This was the funnest case of massive overkill I've ever had the pleasure to read. I was waiting for the Excalibur Alternative ending of course, but the name of ever person and ship type that showed up had me giggling, or in Emperor Hektor the II's case, thinking "Hey, wait a minute!" I guess the prolong drugs and nannites are doing their jobs. (But why didn't Emperor Hektor the II have a "Haarahld" in his name as well? He was named after every
other major character in AOR!"
I completely lost it when I realized Bahzell's bunch was aboard the transports, wearing marine combat armor. As soon as I translated the Bolo models as Mark 46's I whistled and wondered why they weren't flying around, blowing up Gbaba ships all by themselves. The technological leap from a Mark 34, which could fly using its antigravs, blow ships out of orbit, and blast through hordes of the enemy's own war machines would be even greater than the leap from the Mark 22, which were the first models to gain (restricted and a bit primitive) independent thought. Near human thought capabilities were first achieved in the experimental Bolo XXIII known as "Nike," as RFC wrote in his novel "Bolos!" (
The Bolo series is a GREAT read if you haven't tried it yet!)
So bring on the dozen Hellbores each, the defensive screens that can absorb and recycle the energy of an entire star, and let loose the infinite repeaters and all the cool new weaponry a Mark 46 features! (Plus think of the personnel costs now that they no longer need commanders to keep them from going nuts!)