Balin's Journal Part 2
Following Riza's example, Balin has started working on his own set of notes about the town, possible dangers, and strategies for dealing with them. Given the tactical importance of this journal, Balin will be guarding it jealously, though he'll allow his housemates-and anyone who has earned his trust-access to it. This journal will be updated whenever important information comes into Balin's hands.
(Balin's notebook uses the handwritten font "Daniel," which is freely available here. If you don't feel like grabbing the font, then this entry will default to whatever script font you have on your computer; just be aware that it's going to look a LOT different than intended. Different fonts, different sizes.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mayfield Notes - Time
Mayfield Notes - Family
Mayfield Notes - Drones
Mayfield Notes - Dairy
Threat Assessment - Enemy Order of Battle
Threat Assessment - Spring Culling Event
Threat Assessment - Truth Serum Gas Event
Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles
Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Brainstorming
Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Explosive Compounds
Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Plastic Explosives
Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Munitions Ingredients
Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Safety Measures
Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles - 01
Gilgamesh
Ancient Sumerian king who got hauled in to Mayfield from 5,000 years ago(!!). . .As of July 14, 195X+3 he's a kid due to drinking a potion of youth. Told me about having a "Genesis Star That Sunders Heaven and Earth" capable of splitting continents. Claims it caused Earth's continental drift. Holy fuck. On one hand I want to see that for myself but on the other I really don't.
Garviel also warned me about him. I remember Gilgamesh was an asshole to his own people in the stories, but so far seems docile as a child. If he becomes a real threat I don't know how what I can do about it, so game plan for now: don't piss him off.
(July 22, 195X+3)
Learned today that Gilgamesh was summoned to fight for a "Holy Grail" (not the grail). Apparently shoehorned into an Archer class. So, what? Does he fight with bows and arrows? Apparently most summoned heroes go by their class name to keep people from finding out their weaknesses; Gilgamesh claims he doesn't have any. (Does bragging count as one?)
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Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles - 02
Black Mage Evilwizardington
According to Touko, a real bastard who loves killing and maiming. Classic serial killer stuff, sounds like. "Black Mage" itself sounds like a serial killer's nickname. Her personal experience with Black Mage: witnessing him roll a barrel off to the Post Office while whistling happily. Touko's dead "husband" was in it.
And also: Touko says this guy works as a doctor at the hospital. He's a doctor at the hospital! FUCK YOU TOO, MAYFIELD.
As of July 14, 195X+3, real name, appearance, powers unknown. By the name, probably a wizard of some type. Said to be unsubtle and easily stopped, but the guy has to be cagey enough to kill without any powers. Don't underestimate.
(July 30, 195X+3)
Turns out that the guy who was canvassing for "quests," Red Mage Statscowski, is a traveling companion of Black Mage. He's also Touko's husband, which means Black Mage killed him. The fuck? Red Mage says Black Mage " doesn't deal that much damage in melee and his spells usually miss." Apparently the rest of their group keeps Black Mage in line back home. Doesn't make me any happier about knowing my only possible source for explosive compounds is a buddy of this psycho, though. Mayfield must be made of candy to an asshole like Black Mage.
(August 07, 195X+3)
Confirmed from roller rink trophy room: "Black Mage Evilwizardington" is his real name. Touko was right, this guy is not subtle at all.
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Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles - 03
Merem Solomon
Garviel warned me about this kid, but that's all I know-it's a kid, but one dangerous enough for that badass Astartes to consider a threat. That's pretty good authority, but I need to find out more.
(August 07, 195X+3)
Holy crap, I actually ran into this kid. Argued with him while I was at the roller rink's trophy room taking down names. I'm really not sure what to make of him now.
What I do know now is that he's a vampire. He calls himself a "Dead Apostle Ancestor" which is apparently one of the highest ranks vampires have for sorting themselves out back where he's from. He freely calls himself an " enemy of humans" and freely admits that they are only food to him now. (And he doesn't like blood packs.) Typical vampire stuff so far. I really don't like that, but I can understand why after he told me that the villagers from the town he lived in as a human hacked off his limbs so he couldn't escape. And why did they do that? They revered him as a god for his powers to manifest creatures from the imagination of others (he calls them "demons," but I'm not using that word here because it's not the kind of demon I think of when I think of demons).
So it surprised the hell out of me to learn he works for the Catholic Church(?!) as a part of some supernatural SWAT team. Ciel-the nun Touko recommended to me, the one who killed two people during the "spring culling"-she's a coworker for this kid. And they apparently protect the church as a sort of safe house in Mayfield. Merem did say Ciel killed to protect others. . .
So this kid might be more like Lt. Hawkeye-considers himself a monster, might not be all that bad. I never did get a chance to ask him about what he meant by "feeding on the soulless ones" in Mayfield, though. Maybe I can ask Ciel?
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Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles - 04
Merem Solomon
KNOWN ABILITIES:
- Vampire; drinks the blood of others to sustain himself.
Feeding habits unclear; feeds on "soulless" people? - Does not actually have limbs; they were hacked off before he became a vampire. The "limbs" he has now are actually "demons" which serve that role until called to duty. Apparently can revive them without any help if they are destroyed. - His "left arm" is the King of Rats. Wears a little crown, capable of talking. - Like all Dead Apostle Ancestors, can outrun bullets in short bursts (that's around Mach 1 to 3). - Dead Apostle Ancestors can pick up and throw tanks (that's 50 to 70 tons). Merem "has his ways of doing so" even without his original limbs. (I bet he's got a badass super-strong "demon" somewhere.) - Strong regenerative powers; "no amount of bullets can kill a Dead Apostle Ancestor," he says.
POSSIBLE COUNTERS:
- Merem said younger Dead Apostle Ancestors can die to nuclear weapons, the older ones will survive but require time to regenerate. So my Logos Abilities can at least stun him or slow him down.
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Threat Assessment - Possible Hostiles - 05
"The Major"
Warned about this guy from both Touko and Garviel. Apparently an officer from WW2, an insane one. Nationality unknown as of July 14, 195X+3. Same with abilities and identity.
Nina Fortner's friend
Unknown name, and abilities as of July 14, 195X+3, but said to be a blond-haired man who hangs around a woman named Nina Fortner. Garviel considered this guy worse than the Major.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Brainstorming
(July 14, 195X+3)
Stuck in this town without any of my equipment from the AFS or my Logos Receptive powers. Which is just peachy, with all the murderers and psychopaths that Mayfield drags in here. Even if I do get my Demolitionist gear and Logos Abilities back, I can't rely on them. What Mayfield gives back, it can also take away. This much I learned from Touko Aozaki, and that whole account of the "spring culling" incident.
So what I'll have to do is build some anti-personnel mines from scratch. Something like a Claymore, maybe a few high-explosive anti-tank-like stuff in case we have to deal with armored threats.
Lt. Hawkeye hinted Mayfield does have stuff like guns to buy, and Caesar indicated the town's got fully-stocked and functioning stores (even though the roads out of town go nowhere?). Maybe all the chemicals I need to make explosives are here. Cook up a good store of them, build some adequate delivery devices, wire up a defense perimter in case someone tries to pull a Jack Torrance on us.
Command-detonation would be the best bet. Pressure plates or other proximity fuze systems are NOT an option. I don't want to kill innocent people with these. I'm not going to be like the other murderers here.
Have to think about stability for the explosive compounds. There's not much sense in using explosives for defense if they're more likely to kill you than your enemy. Might as well ask one of the resident psychos in the town to do the deed instead, save on the money and supplies.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Explosive Compounds - 01
Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil (ANFO)
AKA "fertilizer bomb." This is what I think of when I think of a "ghetto blaster." Easy to make, very low sensitivity; tertiary explosive, weaker than TNT. If I can make TNT or RDX, why would I need ANFO? Well. . .I guess I could use it if I can't make enough TNT (or something similar). Or if I have a literal need to blow shit up.
Trinitrotoluene (TNT)
The standard by which all other explosives are measured. Find some toluene, nitrate it, then nitrate the result two more times. Stable, doesn't care that much about physical shock or friction. More stable than RDX, even. Not sure if I can get the chemicals though.
Dynamite (Civilian)
Absorbent material soaked in nitroglycerin-can be anything from sawdust to clay as long as it can soak it up. More powerful than TNT (by 50%), HIGHLY unstable, sensitive to physical shock, degrades into even more unstable forms.
Yeah, no. Fuck this option, I want to live.
Dynamite (Military)
I Can't Believe It's Not Dynamite. Mimics the properties of dynamite (while being far more stable) by using 75% RDX, 15% TNT, 5% motor oil, and 5% cornstarch. I can do better with RDX and TNT than this.
Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN)
Mix up some pentaerythritol with nitric and sulfuric acid and you get this. 66% stronger than TNT, not as stable as RDX. I've seen some studies about how this thing degrades under different conditions. Didn't like what I saw. Just as well, don't think the ingredients for this would be easy to acquire.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Explosive Compounds - 02
Research Department eXplosive (RDX, Hexogen, T4)
First option I like. One of the strongest high explosive compounds (something like 60% stronger than TNT), great at breaking up bomb casings for fragmentation (yay shrapnel!). Won't explode if shot at or set on fire, only blows up when you tell it to. Very stable, very obedient explosive. . .at least when it's not below freezing.
Made its big debut in WW2 but was first made in the 1890s. Used in a lot of different 20th-century explosives; it's the primary ingredient of plastic explosives like C4, and that's used in area-denial, anti-personnel mines like the Claymore. Exactly what I need.
One method for making it would be combining nitric acid with sulphamic acid and formaldehyde. Easier way: nitric acid and hexamine (methenamine). Lots of ways to do this, manufacture should be a piece of cake.
High-velocity Military eXplosive (HMX, Octogen)
RDX's big brother (70% more powerful than TNT), but just as stable. Also called "Her Majesty's eXplosive," which tickles me pink.
Some methods of making RDX should yield around 10% HMX as part of the process. Not enough to use on its own, should treat it as a "sweetener" of sorts.
Hexanitrate Hexanitrohexazaza (HNIW, CL-20)
Still can't spell this one for shit. Something like twice as powerful as TNT while being even less sensitive, so better than HMX. US Navy's China Lake facility cooked this up in the late 80s and now it's one of our workhorse explosives in the AFS. Manufacturing this without an AFS workstation will be tedious and difficult; I'd have to synthesize TADB first and then HNIW from that.
Should look into other options first.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Explosive Compounds - 03
Heptanitrocubane (HNC)
Now we're getting into the good stuff. A cube-shaped hydrocarbon with nitro compounds replacing most of the corners. This was bleeding-edge theoretical shit back on Earth, and they'd only started synthesizing the stuff to prove it exists back in 1999. This and ONC are the high-end workhorse explosives of the AFS.
It's kind of like the RDX to ONC's HMX; molecule for molecule it doesn't pack as much of a punch as ONC. On the other hand, HNC packs much denser than ONC, so technically there's a point where you'll get more bang for your buck. I use mixtures of HNC and ONC in manufacturing Class IX and X grenades and elite-grade munitions.
Octanitrocubane (ONC)
This right here is the motherfucking breakfast of explosive champions. Almost three times as explosive as TNT (170%!) and just as insensitive to shock; you can beat the crap out of this stuff all day and it won't explode. In the AFS this is one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosives we have; a lot of varying Receptive MOSes are taught how to manifest this and HNC for their explosive Logos Abilities.
It'll be a cold day in Hell before I could synthesize either this or HNC with 1950s lab equipment, though. They were just beginning to toy with this stuff in 2000 or 2001 (can't remember), I won't have the lab equipment to manufacture this unless Mayfield gives me an AFS workstation or something.
I think my best bet will be to focus on making RDX until-if and when-I get the right tools to manufacture actual AFS munitions. A homemade Claymore mine might pale in comparison to a Class X Fragmentation Grenade, but it's definitely nothing to sneeze at either.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Plastic Explosives
This will be the tricky part. The ingredients used as a plasticizer and phlegmatizer will change the properties of the explosive in terms of its stability, storability, toxicity and explosive yield.
COMPOSITION B
Not a plastic explosive, but before the Bane invaded it was still being used in some NATO munitions. 60% RDX, 40% TNT, 1% paraffin wax. If I really can't make plastic explosives I can fall back on this. Better option than military dynamite, since it's castable.
COMPOSITION C
Good old American Play-Doh from Hell! (Well, originally British.) Comes in several dramatically different flavors:
C-1
- About 88% RDX, the rest is mineral oil. Very small range of servicable temperatures. Not good.
C-2
- Not dealing with this either. Requires a solvent, tetryl and nitrocellulose, not worth the effort for the end product; it can't be stored in high temperatures.
C-3
- This is just C-2 without the solvent, and more plasticizers. That makes it much more toxic via vapor and skin contact. FUCK no.
C-4
- This is what I've got to aim for. 91% RDX, and either 5.3% dioctyl sebacate or dioctyl adipate, with 2.1% polyisobutylene and 1.6% motor oil (I think the grade is SAE 10 non-detergent). Not going to be easy, but C-4 is a highly stable explosive; you can cook it in a microwave, set it on fire, it won't care. It retains effectiveness in cold weather. It can ONLY be detonated by a combination of extreme heat and a shockwave, i.e. detonators.
Easily molded into any shape, can be handled with bare hands, very low toxicity. I heard about Vietnam War soldiers eating small amounts of this from Claymore mines just to fake being sick! It's easily worth the effort compared to previous Comp C variants.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Munitions Ingredients - 01
RDX
- Nitric Acid
- Sulphamic Acid
- Formaldehyde
OR:
- Nitric Acid
- Hexamine
TNT
- Toluene
- Nitric Acid
- Sulfuric Acid
- Oleum OR Aqua fortis
(depending on method)
CLEANUP
- Sodium Bicarbonate (both)
- Sodium Sulfate (TNT only)
NITRIC ACID (YELLOW): Used in wood conditioning, carpentry and maybe art stores should carry it in Mayfield; will need to purify for use.
HEXAMINE (RED): Best source would be fuel tablets made for camping, military, and rescue purposes. Should be available here in the 1950s, it was made earlier than that I think.
TOLUENE (RED): Sees a lot of use in stripping paint, probably used more often in the 1950s, MAY be easier to find in Mayfield.
SULFURIC ACID (WHITE): Some professional drain openers are concentrated sulfuric acid; try the hardware store. Auto or mechanic stores may sell battery acid seperately; it's the same thing.
OLEUM (WHITE): Fuming variant of sulfuric acid. I think it's mainly an industrial chemical.
AQUA FORTIS (WHITE): Fuming flavor of nitric acid. Mostly an industrial chemical, no clue where to find it in Mayfield.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Munitions Ingredients - 02
SODIUM BICARBONATE (GREEN): AKA baking soda. Probably have some in the kitchen. If not just get some at the supermarket. Used to neutralize leftover acids via soaking and washing.
SODIUM SULFATE (GREEN): Also used to neutralize/wash out acids. This is industrial stuff, no clue where to get it in Mayfield.
DIOCTYL SEBACATE (RED): AKA 2-ethylhexyl sebacate or diethylhexyl sebacate. I really can't think of any reliable source for this outside of industry.
DIOCTYL ADIPATE (RED): AKA DOA. Another chemical that will likely be only available industrially.
POLYISOBUTYLENE (GREEN): AKA butyl rubber. Used for airtight air bladders in tires and sporting equipment; likely not going to be found in any other form outside of industry. I wonder if I could harvest a few basketballs or tires for some? I don't need much.
RED:Flammable. Store in separated area. BLUE:Health Hazard. Toxic if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through skin. Store in secure area. YELLOW:Reactive and oxidizing. May react violently with air, water or other substances. Store away from flammable and combustible materials. WHITE:Corrosive. May harm skin, eyes, mucous membranes.
Store away from red-, yellow-, and blue-coded chemicals. GREEN:Presents no more than moderate hazard.
For general chemical storage.
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Perimeter Defense / Remote Ambush - Safety Measures
Going to need to set up a chemlab to manufacture these. No way in Hell am I doing it at home, not without an AFS workstation. I don't think there's any chemical industry facilities here. Maybe try the high school chemistry labs? It'd have all the labware I need there, not to mention the proper safety gear. Maybe the faculty are fellow captives; I should talk to one, see if I can get some lab time after school or during breaks. This sitcom of a town should've made me a teacher instead of a construction worker, it'd be easier to get access to all this. But nooooo, that'd be too easy.
The industrial three-step method of TNT production (toluene + sulfuric/nitric acid x2 -> DNT + nitric acid/oleum) creates toxic "red water" and "pink water" waste byproducts. Dispose by evaporating until toxic materials are dry, then torch it. Could kill two birds with one stone, use the evaporated waste as target practice for incendiary rounds.
(July 22, 195X+3)
RED Sniper said that Tiger Field might be good for incenidary munition tests, but I'd rather use an out of the way place for this.
(August 07, 195X+3)
Received permission to use the chemistry labs at the school from Susan Sto Helit. She says the chemistry teachers have always been drones in the past, though. Definitely will have to make sure no teachers are in the labs until I can find an undroned chem teacher to help keep my cover.