EXCERPTS FROM THE FRONT
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"Well, the 43rd brewed up the last UberPanzer the Pans had in this sector, got it near 3290 yesterday. Tricked it into coming to town and the 13th Infantry Company crawled all over that gadget and took it apart from the outside in. I hear it was a Legionnaire, took as good as it got, but in the end, well... The 43rd and the 13th are hurting pretty bad now, I saw the T-list, lots of broken toys and empty slots to fill, gentlemen, so keep an eye out for any medivac units. Other than that, all you have to look out for is some orphan heavies... some of the Pans are real ghouls, we've had reports of raider GEVs and MI stragglers firing on MASH and MEDIVAC units. If you see one of those, all I have to say is, nut butter on the Crighton Accords... Free fire, people.  Free fire."

- Commander D. Williams, 5th Lift Support Group,
MI / Lift Armor group joint CO

 

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"The Pans have an UberPanzer operating in this sector, Intel believes it to be a Legionnaire, probably a Bravo or Gamma class. The MI scout team that CP Zulu sent out didn't get very close to it... all we got back was some broken toys and hearts, so assume this UberPanzer is, and I repeat, is cherry. CP Delta believes it was holed up in a sub-bunker that we missed in our sweeps. Must have been dug in pretty deep, because I know how thorough my people were when we sanitized this sector two weeks ago. Model and specs will be uploaded to TACNet and SquadNet resources as we have them. 5th Lift Armor has been assigned the task of making the UberPanzer november fox. And find that bunker! I don't want to find a family of these things waking up in my backyard. Do I make myself clear? Dismissed."

- Sgt. Dwight Barris, 5th Lift Armor, GEV Unit commander.

Briefing at CP Alpha prior to Operation Ninevah,
Sahara combat zone. Veteran, with honors.

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TECH: ALPHA PAPA ROMEO - APR- short for Anti-Personnel Round, usually a 'smarter bomb' in the form of a clustered canister munitions with self homing, individually tracking sub munitions. Anti-personnel rounds had existed since the dawn of warfare. The Greeks used a highly flammable mixture of pitch-like material known as "Greek Fire", delivered by simple mechanical catapult, to assault the crew and material of enemy ships. During the Medieval age, simple spring boards for launching multiple racks or clouds of arrows appeared, and catapults and trebuchets could launch exploding jars of black powder. With the advent of the firearm and the cannon, canister or 'grape shot' appeared, able to shred not only the sails of a target ship, but also the unlucky crew manning the deck. Grape shot continued to be used in an anti-personnel role throughout the history of the cannon, especially during the North American Civil War (19th century, United States).

The Combine "Black Arrow" Type 3G GPAPR-C3PGM (General Purpose Anti-Personnel Round-Carrier for Clustered Canisterr Precision Guided Submunitions) was no different in mission than its predecessors, but was a quantum leap evolutionarily over its historical counterparts. The Type 3G "Black Arrow" was the most popular and the most effective of the specialized anti-personnel rounds with only minor updates and upgrades made to the design throughout the war. With the addition of Refrax4 in the subwarheads, the "Black Arrow" became the premier APR in use during the Last War. The sensors of the APR were highly dedicated, and scanned the low bands of the area they were dispensed into, bands normally reserved for the EMS outlays and signature spikes of mobile infantry and unarmored infantry, where the individual warheads homed in on the direct spike links to drones, uplink EMS spikes through SLICS and PLIEADS (and the Pan equivalents), and using both motion and proximity sensors to adjust their impact point. With a burst height of 10 meters, it had a lethal zone thirty meters in diameter from initial dispersal point and the cone could be tailored based on updates from TACNet or SquadNet links at the last minute.

Each Type 3G "Black Arrow" APR dispensed 50 individually tracking 'Wasp5' anti-personnel subwarheads. The Wasp5 subwarhead was a fin stabilized armor piercing needle with a Refrax4 vein spiral wrapped around a plasticeramic core. The Wasp5 was effective against all but the heaviest Pan powered infantry suits. Black Arrow rounds were also effective against convoys, depots, munitions dumps, and other volatile yet lightly armored areas. The "Black Arrow" played a huge role in the defense of the Combine AIM at Sheffield. While the Pans tried to outlaw the use of APR style rounds at the 23rd set of peace talks, they made no mention of their own discontinuation of such horrific devices. A hot point which, unfortunately, brought and end to the 23rd set of peace talks where the Combine refused to stop using APRs when the Pans had no intention of doing the same.

