Approved Tech Howlrunner-class Power Armor

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a basic, general purpose power armor in Lucerne Personal Defense’s catalogue
• Image Source: HALO armor pieces mis-mashed together through "Vanity" application and then modified by your's truly
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: Gundark II-class Power Armor

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Order, Closed-Market
• Model: Howlrunner-class Power Armor
• Modularity: Highly; modular backplate and cape clasps; armor color scheme and other aesthetic choices
• Production: Mass-Produced
• Material: Phrik-duraplast-Laminasteel composite armor plates, phrik crushgaunts and vibroblade, layered Defensa base-suit, ceraglass faceplate, Torulus series Artificial Muscles, Mediscan, Phrik-condensed-matter composite laminated exoskeleton frame, Insulfiber padding, Laminasteel farraday cage-duraplast covered internal compartments for servos and electronics, , servomotors, various electronics and other power armor components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Multipurpose Power Armor
• Weight: Average
• Resistances:
  • Energy: Very High
  • Kinetic: High
  • Lightsabers: High
  • EMP/Ion: Average
  • Radiation: Very Low
  • Sonic: Very Low
  • Elemental: Average
  • Environmental: Average

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Composite Construction: Howlrunner uses a set of composite plates that integrally attached to its Uller series exoskeleton. Each plate is constructed using a standardized process designed to maximize the effectiveness of each individual material within the armor. Each plate consists of a laminasteel lattice which holds several duraplast inserts which may be hollowed out to allow circuitry and wiring to run through. This unit is this placed in mold into which molten phrik is poured under intense pressure to form the remaining bulk of this plate. The laminasteel wire frame essentially works like miniaturized slat armor, making it useful against against small explosive projectiles, melee weapons, and slugs. Additionally, it can also act as a farraday cage for components integrated into the armor plate itself. However, most of the EMP/Ion protection afforded by the armor is the results of the duraplast inserts, which provide most of the overall protection afforded by the armor. The outer covering of phrik provides additional resistance to the armor, especially to heat based weapons such as blaster rifles or lightsabers. A thick pane of ceraglass is used for the faceplate, giving the user good visibility in case the suit is electronically disabled and the HUD is inactivated while still providing reasonable protection against many battlefield threats. The black Defensa bodyglove encapsulates Torolus –series Artificial Muscles throughout most of the body glove, especially around the larger joints. Not only does this layer provide protection from many battlefield threatss, basic protection from the environment as well as from many common threats.
• Loth-Wolf series Combat Scanner with SC-1 Hardened Comlink: This system provides Howlrunner with its standard package of HUD, sensors, and basic power suit command and control systems as described in that submission. An open sensor slot in the Loth-Wolf has been plugged in with a medi-sensor, allowing users to help diagnose casualties and provide effective first aid. Loth-Wolf automatically is linked to left wrist ascension gun, allowing users to easily select and target structures to ascend and swing from, as well as allowing it to be used impromptu to ‘grab’ objects and opponents. Loth-Wolf can also be configured to provide tracking and firing information for many hand-held weapons as well.
• Uller series Exoskeleton: This is the suit's base power-armor chassis. Unlike the Gundark II, the Howlrunner’s exoskeleton itself is almost minimal in order to cut down on excess weight and promote more natural range of movement and grace. However, it partially compensates for this tying in the exoskeleton to Torolus artificial muscles within the base bodysuit, especially in the lower half of the body. Consequently, it is surprisingly comfortable and easy to move around in, and absorbs shocks well when subjected to physical attacks or collisions. Combined with thinner plating, this results in a lighter power armor that uses less power, making it more ideal for extended operations in austere environments. The unfortunate tradeoff for this increased agility and lengthened power supply is less brute strength. While Howlrunner can still enhance its wearer’s natural strength by order of several magnitudes, it does not match up to the raw strength of many upper end power armors.
• Asclepius Bio-support Dispenser: This internal device provides basic physiological monitoring, emergency topical bacta/kolto administration, and can also inject users with a variety of emergency or performance enhancing drugs.
• Bia series Portable Fusion Generator: Mounted on the suit's lower back, this generator provides the suit with a constant source of power to the power armor, as long as it has fuel. Due to the suit’s relatively lightweight design, this allows it to operate almost continuously for up to 24 hours. Redundant restart energy pathways built into this reactor allow the Power Armor to "sputter" along when faced with Ion, EMP, and other tech-dampening threats.
