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Holy shit an update!
Yeah, I thought 3/4 of a year was enough. More importantly I finally have the time and inspiration to do this again.
So without further ado: More armour.
Svartalf Robotics Infantry grade Self-Powered General Infantry Armour
Type: Light Infantry Armour (powered)
Users: Raven Feeders, Valkyries, Berserkers, Vikings (Jarlsheim 'Marines').
Protection grade: Military I- (for the Mark 1.4 and 2-RI versions), Military I (for the Mark 2.2-PS Retrofit)
After the success of the original TLA project (of which the modern TLA is an exact duplicate with modern materials), the mid-colonisation era Jarlsheimi government commissioned Svartalf Robotics on a second project: The design and production of a viable Self-Powered combat armour for Jarlsheim's infantry troops in order to lend the military some independence from Earth-based manufacturers.
The result was the initial Mark 1 SP-GIA or 'Clanker' and it was, by general agreement, considered a small disaster. While the Clanker was easy to mass-produce and repair, troopers were generally convinced that the things came in only two sizes: too large and too fucking large. Which was generally true.
During the early production phases, it was determined that due to the rigidity of the system, an armour that was too tight for the wearer was useless because it was too dangerous. If the armour's automatic servos were shorter than the wearer's own body, using the armour resulted in bruising and strained muscles at best and multiple-fracture broken bones at worst, while wearing one which was too larger was simply slightly uncomfortable. And so the designers decided to simply build their prototype to the size of the largest known trooper in the force at the time.
The result was that most users of the SP-GIA Mark 1 did not get nearly as much power out of the system as they could have, had it fitted properly and the project was almost scrapped.
Until the design of the Mark 1.1 upgrade kit (the Mark 1.2 being the official designation for a Mark 1 system with the kit pre-applied), which had new adjustable servo systems that could be lengthened or shortened to fit the user.
This alleviated some of the system's problems and the Mark 1.2 was put into mass-production.
Until the Themeworld Self-Governance Declaration spawned the first armed conflict in which Clanker-1.2's saw actual full-scale combat that is.
During the Theme-wars, the General Infantry, specifically 2nd Division, the 'Ravenfeeders', generally discovered that the enemy, without Powered Armours, was running circles around them. While the servo system was now completely form-fitted, the armoured plates were still the size of the original Mark 1 and this meant that for the large majority of troops, they hampered free movement greatly.
Many of the other divisions' soldiers found to their dismay that during heavy action or fast movement, the over-sized plates scraped against each other and in particularly bad cases, locked under one-another at the joints, essentially locking the soldier in question inside his heavily armoured, but now immovable shell, waiting for their comrades or if they were unlucky, the enemy, to drag them back to camp and cut them out.
When command attempted to alleviate the problem by sending each regiment a shipment of specially designed cutting tools and spare Mark 1 plates, the Ravenfeeders took the tools to their undamaged armours instead, cutting the existing plates down to a more manageable size and called it the Mark 1.3 field modification. They also managed to strong-arm the field supply office into 'mislabelling' a few shipments of TLA's, thus paving the way for modern Jarlsheim military doctrine, but that's a topic for another day.
With their Mark 1.3's, supported by 'unpowered' troops, the Ravenfeeders were the only Division able to avoid taking enough losses to lose their combat effectiveness altogether and after the peace was settled under the Pallas Artemis Accords, the Mark 1.3 modification was made official into the still existing Mark 1.4.
The Mark 1.4 has it's own weaknesses however, aside from using obsolete materials, since the cutting down of the plates also compromised the integrity of the entire system. The Mark 1.4's servos are slightly exposed at the joints, to the point that while the armour protects well enough against civilian weapons and military small-arms, it is not proof against explosives, incendiaries, plasma weapons and exposure to the environment.
The Mark 2 - Rebellion Issue, which was brought into production after the first liberation of Jarlsheim during the Imperatorial Age suffers from the same problem, since it is simply the same design with more modern materials.
And the Mark 2.2 Post Secession Retrofit is once again the same system, but with a sealed under-suit allowing the user (if not always the armour itself) to survive exposure to vacuums, toxic environments and extremes of temperature.
