Bolos vs. Berserkers: The Eternal Struggle

[AlHazred]

Some time ago (say, 1996), I had the idea that a great Sci-Fi campaign could be made by combining the works of Fred Saberhagen (specifically, the Berserkers series) and the Bolo series by Keith Laumer.

 

For those who don't know, the Berserkers series was Saberhagen's answer to Drake's Equation. Drake turned the question of other intelligent life in the universe into a statistical equation, and solved for different results based on the best scientific estimates he could produce for the different variables. Saberhagen's series answers that question by positing a race of aliens who constructed humongous robotic starships which were programmed to search the galaxy for life - and then destroy it. In the series, a variety of human agents combat the machinations of these killer robotic starships in a variety of ways, usually depending on wits rather than firepower.

 

In the years since Mr. Laumer wrote the original stories that comprised the first book (called Bolos: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade), a series of anthologies have come out, with a number of authors contributing to the setting. In the Bolos setting, humans create robotic supertanks to fight their wars for them. The tanks get more and more sophisticated until they achieve sentience. The one constant to these tanks is their hard-wired code of honor, which causes them to (time and time again) sacrifice their existence to protect the humans in their charge.

 

I thought a game with both of these elements would be quite an interesting setting. There are a variety of options, but one interesting one is a campaign where the players are a military unit trying to survive the titanic conflict raging about them. Another option would be to allow the players to actually play a unit of Bolos. What does the list think? Good potential or waste of time?

[Balok]

Actually, Berserkers were not *originally* created to destroy all life. In later books, we learn that they were created by the Red Race, or to destroy the Red Race. I can't remember which. In any event, the other side had similar machines. The berserkers were *better*, and destroyed the enemies and all their machines -- and then turned on the few of their creators who had survived the war. At some point, the notion that life was evil and must be destroyed was incorporated into the programming.

[Lord Liaden]

As I indicated on the Military SciFi thread, think that this is a compelling concept. Both of your options have potential; I think that you could also base your campaign on having regular PCs of a race or races who ally themselves with the Bolos against the Berserkers - that would allow for a mingling of Bolo and non-Bolo PC if you wanted, although balancing them in joint adventures, especially in combat, would be a challenge.

 

The framework of the "eternal war" is a powerful image and a good starting point, but for a war campaign it really is necessary to allow the PC to make some progress against the enemy, so that they feel that their actions have an impact and are not ultimately pointless. Perhaps the PC's civilization joining with the Bolos is the factor that turns the course of the war against the Berserkers.

[AlHazred]

It was your response in the Military Sci-Fi thread, Lord Liaden, that got me to start a new one; I'd no wish to hijack Steve's reading list.

 

I'd long ago come up with a short campaign in the Ogre setting involving PCs who were members of the military. Their units all demolished, the PCs must band together to survive their last remaining foe: the Ogre responsible for the destruction, badly wounded, but still a behemoth of destructive fury.

 

This campaign idea got me rereading the Bolo series, and then I found the "new" series: Honor of the Regiment, The Unconquerable, The Triumphant, and Last Stand. Some great stories in there. In several, the Bolos are instrumental in defeating various spacefaring foes of mankind. They always find the weakness(es) of their foes, and exploit them with robotic efficiency.

 

That got me wondering, what would happen in the confrontation between the Bolos and the Berserkers. The Berserkers have few weaknesses, and none that are easily exploitable by the large, massive Bolos.

 

Looking over the "Cybertank" in TUV, I think we have a good candidate for Bolos. Some modifications are necessary, but I think it's fairly easy to do.

 

Now, what about the Berserkers? Any ideas?

[Peregrine]

See 'Mechanon' in the Champions genre...

[Balok]

The berserkers are basically self-aware spaceships with no life support and extra weapons and armor. Yes, I know a few of them did have the means to keep "goodlife" alive (defined as life that helps the berserkers acheive their goals), and to study "badlife" (all other life). However, they were a relative minority.

