Layarteb
31-03-2007, 23:31
OOC: This is declaratory. I don't actually intend on activating it or using it and it isn't listed in my Earth II ORBATs.
Project APHOPHIS
Overview and History
In the summer of 1994, a year after the annexation of the Yucatán state, archeologists working at Chichén Itzá uncovered ancient documents dating to the years 666 BC, 57 AD, and 800 AD. These three documents detailed a peculiar history of Earth and its beginnings. It spoke of a crashed alien spaceship and a race called the Cerlons. Eventually the Anasazi arrived but mysteriously vanished just like the previous groups did. Much controversy erupted around the documents, especially around the "end of days," as described in them. The "end of days," is listed as December 23, 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ends. It spoke of a return of the Cerlons to reclaim the planet and to enslave the human race.
The documents were validated by many scientists around the world and invalidated by many others. Religion often drew the lines of the battle of the documents but, within the secret enclaves of the government, the documents were regarded as a warning to the future. It was surprised that, because these Cerlons had mastered space travel they would be unconquerable. The Tablets talked of a crashed spaceship, upon it which is written the texts of the Koran, Torah, Bible, the DNA genetic code, and other information about our current civilization. When the spaceship was discovered it sowed the rulings by the government to establish some sort of defense against this eventual invasion.
Originally, the project called for a Doomsday ship, which began construction, under the fullest veil of secrecy in late 1994 and was commissioned in 2000. However, scientists surmised that such a vessel, while it could eradicate up to 90% of the planet, would still leave pockets of areas alive, pockets that could survive and perhaps call for rescue. The purpose of Project APOPHIS was as a last-stand weapon, a weapon that would "salt" the Earth making it uninhabitable to anything, bacteria included. It would be used as a vengeance weapon against the invading alien race, hopefully killing them all. Such a system would go untested until the day it was used.
Since the Doomsday ship was not enough there was significant research into alternative methods of supplementing the massive "salting" device. The Doomsday ship was, essentially, a massive cobalt bomb coupled to eight, one hundred megaton thermonuclear warheads. It would salt up to 90% of the planet within 30 days of its destruction. This was found out to be insufficient. It would not act soon enough and was seen more as a long-term system. The need for a quick-acting denial system became a realization.
The focus for such a system initially focused on satellite systems, which could be hidden throughout the Earths' atmosphere. Initial theories put twenty-four such satellites into orbit, each armed with four missiles, each one equipped with cobalt "salting" warheads. However, the use of cobalt warheads was, initially, regarded as slightly effective. There was a need for something else, something more potent and more compact. Lead project designers shifted the focus then to the use of a biological weapon, far more effective than any others in existence. Such a weapon would have to be engineered to affect all forms of life, rather than just humans or monkeys or what not.
Research into such a biological weapon was already underway at a secret Umbrella Corporation facility at Raccoon City. Research had begun there in early 1985 after the establishment of the Empire and the completion of the Province of Layarteb. The biological weapons program in existence at the Umbrella Corporation yielded Cerebral Acute Fever in 1989, the premier biological weapon in existence within the Empire and the weapon of choice for covert actions using biological warfare. The program was initialed called ABWR, for "Advanced Biological Weapon Research" but it shed the acronym in 1987 for a project name, Project XIABALBA, the Mayan name for the underworld. The project received extra funding after 1989 and its successful debut of C.A.F., and its first use in late 1989 against guerillas in the Venezuelan jungles in the south turned out to be better than expected. In controlled tests in laboratory situations, with prisoners as test subjects, the biological weapon was more than desirable.
Scientists working on the use of a biological weapon deciphered that one single biological weapon would not be enough. The best weapon would be a concoction of various biological weapons that would attack various aspects of the planet at once. Several biological weapons were selected at first and many of them were useful but what effect they would have on an alien race was unknown.
Those selected were Anthrax, Avian flu, Botulinum toxin, C.A.F, Ebola, Encephalitis, Marburg, the Plague, Ricin, Rift Valley Fever, Smallpox, and Yellow Fever. All of those would be concocted into a single weapon but they wouldn't be enough. All of the viruses and toxins could be put together and attack powerfully but, still, there was a question about what their power could be against an alien race. Therefore, there was something that had to be created, something more.
When Arctic Fever was discovered in Huahinese territories seized for the Province of Dnalkrad in 2004, it was evaluated and added to the list of potent, deadly, and powerful viruses and toxins for the concoction. Still, there was more needed, something more powerful. The virus that they were working on had been first evaluated in 1993 and had been under development since then, eleven years earlier when Arctic Fever was discovered. The weapon had no name and was only referred to as the Apophis virus, because of its linkage to the program, which had been officially named in 1996, two years after its inception.
In 1998, as the program was showing some signs of hope, there was a second avenue explored, an avenue that would enhance the lethality of the weapon system. The exploration led to chemical weapons, particularly nerve agents, in addition to biological agents. Chemical agents could cause instant exposure and would not require the latency periods that a biological weapon required. For the seven to ten days that a biological weapon hosted itself in an organism's body, chemical weapons could provide. At the time, only three nerve agents were in existence in the Empire, those being Agent VX, Sarin, and Novichok, all powerful agents, the last being a deadly binary agent developed to circumvent the former two agents. Work began on a new binary nerve agent, which could be used instead of the other three. The agent was originally to be called "Agent LA," "L" standing for Layarteb and "A" standing for the first agent in the series, much as the V-series had been named and ordered. Agent LA combined the deadly powers of VX with a burning agent, which would, in effect, cause the skin to melt in addition to the effects of a nerve agent.
It would be able to attack both the organism's nervous system and its epidermis. When it was finally ready in 2005, it was put up for initial testing in Jay, Vermont, where it was dispersed from an air dropped freefall bomb. The weapon decimated the town and only forty-two of the four hundred and twenty-six residents of the town survived. The test served as pretenses for the Layartebian invasion of Quebec. Refinements to Agent LA guaranteed that its mortality rate would be one hundred percent, making it the instant-term effect of the weapon system, which now would have three tiers. The first tier would be the fast acting and powerful chemical agent, followed by the deadly effects of the virus, and it would conclude with the third and final tier, the Doomsday ship. All three systems, when combined, would be more than capable of annihilating any enemy, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.
Then, finally, in early 2007, the last element of the puzzle became a realization. Following the invasion and annexation of Ascension Island, a Visara Corporation medical research facility was discovered. The facility was used specifically for ethnic bioweapons and advanced biological weapons research. The facility was reopened and found documents and research projects and papers revealed a lot about the facility and what it was meant to create. It launched Umbrella's design team in a totally different direction and thus, a new weapon was created, harnessed, and grown, in just one month. On May 5, 2007, the new weapon was ready. It was called Metnal, named after the ninth level of the underworld, in Mayan mythology. Metnal is a place of eternal hell, ruled by the god Ah Puch or Hunhau, depending on the spelling. The goal of Metnal was to unleash eternal hell upon the Earth, along with the devastation that would be wrought by both Doomsday and Agent LA.
With the three elements completed, the delivery system was further explored. The satellite option was the best option and the entire delivery system would be code named Ah Puch, after the god. The satellites would unleash the eternal hell upon Earth and they would be the ultimate element, placed in erratic orbits over the Earth, higher than communications or military satellites, which would attract the most attention, especially by invaders.
Though the system reached initial operational capability with the commissioning of the Doomsday class, the first test of Metnal came on May 29, 2007. By June 15, the results were clear; the virus was a planet killer. Contained in laboratory conditions, the virus was almost uncontainable. With the delivery system ready, the system was declared fully operational on August 15, 2007, with the launch of the last of the twenty-four satellites. Project APOPHIS was ready…
Tier One
The first tier of APOPHIS is the quick-acting and hard-hitting chemical agent, Agent LA. Agent LA, specifically designed and engineered for APOPHIS combined the horrific effects of Agent VX and Novichok. With Agent VX, a quantity as little as 200 micrograms could kill an individual. With Agent LA, the lethality was increased to a mere 20 micrograms. In addition to it being a binary nerve agent, the chemical is also laced with a burning agent. Binary weapons are amongst the safest weapons, especially in terms of chemical weapons. In a binary weapon, the toxic agent is not active while it is inside the canister but rather spread into two chemical precursors, separated physically that mix when the weapon is released and armed. In Agent LA, there are actually three chemicals, the two precursors, and the burning agent, which enhances its capacity. The setup of the system is such that it mixes in flight and a bursting charge aerosolizes and distributes the chemical.
Nerve agents work by inhibiting the breakdown of acetylcholine, thereby causing nerve impulses to transmit continuously. As acetylcholine builds up in the synapse, nerve impulses are transmitted much more frequently and the result is a violent overload of the central nervous system. All such agents function the same way: by interrupting the breakdown of the neurotransmitters that signal muscles to contract, preventing them from relaxing. Initial symptoms following exposure to nerve agents are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim will then have difficulty breathing, and will experience nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of his or her bodily functions, he or she will involuntarily salivate, lachrymate, urinate, defecate and vomit ("SLUD" syndrome). This phase is followed by twitching and jerking, and ultimately the victim will become comatose and suffocate as a consequence of convulsive spasms. The effects of nerve agents are very long lasting and cumulative (increased successive exposures), and survivors of nerve agent poisoning almost invariably suffer chronic neurological damage.
