Misutabani
New Member
Image Source: IMGUR
Intent: To bring a bit of home from my old RP forum
Development Thread: N/A
Manufacturer: Hapan Consortium
Model: IAR Paladin Hapan Battle Armor
Affiliation: Hapan Consortium
Additional Equipment: Various addons exist to bolster the fighting capabilities of the IAR90 suit. The most basic of these is a high-powered thrust pack allowing vertical jumps of up to fifty meters and horizontal leaps of up to one hundred meters in two-G environments; double that in single-G environments. As a cold plasma thrust pack with a built-in reactor core, it can also provide exceptional speed in zero-G combat and underwater. It has sufficient thrust to brake the wearer, slowing what would be an otherwise fatal fall into a safe, if a bit uncomfortable, descent. The pack is very noisy, however, and so does not serve as a satisfactory replacement for conventional parachute insertion or SHIV deployment.
Other upgrades include enhanced communications and sensor packs, additional air tanks, enhanced maneuvering thrusters, and a host of other non-combative features with no direct offensive function. As a general rule of thumb the armor's add-on modules will never give it a built-in weapons system, as it is more efficient to use a purpose-built weapon for a given role than it is to try to compress an existing weapons platform into a module compact enough for use on Paladin.
Production: Semi-limited
Material: Titanium, Ceramic, Armor-Grade Glasteel, Ablative Paint, Synthmuscle, Kinetic-Damping Gel,
Classification: (Anti-Blaster, Anti-Ballistic, Multipurpose, Other)
Weight: 310 K/G
Quality: Proof against Slug/Blaster Pistols. Proof against conventional bladed weapons. Proof against Shrapnel/Fragmentation weapons. Highly resistant to Slugthrower Rifles, modestly resistant to Blaster Rifles. Helmet/torso possesses single-hit protection from sniper rifles.
Special Features: (Is it resistant to certain weapons? Does it include special sensors? Even if you've discussed your features at length in the Description line of the Base Template, this is a good place to list them.)
Description: Paladin is constructed in a series of layers. The base layer is a close-fitting but comfortable bodysuit that is almost excessively gusseted to ensure ease of movement. Artificial polymer veins run through the entire suit and serves to circulate coolant to regulate the wearer's body temperature. It also serves as a vacuum suit; as long as the bodysuit isn't breached, the wearer can operate in hard vacuum without trouble. A semi-automatic tourniquet system is included in the bodysuit; its activation is automated in the event the wearer falls unconscious or is in danger of falling unconscious due to bloodloss. It otherwise must be manually activated.
The next layer contains the various electronics and equipment necessary to keep the suit networked within the local battlenet. These include a node for FIIN, or Field Integrated Intelligence Network, an IFF/SOS transponder, a solid-state combat computer, and enough onboard data storage to record several thousand hours of helmet camera footage - or to copy a good chunk of most military databases. Onboard medical sensors are included in this layer. Data ports are provided on each flank and the helmet rear; these are protected by armored flaps and faraday mesh when not in use.
Above the delicate electronics layer is a thick kinetic-damping gel with positive buoyancy. While not enough to float the suit, it does make it far easier to maneuver underwater. The gel's primary purpose, however, is to reduce the impact from kinetic weapons, melee attacks, and concussive blasts by safely dispersing the force behind the attack. And, obviously, it helps with falling!
The front of the gel layer is armored with two layers of lightweight but resilient flexweave, while another two layers are on the back. These add toughness to the gel layer but aren't thick enough to stop anything meaner than a small-caliber plinking slugthrower such as a .22 or similar weapon.
A sturdy titanium framework is built over the gel layer. This forms an open skeleton on which thick bundles of flexweave-wrapped synthetic muscle are layered. These bundles are arranged in patterns inspired by typical humanoid muscle configurations. They offer immense strength and endurance along with lightning fast movement, though whether or not the wearer has the reflexes to take advantage of that speed is another matter entirely. The bundles provide armor in and of themselves, as they are wrapped in fifty layers of flexweave - enough to stop shrapnel and common pistols dead in their tracks. The muscle is also bundled in thin faraday mesh.
