WARFARE AND MILITARY

Warrior nobility.  The 2nd Estate.  Military units are organized primarily around Knights, both mounted on foremen for speed, and Dycortiq mechs for shock.  Under them is the common footsoldier, armed with weaponry designed to neutralize their more armored foes.  Pikes to stop cavalry in medium armor, and artillery and gauss weaponry to defeat mechs.  Over all these are combat engineers operating as the trump card and wild card, separately commanded by their own Masters.  Knights commonly lead the charge if its not suicide into a wall of pikes and gunfire.  Owing to the feudal nature of society, each knight brings and commands a force of men from his domain, and these are there to protect him.

Edged weapons are made from salvaged metal and shaped by ironmongers into swords, axes, and the like.  Rail guns (“glass”) are ubiquitous and come in all shapes and sizes and fire all manner of projectiles.  A footsoldier will commonly have a glass pistol on his belt attached to a small battery, and this can range up into small carbine rifle territory, slung over the back and fire a spray of projectilces like a blunderbuss.  He'll be uniformed in close fitting clothing, with a metal breastplate painted in his colors, and in large scale combat a helmet, but for guard duties etc they wear a hat.

Riflemen are more serious, with bigger batteries and bigger guns, effectively serving as anti-engineer and anti mech teams.  Battery packs are big enough that they must be carried on the back.  The gauss weaponry is composed of rail rifles, about 5 tp 6 feet long, thick and bulky, boxy, with glowing blue energy core.  Bolts are hand loaded into the muzzle or a side port, and the weapon takes time to charge between shots.  Due to the imprecise, unrifled nature of the projectiles, they are not too precise, but these have long range and are tremendously damaging and powerful.  They can core some thinner armored mechs and definitely the foremen that enduro cavalry ride.  But due to the high damage tolerance that infected humans possess, more than one hit is often needed to bring an invested knight down.

Artillery is huge and costly, using electro magnetism to fire sprays of pellets or huge wads of slag that can knock walls down or obliterate whole ranks of men.

Combat engineers come in different configurations but their skill level and prestige is important.  They are similar to knights in that the more investment they carry, the more destructive power they wield.  In pitched battles the presence of engineers looms large, just like aircraft in real life.  They can make all the difference with just a few of them, but because they are so few they cannot be used to take and hold ground.  In these pitched battles, much of the first phases of battle are opposing engineers having magical duels for supremacy, with enemy troops also attempting to neutralize them with snipers and artillery.  It takes line-of-sight and concentration for an engineer to work elan into destructive configurations to make attacks on enemy formations, and at the same time they must work to shield and maintain their own troops from the enemy engineers strikes.

So in pitched battle forces will advance and maneuver much like armies did in the 17th through the 19th centuries, under heavy fire.  They are protected from most of the ranged attacks by elantic shields, but where these fail or gap is random, and strikes through thiese yield casualties.  Only by closing the distance into melee range do they ensure the ranged attacks stop and let them do their work.  Thus, attacking must be done with a numerically superior force.  Defending on good ground is essential, but sometimes impossible.  When attacking, speed is key as they must close with the enemy as soon as possible.  The enemy will not fire on their own troops (unless they're crazy).

Cannon-fodder troops (the Less) will be in front with pikes and cheap pistols to screen a charge.  Knights on foremen will ride in to engage in a massve shockwave, shielded by engineers.  Behind them come the slower Dycortiq troops to relieve them and reap the slaughter and engage in their duels, seeking ransom.  It devolves into a huge scrum naturally, with artillery being fired at the back ranks and engineers continuing to oppose one another and strike where there is no protection.

HOWEVER

Pitched battle as a strategy is very rare in modern times.  It is now evolved into 4th generation warfare, where the political and military are fused as a means to victory, with propaganda and the sowing of confusion in an attempt to undermine foes, making costly land wars a thing of the past.  "War" such as it is on Pandaemonium is cold and covert, with attacks on key strategic assets, primarily the Galvants that power cities.  Financial wars in the control of Elan and money, with major losses having the potential to cripple rival nations and force the sale of territory.

\*\*\*Fourth generation warfare takes place on all fronts: economical, political, the media, military, and civilian\*

Helvetica and Zha Dzan engage in all of these modes of warfare, one for each chapter.

1.  Economical - theft/sabotage in the market zone

2. Political - undermine power in the news/sex zone

3. Media - propaganda/panagyric in the news zone

4. MIlitary - Assassination in the border zones

5. Civilian - shock in the sex zone, combat between rival seer gangs.