A mile-wide portion of our med-level desert is reserved for artillery fire/impacts (and landing amidst them).

 

Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Dimensions & Layout
  3. Special Features
  4. Who’s Shooting?
  5. UXO/EOD
  6. Conceptual Images
  7. 2023 Update:  2022 Scale-model in Minecraft
  8. 2023 September:  Alison Showing How It’s Done

 

Introduction:

This is the area designated for the calibration of Inisfreean artillery via live-fire exercises a few miles away.  It is labeled DZ3, for Drop Zone 3, and is between DZ1 and DZ2; DZ1 is closest to the military aerospaceport of our city, and farthest away from the live-fire ranges and impact areas, while DZ2 is the next ‘level’, being right in front of the small-arms fire.  DZ3; this Impact Range, is where the most intense incoming fire exists, thus it is the last of the Drop Zone training progressions.

 

Dimensions & Layout:

Measuring a mile on each of four sides, this square section of the city’s military training region, located atop the lower of the two desert plateaus, is one square mile with more sandy craggy desert terrain as its borders.  It is a wide-open area with low dunes, partially-exposed crags, and a peppering of artillery-shell fragments.  There are no distinct landmarks on it.

 

Special Features:

The terrain of this entire firing range automatically adjusts itself back to a smoothed-out plateau surface, effectively erasing any signs of the craters caused by each barrage sent here.  This is made possible by the silos network directly beneath it; vibrations are emitted from the tops of those buried silos which cause the ground to soften and spread back out, refilling craters, no matter how deep.  This makes the Impact Range one of the most advanced examples of Inisfree’s ‘smart surfaces’ technology.

 

Who’s Shooting?

  1. both ‘Desolators’ (Inisfreean tanks) and ‘White Rhinos’ (Inisfreean mobile command-centers with built-in artillery, POW cells, and other weapon systems) fire arty-style here; they shoot their shells right over the barracks and training tower, as well as over the shorter (small-arms) shooting ranges
  2. Inisfreean fighter-jets buzz this impact range, too, and regularly practice dropping live ordnance, such as laser-guided bombs
  3. ODST training is part of Inisfree’s 19th grade, and those making their jumps/drops to the Impact Range will also fire upon it
  4. Rooftop Carriers dropping ODST squads here will sometimes fire around/between their falling pods
  5. lastly, though rarely ever seen outside their stasis silos, Inisfree’s Mandaloridays have been brought here a few times to practice ‘deleting’ incoming shells and other projectiles with rapid swings of their ‘shadow sabers’

 

UXO/EOD:

ICVs can see UXO (Un-eXploded Ordinance; bombs that failed to detonate) and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) even through the ground –sand, dirt, mud, or rock.  They can often smell them, too.  This makes them perfect at EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal), and their usual method is to fire disintegration-beams at them from afar, while holding shields or portals around them to control shrapnel and harmful gases if any are released during the disintegration/s.

 

Conceptual Images:

* We do not detonate nuclear weapons on this range / anywhere inside our realm/territory (even though our constructs, people, and allies are all now invincible, unable to be harmed even by the blasts, EMPs, or radiation of nukes), however we do sometimes have our ICVs in training do ODST-drops near/during nuclear detonations nearby at remote Outlands drop-/training-sites (provided it is in a region that is so barren, a nuke would never harm a single good creature, plant or otherwise).

2023 Update:  2022 Scale-model in Minecraft:

2023 September:  Alison Showing How It’s Done