Class: Birthday
Type:HAES
Operators: American Union, Magnetic Assembly
Manufacturer: Stellar Defense, Magnetic Assembly

Weight: ~250 lbs
Height: Custom tailored for user's height.

Propulsion: Optional RCS Backpack, Artificial Muscle Strength Enhancement
Max Acceleration: Walking Speed

Sensors: Electro-optical, Thermal, Radar
Communication Gear: Radio
Armament: None
Life Support: Full self-contained environment

Heavy All Environment Suits started to enter service among militaries of the world in the 2100s as interstellar colonization started to increase as a response to the need to put people in harms way in space for extended amounts of time. The first suits started out as up-armored space-suits designed to better withstand long term radiation in space but these designs would soon find use in combat, hostile environments, or anywhere that chemical, biological, or nuclear protections are required.

Over the next 200 years suit designs would continue to evolve. Heavy All Environment Suits would largely fall out of favor, instead being replaced by more specialized designs that are better suited for more specific roles.

The Birthday Class would be developed from existing designs by ISOC's Green-Squad special forces unit as they transitioned from a range of piloting roles to infantry based operations as an increasing amount of drone usage necessitated a change in operational doctrine. As they were already very familiar with conducting operations remotely they did not require a lot of mobility and were quite used to operating from somewhat cramped conditions. Similarly their increasingly protective and engineering roles required heavy protection against a wide range of threats.

Their version of the suit was nick-named the Birthday Suit and the name ended up sticking.

Throughout the American Union, other sections of the military and civil defense units would end up adopting the Birthday class in various niche roles such as EOD as these units often didn't have the budget or inclination to develop their own HAES suit. By 2320, odds are if you needed a HAES suit in the American Union it would be the Birthday Class.

Do to lack of access to other suits, the Birthday class would become the standard heavy suit used within the Magnetic Assembly for Low-Cyborg operators. Green-Squad would continue to be the primary operators of the suit, largely using them for personal protection and combat engineering roles. This would see the suit used on Azathoth, Atlantica, and throughout Space Colonies in the Hawking System. This familiarity would lead to further upgrade plans for the suit, extending its service life out for the foreseeable future.

The suit is a sturdy construct with the only access point being the opening door on the back that allows a used to slide into the suit.

The head section of the suit is a hooded enclosure for the user's head to prevent any kind of damage under sudden unexpected acceleration, preventing the head from being twisted or concussed by outside forces. The suit does have a removeable armored visor section for situations where the internal cameras or damaged or the wearer needs to exposed their face.

The remainder of the suit is of fairly conventional construction, albeit with thick skin and an attachment point on the back for a thruster pack.

An armor panel housing various optics that can be folded up or entirely removed from the armor. The visor is similarly armored like the rest of the suit, and rests on top of a transparent armored window that doubles as a display that shows the exterior around the armor when the visor is closed.


(Visor Removed)

Located on the rear, left side of the armor is an extendable mast housing a spinning LIDAR and Electro-optical system that allows the armor to generate a 3d image of the surrounding area.

The leg sections of the armor are essentially one single piece, increasing the durability of the suit but making it harder to get into. The toes of the boots contain a magnetic grip to assist with moving about on a starship or in a low gravity environment while the tread of the boot is intentionally wide and rubberized to better deal with terrestrial-style environments.

Because the entire boot assembly has to be disassembled for repair and maintenance, it is often stressed for users to figure out how to get a good fit early on.

The HAES uses a variety of composite armor systems as well as the fluids of its own life support system to provide as much protection as possible to the wearer against projectile weapons, lasers, concussive forces, radiation, chemical, biological, and other threats. Electronically locking joints and self-darkening armored glass are used to protect against extreme impacts and laser-strikes to the visor respectively.

Covering the main optical sensors and LIDAR of the Suit are armored, transparent, composites that can be ejected and replaced quickly by pushing in and then rotating. This allows for the covers to quickly be replaced in the field, or simply removed if they have been damaged by weapons fire.

The Birthday class houses its own fully enclosed life support system complete with positive pressure, air recycling, and temperature control for the wearer. This is capable of keeping them alive with no outside support for almost a week before its systems reach their limit and require maintenance.

The suit is designed to sync up with a wearer's MAD-89 Portable Pharmacy armband to administer combat drugs and other stimulants, sleep-aids, or medicine to assist the wearer as needed. While this isn't suitable for major-injuries, it does assist with automated systems such as sleeping the wearer of the suit while the suit is performing functions in automatic mode such as walking or other basic tasks.