Scandavian States
24-04-2006, 22:49
In a world of instantly lethal chemical agents and bioweapons that are so deadly that they can kill millions before an effective response can even be organized, mental incapacitants are a novelty. Perhaps the most well-known and effetive such agent is the Knootian chemical agent "Gay Spray", which induces soldiers to stop what they are doing and begin having sex with anybody and everybody within reach. While amusing, tests with similar chemicals have revealed that soldiers effected in such a way tend to become rather single-minded, much like rabits, and that detaining the effected soldiers in a combat environment could lead to serious complications. As such, the Imperial Armed Forces has decided that it would be best to use another facet of human psychology to reduce enemy soldiers to ineffectiveness.
BZ was a chemical agent studied during the 1960s that was derived from a family of chemicals with effects similar to LSD. Small doses would change how the body dealt with heat exchange and would cause a person to overheat; combined with the hallucinagenic effects the person would take actions to reduce the overheating which were not entirely logical, usually expressed by stripping until they were completely nude. Larger doses, in the ten to twenty microgram range, would severely impair mental functions; anything from impaired memory to slurred speach and dellusions/hallucinations. Massive doses, usually a milligram or higher for an average male, would cause severe hallucinations and violent Tourettes-like behavior; most often resulting in the effected soldier viewing everybody as a threat and trying to "frag" even their best friends in their unit.
The new agent, dubbed Loki for the Norse god of mischief, isn't quite so unpredictable and takes a make smaller dose with a subsequently smaller period in which the effects begin. Conforming to the 5-10 minute standard for all Imperial chemical weapons, the effects are entirely neurological in nature and a severe reaction can be induced with as little as five micrograms. Further, while BZ had to be inhaled to have any effect at all, Loki can be ingested in a manner reminiscent of lethal neurological agents such as VX.
BZ was a chemical agent studied during the 1960s that was derived from a family of chemicals with effects similar to LSD. Small doses would change how the body dealt with heat exchange and would cause a person to overheat; combined with the hallucinagenic effects the person would take actions to reduce the overheating which were not entirely logical, usually expressed by stripping until they were completely nude. Larger doses, in the ten to twenty microgram range, would severely impair mental functions; anything from impaired memory to slurred speach and dellusions/hallucinations. Massive doses, usually a milligram or higher for an average male, would cause severe hallucinations and violent Tourettes-like behavior; most often resulting in the effected soldier viewing everybody as a threat and trying to "frag" even their best friends in their unit.
The new agent, dubbed Loki for the Norse god of mischief, isn't quite so unpredictable and takes a make smaller dose with a subsequently smaller period in which the effects begin. Conforming to the 5-10 minute standard for all Imperial chemical weapons, the effects are entirely neurological in nature and a severe reaction can be induced with as little as five micrograms. Further, while BZ had to be inhaled to have any effect at all, Loki can be ingested in a manner reminiscent of lethal neurological agents such as VX.