Devastator

**Key Features** |  » Deathspray hose (x2) » Splattershot cannon » Shatterproof liquid tanks » Armoured respirator » Reactor-powered life support

*"It will be a silent spring."*

-Devastator preparing to spray

## Tactical Analysis

* **It all melts**: The two "death hose" splatter cannons the Devastator makes use of are some of the nastiest chemical agents in all of warfare. What they lack in Virus Gas' spread they make up for in sheer corrosive virulence and the noxiousness of their fumes. Targets struck by it are also slowed somewhat, and the Devastator has very high pressure hoses to get some impressive range. The devastator is also encased in a heavy battlesuit that can resist virtually the strongest of poundings while providing more than enough strength to simply smash most enemies that somehow get close, even being able to trample infantry due to their size and power. They are also uncrushable.
* **Tough crowd? No problem.**: The Devastator can also freeze targets en masse, clear out hazards, as well as corrode and weaken armour to leave them vulnerable to follow up attacks by either themselves or other units, turning even the strongest targets into victims waiting for the slaughter. The corrosion is faster and lasts longer and makes the target weak to devastation toxins even if they're normally resistant, while the freezing has the benefit of stopping the target entirely. The Detergent Splasher washes away most ofrms of hazards such as toxins, radioactive materials, acid pools, mines, and other dangers that could threaten an Allied advance.
* **I'm hosed!**: Devastators however don't have the range to make adequete attacks against aircraft and shouldn't even try to deal with them without support. Artillery is a particular problem due to their range, and autocannon type weapons are quite useful against them. Additionally, as battlesuits they are vulnerable to EMP and magnetic effects and as was rather famously found in Paris; have no resistance to mind control despite being so expensive.
* **Walking Wasteland**: Certain devastators are given modifications to their battlesuits that vent out puffs of devastation gas that will instantly kill nearly any unprotected infantry unit close enough to get a whiff, letting a devastator squad simply walk through an enemy infantry force without even having to pick and choose a target. Having such power requires a considerable deal of trust however, and only those who have earned that trust can be given such lethality.

## Operational History

It is often said that Devastation toxins initially started as a defoliant project that became perhaps a bit too good at its job due to the usage of untested and unsafe chemicals at the suggestion of the notorious Doctor Mengele. Instead of making weeds wilt, the green sludge that came out was enough to cause even untreated metals to start fizzling away. It killed the weeds alright, as well as the crops, the worms, the insects, the shrews, the bacteria, and even the viruses that had been present in the ground before hand and at least three people who inhaled the fumes and required an entirely separate chemical agent to clean up lest the testing grounds in Brazil be unsuitable for organic life for the next ten thousand years. Though this certainly disappointed the Ross Group which had hoped to create a more potent form of weed killer to ensure the safety of the livestock feed crops from competitors, it did immediately interest the military. The military was pleased with the substance's ability to dissolve flesh and bone alike in such a spectacular display. Initially preferred by the Integralist regime of Plinio Salgado in Brazil, the toxin would eventually find its way to the rest of the Allies.

One problem it faced as a battlefield weapon though was the issue of delivery. An infantry man carrying flamethrower fuel was already enough of a target, and someone lugging around large tanks full of chemicals was even more vulnerable. While the general solution in the second world war was to hand them to units as a punishment or give them to troops recruited from the colonies in Africa and Asia; this was not a solution that sat well with the elite Blackwatch and the integralist Green Guard. Shock Trooper battlesuits would be pressed into service as armatures to help carry the fuel tanks and protect the user from weapons fire; turning the early Devastators into extremely potent stormtroopers who could melt their way through even heavily entrenched enemy lines. Such weapons of course were widely reviled and those captured wielding them could usually expect a rough time or execution, but they made their mark.

Despite initial calls from within the Alliance to abolish Devastation weapons altogether when Thornley took over the Allies from Fuller; the Allies decided to stick with the weapon system and indeed refine it further. While the initial suggestion by Mengele to resolve the undesireability of being the one to wield the weapon by hardwiring Asylum inmates into battlesuits was vigorously rejected as "absolutely stark raving mad" in the words of Marshal Montgomery, the large armoured battlesuit part of the concept had merit and was explored further, just without the hardwiring part. And so it fell to the Oedipus Committee Productions, Sicily Branch to design the suit. What came out was a heavily armoured walking talk fitted with two high pressure hoses and large resevoirs of devastation toxins as well as secondary tanks containing corrosion agents as well as tertiary tanks containing a mixture of supercooled water and liquid helium to make for the best area denial and heavy assault unit possible.

