Conditions for
the Martian Revolution – Military
Historically,
Martian wars had been dominated by the use of fission weapons.
During the 4600's, an earlier blossoming of culture in Amazonis
Planitia was snuffed out by a nuclear bombardment that destroyed
several of the contending cities. After this, cities had refrained
from using fission weapons except on the battlefield, observing a
tacit rule-of-war to limit battles to outside cities. As a result,
while wars often caused extraordinary casualties among the military,
they were also limited; enemy cities
were off-limits unless they could be taken by subversion or sabotage.
Military objectives were restricted to the seizure of mines,
fortresses, transport links, and other exurban assets. Military
units were primarily elite formations equipped with low-yield fission
weapons and armored vehicles, often retained as mercenaries rather
then regular soldiers.
Some
time in the 4990's, however, the MuniDef forces began to make use of
the new technique of eptification, the direct uploading of reaction
patterns to the brain using surgically-implanted introdes, and later
transcranial electromagnetic stimulation. These early eptification
techniques were limited to what were, at the time, called “muscle
memories”, and are now known as programmed reaction complexes. An
eptified soldier would emerge from training with little abstract
knowledge of military techniques, but with new reflexes and instincts
that made him or her an accurate marksman, a fast trench-digger, and
a disciplined fighter under fire. Eptified soldiers could not match
the elites for technical skill or tactical ability without further
training and experience, but could be produced en
masse.
At the time, these troops were seen as no different in kind from
the poorly-trained and -equipped secondary militias that had long
formed a subsidiary part of the MuniDef militaries.
Almost as important
as eptification was the new availability of low-cost, miniaturized,
ultraviolet point-defense lasers. Again, defense lasers had always
been part of the toolkit of the Martian military, but their expense
and bulk meant they were limited to defending the Cities and key
fortresses. The new systems were cheap enough to be produced in
large quantities and small enough to mount on tracked vehicles.
By 5,021 AD, a
revolution in military affairs was well underway, but had yet to be
recognized by more then a handful of people.
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