• Liquid-Cable Launcher (left gauntlet): Howlrunner has a liquid cable launcher with a triple-strand liquid cable reservoir built into its left gauntlet, with enough liquid cable to form 200 meters of cable. This can allow the wearer to quickly ascend or descend up and down vertical obstacles such as buildings or canyons or swing across chasms. It can also be used as an impromptu grappling weapon, largely in part due to integrated targeting with the suit’s HUD system.
• Retractable Vibroblade (right gauntlet): Howlrunner has a spring-loaded, retractable phrik vibroblade built into its right bracer. While the blade extends only slightly past the wearer’s fingertips, it is still a useful close-quarters weapon, parrying device, and general purpose tool.
• Crush-gaunts: Each of Howlrunner’s gloves are actually crush-gaunts made out of phrik. These can not only be used as a close-quarters combat weapon, but they are also useful for hanging onto and intensely gripping objects, whether the user is dangling off a cliff edge or firing a high-recoil weapon.
• Utility Belt: Howlrunner comes with a streamlined utility belt with compartments made out of the same armor plating as the rest of the suit. While heavily inspired by the classic stormtrooper belt, it contains fewer items in terms of types and quanitities in order to cut down on bulk. Each belt contains the following equipment: a spool of high tension wire, one grappling hook, 2 power packs, two ion flares (for illumination or emergency signaling), a combat de-ionizer, a GLiS Emergency Medpac, and three ration packs.
• Modular Backplate Mount: Most of the suit’s backplate is designed to accept a wide variety of aftermarket devices through the use of gription panels, latches, and other conventional fasteners. A datauplink and power coupling built into the backside allows these devices to be directly connected to the suit’s HUD, operating systems, and onboard power. While designed especially to support LPD’s own devices, it can attach third party items like jetpacks, shield generators, individual field disruptors, and weapon systems with a little work. The following LPD products are fully supported and designed to be plug and play with this armor system: Mailoc Photonic Rocket Pack, Myntor Personal Shield Generator, Ferrazid Particle Distortion Shield Generator, Tauntaun series Modular Backpack, Kinrath Intelligent Handless System, and additional Bia Series Portable Power Generators (often used to provide extra power to heavy weapons and other portable devices).
• Modular Cape Clasps: The Howlrunner has gription panels and pinning mounts above the wearer’s clavicle that allow the user to easily attach different types of cloaks, capes, and ponchos. This allows items like Neti Field Cloaks to be worn to increase passive stealth, All temperature cloaks to adapt to exceptionally hot or cold weather, or ceremonial dress cloaks to be worn by honor guards.
• Modular Load-Bearing System: Lucerne Personal Defense found that most individuals and military units prefer to customize their webbing gear to carry any number of different holsters, pouches, bags, and other devices. Consequently, rather than trying to make a single integrated set of load-bearing equipment, Howlrunner has rows of attachment clips and gription panels spread out across its armor plating and through some reinforced parts of its Defensa bodysuit. This allows users the ability to directly attach a wide variety of equipment to the armor itself based on their own preferred organizational layout rather than trying to adapt equipment to rigid compartments or static layouts.
• Basic Environmental Protection: Like many common battle armors such as stormtrooper armor, Howlrunner provides limited protection from hostile environments. Each suit can be vacuum proof through its self-sealing Defensa body glove and built-in Pneuma-series Rebreathing System, which also has an independent air supply. This rebreathing system also allows its users to filter atmospheres from toxic gases, both natural and artificial, as well as the potential to breathe underwater with the right filters.

STRENGTHS

• Agile: Howlrunner is noticeably lighter and more flexible than many power armors, weighing only slightly more the average set of battle armor, but with the use of exoskeletons and strength enhancers, a user retains the vast majority of their natural agility and even has increased speed.
• Energy Resilience: Howlrunner’s composite plate construction and Defensa undersuit provide the wearer with excellent protection from energy weapons like blasters and disruptors.
• Kinetic Resilience: Howlrunner provides fairly decent protection from kinetic weapons due to its phrik,-laminasteel-duraplast composite armor plates and use of Defensa textile.
• Lightsaber Resilience: Howlrunner provides reasonable protection from lightsabers due to its use of phrik in the armor plating and armorweave in its undersuit.
• Toolkit: Howlrunner contains a noticeable number of supplemental pieces of equipment on it or in it, providing the user with small advantages and capabilities that the average battle armor may not have.

