| Ambiaric Cannon | |
| |
| Faction |  Order of the Talon
|
| Cost | Unknown |
| Construction Time | Unknown |
| Building Type | Support Superweapon/Reliquary final upgrade |
| Function | Disables enemy units |
| Constructs | - |
| Dev. Status | Conceptual |
"Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!"
- - Revelation 8:13
Background[]
There is a little known military project conducted by the Allied Nations conducted in between the Second and Third World Wars. Codenamed Project Aurora, the project's focus involved electromagnetic pulses and any military applications they might have. Among its accomplishments, Project Aurora is known for its work into explosively pumped flux compression generators, which led to the development of several Allied weapons, such as the Blackout EMP missile and the Scramblegun weapon jammer.
One of the more outlandish proposals made by those working on Project Aurora was the idea of a creation of a network of EMP Control Centres, situated along the border with the Soviet Union. Their purpose would be to act as a first line of defence against Soviet aggression, with the idea being that, in the event of a Soviet incursion, the EMP control centres would be activated, disabling the first wave of Soviet forces and giving Allied forces time to respond. The EMP control centres would work in sync with a network of EMP satellites, each capable of releasing a disabling pulse of energy.
A single prototype satellite had been built and launched before Project Aurora was shut down. Spiralling budget concerns, among other things, had strangled the project. In particular, the Allies were worried about the cost of constructing and maintaining an entire network of satellites (the irony of this is that only a few years later, the Athena Satellite Network would be approved). The EMP control centre project was shelved, its secrets locked away in a filing cabinet, and the scientists who had been working on the project transferred to other projects. Communication with the sole satellite was lost a few weeks later; in any case, no one missed it, and it was quickly forgotten altogether.
One of the scientists working on Project Aurora had sympathies for another organisation beside the Allies, however. When Project Aurora was shut down, he had proceeded to give the control codes for the sole EMP satellite to agents of the Talon. With the aid of an Analytical Engine and some radio equipment, the satellite had been hacked into, and control quietly transferred to the Order. It was at this point that the Order tricked the Allies into thinking that their satellite had been lost in some sort of accident. The Allies accepted this fiction readily enough.
Now, under the control of the Order of the Talon, the EMP satellite serves its new masters. In theory, the satellite is sufficiently powerful that it can deliver an electromagnetic pulse capable of shorting out all the electronics in an entire city. Given that the satellite was an imperfect prototype, however, it is likely that using it in such as capacity would overload the satellite and destroy it (and using it in its full power would draw far too much attention, in any case). Fortunately, the Talon has never had the need to employ such power, and to date the EMP satellite has only ever employed for tactical strikes that affect a small portion of a battlefield, guided by an onsite Analytical Engine.
Behind the Scenes[]
- The EMP control centre is a reference to the neutral structure from Tiberium Wars.
