PALADIN Assault Combat Armour

The **PALADIN Assault Combat Armour** is a massively technologically advanced combat exoskeleton system designed to superhumanly improve the strength, speed, agility, reflexes and durability of a Knight super soldier. Though the development program is rendered in all capital letters (i.e. Project: PALADIN), the armour itself is called *Paladin*.

Not surprisingly, it is a Panamoan project of origin, which is a parallel to the Evalkan Panzersoldat.

## Overview

Created parallel to the KNIGHT-SOLDIER program by the Office of Naval Intelligence's Materials & Research Group, the Paladin armour is the most advanced piece of tactical military hardware in nevian hands. Each suit alone costs comparable to an Iron Man armour of Michael Nexima. The brainchild of Dr. Margaret Kennedy, PALADIN is an attempt to create a powered exoskeleton capable of taking full advantage of the physical capabilities of a Knight.

Spanning over three weeks of development, Project PALADIN encompassed more than just a suit of armour, but as a pioneering effort intended to shatter current technological barriers. In its final iteration, Paladin is a highly advanced seemingly indestructible suit capable of further enhancing the Knights' physical performance while also doubling as a platform capable of handling an artificial intelligence network.

Unlike the powered exoskeletons that preceded it, the Paladin battlesuit was designed from the ground up as a suit of armour; its design philosophy would serve as a basis for all future powered and semi-powered armoUr system designs. Each generation of the Paladin battlesuit is composed of major fundamental components; construction of the suit is done in overlapping layers and has been remarked of it being akin to a giant three-dimensional puzzle. The armour's shell is composed of a multilayer alloy of Rhinestone armor and Nevium alloy to maximise durability and allow lightweight feel to enhance mobility. The suit contains a gel-filled layer underneath a thick black armoured bodysuit. The gel layer regulates temperature and can reactively change its density. The inner skinsuit is made of a moisture-absorbing synthetic leather-like material linked to an environment control computer and the occupant's NXSC-issue neural interface.

The battlesuit is a sealed system, capable of extra-vehicular activity for a large but limited amount of time or operations in toxic atmosphere. It is hardened against EMP and radiation, and has filters that are completely effective at removing toxins and bacteria from local atmosphere. Between the external armour and the internal padding is the most devastating weapon the suit carries: a layer of polymerised lithium niobocene, a liquid metal crystal that deforms along a preferred axis when exposed to an electric charge. Woven by molecular tools into a capillary system, this layer is amorphous, yet amplifies force, doubling lifting capability and increasing reaction time by a factor of five. Because the Paladin system is so reactive, it can only be worn by a physically augmented humanoid; ordinary people are unable to use the suit without injuring themselves, exception for a superior natural species like Nevian Alphas and Avioranoids.

The Paladin battlesuit's greatest advantage, however, is a super-dense optical computer memory. This revolutionary solid-based crystalline layer forms a network within the suit's frame of proper size and capability of housing the types of artificial intelligence usually reserved for starships. Essentially a piggyback system, an AI can be delivered to the suit via a data crystal chip storage device no larger than a personal credit card. The AI's personality and processing matrices can be carried by the armour and in conjunction with the user, can neurally link with a being that has nearly unfettered control over mathematics, information and body control. Such technology did not exist when work began on the Mark I prototypes.

The functionality of the Paladin system is unprecedented. Rather than being a traditional suit of body armour, the Paladin battlesuit works on a bio-mechanical level, allowing for direct user-controlled movement. Each human being has a molecular fibre network called the nervous system within their brain. Upon induction, all military personnel are issued a neural interface, which is implanted at the base of the skull and cannot be removed. Knights received a modified version of the neural lace specifically for the Paladin armour. This neural lace, which consists of two core processor chips which is linked to receptors in the subject's brain, which is connected to an interface connection at the rear of the skull; reads the electrochemical signals sent from the brain and then translates these chemical signals into digital code. As the electrochemical impulse travels down the axon to the muscle, the digital code is routed through the interface connection, to the suit's on board sensors, the input from the sensors is then read by the onboard computer and then like the human body itself sends an electrical impulse through the suit, as the impulse from the motor neuron hits the muscle, the electrical impulse from the suit causes the polymeriSed lithium niobecene to deform along a preferred axis, overlapping each other more, so that the layer gets shorter and fatter.