Agent LA was specifically designed to be more capable than Agent VX and, in addition, to be able to circumvent antidotes taken to prevent VX from affecting the nervous system. Primarily, atropine sulfate and pralidoxime chloride are mixed together in an auto-injector and administered into either the thigh or buttocks. This solution works to block the acetylcholine receptors as well as neutralizing the nerve agent within the bloodstream. Both chemicals, when combined, can save a person's life, if administered within proper amounts of time. They can be mildly debilitating because atropine is, in its own right, poisonous.
Agent LA works by having a built-up immunity, so to speak, to these agents. While these agents can, in effect, slow the effects of Agent LA, because it is so much more deadly than Agent VX, it simply overwhelms the antidote's ability to do its job. The result is a very quick death, quicker than with Agent VX but significantly more violent. Because it is used to the same effect as Agent VX and in the same quantity, it provides 1000% more lethality.
In testing, Agent LA killed victims within sixty to ninety seconds of exposure. As neurotransmitters went into hyperactivity because of the nerve agent's effects, the burning agent goes to work, bubbling and melting the skin, causing severe hemorrhaging both internal and external. The victim eventually goes into shock and suffocates to death as the ultimate cause of death. The tests were initially done on rats, mice, cats, dogs, monkeys, and even horses. All of the animals died in horrific ways. The human testing was done on a group of 600 prisoners, all sentenced to death because of various crimes. They were exposed to the LD50 of the agent and, as verified by the quantity, only 50% of them died, the rest succumbing to injuries. On the remaining 300 victims, the dosage was increased to what would be experienced by the 300 people if they were exposed to it in the atmosphere. The final victim died eighty-two seconds after exposure, leaving all 600 eventually deceased by the agent.
http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Project%20Apophis/figure2.1.jpg
Figure 2-1
The delivery system is a simple canister inside of a reinforced, highly durable missile. The chemical system is a simple with three canisters. There are two, respective canisters containing the two precursors, each capable of holding up to 128 ounces (one gallon) of the precursor. They are pulled into the main chamber, which is already loaded with 28 ounces of the burning agent. The three chemicals are mixed in the central chamber, a process that takes thirty-seconds. Barometric sensors in the canister determine when to begin the mixing procedure, which finishes when the projectile is 24,000 feet from the surface. The canister is released from the missile and bursts at an altitude of 8,200 feet, where the line to the horizon is 118 miles. Though dependent on wind patterns, in still winds, the single canister can cover a circle with a diameter of 50 miles, covering 1,962.50 mi². With slight winds, this area can be expanded by up to 25% and with gentle winds it can be expanded as far as 50% more.
http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Project%20Apophis/figure2.2.jpg
Figure 2-2
The missile is low-drag and a very sleek system that is small. It is, in length, a total of eighty-four inches in length and eight inches in diameter. There are four guidance fins in the rear of the missile, which extend from forward of center, past the rear of the missile, optimized to create a wake in the rear of the missile, allowing it to be much more streamlined and capable of reaching a high terminal velocity. The wings add an additional six inches to each side, giving it a total wingspan of twenty inches. The cone and body of the missile, as well as the wings, are made of hafnium diboride, the same material used to construct re-entry warheads. Hafnium diboride is an ultra-high temperature ceramic. It has a melting temperature of about 5,882°F. It is an unusual ceramic, having relatively high thermal and electrical conductivities. It is a grey, metallic looking material. Hafnium diboride has a hexagonal crystal structure, a molar mass of 7.0586 ounces per mole, and a density of 655.4936 pounds per cubic foot. Unlike polymer and composite material, HfB2 can be formed into aerodynamic shapes that will not ablate during reentry. The terminal velocity of the system is set at 15,000 mph but because it is released from a satellite, it will only obtain a maximum velocity of 9,250 mph during its descent.
http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Project%20Apophis/figure2.3.jpg
Figure 2-3
The missile is guided by global positioning system (GPS). As far as the missile is laid out, the internals are very simple. At the front is the GPS guidance system, which controls the tail surfaces and the propulsion, which is a compact, gel-fueled propellant that can burn for a short amount of time, to provide maneuverability for the missile. The warhead section is composed of three canisters and the entire weight of the missile is two hundred pounds, most of the weight coming from the structure of the missile.
Tier Two
The second tier of APOPHIS is the biological weapon, Metnal. Developed with the knowledge that certain biological weapons only affect certain species, Metnal set out to break down the barriers between species' and attack all life forms. It is a variation on the poxvirus, which infects and attacks both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Smallpox, which is a poxvirus, is amongst the most contagious diseases; however, it only affects humans. Using extensive knowledge gained through the ethnic biological weapons program and from the Ascension Island facilities, as well as cross-species viruses, such as Avian Flu, Umbrella scientists were able to engineer a virus so deadly and so powerful that it was initially declared worse than Zaïre Ebolavirus, one of the deadliest viruses known to man.
Metnal attacks the body by going after the one element that sustains life, water. It has a relatively common incubation period, lasting between seven and ten days, during which time the virus attacks several systems within the body, focusing primarily on water absorption within the body. The incubation period manifests the initial symptoms that manifest themselves to be like general malaise rather than a serious illness. As the virus replicates itself, using the body's water supply, it inhibits absorption of water by the body. The virus supplies itself on water quantities within the body and, as dehydration sets in, the virus begins to die. However, the virus was engineered specifically with this in mind. The natural reaction to dehydration is to drink more water. Humans and animals together would have the same reaction, thereby providing more of a medium for the virus to replicate itself. The further the virus replicates, the less water is actually absorbed. In essence, the virus thrives on the natural reaction to drink more water during a dehydrated state, which would provide the virus with more material to replicate itself. Symptoms common to dehydration, such as headaches, hypotension, dizziness, and delirium manifest themselves as the body becomes increasingly dehydrated. As thirst levels increase, so does the severity of the symptoms, which combine with other symptoms as well.
While Metnal primarily attacks the ability of the body to absorb water, it attacks the immune system. Just as Ebola destroys the immune system in an explosive manner so does Metnal. Because they are highly complex viruses, the immune system has a significant inability to clear them from the body, causing it to overwork itself adding several other symptoms to the incubation period. Initial symptoms because of this are a high fever, which could start out low, around 100°F but increase steadily to over 103°F by the time the incubation period is over, putting further demand on the body for water. Headache pain increases and combines with both muscle and joint pain. The increase in diarrhea because of decreased water absorption adds abdominal pain. Nausea and dizziness already created by the lack of water within the body only increase in severity as the virus wears down the immune system. It does not; however, attack the individual organs within the body like Ebola does, which create tell-tale signs of a severe affliction. Therefore there is no internal bleeding nor is there blood in the organism's stool.
As the incubation period ends, dehydration has set in fully and the normal intake of a half of a gallon of water per day, minimum, to avoid dehydration is effectively quadrupled and over two gallons a day, minimum, are required to stave off the effects of dehydration, which is, effectively the maximum amount to completely avoid dehydration, on a normal basis.. However, because the virus uses body water to replicate itself, this figure continually increases exponentially. By the time the incubation period ends, even the most healthy human or animal will have very little left of their immune system and the overworking of their body will cause high levels of fatigue. Death can occur within four to seven days following the cessation of the incubation period, making even the healthiest humans dead within seventeen days. The size of an organism does not help its ability to survive the virus since the bigger that they are the more water is in their bodies, although it is a proportional quantity. However, the virus thrives on the quantity rather than the proportion of water to mass. Testing against large animals such as bears, horses, and cows saw death between seven and thirteen days. Against cats, dogs, mice, and other small animals, death came between ten and seventeen days. Against unhealthy humans, death came as quickly as five days and as long as fifteen days. Against healthy humans death was between ten and seventeen days. Against elephants, death was, surprisingly quick, between six and ten days, attributed to the amount of water within their bodies. Against aquatic animals, death was between three and five days, a byproduct of the increased amount of water in their system. Birds and other winged animals died in as little as eight days and as long as seventeen days.
In addition, the virus also hinges upon a fatal condition known as water intoxication. An average, healthy human can excrete 0.24 gallons per hour of water through two, healthy kidneys. Exceeding as little as 0.48 gallons in a single sitting, while maintaining a low-sodium diet, can prove to be fatal. On a normal diet, exceeding 0.79 gallons may prove fatal. As dehydration increases, so does a human or animals' demand for water increases. It is entirely possible to exceed these numbers in an uncontrolled environment. Though it is not likely that a person will die of water intoxication, it is entirely possible that an animal will, though numbers for animals is both the same and considerably different, depending on the type of animal.
Metnal, when combined with other viruses included in the cocktail can prove to be the fatal element to all forms of life, extraterrestrial included. Specific research into the type of extraterrestrial species listed in the documents discovered put them as a similar life form to humans except far more advance though, most likely, reliant on water to survive. Anthrax, Arctic Fever, Avian flu, Botulinum toxin, C.A.F, Ebola (all strains), Encephalitis, Marburg, the Plague, Ricin, Rift Valley Fever, Smallpox, and Yellow Fever would all be combined into a single cocktail and released, much in the same way that Agent LA is released. Though in separate containers, the virus spores and samples are kept frozen and inactive while in storage and only brought to life when the weapon is released. During its descent into the atmosphere, barometric triggers go to work to ready the virus. The canisters air burst at altitudes between 3,000 and 15,000 feet, depending on the air temperature and humidity readings. While Metnal can survive in extreme cold, like Arctic Fever, most of the other viruses cannot and renders the system less effective in areas in extreme north and south latitudes.
