# Weapons of Mass Destruction (Sci-Fi)



## Jabrosky (Jun 28, 2012)

I'm ~1,000 words into a sci-fi story about an Egyptian spy named Sekhmetka who hunts down a rebellious cult in the Congolese jungle. After the cult's leader Neferu rescues her from a dinosaur, she promises Sekhmetka that she will bring the heroine's dead brother to life in exchange for a certain errand. I don't have the whole errand ironed out yet, but I'm inclined towards having Sekhmetka steal Congolese weapons of mass destruction for Neferu's cult. If I do go down this route, what kind of hi-tech weaponry should Sekhmetka steal? One idea I had featured nuclear or atomic grenades, which as the name implies have the destructive effects of ordinary nuclear missiles compacted into grenade form.


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## Queshire (Jun 28, 2012)

I really, really, REALLY suggest against atomic grenades as somehow, I don't think you've thought the whole idea through. Namely, consider just where the thrower of the grenade would be.

I suggest some type of virus. One which only affects humans, kills instantly, can be vaccinated against, and then goes inert like 24 hours after being released. That way you can hand out vaccines to your followers and supporters, then release the virus killing everybody else with 0 collateral damage, and with the virus going inert you wouldn't have to worry about killing tourists that arrive after you grab control of the country. I suppose a type of radiation or gas would work instead of a virus so long as they were as selective.


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## battlestar (Jun 28, 2012)

Dimensional distortion device: Flashes a gigantic area out of existence into a nearby dimension, where the laws of physics is entirely different, hence instantly disintegrates the transported into subatomic particles. Remote detonation, of course.

Just an idea.


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## Jabrosky (Jun 28, 2012)

I forgot to mention that these weapons have to be something the heroine can carry all by herself, as she works alone (she's already equipped with a bow and quiver, pistol, and machete). Would that narrow things down a little?


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## ThinkerX (Jun 28, 2012)

Ok...you have to be one *really* strong person to move even a so called 'suitcase nuke'.  Talking built like a pro wrestler or football player, and even they are going to be straining.

But, given that this is the Congo, here be a thought: nerve gas or bioweapon (ebola, maybe?) from a cold war cache or aircraft that 'went missing' during the Cold War.   (the amount of really dangerous stuff both the US and USSR lost track of duing the Cold War is enough to induce nightmares).


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## Jabrosky (Jun 28, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> Ok...you have to be one *really* strong person to move even a so called 'suitcase nuke'.  Talking built like a pro wrestler or football player, and even they are going to be straining.
> 
> But, given that this is the Congo, here be a thought: nerve gas or bioweapon (ebola, maybe?) from a cold war cache or aircraft that 'went missing' during the Cold War.   (the amount of really dangerous stuff both the US and USSR lost track of duing the Cold War is enough to induce nightmares).



The problem is that this is set in an alternative timeline in which ancient Egypt (or Kemet in the indigenous language), Kongo, and various other historical African civilizations survive to the present day unconquered by European or Arab invaders. In fact I have the world's superpowers more or less mapped out, and the US and Russia are not present at all (the Mongols control northern and central Eurasia and Native Americans have the Americas all to themselves).


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## ThinkerX (Jun 28, 2012)

> The problem is that this is set in an alternative timeline in which ancient Egypt (or Kemet in the indigenous language), Kongo, and various other historical African civilizations survive to the present day unconquered by European or Arab invaders. In fact I have the world's superpowers more or less mapped out, and the US and Russia are not present at all (the Mongols control northern and central Eurasia and Native Americans have the Americas all to themselves).



Ah!

Doesn't change the problems inherit with a suitcase nuke, though - the things you absolutely need to set off the reaction are *heavy*.  Your best bet - barring true exotics - would still be some sort of nerve gas or bio-weapon.  It could even still be something that 'went missing' during some exercise or nasty skirmish in your world, as the mindset would be the same - deny anything ever happened while quietly searching.


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## Jabrosky (Jun 28, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> Ah!
> 
> Doesn't change the problems inherit with a suitcase nuke, though - the things you absolutely need to set off the reaction are *heavy*.  Your best bet - barring true exotics - would still be some sort of nerve gas or bio-weapon.  It could even still be something that 'went missing' during some exercise or nasty skirmish in your world, as the mindset would be the same - deny anything ever happened while quietly searching.



Here's another problem: I'm picturing the Congolese (or rather Bakongo) actively manufacturing the weapons, which effectually means that Sekhmetka will have to infiltrate a Bakongo factory/laboratory/armory which will likely have lots of guards stationed. Nerve gas or bio-weapons could still work, but they wouldn't be something left behind long ago.


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## Saigonnus (Jun 28, 2012)

Perhaps a neutron weapon... one that could eliminate all neutrons (the glue for atoms) from a given area... killing basically anything in the area of affect.


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## Queshire (Jun 29, 2012)

A neutron device wouldn't just kill anything, but it would break down EVERYTHING living or non-living into their subatomic particles, and I'm pretty sure have a huge cloud of loose protons and electrons hanging around would be worse then a normal nuke.


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## Sheilawisz (Jun 29, 2012)

What about an Antimatter weapon?? It could be something tiny, easy to carry and still it would have the power of a larger, much heavier nuclear weapon!! =)


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## Saigonnus (Jun 29, 2012)

Maybe they refined the weapon to incinerate that extra matter as well, maybe they have collectors that can use those protons and electrons for their energy weapons.


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## Amanita (Jun 29, 2012)

First, you'll have to ask yourself how advanced your technology is and what you want your weapon to do. Should it affect only humans, destroy everything around, make the land inhabitable for decades, cause the highest possible amount of fear and terror (a highy number of badly injured and maybe slowly dying "survivors" would be helpful in this case)? 
Is it supposed to put the heroine into danger too, while she's carrying it? Is it supposed to be used at all. If so, it (probably) shouldn't be something that destroys the entire world. Do you want to describe the consequences and what are they supposed to look like?


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## Queshire (Jun 29, 2012)

Or if you're just using this as a macguffin and the weapon itself doesn't really matter beyond the fact that the protagonist has to get it and bring it to the bad guys, then the exact traits don't really matter and you should just go with what first comes to you. (Not the atomic grenades though, well, unless you lampshade the fact that the thrower would be caught in the blast radius, if that's the case then I'm a~~~~ll for the atomic grenades ^^)


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## Jabrosky (Jun 29, 2012)

Couldn't they use a grenade launcher instead of manually throwing it?


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## Queshire (Jun 29, 2012)

I think it's pretty safe to say that your average atomic bomb is designed to take out a city, now I'm no expert on guns, but I don't think there's a grenade launcher is going to be powerful enough to lob something like that a city's distance away. Of course, you could scale it down to the point that you could launch it far enough that the operater is safely out of the blast radius, but at that time they'd cease being a weapon of mass destruction.


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## ThinkerX (Jun 29, 2012)

> Here's another problem: I'm picturing the Congolese (or rather Bakongo) actively manufacturing the weapons, which effectually means that Sekhmetka will have to infiltrate a Bakongo factory/laboratory/armory which will likely have lots of guards stationed. Nerve gas or bio-weapons could still work, but they wouldn't be something left behind long ago.



Something that might help:  A nerve gas or bio weapons facility is going to have two types of security -

One to protect the facility from unauthorized people - like your character;

and  second to protect the people there from 'accidents' - researching and manufacturing this stuff is very, very dangerous.  

A problem (real or fake) which trips off the second type of security could partly negate the first type of security, because absolutely *nobody* wants this stuff released in an uncontrolled way.  If your character is clever enough, she could exploit such a situation - kindof a 'mission impossible' type deal.


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