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"Hey, Dega? See if you can take care of that bunch of tin men over there in the rubble, just painted them for ya! They were looking our way a second ago and TACNet says they have at least a pair of snakes left ... Better pop an APR on their heads just to make sure."

- Sgt. Andy Moore, 12th Lift Armor. Veteran.

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"After two batteries of our moho's softened them up, we hit those stupid indigs pretty hard and fast with our blowers and let our iron men crawl all over them in the dust. Pan thought we would give them the better part of a day to dig in and prepare! Hah! Damn, were they ever wrong! Dead wrong! We proved that to them, in spades and when we got through, there were a lot of broken hearts and broken toys on the ground outside a stretch from 4109 to 5402, Sector 17."

- Mark Douglas, Sgt 1, GEV support specialist,
32nd Fast Lift Assault Company. Deceased.

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"... as the FATS got a good sniff of the Pan panzer two klicks to the south west, Johnson wheeled our buggy around and nailed the throttle, maxing out the active suspension for all it was worth. Williams began to lay a firing solution on top of the Pan track layer that I had painted as TARGET:ENGAGE on his heads up. Despite all the bouncing around we were doing, I could still hear the solid tone from the FiConSys that meant the FATS was not only smelling the panzer good and hard, but it was about to give it the bone as well... A dull thud to our port meant that the panzer had smelled us as well, but it wasn't quite as agile. My displays changed, cycling rapidly. One kilometer. Another thud behind us, one in front of us, we bounced hard enough in our seats to lock our restraints. Our systems got the range and began to cycle, I heard the last of the third cassette feed through and the cassette was ejected as another was slammed to the receiver by the RAILS. Some slow moving Pan tin men to our west blinked and vanished from our displays.  TACNET was painting them as down but it's been my experience that roaches are hard to kill, a few will get up in a few minutes, stagger around and come back at you looking for some payback.

Williams let one of our snakes out into the grass to play and I watched the heads up, fascinated, as the light TAC missile crawled toward the panzer, flying along the ground nap of the earth, at nearly two hundred klicks an hour and less than a meter off the deck... A different tone meant that the panzer had seen it as well, and its PDS was having fits trying to kill the snake...  The relay video from the snake's head sensor unit was full of tracer fire and exploding chunks of ground.  My panel beeped for attention and I keyed in to the immediate threat.  We had company...

... Smith! Two blowers closing fast from 234. Swing the two twenties around and see if you can put a few pills into them, will ya?!"  I shouted.

Smith was good.  He knew his job which was bad news for those blowers.

Stephanie Whills, VCO, Combine
3rd Heavy Armor Group
Rejoiner

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Variable TAC Missile Types- A variety of different tactical 'smart', 'brilliant', and 'clever' missiles were introduced by all belligerents during the Last War.  TAC missiles came in a wide variety of sizes as well as performance (speed, survivability, lethalness) aspects.  All were high speed, very maneuverable NOE or ground hugging munitions with all aspect targeting capacity and target memory (fire and forget) capability.  Most had some form of 'hand off' capacity, that is, if one unit could see a target but didn't have a TAC missile handy, and another unit had a TAC missile, but couldn't see the same target that the first unit could, the second unit could still fire the TAC missile, 'handing off' target guidance to the first unit which would take control of the TAC missile and give it final commands.  Due to their ability to hug the grass and the high pitched hiss of their ducted fans, TAC missiles earned the common nickname 'Snake' due not only to their nature and distinct sound, but also to their meandering movement designed to evade PDS and other countermeasures.

The Light TAC Missile (1/2) was utilized by most infantry and mobile infantry units, as well as some militia units.   It has a 'clever' guidance package and a single stage high performance ducted fan array for flight and maneuverability.  A sophisticated NOE program allows it to hug the ground, increasing its survival capacity over the limited deflection of most PDS systems.  These missiles have an attack strength / range of 1/2.  They do not offer spillover fire (their warheads are simply too small).  Designed for taking out unarmored or lightly armored vehicles, these missiles were mostly disposable one-shot munitions and were the easiest to defend against.  Their weak warheads were not particularly noteworthy for cracking armor, but they did give the lowly infantry man some stand off capacity and against thin skinned targets, they were deadly.  Most LTMs were 'clever' models, with very few being 'brilliant'.  The more expensive, more intelligent  guidance packages were often reserved for the missiles with the larger warheads, and those which would actually have a chance of getting to the target.  The limited size of the onboard high density power cells limited the performance and flight time of the LTMs to just enough to reach the target and no more.

