NB-and-especially-C Weapons in T2K

[Raellus]

In my PbP, the player party has come across three 155mm vee-ex gas shells. They just command detonated two of them about 500m upwind (a very slight breeze) of where they are currently conducting house-clearing ops and I'm wondering if any of ya'll know what the dispersal radius/danger area is for such a weapon. I'd Google it but I don't want to end up on some kind of gov. watch-list. So, I'm hoping someone out there already has and can help me answer this question.

Thanks.

[kcdusk]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'd Google it but I don't want to end up on some kind of gov. watch-list. So, I'm hoping someone out there already has and can help me answer this question.

Thanks.

(Gulp!)

Um, i think your already on the "watch" list.

In fact, i think you "friended" some govt types the other day on your facebook page.

As for the question ... downwind? What where they thinking?

I dont have any facts to point to. But i thought Chemical gas weapons would influence a large area. Looking at the v2.2 RB it says 155mm chem weapons have a 35m burst area. Well, thats not so big.

Page 222 of the RB says the Burst radius (35m) is the width of the chemical it releases. THe length is 4 times its width (140m). The cloud starts at the impact point and stretches (you won't believe this) down wind.

Page 223 discuses in brief blood agent chem rounds, blister agents and nerve gas. I dont know what kind Vee-Eex might fit into.

I have to say the danger area is smaller than i thought it might be. With no real reason at hand, i'd double the numbers as a start. Your PCs are still outside this range so maybe they'd be OK after all.

[kcdusk]

I couldnt find anything on Pauls site either.

[Targan]

I've PM'd you Raellus. I should be able to help.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

Page 223 discuses in brief blood agent chem rounds, blister agents and nerve gas. I dont know what kind Vee-Eex might fit into.

VX is a nerve agent. And a really nasty one at that.

[Trooper]

Originally Posted by Raellus

In my PbP, the player party has come across three 155mm vee-ex gas shells. They just command detonated two of them about 500m upwind (a very slight breeze) of where they are currently conducting house-clearing ops and I'm wondering if any of ya'll know what the dispersal radius/danger area is for such a weapon.
Thanks.

Even entering the village without full NBC suit would be a very bad idea and when your characters come back from contaminated area they will need proper decontamination. Detonating chem round outside buildings is also bad idea, it can take hours to gas to seep to an inner rooms. It`s much easier to throw or shoot CS round inside the house.

http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/bio/.../delivery.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLWMQui-Cec

[jester]

VX is a Binary round. Meaning the round needs to be fired <usualy another safety, it needs to be fired and spin X number of times to fire> Binary, the round usualy needs to spin to mix the chemicals to make it active.

As for the radius, unless there is a strong gale going on most folks in the immediate area are TOAST!!!! Remember the concusion and shockwave of your explosion is going to disperse the chemical <if it worked at all> Even people and things up wind.

Nerve Agents are a contact weapon, they are normaly in a oily liquid form. Again with the explosion they will do up into the air and come down in a mist as well. And really contact with the chemical is fatal in the T2K world. The Tupamchloride is a concentrated form of valium, it is used to keep the patient immobile hopefully they won't convulse to the point they break bones and dislocate joints or cause other injury. And then of course the toxin and its affects on the nervous system which will basicaly cause them to STOP WORKING!

I would say and this is a basic idea everything within 1km is going to get a dose.

[Legbreaker]

I would suggest having a read of http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/li...-14/index.html specifically chapter 2, page 17.

It doesn't give burst radius etc, but does have some interesting (and very scary) information on expected casualty rates per number of rounds in an area.

For example, at 20 degrees celsius, it only takes 4 VX bombs in an area of 150 hectares (a little over half a square mile) to inflict approximately 21% casualties. Drop 16 over the same area and you're up to 45%.

Naturally that's just a guide. There are an endless number of factors which will impact upon the final result.

What might be of more use is the statement "Agent clouds will produce very narrow and very long hazard clouds. Dosages over 100 times the lethal levels are possible in the hazard area."

[kcdusk]

Raellus said the round was detonated on the ground i think. So that might help reduce fallout/affected area. Even more so if it was tampered.

[Raellus]

To clarify, the two shells were detonated on the ground in an open field bordered by some trees and burned-down buildings, about 500m north of a small hamlet where the PCs are engaged in some house-clearing. The hamlet is surrounded by woods. The Vistula river flows by about a kilometer to the west.

I wish I'd asked this question earlier. I was operating under a couple of assumptions and the hope that the players would suspend disbelief, to a degree. With what Jester said about having the shells having to spin to mix the chemical components, I guess the best that could be hoped for is for the explosives attached to the shell to create some kind of "dirty bomm" explosive effect. Could the explosion mix the nasty stuff or would an explosion destroy the chem compounds?

To further clarify, the shells were rigged with explosive charges made from C4 or dynamite strapped to the outside.

[jester]

The ground may tampen the effect but remember basic physics. The path of least resistance. So the damp earth which is an awesome tamping device, move should shoot skyward.

As for the placing C-4 and Dynamite on the outside, eh, that may degrade things pretty well too. Granted the immediate area will be nasty full of deadly nastiness. But a good chunk of the chemical nasties will be concentrated <except for the light wind and the explisive dispersal, a good KM in most directions as well as following the wind> The dampness of the area will also reduce the effect of most chem weapons. But then again, once the gases hit the river it will cause a calamity along the river and Nerve Agent is an oil based type agent it will stick to water. So the Vistula from where the weapons are detonated all the way down river will be semi polluted or in some cases within the immediate area will be deadzones., and the areas beyond the immediate area will be poisoned and toxic the water, the fish all alive but filled with deadly toxins that will slowly poison the people who live there and garner their living from the river.

And now you know one of the motivations behind Drews statement. He of course will now be most fervently oposed to the use of the water, fishing or conact with the water. And the people who allowed or caused this calamity to happen will be in his sights as was stated when he joined the party.