RE: [MERCS] Weapons available [FH]

--- CS Renegade <njg@csrenegade.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Going by the recent Nukes thread, the US upholds
> higher standards in this area than some other
> nations. Leaving aside impoverished Russian rocket

The US is also a real nation, not a third-rate pack of
vodka-swilling pig farmers that by a fluke of history
happens to have nuclear weapons.

I mean, how seriously can you take an empire that took
a mere 70 years to collapse (speaking as an amateur
Roman historian. . . )??

> >> In fictional backgrounds, different moral
> >> standards often prevail.
>  
> > Depends.
> 
> Are there any absolute standards that are
> required for a scenario to have a modicum of
> credibility?

Uh. . . yeah.  Standard morale rules don't work very
well otherwise.

> > Personally? I flush the place with CS and then
> > send in riot police or regular infantry.
> 
> I didn't think CS and similar agents were that
> effective? They can flush people out of confined

Never sucked much in, have you?

> spaces and break up crowds, but they are designed
> not to kill or even incapacitate*. Although 

True.  They just make you _wish_ you were dead--in
large enough concentration.  I personally have to be
in an enclosed space with no ventilation and a heavy
concentration to be badly affected, but then again I'm
apparently a freak of nature.  I was the one munching
on chow and looking around blankly while everyone else
was masking during the FTX in AIT when the drills were
running around chucking CS grenades.  I only realized
we were being gassed when I smelled the stuff.	Never
did put on my mask.

However, untrained persons who have never experienced
CS tend to panic the first time they feel it, which
impairs everyone else's ability to do their job.  

> improvised protection isn't much help, can simple
> respirators handle CS? If memory serves, it's not
> very good at putting out fires either. 

Yeah, respirators are fine--although it burns exposed
skin as well in high enough concentrations.  Of
course, if they all have respirators, they probably
aren't the simple agitators your scenario originally
postulated.
 
> * to forestall the howls from all who have been
>   exposed to CS, I think the issue may be one of
>   concentration. Beyond a certain point, there's
>   no question of being able to hold, let alone
>   aim a weapon. Next question: how many typical
>   CS rounds would it take to gas a big aviation
>   hanger?

Depends on the size of your CS rounds.

> Get yourself a nice non-persistent nerve agent
> that'll go through anything short of a full
> environmental protection unit (I may have the
> wrong name for the relevant bit of tank here;
> I mean the gubbins that doubles as air-
> conditioning and gas attack warning / filtration)
> in three seconds flat.

Actually, you want a blood agent (the Cyanide family)
because that will eat through standard NBC filters in
25 minutes.  Nerve agents can be handled by standard
(modern) NBC gear.

But you're still scum if you do so, and you can expect
to be treated as such.	
 
> True, but these might hire what they could not
> buy or manufacture. Given scattered interstellar
> colonies with several generations of ignorance,
> they may not even fully realise what they are
> getting into. Remember the Elbonian catapult!

GZG-verse has a mere 110 years of interstellar
colonization.  I doubt that's enough time for many
colonies to drop into ignorance about what a freakin'
nuclear bomb is.

> > It's even simpler in any background with space
> > travel: If the mercs in question do unacceptable
> > things, they find it really difficult to get
> > off-planet.
> 
> OK, let's swap to Alois Hammer. I'm sure you've
> read The Butcher's Bill; cast your mind back to
> But Loyal To His Own. Granted, the Slammers are
> exceptional (and somewhat larger than life.)

Exceptional, larger than life, and not really thought
out as a mercenary unit.  It was just a venue for
Drake to tell Vietnam stories, originally.  At any
rate, they are also a mutinied unit of a regular army
(granted, a "foreign legion") and as such had access
to all kinds of munitions.

John

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