INTEGRATION OF LTMS INTO EXISTING GAMES: Infantry equipped with LTMs (standard MI, possible for regular infantry, rare for militia) may attack non-infantry vehicular or armor units out to 2 hexes, using LTMs.  They attack with normal attack strength, but enhanced range.  Against other MI, infantry, or militia units, infantry must still use small arms and support weapons which have very little range (standard 1 hex attack range).

The TYPE-34C [SGTM]- "Broomstick" was the most prolific of the Combine light TAC missiles.  With an effective range of over one kilometer, full hand off capacity and full integration into both SLICS and (later) PLIEADS systems, the Type 34 "Broomstick" became the premier infantry portable TAC missile of the Combine during the Last War.  The guidance system of the Type 34 Charlie light TAC missile was self guiding target memory with uplink capacity to have primary target redesignation on the fly by any unit with command control within the squad.  The Type 34 was available as a disposable type cartridge design, sliding into a launcher and then locking with a half turn which mated it both to the launcher and to the onboard operating systems or as a simple disposable hand held launcher for non-powered armor equipped infantry.  -Taken from Jayne's Guide to Modern Small Arms

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The Medium TAC Missile (2/3) wasn't an improved light TAC missile, rather it was a entirely different design with a more powerful motor, larger power cell, enhanced lifting body providing better maneuverability, and a more comprehensive guidance package.  The MTMs were the first of the 'brilliant' or 'semi-aware' battlefield missiles, able to make a wide range of limited decisions on their own during their operational envelope.  The medium TAC missiles were not fully aware, but the software and hardware got them very close to imitating the behavior of even larger missiles.  The high performance ducted fan array of the medium TAC missiles gave superior performance and high density batteries gave superior range and endurance over the LTM, actually affording some loiter time if the target should dodge or if the missile should lose track of the target for a small period of time.   Medium TAC missiles have an attack strength of 2 and a range of 3.  Their larger warhead allows for some spillover fire (standard rules apply) but the size of the warhead limits the effectiveness of this.

The TYPE-45C [SGTM]- "Arrow Saber" was the most easily recognized of the Combine medium TAC missiles.   With an effective range of over three kilometers, the Type-45C's onboard guidance system was capable of multiple on-the-fly hand off capacity as well as full integration into both SLICS and (later) PLIEADS systems.  The Type-45C "Arrow Saber" became the premier light armored vehicle TAC missile of the Combine during the Last War.  The guidance system of the Type-45C medium TAC missile was one of the most advanced in operation at the time, consisting of a bi-polar processing array with look-around capacity and a extensive common sense subroutine cache built into the protocols.  Self guiding with high density target memory and modular uplink capacity allowed the "Arrow Saber" to have primary target redesignation on the fly by any unit with command control within range.  If the primary target should be destroyed before the Type-45C arrived on target, it would go into a limited loiter mode, searching for another target within range.  If no target was within range, it would either try to return to the firing unit for recharge and reprogram or would simply land and emit a locator beacon, awaiting pickup by the firing unit or a friendly unit.  Any friendly unit capable of mounting and firing a Type-45C medium TAC missile could make use of 'orphans' found on the battlefield or could redirect pre-orphan missiles back to different racks if the original firing unit was out of range of the missile now.  The durability of the design of the Type-45C can be seen not only in the fact that the Paneuropean forces fielded their own version, which was a somewhat inferior but almost direct copy of the Combine version (no doubt reconstructed from captured examples) and the fact that long after the Last War that the Type 45C remained in production to those powers who could still afford to arm their soldiers with such complicated weapons. -Taken from Jayne's Guide to Modern Small Arms

