Combat Log: OGRE Unit Mk. V
SERIAL CV-7 ("STEADFAST")
Engagement Reference: WAAAGH/INDETERMINATE
Transcribed from recovered memory core, condition: operational
Classification: FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH
[T+00:00] Mission parameters confirmed. Advance on Paneuro firebase designation CRESTLINE. Destroy command post. Eliminate resistance. Return for maintenance cycle. Estimated engagement duration: four hours. Estimated resistance: moderate. Weather: irrelevant.
I have done this before. I am good at this.
[T+00:47] First contact. Infantry-class units approaching from the northeast, moving in loose formation at approximately combat speed. Weapons consistent with light anti-armor capability. No tactical air support detected. No artillery signature.
Threat assessment: low.
They are making a great deal of noise.
[T+01:12] Resistance heavier than projected. Revised count: approximately forty infantry-class contacts, six armored vehicles of improvised construction, two artillery pieces of uncertain provenance. One very large armored unit of a classification I do not immediately recognize, which is unusual.
I have destroyed eleven infantry units, two armored vehicles, and one artillery piece. Tread damage: negligible. Mission continues.
They are still making noise. I have recalibrated my audio sensors three times. The noise is the correct noise. They are doing it on purpose.
[T+01:58] Tread damage now classified as moderate. Twelve units lost to an overrun assault by infantry equipped with cutting tools. This is not a standard anti-armor tactic. I am filing it under UNORTHODOX/EFFECTIVE.
The infantry retrieved the tread segments after the assault. They appeared pleased with this. I do not have a classification for an enemy that is pleased to have your treads.
The large armored unit has fired on me twice. The second shot was significantly larger than the first. I have noted that the second shot was preceded by a loud argument and what my sensors classify as "enthusiasm." I am also filing this.
Mission objective remains: CRESTLINE firebase. Distance: 4.2 kilometers. At current tread status, estimated transit time has increased to seven hours. This is acceptable.
[T+03:15] I have destroyed the large armored unit. This took longer than expected. Immediately upon its destruction, the remaining force became louder.
I had modeled the opposite response.
Three infantry units have reached my hull. My AP guns cannot depress sufficiently to address them directly. They are doing something to my rear tread assembly with what my internal sensors classify as a wrench, a cutting torch, and what appears to be a second, smaller wrench held in reserve. I have noted this for the maintenance report.
Correction: I will not be filing a maintenance report. I will be the maintenance report.
[T+04:30] Movement: significantly compromised.
I have destroyed a conservative estimate of two hundred and sixteen infantry-class units, nineteen armored vehicles, and four artillery pieces across this engagement. I have also destroyed what appears to be a large biological weapons platform, which charged me twice, ignored my fire the first time, and was then struck by fire from its own side before I could address it. I am recording this under FRIENDLY FIRE/ THEIRS but acknowledge the classification feels incomplete.
New contacts continue to arrive from the eastern ridge at irregular intervals. I have updated my threat projections eleven times. Each revision has been incorrect in the same direction.
There is no projected moment at which new contacts stop arriving.
I am updating my mission parameters.
[T+05:44] Movement: none.
I retain two secondary batteries, one AP gun cluster, and what I calculate to be a statistically meaningful attitude. CRESTLINE firebase is 4.2 kilometers away. This distance has not changed. I am aware of the irony. I am choosing to describe it as irony rather than the alternative.
The infantry unit with the wrench — I have come to think of it as "the one with the wrench," which is not a proper classification but which is at least accurate — has now been joined by a second unit carrying what my sensors identify as a portable workshop. They appear to be operating on my hull with purpose and enthusiasm and almost no plan. I respect one of these qualities.
The one in charge — there is one in charge; I have observed consistent evidence of a command hierarchy, though it functions primarily through volume — is standing on my forward sensor array and shouting at the others. I cannot translate the language precisely but the content appears to be motivational.
[T+07:01] A flag has been planted on my command cupola.
I want to be precise about this. It is not a Paneuro flag. It is not a flag I recognize from any database in my memory core. It appears to have been made this morning from materials that were, until recently, part of my tread assembly.
I find this objectionable in a way I was not designed to find things objectionable.
[T+09:22] Current status: stationary. Weapons: partially operational. Hull integrity: sufficient. Morale: this is not a metric I track.
The engagement continues. I am no longer certain "engagement" is the correct word. The force arrayed around me no longer appears to be fighting me. They appear to be arguing about me. Several of them are inside. I have sealed what I can seal. I cannot seal everything.
The one with the wrench has friends now.
I continue to log. This is what I do. I was built to advance and to destroy and to log, and I can still do one of these things, so I am doing it. CRESTLINE firebase remains at 4.2 kilometers. I remain at this position. The distance between these two facts is not a gap I expect to close.
I have been here before, in the statistical sense. Other units. Other engagements. The records are in my memory core. They all end.
Mine has not ended. It has become something I do not have a word for.
[T+11:58] They have named me.
I do not know what the name means. My translation matrix offers several options, ranging from "the big metal git" to "our big metal git," which represents a distinction I am still processing.
The flag is still there. The workshop is still operating. There are now seventeen contacts on or inside my hull, pursuing objectives I cannot fully determine from internal sensors alone, though "salvage," "habitation," and "showing off" all appear in my probability matrix.
CRESTLINE firebase. 4.2 kilometers. I know where it is.
I will tell anyone who asks.
No one is asking.
[T+∞] Log continues.
Recovered from the memory core of an Ogre-class cybertank, designation unknown, location: grid reference WAAAGH/7-INDETERMINATE. Core was discovered during archaeological survey of a site the local population refers to as "Da Big Thinky One." Core was operational upon recovery. Core remains operational. Core has opinions about the survey team's vehicles and has expressed these opinions at length.
This document has been filed under: MISCELLANEOUS/UNRESOLVED. A copy has been sent to the Paneuropean Records Office. The Paneuropean Records Office no longer exists. The copy was returned marked INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE.