- Intent: For use when the enemy has a city, but you see free real estate.
- Image Source: Deathfog by Anthony Sun
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Deathfog, Trihexalon, New Frontiers Medical Research Centre
- Name: Deathmist
- Official Designation: Iron Helix Counter-Organic Compound 8 (IH-COC-8)
- Manufacturer: Sith-Imperial Science Bureau
- Affiliation: The Sith Empire
- Modularity: No
- Production: Minor
- Legal Status: Strictly prohibited in most jurisdictions; unauthorised possession is punishable by death in the Sith Empire.
- Material: Various gases and pharmaceutical components; trace amounts of Trihexalon.
- Classification: Chemical Weapon
- Method of Consumption: Absorbed through exposed skin or inhalation.
- Average Life: Five minutes after last contact, or more likely until death. Outside subjects and containment units, the gas will disperse harmlessly in approximately twelve hours in windstill conditions - significant winds or sonic weapons will disperse the compound quickly, but risk exposing vast areas to trace amounts.
- Nutritional Value/Allergies/Side Effects/ Purpose: Could theoretically be consumed by silicon-based life, but possesses minimal nutritional value. | Primary purpose is to induce the rapid disintegration of living carbon-based cells, usually resulting in termination of vital signs within three to sixty seconds depending on dosage, with an average of ten seconds under "optimal dispersal". Side effects from trace amounts include localised cell death and heightened risk of immune system failure, organ failure, and the flu.
- Finely tuned to disrupt the cell bindings of organic lifeforms, Deathmist is able to reduce most beings to small puddles of dense goo within less than a minute but remains ineffectual against dead cells and silicon-based life. In practice, the skeleton is the last to disintegrate, often lasting significantly longer than the rest of the body or, in cases where the subject was only briefly exposed, remaining in its entirety or in a partially "melted" state.
- "Flawless" Lethality: Extensive tests have shown that exposure to all but trace amount by subjects not clad in completely airtight biohazard suits or analogous armour is lethal in 99.9% of cases. While untested, it is believed that massive creatures and beings endowed with potent Force abilities may be unaffected or only partially affected. (As always, calling hits is strictly forbidden, and dumping chemical weapons onto PCs or important NPCs without prior warning is simply rude.)
- Insidious Dispersal: As a fairly light gaseous compound, Deathmist will slowly drift towards the ground, usually coming to blanket an area similar to a fog bank if the concentration is large enough. On account of its gaseous nature, it is able to slither through all but the smallest of openings, with its low speed allowing it to sink through most particle shields unimpeded.
- Clean Slate: An obvious advantage of a compound that only kills organics, Deathmist will leave infrastructure and starships alike intact, assuming someone doesn't rudely trigger a self-destruct sequence in their final moments.
- Hydrophobic: Repelled by water and in large enough quantities rendered inert by it, Deathmist is incapable of being used underwater and ineffectual during heavy rains. Light to medium rain or planets/areas with unusually humid atmospheres will render it inert faster than normal exposure to air, but not to the point of making it useless. As an added bonus, hiding in the shower or diving underwater is a viable survival strategy.
- Flammable: While not overly combustible, the use of flamethrowers, incendiary grenades, or lightsabers within the gas itself is very likely to result in its violent combustion, which in turn is likely to ignite adjacent gas pockets - while spectacular, it is far more survivable than the Deathmist itself.
- Highly Visible: Appearing like a sickly green bank of fog that glows faintly in the dark, Deathmist is very visible, and very obviously dangerous.
- Selective Purge: While leaving infrastructure behind is all well and good, it is less ideal that the weapon is completely ineffectual against silicon-based life and enemy battle droids. Soldiers in air-sealed armour are admittedly vulnerable to armour breaches, but the same goes for one's own soldiers.
In the bowels of the New Frontiers Medical Research Centre, in labs removed from all official schematics, the Sith Empire's scientists work tirelessly to push at the fringes of science and morality both. Where those of the New Frontiers section may concern themselves with higher pursuits and stranger methods, the Experimental Weapons section has a much more straight-forward, but no less difficult, goal in mind - to perfect the art of death.
Most recent of their depraved innovations, and the first project personally overseen by the new Site Director, Oriz Kradeen, is the compound popularly known as Deathmist. Developed as part of the appropriately-named Project Clean Slate, which aspired to find a way to wipe out all life in a large area while leaving vital infrastructure intact, the compound is based on and indeed contains trace amounts of Trihexalon. Its effects, while perhaps less spectacular, is no less impressive - its ability to reduce a fully armoured man to a goo-coated suit of armour leading to the compound being truly reviled, though it is its indiscriminate nature and the risk of unintentional dispersal on account of heavy winds that has lead to it being strictly forbidden in virtually all jurisdictions, often even for military use. Not that the Sith Empire will let the secrets of its creation be stolen without immense difficulty.
Kept at high densities inside specialised containment vessels, Deathmist can be deployed in a number of manners, from wall-sprinklers and grenades to massive ship-borne munitions designed to blanket entire blocks or districts. Most of the time, Deathmist containers feature carefully air-sealed plexiglass viewports - perhaps to admire the brilliant lights of its super-compressed form, but more likely to monitor its colour, for if the pressure is too great, it will turn faintly red... and then violently explode minutes later. Rumours abound of this happening during particularly violent atmospheric entrances, with the Science Bureau choosing not to offer comment... mostly to encourage even more care when handling the devices.
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