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The Standard TAC Missile (3/4) was the missile that is most often seen in battlefield service.  The standard TAC missile was mounted on a variety of launchers from remote sentry units, to the modular box launchers on fortresses and CLAWS, to individual racks and launch rails found on armored vehicles, to the complicated rotary launch arrays found on the Combine missile tank.  The standard TAC missile had excellent speed, performance, survivability, a 'beyond brilliant' guidance array, and a powerful warhead.  The ducted fan array was a new type with dual stage through-force compressor, designed for enhanced speed, lift, and higher maneuverability through the ducting in the airframe.  The standard TAC missile was the first of the battlefield tactical missiles to be considered 'aware', but only in the most feral forms of intelligence.  The standard TAC missile had excellent range (25% more range than the weapon systems of a heavy tank), but somewhat less striking power.   The standard TAC missile was the first missile that gave up some of its warhead capacity in preference to range and endurance.  Still, the warhead of the standard TAC missile was the powerful new GEN-III series that could penetrate all known OPFORCE armor at the time of introduction.  As the technology of defense and armor materials advanced, the GEN-IV through GEN-VIII warheads kept pace.  The standard TAC missile has a attack factor of 3 and a range of 4.  (It is the standard munition carried by the missile tank in the game.)

The TYPE-60B [SGTM]- "Hammer" was the most successful of the Combine standard TAC missiles, seeing duty in the front line missile tanks as well as Sentinel weapon platforms and the component launchers found on the larger cybertanks.  An effective range of over four kilometers and superior warhead guaranteed that the Type-60B TAC missile was proof against all OPFORCE armor at the time of introduction, and the missile rapidly kept pace wth both defense and materials technology throughout the Last War.  The Type-60B's onboard guidance system was self-aware with a feral personality matrix, capable of multiple on-the-fly hand off capacity as well as full integration into both SLICS and (later) PLIEADS systems, SQUADNet and TACNet arrays.  The guidance system of the Type-60B medium TAC missile was one of the most advanced in operation at the time.  Compact, liquid cooled, it consisted of a true tri-polar synthetic processing array with look-around capacity and a common sense subroutine cache that was twice the size and three times the processing capacity as the medium series of TAC missiles.  Self guiding with four racks of high density reprogram as required (RAR) target memory and modular uplink capacity allowed the "Hammer" to have primary target redesignation and upload / update on the fly by any unit with command control protocols within range.   If the primary target should be destroyed before the Type-60B arrived on target, it would go into a extended loiter mode, searching for another target within range.  If no target was within range, it would either try to return to the firing unit for recharge and reprogram or would simply land and emit a locator beacon, awaiting pickup by the firing unit or a friendly unit.  Any friendly unit capable of mounting and firing a Type-60B standard TAC missile could make use of 'orphans' found on the battlefield or could redirect pre-orphan missiles back to different racks if the original firing unit was out of range of the missile now.  The initial modular design, and the improvements which the speed of that proprietary design allowed guaranteed that the Type-60B "Hammer" would become the premier vehicle mounted TAC missile of the Combine during the Last War and beyond.  -Taken from Jayne's Guide to Modern Small Arms

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The Heavy TAC Missile (6/5)- The heavy TAC missile was constructed on an entirely different modular carbon fiber airframe than the standard TAC missile.  The profile of the missile itself was at first considered impossible to defend in flight.  The length and diameter of the weapon shrank and grew on the design board until a practical application meeting all criteria was arrived at.  That final design was a nearly 4 meters long, nearly a meter in diameter, single stage design with integral lifting and control surfaces.  The final design was a difficult balancing act of warhead, survival packaging, performance enhancements, and electronics.

A dual stage ultra-high compression ducted turbofan provided not only extended range over other missiles, but advanced enhancements to performance, increased survivability, and superior maneuvering.  The multi-segmented array power cell allowed enough power to give the missile superior range over the standard TAC missile design as well as power to spare for maneuvering and even loitering.  Engineers managed to increase the range of the heavy TAC missile by 25% over that of the standard TAC missile while increasing the nominal warhead yield by an incredible 50%, all while maintaining increased survivability in a package much smaller than anticipated.

The Heavy TAC Missile series of battlefield support missiles was the largest and most powerful missile ever deployed during the Last War short of the even larger series of Cruise missiles.  Each example deployed was fully self-aware with redundant processing capacity and feral target hunt kill protocols.   The Heavy TAC missile was the standard missile armament of most Type III or larger cybertanks, the main missile weapon of sentient fortresses, and was even carried by some modified missile tanks and missile crawlers.  It has an attack strength of six and a range of five hexes.  If the primary target should be destroyed before the Type-8C arrived on target, it would go into a limited loiter mode, searching for another target within range.  If no target was within range, it would either try to return to the firing unit for recharge and reprogram or would simply land and emit a locator beacon, awaiting pickup by the firing unit or a friendly unit.  Any friendly unit capable of mounting and firing a Type-8C medium TAC missile could make use of 'orphans' found on the battlefield or could redirect pre-orphan missiles back to different racks if the original firing unit was out of range of the missile now.

