User:144PA/Forerunner Combat Skins

Combat skin is a Forerunner term referring to body armor. The Forerunners have a classification system to categorize the many Combat Skin types that they have, ranging from Class 1 to Class 18. The many different Combat Skins that were employed by the Forerunners and their military personnel are comparable to, but far superior than, assault exoskeleton systems used by the UNSC and Sangheili Order.

There are also different variants of Combat Skins, some being produced for environments and others developed for advanced combat systems. Mark VI MJOLNIR was interpreted at Class 2 by 343 Guilty Spark despite it's upgrades. Armor's are classified by shield strength and environment protection. the disparity in power between the Master Chief's shields in comparison to that of the Forerunners is obvious. Class 12 shielding is designed to handle damage from high-risk hostiles like the Flood.

Class 1 Combat Skin
The Class 1 Combat Skin is a Forerunner suit that is actually not designed for combat. It was designed by Intentio, a Forerunner inventor, for science expeditions. The scientific community of the Forerunners grew tired of sending machines to planets that were interesting yet had deadly environments. The Class 1 Combat Skin, or Class 1 Environment Skin as it was first referred as, was created to allow scientists to survive on hostile worlds.

The suit is outfitted with an gravity manipulation generator which produces a layer around the suit that the wearer can intensify or lessen. That means that the wearer of the suit can effectively maneuver on planets with little to no gravity without drifting into space and they can go to planets with a strong force of gravity without being crushed. The suit is equipped with another generator which produces a radiation shield which can protect the wearer from dangerous levels of radiation for varying periods of time, depending on the intensity of the radiation.

Temperature regulators in the suit automatically adjust the temperature of the suit to better sustain the wearer by monitoring the temperature of the environment and the body temperature of the wearer. The respiratory system of the Class 1 is amazing as it is actually able to recycle oxygen via an internal series of complex chemical and biological filters. The visor of the suit doubles as a scanner, which is used by scientists to see the chemical make-up of objects in the environment. After scanning objects and lifeforms, the results can be saved and categorized later in a data-bank.

Class 2 Combat Skin
The Class 1 Environmental Skin was a very useful combat skin type for the Forerunner scientific community. It was reliable, advanced, and used by nearly every space-faring scientist. It didn't take long for the military to request custom, combat-specialized variants of the suit. While at first, the combat skin was to be a near-exact copy of the Class 1 with only a few differences like weapons carriers. This would change with the introduction of the Quarantine of CD 346-908 h when a fairly small population of the planet was introduced to Virulent Specimen L-094.

The outbreak had become so severe that armed personnel were required to assist in the quarantine of a few city zones, however, the Class 1 Skin proved to ineffectively stop punctures and hinder injury and exposure to the virus. Though the outbreak was quelled within a few days and the virus was effectively eradicated, the ineffective Combat Skin was still a problem. Soon after, the Librarian would design a greater version of the Class 1, the Class 2 Combat Skin. The Class 2 Combat Skin is equipped with a combat-effective energy shield generator which emits and energy shield with strength comparable to the Mark VI MJOLNIR.

The suit would also be made-up of stronger material and while denser, does not hinder the wearer's flexibility. The helmet of the Combat Skin would consist of more armored material than the Class 1, offering better protection. The visor would still have a scanner but would also have a combat HUD which would provide the wearer with assisted targeting, shield strength readings, and objective locations. The Combat Skin would also have an improved communications system for long-distance communication and a holographic map device on the suit's wrist. The Librarian would create a custom version for her lover, Didact.

Class 3 Combat Skin
The Class 2 Combat Skin was an amazing addition and change to the Forerunner military's battle dress. It would be reliable and cheap to make, however, it would soon become obsolete to them. Though it was more than capable of destroying the feral waves of Flood that came their way, soldiers outfitted in Class 2 Combat Skin would find that more coordinated Flood would prove to be a major threat. The speed and strength of the Flood combined with it's growing intelligence was horrifying and the Forerunner would need something to counter it. That's when Curator designed and introduced the Class 3 Combat Skin, an upgraded model to the Class 2.

The Class 3 offered superior armor defense with the same strong material as the Class 2 but reinforced with armor plating. The armor's energy shields have also been increased in power, pushing out twice the power that the Class 2 shield generator had. The armor also added the revolutionary enhancements that the other Combat Skins didn't. The Class 3 Combat Skin would be the first to improve the wearer's strength and speed exponentially. Improved software interface offers an improved and less cluttered HUD while the scanning mechanism has been scrapped entirely.