Tier Three
The third tier of APOPHIS is the most costly and most deadly. It centers on a massive thermonuclear bomb that is mated to a cobalt salting system. Within thirty days of the detonation of this weapon system, over 90% of the planet will be rendered uninhabitable by any forms of life, cockroaches included. It is considered the final and most catastrophic tier of the system and is also the most dangerous. The third tier revolves around a single naval vessel, a classified ship that resembles a signals processing ship than a doomsday device. Ironically, its class name is Doomsday and it signifies what it would usher onto the planet.
http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Project%20Apophis/figure4.1.jpg
Figure 4-1
The Doomsday class ship is an 80,000 ton ship that is 692.90 feet long. It has a beam of 90.90 feet and a draft of 42.20 feet, making it a deep-water vessel only. This is done purposely and, it maintains a constant patrol. Powered by two SNR-3 fission reactors, each capable of generating one hundred and eighty-seven megawatts of power, the vessel remains at sea for three hundred and sixty-five days per year and is staffed by two separate crews. Each crew serves six months on the ship and they are members of the 12th Black Operations Group, "Force Engel." Highly trained and capable sailors, they are all kept to a strict sense of security and secrecy. They are highly loyal and a very tight-knit group. Every six months, ten officers, one hundred and eighty sailors, and twenty-two members of the flight crew are flown out to the vessel and board it. The other crew returns home for six months of vacation, so to speak, though they undergo constant training and readiness tests.
The vessel is capable of driving thirty-five knots in a sprint but can only maintain thirty-two knots in a cruise and ten knots to remain tactically silent. There are four shafts driving the vessel and five rudders to steer it, giving it an extremely high degree of maneuverability, for such a large and heavy vessel. The vessel can survive one hundred and eighty-five days without replenishment and thirty-two years without refueling. Replenishment is scheduled for six month intervals, slated to occur during the halfway point of each crew's cruise. Replenishment comes from both sea vessels and aircraft.
The vessel maintains four, rotary-winged aircraft at all times. They are stored inside of a hangar to ensure that the vessel does not appear to be military in origin. The four aircraft include one MH-60R Sea Hawk for anti-submarine warfare, one MH-60S Knight Hawk for search-and-rescue, and two RQ-8C Fire Scouts, unmanned aerial vehicles that assist with over-the-horizon targeting, detection, and surveillance. As such, it is an armed vessel and Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedoes, AGM-114 Hellfire II, and AGM-177 Brimstone missiles are kept available for the Sea Hawk as well as AIM-186 Wizard, 2.75" Adder, and AGM-187 Firefly missiles, for use by the Fire Scouts. The vessel is also equipped with various weapons of its own, all of which are carefully concealed.
For short-range and low-powered fire, the vessel sports eight M50A2 12.7x99 millimeter heavy machine guns, each loaded with two hundred and fifty rounds, at the ready. Each gun also has twenty-seven hundred and fifty rounds stowed away in eleven magazines. This gives it a total quantity of twenty-four thousand 12.7x99 millimeter shells, a mix of armor piercing-incendiary and saboted, light-armor penetrator rounds. At ranges of five hundred meters, the latter rounds can punch through thirty-four millimeters of armor and at twelve hundred meters they can punch through twenty-three millimeters. The armor piercing rounds can pierce through twenty millimeters at five hundred meters and ten at twelve hundred meters.
The main thrust of the self-defense weapons of the vessel revolve around a single, ninety-six cell vertical launch system, hidden beneath a retractable covering in the aft of the vessel. A standard load out is ninety-six RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles for medium range air defense in twenty-four cells, thirty RIM-188 Crow missiles for long range air defense in thirty cells, two RSM-214 Seraph missiles for anti-satellite protection in two cells, sixteen RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles for anti-submarine warfare in sixteen cells, and twenty-four RGM-203 Imsdal cruise missiles for anti-surface defense in the last twenty-four cells. The RUM-139s carried feature the Mark 50 Mod 2 torpedo and the RGM-203s carried are carried with two variants. The first variant, the "A" variant is equipped with a powerful, twelve hundred pound penetrator warhead and the "C" variant is equipped with an equally deadly blast fragmentation warhead.
The RIM-162B Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile is an advanced, medium-range surface-to-air missile developed from the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow. It has a range envelope between a half of a mile and forty-five miles, a ceiling envelope between forty and one hundred and twenty thousand feet. Weighing six hundred and sixty pounds, the twelve foot long by ten inch wide missile can go as fast as Mach 4.8. Powered by a gel-fueled rocket, like most Layartebian weapon systems, the missile achieves unprecedented agility through thrust vectoring and a highly capable and powerful guidance system designated the WGU-114E. The guidance system is bi-mode using both active radar and imaging infrared. It features home-on-jam and datalink capabilities and can be used to lock-on after launch and in roles where it is guided by the anti-stealth system employed throughout the Empire. To achieve its maximum range, the missile uses a lofted trajectory to forty-thousand feet or twenty-thousand feet above the target. Its powerful one hundred and ninety-eight pound blast fragmentation warhead can destroy aircraft and cruise missiles in a single blow.
The RIM-188E Crow is a derivative of the land-based Crow missile. It is extremely long range and can be used against surface and aerial targets alike. Equipped with a kinetic energy warhead backed by a three hundred pound blast fragmentation warhead, the Crow can destroy any aircraft in a single strike and render many ground targets completely inoperable. The eighteen foot long by one foot wide missile is supplemented by a three and a half foot long booster that allows it to achieve a loft altitude of one hundred and twenty thousand feet in the most extreme cases. It weighs forty-six hundred pounds and is a four stage system. The first stage is the booster, the second being the initial missile engine, which propels it to Mach 5. The second phase is a sustainer phase and the final phase is the kill phase, which slams into its target at Mach 6. It has a minimum range of one mile and a maximum range of three hundred and fifty-miles against aircraft and three hundred and seventy-five miles against surface targets. The booster and rocket engines are gel-fueled. Guidance is provided by a multimode seeker, the WGU-103A, which is equipped with imaging infrared, active radar, passive radar, and millimetric wave radar sensors. The four main modes allow the missile to operate in any jamming environment. It features home-on-jam, satellite uplink, datalink, anti-stealth uplink, and lock-on after launch capabilities. It can be used against all forms of aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, and even against light shipping such as patrol boats. It can also be employed against land targets such as radar sites, anti-aircraft sites, missile launch sites, and other tactical targets. The missile lacks significant penetration capabilities, rendering it harmless against bunkers and most hardened structures.
The RSM-214A Seraph is a unique, anti-satellite missile, designed specifically to counter weapon's satellites that might be equipped with missiles or artillery. The twenty-two inch wide and fifteen and a half foot long missile is supplemented by a six foot long booster that allows the missile to get to one hundred and twenty thousand feet. Its second stage, the ascent stage, brings the missile into low Earth orbit (LEO) and the intercept stage brings the missile to within sixty to one hundred and twenty miles from the target. The terminal phase intercepts the target with a powerful blast fragmentation warhead, a giant Claymore, equipped with eighteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-five spheres of depleted uranium, each ten millimeters in diameter. This is just a scaled down warhead from the RGM-203C Imsdal. With a ceiling of eight hundred miles and a maximum range of four hundred miles, the Seraph can engage just about anything within a large radius of the launching platform. It is guided by the WGU-115A, which uses millimetric wave radar and imaging infrared coupled with a datalink capability and a home-on-jam capability, to be used if satellites are equipped with electronic jamming devices. It achieves interception at Mach 10.5 and its projectiles move at speeds in excess of Mach 15.
The RUM-139D VL-ASROC is a vertical launch ASROC missile, which dates back, in its earliest days, to the RUR-5 ASROC, developed in the 1950s. The principle is to put an unguided missile into the air and have it drop a torpedo into the water. This would allow the range of a torpedo to be significantly increased and allow the weapon system to achieve a surprise factor, especially since the torpedo signal would not be coming from the direction or location of the vessel. The RUM-139D is simply a modification to allow for vertical launch and employment of the Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedo, with a maximum range of twenty-four nautical miles at thirty-five knots and fifteen nautical miles at sixty knots, its top speed. With a maximum depth of three thousand feet, the Mod 2 torpedo and its 150 pound Arckell plastic explosive warhead can destroy most submarines with one hit and severely damage medium-sized surface targets with a single hit. With the VL-ASROC, it can add an additional fifteen nautical miles of range.