When the impulses from the suit stop, the polygonal pieces slide back to their original positions. At the same time, as the muscle fibres are responding to the impulses, signals are sent to the suit that this is occurring, as the muscle twitches the force being applied to the suit is accelerated through force-multiplying circuits, which amplify the force of the muscular twitch by a positive feedback loop in the armoUr. The end result is a fully neurally linked machine, the user's thoughts move the suit and in return the suit moves the user. The synthesis of machine and mind is so fast that it is almost impossible to chart reaction time.

The suit also possesses other features that enhance its wearer's abilities. It has numerous clips, belts, and magnetic holsters for the attachment of additional weapons and ammunition; an advanced heads-up display (HUD), linked to sensors in the gloves which can detects the type of weapons and devices held, and to project shield strength, ammunition count, a targeting reticle, waypoints, target scanning, a radio uplink for communication, health monitoring and restoration system, regenerative food materials and other helpful data.

## Armour Generations

### Mark I

Initiated in 2010, the Mark I took a significant amount of time to develop, but was bulky, unwieldy and needed to be tethered to a power source due to the tremendous amount of energy needed to power it. This caused the system's downfall, as it required a *physical connection* to a fusion generator at all times when operated. The Mark I prototype improved the strength and stamina of the wearer and allowed the user to lift fifteen tons (30,000 pounds) and run at 45 km/h (27.96 mph) for extended periods of time. The Mark I contained a cutting-edge onboard computer that could assist the wearer by transmitting tactical and communications information to the standard neural implant issued to a soldier, though the suit did not possess the ability to carry an AI.

### Mark III

The Mark III was the first iteration to incorporate a wireless power receiver so that power could be transmitted directly to it, via broadcast power. This design was quickly rejected for two reasons: first, the armour still had a limited operational range as it had to remain within range of a bulky, immobile generator. Second, if the generator was disabled or destroyed, the suit would become inoperable, leaving its user locked inside the now-useless shell, trapped to useless enemy attacks until the armour shell gets compromised. In the end, all of the first three prototypes had one thing in common: they were impractical on the battlefield, as their range was severely limited by the lack of a mobile power source.

### Mark IV

The Mark IV is the current and most commonly used variation of the Paladin armour. Despite the humiliating failure of the three earlier iterations of the Paladin, the Paladin Mark IV armour would become the first Paladin suit to see mass production and occasional deployment onto the battlefield. Spearheaded by Dr. Margaret Kennedy, the Mark IV was a notable and radical redesign of the previous iterations. Most notably, it used an embedded miniature plasma reactor within the armour itself to power the suit, effectively *eliminating* the cumbersome external generators that had plagued previous iterations.

It grants Class-40 strength!

### Mark V

The Mark V is an upgrade over the Mark IV.

### Mark VI

The Mark VII is the fourth major iteration of the Paladin armour introduced in April 2022. It is lighter than the previous first-generation suits, with new features including a limited energy shield shaping and a nanotechnology repair suite. The suit notably grants Class-45 strength!

## Trivia

### General

* This successful project was available to select members of the Galactic Republic's political organisation, but they did not share to Michael Nexima himself.
* The Mark VI suit is 350 pounds, the Mark IV by comparison weighs 420 and the Mark I and 2 were 1000 pounds.
* Superior and stronger species that are stronger than their ordinary counterparts (e.g Alphas from Nevians), can use the suit without suffering from injury.
* Members of Indigo Team have their armours extremely personalised.
* The Mark VI is only available in archives and a custom variant was used by Nicholas Wolfgang Bale in April 2022.