Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Pion Isopin Array

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The Pion Isopin Array is one of the Alliance of Hawke's experimental vehicles. This typical type of Experimental weapon planned to be voiced by Matthew Lillard

Tactical analysis

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History
"Why am I here? I'm a doctor!"

-A reluctant Pion Isospin Array operator

Short story
Reprinted with permission from Popular Mechanics, 1989 V.C.

The Weapon of the Future: The Pion Isospin Array by John F. Pearson

Ever wonder what holds matter together? Physicists have recently discovered the pion, a light meson. Pions are spinless, involved in flavors, three of them make an isospin, and they are generally extremely difficult for physicists to explain to impatient military types. Take our word for it, though, pions are important.

When scientists mentioned what happens when you interfere with them, those same generals instantly pay attention. You see, pions are a key element in the strong nuclear force. Without them, subatomic particles cease to exist, reduced to their basic meson groups. It's an updated version of the intrinsic field theories you may have heard of, that were so popular during the 1950s. If mesons are the glue holding everything together, pions are the active chemical.

Now, the subatomic particles scientists deal with today have a lot of values associated with them; strangeness, flavor, up or down. Spin is the fundamental one for mesons, and pions are, as mentioned above, spinless, which confers them a unique isospin value. In order to provide experimental proof to the mechanics of these tricky particles, physicists on the cutting edge of theoretical sciences developed a machine that would bombard the pion with an even smaller particle, called the quark, intended to knock a quark out of position and replace it with one of a different value. If successful, this would prove the role of the pion in strong nuclear forces. The experiment, conducted on hydrogen, was a rousing success, converting millions of pions into other mesons by giving them spin. This was a side effect: the hydrogen sample was turned into rapidly dissipating, light blue vapor accompanied by electrical discharges.

Soon, scientists were using the Isospin device on elements with higher atomic numbers; the process got more difficult the higher one went, eventually losing all potency at titanium. Any element under that, however, will cease to exist rapidly. Eventually, it was decided to test the device on a pig corpse, resulting in near-instant disintegration. The scientists went to the Alliance military the next day.

You may have seen pictures of the new Isospin Array in newsreels or on television; they have been deployed in Lustria just recently, and Popular Mechanics is proud of the exclusive story on its effects in combat. In the jungles, the Isospin Array has proved valuable in clearing brush; calibrated to certain elements, organic matter literally vanishes in its path. A minor controversy has been raised that humans might get caught in the field; hysterical anti-war protesters describe the machine used to flay enemy combatants alive. We at Popular Mechanics would like to assure everyone that our boys and girls take every precaution to keep the war for freedom humane; the Isospin Array is covered in flashing warning lights and a klaxon sounds to warn everyone before it activates; it is extremely unlikely that anyone could miss it, and reports that these features have been disabled and the machine has been weaponized are exaggerated at best.