The RGM-203 Imsdal is a cruise missile that was designed to replace the subsonic but highly accurate Tomahawk missiles. It is powered by a scramjet engine and weighs thirty-seven hundred pounds. It is twenty-one feet and four inches long, and twenty-six inches wide. It has a range envelope between thirty-five and one thousand miles and a ceiling of one hundred and fifty thousand feet. Guidance is provided by the WGU-93A, which uses millimetric wave radar and imaging infrared, coupled with a HARM sensor, for anti-radiation operations. It also features home-on-jam capability, datalink, satellite uplink, and GPS. Its guidance system can put it within a few feet of its intended impact point and it has double the penetration of the GBU-28/B Paveway III bomb. It has seven warhead options. The "A" version features a twelve hundred pound penetrator warhead. The "B" version carries two hundred and forty BLU-123 Improved Incendiary Submunitions (IISM). These are five pound canisters that contain 4.6 pounds of incendiary substance, whether it is napalm, white phosphorous, or thermate-TH3. Each submunition can cover an area two hundred feet across and the weapon carries two hundred and forty of them. The "C" version is optimized for fragmentation. The warhead's primary attack device is fifty-eight thousand, eight-hundred and twenty-five depleted uranium spheres, ten millimeters in diameter. All of this is packed within Arckell plastic explosives, giving it a total weight of twelve hundred pounds. The explosion can pepper an area almost one million square feet in size with the projectiles, each moving at over Mach 10. The "D" version is another submunition variant with nine hundred and twenty M74 APAM submunitions, used in the MLRS rockets. They can cover three hundred and sixty thousand square feet. The "E" version features a low-yield fission warhead, optimized for clean radiation and high-altitude detonation, to create an electromagnetic pulse strike (EMP). The explosive yield is one hundred kilotons. The "F" version features a fusion warhead, clean, for strike purposes. It is three hundred and fifty kilotons and is meant to be used against deeply buried targets. Lastly, the "G" version features a twelve hundred pound thermobaric warhead, capable of destroying almost any structure, including underground ones. The Imsdal features a powerful impact velocity of Mach 7, due to its scramjet engine, providing 4,517.476 megajoules of energy at impact.
Additional defense of the ship is provided by thirty-two RGM-205 Advanced Multi-Environment Strike Missiles (AMESM) loaded into eight quad-launchers. Primarily to be used against ships, the missile can be used against land targets as well and serves a dual purpose that both the Harpoon and the SLAM could not fill individually. It replaces that missile and is powered by a supersonic, gel-fueled engine capable of providing an impact speed of Mach 3.8. With a range envelope of ten to two hundred and forty miles, the missile can engage targets well over the horizon and its WGU-94A guidance system provides an imaging infrared seeker that is coupled to a target database that is preloaded based on the ships' sensor readings. As the missile comes over the horizon, it recalculates its database and targets the appropriate ship or target. It is equipped with a datalink system and a GPS device, giving it unparalleled accuracy. The missile can attack with a waterline strike against a surface vessel or a pop-up and dive maneuver, which the Harpoon pioneered. It achieves triple the penetration that the Harpoon and SLAM achieved. Its warhead is an eight hundred pound blast-fragmentation warhead that makes its weight of seventeen hundred pounds heavier than the Harpoon and SLAM. With a diameter of thirteen and a half inches and a length of fourteen feet, the missile is relatively small though it features a one foot and two inch booster that allows it to takeoff from the vessel and get up to speed.
Further defense is provided by four, forward torpedo tubes, each with a diameter of three hundred and twenty-four millimeters. It is equipped with thirty-six Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedoes. Defense against missiles is provided by eight Mark 203 Phalanx II 15.5 millimeter CIWS guns, similar to the Phalanx 20 millimeter CIWS but much more advanced. Smaller bullets were chosen to give the weapon system an increased ammunition capacity. To destroy an incoming missile, a 20 millimeter shell is highly effective but, perhaps, too big. Each gun has two thousand rounds ready with another eighteen thousand stowed in nine canisters. It has an effective range of eight thousand yards and uses imaging infrared and millimetric wave radar to target against missiles. It can fire up to six thousand rounds per minute. There are two systems facing forward, two facing aft, and two facing each port and starboard. They are concealed carefully along with four RIM-116B Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) mounts, each mount holding twenty-one missiles. Modeled after both the Sidewinder and the Stinger, the RAM uses a very advanced imaging infrared seeker, coupled to a passive radio and datalink and anti-stealth uplink capabilities to drive the missile into an incoming target. It is effective against both aircraft and missiles and has a range envelope of up to seven and a half miles and a ceiling of twenty thousand feet. The nine foot, 3 inch long by five in wide, one hundred and seventy pound missile features a twenty pound blast-fragmentation warhead and is highly effective against heavy, hypersonic cruise missiles. There are also six FIM-186A Wizard MANPAD launchers with twenty rounds stowed throughout the ship for extreme, close-range defense.
The Doomsday class is a highly capable warship but its defensive systems are just one half of its weapons' capabilities. There is, also, the offensive weapon, the massive thermonuclear weapon. Initial powerful for the weapon is provided by eight, W-109 Mod 2 warheads, each with a yield of one hundred megatons. Unlike the W-109 Mod 1 warhead, which is very clean, the Mod 2 is an enhanced radiation device. In addition, it is tied to a cache of two hundred and fifty tons of cobalt-59 and various other elements throughout the ship, including depleted uranium armor plating and the two nuclear reactors. The cobalt-59 core is the primary "salting" device and when it is used in a nuclear device it creates cobalt-60, a strong emitter of gamma rays as it undergoes beta decay. With a half-life of 5.27 years the decay is intensely radioactive. One gram of 60Co contains approximately fifty curies (1.85 terabecquerels) of radioactivity. Held at close range, this amount of cobalt-60 would irradiate a person with approximately 0.5 gray of ionizing radiation per minute. A full body dose of approximately three to four sieverts would kill 50% of the population in thirty days, and could be accumulated in just a few minutes of exposure to a gram of 60Co. Smaller amounts of 60Co would take longer to kill, but would be effective over a large area. Two hundred and fifty tons is equal to 254,011.7 kilograms, enough to salt the entire planet in just thirty days.
It is, ultimately, this tier that would destroy the planet for further life for tens of thousands of years, killing, primarily, the initial invaders. Coupled with the other two tiers, within thirty days of its usage, it could do more devastation than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.
The Apophis System and the Effects
By themselves, the three tiers of the Apophis system are deadly but ineffective to do what their stated goal is. Together, they are beyond capable and can render the entire planet uninhabitable within just thirty days, with the worst volume of casualties coming in the first two weeks. The entire system is deployed in two locations. The third tier is constantly afloat in the oceans of the world while the first and second are deployed to twenty-four satellites. While inactive, the satellites are placed in a Tundra orbit, having an inclination of 63.4° and an orbital period of one sidereal day, or almost twenty-four hours. Due to apogee dwell, the satellite can maintain a position over a single spot of the Earth while in a High Earth Orbit. It maintains an altitude of around 35,786 kilometers or 22,240 miles.
When the system is deployed to armed status, the satellites drop immediately to a Low Earth Orbit of around 1,500 kilometers or 932 miles. Once the twenty-four satellites are in place, their payloads are released. The system is set so that the third tier explodes at the same time that the deployable canisters of the first and second tiers explode.
Within one hour from the detonation of all three systems, it is estimated that approximately 5% of the worlds' population of humans and animals will be dead. Radiation will begin to spread into the prevailing winds of the atmosphere, where it will be taken throughout the world. The explosion of the ship will irradiate the waters around it for hundreds of miles causing almost instant death to any animal or human within its zone. The force of the explosion of the third tier is equivalent to over 800 megatons, is sufficient enough to destroy anything within a radius of almost 113 miles and cause significant damage for hundreds of miles outwards from its epicenter. Cobalt radiation will salt everything immediately upon the explosion and longer lasting radiation will spread into the atmosphere.
Approximately six hours after the detonation, the radiation will be making its way throughout the winds of the world and it is estimated that the massive mushroom cloud will begin to dissipate, though radiation will still be poured into the atmosphere. The effects of the chemical weapon will be largely subsiding but the death toll will possibly reach 10%. Effects from the biological weapon won't be felt for at least another week.
One day after the detonation, radiation will begin to blanket most regions of the world and the chemical weapon will be largely negated. The biological weapon will be entirely absorbed into its prey except for what traces linger on plant life and terrain, though these traces can be deadly if eaten. The virus, which is airborne, will begin to set into its hosts and begin its killing process. Approximately 15 – 20% of the population will be dead.
One week after the detonation, radiation will have effectively blanketed each and every part of the world with deadly amounts. Cobalt salting will begin to thoroughly kill plant and animal life and the Earth will begin to be turned into a barren oasis of dirt of water that is so highly contaminated that all forms of life cease to exist within its medium. Approximately 25 – 35% of the population will be dead. The virus will begin to attack its victims.
Two weeks after the detonation, approximately 60 – 75% of the population will be dead. Radiation will have salted into every crevice of the planet and the virus will have effectively killed almost all of its hosts. By day seventeen, the virus will have killed all of its hosts. Only those animals and humans, which did not become infected with the virus, will have survived.
Three weeks after the detonation, approximately 80 – 90% of the population will be dead. Radiation will have killed almost all planet and animal life on the planet, including aquatic life. Little will still be alive.
