'Dante Environment And Climate'
From a Lecture
By DR Sirus Flint
FEN Research Department Slayers Fist Base

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen. As I'm sure you well know we at FEN have a considerable amount invested in our research and development facilities on the planet Dante and I'm here today to explain to you some of the unique opportunities this world offers as a proving ground for new products.

Nowhere else in the World of Progress is able to give such a wide range of differing environmental regions on the same planet, while also having the distinct advantage of also being the site of a major, ongoing war. Advantages we at FEN were quick to see and exploit as is demonstrated by our claim to having the first research department on the planet as far back as 214. This was thanks to the extreme foresight of Dr. Trenchard, now head of all SLA Industries research on Dante, who was first to recognize the planets unique opportunities.

Let me start by showing you the desert zones that make up roughly half the available dry land on Dante and offer its most harsh conditions, as is commonly said 'if you can get something to work here it will work anywhere'. Two of the largest deserts are sited on the central and southern continents and represent thousands of kilometers of nothing, but sand, dotted with the occasional rocky outcrop. Temperatures range from well over 80 Degrees Centigrade in the middle of the day to sub-zero at night making survival in the deep desert areas virtually impossible without specialist equipment. These areas are also plagued by a range of harsh and unpredictable weather conditions, most common of these being high speed sand storms within which the air can become almost solid with particles. In addition sudden flash flooding, electrical storms and earthquakes are all possible in the regions, giving the weapon our vehicle designers quite a headache. Apart from the weather the other main natural enemy is the sand which is able to penetrate improperly sealed items or those lacking specially designed filter systems and cause rapid breakdowns on a scale never witnessed anywhere else. Vehicles and suits must also be fitted with specialist life support systems to allow their users to survive this extremely tough environment meaning that effective air filtration and cooling systems are vital to prevent smothering by sand particles or overheating. Likewise the need for vehicle engine and weapons systems to have adequate cooling has led FEN to become a leader in this field through its studies conducted on Dante. One of the worst examples of this type of desert area is commonly referred to as the 'Wasteland' by the personnel who are stationed there. Here the sand storms are so violent that it quite easy for a whole regiment of tanks to be swamped and totally covered in a matter of minutes, sucked down by the almost liquid surface. For this reason the only vehicles deemed suitable for long term use in these areas are the vast KXT 'Warbringer' Leviathans literally small armoured bases mounted on multiple track systems and capable of movement under their own power. Although over the years even these have been known to succumb to the intensity of the desert storms and several have been lost to extreme conditions never to be seen again.

OK let us move onto the areas where the majority of the fighting is currently taking place. These low land regions that border nearly all of the deserts represent the most stable areas found on Dante and it was in one of these that the first landings by colonists took place. It was also in these types of areas on the central continent, where they established their first bases and began mining operations. The weather in these regions is still extreme, especially in winter when sever cold and constant heavy snowfalls prevail, but slightly more predictable than other parts of Dante. Most of these areas are made up of low mountain ranges interspersed with vast flat plateaus covered in minimal scrub vegetation and the occasional stunted forest. Torrential rainfall and flooding is not uncommon and the high moisture content in the air can lead to the rapid corrosion of any unprotected metals. As a result the waterproofing of all electronic equipment is essential, since even during the periods that pass for the summer, humidity is high and the damp atmosphere can cause unforeseen failures. The majority of these regions, especially the flat plains, are subjected to high wind speeds, tornadoes and intense thunder storm activity making the use of air transport dangerous at the best of times and impossible at others, while the electrical activity in the atmosphere makes reliance on radar and other sensor systems unwise. Thick fog and cloud banks cover many of the higher plateaus obscuring them from orbit and making land based travel extremely hazardous due to virtual zero visibility, again because of the fact you cannot rely on electronic navigation systems for your position, use of instrument only navigation is not recommended. One important factor that our design teams working in this area have had to come to terms with is the rapid changes which the climate can go undergo in an extremely short period of time, often exhibiting up to six different types of weather within an hour long period. This means that all our products must be proof against a wide variety of vastly different conditions, something we would have extreme difficulty faithfully duplicating in our labs here on Mort.

As you go further above sea level the weather conditions gradually worsen till they reach a peak of ferocity in the high mountain ranges that make up a small region of Dante. Here the extremes of environment found in the low lands can multiplied a hundred fold, with intense cold, snow, high speed winds and large scale seismic activity being common. Air travel in these areas is particularly notorious and lack of air support can often severely effect ground units performance in combat. Travel by conventional, ground vehicles, is also made difficult due to terrain and extremely narrow mountain passes. This is further complicated by constant earthquakes which can trigger landslides, rock falls and worse. Electrical storm activity is at its peak above these high mountains and this serves to further degrade the operational effectiveness of electronics systems and sensory arrays. Some storms such as those encountered around the SLA 'Misaki' garrison on the western continent have been active since the time of the first colony landings and still show no sign of dispersing.

