HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
Image Source: Found through a google search for "Black Chainmail" Link here
Intent: To provide a new construction material for future armor and further develop the Echani Graphite products
Development Thread: The Gun That Won The Outer Rim - Posts 11-20 discuss increased production in materials like Graphite with help from Firemane, posts 21-32, with exception of post 26, discuss the mail and further graphite production
Manufacturer: Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers, Firemane
Model: Gados Graphite Chainmail
Affiliation: ARGH, Firemane, Galactic Alliance
Modularity: The size of rings can be adjusted, the mail can be color or gilded for aesthetic purposes,
- Smaller rings- less physical protection, weaker structure, in exchange for smaller spaces between the rings, greater energy absorption
- Bigger rings- stronger structure, greater degree of physical protection, more space between the rings, less energy absorption
Material: Echani Graphite or Gados Electrite
Classification: Multipurpose (Depends on suit design and ring sizes)
Weight: Depends on how much mail is used and in what way, full cuirass made entirely out of mail and only mail weights around 10 kg (Based on real life chainmail hauberks)
Quality: Pure chaimail suit- up to 4, light materials or textiles reinforced by mail mesh, for example armorweave, leather or duraplast- between 5 and 7, metal plates reinforced by mesh, for example durasteel, duranium, Phrik or Beskar- between 8 and 10, depending on the material and thickness of the plates. Capable of being used as reinforcement for vehicle and starship armor plates
Special Features:
- Flexible- due to its structure of numerous interlocking rings, the mesh is very flexible, able to be contorted into variety of shapes to either ease movement while wearing this material as armor or be combined with different plates to reinforce them.
Strengths:
- Flexible- as mentioned in Special Features the ring structure of the mail allows the user to retain freedom of movement while wearing a suit made of this material while benefiting from its protection. This also means that the mesh could be used to reinforce a variety of different plates.
- Graphite Structure- the Graphite's unique graphene structure grants it structural resistance to both physical and energy damage somewhere between the strength of Phrik and Beskar (taken from the original Graphite submission) However, this is somewhat compromised by the ring structure. While still a hardy material, the thinner rings are much easier to break rather than thicker Graphite weapon shafts, its usual application, although it still holds the high melting point, making it resistant to energy and heat weapons. This balance is further shifted by the thickness of rings, thicker rings are more resistant to physical damage but cannot press tightly against each other, creating larger openings for energy damage to seep through and avoid the armor entirely, while smaller rings break easier but press tighter against each other, absorbing more energy damage.
- Weight- Due to the material's weight, somewhere between the weight of Phrik and Beskar (taken from the original Graphite submission) it tends to make any armor it is added to noticeably heavier. What was originally light armor becomes medium, medium becomes heavy, heavy requires rotors for an average being to even move in. Mail by itself is not that heavy, however, able to be used as light or light-medium armor depending on how much of it is used. However this weight, and its construction methods, does make using multiple layers of the material rather impractical.
- Permeable- because of the space between each individual ring this armor style does suffer from some considerable drawbacks. For one it does not offer any protection against the vacuum of space any more than normal clothing does, pretty much making the material by itself unusable in contemporary combat setting, unless it is for ground combat dedicated troops. Another weakness tied to its permeability is the fact that any chemical attacks, for example napalm liquid or poisonous gas, bypasses the armor, seeping through openings between the rings to affect the body underneath, same goes for electrical and lightning attacks which can arc and conduct around the rings ignoring the armor. This permeability also means the armor will never be fully resistant to energy attacks, strikes from the weapons like lightsabers, while blocked by the mesh, can still burn the flesh underneath, the degree of these burns depends on how tightly the rings sit. This vulnerability is especially seen when dealing with blaster bolts or lightsaber stabs, thinner streams of plasma have an easier time seeping through the gaps and leaving more concentrated burns, this could potentially be fatal after multiple strikes. This can easily be mitigated by combining the mesh with other materials, wearing the mail over another suit of armor or covering it in metal to form it into armored plates, if one can stand the weight such tactic would add.