Four weeks after detonation, the entire planet will become uninhabitable due to the effects of the Apophis System. It shall remain uninhabitable for in excess of 1,000 to 10,000 years, depending on the location. Even the most remote places on Earth will not be able to support any life for 1,000 years, a byproduct of the cobalt salting within the radiation.
Project APHOPHIS
Overview and History
In the summer of 1994, a year after the annexation of the Yucatán state, archeologists working at Chichén Itzá uncovered ancient documents dating to the years 666 BC, 57 AD, and 800 AD. These three documents detailed a peculiar history of Earth and its beginnings. It spoke of a crashed alien spaceship and a race called the Cerlons. Eventually the Anasazi arrived but mysteriously vanished just like the previous groups did. Much controversy erupted around the documents, especially around the "end of days," as described in them. The "end of days," is listed as December 23, 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ends. It spoke of a return of the Cerlons to reclaim the planet and to enslave the human race.
The documents were validated by many scientists around the world and invalidated by many others. Religion often drew the lines of the battle of the documents but, within the secret enclaves of the government, the documents were regarded as a warning to the future. It was surprised that, because these Cerlons had mastered space travel they would be unconquerable. The Tablets talked of a crashed spaceship, upon it which is written the texts of the Koran, Torah, Bible, the DNA genetic code, and other information about our current civilization. When the spaceship was discovered it sowed the rulings by the government to establish some sort of defense against this eventual invasion.
Originally, the project called for a Doomsday ship, which began construction, under the fullest veil of secrecy in late 1994 and was commissioned in 2000. However, scientists surmised that such a vessel, while it could eradicate up to 90% of the planet, would still leave pockets of areas alive, pockets that could survive and perhaps call for rescue. The purpose of Project APOPHIS was as a last-stand weapon, a weapon that would "salt" the Earth making it uninhabitable to anything, bacteria included. It would be used as a vengeance weapon against the invading alien race, hopefully killing them all. Such a system would go untested until the day it was used.
Since the Doomsday ship was not enough there was significant research into alternative methods of supplementing the massive "salting" device. The Doomsday ship was, essentially, a massive cobalt bomb coupled to eight, one hundred megaton thermonuclear warheads. It would salt up to 90% of the planet within 30 days of its destruction. This was found out to be insufficient. It would not act soon enough and was seen more as a long-term system. The need for a quick-acting denial system became a realization.
The focus for such a system initially focused on satellite systems, which could be hidden throughout the Earths' atmosphere. Initial theories put twenty-four such satellites into orbit, each armed with four missiles, each one equipped with cobalt "salting" warheads. However, the use of cobalt warheads was, initially, regarded as slightly effective. There was a need for something else, something more potent and more compact. Lead project designers shifted the focus then to the use of a biological weapon, far more effective than any others in existence. Such a weapon would have to be engineered to affect all forms of life, rather than just humans or monkeys or what not.
Research into such a biological weapon was already underway at a secret Umbrella Corporation facility at Raccoon City. Research had begun there in early 1985 after the establishment of the Empire and the completion of the Province of Layarteb. The biological weapons program in existence at the Umbrella Corporation yielded Cerebral Acute Fever in 1989, the premier biological weapon in existence within the Empire and the weapon of choice for covert actions using biological warfare. The program was initialed called ABWR, for "Advanced Biological Weapon Research" but it shed the acronym in 1987 for a project name, Project XIABALBA, the Mayan name for the underworld. The project received extra funding after 1989 and its successful debut of C.A.F., and its first use in late 1989 against guerillas in the Venezuelan jungles in the south turned out to be better than expected. In controlled tests in laboratory situations, with prisoners as test subjects, the biological weapon was more than desirable.
Scientists working on the use of a biological weapon deciphered that one single biological weapon would not be enough. The best weapon would be a concoction of various biological weapons that would attack various aspects of the planet at once. Several biological weapons were selected at first and many of them were useful but what effect they would have on an alien race was unknown.
Those selected were Anthrax, Avian flu, Botulinum toxin, C.A.F, Ebola, Encephalitis, Marburg, the Plague, Ricin, Rift Valley Fever, Smallpox, and Yellow Fever. All of those would be concocted into a single weapon but they wouldn't be enough. All of the viruses and toxins could be put together and attack powerfully but, still, there was a question about what their power could be against an alien race. Therefore, there was something that had to be created, something more.
When Arctic Fever was discovered in Huahinese territories seized for the Province of Dnalkrad in 2004, it was evaluated and added to the list of potent, deadly, and powerful viruses and toxins for the concoction. Still, there was more needed, something more powerful. The virus that they were working on had been first evaluated in 1993 and had been under development since then, eleven years earlier when Arctic Fever was discovered. The weapon had no name and was only referred to as the Apophis virus, because of its linkage to the program, which had been officially named in 1996, two years after its inception.
In 1998, as the program was showing some signs of hope, there was a second avenue explored, an avenue that would enhance the lethality of the weapon system. The exploration led to chemical weapons, particularly nerve agents, in addition to biological agents. Chemical agents could cause instant exposure and would not require the latency periods that a biological weapon required. For the seven to ten days that a biological weapon hosted itself in an organism's body, chemical weapons could provide. At the time, only three nerve agents were in existence in the Empire, those being Agent VX, Sarin, and Novichok, all powerful agents, the last being a deadly binary agent developed to circumvent the former two agents. Work began on a new binary nerve agent, which could be used instead of the other three. The agent was originally to be called "Agent LA," "L" standing for Layarteb and "A" standing for the first agent in the series, much as the V-series had been named and ordered. Agent LA combined the deadly powers of VX with a burning agent, which would, in effect, cause the skin to melt in addition to the effects of a nerve agent.
It would be able to attack both the organism's nervous system and its epidermis. When it was finally ready in 2005, it was put up for initial testing in Jay, Vermont, where it was dispersed from an air dropped freefall bomb. The weapon decimated the town and only forty-two of the four hundred and twenty-six residents of the town survived. The test served as pretenses for the Layartebian invasion of Quebec. Refinements to Agent LA guaranteed that its mortality rate would be one hundred percent, making it the instant-term effect of the weapon system, which now would have three tiers. The first tier would be the fast acting and powerful chemical agent, followed by the deadly effects of the virus, and it would conclude with the third and final tier, the Doomsday ship. All three systems, when combined, would be more than capable of annihilating any enemy, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.
Then, finally, in early 2007, the last element of the puzzle became a realization. Following the invasion and annexation of Ascension Island, a Visara Corporation medical research facility was discovered. The facility was used specifically for ethnic bioweapons and advanced biological weapons research. The facility was reopened and found documents and research projects and papers revealed a lot about the facility and what it was meant to create. It launched Umbrella's design team in a totally different direction and thus, a new weapon was created, harnessed, and grown, in just one month. On May 5, 2007, the new weapon was ready. It was called Metnal, named after the ninth level of the underworld, in Mayan mythology. Metnal is a place of eternal hell, ruled by the god Ah Puch or Hunhau, depending on the spelling. The goal of Metnal was to unleash eternal hell upon the Earth, along with the devastation that would be wrought by both Doomsday and Agent LA.
With the three elements completed, the delivery system was further explored. The satellite option was the best option and the entire delivery system would be code named Ah Puch, after the god. The satellites would unleash the eternal hell upon Earth and they would be the ultimate element, placed in erratic orbits over the Earth, higher than communications or military satellites, which would attract the most attention, especially by invaders.
Though the system reached initial operational capability with the commissioning of the Doomsday class, the first test of Metnal came on May 29, 2007. By June 15, the results were clear; the virus was a planet killer. Contained in laboratory conditions, the virus was almost uncontainable. With the delivery system ready, the system was declared fully operational on August 15, 2007, with the launch of the last of the twenty-four satellites. Project APOPHIS was ready…
Tier One
The first tier of APOPHIS is the quick-acting and hard-hitting chemical agent, Agent LA. Agent LA, specifically designed and engineered for APOPHIS combined the horrific effects of Agent VX and Novichok. With Agent VX, a quantity as little as 200 micrograms could kill an individual. With Agent LA, the lethality was increased to a mere 20 micrograms. In addition to it being a binary nerve agent, the chemical is also laced with a burning agent. Binary weapons are amongst the safest weapons, especially in terms of chemical weapons. In a binary weapon, the toxic agent is not active while it is inside the canister but rather spread into two chemical precursors, separated physically that mix when the weapon is released and armed. In Agent LA, there are actually three chemicals, the two precursors, and the burning agent, which enhances its capacity. The setup of the system is such that it mixes in flight and a bursting charge aerosolizes and distributes the chemical.
Nerve agents work by inhibiting the breakdown of acetylcholine, thereby causing nerve impulses to transmit continuously. As acetylcholine builds up in the synapse, nerve impulses are transmitted much more frequently and the result is a violent overload of the central nervous system. All such agents function the same way: by interrupting the breakdown of the neurotransmitters that signal muscles to contract, preventing them from relaxing. Initial symptoms following exposure to nerve agents are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim will then have difficulty breathing, and will experience nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of his or her bodily functions, he or she will involuntarily salivate, lachrymate, urinate, defecate and vomit ("SLUD" syndrome). This phase is followed by twitching and jerking, and ultimately the victim will become comatose and suffocate as a consequence of convulsive spasms. The effects of nerve agents are very long lasting and cumulative (increased successive exposures), and survivors of nerve agent poisoning almost invariably suffer chronic neurological damage.