Dante boasts two polar regions, although little study has been done of the southern arctic as it is 90% ice based and extremely unstable. Its few major land masses are constantly breaking up and reforming, and as a result the region is unsuitable for any kind of established base or research center. The northern pole though is formed over a shelf of solid rock and is the site of several major battle fronts due to the abundant metal deposits below the ice sheet. SLA have two of its main mining operations in this region, Blain and Tanner camps, which provide the vast majority of their raw materials for on planet manufacturing. This again is extremely advantageous to us as it gives us a ready made proving ground with sub zero temperatures and extreme arctic conditions. For much of each year this area is in a permanent state of nightfall and this combined with constant blizzards, heavy snowfall and high winds makes great demands on men, vehicles and equipment. With the skills of our design teams is often being tested to their limits, to come up with items that can continue to function under these conditions. At these sort of temperatures many materials, such as steel, undergo a change in their the properties, often becoming extremely brittle and prone to fractures, leading to structural failures and even some of our ceramic armours and castings have been found to experienced similar problems. As a result FEN have devoted much of their effort into producing viable alternatives.

Through our research at the Northern Pole we have also been able to develop many innovations in the fields of lubricants, electronics and other vital components which need to be able to resist the extremely low temperatures of the polar nights. So low in fact that humans are unable to survive without specially heated environment suits and even the Wraith Raiders, who claim to enjoy the environment, can often experience problems.

Finally we will look at the ocean environment which forms another vitally important testing area for us. Dante has four major oceans surrounding its continents, all of which exhibit similar conditions and have similar problems. Many of you may struggle to see the problems inherent with equipment for use at sea since, as we all know, Mort lacks any large bodies of water, but let me assure you that there are many important lessons that can be learn in this environment and applied to other areas. The huge armoured Dreadnoughts and other ships in the companies naval fleet that operate on Dante's oceans have constant problems with corrosion and intrusions of sea water and other moisture into vulnerable machinery. For these reasons we have been forced to develop various countermeasures. Salts and other compounds found in the oceans of Dante also greatly increase their corrosive properties and means that all types of weaponry and other equipment designed for use there must be specially coated and waterproofed, something we are now applying to items intended for use in less demanding environments to improve reliability of our products. The Dante seas suffer from many of the problems inherent on the rest of the planet, but with the added danger of vast storms and extreme tidal conditions that can even put ships as large as an Apocalypse Class Dreadnought in jeopardy. In the polar regions subzero temperatures and the hazards of floating ice masses only serve to increase the dangers to our shipping, situations that can often be compounded by the loss of radar and other sensor equipment in one of the planets many blackspots. The establishment of research facilities aboard the various marine craft that SLA currently operates on Dante is one of our main priorities, as often these can experience huge changes in conditions for day to day or even hour to hour during their voyages. Ships can routinely experience calm seas and high temperature one minute, only to be caught up in an extremely violent storm with hundred meter high waves the next. Something that puts a great strain on electronics systems and other equipment, so that special considerations must be made when producing products for use in these types of conditions. Most Dreadnoughts currently operate at least one squadron of attack aircraft. So these too must be specially adapted to operate in the marine environment and overcome such difficulties as engine operation in areas of extremely high moisture and unreliable electronic navigation. Since the submarine is the primary attack craft used by Thresher, and to a lesser extent DarkNight, forces, purpose built anti submarine tracking systems and weaponry has also needed to be developed. FEN have been able to learn much though the study of these problems on Dante and to make great advances in the areas of airframe construction, lightweight corrosion proof armour types and engine developments.
Well that concludes my outline of the Dante environment and its importance to our company as a major testing center for new design concepts, but we shouldn't forget that Dante has one other important factor to offer our R&D departments. Simulators and testing chambers are all very well, but we have quickly found that nothing can compare with actually giving a new product to troops in the field and having them try it out under real combat conditions. As well as the advantages of an extremely variable environment, Dante is also able to provide us with that other crucial element vital to successful field trials, the human factor. It is often said that 'if the troops can't break it, you've got it cracked' and the value of this has been proved again and again through our human factors tests on Dante.

Mr. Slayer, in his wisdom, has also been quick to see the advantages that Dante testing brings to the companies products and for this reason has generously granted us free access to use any of the military units currently serving on the planet for use in our testing. This means that potential problems such as recurring malfunctions, structural weakness and poor performance can be quickly identified and steps taken to rectify them.

That concludes my lecture for today, I hope that it has been informative and helped you to see what a great resource we have in the war on Dante. Nowhere else offers so many unique opportunities on just one planet, something that we at FEN are extremely keen to continue to exploit, both now and in the future."