Strategic Arms, Beasts, Operations, and Tactics Quest

Testing began without incident. For testing purposes, six of each platoon's riflemen would be assigned to a 'specialist section' after getting a week's field course in the operation of their designated tools. 1 Platoon was going to be taking on the War Otters, 2 Platoon was going to be working with the Grenade Projectors, while 3 Platoon was serving as a measuring stick and 4 Platoon would be seconded to the base staff for working with testing area set-up and tear-down.

First up for testing was the Grenade Projector. Range and accuracy was going to be done on the light artillery range, which was ten kilometers of unusable land due to contamination. A series of targets had been set up at fifty meters and every fifty meters thereafter to a distance of five hundred meters, in the form of one meter square blue tarps with a one meter tall staff in the center, flying a red flag. Firing would be done by the best man of the section, Senior Trooper Fitzgerald.

Before testing was begun, it was explained what the rounds were. In total, there were five 'basic' types of rounds: Concussion, Fragmentation, Incendiary, Airburst, and Smoke. Above and beyond that were the two Special Type rounds; Poison Gas and Flare. Finally, the Type 8 Extreme Range round was available in limited numbers for testing. It was decided that tests would be performed with the Concussion and Fragmentation rounds with a preference to the later due to ease of identifying impact sites.

The first test was performed on an overcast day with low wind. Firing while standing, Fitzgerald addressed the first target with one grenade, with the amusing 'thump' sound noted by many. After a moment to stretch and reload- accomplished by fitting another grenade and chambering a new driving cartridge- he then proceed to fire on the second target. This required two grenades to service, as the first grenade undershot by three meters, missing the target entirely. The third target (150m) was addressed by four shoulder-fired rounds to no success, before Fitzgerald admitted defeat and pulled out what, to all appearances, was a musket fork.

Firing while kneeling with the fork, he addressed the target in a further two rounds. The fourth target took two rounds, and the fifth took four. On the fourth and fifth targets, both first rounds fell notably short, which was at the time theorized to be a result of the plumb bob sight system in use. The sixth target, at 300m, was not able to be addressed by the weapon with standard rounds. No round fell long, and after six shots landing within nine meters of the target, it was decided that this was the practical extent of fire, as the launcher was at a 45 degree angle and could not be reasonably fired further.

The second test, with the Type 8 Extreme Range round, followed the same parameters for the range. This time, however, a fighting scrape was dug, as the weapon could not be shoulder-fired when delivering the very heavy rounds. After two troopers broke shoulders and collarbones in training, it was decided discretion was the better part of valor. The method of achieving 'extreme range' was quickly found to be a rocket booster in the grenade body, and opinions were incredibly mixed. On the first target, it took four rounds to address, as the rocket ignition was often sporadic, and when in near-level flight the stabilizing fins would have some uncouth mechanical effect causing rounds to either massively overshoot or undershoot. The second target, meanwhile, had a similar problem: while the rounds no longer had their thirty-meter variance in point of impact, there were notable lateral discrepancies in the fall of shot. This was theorized to be an issue on rocket burnout, as the loss of tail mass caused the round to possibly wobble mid-flight; an issue that the stabilizing fins were not adequately correcting.

The third through sixth targets were all addressed by three rounds apiece; and whatever dramatic issues were caused by rocket timings had mostly settled out as the grenades boosted, tipped over, and conducted dives to the aplomb of observers. The misses tended to land within ten meters of the target, and while the explosions were lackluster, they did get the job done. The seventh and eighth targets required four and five shots to address respectively, as at this point prevailing wind conditions had picked up. The ninth and tenth targets were not addressed, as the stockpile of rounds had been used up.

The next day, after receiving a shipment of ammunition, mechanical accuracy was tested. A launcher was set up in a mechanical rest, and was given a three-man servicing team. Of the rounds launched at the desired 200m range, 65% fell within a 10m circle of the aim point, 15% fell within a 20m circle of the aim point, and the remaining misses fell within an ellipsis 20m wide and 30m long, with a predisposition to fall short. Mechanical reliability in the launch test of 100 rounds incurred nine failures to fire due to poor grenade seating, three failures to fire due to poor launching cartridge quality, two failures to fire due the cocking mechanism not engaging, and one faulty grenade damaging the launching spigot.