WEAKNESSES

• Lesser Strength: While Howlrunner’s relatively light build increases the user’s agility, it also means that this armor does not have the raw brute strength of some heavier power armors.
• Weak Points (inner thighs): Howlrunner has less protection at its inner thighs in order to cut down on weight and enable better movement in case the suit loses power. This area is only covered by several layers of Defensa intertwined with artificial muscles, both of which are notably less resistant than its phrik armor plating against most weapons.
• Low Radiation Resistance: Howlrunner wasn’t designed with any thought of radiation weapons or environments in mind. Not only does the armor provide an almost negligible amount of incidental shielding through its armor plating, the radiation can destroy the microbes used in its Defensa cloth, which can permanently degrade the armor’s ability to protect against energy weapons.
• Low Sonic Resistance: Howlrunner has very limited protection against sonic weapons. While the helmet does provide sonic protection for the user's ears through its HUD system, the rest of the suit was not designed with sonic weapons in mind. The armor plates and condensed matter composite in the exoskeleton provide some protection against these weapons, but this more coincidental rather than intentional.
• Weak Point (distal clavicle sections): In order to cut down weight and better enable natural flexibility, areas around the outer clavicles are only protected by layers of Defensa intertwined with Torolus series artificial muscles

DESCRIPTION
With the Bryn’adul threat at least temporarily blunted by the repulse at Yurb, Lucerne Personal Defense turned some of their efforts back to providing general purpose defensive items for its patrons. Noticing the increasingly widespread use of power armor in the ongoing Sith-Imperial War, LPD turned their attention to applying some of the advanced technology they developed for the Gundark II Power Armor to a more general, multipurpose design with a focus on enhancing overall survivability on an ever-changing battlefields. To that end, the resulting Howlrunner-class Power Armor is light-weight, high agility design with a notable focus on modularity in order to allow it to be easily adapted for a wide variety of circumstances and missions.

This penchant for modularity is most easily seen in its backplate, which is designed to accept a wide variety of devices, from rocketpacks and extra power generators to personal shielding devices and modular packs. Another example of this basic, but highly variable modularity are in its built-in cloak clasps, which can provide the user with additional abilities such as stealth (neti field cloak), environmental protection (all temperature cloak), or additional battlefield protection (armorweave cloak). Conversely, this general purpose nature is also demonstrated by its inclusion of built-in devices that have a wide variety of uses, such as its gauntlets, which include a retractable vibroblade, crushgaunts, and a liquid cable launcher. Similarly, the suit’s built-in utility belt contains general purpose survival items that can be creatively employed for diverse purposes. But Howlrunner’s far most important function is its most basic: as a means of personal protection.

Howlrunner’s protection philosophy, unlike many other power armors, is that the best way to provide protection from an ever expanding plethora of weapons is not direct resistance, but to simply avoid being hurt in the first place. This is reflected in its relatively light-weight design which combined with artificial muscles built into the undersuit promote rapid movements and improved speed. The use of Defensa textile allows much of this flexibility to occur while still providing protection on its own accord comparable to many basic blast armors. But when push comes to shove, the Howlrunner does use composite armor plates, with the most likely to be targeted areas receiving the thickest protection. These uparmored areas noticeably include the head, chest and forearms. The composite nature of this armor means that individuals wearing it can expect excellent protection from blasters and similar weapons, along with reasonably good protection from other common threats on the battlefield including slugthrowers, vibroblades, explosives, and lightsabers.

Howlrunner production is starting to ramp up with the receding Bryn’adul threat, with some factory lines and factory ships that were previously making Gundark II Power Armor switching over to this more general purpose design. While Howlrunner doesn’t have as high of cost as many traditional power armors (nor their strength), it is still pricey enough that most Howlrunners are being delivered to more experienced or high priority formations with the Directorate or the militaries within the Silver Jedi Concord. Despite these priorities, a number of the suits have appeared on the private market, likely as rewards for private services rendered or from special connections with the Lucerne Labs consortium or the organizations of the Silver Jedi Concord. Howlrunner seems likely to be a common baseline item in arsenals for some time to come, and a likely base product for future power armor developments by Lucerne Personal Defense.

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Looks good.

APPROVED.

Gir Quee