Info: The SI-IA26 is a heavy modular armor design created for use by the Sertian Marauders, a wing of the Navy tasked with defending against or engaging in boarding operations of ships, stations, and other space facilities. The armor is designed to assist in the operations conducted by these soldiers, as well as to hopefully protect them from the dangers inherent in entering an enemy controlled environment.

Armor: The IA26's defensive components consists of a 'soft' under suit which acts as an environmental suit and secondary line of protection from harm, as well as containing the motor assistance part of the suit. The hard, outer layer is composed of Emprium plates and acts as the armor's main line of protection.

Under Suit: The under suit is a complex device composed of layers, starting with materials designed to keep the soldier thermally and electrically isolated from his environment at the very bottom (as well as containing much of the circuitry that monitors the soldier's health and condition). Above this consists layers of 'artificial muscle' which make up the armor's motor assistance; composed of a meta-material fiber stretching over the limbs that when acted upon by electrical impulses supplied by the suit's circuitry. These artificial muscles respond to the soldier's movements via a Feedback Motion Control System, designed to detect a soldier's motion and assist fast enough that there isn't any noticeable lag. When the system works correctly, it roughly doubles the average strength of the genetically enhanced Sertian soldier, as well as greatly increasing his potential to handle shock loads and impacts (whether from a fall, or from the kick of their own rifles). Finally, the under suit's final layer is a section of nano-materials consisting of interwoven carbon nanotubes and titanium, designed mostly to guard against shrapnel or pieces of the outer layer after a breach.

Outer Suit: The main line of protection for Sertian soldiers, the outer suit is a set of interlocking Emprium plates designed to stop kinetic rounds or absorb thermal energy from energy weapons while the under suit handles the shock from damaging the soldier within. The plates range in thickness from millimeters to several centimeters (particularly the thick breast plate). Emprium's strength comes from its meta-material property of being a near universal energy conductor, capable of conducting kinetic or thermal energy through its volume at near instantaneous speeds. In effect, the entire Emprium structure is attacked, resulting in incredible durability. However, if the Emprium absorbs to much energy (whether thermal converted from kinetic impacts or transferred energy from energy weapons) the molecular structure of the Emprium material degrades, resulting in the absorbed heat to cause it to shatter in pieces.

Plasma Katars: Like most Sertian armor's, the IA26 includes a pair of plasma weaponry housed on the top of the forearm, taking the shape of katars. Containing an independent battery supply for each katar that can be replaced akin to ammunition for a gun, the katars incinerate a compressed cocktail of gases and then houses it in a magnetic bottle after its undergone the state change into a plasma. The highly dense, hot blade of gas is extremely dangerous, shown to even be capable of slicing through the Emprium plates of the Marauder Armor. However, they drain energy exceptionally fast and can only be ignited for a minute under the best circumstances before the blades are dispersed and new power core is required to be inserted.

Electronics: The IA26 contains an on board computer which monitors and runs the variety of systems apart of the armor as well as assist the soldier in his duties. The computer runs and controls things like the helmet's HUD, communications, life support, and medical assistance.

H.U.D.: The H.U.D. is a computer projection inserted from an image relayed from the thin photo-optic 'film' camera commonly mistaken as a visor on the Marauder's armor. The HUD includes advanced targeting assistance fed from thermal targeting lasers included in most Sertian weapon's, friend or foe identification, as well as a strategic map, ammunition count, and other information relevant to a soldier's mission. The HUD is intractable, with a camera included within the helmet to track the soldier's eyes, which in combination with F.M.C.S. allows the soldier to interact with information called up akin to a virtual interface.

Sensors/Vision: The armor's primary 'sensors' come in way of the camera-film located on the front of the armor's helmet, taking the spot of what is normally a visor on other helmets. The primary layer of camera-film is designed to detect visible light, while outer layers of film are designed to peer into the infrared, microwave, and ultraviolet spectrum, which can be seen via the camera's H.U.D. or overlayed on top of the image portrayed by visible light. In addition, there is a strip of camera film on the back of the soldier's helmet, which creates a rear view mirror image adjacent of the primary image. Finally, the armor contains infrasonic motion detectors which will alert the soldier to any close proximity target that isn't identified as friendly by the Friend or Foe identification system.

Medical Assistance: Realizing that armor isn't the only thing that can save a soldier's life from a bullet, the IA26 had a medical interface included with the under suit. The computer keeps track of a variety of the soldier's life signs, ranging from body temperature, pulses, and internal information taken from cybernetic implants. When something is detected as being wrong (bullet wounds, poisons, low heart rate) drug cocktails stored in key positions of the body (wrists, chest, neck, and thighs) are released in an attempt to try and save the soldier's life. In emergency situations (when a soldier is near death), an emergency drug cocktail is injected into the soldier's neck to halt all metabolic processes in the soldier's body - hopefully preventing tissue decay until proper medical assistance can arrive.

Friend or Foe Identification System: Designed to hopefully prevent friendly fire during the chaos of battle, each armor is equipped with a short ranged radio tag which identifies the soldier as a friendly on the H.U.D. of another soldier's armor. Additionally, many Sertian installations check for these friendly tags when motion is detected. In addition, the armor is painted in spots with a bar code visible to certain infrared wavelengths, in particular the ones used by the infrared targetting laser of Sertian weapons.

