Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To sub a stealth battle armor for the Directorate personnel
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A
Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: select groups within the Directorate, Closed Market
Model: Vaapad Stealth Armor
Modularity: Yes
Production: Limited
Material: Stygian-triprismatic polymer armor plates, shadowsilk, reflec dye/coating, ceraglass face plate, Biolux-series Organoform Circuitry
Classification: Medium Stealth Armor
Weight: Average
Resistances
- Kinetic: Average
- Lightsabers: Average
- Other: Slug throwers and melee blades: Average
SPECIAL FEATURES
Integrated Passive Stealth: Vaapad was designed to be stealthy from the ground up, starting with a shadowsilk based bodysuit, to better absorb sound and light. This base layer is then covered in a series of moderately thick Stygian-triprismatic polymer armor plates, which provides the user with a moderate amount of protection against most common threats as well as reducing their sensor signature. The entire armor is then cured in a solution of Reflec-based dye.This provides Vaapad users with good passive protection from many types of sensors from a distance, though it is still possible to see and detect users even without specialized equipment at close ranges. This means that Vaapad users also need to rely on their skills and planning to successfully use this armor to infiltrate.
NiteSite/TIN Network HUD: Vaapad uses an integrated NiteSite-based HUD system, providing users with zoom capability, low level vision, and integrated targeting capability that is especially useful with the suit's vambrace-mounted devices. Vaapads can be linked to each other and relay real time information to each other in a form of a Target Identification Network first pioneered on assassin droids. This provides users with an unusual situational awareness and additional sensor/targeting information that might not be immediately available through the helmet's own sensors because of either range or obstacles.
Wrist-Mounted Repulsor Grappling Gun: Vaapad includes a miniaturized Repulsor Grappling Gun built into its left gauntlet, allowing users to quickly scale up and down different objects.
Wrist-Mounted Fusion Cutter: Vaapad includes a fusion cutter built into its right gauntlet, allowing user to cut into different materials to provide access to different components within structures or to create impromptu entries and exits.
Twin Powercells: Vaapad has a pair of power cells encased in armored, trapezoidal prisms on the armor's back. They not only provide power for the basic functions of the suit, but also can provide power for any devices attached to the suit. These power cells can be changed out in the field with assistance.
Environmentally Sealed: Each suit is vacuum proof and provides some insulation through the use of the base shadowsilk-based body glove. Vaapad armor also incorporates air filtering through an atmosphere processor as well as a 20 minute atmosphere supply, allowing troopers to operate for a limited time in hazardous atmospheres or in a complete lack of breathable atmosphere.
Integrated Webbing: Vaapad comes with an integrated chest harness and belt made out of Shadowsilk that allows some equipment and tactical pounches to be directly attached to the suit. These typically are used to store ammunition, explosives, and other mission-based items.
Integrated HUSH-98 Comlinkhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hush-98_comlink/Legends: This comlink is integrated into the helmet in a manner similar to comlinks found in stormtrooper helmets.
Stealthy: Vaapad armor allows users to better move about in relative stealth due to the extensive use of specialized light, sound, and sensor dampening materials.
ToolBox: Vaapad armor includes several built in tools, such as a grappling gun and fusion cutter, to better enable infiltrators to perform their missions.
Weakpoints: Almost all of the joints are extremely lightly armored in one or two layers of shadowsilk in order to provide good dexterity, which means that many attacks, such as a blade or a blaster bolt, can easily pierce through that section with almost no effort.
Seeing a need for the Directorate to develop better asymmetric warfare capabilities, Director Quee tasked Lucerne Personal Defense with developing a stealthy battle armor to equip commandos, spies, and saboteurs that would soon make up the heart of the Directorate's special operation programs. To that end, Lucerne Personal Defense synthesized elements of existing equipment and combined it with proven stealth technology to make the Vaapad Stealth Armor.
The armor's basic appearance and construction seems unexceptional at a glance, appearing to be a dark padded suit covered in charcoal-colored armored plates. This unassuming nature masks the extensive use of advanced materials which cumulatively work together to passive reduce the wearer's sensor signature and lower the emissions that users can make. Its base layer of shadowsilk helps absorb sound that comes into contact with the suit from both inside and outside sources, allowing users to quietly move about and work. Stygian Triprismatic Polymer Plates and a reflec-based dye passively reduce the suit and wearer's sensor profile, with the reflec even bending nearby light to reduce visual observation. Despite these advances, Vaapad armor doesn't flawlessly hide its users without effort, and just as much of its effectiveness as a stealth device is dependent on its user and their skill as it is on its material properties.
Aside from its stealth properties, Vaapad armor notably has several other refinements useful for an infiltrator. This includes a wrist-mounted grappling hook to move up and down relatively quickly, as well as a built-in fusion cutter, which allows infiltrators to make impromptu entryways and exits as needed. The armor also sports shadowsilk-woven webbing with Stygian Triprismatic polymer inserts, allowing users to easily hide mission gear on their bodies and access it with a minimum of noise. Vaapad also includes the same NiteSite-based HUD and HUSH-98 comlink system found on the Anakkona Heavy Armor, allowing users to work together in small groups to provide better situational awareness, or to work in conjunction with conventionally-equipped forces.
Vaapad's relatively expensive material basis makes it too difficult to mass produce or field en mass. Instead, the armor is supplied to small numbers of commandos, spies, saboteurs, and other special missions personnel on an as needed basis for certain missions. In most instances, these missions need personnel to maintain more stealth than what conventional battle armors can enable, but wearers need more physical protection than what conventional shadowsuits can provide. Because of the suit's sensitive nature, Vaapad's existence is not publically known, and only a select few within the Directorate itself know of the suit is supplied to the organization by Lucerne Personal Defense.
