"Nautilus" Powered Space Suit System

The "Nautilus" Powered Space Suit System is a hybridization of space suit and powered armor technologies to provide maximum protection and utility in micro-gravity environments. The Nautilus system is manufactured primarily for use by the Cobalt Knight retainers of the Cobalt Protectorate, but surplus and mass-market adaptations of the suit may be found throughout human-controlled space.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Like many things produced under the Evermornan cultural obsession with modularity and redundancy, the Nautilus suit is actually a system that can be stripped down or built up as the occasion requires.

Nautilus I

The Nautilus I layer is a skin-tight pressure suit often used as a base layer by Cobalt Knights under other uniform elements, such as jackets, pants, and (in the case of Elder Knights) long coats. This base layer consists of a tough, but flexible, jumpsuit woven throughout with a network of small capillaries. When the suit is exposed to vacuum, these capillaries expand, pulling the fabric between them taught and preventing the wearer from dying until better protection can be applied. Synthetic myomere strung along the joints, especially in the gloves that come with the suit, provide the user with additional strength. A hood tucked into the back collar of the jumpsuit can be pulled forward and over the head and secured at the front, which, in conjunction with a bottle worn at the hip, can serve as emergency life support in the event of sudden depressurization; a separate helmet can also be appended, as the suit's 'turtleneck' forms a neck gasket when pressurized. With a larger bottle or backpack and when coupled with proper pre-breathing and decompression procedures, the Nautilus I is a fully competent space suit in its own right. Career spacers, like Knight-Airman Enzo Salt, treat the Nautilus I as part of their everyday duty uniform.

Nautilus II

The Nautilus II layer is a collection of armor plates and additional hardware that can be affixed to hardpoints along the surface of the Nautilus I layer. These plates provide additional coverage around the chest and, as a complete set, convert the Nautilus I into a partial pressure suit. The Nautilus II features additional slabs of artificial muscle to further enhance the strength of the wearer, larger foliated graphite capacitors trickle-charged with atomic batteries to power the additional equipment, and recirculating water jackets to provide a modicum of resistance against the dangers of heat, cold, and particle radiation. Gold foil closer to the wearer's body provides additional protection against electromagnetic radiation, though its attenuation pales in comparison to the thick hull of a General Purpose Module.

Nautilus III

The Nautilus III layer is, like the Nautilus II, an additional layer of armor designed to socket onto and around the Nautilus I. However, the Nautilus III is actually a full hardsuit and allows the wearer to operate without the need for prebreathing. Much more massive and thickly-armored than the suits it encapsulates, the Nautilus III is a proper suit of powered armor. It features two integrated HLAI slots and may be appended with an additional pairs of manipulator arms at the belly and atop the backpack to facilitate group labor in a vacuum environment. In combat, the thick composite armor and voluminous pykrete jackets of the Nautilus III render it nearly immune to small arms and laser fire, while the oversized atomic battery held in a cell in the backpack provides both the suit and any energy weapons it might carry with ample replenishment. The Nautilus III features a thick dome of gilt transparent composite in addition to its helmet to provide more protection for the operator's head and eyes. The backpack of the Nautilus III contains a state-of-the-art closed life support system for the operator based on a combination of nanotechnology and genetically-engineered life support algae; the wearer of a Nautilus III, should he or she remember to hook up the waste collection system properly, can confortably remain in the suit for days at a time. It is said that the Cobalt Knights are utterly implacable when they set their mind to a thing; a boarding party of Cobalt Knight-Espatiers in full Nautilus IIIs is a nigh-on unrepellable force, even for more senior species like the chitiquish.

Significance

The name of the Nautilus derives from the sea creature of the same name. The helmet often worn with modern Nautilus I and II layers (see below) has the appearance of goggles and a gas mask, and the narrow eye-slits of the goggles - designed to help block out intense glare from airless rock surfaces, glancing laser shots, and unfiltered sunlight - resemble mollusk-like eyes to some. The numerous hoses and, at higher ratings, armor plates also enhance the shellfish aesthetic. Though relations between Evermorn and Ferros Major merely chilly rather than hostile, the Nautilus name was more palatable to Evermornan engineers than the Chitiquish despite the notable similarities between the body plan of that alien species and a suit of Nautilus III armor when a single set of extra manipulators have been appended (see Mechanics & Inner Workings).

Item type

Armor

Subtype / Model

Powered Armor

Related ethnicities

• Evermornan

Owning Organization

Cobalt Knights

Rarity

The Nautilus system and its cousins are widespread in the Sealed Kingdoms Region and may be found wherever human or near-human spacefaring populations may be found. Nautilus suits are simply the latest in a long line of space suits developed by Evermornan engineers; in modern spacer parlance, versions or regional variants of the Nautilus are more likely to be spoken of than different models of space suit.