The Class 3 would offer more areas for holding weapons via magnetic holders. The Class 3 would also implement an emergency shield locking system which functions similarly to the Armor Lock ability implemented by some MJOLNIR models. The Forerunner's shield locking system acts as a quick area-of-affect attack and can destroy an entire swarm of infection forms with one massive pulse. It was designed mainly to cause Transporters to loosen their grips if the wearer fell prey to the beast.

Class 4 Combat Skin
The Class 3 Combat Skin was the best body armor system to be implemented by the Forerunner Empire, earning much praise from the Didact himself. As the Forerunner-Flood War progressed, however, it became evident that the Forerunner would have to adapt just as quickly as the Flood if they wanted to survive. Along with an increase in genetic manipulation, the Forerunners would begin to employ a new armor system; the Class 4 Combat Skin. The Class 4 is more of a slight improvement to the Class 3 than a completely different model. Class 4 Combat Skins usually consist of the same material as the Class 3 but are capable of implementing a slightly stronger shielding generator thanks to the improved shielding technology.

The greatest difference in the armor is it's improved environmental protection. The Forerunners noticed that once their shields went down, Flood spores could easily attach themselves to the armor and quickly overwhelm the wearer. To counter this, the Forerunners developed a shield generator which acted somewhat similarly to a bug zapper, burning off any Flood Spores that made contact with them. While this would be effective against small clouds of spores, it would be completely ineffective against Infection Forms. The Class 4 would also re-use the scanning tool of the earlier Combat Skins to help with studying the Flood.

Class 5 Combat Skin
While both the Class 3 Combat Skin and Class 4 Combat Skin were very effective in dealing with various Flood forms, the Flood would always seem to find a way through their defenses. Curator would attempt to counter this with the Class 5 Combat Skin, the most powerful Combat Skin yet. The Class 5 would offer an increase in strength and speed, even greater than that of the Class 3 or Class 4. The agility of the wearer is also enhanced as the Combat Skin is implemented with advanced cybernetic components. The grade of the shield has been increased through the use of a completely new shield generator using new technology.

This one shield generator alone provides both environmental and combat defense, doubling as an energy shield and a radiation shield. Visibility has been increased with a larger visor so that the wearer can have a better field of view. The visor implements a HUD with largely the same abilities of the other Combat Skins though it makes use of more specific highlighting methods, pointing out enemy life signs and distance from the wearer of the suit. The Class 5 is equipped with improved scanning tools and communications suites.

Class 6 Combat Skin
The Class 5 Combat Skin would prove to be the most effective Combat Skin employed by the Forerunner at that point in the war. It was unfortunate that even at this level, the Flood would find a way to pick up their offense and breakdown the Forerunner's defense. The Class 6 Combat Skin would then come into play, being the first of Curator's very own combat skin development program. Though there were many resources devoted to the program, Curator felt that he would need only one Combat Skin to out-live them all. The Class 6 improves the strength and speed of the wearer to the same levels as the Class 5, however it slightly has less flexibility due to the large amount of increased armor density to the Combat Skin. The Class 6 would be equipped with shields far more powerful than it's predecessors, nearly tripling the power output of the Class 2 shield generator.

The Class 6 would be outfitted with a shield lock system similar to the Class 3 Combat Skin, though noticeably more powerful. An added ability for the Combat Skin is the ability to activate a large dome-like shield able to protect atleast four other people. This shield that is created is completely solid, making it impossible for anything to get in or out for a few minutes. The shield also emits dangerous amounts of electrical energy which can severely injure Flood Combat Forms and kill Infection Forms who try to enter the dome.

Class 7 Combat Skin
The Class 7 Combat Skin was the first Combat Skin that Intentio had designed since the Class 1 Environmental Skin. The Class 7 Combat Skin is a combat skin design that implements greater emphasis on speed, accuracy, and agility. The Class 7 Combat Skin allows the wearer to be far more flexible and wearer's describe it as a free, almost nude feeling. The exoskeleton focuses on increasing the speed and agility of the wearer with an updated combat skin membrane.

A Class 7 Combat Skin's shield strength is only slightly greater than that of the Class 6 but it has a much faster recharged time. The HUD of the Class 7 is far different in the way it functions as the suit makes use of the more advanced technology. Instead of the HUD being located on the visor, it appears in the wearer's eyes thanks to the use of software interface with the wearer's cerebral implant. The Class 7 is also capable of making use of a cloaking system, similar to the active camouflage used by Sangheili Elites.