Post by Insano-Man on Jun 11, 2019 15:00:07 GMT -5
REINVENT THE WHEEL
It wasn't too long after the Big Split of 800-870 OSC that the Space Loonies took a hatchet to their wardrobe. Not many were keen on being mistaken for the genocidal lunatics on the ground. They broke down their old Bullman suits, reconfigured them into something new, or just played around with the colors. By the time the dust settled at the turn of the millennium, the change was done. Everyone had come to the same conclusion. They were a new kind of Looney now, and it wouldn't have done well to blend in with the old guard.
What they couldn't agree on, on the other hand, was what they'd replace the Bullman with. The suit they were trying to trash had been around for more than eight centuries - something that'd survived every technological trial the history book could throw at it. By the time 1000 OSC came around, there were at least a dozen proposed replacements per fleet. Some were rocking nothing but brick-fisted powered armor. Others just tossed combat webbing onto their softsuits and called it body armor. On the rare occasion fleets came together for a joint operation, it was close to impossible to tell them from an angry mob of average spacers.
Things started to come together by around 1083 OSC, when the Joint Orbital Defense Council had finally picked up steam. It was around that time that the first official Space Looney combat armor went into circulation; the Mk. 2 VICAR combat environment suit, born and raised on the Argent Isles fleet. It wasn't much to look at, but its chestplate could stop anything that stop-gas couldn't. For a while, things were good.
What marines and security never liked, on the other hand, was that they had to change suits to throw on their battle gear. Even ignoring the Space Loonies' immunocompromised spacerhood, it wasn't exactly convenient for ship defense teams to swap suits with harvesters already onboard. Demands started springing up from fleets in the rougher parts of space. People wanted vests, over-suits, and the kind of classic combat armor that could pop on and pop off whenever it was needed.
J-CON responded in 1139 OSC with the Mk. 12 BISHOP armor kit. It'd been selected from the half-merc Robby Smiles flotilla down in low orbit - at least half its population flush with marine credentials. Even then, the reception to the BISHOP was lukewarm; it didn't have nearly the same protection as the single-piece combat suits of before. Tests with railguns were disappointing. Extremity shots with heavy rifles could punch through the suit from end to end. Integration with shield emitters and personal electronics was underwhelming - when it wasn't non-existent.
J-CON never let up with the push for applied armor. Over the years, it cherry-picked across fleets for the best examples the Space Loonies could provide. 1221 landed with the introduction of the Mk. 19 CARDINAL combat shell, that finally met the performance of the old VICAR suit. The CARDINAL set the trend for later suits; it was a comprehensive over-suit made to bond to an underlying softsuit, complete with a combat vest, tactical harness, and helmet armor kit. New models kept up a steady beat throughout the century. The only thing they lost in the process was their name.
Experiences trickled in from the Chopping Blocks during the Trash Rush of 1218 and the Trash Wars of 1225. Planetside marines came back with more and more demands. They needed armor that could stand up to terrestrial guns - the kind of fat, fast, and ugly rounds spacers never had a use for. They needed something that'd shrug off pressure waves, bite back against crab claws, and stand steady even when their shields were down. Moreover, it had to stay light as a feather. Otherwise, the bird legs carrying it around were going to snap.
February 8th of 1261 was when J-CON had finally run out of improvements on the shell. They let their last concept out onto the Green Angel Array as the Mk. 28 Augmented Extravehicular Combat Shell, or AECS. Some fleets took to calling it the "AEGIS", others floated the grey nickname "Aizkas", or "voidskin". The end result was some of the most powerful body armor on or off the planet. It wasn't much for acrobatics, but it could swallow up enough gunfire to have spacers in full tank suits as jealous as they were terrified.
Today, the Mk. 28 is still in service. It's the face of Space Looney marines from low orbit to high orbit, from the Chopping Blocks to the Scuttler Slice. It's slated to be replaced within the decade by the Mk. 30 Combined Tactical Environment Suite, or CTES, but not many are in a rush to upgrade. The Mk. 28 is here, it works, and it works well. What it does, nothing else can top. The only suit that can shake a stick at it is the old IM125A - the same Bullman it was meant to replace. Just don't ever say that out loud.
