NationStates Jolt Archive

SIC

Base One-Five, Central Kolvokia

With the war with the Carbandians, a need was foreseen for a new breed of weapons. Categorized as P’reshftallen (literally fearsome weapons, or weapons of fear), they were being designed to strike fear into the heart of enemy soldiers.

Base One-Five was on one of the Great Kolvokian Lakes, specifically Loi-than. They had also commandeered a large island near the center of the lake. There were a number of experiments taking place, from the covert construction of a Lake Dreadnought, to the testing of new chemicals, particularly one known as Experiment Three, or alternately M’ror’s Breath. M’ror was the Kolvokian God of Fear in the Old Pantheon. Experiment Three was a powerful hallucinogenic drug, capable of being absorbed through the skin. It had the effect of inducing panic, and the projection of that panic onto any suitable nearby person.

In animal testing, rats that had previously been coexisting more or less peacefully, had either fled, or, in a smaller percentage, turned on each other. In volunteer human tests, the results had been much the same, although with a somewhat smaller percentage of the ‘fight’ instinct being triggered over the ‘flight’ instinct. There were no long-term physical side effects, although psychological side effects were still being studied. The weapon was currently capable of being dispensed in a gas shell by long-range artillery, sprayed by an appropriately equipped airplane, or delivered in infantry combat from a device roughly resembling a flamethrower, minus the ignition equipment.

Though they would probably tend to make the soldiers wearing them a target, these Fear Breathers were considerably safer than flamethrowers, which had a tendency to leak flaming fluid if perforated by enemy fire. That was if you were lucky. M’ror’s Breath was not flammable, and front line soldiers were being steadily immunized to the drug through repeated small doses. Though the entire project was highly classified on pain of death, (the soldiers merely being told it was a inoculation against a potential chemical weapon threat), the immunization process was even more closely guarded, the theory being that even if the enemy somehow became able to produce M’ror’s Breath, it wouldn’t be especially effective against immunized soldiers, whereas if they reproduced the immunization process, M’ror’s Breath would become obsolete.

Already, gas shells and Fear Breathers were being covertly moved up to the front lines of the Carbandian war. Intelligence (and common sense) indicated that the Carbandians would be using the ceasefire to reinforce their defensive positions. Imagine their surprise when, at the recommencement of hostilities, their soldiers found themselves unable to distinguish reality from their stark terror. The deployment of the gas shells would be followed by an armor and infantry assault. Current projections indicated that after several such attacks, if the Carbandians had not yet developed some way to combat the effects of M’ror’s Breath- which would be difficult without a sizable sample and extensive testing, as the researches at Base One-Five well knew- they would be willing to reach an amicable settlement.

OOC:
Not to be overly picky but you can't vacinate agaisnt chemical weapons.
Using repeated low doses to biuld up resistance is possible as is an "antidote" but a vacine is a very specialised solution reserved for countering biological threats.

Of course with the prevelance of decent nbc gear these days one woudl have to use the question the usefulness of what would esstially be a one time use weapon. Although against Carbania it is a lot more useful since it won't invite immediate retaliation using battlefeild nukes...

actually thinking about deployment methods, you might be better going with dispensor rounds for your UGLs or squad grenade launchers as opposed to srayers, even in the feild of riot control gas grenades have proven prefferabel to "dispersal agent dispensor systems " (i.e. CS sprayers) mainly due to the better effective range.
just a few of my hopefully constructive thoughts.

OOC:
Not to be overly picky but you can't vacinate agaisnt chemical weapons.
Using repeated low doses to biuld up resistance is possible as is an "antidote" but a vacine is a very specialised solution reserved for countering biological threats.

Of course with the prevelance of decent nbc gear these days one woudl have to use the question the usefulness of what would esstially be a one time use weapon. Although against Carbania it is a lot more useful since it won't invite immediate retaliation using battlefeild nukes...

actually thinking about deployment methods, you might be better going with dispensor rounds for your UGLs or squad grenade launchers as opposed to srayers, even in the feild of riot control gas grenades have proven prefferabel to "dispersal agent dispensor systems " (i.e. CS sprayers) mainly due to the better effective range.
just a few of my hopefully constructive thoughts.

OOC: On the other hand, if he constantly has his troops in NBC gear, this limits their mobility, and still confers an advantage, albeit a lesser one.

