Lurker Tech Report:
Sensory Overload Grenade, aka SOG, aka SDG, aka Okay-Grenade:
The Sensory Overload Grenade, or SOG as it is most commonly known, is very much the embodiment of Lurker military tactics – complex, cruel, and cunning.
…Though ‘Costly’, ‘Sneaky’, ‘Excessive’ and ‘Extravagant’ could probably be added to that list. Early in its use, a Lurker soldier created a mock formula to easily explain what the SOG is – the formula goes,
(Flashbang + Sting Grenade + Stink Bomb + Knockout Gas) * 3. While not technically correct, the formula does give one a realistic understanding of an SOG’s effects.
The sensory overload grenade, as the name suggests, creates an excessive amount of stimulus to each of the five human senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste - while also subjecting the victim to potent gasses designed to render anyone breathing them in unconscious. While tests determined that the sensory overload usually knocks out the victims by itself, some more powerful or simple life forms, especially those possessing more or less than the normal number of senses, have been known to thrash around for considerable periods of time before finally succumbing. Also, some creatures with particularly high tolerance for sensory overload (usually those with far greater than human ability to sense things), as well as either a very primitive or powerful mind, have been able to actually recover from a SOG without passing out.
While the SOG is usually considered ‘cruel’, it is truthfully not as cruel as it first appears. Which, strangely, can also said to be true of Lurker tactics in general, though they do maintain some level of cruelty. The damage caused by a SOG can be attributed to two different areas – mental and sensory. The mental damage of a SOG falls into an ‘uncanny valley’ phenomenon, where most minds, up to reasonably beyond human level, will fail to store the memory of the mental pain caused by the grenade. All that is made is a moderate impact, the knowledge that there was pain, but not the memory of the feeling of the pain itself. Tests have shown that multiple separate exposures to the grenades causes this memory to become more pronounced, to the point where the subject is eventually capable of remembering the pain in its entirety – the slow increase in details, however, has shown to be far less damaging to the subjects psyche in the end than having the pain in full the first time – if damaging to their psyche at all. Similarly, incredibly powerful minds have been shown to simply reject the memory of the pain entirely, assumedly due to the damage such extreme sensations can cause to the personality of someone suffering them in full.
The pain occurs worst in those with minds beyond anything human, but still not powerful enough to simply reject the memory – they suffer it in full, which has led to the destruction of the minds of multiple subjects already. Invasive mental procedures are believed to be effective in saving the minds of the unfortunate people who fall into the ‘valley’ section of the chart, however as these procedures must be preformed while the victim is unconscious after being hit by the grenade and before they first wake up. Thusly, it is unknown if each subject's mental stability is caused by the procedures or simply because they would have been stable anyway.
The second form of lasting damage caused by the grenade is to the senses of anyone affected. In tests, one impact had very little effect, while two in a short period made a noticeable difference. With a few days to recover, a second exposure proved less damaging than the first. Daily exposure caused a quick decline in the senses of the effected party, as did weekly exposure. Recommended no more than once a month exposure to conserve the senses. Alternately, spells and other things that cure status ailments were capable of removing the damage, as long as sufficient time had not passed – generally, healing it within a week will completely reverse the damage caused to the senses. Anything beyond that and the damage seems to become permanent.
Due to the numerous – and some would say redundant - manners in which it can disable an opponent, the cost of a SOG is quite excessive, and as a result they are usually limited to 1 - 3 per Strike Team (6 Lurkers). Occasionally, Lurkers will refer to the Sensory Overload Grenades as Sensory Deprivation Grenades, as, since their senses are completely overwhelmed, the victim cannot perceive anything but the most powerful stimuli – thus giving the apparent effect of having their senses removed from them. The grenade, however, does not directly deprive the person of their senses, making this a misnomer. SOG’s are also occasionally sarcastically referred to as ‘okay-grenades’. This is a crack at the excessive nature of the grenades, as anyone hearing ‘okay-grenade’ would think ‘reasonable’, or at least ‘not bad’. In fact, the name being given is OK Grenade, short for Over-Kill Grenade.
SOG’s are most effective when combined with the Lurker combat suits. The suits have a ‘SOG’ button that turns off all relevant sensory input when pushed. A common Lurker tactic is to keep the grenade in the palm of the suit’s hand and charging the enemy, removing the chance of a thrown back grenade while doing little more than cosmetic damage to the suit. On top of that, an activated grenade is designed to go off even before the six-second timer in either of the following circumstances – if the outside layer of the grenade is pierced, or if a large force impacted the grenade. (In the case of the grenade being thrust through the door at Pale’s illusion, the Lurker’s suit’s hand is holding it in such a way as to protect it from the force.) For these reasons, a small number of Lurkers believe that the grenades are ‘cheap’ and refuse to use them.