Environmental Control/Life Support: Because of the potential danger of exposure to hard vacuum, the IA26's under suit is also an environmental suit; capable of protecting a soldier from all the dangers of space as well as most other conditions. The suit also includes several hours of compressed air, however most of the time a soldier's air is filtered from the environment he's in. The on board air supply is only used in case of hard vacuum or the detection of environmental contaminants within the filter.

Power Supply: The suit's power supply comes from two high energy density superconductive batteries, each holding 300 MJ of power. Each battery is designed to operate independently in case of damage or failure. Under normal operating conditions, the pair of batteries give the suit an operating limit of twenty-four hours.

Add-Ons: Like the IA25, the IA26 includes a variety of hard points where additional equipment relevant to the soldier's mission can be attached; linking it to the armor's power supply and computer interface. These insure that each Marauder has all the equipment to do his mission as best as possible with all the tools needed.

Magnetic Plates and Velcro Straps: Apart of the armor beyond its hard points are attached velcro straps and magnetic plates, designed to hold supplies or things picked up by the soldier during his duty, as well as to hold his weapons securely until needed (the magnetic plates).

I trust you realize just how difficult boarding a ship without destroying it is. :P

Can you give us any data on the properties of this "Emprium"? Or is it just "really hard handwavium"?

Magnetism as motion control? I'd recommend looking into the several proposed models of artificial muscles instead.

I subscribe to the philosophy of KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. Any reason to have "plasma katars" over a regular katar? If you need to cut through bulkhead, use specialized torches. If you're concerned about Jediwank, talk to me on IRC I figured some things out back in the day.

I trust you have a true visor protecting the poor sod's eyes over said film?

Suspending brain activity will, in fact, kill a dude. Need the brain to keep the heart pumping, need the heart pumping to prevent tissue death in the brain.


Thoughts
Mention of the suit's power supply, cooling system, endurance, sensor suite, communications, and approximate increase in physical capabilities would be nice. What makes the suit a better option than, say, drones? If your nation has a thing against drones, might make a mention of that in the final draft.

You mentioned cybernetic implants. To what extent are these used? If you don't have direct motor-control access devices, wouldn't the use of a futuristic SQUID be preferable to "blinks and finger movements"?

Definitely lose the magnetic-plates-for-motion-enhancement. My own suits use bucky-gel actuators (unfortunately can't get a good link on this PC, Google should answer your questions).

If your troops are fighting in confined spaces inherent to starships, would some sort of combat shield (as in a riot shield, not lolforcefield) be useful or would the bulk hinder them? Largely depends on your level of materials science and how big the actual armor is.

If I think of more I'll either hit you up on IRC or post em here.

Oh indeed I do, but there are certain situations where it might be called for (gather some sort of much needed intelligence). In general however, they serve sort of the futuristic equivalent of Marines - engaging in space operations that normal ground forces wouldn't be able to do effectively.

Emprium has some properties I've worked on that make it 'special' (and by special, I mean some order of degree of SCIENCE!) but I didn't think to really bog down the description with a paragraph describing the meta-material. I suppose if it's needed, I could post another topic describing its properties, or try to put in a quick exert.

Hmm... I definitely should have thought of that, and it would neatly work into the under suit perhaps, included in the layer of defensive carbon and titanium fibers perhaps (although upgraded to have that sort of functionality...).

Because it makes sense from their culture. In the Sertian's past after the invention of Emprium their defensive capabilities far out stretched their offensive capabilities at the time. Any guns that could be fielded by personal at the time were useless against anyone armored with the stuff. The only thing that did have any chance of being effective was a plasma weapon; and since they only really work in close quarters due to blooming, a melee weapon with a magnetic bubble was the best bet. Combine this with Sertian's having a very katar focused melee combat form commonly taught to the military, the only real way to kill an enemy soldier was by shoving a flaming blade of plasma into their gut.

Even today a plasma katar is still certain to cut through enemy armor (assuming they have anything equivalent to Emprium), and thus actually more reliable than their rifles but has the limitation of being in close quarters to their opponents.

There actually isn't a visor, at all. I may have worded it weirdly, but basically there isn't a visor. There is, however, a 'camera-film' spread over what would normally be a visor area which takes in light and projects the image of what would normally be seen on the inside of the helmet where the soldier can see it. This eliminates the weakness that a visor would present to a helmet, while still allowing the soldier to see out of his armor. And while their would be transparent materials possibly strong enough to be armor, the nature of Emprium makes including more of it in a solid peace better.

The idea was more of it being a last ditch effort to prevent tissue decay despite oxygen not being delivered. Whatever this cocktail does, it effectively stops all metabolic processes, thus preventing the tissue from 'dying'. When the soldier is brought to a hospital of some sort, metabolic order is restored after the damage has been fixed and the brain should 'hopefully' be undamaged. I'm basically assuming that Sertian medical science has more knowledge on tissue death than we do and can do this with a drug injection, which may or may not be a logical assumption.

Anything tying into the nervous system is likely to far beyond Sertian cybernetics. Such things are relatively primitive, and anything beyond a chip designed to carry information or to gather it is likely beyond them; even cybernetic limbs aren't perfect and are prone to problems. It's really rather taboo in Sertian culture, and while the odd chip implant might be accepted, anything more advanced than that would be declined by a soldier, regardless of its safety.

I'll also give the riot shield idea a thought, although I'd label that more under an individual add-on or weapon than apart of the actual shield.