| From: | Max Rible <slothman@*********.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Bug Extermination: How Did They Do That? |
| Date: | Wed, 7 May 1997 10:20:40 -0800 |
that it's safe to reopen the city?
The basic problem in going after enemies that are spirits is that you will
almost certainly need mages in order to deal with them, and mages are a very
scarce resource. However, there are a few useful stunts you could pull, I
think, that would make it easier to deal with spirit opponents.
Start with planes going overhead spraying out aerosols filled with bacteria
(not fat bacteria, just things that can survive in an aerosol) that have
a tendency to clump together into big sheets. With a continuous (and
expensive) bombardment like that, spirits will be pulled down to the ground
by the sheets or forced to manifest physically (at which point they can
be targetted).
Next, get a bunch of tanks, both LAV's and treaded vehicles. Build wards
around them, make a layer in the armor that contains lichen, whatever it
takes,
but make sure that spirits can't get in and out of them. Put in mundane
soldiers and at least one mage, using a fiber-optic observation network
(just like security mages) to see all around. Equip said vehicle with
lots of micro turrets with Firelance lasers (or the next generation up from
them-- they've had years to work at it!). The mages are there for magical
defense and casting a physical illusion spell that causes an astral target
to be visible on the physical plane-- enough that riggers and other gunners
can target it. Lasers, IIRC, qualify as elemental light, and are a lot
more dangerous against spirits than normal ammo. I'm not sure if water
cannon firing bacterial broth would be very useful or not, but it's another
thing worth contemplating.
The LAV's are there to go after the outdoor opponents. The treaded tanks
are meant to go indoors (!) when possible. There will be plenty of places
the treaded tanks couldn't go, though, and I'm trying to figure out how
you could equip drones properly to deal with such things...
--
%% Max Rible %% slothman@*****.com %% http://www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %%
%% "So, an Arisian, a Vorlon, and a knnn go into a tavern..." %%
