Flashbang

Lore & Background

Originally developed to simulate explosions during military training, stun grenades were first used by the British Army Special Air Service's counterterrorist wing in the late 1970s, and have been used by police and military forces worldwide since.

In Their Own Story

The dust in the long hallway was thick, the kind that hangs in the air after a door gets kicked in twice. Kova held the canister in his right hand, thumb resting on the pin, and watched his entry fragger take three more steps into the smoke.

"Two seconds," Kova muttered. He didn't need to look at the watch. He'd thrown this exact flash, off this exact wall, four hundred times in the practice server. The canister left his hand in a tight arc, kissed the concrete lip at the corner, and rolled into the open space beyond. A soft hiss. A tick.

The light bloomed white and absolute. For the man on the other side of the doorway, the world simply ceased to exist—no crosshair, no sound, no memory of where his rifle was pointed. Three seconds. Maybe four, if he was facing it dead-on.

Kova's teammate stepped through the doorway without breaking stride. The gun went off twice. The hallway was quiet again, and the dust settled back down onto the floor like it had never been disturbed.

Reader's Guide

The fuse delay is not specified in the source article. The cost is not specified in the source article.

Did You Know?

• Stun grenades produce a blinding flash of around 7 megacandela and a bang of greater than 170 decibels.
• Unlike fragmentation grenades, stun grenades have a casing designed to remain intact during detonation, with large circular cutouts to allow light and sound through.
• The filler comprises a pyrotechnic metal-oxidant mix of magnesium or aluminium and an oxidizer such as potassium perchlorate or potassium nitrate.
• Permanent hearing loss has been reported from stun grenades, and the heat generated may ignite flammable materials.