The Cobalt Grenade
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2022 6:00 pm
So, for a long time I had assumed the grenade Louie lobs in Crisis Point was some sort of IED. However, (oddly enough) the new 'HD' transfer made it easier for me to see there is an obvious 'On' button he presses before tossing it. Now, the grenade goes from exposed components to fully clad in a shell between scenes, which makes me assume its designed to be taken apart. In fact, upon closer inspection, the grenade's shell clearly has 2 halves that look capable of being separated. Furthermore, Louie does something to fine tune the grenade, even remarking to Angelo that "its a delicate operation". I think this is, in fact, the Cobalt Grenade.
After talking with Pete Walker about it, the tuning of the Cobalt Grenade maybe akin to the yield on nuclear devices where it can be dialed up or down. Want a bigger boom? Increase the yield and hope you throw it far enough. And yea, it appears to be able to do a good deal of damage to the Bioroid Invid Fighter (strips the armor off the lower leg/foot area...may in fact take the foot completely off, though that is a guess at this point).
One additional bit of evidence that weighs in favor of this being the Cobalt Grenade is that a few minutes earlier, before Zor Prime was rescued, Angelo and Musica have this exchange:
Episode #56 Crisis Point
ANGELO: We'll, I'll be. So what you're saying is that this chamber is the whole shooting match. Tell ya what, if we throw a couple of Cobalt Grenades in there, we'll bring this ship down so fast it'll make you dizzy.
MUSICA: You must not do that! If you destroy this system, you'll be destroying thousands of my people.
ANGELO: I hate to break it to you, but your people and mine are at war.
BOWIE: Angelo, she's right. Anyway, our first order of business is to find Zor and rescue him.
ANGELO: Zor? Forget him. He's one of them. Let's start blasting!
Cobalt Grenade Extended Scene
Just as an aside:
Episode #74 Annie's Wedding
SCOTT: The rest of you, I want enough Cobalt Grenades planted on that dam to blow the whole thing sky high.
Of course, they use Cobalt Limpet Mines (Mk.I model) instead. So Scott either misspoke or they changed the plan off-screen. Either way, Louie's grenade, as Prez Cannady put it, is a DIAL-A-BOOM. Adjust the yield to give yourself a bigger blast. Either way, the setting he placed it on did significant damage to a mecha, like Anti-Armor level damage. Certainly not Anti-Personnel range (which we see they still have Frag Grenades that Louie tosses in Catastrophe)
After talking with Pete Walker about it, the tuning of the Cobalt Grenade maybe akin to the yield on nuclear devices where it can be dialed up or down. Want a bigger boom? Increase the yield and hope you throw it far enough. And yea, it appears to be able to do a good deal of damage to the Bioroid Invid Fighter (strips the armor off the lower leg/foot area...may in fact take the foot completely off, though that is a guess at this point).
One additional bit of evidence that weighs in favor of this being the Cobalt Grenade is that a few minutes earlier, before Zor Prime was rescued, Angelo and Musica have this exchange:
Episode #56 Crisis Point
ANGELO: We'll, I'll be. So what you're saying is that this chamber is the whole shooting match. Tell ya what, if we throw a couple of Cobalt Grenades in there, we'll bring this ship down so fast it'll make you dizzy.
MUSICA: You must not do that! If you destroy this system, you'll be destroying thousands of my people.
ANGELO: I hate to break it to you, but your people and mine are at war.
BOWIE: Angelo, she's right. Anyway, our first order of business is to find Zor and rescue him.
ANGELO: Zor? Forget him. He's one of them. Let's start blasting!
Cobalt Grenade Extended Scene
Just as an aside:
Episode #74 Annie's Wedding
SCOTT: The rest of you, I want enough Cobalt Grenades planted on that dam to blow the whole thing sky high.
Of course, they use Cobalt Limpet Mines (Mk.I model) instead. So Scott either misspoke or they changed the plan off-screen. Either way, Louie's grenade, as Prez Cannady put it, is a DIAL-A-BOOM. Adjust the yield to give yourself a bigger blast. Either way, the setting he placed it on did significant damage to a mecha, like Anti-Armor level damage. Certainly not Anti-Personnel range (which we see they still have Frag Grenades that Louie tosses in Catastrophe)