Many readers have asked about how Quantum Corps nanotroopers go about their business.  What sort of tactics are effective in combatting enemies in the world of atoms and molecules?  The following list details some of these tactics and maneuvers.

Operational Strategy and Tactics

1.    Deception and concealment:

Nanoscale assemblers and robots with quantum processors have the ability to make relatively quick configuration changes.  Swarms can look like clouds of dust, rain storms and hordes of flies or bees, even structures like buildings, cars, etc.  These config changes provide a ready-made source of deceptive countermeasures for concealment, allowing a typical ANAD unit to infiltrate and spring a surprise on even the most suspicious adversary.  The Russians call this tactic maskirovka. 

 

2.    Feints and Diversions:

The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu claimed that “all war is based on deception.”  Feints and diversions are part of the same toolkit.   Quantum Corps uses swarms to conceal a main axis of assault, or to confuse an adversary as to where the main assault will be.  This is a relatively straightforward task in nanoscale warfare.  Just replicate a few trillion bots, configure them into something the enemy expects and send them in the direction the enemy is anticipating.  If your intelligence is good, the enemy will react to these moves and weaken himself along another axis.  The ability to replicate quickly and form swarms to resemble any structure or form gives ANAD-style units unbeatable capabilities.

 

3.    Swarming attack (mass):

The use of replicated mass in nanobotic warfare is one of the simplest tactics to use.  Just slam atoms together like a drug-crazed brickmason on steroids and overwhelm the enemy with sheer mass.  Nanotroopers call this a ‘Big Bang.’  The trick to succeeding with this tactic is to be able to out-replicate the enemy and fend off any defenses he may have up his nanoscale sleeve…like electron bond disrupters, etc.  Although it’s often said that the best way to defeat a swarm is with another swarm, a High-Energy Radio Frequency (HERF) gun doesn’t hurt.  With enough blasts of rf, any swarm can be shattered and turned into clouds of french fries falling out of the sky.

 

4.    Dispersal

One of the great advantages of using swarms of nanobots in combat is the ability to pulse.  Pulsing means that the normal state of affairs is for the swarm to be dispersed or scattered to resemble or blend in to the local environment.  With the right signal, the dispersed bots can quickly gather together into whatever configuration or formation is needed, and slam the adversary from multiple directions at once.  Bees do it.  Birds do it.  And now ANAD nanobots do it too. 

 

5.    Entrapments and Ambushes

An ambush is a form of deception.  The point is to draw the adversary into a space where you have the advantage of mass and position.  Ambushes can be ridiculously easy when your swarms have the ability to configure as just about anything, a mountain, a cloud, a body of water.  But all nanobotic swarms require vigorous atom-slamming to maintain structure, and thus give off acoustic, electromagnetic and other atomic effects of this activity.  Thus masking your signature and controlling emissions is critical to an ambush.  As Sun Tzu put it: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

 

6.    Managing Configuration Changes

Quantum Corps tactics succeed when the proper swarm configuration can be deployed in a tactically effective manner.  This means the config templates and drivers have to be up to speed.  It also means the bots that make up a swarm have to be designed from the outset to replicate commanded configs quickly and without error, often under combat conditions.  A lot of this depends on intelligence…what do you know about your adversary?  Good intelligence, good communications and effective configuration management…every tactic used by Quantum Corps has all these elements, in abundance. 

 

These are just some of the basic tactics and maneuvers used by ANAD-style formations in Quantum Corps engagements. 

 

I hope everyone has a happy holiday and look for the next post in mid-January 2015. 

Many readers have asked about the sort of gear a typical ANAD detachment carries on a mission.  The following is a list, sorted into 5 categories: weapons, computers and data processing, comm equipment, personal gear and mission support. 

Weapons

1.     The most important weapon any Quantum Corps detachment takes into combat is its ANAD system.  The Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler-Disassembler, always in strict containment, enables the Detachment to fabricate many things it may need during a mission and assault or disassemble many nasty things, like enemy swarms.  At the beginning of the 22^nd century, ANAD technology has evolved to allow all nanotroopers to carry personal ANAD master bots and supporting systems embedded in containment capsules, which are surgically installed in their left shoulders.  Thus every trooper can launch and recover ANAD masters and these masters can replicate small-scale swarms to help the trooper with his mission responsibilities, including offensive and defensive support to the Detachment.  These personal swarms are a supplement to the squad-level tactical ANAD systems which support the Detachment’s mission as a whole. 

2.     All Detachments carry High-Energy Radio Frequency weapons which are particularly effective against enemy swarms.  Known as HERF, these radio frequency weapons degrade, disperse and destroy enemy swarms by slamming the bot clouds with waves of rf energy.  Although it has often been said that the best defense against a swarm is another swarm, HERF can make quick work of enemy swarms by punching holes in their formations.  HERF guns come in a variety of sizes, are battery or power cell operated and thus must be re-charged.  They are operated by the DPS ratings in the Detachment (Defense and Protective Systems specialists).

3.     Another weapon often used for close-quarters combat with enemy swarms or troops are the Magnetic Impulse guns.  Often called mag guns, these weapons generate streams of extremely high magnetic energy loops and throw these loops at ranges up to several kilometers, depending on coil strength and field attachments.  Mag guns are particularly useful for breaching barriers and structures quickly.  They are sometimes used as last-resort disrupters against enemy swarms, though HERF is far more effective.

4.     Additional weapons include assault rifles which fire PKR rounds (programmable kinetic rounds), which can be pre-programmed for different flight trajectories and different explosive or impact effects on the target. 

