Desolator (Uprising)

"Here comes the Sun."

- Desolator

The Iraqi Desolator was a special infantry unit, wearing a specially designed anti-radiation suit(armed with a small amount of advanced bionics which improved their speed and strength) and using a powerful radiation cannon as his primary weapon. Their heavy, leaden suits slowed them down a fair bit and they almost universally had a raspy, tired voice.

While a potent anti-infantry unit with their rad cannon's primary mode of fire (a concentrated radiation beam melting down enemy soldiers), their true power lied in the way they could deny an area to the enemy by irradiating the surface, making passing through it lethal to infantry and damaging to light vehicles. Also, their radiation field can penetrate water, making them capable of damaging submarines and revealing them from their stealth. They are most effective at cutting off important choke points.

However, they had to remain immobile while deploying their cannon and could be easily taken out by enemy snipers, heavier vehicles or airborne units, such as Rocketeers, Harriers or Nighthawks.

Red Alert 3: Uprising
"What are you looking at?"

- Desolator

The Desolators return to the Red Alert Universe, with a radically different backstory and design. They are terminally ill patients, spirited away from Soviet hospitals in Omsk and placed into monstrous suits of bionically-powered armour, with no recollection of their previous lives.

Their weapons and armour were developed as the Soviet Union was crumbling down, and the Ministry of Experimental Science desperately sought new means to defend Mother Russia. The handful that didn't defect or desert continued their research, eventually creating the Desolator Trooper Program (DTP), which bred the most horrifying frontline trooper ever to corrupt the face of the Earth.

The Desolators take their name from the toxins they employ as weapons. Quickly evaporating and leaving little traces behind, they are impossible to analyze, but rumors abound that they are a by product of Soviet super-reactors. They were used on the frontlines, in the form of Desolator airstrikes, but only in the closing stages of the war did the scientists find a way to transport them in a more portable fashion.

The average lifespan of a Desolator trooper is about a year or two (or until their life support dies), during which they require no sleep nor food.

History
"Need to kill some weeds?"

- Desolator

In Russia is it often said that mistakes are made only when they are admitted. And for once, the Union's notorious Ministry of Experimental Science made a mistake when it introduced the Desolator Troopers. Their poisons are so vile that most other Soviet remnant forces soon learned to stay far away. Those who were not tended started to die rather shockingly.

The history of the Desolator Troopers is nearly as wretched as they themselves. As the hour grew ever-darker for the Soviet Union and its leadership, the chiefs of the Ministry of Experimental Science entertained several options and cared little for consensus. Some chose to flee the nation, or attempted to do so in vain. Others surrendered to Allied forces; their whereabouts are unknown. The most committed of the Ministry's officers, however, steadfastly continued their research, even in the face of imminent defeat. After all, with many of their colleagues gone, several layers of bureaucracy had vanished, allowing these remaining officers to rapidly continue with whatever it was they were cooking up in the Ministry's secret halls. The only known product of this desperate time is the Desolator Trooper Programme (DTP), which breeds front-line soldier so terrible that their very existence flies in the face of an astonishing 71 different International Provisions of Appropriate Military Conduct.

Although the officers responsible for the DTP proved to be among the Desolator Troopers' first victims, the Desolator Troopers eventually (and surprisingly) proved to be agreeable enough to willingly enlist in the Soviet resistance, for they had no other place in society. Nor did the Soviet resistance have the luxury of turning anybody down.

The Desolator Troopers of course take their name from the poisonous fluids they use as weapons. The poisons evaporate quickly and leave little residue behind so it is impossible to know what exactly they consist of, though they are believed to be the chemical by-product of poorly maintained Soviet super-reactors. That is, the discovery of the Desolator Trooper is linked to a series of terrible accidents, though the ever-resourceful Soviet military soon found the silver lining in this. Desolator-based airstrikes have been vogue for Soviet frontline offensives for years, yet only recently did the Ministry find a way to transport these fluids in a more-portable fashion. Granted, an average man could never hoist the fluid tanks. But the Desolator Troopers are more than human, and the hydraulics in their armor probably help them, too.

Little is known of the men inside the Desolator Troopers' armored suits. They themselves have no coherent memories of their past lives and seem content to fight. They require no rest and no food, although they live in their suits for only about a year or two, or until their life-support systems' batteries fizzle out. And so, given all the numerous unresolved reports of terminally-ill patients disappearing from triage centers in the Ministry's headquarters in Omsk, there is a distinct possibility that these "dead men walking" are exactly that. Whatever the Ministry has done to the Desolator Troopers, they have become extremely resilient both to their own poisons and all types of injury, such that even a single Desolator Trooper could viably stand against a well-trained Allied platoon and emerge victorious...in a way.

Unit profile (from RA3 website)
Battlefield reconnaissance has revealed at least these facts about the Desolator Trooper:

• The aptly-named Deathspray -- Desolator Troopers fight using dual pressurized hoses that project streams of vile, toxic fluids that can strip flesh from bone almost instantly and cause the bone to disintegrate moments later. Thus, this unconventional weapon is considered to be far more dangerous to flesh-and-blood targets than bullets or bombs.

• The armor-melting Splattershot Gun -- Desolators also have means of dealing with armored vehicles. The corrosive globs fired from the Desolator's Splattershot Gun not only clog up mechanical parts (thereby reducing top speeds), but serve as a catalyst for the Deathspray. In essence, once a vehicle is "splattered", it becomes as vulnerable to the Deathspray as a portly fellow at the beach.

• Nearly immune to injury -- A happy side-effect of the Desolator Trooper's resistance to all kinds of different toxins is an extremely high resistance to general pain and physical injury. It is not the case that these men feel no pain; they have simply grown used to experiencing constant, negative sensation. Health regeneration might also be possible

• A costly experiment -- After the war, the Ministry of Experimental Science desperately spent most of its remaining funds developing the Desolator Trooper's armor and weaponry, and though the results proved effective, if profane, the costs associated with these forces make them quite uncommon.