The TYPE-8C [SGTM]- "Herald" was the most easily recognized weapon of the cyberlogical autonomous weapon systems deployed during the Last War.  The sight of these large missiles held securely in their launchers on the flanks of the self-aware behemoths or of the scream of these weapons as they launched from their mounts is one that is very familiar to anyone who has seen the various multimedia of the Last War.  The Type-8C "Herald" was the premier series of heavy Combine TAC missiles.  With an effective range of over five kilometers, the Type-8C's onboard guidance system was truly self-aware.  The guidance package was the most advanced ever produced for a guided munition (indeed, the package was the same as that used on the cruise missile) and capable of multiple on-the-fly hand off capacity as well as full integration into both SLICS and (later) PLIEADS systems.  Full interface with SQUADNet and SYSNet were also standard operating protocol.  The dual bi-polar processing arrays featured simultaneous look-around capacity and a extensive common sense subroutine cache built into the protocols.  Self guidance with high density target memory and modular uplink capacity were standard features of the Type-8C.  The advanced design of the "Herald" allowed it to have primary target redesignation via approved command control infrastructure though final override was at the discretion of the firing unit..  Many Type-8Cs were modified for silo use with the advent of the first sentient fortresses appearing in the Sahara combat zone.  -Taken from Jayne's Guide to Modern Small Arms

Area Denial Multiple Armor Effect Munitions- Big guns, namely artillery such as the mobile howitzer, the howitzer, missile tanks, OGRE main batteries and OGRE missiles all carry area effect warheads.  That is, ALL units in the hex fired on undergo an identical attack.  The munitions of these delivery methods were clustered self targeting all aspect armor breakers designed to penetrate the lesser armored top hull decks where the armor of fighting vehicles was, traditionally, weaker.  As such, big guns, as artillery was called, proved its worth.  The rounds, often guided by forward observers and boosted to enhanced velocities to give PDS fits, were able to spread their myriad of subwarheads out over a wide area, each warhead locked on to the strong EMS output of target vehicles in the wide angle look down cone.  While designed primarily as a armor killer, the warheads worked to a lesser degree on the EMS output of power suits, battledress, and were mostly ineffective against the marginal EMS signature of unarmored infantry.  The Type 12 "Totem" GPCAAM (General Purpose Clustered Anti-Armor Muntion), so called because each of the warheads were stacked, more or less, like a ancient totem pole, was the standard clustered area attack / area effect munition used by the Combine.  The Totem had excellent penetration, full hand off capacity, and a variable mode of delivery.  Configurations of the venerable "Totem" T12 GPCAAM were used in all manner of heavy TAC missiles, very heavy (OGRE) TAC missiles, and howitzer rounds.    Artillery has always been deadly, and with the bowing out of close air support and air support in general, artillery simply shrugged its historic shoulders and picked up the slack...  the rounds available to the various combatants in the 21CB were scary...