Agent LA was specifically designed to be more capable than Agent VX and, in addition, to be able to circumvent antidotes taken to prevent VX from affecting the nervous system. Primarily, atropine sulfate and pralidoxime chloride are mixed together in an auto-injector and administered into either the thigh or buttocks. This solution works to block the acetylcholine receptors as well as neutralizing the nerve agent within the bloodstream. Both chemicals, when combined, can save a person's life, if administered within proper amounts of time. They can be mildly debilitating because atropine is, in its own right, poisonous.
Agent LA works by having a built-up immunity, so to speak, to these agents. While these agents can, in effect, slow the effects of Agent LA, because it is so much more deadly than Agent VX, it simply overwhelms the antidote's ability to do its job. The result is a very quick death, quicker than with Agent VX but significantly more violent. Because it is used to the same effect as Agent VX and in the same quantity, it provides 1000% more lethality.
In testing, Agent LA killed victims within sixty to ninety seconds of exposure. As neurotransmitters went into hyperactivity because of the nerve agent's effects, the burning agent goes to work, bubbling and melting the skin, causing severe hemorrhaging both internal and external. The victim eventually goes into shock and suffocates to death as the ultimate cause of death. The tests were initially done on rats, mice, cats, dogs, monkeys, and even horses. All of the animals died in horrific ways. The human testing was done on a group of 600 prisoners, all sentenced to death because of various crimes. They were exposed to the LD50 of the agent and, as verified by the quantity, only 50% of them died, the rest succumbing to injuries. On the remaining 300 victims, the dosage was increased to what would be experienced by the 300 people if they were exposed to it in the atmosphere. The final victim died eighty-two seconds after exposure, leaving all 600 eventually deceased by the agent.
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Figure 2-1
The delivery system is a simple canister inside of a reinforced, highly durable missile. The chemical system is a simple with three canisters. There are two, respective canisters containing the two precursors, each capable of holding up to 128 ounces (one gallon) of the precursor. They are pulled into the main chamber, which is already loaded with 28 ounces of the burning agent. The three chemicals are mixed in the central chamber, a process that takes thirty-seconds. Barometric sensors in the canister determine when to begin the mixing procedure, which finishes when the projectile is 24,000 feet from the surface. The canister is released from the missile and bursts at an altitude of 8,200 feet, where the line to the horizon is 118 miles. Though dependent on wind patterns, in still winds, the single canister can cover a circle with a diameter of 50 miles, covering 1,962.50 mi². With slight winds, this area can be expanded by up to 25% and with gentle winds it can be expanded as far as 50% more.
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Figure 2-2
The missile is low-drag and a very sleek system that is small. It is, in length, a total of eighty-four inches in length and eight inches in diameter. There are four guidance fins in the rear of the missile, which extend from forward of center, past the rear of the missile, optimized to create a wake in the rear of the missile, allowing it to be much more streamlined and capable of reaching a high terminal velocity. The wings add an additional six inches to each side, giving it a total wingspan of twenty inches. The cone and body of the missile, as well as the wings, are made of hafnium diboride, the same material used to construct re-entry warheads. Hafnium diboride is an ultra-high temperature ceramic. It has a melting temperature of about 5,882°F. It is an unusual ceramic, having relatively high thermal and electrical conductivities. It is a grey, metallic looking material. Hafnium diboride has a hexagonal crystal structure, a molar mass of 7.0586 ounces per mole, and a density of 655.4936 pounds per cubic foot. Unlike polymer and composite material, HfB2 can be formed into aerodynamic shapes that will not ablate during reentry. The terminal velocity of the system is set at 15,000 mph but because it is released from a satellite, it will only obtain a maximum velocity of 9,250 mph during its descent.
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Figure 2-3
The missile is guided by global positioning system (GPS). As far as the missile is laid out, the internals are very simple. At the front is the GPS guidance system, which controls the tail surfaces and the propulsion, which is a compact, gel-fueled propellant that can burn for a short amount of time, to provide maneuverability for the missile. The warhead section is composed of three canisters and the entire weight of the missile is two hundred pounds, most of the weight coming from the structure of the missile.
Tier Two
The second tier of APOPHIS is the biological weapon, Metnal. Developed with the knowledge that certain biological weapons only affect certain species, Metnal set out to break down the barriers between species' and attack all life forms. It is a variation on the poxvirus, which infects and attacks both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Smallpox, which is a poxvirus, is amongst the most contagious diseases; however, it only affects humans. Using extensive knowledge gained through the ethnic biological weapons program and from the Ascension Island facilities, as well as cross-species viruses, such as Avian Flu, Umbrella scientists were able to engineer a virus so deadly and so powerful that it was initially declared worse than Zaïre Ebolavirus, one of the deadliest viruses known to man.
Metnal attacks the body by going after the one element that sustains life, water. It has a relatively common incubation period, lasting between seven and ten days, during which time the virus attacks several systems within the body, focusing primarily on water absorption within the body. The incubation period manifests the initial symptoms that manifest themselves to be like general malaise rather than a serious illness. As the virus replicates itself, using the body's water supply, it inhibits absorption of water by the body. The virus supplies itself on water quantities within the body and, as dehydration sets in, the virus begins to die. However, the virus was engineered specifically with this in mind. The natural reaction to dehydration is to drink more water. Humans and animals together would have the same reaction, thereby providing more of a medium for the virus to replicate itself. The further the virus replicates, the less water is actually absorbed. In essence, the virus thrives on the natural reaction to drink more water during a dehydrated state, which would provide the virus with more material to replicate itself. Symptoms common to dehydration, such as headaches, hypotension, dizziness, and delirium manifest themselves as the body becomes increasingly dehydrated. As thirst levels increase, so does the severity of the symptoms, which combine with other symptoms as well.
While Metnal primarily attacks the ability of the body to absorb water, it attacks the immune system. Just as Ebola destroys the immune system in an explosive manner so does Metnal. Because they are highly complex viruses, the immune system has a significant inability to clear them from the body, causing it to overwork itself adding several other symptoms to the incubation period. Initial symptoms because of this are a high fever, which could start out low, around 100°F but increase steadily to over 103°F by the time the incubation period is over, putting further demand on the body for water. Headache pain increases and combines with both muscle and joint pain. The increase in diarrhea because of decreased water absorption adds abdominal pain. Nausea and dizziness already created by the lack of water within the body only increase in severity as the virus wears down the immune system. It does not; however, attack the individual organs within the body like Ebola does, which create tell-tale signs of a severe affliction. Therefore there is no internal bleeding nor is there blood in the organism's stool.
As the incubation period ends, dehydration has set in fully and the normal intake of a half of a gallon of water per day, minimum, to avoid dehydration is effectively quadrupled and over two gallons a day, minimum, are required to stave off the effects of dehydration, which is, effectively the maximum amount to completely avoid dehydration, on a normal basis.. However, because the virus uses body water to replicate itself, this figure continually increases exponentially. By the time the incubation period ends, even the most healthy human or animal will have very little left of their immune system and the overworking of their body will cause high levels of fatigue. Death can occur within four to seven days following the cessation of the incubation period, making even the healthiest humans dead within seventeen days. The size of an organism does not help its ability to survive the virus since the bigger that they are the more water is in their bodies, although it is a proportional quantity. However, the virus thrives on the quantity rather than the proportion of water to mass. Testing against large animals such as bears, horses, and cows saw death between seven and thirteen days. Against cats, dogs, mice, and other small animals, death came between ten and seventeen days. Against unhealthy humans, death came as quickly as five days and as long as fifteen days. Against healthy humans death was between ten and seventeen days. Against elephants, death was, surprisingly quick, between six and ten days, attributed to the amount of water within their bodies. Against aquatic animals, death was between three and five days, a byproduct of the increased amount of water in their system. Birds and other winged animals died in as little as eight days and as long as seventeen days.
In addition, the virus also hinges upon a fatal condition known as water intoxication. An average, healthy human can excrete 0.24 gallons per hour of water through two, healthy kidneys. Exceeding as little as 0.48 gallons in a single sitting, while maintaining a low-sodium diet, can prove to be fatal. On a normal diet, exceeding 0.79 gallons may prove fatal. As dehydration increases, so does a human or animals' demand for water increases. It is entirely possible to exceed these numbers in an uncontrolled environment. Though it is not likely that a person will die of water intoxication, it is entirely possible that an animal will, though numbers for animals is both the same and considerably different, depending on the type of animal.
Metnal, when combined with other viruses included in the cocktail can prove to be the fatal element to all forms of life, extraterrestrial included. Specific research into the type of extraterrestrial species listed in the documents discovered put them as a similar life form to humans except far more advance though, most likely, reliant on water to survive. Anthrax, Arctic Fever, Avian flu, Botulinum toxin, C.A.F, Ebola (all strains), Encephalitis, Marburg, the Plague, Ricin, Rift Valley Fever, Smallpox, and Yellow Fever would all be combined into a single cocktail and released, much in the same way that Agent LA is released. Though in separate containers, the virus spores and samples are kept frozen and inactive while in storage and only brought to life when the weapon is released. During its descent into the atmosphere, barometric triggers go to work to ready the virus. The canisters air burst at altitudes between 3,000 and 15,000 feet, depending on the air temperature and humidity readings. While Metnal can survive in extreme cold, like Arctic Fever, most of the other viruses cannot and renders the system less effective in areas in extreme north and south latitudes.