OOC: On the other hand, if he constantly has his troops in NBC gear, this limits their mobility, and still confers an advantage, albeit a lesser one.

OOC: Like you said, this would limit maneuverability, as well as the fact that even the smallest tear from field use and the fact that this chemical needs only skin contact to be absorbed... You could guess the rest.

Anyway, I would suggest keeping the slower but ultimately safer route of slowly building resistance, like he is.

OOC: Incidentally, regarding the delivery method, it was more of a psychological decision than one regarding practicality. The soldiers given Fear Breathers will be an elite force, delivering in person what before them will have been limited purely to artillery. This is as much due to the Kolvokian mindset as to the projected effect on enemy moral.

SIC: With the government policy on supersoldiers clear, the decision was made to instead focus on making the soldier's equipment equal or superior to that of the common enemy. There were several methods to this, from the new Modern Knight Armor, with a Type IV protection rating, to the Urban Warrior Wapon, actually capable of shooting around corners, with accuracy and rate of fire unparalled by previous Kolvokian weaponry, to the Man Portabale Anti Armor Weapon- nicknamed the Mawli after a fabled hero of enormous stength- and capable of bringing down buildings with a thermobaric rocket.

There were others, but these three were the main points of the Ftallen Brhala, or Fearsome Warrior project.

The MRL (Multiple Rocket Launcher) Satuator was a piece of rocket artillery designed primarily for counterbattery fire. As such, it is usually paired with the CBDV (see below), and an ammunition carrier.

The MRL is crewed by three men, a driver, a gunner, and a commander. It weighs in at 60,000 lbs. It is capable of firing it's entire payload of twenty-four rockets in a mere thirty seconds, though it generally only fires twelve at a time, to allow it to avoid enemy counterfire using the 'shoot and scoot' tactic.

In combination with this, common doctrine has an MRL group (an MRL, a CBDV, and an ammo carrier) operating individually, but with a great many MRL groups in the area.
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The MRL Satuator 2 (MRLS2) on the other hand, more lives up to the name. Moving at a piddly twenty miles an hour, it is designed to stand and fight, rather than shoot and scoot. Though its movement is slow, it's RoF is anything but, the massive rocket launchers being able to fire a rocket every three seconds as long as ammunition holds out. To prevent masses of these from becoming too tempting a target for enemy attacks, deployment is similar to that of the MRLS.
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The CBDV is a Counter Battery Detection Vehicle, outfitted with the latest in detection equipment to extrapolate the position of enemy artillery based on the trajectory of their shells. They are usually paired with artillery, although occasionally used seperately for intelligence gathering.

Paladin Delivery System-

The Paladin Delivery System was designed with exactly one purpose in mind. To insert a single, highly trained agent by a previously planned route, to perform a single mission immediately on landing. At the time of development, the considered uses were more or less suicidal missions to disrupt enemy artillery, to sabotage enemy rail lines, or to assassinate prominent members of enemy government.

This last was chosen for further development, eventually resulting in the V4 Paladin Delivery System. The V4 operates in four stages. The first stage, Launch and Flight, consists of a single unmanned (apart from the stage two pod, see below) space rocket being launched on a preplanned trajectory. The rocket is controlled from the ground in the event that it requires adjustment after launch.

The second stage is Initial Deployment. Once the Paladin Rocket is in position, it deploys the Paladin Insertion Pod, a ceramic pod, covered in heat shielding to protect from re-entry into the atmosphere. Along with the usual single manned pod (though provisions are made to launch multiple manned pods at once for unique situations) anywhere from one to ten decoy pods are simultaneously launched.

The third stage is Personal Deployment, in which the pod, generally several hundred feet above the ground at this point, slows abruptly either by deploying a parachute, or, for deployment in more or less even terrain, by use of rockets. As soon as it has slowed sufficiently, it launches the Paladin Soldier, who would be highly trained specifically for this mission.

The Paladin soldier, depending on the mission, would use a parachute or glide suit for the final descent. The system is capable of inserting a soldier in base gear, that is, a Modern Knight armored suit, an assault rifle, a pistol, a combat knife, and a sword, as well as more objective specific materials such as high explosives.

Of course, as the Kolvokian economy is still relatively small, only one Paladin System has to date been completed.