Infantry Scale Technology

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Infantry in the Human Sphere

Article Updated: August 4 2192
Author: Lt. Colonel William Sterling

A Historic Overview

Although most laymen believe that infantry have not changed significantly since their inception, the soldier of today is significantly changed from the soldier of the past. A familiarity with advances in weaponry, armor, electronics, and human modification are critical to ensure effective utilization and combat against infantry assets.

Augmentation

The most recent evolutionary advance in infantry technology has been the increasingly common use of augmentation technologies by various soldiers from many powers in the human sphere. Advances in genetic engineering, implantable mechanical technology, and nanomachinery, as well as the less high-profile but still critically important advances in pharmaceutical technology, have significantly increased the viability of infantry today.

Pharmaceutical

A near-universal augmentation method, pharmaceutical augmentation is used by powers which eschew other forms of human augmentation technology. Even powers which do not often modify their soldiers with drugs and chemicals, as the high cost-effectiveness, low absolute cost, and lack of ethical dilemmas makes them an easy and palatable solution to keep up with the most powerful forms of transhuman engineering. However, the results of pharmaceutical enhancement are generally relatively minor, or short-term.

Pharmaceutical augmentation takes many forms, from short-duration combat drugs to long-term medical care such as steroids and nootropics. Perhaps somewhat ironically, in this field the leaders of technical advancement are the Core powers, especially the European Union, as they have the highest incentive to make better "soldier drugs" for their personnel.

The most common form of pharmaceutical technology is the engineered steroid. Modern ones are highly selective, bonding solely to the desired tissue, and produce moderate amounts of improvement in physical attributes. A common EU steroid cocktail includes a modified anabolic steroid, as well as a DHEA-analogue. The combination boosts bone density and muscle mass by approximately 25-35%, with no side effects (when properly administered) save the gain in weight and bulk. Analogues of such technology are used by many powers throughout the human sphere, including New Mercian infantry, as the cocktail is extremely cheap, highly effective for its cost, and easily administered. Likewise, many military forces issue their recruits nootropics to cut down on training costs as well as increase productivity.

Finally, the most interesting and controversial form of pharmaceutical enhancement is the combat drug. Often a combination of a powerful stimulant, analgesics, psychoactive drugs to modify the fight or flight response, and antipsychotics to control the mental side effects. The net result is a fearless soldier who feels no pain, is capable of nearly inhuman feats of strength and endurance, and reacts quickly and precisely to battlefield stimuli. After the drug wears off, the user is left lethargic, easily distractable, and often has taken some degree of strain damage from overstressing his body.

These drugs today have no known long-term side effects, although the post-injection "crash" is extremely distressing, and it is possible to become psychologically addicted. Therefore, combat drugs have become more of a curiosity as of recent, although illegal possession and use of combat drugs is not uncommon in elite units such as the British Parachute Regiments, the USMC, and the US Army Rangers. Interestingly special forces units proper have a significantly reduced incidence, percentage-wise, of being caught for abuse. Whether this is from a lack of enforcement, superior skills in hiding said combat drugs, or lack of use is impossible to determine without further research.

Genetic

The most well-known method of augmenting human (and by extension, infantry) performance is genetic. From the relatively moderate changes made to the majority of ZOCU troops to the living testaments to modern genetic science that are Harawayians and Adharans, genetic augmentation lacks the limits of pharmaceutical enhancement and is still relatively affordable.

Although most transgenics were primarily designed for enhanced health, appearance, and mental capability than any particular intention to engineer towards war, due to the high value put on physical fitness by the consumer, many transgenic templates have at least moderate improvements on average over baseline humanity. The percentage improvement of enhancement decreases somewhat at the extremes, but as most soldiers are not subjected to the intense and grueling selection and training of commando units, the reduction is academic for the most part, as the bulk of every nation's armed forces are not made of special operations units.

The most extreme examples of combat engineering are Harawayian Reds, as well as Adharan genetech, both of whom share several very similar characteristics. In both cases, muscle and bone densities are significantly increased, reactions are boosted by one of several methods, muscle tissue is generally modified to be capable of functioning with both speed and endurance, and the cardiovascular system is heavily boosted. The Harawayian Reds possess an optimized endocrine system for their role, while the Adharans possess significant amounts of redundant organs as well as an abrasion and penetration-resistant dermal layer. In both cases the results are reasonably comparable-highly improved endurance and strength, superior reaction speeds, a higher body density, and increased capability to accept injury.

Cybernetic

Cybernetic augmentation, whether via hardware or is by far the most powerful but also the most expensive. Even in heavily transhuman polities such as Adhara, military-grade cyberware is rare and expensive, although the Adharans have been making attempts to reduce the cost of such an augmentation regimen. It is, however, the best choice for a "supersoldier" program

The most critical problems with cybernetic augmentation are mass, reliability, and allergenic potential. Human or transhuman bodies are not designed to accept inserts of cold metal objects, and the results are inconveniencing and painful unless the devices are specifically and expensively designed to prevent inflammation as well as sealed to ensure that no potentially toxic material ends up in the bloodstream. Nanomachinery may be less obvious, but is also more expensive and has similar problems with allergic reactions and rejection-the "Gray Death", a disease found in a moderate percentage of ZOCU veterans who possessed early-generation nano-enhancement, was caused by their enhanced immune systems rejecting the nanomachinery in their bloodstream. Although civilian cybernetics exist, they are generally uncommon, especially since almost every cybernetic system has an external equivalent which is cheaper.

The irony of cybernetic augmentation is that combining it with genetic augmentation is often difficult. The enhanced immune system of most transgenes exacerbates the rejection issues, making baseline humanity better choices for cybernetic modification. There are a handful of transgenics who are intentionally designed to be friendly to cybernetic upgrades, such as Adharans, but as the side effect of this engineering greatly cripples the immune system and requires an artificial one to be installed, for the forseeable future homo sapiens sapiens is still a better 'blank slate' to modify with cybernetics.

By far the most common military cybernetic is the "wired reflex" system, or a reaction enhancer. As reaction time enhancement via chemical or pharmaceutical means rapidly hit biological limits, cybernetic surgeries to go beyond said limits are the most common military-grade cyber. Other common augmentations generally are enhancements that are much more effective than any genetic or chemical surrogate, like artificial muscle tissue, dermal armor, and skeletal reinforcement. However, modifying someone with an amorphous diamond skeleton, myomer muscles, a set of cybernetic lungs, and dermal plating is extremely expensive, and a good suit of powered armor can essentially do the same at a somewhat cheaper price point. Therefore cybernetic augmentation is generally restricted to elite or special operations units, as they are generally already extremely costly and the augmentation can further improve them in their role as shock troopers, covert operatives, or light infantry.