Tier Three
The third tier of APOPHIS is the most costly and most deadly. It centers on a massive thermonuclear bomb that is mated to a cobalt salting system. Within thirty days of the detonation of this weapon system, over 90% of the planet will be rendered uninhabitable by any forms of life, cockroaches included. It is considered the final and most catastrophic tier of the system and is also the most dangerous. The third tier revolves around a single naval vessel, a classified ship that resembles a signals processing ship than a doomsday device. Ironically, its class name is Doomsday and it signifies what it would usher onto the planet.
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Figure 4-1
The Doomsday class ship is an 80,000 ton ship that is 692.90 feet long. It has a beam of 90.90 feet and a draft of 42.20 feet, making it a deep-water vessel only. This is done purposely and, it maintains a constant patrol. Powered by two SNR-3 fission reactors, each capable of generating one hundred and eighty-seven megawatts of power, the vessel remains at sea for three hundred and sixty-five days per year and is staffed by two separate crews. Each crew serves six months on the ship and they are members of the 12th Black Operations Group, "Force Engel." Highly trained and capable sailors, they are all kept to a strict sense of security and secrecy. They are highly loyal and a very tight-knit group. Every six months, ten officers, one hundred and eighty sailors, and twenty-two members of the flight crew are flown out to the vessel and board it. The other crew returns home for six months of vacation, so to speak, though they undergo constant training and readiness tests.
The vessel is capable of driving thirty-five knots in a sprint but can only maintain thirty-two knots in a cruise and ten knots to remain tactically silent. There are four shafts driving the vessel and five rudders to steer it, giving it an extremely high degree of maneuverability, for such a large and heavy vessel. The vessel can survive one hundred and eighty-five days without replenishment and thirty-two years without refueling. Replenishment is scheduled for six month intervals, slated to occur during the halfway point of each crew's cruise. Replenishment comes from both sea vessels and aircraft.
The vessel maintains four, rotary-winged aircraft at all times. They are stored inside of a hangar to ensure that the vessel does not appear to be military in origin. The four aircraft include one MH-60R Sea Hawk for anti-submarine warfare, one MH-60S Knight Hawk for search-and-rescue, and two RQ-8C Fire Scouts, unmanned aerial vehicles that assist with over-the-horizon targeting, detection, and surveillance. As such, it is an armed vessel and Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedoes, AGM-114 Hellfire II, and AGM-177 Brimstone missiles are kept available for the Sea Hawk as well as AIM-186 Wizard, 2.75" Adder, and AGM-187 Firefly missiles, for use by the Fire Scouts. The vessel is also equipped with various weapons of its own, all of which are carefully concealed.
For short-range and low-powered fire, the vessel sports eight M50A2 12.7x99 millimeter heavy machine guns, each loaded with two hundred and fifty rounds, at the ready. Each gun also has twenty-seven hundred and fifty rounds stowed away in eleven magazines. This gives it a total quantity of twenty-four thousand 12.7x99 millimeter shells, a mix of armor piercing-incendiary and saboted, light-armor penetrator rounds. At ranges of five hundred meters, the latter rounds can punch through thirty-four millimeters of armor and at twelve hundred meters they can punch through twenty-three millimeters. The armor piercing rounds can pierce through twenty millimeters at five hundred meters and ten at twelve hundred meters.
The main thrust of the self-defense weapons of the vessel revolve around a single, ninety-six cell vertical launch system, hidden beneath a retractable covering in the aft of the vessel. A standard load out is ninety-six RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles for medium range air defense in twenty-four cells, thirty RIM-188 Crow missiles for long range air defense in thirty cells, two RSM-214 Seraph missiles for anti-satellite protection in two cells, sixteen RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles for anti-submarine warfare in sixteen cells, and twenty-four RGM-203 Imsdal cruise missiles for anti-surface defense in the last twenty-four cells. The RUM-139s carried feature the Mark 50 Mod 2 torpedo and the RGM-203s carried are carried with two variants. The first variant, the "A" variant is equipped with a powerful, twelve hundred pound penetrator warhead and the "C" variant is equipped with an equally deadly blast fragmentation warhead.
The RIM-162B Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile is an advanced, medium-range surface-to-air missile developed from the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow. It has a range envelope between a half of a mile and forty-five miles, a ceiling envelope between forty and one hundred and twenty thousand feet. Weighing six hundred and sixty pounds, the twelve foot long by ten inch wide missile can go as fast as Mach 4.8. Powered by a gel-fueled rocket, like most Layartebian weapon systems, the missile achieves unprecedented agility through thrust vectoring and a highly capable and powerful guidance system designated the WGU-114E. The guidance system is bi-mode using both active radar and imaging infrared. It features home-on-jam and datalink capabilities and can be used to lock-on after launch and in roles where it is guided by the anti-stealth system employed throughout the Empire. To achieve its maximum range, the missile uses a lofted trajectory to forty-thousand feet or twenty-thousand feet above the target. Its powerful one hundred and ninety-eight pound blast fragmentation warhead can destroy aircraft and cruise missiles in a single blow.
The RIM-188E Crow is a derivative of the land-based Crow missile. It is extremely long range and can be used against surface and aerial targets alike. Equipped with a kinetic energy warhead backed by a three hundred pound blast fragmentation warhead, the Crow can destroy any aircraft in a single strike and render many ground targets completely inoperable. The eighteen foot long by one foot wide missile is supplemented by a three and a half foot long booster that allows it to achieve a loft altitude of one hundred and twenty thousand feet in the most extreme cases. It weighs forty-six hundred pounds and is a four stage system. The first stage is the booster, the second being the initial missile engine, which propels it to Mach 5. The second phase is a sustainer phase and the final phase is the kill phase, which slams into its target at Mach 6. It has a minimum range of one mile and a maximum range of three hundred and fifty-miles against aircraft and three hundred and seventy-five miles against surface targets. The booster and rocket engines are gel-fueled. Guidance is provided by a multimode seeker, the WGU-103A, which is equipped with imaging infrared, active radar, passive radar, and millimetric wave radar sensors. The four main modes allow the missile to operate in any jamming environment. It features home-on-jam, satellite uplink, datalink, anti-stealth uplink, and lock-on after launch capabilities. It can be used against all forms of aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, and even against light shipping such as patrol boats. It can also be employed against land targets such as radar sites, anti-aircraft sites, missile launch sites, and other tactical targets. The missile lacks significant penetration capabilities, rendering it harmless against bunkers and most hardened structures.
The RSM-214A Seraph is a unique, anti-satellite missile, designed specifically to counter weapon's satellites that might be equipped with missiles or artillery. The twenty-two inch wide and fifteen and a half foot long missile is supplemented by a six foot long booster that allows the missile to get to one hundred and twenty thousand feet. Its second stage, the ascent stage, brings the missile into low Earth orbit (LEO) and the intercept stage brings the missile to within sixty to one hundred and twenty miles from the target. The terminal phase intercepts the target with a powerful blast fragmentation warhead, a giant Claymore, equipped with eighteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-five spheres of depleted uranium, each ten millimeters in diameter. This is just a scaled down warhead from the RGM-203C Imsdal. With a ceiling of eight hundred miles and a maximum range of four hundred miles, the Seraph can engage just about anything within a large radius of the launching platform. It is guided by the WGU-115A, which uses millimetric wave radar and imaging infrared coupled with a datalink capability and a home-on-jam capability, to be used if satellites are equipped with electronic jamming devices. It achieves interception at Mach 10.5 and its projectiles move at speeds in excess of Mach 15.
The RUM-139D VL-ASROC is a vertical launch ASROC missile, which dates back, in its earliest days, to the RUR-5 ASROC, developed in the 1950s. The principle is to put an unguided missile into the air and have it drop a torpedo into the water. This would allow the range of a torpedo to be significantly increased and allow the weapon system to achieve a surprise factor, especially since the torpedo signal would not be coming from the direction or location of the vessel. The RUM-139D is simply a modification to allow for vertical launch and employment of the Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedo, with a maximum range of twenty-four nautical miles at thirty-five knots and fifteen nautical miles at sixty knots, its top speed. With a maximum depth of three thousand feet, the Mod 2 torpedo and its 150 pound Arckell plastic explosive warhead can destroy most submarines with one hit and severely damage medium-sized surface targets with a single hit. With the VL-ASROC, it can add an additional fifteen nautical miles of range.
