Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Camouflage clothing is a staple of military clothing, ranging anywhere from simple camouflage ponchos to advanced Fractal-Pattern and Camo Scout Armor. The Neti Field Cloak is Lucerne Personal Defense's first foray into this crowded market, and like many of its initial offerings, it is designed to fill a middle-ground niche between the current offerings: while its concealment is not as advanced as the above-mentioned armors, it is also significantly cheaper than them and it provides more precise concealment than conventional printed camouflage clothes. To enter this relatively untapped market required a little bit of innovation.
LPD originally started with a simple baffleweave sheet. Because baffleweave itself provides limited visual concealment, experiments were first made with simple printed camouflage patterns and crossweaving the material with photoreactive fibers. But neither option was found suitable: the atrisian derived patterns were only somewhat effective in visually concealing the subject while the photoreactive fiber crossweave greatly reduced baffleweave's ability to effectively shield the subject from sensors. After some experimentation, it was found that photosensitive crystals were small enough to be woven into and contained coarse baffleweave, which then also engulfs micrels and circuits needed to activate the crystals. In doing so, however, they were not able to take either material to full their advantage. The coarse baffleweave can be penetrated by direct scans at the target depending on the sensor type, range, and other environmental circumstances. The baffleweave is also not entirely covered by crystals either, always demonstrating thin gray-green strands upon close observation. This makes Netis neither invisible from the naked eye or sensors at close range, but it significantly reduces the users' sensor signature and visual conceals them better the further they are away from the observer. As a last refinement to this system, a web of fine three dimensional solar cells were wove into the fabric directly underneath the crystals. Thus light passes through the crystals, into the cell, which then applies the correct electrical impulse to the crystal above it to change it to the correct color. This is relatively inefficient way to power the cloak, however, as the light passing through photosensitive crystal, especially depending on what color they are, tends to diffract and refract in different directions. Consequently, even the cloak uses very little power, pure solar charging requires the cloak to be charged for four times longer than when it is actually activated. This tends to lead to it users only relying on pure solar power to power up the micrels during extended field deployments when access to power is very limited. Many users are often content to simply let it remain a simple piece of gray-green fabric, especially when they're not directly engaged in combat.
Knowing that soldiers tended to adapt and improvise with their equipment to their needs, the clothing designers intentionally made the cloak more versatile by a small number of miniscule grommets at the fabric's edges and corners. These can be used to adjust the exact coverage provided by the cloak. Tightly cinched grommets provide the least amount of open space that sensor scans can pass through and provide the most visual concealment, but they also tend to be the most uncomfortable and restrictive of movement. Conversely, the cloak may be worn in a more open matter for personal comfort and ease of movement. The secondary use of these grommets is to allow the Cloak to be used like a basic tarp. In this matter, cords can be slipped through the grommets to bind it to other objects, especially other Netis, to form shelters and larger covers for concealment and protection against the weather. It's not uncommon to see hasty fighting positions covered with Netis to provide better concealment and weather protection to its users. The uses of the Neti as a basic field fabric, like the simple tarp before it, is largely regulated by the user's imagination.
Netis have been offered to sale by Lucerne Personal Defense to friendly governments and forces, and they're typically not hard to requisition through those organization's official supply channels. A small number of Netis have also found their way into use by professional hunters and scouts to conceal themselves from wildlife. Because of the potential abuse of these for illegal poaching, private purchasers must undergo a background check.
- Intent: To provide soldiers & hunters with some minor, adaptable camouflage
- Image Source: N/A
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
- Model: Neti Field Cloak
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Galactic Alliance, Closed-Market
- Modularity: No
Production: Minor
- Material: Baffleweave, Photosensitive Microscopic Crystals, Micrel Power Supply, Solar power cells, metal grommets, waterproofing sealant
- Visual Obscurity: The outer layers of photosensitive microscopic crystals allows the wearer to visually blend in with an environment. While the crystals will match the colors of the area around it, this not does not grant invisibility but rather acts as adaptive camouflage.
- Reduced Sensor Signature: Using baffleweave as a base material provides a measure of concealment from common sensor types at long-range. It does not provide protection against a focused scan directed specifically at the user, especially at close range.
- General Purpose Field Textile: While the Neti is primarily designed to be worn as a poncho or cloak, it does have several, small grommets located uniformly at the garments edges. Combining the use of these grommets with cord, the Neti can be repurposed for any number of uses including the construction of makeshift tents, lean-tos, blinds, impromptu stretchers, and containers.
- Micrel-Solar Power System: The Neti stores the energy needed to change the photosensitive crystals in micrels, which in turn can be either recharged through standard power ports or use embedded solar power cells to recharge. Solar recharging is typically a fairly long process (about 4 hours of charging for one hour of use), which means that it most often used for extended field operations away from a main military base.
