| Gas vs Liquid |
| Summary: | Fairfax chats to Toby about a report he wrote regarding the use of chlorine as a weapon. |
| Date: | 26/04/2016 |
| Related Logs: | Report |
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| Hangar Bay - Deck 3 - Battlestar Orion |
| Each hangar deck is divided into five one-hundred yard sections, each divided from the others by massive blast doors that close vertically from the floor and overhead. Each hangar section houses all of the Vipers, Raptors, and Predators that the wing operates as well as the vital work areas to support and maintain these fighting platforms. Each bay is large enough to accommodate one of these frames and still get heavy work done, though the fore- and aft-most sections are dedicated to overhauls and major work to be done. The bays along the center section are located across from launch tubes and elevators in order to provide scramble and Alert-Five capabilities. The second-to-aft bay provides major elevator and transport access to the starboard bay as well as the major manufacturing facility. Due to the nature of the work, the hangar decks are major hubs of activity at all hours of the day and all but four hours overnight. |
| AWD #309 |
The hanger deck is busy, but not hectic today. Maintaince crews are hard at work, and one team are drilling for rapid turn around of vipers, but there's nothing particularly new there. All told it's a pretty normal day, with, as of yet, no terrible surprises. Toby, being one of the lowest rankers, has landed CO2 scrubber duty, so he's working his way along a line of parked raptors, hauling himself into the cabin, checking the scrubbers, and replacing any that need it. Dull, but vital, like quite a lot of his work really.
Fairfax steps onto the deck, taking a moment to glance around and get his bearings before he proceeds any further. This isn't his natural environment, and he doesn't know any faces, but it's easy enough for him to find someone to ask and get pointed in Toby's direction. So he heads over to the raptor the man should be emerging from next.
As it turns out, this particular raptor's scrubbers are well within tolerance so Toby just sets it back in position, closes the panel covering, and ducks back out onto the raptor's wing. The presence of a marine is noted as his boots hit the deck and he eyes the man a moment before moving to give him access to the raptor, assuming that's what he's here for.
The marine, apparently, is here for Toby. "Crewman Shackleton?" He inquires, though he's fairly sure he's in the right place. "Captain Fairfax." Introductions made, Fairfax adds "You said to come find you on the deck, though it looks like you're busy right now."
Toby looks faintly suspicious as Fairfax announces that he's here to see him, although that relaxes a little once the prior communication is referenced. "Ah, right, that you then. Yes, I'm busy, but then I work in a busy department, if you're happy to talk while I work though then you can say or ask what you need." Making a quick note next to the raptors serial number on the sheet attached to his clipboard he turns and heads for the next one along, assuming the marine will follow him.
"Outstanding." Fairfax follows along a pace or two behind Toby. His accent is a rough one, from the low end of Tauron society. "So, I read your report. Sounds like I'm far more likely to murder my own troops and civilians with that gas than score any hits on toasters with it, if I understand right. Which means limited to no battlefield application, especially in urban battlefields" A pause. "But chlorine comes in liquid form, right? So my first question is, would liquid chlorine do the same thing to the internal electronics you said the gas would?"
Toby has a similarly Tauran accent which comes through strongly as he hauls himself up onto the wing of the target raptor then turns to face Fairfax. "Only a fraking moron would release that anywhere near a human population, military or civilian, so I'm going to pretend you even thought of that and move on." Crouching to keep himself on roughly equal eye level he continues, sounding faintly annoyed, or perhaps angry, it's hard to tell, "Yes chlorine comes in liquid form, and can give you fraking nasty burns if you let it touch your skin. Would it corrode electronics? I don't know, the COSHH datasheets and medical records don't exactly cover that. Ask the brass nicely though and I'm sure they'll let you experiment on one of the bodyparts we have onboard."
If Fairfax is ruffled by the way Toby talks to him, he doesn't let it show. There's a pause, while the marine considers how to come back at this. "Alright. So if the tests show good promise…similar to what the gas does…I'm interested in seeing if we can pursue the idea of multi-part munition that would breach the armor and then deliver the liquid chlorine payload directly into those internal systems you talked about. Since you've already started research in some aspects of this, is this a project you would be interested in being involved in?"
"I'm not an ordinance specialist," is Toby's really rather rapid reply, "I'll do your health and safety checks for you, even brief the poor smucks who'll have to handle it, but I don't even want it on this fraking ship, let alone be anywhere near it myself." Pushing himself upright he moves to duck into the interior of the craft, then, after a moment, sticks his head back out to add, "you'd get better dispersal with gas though, and be able to pack more per bomb. It'd only take time to be effective if it has to eat it's way through joints of weak points in the armour to get inside."
"Well, I appreciate that. I'm sure we'll need it if we pursue this." Fairfax observes at the talk of what Toby is willing to do. When the head pops back out, he nods thoughtfully. "Well, that is an advantage for sure. My thought was something that could deployed by a rifleman, but evidently I may have been going down the wrong road. I will follow up on those bodyparts, though." A nod, then. "I think that's everything I had. I appreciate your time."
"Only if you hate your riflemen," Toby replies as he ducks back in to get back to his own work, "but there might be some clever sod onboard who can come up with a way of doing it safely and effectively." His tone indicates that he doubts that, but it's rapidly followed by a "goodbye Captain," before he starts clinking around inside.
"Whatever my faults may be, I love every one of my marines." Fairfax says, his tone lower than it was a moment previously. Maybe finally found one of the few buttons on the apparently chill Captain? "That's why I came to talk to you. Safely or effectively, or not at all. Thank you again." About face, and off he goes. It's much more of a march than he walked in at.