Sometimes considered an 'ultra light' power armor, the Construct Powered suit is a light weight protective suit, produced by Ken-TEC, offering many of the advantages of power armor, without the excess. Its price and functionality make it ideal for labor companies that need to have lots of strong workers, but not necessarily high grade battle armor.

The Construct Powered Suit was developed with the intention to fill a hole in defensive technology at the time. The drive for the suit's creation was the need for labor professionals to have adequate protection and enhancements for work, without having to purchase a full set of power armor. The suit has the benefit of requiring little to no training to operate and a modular design so that different tools and kits can be attached to the suit.

The Suit entered production in YE 40

The Construct Power Suit is largely similar to environmental suits in appearance, being mostly a snug thick padded body suit. However it differs with the addition of armor plating at the torso, shoulders, and thighs. The suit is also commonly worn with the hexagonal backplate used to house the levitation systems on the back. Along with the hard point on the back there are more than half a dozen hard-point connectors lining the armor for accessories. The suit is also fitted with slightly enlarged hand regions that look like heavy gloves that house the tactile spectrometers. Lastly the suit comes with a rugged helmet with wide visor for a large field of view. Of course there is a small fis on the helmet to try and give it a sleek appearance.

The Construct Power Suit takes some of the best functions of an EVA suit and of a power armor and combines them together to create an armored protective suit with a slim profile as well as utility functions that would be useful in almost any labor based profession. It is also more affordable than a full power armor and easier to operate.

The Construct is not quite as protected as a power armor would be, and thus not as suited for combat on an individual basis.

In order to keep the suit light and safe, traditional propulsion on power armor were avoided. Instead the Construct uses simplified gravitic propulsion for flight most cases. However in space when too far from a significant source of gravity, a compressed gas propulsion system is used. These methods are meant for utilitarian flight so they are not precise nor are they fast, but they are compact and simple to understand and use in return.

The over all size of the construct is mostly negligible when worn, with thing rigid plating in key locations over a thick but form fitting suit. The only significant change is the detachable backpack module which contains all the flight systems as well as the primary processing computer. This backpack is roughly a foot tall, and at its widest about 8 inches, and tapered to fit the shape of the back. Together with the back pack, the whole suit weighs about 20 pounds and is well distributed over the body to minimize the effects.

See Damage Rating (Version 3) for a guide to damage ratings to include.

• Suit: Light Anti-Personnel (T1)
• Shield System: Light Anti-Personnel(T1)
• Armor: Medium Anti-Personnel(T2)

Donning the suit is very easy, it is put on like a normal jumpsuit and sealed air tight. The chest plate is then affixed along with any modular tools. Then the helmet is fastened on.

Due to the size of the suit a complicated control system is not required to move it about, and control of the electronics are handled with a simple neural synapse reader inside the helmet, or accompanying headset.

It could be said that the Orb Weaver multi-function Suit created by Yori Kataoka was the prototype for the Construct Suit. Yori had struggled with the plight of being an engineer sent to work in dangerous environments more frequently than she would've liked. The frustrations reached its apex when she was involved in a gun fight while participating in a terraforming project. In response she designed a light weight battle suit that would not get in the way of her work and that she could wear at all times so she would not be caught off guard.

After realizing that a combat suit might invite more trouble and that the suit didn't help her engineering nor hinder it, a second suit, the Orb Weaver was designed.After successfully producing the personal suit, Yori considered bringing it to market, but Origin had other suit designs that it was working on at the time.

When Yori began to help with designs for Ken-TEC she saw an opportunity to bring over the design. So when she transferred companies in YE 39, Yori began work on developing a mass produced successor to the Orb Weaver and tested the design with the crew of the ISS Dig-It

Though modular the Construct does come with a few built in systems;

• Detachable Flight Pack: This pack comes standard with the suit and uses gravity pulses to create a flight experience similar to the Inertia manipulation of Minkan.
• Tactile Spectrometer: In the hands of the suit and used to do material analysis by touch.
• Coordinated Micro Processor: The suit comes with a dedicated microprocessor for handling control of modular systems. This allows for attachments to be made without their own extensive processors and power systems, to keep the weight down.
• Physical Enhancement: The Construct Suit has a physical assist system woven into the design to give it a lifting capacity not far from a light power armor
• Volumetric visor shielding: The helmet can project a volumetric curtain over the visor to protect against impacts.
• Back up sensor: The helmet has a pop out multi-spectrum sensor that can be deployed if there are issues with the main sensors, it also can be used as a head mounted light.

The suit is constructed primarily out of synthetic fibbers to keep the cost down and make it tear resistant. Padding is minimal to make room for vacuum grade insulation however.

The torso, shoulders, and thighs also have armor plates constructed from Durandium Alloy to protect the user as well as the hard-point fixtures.

The Construct comes with no advanced camouflage options, however the fabric and plating can be colored to use simple visual camouflage patterns

The Construct features both an air filter system and a 12 hour supply of air for its operator. If the suit is in an environment with basic breathable components, even if the air is too contaminated to breath, it can use its filters to also restore its stored air supply. The suit is also vacuum capable, and can protect against ambient radiation without a problem. The helmet also protects the wear's eye sight, capable of adjusting the tint of the visor rapidly when necessary.

Power is supplied through a high volume capacitor system to create reliable and stable power with a low profile and less maintenance. These capacitors can be replaced and charged.

The Construct Suit comes with basic proximity sensors and scanners in order to keep its users aware of their surroundings. There is also a basic radio and laser communication system so that individuals can communicate with each other and management as they work. While there is a measure of filtering and anti-ECM in the system, it is not military grade.

Additionally a tactile spectrometer is worked into the hands of the suit so that with a simple touch they can analyze the material composition of objects. This feature was added to make it easy to inspect work materials and assure quality parts were being used at a work site.

The Construct Power Suit comes with no weapons, as it was intended for labor.

The construct suit has hard points on the shoulders, upper and lower back, forearms, and thighs. They are designed to accept most modular equipment, and provide power to handheld equipment attached to them.

Below, one can find the pricing, various accessories, and future variants when made.

Construct Suit: 1,500 KS.

Basic Repair Service¹⁾: Between 100 KS and 800 KS

Levitation System: 500 KS Replacement Tactile Spectrometers: 500 KS ea. Replacement Armor: 200 KS for set Replacement Helmet: 300 KS for set

The following section will house links and brief descriptions of the variations made upon the Construct Powered Suit

Syaoran created this article on 2017/12/23 17:48. Approved here by Rizzo