're going to raise Camp Olson again," the commo tech said. "I've been trying, but they're off the air. No carrier wave, even. Either their transmission mast is down, or. . ."
    "Or what?" Fitzsimmons demanded.
    "Or that last particle bolt fried Captain Hemingway and his radio."
    "I guess," Alexie said quietly, "it's up to their Bolo, now."
     

Chapter Seven
    load slfdiag/level 3
    elapstime: .04 sec
    run slfdiag/level 3
    power sys: 72.5%+
    drvtrain: op
    nav: online
    track/sens: online
    suspension: fnctnl
    tac/comm: online
    sysop: optml
    magscrn: online
    weapsys: online
    end slfdiag/level 3
    elapstime: .13 sec
    >all systems on-line, functioning at optimal levels
    load navprog
    elapstime: .03 sec
    run navprog
    >moving
    run threat assesmnt
    multiple contacts/ir/vis/radar
    initiate primtracseq, subrtn 76
    >designating primary target alpha, bearing 311, range 71 meters
    elapstime: 5.72 sec
    arm weapons
     
    Schaagrasch watched the enemy combat machine's approach with a keen and hungry interest. This was more like what she'd been waiting for, a challenge worthy of her Hunter Pack. Eight hundred erucht long at least, the thing must have massed thousands of klaatch . Emerging from a heavily armored and partly buried bunker of some sort, it moved clumsily on enormous, cleated tracks, making its own road as it ground along cracking, splintering, crumbling asphalt.
    That datum alone was important. The asphalt surface of the compound had been poured after the gr'raa had been stored in the bunker. Did they never exercise with their equipment? Engage in sham wars and training? Yes. Very interesting indeed. . . .
    Chaghna'kraa shrieked the order for attack, and her eight closed on the monster war machine. A small, flat turret spun rapidly, tracing, then spat flame, flinging a large-caliber howitzer shell into Hunter Fifteen with precisionist accuracy. The explosion all but engulfed the Malach Hunter's body, rocking it back on deeply flexing legs as it absorbed the concussion. The smoke cleared, and the Hunter continued its charge, main batteries flaring at wavelengths invisible to the Malach eye but picked up and superimposed on Schaagrasch's combat screen as dazzling white bolts of energy.
    It was difficult at this range to see