The RGM-203 Imsdal is a cruise missile that was designed to replace the subsonic but highly accurate Tomahawk missiles. It is powered by a scramjet engine and weighs thirty-seven hundred pounds. It is twenty-one feet and four inches long, and twenty-six inches wide. It has a range envelope between thirty-five and one thousand miles and a ceiling of one hundred and fifty thousand feet. Guidance is provided by the WGU-93A, which uses millimetric wave radar and imaging infrared, coupled with a HARM sensor, for anti-radiation operations. It also features home-on-jam capability, datalink, satellite uplink, and GPS. Its guidance system can put it within a few feet of its intended impact point and it has double the penetration of the GBU-28/B Paveway III bomb. It has seven warhead options. The "A" version features a twelve hundred pound penetrator warhead. The "B" version carries two hundred and forty BLU-123 Improved Incendiary Submunitions (IISM). These are five pound canisters that contain 4.6 pounds of incendiary substance, whether it is napalm, white phosphorous, or thermate-TH3. Each submunition can cover an area two hundred feet across and the weapon carries two hundred and forty of them. The "C" version is optimized for fragmentation. The warhead's primary attack device is fifty-eight thousand, eight-hundred and twenty-five depleted uranium spheres, ten millimeters in diameter. All of this is packed within Arckell plastic explosives, giving it a total weight of twelve hundred pounds. The explosion can pepper an area almost one million square feet in size with the projectiles, each moving at over Mach 10. The "D" version is another submunition variant with nine hundred and twenty M74 APAM submunitions, used in the MLRS rockets. They can cover three hundred and sixty thousand square feet. The "E" version features a low-yield fission warhead, optimized for clean radiation and high-altitude detonation, to create an electromagnetic pulse strike (EMP). The explosive yield is one hundred kilotons. The "F" version features a fusion warhead, clean, for strike purposes. It is three hundred and fifty kilotons and is meant to be used against deeply buried targets. Lastly, the "G" version features a twelve hundred pound thermobaric warhead, capable of destroying almost any structure, including underground ones. The Imsdal features a powerful impact velocity of Mach 7, due to its scramjet engine, providing 4,517.476 megajoules of energy at impact.
Additional defense of the ship is provided by thirty-two RGM-205 Advanced Multi-Environment Strike Missiles (AMESM) loaded into eight quad-launchers. Primarily to be used against ships, the missile can be used against land targets as well and serves a dual purpose that both the Harpoon and the SLAM could not fill individually. It replaces that missile and is powered by a supersonic, gel-fueled engine capable of providing an impact speed of Mach 3.8. With a range envelope of ten to two hundred and forty miles, the missile can engage targets well over the horizon and its WGU-94A guidance system provides an imaging infrared seeker that is coupled to a target database that is preloaded based on the ships' sensor readings. As the missile comes over the horizon, it recalculates its database and targets the appropriate ship or target. It is equipped with a datalink system and a GPS device, giving it unparalleled accuracy. The missile can attack with a waterline strike against a surface vessel or a pop-up and dive maneuver, which the Harpoon pioneered. It achieves triple the penetration that the Harpoon and SLAM achieved. Its warhead is an eight hundred pound blast-fragmentation warhead that makes its weight of seventeen hundred pounds heavier than the Harpoon and SLAM. With a diameter of thirteen and a half inches and a length of fourteen feet, the missile is relatively small though it features a one foot and two inch booster that allows it to takeoff from the vessel and get up to speed.
Further defense is provided by four, forward torpedo tubes, each with a diameter of three hundred and twenty-four millimeters. It is equipped with thirty-six Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedoes. Defense against missiles is provided by eight Mark 203 Phalanx II 15.5 millimeter CIWS guns, similar to the Phalanx 20 millimeter CIWS but much more advanced. Smaller bullets were chosen to give the weapon system an increased ammunition capacity. To destroy an incoming missile, a 20 millimeter shell is highly effective but, perhaps, too big. Each gun has two thousand rounds ready with another eighteen thousand stowed in nine canisters. It has an effective range of eight thousand yards and uses imaging infrared and millimetric wave radar to target against missiles. It can fire up to six thousand rounds per minute. There are two systems facing forward, two facing aft, and two facing each port and starboard. They are concealed carefully along with four RIM-116B Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) mounts, each mount holding twenty-one missiles. Modeled after both the Sidewinder and the Stinger, the RAM uses a very advanced imaging infrared seeker, coupled to a passive radio and datalink and anti-stealth uplink capabilities to drive the missile into an incoming target. It is effective against both aircraft and missiles and has a range envelope of up to seven and a half miles and a ceiling of twenty thousand feet. The nine foot, 3 inch long by five in wide, one hundred and seventy pound missile features a twenty pound blast-fragmentation warhead and is highly effective against heavy, hypersonic cruise missiles. There are also six FIM-186A Wizard MANPAD launchers with twenty rounds stowed throughout the ship for extreme, close-range defense.
The Doomsday class is a highly capable warship but its defensive systems are just one half of its weapons' capabilities. There is, also, the offensive weapon, the massive thermonuclear weapon. Initial powerful for the weapon is provided by eight, W-109 Mod 2 warheads, each with a yield of one hundred megatons. Unlike the W-109 Mod 1 warhead, which is very clean, the Mod 2 is an enhanced radiation device. In addition, it is tied to a cache of two hundred and fifty tons of cobalt-59 and various other elements throughout the ship, including depleted uranium armor plating and the two nuclear reactors. The cobalt-59 core is the primary "salting" device and when it is used in a nuclear device it creates cobalt-60, a strong emitter of gamma rays as it undergoes beta decay. With a half-life of 5.27 years the decay is intensely radioactive. One gram of 60Co contains approximately fifty curies (1.85 terabecquerels) of radioactivity. Held at close range, this amount of cobalt-60 would irradiate a person with approximately 0.5 gray of ionizing radiation per minute. A full body dose of approximately three to four sieverts would kill 50% of the population in thirty days, and could be accumulated in just a few minutes of exposure to a gram of 60Co. Smaller amounts of 60Co would take longer to kill, but would be effective over a large area. Two hundred and fifty tons is equal to 254,011.7 kilograms, enough to salt the entire planet in just thirty days.
It is, ultimately, this tier that would destroy the planet for further life for tens of thousands of years, killing, primarily, the initial invaders. Coupled with the other two tiers, within thirty days of its usage, it could do more devastation than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.
The Apophis System and the Effects
By themselves, the three tiers of the Apophis system are deadly but ineffective to do what their stated goal is. Together, they are beyond capable and can render the entire planet uninhabitable within just thirty days, with the worst volume of casualties coming in the first two weeks. The entire system is deployed in two locations. The third tier is constantly afloat in the oceans of the world while the first and second are deployed to twenty-four satellites. While inactive, the satellites are placed in a Tundra orbit, having an inclination of 63.4° and an orbital period of one sidereal day, or almost twenty-four hours. Due to apogee dwell, the satellite can maintain a position over a single spot of the Earth while in a High Earth Orbit. It maintains an altitude of around 35,786 kilometers or 22,240 miles.
When the system is deployed to armed status, the satellites drop immediately to a Low Earth Orbit of around 1,500 kilometers or 932 miles. Once the twenty-four satellites are in place, their payloads are released. The system is set so that the third tier explodes at the same time that the deployable canisters of the first and second tiers explode.
Within one hour from the detonation of all three systems, it is estimated that approximately 5% of the worlds' population of humans and animals will be dead. Radiation will begin to spread into the prevailing winds of the atmosphere, where it will be taken throughout the world. The explosion of the ship will irradiate the waters around it for hundreds of miles causing almost instant death to any animal or human within its zone. The force of the explosion of the third tier is equivalent to over 800 megatons, is sufficient enough to destroy anything within a radius of almost 113 miles and cause significant damage for hundreds of miles outwards from its epicenter. Cobalt radiation will salt everything immediately upon the explosion and longer lasting radiation will spread into the atmosphere.
Approximately six hours after the detonation, the radiation will be making its way throughout the winds of the world and it is estimated that the massive mushroom cloud will begin to dissipate, though radiation will still be poured into the atmosphere. The effects of the chemical weapon will be largely subsiding but the death toll will possibly reach 10%. Effects from the biological weapon won't be felt for at least another week.
One day after the detonation, radiation will begin to blanket most regions of the world and the chemical weapon will be largely negated. The biological weapon will be entirely absorbed into its prey except for what traces linger on plant life and terrain, though these traces can be deadly if eaten. The virus, which is airborne, will begin to set into its hosts and begin its killing process. Approximately 15 – 20% of the population will be dead.
One week after the detonation, radiation will have effectively blanketed each and every part of the world with deadly amounts. Cobalt salting will begin to thoroughly kill plant and animal life and the Earth will begin to be turned into a barren oasis of dirt of water that is so highly contaminated that all forms of life cease to exist within its medium. Approximately 25 – 35% of the population will be dead. The virus will begin to attack its victims.
Two weeks after the detonation, approximately 60 – 75% of the population will be dead. Radiation will have salted into every crevice of the planet and the virus will have effectively killed almost all of its hosts. By day seventeen, the virus will have killed all of its hosts. Only those animals and humans, which did not become infected with the virus, will have survived.
Three weeks after the detonation, approximately 80 – 90% of the population will be dead. Radiation will have killed almost all planet and animal life on the planet, including aquatic life. Little will still be alive.
Four weeks after detonation, the entire planet will become uninhabitable due to the effects of the Apophis System. It shall remain uninhabitable for in excess of 1,000 to 10,000 years, depending on the location. Even the most remote places on Earth will not be able to support any life for 1,000 years, a byproduct of the cobalt salting within the radiation.