 

The bolos are at a significant disadvantage unless they are also made spaceworthy. Yes, some of the later bolos did have orbital range on their hellebores, but compared to the weapons a berserker could bring to bear, they're outclassed. All the berserker has to do is move out of range and use missiles.

 

If the bolos are made spaceworthy, then their small size might be an advantage over the more massive berserkers. Also, berserkers use something called a "probability core" to ensure they're not predictable. I'm left with the impression that this is a less sophisticated brain that possessed by the later bolos.

[AlHazred]

According to Laumer's "A Short History of the Bolo Fighting Machines," at some point the great war machines become spaceworthy. I remember one story, with Bolo Mark XVI "Das Afrika Corps," where a number of Bolos were apparently set up as satellites to monitor a planet; from internal evidence of the story, it's evident they have some method of Flight available to them.

 

In any case, there never seemed to be a shortage of Bolos on the alien worlds of the stories. Perhaps they have some specialized Bolo Transport Spacecraft?

 

Now, the Berserkers, they had smaller robots they could deploy to planet surfaces, right? Were they more like the Terminator or more like Mechanon?

[Intrope]

IIRC the later Bolos had gravity control, but it wasn't really flight as such; they could use it to lift off, but it was slow (not usually used in combat) and didn't give them forward movement, just lift.

 

This was mainly to conteract the fact that later Bolos were insanely heavy. It also meant that delivering a Bolo to a planet involved dropping it from a great height squish

 

I'd have to agree that Bolos would need to be upgraded to spaceships before they'd be useful against Berserkers.

 

Curiously, the Bolo stories state outright that later Bolos are as powerful as space battleships, but the space battleships are clearly not Bolos (they're manned, apparently). Which is an odd inconsistency. Maybe he wanted to keep his Bolos separate from Berserkers?

[Armitage]

Originally posted by AlHazred

According to Laumer's "A Short History of the Bolo Fighting Machines," at some point the great war machines become spaceworthy. I remember one story, with Bolo Mark XVI "Das Afrika Corps," where a number of Bolos were apparently set up as satellites to monitor a planet; from internal evidence of the story, it's evident they have some method of Flight available to them.

 

In any case, there never seemed to be a shortage of Bolos on the alien worlds of the stories. Perhaps they have some specialized Bolo Transport Spacecraft?

 

Originally Bolos were deployed using independent assault pods but the introduction of the Mark XIX in 2790 was accompanied by the development of a light cruiser-sized Navy vessel specially designed to transport a pair of Bolos to the surface and land in any terrain except swamp and severe mountains.

The Mark XXII in 2890 was the first equipped with an interplanetary-range subspace com and the ability to directly control the by then unmanned transport ships.

The Mark XXX in 3231, and all later models had internal counter-grav units allowing flight at up to 500 kph, but its battle screen, internal disrupter screens, and main armament were unusable due to diverted power.

The Mark XXXII in 3356 could mount an auxillary counter-grav unit allowing it to make unattended planetary landings.

The Mark XXXIII, date unknown due to incomplete data from the Last War and the Long Night, had in internal counter-grav unit for orbital operations.

 

Information from "A Brief Technical History of the Bolo" in Bolos, Book 3: The Triumphant.

[Balok]

Originally posted by AlHazred

Now, the Berserkers, they had smaller robots they could deploy to planet surfaces, right? Were they more like the Terminator or more like Mechanon?

 

Some did, some didn't. It's unclear from the stories whether Berserkers were constructed as classes (in the manner a stellar navy might construct ships) or if they were one offs. However, one thing that is clear is that there are a large variety of Berserkers of differing sizes, capabilities, and purposes.

 

To answer your question, I recall stories featuring both kinds of robots (although the Berserkers did not refer to them as such). Some had no self-direction at all, and required a constant stream of telemetry from the mothership to operate. Analogous to the droids used by the Trade Federation in "Phantom Menace". These tended to look more like Mechanon. Others, such as those featured in "Brother Assassin", were self-directed and could pass as human (usually); these were "infiltration" units.