Nowadays Jarlsheim military doctrine has (as mentioned before) changed to the point where Command no longer holds any hope of suiting each and every infantry trooper in his own Powered Armour and as such the SP-GIA no longer meets the demands made of Powered Armours the modern battlefield. The armour, in all it's current variants, does still see use however as a training tool among the Berserkers, as armour for the Valkyries' vehicle (ground and air both) crews, as the preferred armour of the Vikings for Ship-to-Ship boarding actions (in the Mark 2.2 version only. Not even the Vikings are insane enough to board enemy spaceships in armour that isn't space-capable) and for emergency equipment among the Ravenfeeders (at least officially, more commonly it's used for fast disembarking from transport, for moving heavy loads around bases, for target practice on the range and occasionally as a combat latrine, hopefully in that order and that order only).
Herfang Armoury Infantry Battledress
Type: Standard Infantry Armour (semi-powered)
Users: Raven Feeders, Vikings, Huscarls.
Protection grade: Military I+
The Infantry Battledress (Blackwing's note: a kenning for 'Armour') has been the standard armour of every Post Secession soldier ever to foot slog his way onto a battlefield for the greater glory of the Jarlsheim Protectorate... Huzzah, by Jingo and all that. All in all, though, the Battledress (Blackwing's note: which is not actually a dress) offers more protection than the SP-GIA Powered Armour and that's quite something.
It manages this by being a modern day ALCAS-Hybrid armour. ALCAS, as we all know, is a substance which is rather useful because it disperses kinetic energy along it's surface in a sort of 'ripple', meaning that when a solid projectile hits it, the projectile stops flat and the energy is dispersed into a 'negative dent' (aka a protrusion, for those of you with a thesaurus on hand) when these ripples meet on the opposite side.
ALCAS alone, however, isn't THAT good an armour material for sustained combat, since it offers absolutely no protection against plasma or sideways slashing with a melee weapon (or from a very good or lucky kinetic shot), is liquefied by a sufficiently strong electric charge (which can't be helped, because that's how we get the stuff on the armour in the first place and how we remove those protrusions after combat), absorbs and retains heat meaning that sustained fire from laser- or incendiary weapon can easily heat the stuff up enough to melt whatever it's mounted on and burn the trooper inside and is, invariably, bright neon pink, clearish yellow or sickly green, meaning you'll have the choice between looking like a fruit, a piss-stain or puke and a clear target in any case.
Which is why the Battledress consists of four thin layers of (puke green, if you must know) ALCAS between plates of High-Density carbon fibre. The joints are likewise made of carbon fibre cloth with three layers of ALCAS each.
The plates and cloth disperse the energy of an the impact before transferring it to the ALCAS, so instead of a protrusion, the entire opposite side of the armour extends slightly.
The Battledress is semi-powered in the sense that it has gold filigree circuitry running through the layers of ALCAS, linked to pressure sensors on the plates and cloth and to a battery pack build into the back plate. This system liquefies the ALCAS between the plates after a hit in order to maintain overall integrity (otherwise a trooper who gets hit in the front a lot would start to look like a hunchback after a while) and at the same time keeps the ALCAS in the joints liquid until it's hit, allowing the trooper to keep moving (and keeping knees, elbows and other moving parts 'locked', but comfortable during and shortly after a hit, preventing buckling and dislocation).
This means that the Battledress is fully capable of taking a good number of hits from most standard infantry weapons and even, to a lesser but still significant extent, from ordinance and anti-vehicle weapons.
It's not impervious however and repeated, sustained fire will degrade the system eventually. Still, it will give troopers a chance to get out of there before that happens.
On a sidenote, the Vikings, crazy bastards that they are, use a fully sealed variant with an additional, thicker layer of ALCAS on the outside for HANO-Jumps. Yes, that's HANO, not HALO, as in 'High Altitude, NO Opening'. On account of they don't bring parachutes. Insane fuckers. Instead they intentionally train to land ass-first so that the ALCAS coating very nearly pops off their armour on it's own. Neon pink nutjobs... (Blackwing's note: Kids don't try this at home, the Vikings are trained professionals.)
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So Einstein was wrong when he said "God does not play dice". Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen. ~ Stephen Hawking
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