Anti-Personnel Rounds- Alpha Papa Romeo-APR- short for Anti-Personnel Round, usually a 'smarter bomb' in the form of a clustered canister munitions with self homing, individually tracking sub munitions.  Anti-personnel rounds had existed since the dawn of warfare.   The Greeks used a highly flammable mixture of pitch-like material known as "Greek Fire", delivered by simple mechanical catapult, to assault the crew and material of enemy ships.  During the Medieval age, simple spring boards for launching multiple racks or clouds of arrows appeared, and catapults and trebuchets could launch exploding jars of black powder.  With the advent of the firearm and the cannon, canister or 'grape shot' appeared, able to shred not only the sails of a target ship, but also the unlucky crew manning the deck.  Grape shot continued to be used in an anti-personnel role throughout the history of the cannon, especially during the North American Civil War (19th century, United States).  The Combine "Black Arrow" Type 3G GPAPR-C3PGM (General Purpose Anti-Personnel Round-Carrier for Clustered Cannisterized Precision Guided Submunitions) was no different in mission than its predecessors, but was a quantum leap evolutionarily over its historical counterparts.   The Type 3G "Black Arrow" was the most popular and the most effective of the specialized anti-personnel rounds with only minor updates and upgrades made to the design throughout the war.  With the addition of Refrax4 in the subwarheads, the "Black Arrow" became the premier APR in use during the Last War.  The sensors of the APR were highly dedicated, and scanned the low bands of the area they were dispensed into, bands normally reserved for the EMS outlays and signature spikes of mobile infantry and unarmored infantry, where the individual warheads homed in on the direct spike links to drones, uplink EMS spikes through SLICS and PLIEADS (and the Pan equivalents), and using both motion and proximity sensors to adjust their impact point.  With a burst height of 10 meters, it had a lethal zone thirty meters in diameter from initial dispersal point and the cone could be tailored based on updates from TACNet or SQUADNet links at the last minute.  Each Type 3G "Black Arrow" APR dispensed 50 individually tracking 'Wasp5' anti-personnel subwarheads.  The Wasp5 subwarhead was a fin stabilized armor piercing needle with a Refrax4 vein spiral wrapped around a plasticeramic core.  The Wasp5 was effective against all but the heaviest Pan powered infantry suits.  Black Arrow rounds were also effective against convoys, depots, munitions dumps, and other volatile yet lightly armored areas.  The "Black Arrow" played a huge role in the defense of the Combine AIM at Sheffield.   While the Pans tried to outlaw the use of APR style rounds at the 23rd set of peace talks, they made no mention of their own discontinuation of such horrific devices.  A hot point which, unfortunately, brought and end to the 23rd set of peace talks where the Combine refused to stop using APRs when the Pans had no intention of doing the same.

 

Semi-Maneuverable Anti-Personnel (SMAP) and Semi-Maneuverable Light Anti-Vehicular (SMLAV) Mines- A variety of different 'mobile' mine types existed in huge numbers during the Last War.  Mines were mostly non-metallic, produced with limited detection components consisting of plasticeramic, polymer, rigid polyfiber, and simple memory plastic mechanical components.   That coupled with automatic self entrenching characteristics, long term low emission passive aggressive sensors, and the ability to self deploy themselves directly at the target   made mine warfare a horrible aspect of the 21CB.  Mines became 'smart', some types bordered on 'clever', and very few ever were produced that were 'brilliant'.   None were self-aware.

Two popular types of mines were the AP Anti-Personnel mine and the AV anti-vehicular mine.  The Combine Type Fox 3 GPAPU General Purpose Anti-Personnel Use mine was nicknamed the 'mangler' by its Paneuropean victims, those who survived anyway.  Upon placement, the mine would rapidly bury itself and extend a sensor probe.  Detonation was not immediate, as a limited form of intelligence was built into the mine.  A squad of enemy troops could enter the mined area, and the passive aggressive sensor would count the number of contacts, estimate their speed, direction, and formulate a detonation solution.  When the 'middle' part of the squad had entered effective engagement range, the mine would propel itself from the ground via a memory plastic high tension spring mechanism (no power spike on EMS and only a limited auditory spike) to a height of 2 meters or less, and detonate its Refrax explastic wound plasticeramic and monofilament wire packaged warhead.   Spinning monofilament trailing / whipping rods were generated which not only had good armor piercing capacity (shaped like long barbed nails), they also had excellent soft tissue trauma capacity (the whipping monofilament line played hell with skin, bone, organs, etc.).  The kill zone was approximately 20 meters in a sphere, but an enhanced feature of the design insured that over 90% of the fragments had a downwards cone of travel and dispersion.  Some Type Fox 3 mines were even equipped with sticky bases for attachment to walls, floors, ceilings, etc. and played a critical role in the street to street and house to house fighting at Dunkirk and Wolfshire during the closing stages of the fall of Neurope.  Use of the Type Fox 3 GPAPU mine was outlawed during the same accords which saw the end of the Combine use of the OGREAPER units...