 

However, Berserkers aren't long on subtlety, because they've never needed to be. Orbital bombardment is more their speed. That's not to say they're not smart, only that their tactics are more like a sledgehammer, and haven't been refined much.

 

Compare that to the Bolos, whose artificial minds contain the distilled warfighting skills of centuries of human experience. Often, the Bolos challenged opponents as capable or more capable than they were (some races even built analogous machines). This made tactics at least as important to Bolos as actual fighting strength; they get the edge there.

 

Later Bolos could strike at orbital targets, such as ships, from the ground. It's unclear at what range, or how effective those attacks were, but there were used on more than one occasion to harass and destroy enemy troop drops.

 

Bolos communicate with each other, and cooperate. Berserkers may, as well, but the typical story only had one machine (usually more than enough), so I don't recall seeing much of this.

 

HTH

[AlHazred]

It strikes me as an interesting topic. Machines are tools, and as such, they distill the essence of their task. Swords evoke in people a sense of finality; hammers or drills of utility; a sleek sportscar of speed. In this sense, the Bolos evoke courage and honor, the two defining facets of human warfare that they adopted. They never have it easy; in the absence of challenge, true courage cannot grow, and honor requires "polish" to shine.

 

Berserkers are alien killing machines, not war machines. Their purpose is to end life in any means possible. They evoke horror and fear. Their attacks are always as overpowering as possible, since it is in the face of implacability that fear grows. The few times when their attacks are not overwhelmingly powerful, they instead attempt to infiltrate human society to corrupt it from within.

 

Courage versus fear. Honor versus horror. Struggling war machines versus overwhelming killing machines. It'd be quite a show... to see from the sidelines.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think it would be best to have a small outpost world with a few bored Bolos (the PCs) who note the approach of a new enemy - the Berserkers.

[Chris Goodwin]

Ummm... don't berserkers stand off about 5 AU and destroy a planet from orbit? And aren't bolos sort of stuck on that planet?

 

Seems to me it's Berserker 6 billion, Bolo 0.

[AlHazred]

The Mark XXII Bolo had the ability to sense orbital presences due to interfacing with telescopes, satellites and an extremely well-made deductive facility. The first few planets would be annihilated, sure. But the Bolos who got scragged would send messages via any FTL method they could manage, and the remaining Bolos on the front would take notice. By about the Bolo Mark XXX, the contest becomes a little more doable.

[Captain Obvious]

Discourse on Berserkers

 

Berserkers were created by a race now known only as the Builders, in the distant past to defeat an enemy known only as the Red Race. At this point in history, the Builders and the Red Race are extinct, and only their machines have survived.

 

Berserkers may have originally been built in "classes", ie Nimitz class, etc, but after so many millennia of battle, repairs, jury-rigs, salvage operations, and new construction, there is virtually no unifying theme. Berserkers range in size from star-mobile planetoids to repair units the size of a dinner plate. Some are specialized as landers to root out defenders from underground bunkers, some are flyers, there is even a record of one that was nothing more than a mobile nuclear pile whose only purpose was to move to a life-infested area and melt down. The only thing they have in common is their programming: to destroy all life. A Berserker finds it as important to destroy the algae-like slime growing on a shallow-water planet as to destroy intelligent races. The only exception is goodlife, intelligent lifeforms that agree to help the Berserker in its longterm goals.

 

Firepower is almost never the way to defeat a Berserker. A large Berserker is too powerful to engage without a fleet, and a small Berserker is typically clever enough to remain hidden or hold hostages. In the past, Berserkers have been defeated by vegetables (Pressure), misinformation (The Annihilation of Angkor Apeiron), and a terraforming AI system (A Teardrop Falls).

 

In game terms, an adventure involving Berserkers should be largely similar to a horror adventure, with the characters unable to stand against the enemy, or unable to find it and meet it on their own terms. In addition, paranoia about goodlife should often pop up, with characters unable to fully trust those they don't know well, and often being accused of being goodlife themselves. There should be victories as well as defeats, however, and the more bizarre and unexpected the victory, the better. The machines have never been able to fully understand human frailties, and that is where the best victories come from....