 

Computers and Data Processing Support

1.     Every nanotrooper in a typical Quantum Corps Detachment carries a Personal Data System (PDS), a powerful, networked, wireless computer and transmitter which handles all his personal information needs.  Securely encrypted, the PDS is the brains of the nanotrooper’s hypersuit, running all its defensive, life support, navigation, propulsion and other systems. 

2.     In addition to PDS for all nanotroopers, at least one of the CC ratings (Command and Control) always carries a Squad-level Server on a personal hypersuit rack.  The SLS is the big brain for massive data crunching for the Detachment, for such duties as sensor and signals analysis on the spot, documentation support for certain missions, big comm needs, situational decision support, tactical briefings, etc. 

Communications

1.     Detachment comms can be divided into 2 categories: intra-squad and external.  For intra-squad communications, the Crewnet is vital.  The Crewnet is a tactical net into which all troopers are plugged in.  It passes vital situational information, battle plans, orders, quick training or informational updates, sensor downloads and anything else the Detachment needs to carry out its mission.

2.     External comms are handled via two channels: (a) Detachment satlink via E-star to the secure and encrypted part of WorldNet known as BattleGrid and (b) Quantum coupler.

3.     BattleGrid is a protected part of WorldNet and its off-planet subsidiary Solnet.  Comms are via wireless radio frequency channels, heavily encrypted, with sufficient bandwidth to handle massive data uplink and downlink needs for the Detachment.

4.     Quantum couplers work on an entirely different principle, utilizing entangled quantum states to send and receive information.  Because of the physics of quantum states, couplers are virtually impossible to detect or penetrate.  The very act of penetrating changes quantum states.  It is possible to roughly follow coupler uploads and downloads by detecting and tracing decoherence wakes, but the technique is crude and can only give approximations of coupler locations and activity.  Quantum couplers handle the major comm duties for the Detachment. 

 

Personal Gear

1.     The main type of personal gear for all Detachment nanotroopers is the Mark 3 hypersuit.  The hypersuit is a boosted exoskeletal enclosure with full life support functions and both ballistic and counter-swarm protection suites, enabling the trooper so clad to enter virtually any environment with a reasonable chance of coming back alive.  The hypersuit is built up in layers of laminated ceramic and polymet, with outstanding ballistic protection against kinetic rounds as well as strong counter-swarm capabilities, including in the Mark 2 and higher versions, full reactive and active nanobotic shielding.  The Mk 3 handles all protective, defense, assault, comm, life support, data processing, navigation, sensor, power and other needs of the individual nanotrooper.  Every hypersuit also has a boost system, integral with the legs which allows the trooper to make short flights and hops over difficult terrain and also make controlled, powered descent from lifters into a combat zone. 

2.     The other principal type of personal gear that nanotroopers carry is an embedded ANAD system and containment capsule (the embed).  Pursuant to Quantum Corps’ Man-Machine Symbiosis Project of the 2060s, all troopers now embark their own personal ANAD master nanobots, with full propulsor, effector and replication capabilities of any squad-level swarm.  The capsule is surgically implanted (normally) in the left shoulder of a trooper upon graduation from the Basic Training Course (nog school) at Table Top Mountain, in Idaho, USA.  The capsule has full containment capabilities, as well as ANAD launch, recovery and some preventive maintenance and troubleshooting abilities in concert with the trooper’s hypersuit.  Now equipped with personal ANAD systems, any nanotrooper is virtually a one-man army, able to rapidly assemble and disassemble structures and counter enemy swarms infesting any battlefield. 

 

Mission Support Systems

1.     In addition to personal ANAD embeds for all troopers, the Detachment as a whole operates a full-capability, squad-level ANAD system.  The master bot is contained in a pod known among the troopers as TinyTown, which provides all services needed to configure, launch, recover, maintain, repair and upgrade the master nanobot.  TinyTowns are maintained by the Detachment CEC ratings (Containerization and Environmental Control).  Operation of the ANAD master and replicated swarms during ops is normally handled by the IC ratings (Interface and Operations Control), also known as code and stick men (and women). 

2.     A critical piece of mission support gear for any ANAD Detachment is Super-Fly.  Normally a small force of 4-6 unmanned entomopters, Super-Fly vehicles are micro-air vehicles of insect size or slightly larger which provide the Detachment with eyes and ears (and many other senses) at greater range than the usual Mark 1 human eyeball and ear.  Superfly craft search for thermal, acoustic and atomic effects and signatures of nearby nanobotic activity and give better warning to the Detachment of “what’s over that next hill,” wherever that next hill may be.  Superfly elements are typically operated by the DPS ratings.

3.     One final element of mission support that often comes in handy are canisters of MOBnet.  MOB stands for Mobility Obstruction Barrier.   MOBnet canisters contain swarms of nanobotic mesh, individual bots linked together like a very tight mesh, which are programmable and steerable and can be used for position and mobility control through variable pressure or force.  A MOBnet might be used to secure and control POWs or unruly civilians captured during an operation.  MOBnet nanobots are fully configurable ANAD-style bots, with the same effector, propulsion, navigation and configuration capabilities as any ANAD system.  This allows the Detachment to tailor the restraint system to the needs of any situation, be it POW management, crowd control, anti-riot policing, etc.  No self-respecting nanotrooper should be without one. 

 

I hope that this list gives some idea of what kind of gear Quantum Corps troopers take into battle with them.  It’s not complete but it should give you an idea of what kind of capabilities these troopers have.

 

The next post, in a few weeks, will answer this question: “What tactics do nanotroopers use in combat with enemy swarms?”