- Minor Stealth: The Neti Cloak is designed to provide its user with basic visual and sensor stealth from a distance, making its users harder to spot, especially from casual visual observation and wide-sweep sensor scans.
- Multi-purpose Fabric: Netis can be repurposed using their grommets and cords to act as a general purpose field fabric much like a tarp. It's not unusual to see a small groups of soldiers combine their individual Netis to make a makeshift tent that blends in with the environment around it or to better conceal positions and equipment.
- User Dependent: Like traditional camouflage clothing, a Neti Field Cloak provides only very basic stealth that is highly reliant on the user's own technique for most of its effectiveness. As an example, simply moving causes the crystals to change color rapidly, making it more likely to spotted as they appear to be a blur. Additionally, movement could also open up folds in the garment that may allow a sensor to scan the user at close to medium ranges.
- Power Reliant: Ion and EMP weapons can fry the embedded wiring in the capes that allow the Neti Cloak to change color. It can also run out of power during sustained use, especially in areas where it can't get solar power. If that happens, the Neti Cloak's visual stealth becomes little more than a normal, green-gray cloak.
Camouflage clothing is a staple of military clothing, ranging anywhere from simple camouflage ponchos to advanced Fractal-Pattern and Camo Scout Armor. The Neti Field Cloak is Lucerne Personal Defense's first foray into this crowded market, and like many of its initial offerings, it is designed to fill a middle-ground niche between the current offerings: while its concealment is not as advanced as the above-mentioned armors, it is also significantly cheaper than them and it provides more precise concealment than conventional printed camouflage clothes. To enter this relatively untapped market required a little bit of innovation.
LPD originally started with a simple baffleweave sheet. Because baffleweave itself provides limited visual concealment, experiments were first made with simple printed camouflage patterns and crossweaving the material with photoreactive fibers. But neither option was found suitable: the atrisian derived patterns were only somewhat effective in visually concealing the subject while the photoreactive fiber crossweave greatly reduced baffleweave's ability to effectively shield the subject from sensors. After some experimentation, it was found that photosensitive crystals were small enough to be woven into and contained coarse baffleweave, which then also engulfs micrels and circuits needed to activate the crystals. In doing so, however, they were not able to take either material to full their advantage. The coarse baffleweave can be penetrated by direct scans at the target depending on the sensor type, range, and other environmental circumstances. The baffleweave is also not entirely covered by crystals either, always demonstrating thin gray-green strands upon close observation. This makes Netis neither invisible from the naked eye or sensors at close range, but it significantly reduces the users' sensor signature and visual conceals them better the further they are away from the observer. As a last refinement to this system, a web of fine three dimensional solar cells were wove into the fabric directly underneath the crystals. Thus light passes through the crystals, into the cell, which then applies the correct electrical impulse to the crystal above it to change it to the correct color. This is relatively inefficient way to power the cloak, however, as the light passing through photosensitive crystal, especially depending on what color they are, tends to diffract and refract in different directions. Consequently, even the cloak uses very little power, pure solar charging requires the cloak to be charged for four times longer than when it is actually activated. This tends to lead to it users only relying on pure solar power to power up the micrels during extended field deployments when access to power is very limited. Many users are often content to simply let it remain a simple piece of gray-green fabric, especially when they're not directly engaged in combat.
Knowing that soldiers tended to adapt and improvise with their equipment to their needs, the clothing designers intentionally made the cloak more versatile by a small number of miniscule grommets at the fabric's edges and corners. These can be used to adjust the exact coverage provided by the cloak. Tightly cinched grommets provide the least amount of open space that sensor scans can pass through and provide the most visual concealment, but they also tend to be the most uncomfortable and restrictive of movement. Conversely, the cloak may be worn in a more open matter for personal comfort and ease of movement. The secondary use of these grommets is to allow the Cloak to be used like a basic tarp. In this matter, cords can be slipped through the grommets to bind it to other objects, especially other Netis, to form shelters and larger covers for concealment and protection against the weather. It's not uncommon to see hasty fighting positions covered with Netis to provide better concealment and weather protection to its users. The uses of the Neti as a basic field fabric, like the simple tarp before it, is largely regulated by the user's imagination.
Netis have been offered to sale by Lucerne Personal Defense to friendly governments and forces, and they're typically not hard to requisition through those organization's official supply channels. A small number of Netis have also found their way into use by professional hunters and scouts to conceal themselves from wildlife. Because of the potential abuse of these for illegal poaching, private purchasers must undergo a background check.
