History Literature / Bolo

* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted. Every documented case where a Bolo appeared to have turned rogue has thus far simply been the result of the Bolos obeying their mission directives in unanticipated ways, or of extensive battle damage impairing its functions (or both).

* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted. Every documented case where a Bolo appeared to have turned rogue has thus far simply been the result of the Bolos obeying their mission directives in unanticipated directions or of extensive battle damage impairing its functions (or both).

* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted.

* WarIsHell: Even Bolos can be affected in the end, with a couple of units becoming so disillusioned with the Final War against the Melconians that they try to [[LoopholeAbuse rule-lawyer their way out of orders,]] demanding to exterminate all Melconian refugees down to the last one.

* HonorBeforeReason: Bolos picked up a bit of this. In Laumer's short story [[http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/1439133476/1439133476___2.htm "Field Test",]] the first self-aware Bolo makes a suicide charge OutOfTheInferno that causes the enemy to break and run. When asked why, they expected it to demonstrate some superhuman strategic acumen that its human commanders missed. They're awestruck by it's real reason: "For the honor of the regiment."[[note]]Specifically, the 20th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, a unit whose history dates back to the American Civil War, to which the Bolo was assigned[[/note]] This has since become the catch phrase of the Bolos.

** But when the situation degrades far enough that it comes down to nukes, it comes down hard, with even infantry support weapons lobbing tactical nuclear weapons like there is no tomorrow, and [[MacrossMissileMassacre gigantic barrages of hypersonic nuclear missiles]] in Bolo battles.

* BiggerStick: That's what Bolos always are, even if in the end [[ZergRush they can be swamped by sheer numbers]]. All of the hostile aliens are conveniently encountered just when [[HumanityIsAdvanced the humanity's technical advantage over them ranges from significant to stupendous]], and human villains invariably use less advanced tech, such as "golems", which have Bolos chassis but electronic systems somehow less advanced than even very early pre-sentience Bolos. Really, the playing field only is relatively level in very rare cases when Bolos find themselves opposing each other.

* BiggerStick: That's what Bolos always are, even in the end [[ZergRush they are swamped by sheer numbers]]. All of the hostile aliens are conveniently encountered just when [[HumanityIsAdvanced the humanity's technical advantage over them ranges from significant to stupendous]], and human villains invariably use less advanced tech, such as "golems", which have Bolos chassis but electronic systems somehow less advanced than even very early pre-sentience Bolos. Really, the playing field only is relatively level in very rare cases when Bolos find themselves opposing each other.

** For another example, one Bolo has an order to destroy an alien armada, which computers it managed to take over, in a way that teaches its owners a lesson. Yet he knows that it is mostly crewed by slaves, who were pressed into the invasion force against their will and kept in submission by said computers (a detail which his human superiors initially shrugged off as insignificant in the light of the ongoing Final War). He reasons that giving control of the ships to the slaves, so that they can pay a visit to their former masters, will likely result in both the armada's destruction and a very good lesson about the folly of attacking the Concordiat.

** The biggest and most powerful starships in human and Melconian navies could outlast Bolos in a Hellbore exchange, but a single Mark XXXIII had firepower and protection of a battlecruiser and remained quite dangerous to any spacecraft smaller than that even when docked to a clumsy interplanetary transport. During the Final War, the standard procedure was to approach any planet with a Bolo on it from the opposite side of the planet as the Bolo, if possible. Using the planet itself as cover so the Bolo won't shoot down your spacecraft.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The greatest {{Irony}} оf the Boloverse is the fact that the development of Bolos, created and hardwired to protect humans at all costs, was one of the key factors in making the Final War so devastating that the humanity nearly went extinct. Bolos became simply too powerful, too good at what they did. When you needed a several thousands of megaton-range nuclear warheads to make a significant dent in a Bolo battallion (or a Melconian force capable of matching it), it was much easier to just aim all those warheads at population centers on a planet under attack and call it a day. And even when whomever was on the offensive at the moment decided against that, any battle that presented a challenge to late-model Bolos was still basically an all-out nuclear exchange in the atmosphere.

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: A few close-mindedly aggressive and xenophobic alien races show up. But however dangerous their attacks are for particular planets and Bolo units, they mostly prove to be nothing more than minor annoyances to the humanity as a whole, perhaps because of their very close-mindedness and excessive aggression. Ironically, it is [[HumanoidAliens Melconians, who think pretty much just like humans]] - including the exact same dangerous faults - who nearly drive the humanity to extinction.

* AliensAreBastards: The great majority of alien races encountered by humanity range from ScaryDogmaticAliens to [[AbsoluteXenophobe Absolute Xenophobes]] whose first resort upon contacting .

* FumblingTheGauntlet: One of the key stumbling points in the Final War is known: Standard Melconian FirstContact procedure is to forbid all contact between the two cultures until their ruling body comes to a decision, and took a hard line against any attempts at contact. The Concordiat policy is to get a mutual non-aggression agreement in order to normalize relations as soon as possible, and kept trying to make contact with the Melconians. The Concordiat thought the violent refusal to speak meant Melconians were hostile. Melconians thought repeated attempts to make contact meant the Concordiat was hostile. Neither side could comprehend the other's actions.

