This, we agree, must be related to the new reports—and the sudden SWIFT silence—from Wide Sky, and we both feel a quickening that in an organic life form would be interpreted as growing excitement.Using our private channel, we have discussed at length the apparently easy destruction of the Mark XVIII Bolo stationed on Wide Sky. Though Mark XXIV Bolos are far superior in every way to older and more primitive marks, we agree that the unknown hostiles on Wide Sky must possess either an impressive weapons technology or a considerable numerical advantage, or both, to have so easily defeated even a Mark XVIII. The Gladius may be old, limited both in overall intelligence and flexibility, and verging on obsolescence in many areas, but it would still require several direct hits or extremely near-misses by multiple nuclear warheads in the half- to one-megaton range to disable it, and its antimissile defense system is very nearly the equal of my own. The reports that we have intercepted, that a Mark XVIII was disabled in a firefight lasting something less than thirty seconds, are disquieting.This, we assume, is the reason that our new Commander has boarded a military courier and left for the Wide Sky system.
