Red Dust

Red Dust was an Interplanetary Strategic Alliance nuclear weapon, developed by Dr. Evelyn Batton on Vekta.

History

The ISA developed Project Red Dust to be a high-explosive blast, low-radiation yield bomb designed to devastate an enemy city or fortification without irradiating the landscape to allow for easy capture and occupation of the ruins, and ISA clean up detachments would then clear of any harmful radioactivity.

During the Second Extrasolar War, General Dwight Stratson pushed for the use of the Red Dust nuclear weapons against the Helghast and halting their invasion of Vekta. The ISA Council, however, was very hesitant to utilize nuclear weapons, as they are seen as a taboo weapon, and the political consequences of possessing and using them on Vektan soil was too high. In reality, Stratson was revealed to be a Helghast collaborator who planned on delivering the weapons to the Helghast under General Armin Metrac. Red Dust was transported to Helghan during the Helghast's retreat from Vekta. However, the Helghast were not able to secure the authentication codes needed to detonate the device.^[1]

During the ISA invasion of Helghan in Operation Archangel, Batton joined Battle Group Mandrake to track down the nuclear weapons. The ISA had no knowledge of Red Dust's location, but believed their goal of capturing Scolar Visari would ensure the securement of the weapons.^[2] Colonel Mael Radec attempted to extract the detonation codes from Batton following her capture in Tharsis Refinery, but was unable to do so.^[3] An attack on the Battle Group over Pyrrhus followed, where Radec was able to secure the codes during the assault on the New Sun.^[4] Shortly after the New Sun destroyed the Petrusite grid that disabled Pyrrhus's defenses, Scolar Visari gave the order to detonate a Red Dust warhead in the city, devastating the city and killing a vast majority of ISA and Helghast forces within the city limits, and severely weakening the ISA's hold on the planet.^[5]

The fallout from the Red Dust warhead contaminated large amounts of Petrusite, creating a more volatile form that were later harvested and used by Stahl Arms to develop new lethal weapons in the Helghast's arsenal.^[6]

Gallery

Concept art of Pyrrhus devastated by Red Dust.

Mushroom cloud from Red Dust's detonation.

Trivia

• Interestingly, while the weapon does, in fact, generate radioactive fallout (as demonstrated by the existence of the irradiated Petrusite) none of the ISA troops fighting in and around the ruins of Pyrrhus seem to experience any radiation sickness or any other complications from the device's detonation. This was explained in Killzone: Mercenary, where Blackjack explained that massive amounts of radiation medicine were bought by the ISA, and the Helghast have a natural immunity to radiation. This explains the radiation however the nuclear weapon still had a very short half life between the initial detonation and the ISA retreat. This nuclear device was designed with the intent of using it to remove the Helghast army from southern Vekta, so it was likely designed to have a minimal long term gamma radiation fallout on an intended target. 

References