Flameout Grenade

Flameout grenades are a type of thrown or launcher-projected weapon designed to suffocate oxygen-mediated combustion reactions of all types - including, famously, the internal combustion of dieseltech devices.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Flameout grenades come in a variety of forms, from a handheld device to a rocket- or gas-propelled projectile. In its most basic form, a flameout grenade is a frangible reservoir of a liquid that turns into a dense, air-displacing gas once it escapes the confinement of said reservoir. This displacing property serves to starve combustion reactions of oxygen, smothering them in short order. These vapors can be loaded into stream projectors to suppress fires in a straight line from the wielder, but this is not typically done because of the risk of self-suffocation (see below).
If caught in the air intakes of a dieseltech device, these fire suppression agents typically cause the engine to gutter and fail - also known as 'flaming out'. When this happens to vehicles, crews are forced to either wait in place until the engine can be 'burped' and restarted or continue operations on foot. Importantly, an area under the effect of a flameout grenade also has its breathable atmosphere displaced. While the chemical agent involved is often itself toxic on chronic exposure, the inability of passers-through to breathe is of more immediate concern for troops, and thus flameout grenades can be an effective (if unethical) means of quietly clearing a room or trench.

History

The invention of flameout grenades was inspired by three major events in the history of the War of Reunification.
First, the advent of auto-armor fundamentally changed the nature of combat between the Grand Army of Voxelia and the Coalition Defense Forces who employed them. Unarmored infantry found it difficult to gain ground against well-protected auto-armor operators wielding normally crew-served heavy weapon. Anti-armor weapons like streamer grenades and magnetic mines are obvious choices for dealing with armored vehicles, but these were less effective at penetrating the hulls of auto-armor and vehicles when not directly visible to the attacker (i.e. farm-jumper assaults in the tight confines of agri-mines).
The Sack of Thyonaxes cemented in the minds of the Grand Army that additional measures were required against the slow, but implacable PBA-2 "Pioneer" Main Battle Auto-Armor of the era). Crucially, photos that surfaced in the news media in the aftermath of the destruction at Thyonaxes traumatized many who saw them; the ravages that fire had wrought on supposedly 'secure' bunkers and cherished heritage sites inspired revulsion and, importantly, a nationwide resolve to resist further burnings at the hands of the Elovisian 'vandals.'
Most important to the development of flameout grenades was the Human Arc powers' near universal adoption of the Medial B Accords after the fires of Thyonaxes spread throughout the cube, causing choking air pollution, deforestation, deadly winter chills, and crop failures across the Tesseract in their wake. So feared were incendiary weapons after Thyonaxes that they had become banned by even opposing military powers. Research and development was (albeit temporarily) diverted to fire supression technologies, of which one was the precursor to the flameout grenade.

Item type

Weapon, Other

Rarity

Flameout grenades are uncommon, but not rare, due to their specialized nature and the toxicity of their chemical components when handled on a continuous basis.

Raw materials & Components

Carbon tretrachloride is a common chemical agent used in flameout grenades despite its toxic and carcinogenic properties. The lapse in commonly-held rules of war forbidding the use of chemical warfare agents presented by the use of such weapons is considered by many in the military establishments of the day to be less aggregious than allowing cube-spanning fires to spread or massed armored columns to sweep through to civilian heartlands.