Directed Ordnance

'Directed ordnance' - also known as infantry ordinance despite its occasional use from skystations or other orbital platforms - is a term used in the Manifold Sky setting for any weapon that fires explosive shells or rockets in a directed fashion. This is in contrast to ordinance which requires no external launcher to use (i.e. grenades), a device dropped or tossed by aircraft (such as bombs), or a device planted directly by an infantryman (i.e. land mines and satchel charges). Directed ordnance includes mortars, rocket launchers, and artillery pieces. With the exception of rocket launchers, most pieces of directed ordinance fielded in the Manifold as of the year 10,000 AR are considered crew-served weapons, requiring more than one operator to use quickly and effectively.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The warheads of most shells as of the year 10,000 AR are optimized for either fragmentation or penetration, depending on whether the target is diffuse (i.e. a column of enemy soldiers) or discrete (i.e. a pillbox).

Significance

A strong presence of directed ordinance is a clear sign to any would-be invaders that the owners of these weapons intend to fight. While artillery pieces were common all the way back before the invention of dieseltech and have lost some of their utility in comparison to combat aircraft and airships, they remain an important staple of infantry warfare in the Manifold. On the other hand, the advent of dieseltech vehicles, mechanical computers and RadNet coordination has greatly improved the utility and accuracy of all such weapons.
Because of the strictures put in place by the Medial B Accords, directed ordinance emplacement rarely stock incendiary rounds. Debates have arisen around the question of whether, in the event that such a shell does create a wildfire, it is ethical or even useful to shoot at enemy combatants attempting to put a fire out. While enemies involved with firefighting efforts are distracted in the process, making them easy pickings, the Accords dictate that doing so would merely shift the responsibility of quenching the fire onto the next available group of people: the attacker's own forces. Doing so also has the tendency of weakening allied morale. In general, the current concensus is that one should not fire on enemies attempting to extinguish a brush fire that looks ready to spread.

Item type

Weapon, Explosive

Subtype / Model

Crew-Served Weapon

Rarity

Directed ordnance is a common sight on the battlefields of the War of Reunification. Every techologically modern nation fields at least some directed ordinance, as it can readily be used for defense (i.e. shelling a suspected Avarix Corps raiding party moving through a commissure) as much as offense.

Weight

Varies

Dimensions

Varies

Base Price

Varies