The Devastator was born and first to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suits had easily wowed the brass sent to inspect the first tests, surpassing most of the other contenders in the demonstrations and earning nods of approval for its relative affordability despite the scale of the product. With little delay, the first peacemaker units to be designated as devastators were attached to the corps and sent out to join their divisions as the world teetered towards another war.

### WWIII operational history

The first serious challenge the Devastators faced outside of the usual ongoing conflict zones was at the formidable Czech defensive lines in the Sudetenland. These defenses had proven to be nearly unbreakable in the prior war and only gave way when Czechoslovakia was outflanked through Hungary and Poland and in the years since the second world war, the defenses at the "Slavic line" that delineated the separation between Eastern and western Europe had only grown even stronger. Hardened against even direct artillery and air strikes, the Sudtenland defenses were regarded as some of the strongest in the entire world, Commando and bomber raids had so far failed to produce the results that Thornley had desired and trying to extend around Czechoslovakia and risking the formation of a salient from which the Comintern could cut off Allied forces to the North and South was unacceptable.

The Devastators were carried into position and charged forward in the face of heavy enemy fire; freezing the heavier enemy defensive structures that could breach their armour, corroding and melting other defenses in their way and clearing out the fortification and trench lines of their garrisons with methodical lethality. In a matter of weeks they had their breach and Allied forces could advance deeper into Czechoslovakia at last; neutralising the threat of a Czechoslovakian pocket and forcing Comintern forces to draw back to more easily defensible positions elsewhere. Expecting such defense in depth tactics, the Devastator companies methodically carved a swathe ever eastwards. The mountains of Greece were a particularly important battlezone for the devastators in an effort to try and prevent Turkish reinforcements from shoring up communist positions in the balkans by seizing Greek ports before they could be used by the Turkish army and thus prepare the way for the invasion of Istanbul itself where Devastators would melt the gates of the second Theodosian walls to let the panzer divisions through.

In the wider and more open battlefields of North America, Devastator teams were continually shipped between hot spots in an effort to try and buy as much time as possible with attacks into the UASR before digging in to try and distract the Americans with conflict in their home country and ensure that Canada and Cuba would not be overrun. It was in large part thanks to the devastators that these attacks managed to break through some of the heavier defensive lines in North America as well as see off many of the initial offensives by the Americans into Canada; including the hard fought defense of Ontario from a sudden cross-lake amphibious assault. However decisive success in North America continued to elude the Allies while the American juggernaut began to send support to its overseas allies even despite the Miami raid launched from Cuba while the American Caribbean fleet was off on a goose chase guided by Epsilon agents; where Devastators tried to get the drop on American forces by emerging from the ocean itself after having walked across the seafloor.

The most infamous devastator incident however was not a high moment for the concept. During Epsilon's sudden betrayal of the Allied Cause, French President Pierre de Guine attempted to evacuate from Paris as the renegade research division unveiled its secret army before a horrified public during a victory parade. As chaos gripped through the city, Pierre attempted to flee aboard his helicopter only for an Epsilon adept to reach into the mind of one of his Devastator guards and control them. The Guard, Emmanuel Gustav; raised his spray nozzle and opened fire on his President and reduced him to a pile of sludge on live television. A horrified public was now fully on the receiving end of the terrifying effects of chemical warfare and was now perhaps a little more aware of the true face of their chemical weapons. Worsening things further was the Empire's declaration of war and its invasion of Europe, seizing many important coasts and ports.

The Devastator would eventually have its revenge later in the war as chaotic and confused frontlines finally began to stabilise and counters were finally being devised for the dire situations faced by the Allies in the world war, even proving surprisingly critical to felling the London Shogun executioner; weakening its armour and freezing its joints as the machine tried to march towards Downing Street. Fatally weakened, the executioner was unable to resist the heavy naval, artillery, and aerial bombardment it was subjected to and collapsed to the ground after having one of its legs blown clean off after being partially melted.

### Post War Operational History

Analysis of Devastator unit preformance in the war showed that the unit was surprisingly good when used against mind control units as Devastators were virtually immune to their own toxins and if gathered in enough numbers; would get close enough to the target to melt it to pieces with minimal casualties. This has lead to a modification of the usage of devastators after initially shying away from using the units against Epsilon due to the death of President Pierre. It was also found that while the suit technically could trample other infantry to death, doing so was generally less than a practical way of dealing with close by infantry targets; especially the kinds of infantry who'd even try to get anywhere near a Devastator. So the exterminator vents were created in an effort to improve their CQC lethality, and initial tests in China have proven nothing short of devastating, as a handful of Devastators walked straight through more than ten thousand atomic chinese clones who all fell over dead before even touching the armoured juggernauts before melting their command centre and bringing Chinese operations in western Kashmir to a temporary halt.