Another titanium framework is built over the synthetic muscle. A lattice of power distribution cables and data links are run through this framework, powering and providing connectivity to attached devices. By default, an encrypted radio and non-encrypted radio are in this layer, along with the suit's audio and visual pickups and helmet camera and recording system. Faraday mesh protects all equipment - and everything beneath it - from destructive EMP and Ion attacks. The radios are hardened against EMP, but such attacks tend to render them - along with the suit's IFF and FIIN modules - inactive for a period of three to five minutes.
Flexible but durable self-healing biopolymer panels are built onto the framework in a double layer. While only proof against pistols, with no resistance to rifles at all, these panels weigh very little and offer reasonable protection. They are drab black in color, but a color shifting mechanism built in allows them to adopt most basic camouflage schemes and colors. This feature is useless when the hard armor layer is installed.
The final layer is a set of immensely heavy and thick titanium-ceramic composite plating, the titanium element of which is reinforced with carbon nanotubes. These plates are resistant to most ballistic small arms, though they still struggle with high-powered sniper rifles and only provided limited, single-hit protection per plate. They are wholly immune to pistols and carbines. Paladin-series hardsuits add a layer of ablative 'paint', which is in reality an incredibly thick application of 0.5MM ceramic scales suspended in a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer that expands and vaporizes in response to immense heat, yet tends to deflect or 'catch' projectiles without shattering.
The vaporization causes the ceramic scale to be projected outwards which, along with the burst of expanding gases from the vaporized polymer, diffuses and disrupts most conventional energy weapons. The coating is only good for one or two hits in a given area, though, and is left blackened and cracked by blaster impacts. The armor itself can resist another hit or two before failing. Blaster pistols will weaken the ablative layer, but cannot damage the armor paneling beneath.
The helmet and collar/throat protection are made in the same fashion as the rest of the armor, with some notable exceptions. The helmet has a triple-thick faceplate made of heavy glasteel, tough enough to stop even a rifle round in its tracks. (Though this will leave the outer layer cracked, hampering visibility greatly.)
The neck has three layers of biopolymer armor, which, when combined with the synthmuscle connecting neck and helmet, is capable of resisting a single hit from an assault or blaster rifle and stopping knives dead in their tracks. The neck has a hard rotational lock, meaning that the wearer's head cannot twist to an unsafe degree preventing the wearer's neck from being snapped by an attacker or accident.
Its final layer of defense is in the form of a MagSeal generator mounted to the left forearm. When activated, this projects a powerful field of interlocking hexagonal energy fields forming a tower shield as tall as the carrying soldier and a little wider. The wall of blue-green energy and loud hum of its activation make it less than ideal for stealth. It is capable of stopping both kinetic and energy attacks, and will stand up to eight blaster rifle shots before failing. Against any blaster weapon short of a rifle or a heavy pistol it will fare much better; kinetic weapons fare similarly to their energy-based counterparts.
The armor's considerable power requirements are supplied by a microfusion bottle. This heavily armored miniature reactor is installed on the wearer's back, where the heavy armor plating of the torso affords it additional protection. Myriad failsafes ensure that the reactor cannot explosively detonate. The reactor carries enough Helium-3 fuel to operate for one month without refuel. Compressed fuel is supplied in the form of small canisters, each the size of a man's thumb, and may be inserted into the reactor housing in a matter of seconds. These merely refill the internal reservoir, and so removing them will not cut the reactor's fuel supply.
The boots are heavily armored, particularly on the underside, while the leg and groin armor are designed to minimize injury from lightweight land mines such as 'toe poppers' and other low-powered munitions designed to wound or maim unarmored troops.
Magnetic clamps installed in the boots and gauntlets allow the wearer to more easily tackle combat in an EVA environment, while a series of cold plasma thrusters in the shoulders and boots can maneuver the armor in zero-G environments. They do not provide enough thrust to fly on their own, but coupled with a thruster pack they do allow for impressive aerial agility. They function underwater, and so may be used to propel the armor's bulk at considerable speed while submerged.
