The East PacificBoard

Vesication. The act of raising boils. Anyone who sees a project named after it would be rightly concerned, and anyone who sees it is headed by the Fensinsel Royal Armament Administration would be more so. But one would truly be concerned if they saw the secret pact struck between the FRAA and the Imperial Institutes of Military Technology, a reoccurring partner in [war]crime[s] to those aware of Project 'Shroud'.

Project 'Vesication' is a further development of the complex chemical sciences dabbled with the Eruptive Incendiary Compound, with complex polymer chain meant to release intense heat over an acceptable period of time. This project, however, would be true to its name, and it's development more reasonable, and more dire for those against it.

The chemical itself is notable in how it is designed; instead of attempting to make one chemical do it all, it is instead many attached to eachother via a bridging ligand with weak bonds. Centered around cobalt ligands, it provides a grid of 6 terminal ending points which are exploited thusly. It features what could be described as an excessive amount of nitrogen bonds, which are weak and quite ready to break, in addition to oxygen and fluorides. The acting principle of this agent is the aggressive bonding and oxidation process it inflicts, releasing much heat as a result of the bonds breaking and forming anew with the target. Its nature is quite like that of acid, and due to the prolific halogens in the cocktail of loosely related chemicals, it quite readily wants to form salts of the rather toxic and ecologically damaging variety.

Testing of such a hostile substance would of course be done on plants, its 'true' target, although the FRM would not be happy with the chemical until small scale deployment is conducted. Upon the plant being exposed to the aerosolized chemical, the results were rapid and horrific. It browned at an alarming rate, boils forming on the leaves only to explode out releasing vapors, and upon further analysis, salt compounds and the reacted products of the subsequent flames that burst as the plant itself was consumed as a fuel. Testing on rats, small rodents, and other related mammals produced similarly terrifying and gory results, in a process that could only be described as immolation. Testing on inanimate objects shows that it, true to theory, would cause them to corrode expediently. Deployment methods developed often involved polymer lined containers, as adding a simple inert polymer lining proved to be effective against the oxidizing agent, which could be deployed via pressurized nozzle, bursting charge, or sub-munitions.

Due to its properties, the compound is hence known as the Corrosive Oxidizing Defoliant 1 [COD-1] and has been officially registered in Fensinsel armories for limited deployment.