It wasn't too long after the Big Split of 800-870 OSC that the Space Loonies took a hatchet to their wardrobe. Not many were keen on being mistaken for the genocidal lunatics on the ground. They broke down their old Bullman suits, reconfigured them into something new, or just played around with the colors. By the time the dust settled at the turn of the millennium, the change was done. Everyone had come to the same conclusion. They were a new kind of Looney now, and it wouldn't have done well to blend in with the old guard.
What they couldn't agree on, on the other hand, was what they'd replace the Bullman with. The suit they were trying to trash had been around for more than eight centuries - something that'd survived every technological trial the history book could throw at it. By the time 1000 OSC came around, there were at least a dozen proposed replacements per fleet. Some were rocking nothing but brick-fisted powered armor. Others just tossed combat webbing onto their softsuits and called it body armor. On the rare occasion fleets came together for a joint operation, it was close to impossible to tell them from an angry mob of average spacers.
Things started to come together by around 1083 OSC, when the Joint Orbital Defense Council had finally picked up steam. It was around that time that the first official Space Looney combat armor went into circulation; the Mk. 2 VICAR combat environment suit, born and raised on the Argent Isles fleet. It wasn't much to look at, but its chestplate could stop anything that stop-gas couldn't. For a while, things were good.
What marines and security never liked, on the other hand, was that they had to change suits to throw on their battle gear. Even ignoring the Space Loonies' immunocompromised spacerhood, it wasn't exactly convenient for ship defense teams to swap suits with harvesters already onboard. Demands started springing up from fleets in the rougher parts of space. People wanted vests, over-suits, and the kind of classic combat armor that could pop on and pop off whenever it was needed.
J-CON responded in 1139 OSC with the Mk. 12 BISHOP armor kit. It'd been selected from the half-merc Robby Smiles flotilla down in low orbit - at least half its population flush with marine credentials. Even then, the reception to the BISHOP was lukewarm; it didn't have nearly the same protection as the single-piece combat suits of before. Tests with railguns were disappointing. Extremity shots with heavy rifles could punch through the suit from end to end. Integration with shield emitters and personal electronics was underwhelming - when it wasn't non-existent.
J-CON never let up with the push for applied armor. Over the years, it cherry-picked across fleets for the best examples the Space Loonies could provide. 1221 landed with the introduction of the Mk. 19 CARDINAL combat shell, that finally met the performance of the old VICAR suit. The CARDINAL set the trend for later suits; it was a comprehensive over-suit made to bond to an underlying softsuit, complete with a combat vest, tactical harness, and helmet armor kit. New models kept up a steady beat throughout the century. The only thing they lost in the process was their name.
Experiences trickled in from the Chopping Blocks during the Trash Rush of 1218 and the Trash Wars of 1225. Planetside marines came back with more and more demands. They needed armor that could stand up to terrestrial guns - the kind of fat, fast, and ugly rounds spacers never had a use for. They needed something that'd shrug off pressure waves, bite back against crab claws, and stand steady even when their shields were down. Moreover, it had to stay light as a feather. Otherwise, the bird legs carrying it around were going to snap.
February 8th of 1261 was when J-CON had finally run out of improvements on the shell. They let their last concept out onto the Green Angel Array as the Mk. 28 Augmented Extravehicular Combat Shell, or AECS. Some fleets took to calling it the "AEGIS", others floated the grey nickname "Aizkas", or "voidskin". The end result was some of the most powerful body armor on or off the planet. It wasn't much for acrobatics, but it could swallow up enough gunfire to have spacers in full tank suits as jealous as they were terrified.
Today, the Mk. 28 is still in service. It's the face of Space Looney marines from low orbit to high orbit, from the Chopping Blocks to the Scuttler Slice. It's slated to be replaced within the decade by the Mk. 30 Combined Tactical Environment Suite, or CTES, but not many are in a rush to upgrade. The Mk. 28 is here, it works, and it works well. What it does, nothing else can top. The only suit that can shake a stick at it is the old IM125A - the same Bullman it was meant to replace. Just don't ever say that out loud.