There are additional magnetic clamps on the armor's back, allowing weapons to be clamped in place. Quick-detach clamps on the shoulders, waist front, and hips allow specially designed vests and magazine carriers to be used; these typically take the form of the tactical vests and armored plate carriers worn by some militaries, and allow the trooper to carry an impressive amount of munitions and equipment on his person. The vests can be easily jettisoned if necessary, but otherwise will stay in place even under very rough handling and abuse.
Paladin possesses integrated weapons in the form of twin fusion knives, which themselves are similar to fusioncutters in that they use a fuel slug to power an intense blade of energy capable of slicing through heavy armor and flesh with ease. The blades are projected from the armor plate protecting the back of the hand; a safety mechanism is present in that the hand must be closed into a fist or the fingers curled out of the way of the blade before it will activate. The blades are a ghostly blue in color and trail blue-gray smoke behind them, are less than three millimeters in thickness, and are fifty millimeters wide. Each blade is two hundred millimeters long. The sound of their activation is a whisper-quiet growling hum, though they do cast a good bit of light. The fuel slug is good for ten minutes of continuous use and can be replaced in a manner of seconds.
IAR90 has SmartLink integration, meaning that any S-Link compatible weapon 'equipped' - that is, in hand - will display a targeting reticule, ammunition counter, and other basic information in the armor's HUD. Other data displayed by the HUD includes information from the Field Integrated Intelligence Network, which allows a soldier to keep track of his squadmates' position and see real-time enemy positions and map data displayed in a minimap in the corner of his vision. If he is using 'smart' pouches, the amount of ammunition, grenades, and kit at his disposal is also displayed. A compass and rangefinder are integrated as default, along with a waypoint system. A laser designator build into the helmet even allows the soldier to paint a target for artillery fire or air strikes through FINN, or to simply point out a pesky machine-gunner to his squad marksman.
Insofar as sensors go, the armor has a built-in motion tracker drawing off three sensors to track movement in the environment around the armor; ultrasonic aural sensors, a microwave sensor, and a RADAR-based tomographic motion detector. Mated to a reasonably powerful processor and a bit of clever programming, these devices allow movement out to fifteen meters to be registered. Only objects moving at a walking pace or faster are detected, however. As an active sensor package it tends to draw unwanted attention on stealth missions and so must be disabled to retain any semblance of stealth. An optical package is integrated into the helmet; these consist of a conventional camera assembly capable of twelve times magnification with excellent field of view and an semi-cooled infrared optic with up to three times magnification. A cooling module can be activated on the compact IR optic, allowing it to generate detailed thermographic images of a target, though this module only allows fifteen seconds of high-definition imaging before requiring a two-minute cooldown.
As power armor, the suit uses a PNI - predictive neural interface. Once synced with an operator, this device - which wraps partly around the neck and has sensors along the spine - can read the operator's nervous system and so allows the suit to work with, not against, the operator. As such, Paladin feels like a 'second skin', moving instantly and smoothly with its wearer and allowing grace and fluidity of movement unmatched by other powered armors. PNI takes some two hours to calibrate for a new user, but Paladin's onboard computers can accept an 'imprint', which is a preset neural configuration copied from another suit or a medical scanner. This reduces calibration time to fifteen seconds; it is therefore common practice for Commonwealth soldiers to store an 'imprint' on their personal neural nets and datapads. The armor may still move without calibration, but it is clunky, slow, and generally not nearly as efficient.
Lastly, the armor includes a built-in air filtration system that allows the operator to function for up to thirty-six hours in NBC environments. An onboard air reservoir allows for up to forty-five minutes of underwater or in-vacuum operation - this can be added to with expansion tanks. A self-firing piton, grapnel, compact ascension device, and two hundred meters of small-diameter reinforced cable are carried in a compact hard case on the hip. A repair kit containing five tubes of foaming fast-hardening sealant and several biopolymer patches is also carried, allowing the user to plug a hole in his armor, while a 'straw' assembly in the helmet allows a hydration bladder to be hooked up or for the soldier to drink from a canteen without removing his helm. And, of course, high-powered flashlight assemblies are built onto either side of the helm in a pair of twin-light modules- the upper light is infrared, the lower light is conventional. Only one set of lights is activated at a given time.
Note: It was my friend who designed this