- Time consuming- due to the inefficiency of the current process of making the mail, as the current Graphite Fletching machinery was adapted into making long shafts or wires rather than smaller segments and connecting them into rings while creating a mesh, it takes a lot of time to create such a mesh. While this is not an expensive or difficult process, it is a time consuming one, as such this material is used mostly in unique suits of armor, to equip small elite groups, or to reinforce isolated projects like limited vehicles, buildings, or ships, although that in itself requires great deal of resources for the time it would take and development.
- Blunt damage- due to its flexibility yet lack of padding this material doesn't deal well with blunt trauma, stopping little to no of the damage, and converting any slashing or piercing damage into blunt force. As such, blunt trauma is a good way to bypass the protective layer or break multiple rings at the same time.
- Structure- due to the chain structure if one ring breaks, other rings are usually soon to follow, which in turn opens up large gaps within the armor structure, allowing for the attacker to exploit the rifts and bypass the armor.
- Material- This is only a material for creating armor and armor plates, not actual suit of armor, products utilizing this material need to be submitted, and probably developed, separately.
Description:
The Graphite Chainmail, called the Gados Chainmail after the beings who designed it, is another step Abregado take in trying to come up with a way of using the unique hardy material for suitable armor. The structure is based on the previously designed Graphite Wire Mesh, making the wires thicker and connecting their ends during the fletching process (that's what the process of Graphite production is called) to create rings, the rings are interlocked together into chains during their production to create a stronger, yet still flexible mesh.
Like previous Graphite products, the chain mail features strong physical and energy resistance, able to even deflect lightsaber strikes due to its high melting point. However, this structural integrity is compromised due to the mesh's design, the Graphite rings are much thinner than previously used armor reeds yet much more rigid than the wires they were based on, lacking the flexibility to simply bend under pressure, either snapping or shattering instead. While the material was able to resist multiple strikes from physical melee weapons and even singular shots from shatterguns, repeated physical trauma eventually broke rings in the affected area, unraveling the armor mesh piece by piece.
On the other hand, lightsaber and blaster strikes were able to seep through the gaps between the rings, the damage they caused decreased noticeably, yet the energy that radiated and penetrated the chain bonds was able to burn the flesh and armored plates beneath, it became quickly evident that repeated strikes could melt the armor plates beneath the mesh or cause potentially fatal burns. This weakness is especially noticeable when the mesh faces thinner, more concentrated streams of plasma, for example stabs and thrusts from lightsabers or blaster bolts, as the thinner streams have an easier time of getting into the open spaces between rings. This also includes chemical and electrical weaponry, gas and liquids can simply permeate the armor and ignore it, while electricity can just arc and conduct around the rings and shock the user beneath the mesh layer.
The structural weaknesses can be somewhat balanced by changing the size and thickness of the rings, thicker rings are naturally more difficult to break through physical trauma yet energy radiates easier through their openings, smaller rings make a more complete mesh layer and absorb the energy damage easier, yet their weak structure breaks quicker when faced with kinetic trauma. This gives the suits that utilize this material a degree of modularity, allowing the user to decide which they value more, protection against the physical or energy damage.
However, the permeability does bring on another problem, the requirement for many contemporary forces to be able to fight in the vacuum of space, for example during boarding actions. This material is hardly suitable for such situations, the gaps between rings provide about as much protection against the void as normal clothing or bare flesh does. As such, it is not recommended for the mail to be used as main armor material, rather it should be used to either reinforce plates made from more suitable material like duraplast or durasteel, or to compliment a full suit of proper armor through components like mail veils, tabards and surcoats, or skirts and kamas. However, when combining mail with other armor components one needs to be aware of the weight the Graphite adds and be prepared to either cut down on the thickness or number of their plates to compensate for the added weight or simply be able to deal with a heavier suit of armor.
In conclusion, the Gados Chainmail is another step closer towards what could be a suitable Graphite armor. While it does inherit some of the material's durability and energy resistance, it is restrained by its permeability and limited utility on the modern battlefield. As such this material is recommended to be used as a companion to reinforce an armor suit or armor plates rather than main material to craft one. Not to mention the time consumed when making the mesh may mean it will never be mass-produced.
Primary Source: Graphite and Electrite, Graphite Wire Mesh
