Grotesque experimentation on Austral prisoners yielded many interesting results for the Noir defenders, including a battery of new chemical weapons. Aerosols in particular were found to be the most suitable delivery mechanism for these weapons in the field, as hypodermic or gas delivery would generally be blocked by resilient Austral skin/armor or air filters. These chemical weapons found a critical gap in the defensive abilities of the Austral Unity at the time of their appearance: they could escape detection as most atmospheric chemical sensors have screens in place to exclude droplets of natural fog or mist which interfere with detection.

Toxic aerosols

Noir aerosol chemical weapons are often based on dimethylmercury (DMM), one of the few chemicals still able to terminate a Vulkaz-wrami. (Tetrodotoxin extracted from numerous aquatic species such as pufferfish and the blue ring octopus is also usable, though a fast-acting anti-venom is available). DMM has the particular benefit of being able to penetrate many conventional protective barriers, and complex recipes with enhancing acids/bases can be formulated to penetrate or corrode conventional air filters and clothing to attack and poison a target protected against DMM alone. Simultaneously, resistant filters and clothing for friendly troops will be usually be used.

Heavy metal poisoning in general seems to have been somewhat overlooked in the enhancement of Vulkaz-wrami health to a post-human state. It is likely that this danger was forgotten as it was associated with archaic industrial processes that had been discontinued on the Austral Scape for centuries, along with fossil fuels and combustion engines (permitting Noir moves such as destroying aquacultural resources with oil slicks and carbon monoxide poisoning). De-chelated versions of common metals can resist the standard chelation therapies for metal poisoning and accelerate the timeline of decline and death. De-chelated lead (also called ‘complexed lead’) is quite deadly to the Vulkaz-wrami but difficult to administer by inhalation, being more suitable for food poisoning.

Enhancements

Strychnine is less fatal to Vulkaz-wrami than humans, with the Auravelus being fully immune; however, its symptoms of pain and incapacitation remain in the bluefolk. Strychnine can therefore be used to make a non-lethal aerosol weapon, or it can be combined with other compounds to compensate for the fact that most toxins that are lethal to the Vulkaz-wrami will take hours to days to take effect – with strychnine the Noir op can immediately debilitate the target. Painful incapacitation is also achievable with a large variety of vesicants (blister agents), with the most popular vesicant in the current Noir arsenal having the unintended side effect of being a potent aphrodisiac, resulting in erections despite the blistering pain. 

Others

Several other niche, odd discoveries were made from the piles of bodies at Pingfang. The anticoagulant aerosols can make a target as vulnerable to blood loss as a hemophiliac in a matter of minutes, lasting for several hours without other visible symptoms; this recipe is very stealthy in a natural environment, even to detectors looking for an aerosol weapon, as all the component molecules are plant-derived. Milled silica can be used to create a lacerating dust, deadly in a confined space – an aerosolized glue filled with this dust cannot be cleared from airways and even if the target survives they will probably need a lung transplant after exposure to this ‘super-asbestos’. A poison nicknamed ‘stoolie-berry’ or ‘stoolie-bury’ is lethal to most familiars and will be metabolized after death into ordinary sugars, confounding a medical examiner.

Incapacitation can also be achieved with psychedelic aerosols. This non-lethal weapon has lost much of its favor as it can be taken in small doses both recreationally and as an alleged performance-enhancer, eliminating fear and reducing pain, corrupting Noir ops with their own recipes. Basic opiates are more enjoyable to Vulkaz-wrami, and can cause brief, distracting euphoria.