Composite Body Armor

Composite Body Armor is the human resistance's first attempt to use researched alien technology in the field of advanced body armor. While having clear advantages over any previously manufactured personal armor, it is not without flaws that may need to be worked out in future models.

Design

CBA is modeled after the armored coveralls worn by the Behemoths. These suits of alien fabric had pouches in key areas that held molded plate inserts of alien alloy. Since alloy is brittle unless supplied with specific power combination, it was theorized by resistance scientists that the alien fabric itself was key to generating and transferring the power. When the basics of alien power systems were researched, certain pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The alien fabric is able to translate waste body heat and motion into energy because of the nature of the material. This in turn can be used to supply the small amount of alloy with the power required to strengthen it.

Each suit of CBA must be tailored to the individual wearing it. There might be some give when it comes to the coverall portion, but the dozens of alloy inserts must be molded to the wearer because there will be no give there.

Because of the way the plates are held in place and their tendency to hit each other, the wearer will suffer some unavoidable movement restriction. This is offset somewhat by the fact that the armor provides protection that surpasses any other armor currently available, rendering the wearer all but immune to light small arms fire.

Specs

Composite Body Armor/1
Head SP: 25
Torso SP: 18
Arm SP: 12
Leg SP: 15
Reflex Penalty: -2
Suppression Bonus: +3
Explosion SP: 23
Unit weight: 20 lbs.

CBA is prone to degradation; when the armor is penetrated, one of the alloy inserts may have cracked, or the fabric was punctured. Each penetrating hit reduces SP to that location by 1, but the fabric can be patched and the armor plates can be replaced or remolded. Also, thanks to the alien fabric, the armor SP is 150% more effective vs. laser weapons.

Manufacturing Costs

Each suit of CBA/1 uses 6 units of alloy and 3 units of alien fabric. It also requires the wearer to go through a lengthy fitting process, and molding the plates and patching together the coverall will take on average about 40 man-hours of work by armorers.

Until Principles of Nanotechnology research is completed, CBA can only be manufactured by salvaging components. As such, all initial suits will be green and gray in color, as those were the colors of all the alien fabric suits captured so far, and because the alien fabric cannot be dyed or painted.

Future Research

Development and use of Composite Body Armor will yield operator feedback that will enable Resistance scientists and engineers to develop advanced armor. The next logical step would be a full alloy armor suit.