** For another example, one Bolo has an order to destroy an alien armada, which computers it managed to take over, in a way that teaches its owners a lesson. Yet he knows that it is mostly crewed by slaves, who were pressed into the invasion force against their will and kept in submission by said computers (a detail which his human superiors shrugged off as insignificant in the light of the ongoing Final War). He reasons that giving control of the ships to the slaves, so that they can pay a visit to their former masters, will likely result in both the armada's destruction and the good lesson about the folly of attacking the Concordiat.

** For another example, one Bolo has an order to destroy an alien armada which computers it took over in a way that teaches its owners a lesson. Yet he knows that it is mostly crewed by slaves, who were pressed into the invasion force against their will and kept in submission by said computers (a detail which his human superiors shrugged off as insignificant in the light of the ongoing Final War). He reasons that giving control of the ships to the slaves, so that they can pay a visit to their former masters, will likely result in both the armada's destruction and the good lesson about the folly of attacking the Concordiat.

** For another example, one Bolo has an order to destroy an alien armada which computers it took over, yet he knows that it is mostly crewed by slaves, who were pressed into the invasion force against their will and kept in submission by said computers (a detail which his human superiors shrugged off as insignificant in the light of the ongoing Final War). He reasons that giving control of the ships to the slaves, so that they can pay a visit to their former masters, will certainly result in the armada's destruction.

* GeniusBruiser: Not only self-aware Bolos think impossibly fast, and have plenty of tactical acumen to back up their prodigious firepower, they can concoct elaborate strategic plans (although they are rarely given this much leeway) and are masters of electronic warfare, capable of infiltrating and even completely subverting computer systems of less advanced foes. One time a single Mark XXXII Bolo brought down a whole alien empire by eliminating its invasion fleet's AIs and taking over to turn the fleet on its masters (well, the fact that fleet was largely crewed by slaves, kept under control by the above-mentioned AIs, helped too).

* GeniusBruiser: Not only self-aware Bolos think impossibly fast, and have plenty of tactical acumen to back up their prodigious firepower, they can concoct elaborate strategic plans (although they are rarely given this much leeway) and are masters of electronic warfare, capable of infiltrating and even completely subverting computer systems of less advanced foes. One time a single Mark XXXII Bolo brings down a whole alien empire by eliminating its invasion fleet's AIs and taking over to turn the fleet on its masters (well, the fact that fleet was largely crewed by slaves, kept under control by the above-mentioned AIs, helped too).

* [[ImplacableMan Implacable Giant Tank]]: Bolos can withstand massive amounts of damage to their outer components, remain dangerous as long as they have any functionality at all, and late models can repair themselves to an extent. The only way to reliably stop a Bolo for good is to blow it up completely, usually by a penetrating hit to its main reactor. Otherwise even melting its main CPU/personality center is no guarantee.

** During the Final War, standard procedure was to approach any planet with a Bolo on it from the opposite side of the planet as the Bolo. Using the planet itself as cover so the Bolo won't shoot down your spacecraft.

* BittersweetEnding: The verse as a whole. On one hand, humanity survives, Bolos (and presumably AIs in general) are eventually acknowledged as people rather than just tools of war, humans and Melconians learn to coexist and cooperate. On the other hand, before they do, the whole Orion Arm of the Milky Way is reduced to a graveyard of dead planets, including, oh, ''every single place'' Bolos and humans laid their lives to protect in stories taking place before the Final War.

* BadassArmy: Even just hearing of a Bolo being deployed is enough to make some soldiers [[BringMeMyBrownPants soil their shorts in fear]], especially if one doesn't have a Bolo equivalent of their own handy.

** In one short story set at the aftermath of The Final War, "A Time to Kill," a Bolo has become so sick of the bloodshed that he repeatedly tries convincing his human commander to rescind the attack order against hopelessly outmatched Melconian refugees. Guilt-tripping the human by projecting imagery of what the Final War actually looked like is what works in the end.

* LoopholeAbuse: Some Bolos exploit loopholes in their programming so they don't have to carry out actions they don't agree with. See the IWillFightNoMoreForever example.

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: A few close-mindedly aggressive and xenophobic alien races show up. But however dangerous their attacks are for particular planets and Bolo units, they mostly prove to be nothing more than minor annoyances to the humanity as a whole, perhaps because of their very close-mindedness and excessive aggression. Ironically, it is [[HumanoidAliens Melconians, who think pretty much just like humans]] - including the exact same nearly-fatal faults - who nearly drive the humanity to extinction.

* WarIsHell: Even Bolos can be affected in the end, with one unit becoming so disillusioned with the Final War with the Melconians that it refuses to fire on Melconian refugees that may well be the only survivors of the entire race.