Nine by Laumer and bolo's

[HMS Sophia]

I just discovered I had read a bolo story by Laumer without even realising it. 'Nine by Laumer' has a short story called Dinochrome about a captured bolo, which I didn't realise at the time (I didn't know it was a bolo while reading).
Does anyone know anything about the story?
What model of bolo it was for instance?
Or where it fits in the time line?
Does anyone even know what book I'm talking about?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I don't think Laumer's Bolo stories had any more of a time line than his Retief stories did.

[LadyTevar]

There was a time-line, as the Bolos advanced from Mark-1 all the way up to Mark-33, as well as several stages of war between various Earth-based alliances and alien races. More than one story suggested MAD situations happened, but the Bolo lineage continued.

[Bakustra]

I don't think Laumer's Bolo stories had any more of a time line than his Retief stories did.

They did cross over at one point- Retief had to disable a mark 15, which he describes as an "antique" and the Concordiat as a long-gone civilization, in the short story "Courier".

There was a time-line, as the Bolos advanced from Mark-1 all the way up to Mark-33, as well as several stages of war between various Earth-based alliances and alien races. More than one story suggested MAD situations happened, but the Bolo lineage continued.

That timeline was invented by Weber as far as I know, and doesn't really work with the Bolo stories as a whole, unless you play ridiculously fast and loose with them and cut out A Plague of Demons altogether. The Bolo stories just don't fit into timelines, I think.

[LadyTevar]

I never considered Plague of Demons to be in the Boloverse

[Lord of the Abyss]

I never considered Plague of Demons to be in the Boloverse

Nor have I. The only similarity is that it involves giant tanks; but in this case the tanks are built by aliens not humans, and have human brains not AI.

[LadyTevar]

Moved to more appropriate Forum

LadyTevar wrote:
I never considered Plague of Demons to be in the Boloverse

Nor have I. The only similarity is that it involves giant tanks; but in this case the tanks are built by aliens not humans, and have human brains not AI.

Yes, a Human-Brain is not a Bolo. Bolo are totally AI and fully Human-made. You never see a Bolo that is not matched to a Human pilot.

Hell, do the Humans even ally with non-humans in the stories, or just fight them?

[Lord of the Abyss]

Yes, a Human-Brain is not a Bolo. Bolo are totally AI and fully Human-made. You never see a Bolo that is not matched to a Human pilot.

Hell, do the Humans even ally with non-humans in the stories, or just fight them?

Just fight; the protagonist doesn't believe that alliance is possible. They are rabidly predatory and despise us. Copied from the Baen Free Library:

On every world where the opposed forces met, the struggle was joined. Each force knew the other, instinctively recognized the ancient enemy. Each side called itself by a name, and the antagonist by another.

One name was Good, and the other Evil.

A variety of symbols came into being, and across the worlds, the struggle swayed, reaching ever outward . . .

And a time came on a remote, isolated world, when traitorous Good met treacherous Evil and joined, against all nature, in a new formula of existence. Now, in this unholy amalgam, the ancient drives met and mingled, fought and struck a balance. A transcendent value-scale evolved—new abilities, unheard-of in the galaxy; an empathy possible only to a monstrous hybrid; an unnatural negation of the primal drive, a perversion of that terrible energy into new channels. Under the stimulus of internal stresses, minds of undreamed-of power sprang into being. At every level from the cellular upward, death conflicted with life; sloth with vaulting ambition; greed with instinct for asceticism. And out of the synthesis of opposites, a cancerous growth called Beauty came into being; obscene antisurvival concepts named Loyalty, Courage, Justice were born into the universe.

Wherever the elemental Purities encountered this monstrous hybrid, a battle of extermination was joined. Good could compromise with Evil, but neither could meet with the half-breed, Art. A new war raged across the minor galaxy and left annihilation in its wake.

So it went for ages, until a lone, surviving pocket of hybrids was discovered. The instinct to destroy the Unnatural Ones raged strong—but the race-lesson of restraint and exploitation was stronger. Guarding their secret find, the Pure ones took specimens, sampled their capabilities, needs, drives. Here were minds of great power—computers of magnificent compactness and ability—a resource not to be wasted. A decision was reached: the anomalies would be nurtured, allowed to evolve a primitive social organization—and then harvested, pressed into the service of the Pure. Sometimes the thought came that such a race, released, might rip asunder the ancient contours of the universe . . .
But this was a nightmare concept, to be passed over with a shudder. Control was complete. There was no danger. The hybrids were securely enslaved . . .

I withdrew from the Over-mind, and for a moment I held the long perspective of that view—saw my world as the insignificant scintilla that it was among the stars, my race a sinister tribe of barbaric freaks, harvested like wild honey . . .

[Bakustra]

Plague of Demons has a Bolo Mark II being mentioned in the chapter where the main character discovers the first Demon. It belonged to one of the sides in the Algerian civil war going on at the time. I don't blame you for missing it though. There's also Night of the Troll, which has a nuclear war knocking humans back to the medieval era during the period that Weber has the Marks III-V being developed.