Kit testing was fairly simple. The grenades were shipped in twenty-count wooden crates, and then issued to troops in a five-count hard-sided leather case. Fuses were stored separately, as all the grenades used contact fusing except for airburst grenades. Specialty grenades were shipped in eight count crates and three count leather cases for infantry handling, with fuses stored separately. The launchers had the standard trigger blockers that the Gras used, and were not to be carried loaded. Lt. Jansen was extremely satisfied with the safety arrangements, and there were no notable handling accidents. Thus, testing of the Grenade Projector was tentatively concluded.

The War Otter was tested simultaneously with 2 Platoon. The men, mostly Dutch, were mildly nonplused for about a week, but the friendly nature of the dozen animals and their antics made them reasonably liked. The six handlers were not nearly as well-liked, but that was mostly because of their constant fishy smell from handling the otter chow and the fact said otters tended to barf on their boots. It took a little talking with senior handlers to figure out why, until they were told that the otters could not drink ground water without taking supplements. Once supplements were applied, the issue was resolved, but the smell remained.

Takedown testing was executed in two ways. First, the otters would be attacking a trainer in a protective suit, attempting to ground them and disarm them. The trainer would be 'killed' when they ripped off certain tied bandages over vital locations; mostly major arteries and joints. A follow-up demonstration on a horse lamb carcass doctored to simulate a human body would then be available.

The takedown testing was amusing, if it was not a demonstration of how murderous the war otters could be. With six heavily-suited trainers running around a section of cleared trenches while you observed from a watchtower, the results were both graphic and disturbing. The war otters would often ambush the trainers, hamstringing them quickly and bringing them to ground to strip them of their demonstration strips. For one dozen otters and the six dummies, it took roughly two minutes for the entirety of the section to be defeated, mostly because the otters had to take time to find each one.

The lethality testing was not amusing. One otter managed to savage the lamb corpse in such a way that even the flesh wounds would likely be lethal, in addition to the several killing blows delivered to the neck (cracking several vertebrae and shearing the spinal cord) and major arterial junctions. Between lacerations of five to twenty centimeters and the aforementioned bites, it was decided that lethality was not going to be a problem.

After the provided time allotted, a short survey of the platoons was taken to determine the opinion of the men operating the weapons.

1 Platoon and Lt. Jansen were overall satisfied with the War Otters, and had a wonderful time working with the beasts. As attached as they were- and vice-versa- their concerns were not with the effectiveness of the war otters as weapons, but rather with their ability to coordinate casualty management. Adding platoon level warbeasts would necessitate a company-level veterinarian, and keeping such a narrow profession in stock would be difficult.

2 Platoon and Lt. Bartholomeus were satisfied with their grenade projectors, but had some misgivings about combat use and supply. Even if another six riflemen were assigned as ammo bearers, the grenade projector section would only have fourteen grenades per launcher before they ran out of local ammunition and would need to visit the company supply; which came with the presumption the company supply even existed. That was the matter of another board, and if the decision came down to keep the company headquarters as small as possible then those fourteen grenades would be it for the platoon's combat load until a regimental supply vehicle came down the pike.

3 Platoon was mostly tired of playing busboy to the first two, but did have some thoughts. They liked both systems quite well, but were more partial to the War Otters, as many of the systems to take care of said creatures were more than likely to lead to increased creature comforts for themselves, such as the luxury of the company veterinarian being able to take on minor injuries without having to go up to the regimental field hospitals.

4 Platoon had been on loan to the testing field for most of this time, but came down hard on the topic to support the grenade projector. For them, the ability to have organic fire support not tied to the company-level telephone network and the fire support call center was a major boon, since while the pre-planned barrage had gone out of favor, there was still the very real issue of radio telegraphy and voice lines being disrupted by aggressive use of technological units.

The evidence really didn't matter, though, because once again Klaes was passing the buck on down to you. The group was tied up, and your vote would decide the issue. Why was Klaes even here if he didn't do anything to help with this crap? No matter: grenades, or otters. A decision to set the next twenty to forty years of military policy. No biggy.

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VOTE

Adopt which weapon?
[] War Otter System
[] Grenade Projector System