EMERALD LANCE

EMERALD LANCE is the codename for the Laundry modification of the Starstreak MANPAD (Man-Portable Air Defence) missile system. The mundane Starstreak has a range of 300 to 7000 meters and fires a round with three sub-munitions which fly in a 1.5m formation, increasing the chance of at least one projectile hitting the target. EMERALD LANCE piggy-backs modified RATIO technology onto Starstreak – the three penetrator darts each act as a “hot” node on a banishment grid generated in the plane of flight between the warheads. The operator selects a “spread” between the nodes (1.5 to 7 meters, currently), which is dialed into the missile by hand before firing. The Dho-Na payload activates about 150m down-range and fires the banishment effect when the penetrators bracket the target.

While EMERALD LANCE is a hopeful sign as we near the NIGHTMARE event threshold, the RATIO package required to banish entities of Class 3.8 and above has never been successfully employed in the field. Against the sort of being you'd try to shoot with a modified anti-aircraft missile, the notional banishment packages (let alone the broader, more diffuse "general package") may be useless. However, while the EMERALD LANCE projectiles lack the 450g high-explosive payload and contact fuze of the ordinary Starstreak, they're still tungsten penetrators flying in excess of Mach 4 with enough kinetic energy to punch through an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or destroy any aircraft short of an A-10 Warthog. So, even the banishment doesn't work, you're going to hurt your target pretty badly.1


QV: BRILLIANT LANCE, RATIO


Codename Archive

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License