The Combine Type 5 Locust GPAVU General Purpose Anti-Vehicular Use mine was slightly larger than the T3-Fox GPAPU mine, but its mission design was also different.   The T5-Locust was very much a 'plague' to the Paneuropean armored columns.   Hard to detect, the self entrenching capacity of the T5-Locust was second only to its capacity to pick the most vulnerable spot of the target's armor from which to attack.   T5 Locust mines could be remote detonated, set for time delay (rare), motion, thermal, a wide range of EMS criteria, by target weight, target class, or set for autonomous overwatch in which the mine chose its own method and target (sometimes, in the early models, much to the chagrin of the users!  The Type 5 Locust GPAVU was designed to do a quick stress pulse scan of the target (usually the underside or belly armor) and then to pick the weakest spot (if there was one) or to compare its database to the target scan and determine where components were spatially related to the position of the target above the mine and to the mine's position.  Targets of choice were powerplant, fighting compartment (crew), drivetrain, and ammunition storage, all readily accessible from below.  Upon target selection, the mine would detonate, forming a self forging penetrator capable of easily piercing all known Paneuropean and other powers contemporary armor on the bottom of even their heaviest armored vehicles.  If the mine managed to identify its target, the vehicle was a combat loss.  If it miscalculated, the self forging penetrator could do some damage, possibly temporarily disabling the vehicle, but not a kill.  If it totally miscalculated, or a quick crew picked up the EMS spike of the target pulse, some last second maneuvering could make the mine ineffectual.

The T5 Locust remained in the Combine order of battle and supply until even after the war.

The Paneuropeans were simply mad about mines, and they seemed to scatter them for days against the Combine forces, leading to early frustration and a sense of detachment towards the enemy (often unseen) during the first stages of the Last War.   Taking cues from their Combine opponents, the Paneuropeans made any temporary retreat by their forces almost impossible to pursue with a wide scattering of mines of all types behind them.  These mines presented quite a problem when the Last War ground to a halt and the civilian population came back out into the fields to reclaim their old style of life...  Cleanup of UXM or UneXploded Mines was a constant task after the war on many continents, all funded by international relief funds and other charitable organizations.

INFANTRY DIGGING CHARGES- Infantry (especially the power suit / battle dress equipped MI) were, for the most part, self sufficient units.  Since the first advent of the use of the 'army', each soldier had to rely either on combat engineers to prepare fortified positions or their own hard work.  Soldiers had throughout history carried an 'entrenching tool' of some sort or another.  Some designs of these devices ranged from the purely utilitarian to the outright scary.  In a pinch, the multi-function shovel/saw/pick/hammer entrenchment tool could also act as a hand to hand weapon (as the Germans found out in World War One), a very viscous hand to hand weapon.   The 21CB saw an increase in the use of infantry, both regular and powered, and the fluid dynamics of the 21CB often meant that soldiers didn't have time to dig foxholes or prepare positions, they would be dead or combat lossed long before they could entrench themselves.  A solution was devised along the lines of a simple nature.  The 21CB saw a new evolution of the entrenching tool, a one shot throw away device designed to create a foxhole by using a specialized explosive burrowing charge.  Initial field tests proved successful and soon, the 'Digging Charge' became standard kit to all infantry, powered and non powered.  The 'digging charge' became known as the "Instant Foxhole" or "Foxhole in a Can" to the rank and file.   While not as adequate of protection as either Prepared Positions or Hardened Positions (see above), the digging charges were better than nothing, they didn't require combat engineers to be present to create and they could be created instantly, anywhere the infantryman desired!

A digging charge was a relatively small device, small enough so that an soldier could carry a few (a MI could carry several), and light, about 1.5 kilos, it was part of the standard kit.  The digging charge was simple to operate.  The charge was removed from the infantryman's inventory, activated with either a command (EMS) detonation or timed delay fuse, and emplaced in a location that afforded a tactical advantage.   Upon activation, the digging charge would explosively propel a small, fully tamped reverse fire cone TB-X charge three meters into soft ground (less in harder ground).   One second later, the fired TB-X charge would detonate below ground, and the reverse cone of the reverse tamped explosion would create an instant crater by violently ejecting over 3 cubic meters of ground two meters into the air.  This usually fell in a ring type shape around the crater, allowing rapid creation of a defensive berm around the fresh foxhole.  The resulting crater, often still smoking when the infantryman jumped in, could be used instantly as a foxhole to provide defensive cover or later networked into a sequence of semi-submerged tunnels and catacombs.  Nearby foxholes were often linked by simple tunnels for extended operations in an area.  Tunnels were created using small powered versions of the entrenchment tool that every infantryman carried.   Most infantry carried an ballisticeramic spall liner that could be pulled over the top of the foxhole to protect from shrapnel rain, AP charges, proof against the high velocity plastic splinters of the typical AP exploding aerial charge, and a host of elements.  Infantry who had 'gone to ground' were in a much better defensive position, especially for close assaults and overruns and for spillover fire.

 

 

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