Space Suits

The vacuum of space is still deeply hostile to most human life. Some combinations of genetic and technological mods can improve hard vacuum endurance, but they are generally less common in the population. Most humans will need a Vac Suit of some sort to survive. Over the centuries, these designs have evolved and changed, with differing features and survivability.

Civilian Models

The bulk of equipment on the market is built for corporate and civilian use. These are generally unrestricted, easily obtained, and are even in common suit lockers on both space stations and ships throughout the system. Most major jurisdictions require a ship to carry 1.5 suits per passengers and crew to ensure survival after an accident. There is considerable liability in almost all jurisdictions for space accidents not associated with piracy.

Older Model Vac Suits

Vac suits are mandatory in most facilities. Nothing says these suits need to be good. At least half of all suits in active use are still left overs from the initial waves of colonization. These suits have an air bottle fitting on the back, bulky gloves and harness fittings, no hud system, material-based temperature regulation, and a basic built-in radio. A simple patch can be adhered to the suit and a breach will be fixed withou no loss of suit performance.

If these suits are well maintained and have regular seal maintenance, they’re bulltproof. The lack of an active cooling system reduces their mechanical complexity significantly. Instead the actual fibers of the suit provide the temperature regulation. Unfortunately that regulation is only sufficient to maintain human life - they can be holt or cold, but will generally be non-lethal. Comfort is not a guarantee. Nor is radiation safety. Older suits were more concerned with keeping air in than keeping radiation out.

Standard (Current) Model Vac Suits

Roughly 25-30% of current vac suits in service are the standard model. These suits are a significant upgrade over the older pioneer models. The big upgrades over the most basic models include:

• Active HUD System
• Full Network Interface
• Integrated Health Monitor
• Redundant Temperature System
• Active Air Recycler
• Easy-Fill Air Tanks

These suits attempt to provide the best of both worlds. The huds make work and navigation easier, the networks show content on the hud and allow airlock access or thrust warnings, the air system uses at least 3 separate air tanks for redundancy, and the suit use both active temperature regulation and the old regulating materials.

Nicer suits in the standard line have higher raditation resistance and built-in radiation monitors.

The added features have a literal cost, causing most of these suits to be stored under lock and key. There is a slightly elevated risk of system failure with all the nicer technology. The air tanks are smaller and it does rely on the recycler to have a longer vac-time than the pioneer suits. If any of this breaks down, operational time suffers. If there’s a suit puncture, especially of the cooling system, it is possible to drown in space. Emergency patching can be a more involved procedure.

EVA Suits

The top of the line suits are full on EVA suits. Your basic VAC Suit only keeps you alive in a vacuum. An EVA suit has a full thruster array and basic onboard bot pilot to enable manuevering in space. The added flight systems make these essential suits for engineers working on ships in dock. They can maneuver and operate independently, easily making repairs.

These suits commonly have significant radiation hardening, accessory connections for operating tools and equipment, automatic emergency beacons, and they can even fly themselves back to an airlock in an emergency. This suit class is the best of the best. They’re even bullet-resistant against smaller caliber and non-ap rounds.

High costs and desirability have kept these suits locked and secured at all facilities. Anywhere one is in service, it requires authorization to access and the internal systems may even be locked down, refusing activation to an unauthorized user.

Tactical Models

Militaries and Mercenary forces have their own restricted catalog of equipment. These suits essentially operate in two pieces: Survival suit and armor plates. The inner most layer of the suit is a highly bullet resistant vac suit with redundant temperature regulation. All tactical suits are full EVA suits. Thrusters and flight computer are a standard feature across the line up.

The downside of these models is still the corporate systems. Most manfucaturers do use a standard set of command and control codes. It’s brand specific, even model-tier specific. A hacker with time can use the network access on those suits to invade and interfere with their functions. That said, the skills and ability to do these types of hacks are extremely uncommon.

Basic Tactical Suit

The base model tac suits are used by most marines and mercenaries alike. These suits are often integrated with their military platform, able to connect to crash couches to receive drugs, relay biometrics to the ship and commanding officer, operate with encrypted coms, and otherwise act as part of a larger package. Notably a tactical suit has a full medical system onboard, it can administer drugs during battle and even apply some basic medical treatments using built in tourniquets.

Patching a tac suit is almost impossible. During battle, a medic can apply a sealant through the armor plates, but once the inner suit is compromised, the unit will need to be replaced altogether. This drives up the operating costs of the suits, but it is an unavoidable factor in their durability.

The integrated hud and sensor suit can generate and display location maps, track hostiles, and provide a lethal edge to any soldier in a tac suit. Networked sensors between suits can make squads more deadly, able to coordinate in real-time, communicate over encrypted coms, and all but cancel out an adversary’s home-field advantage.

Mech Armor

Better than anything else if Mech Armor. These suits are used by special forces, they’re designed to perfectly merge man and machine. The onboard systems feature advanced, predictive AI, counter measures suits, mechanical actuators to enhance strength, essentially bullet proof armor, and a whole suite of built-in weapons. A well trained Marine in one of these suits can crush even the toughest of combat bots.

This suit is essentially a walking tank.

The AI system can be directly integrated with the soldier via neural link, making the entire suit, its sensors, predictive systems, and all an extension of their body. Reaction times are faster, they hit harder in hand to hand combat - with strength enough to bend steel and crush a body like a pretzel. The integrated guns and missile launcher is just icing on the cake.

If something does successfully damage the suit, the outer armor can be jetissoned, leaving the marine in a slim, light tactical suit. The inner suit is a full vac suit, bullet resistant, and is not much worse than a basic tactical suit.

The onboard AI makes hacking these units particularly difficult. Not impossible, but a significant hazard. The best route to take these suits down digitally is to take control of their command ships, higher up in their chain of command. Those nodes can issue shutdown orders or new orders to the suit AI’s.

Better would be just not fighting them in the first place.