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.This makes it a potential aid down the road, if he survives long enough and becomes too old to do this job anymore.Cerebs have incredibly dense bones, hardy flesh, and genetically-engineered subcutaneous tissues that make it very difficult to cause damage to the skin.If a physical confrontation were to occur, the Stacksuit would help level the playing field.Rook now pulls out the Tango suit.He recalls the first time he was introduced to it, about four months before the War ended.“We’re callin’ it Tango armor,” said Sergeant Carlton, his close-quarters combat (CQB) instructor.“It’s a prototype, like the STACS was, and DARPA has worked on it extensively over the last two years.The U.S.government is now using this kind of technology, but so far it’s completely utilized on heavy-weapon-bearing vehicles.”“I guess that means it’s fairly expensive,” said Cowboy, with a grin smeared across his face.“They really trust it with us?”Carlton nodded curtly.“Nearly fifteen million dollars just for one suit of this tech.That’s why so far the government is only buying a few of the prototypes, so that they can attempt to engineer it themselves, only for cheaper.We have an understanding with DARPA and a few British scientists who are helping us develop Tango, and that agreement is more or less that we all share whatever breakthroughs we come across in our research of this tech, as long as we keep it all top secret.” He looked at them meaningfully.“That means, don’t be taken hostage with this.” Die first, was the unspoken addendum.Presently, Rook pulls the armor over his Stacksuit.The 77/p Tango armor has an interesting property.It can disintegrate high-velocity projectiles once they interact with a magnetic field generated around it.Once the magnetic field detects the incoming projectile, the suit’s internal computers alert the suit to prepare to dissolve the projectile.In an instant, the suit is ready to defend itself.Tango functions off of the high-voltage charge from his batteries.When an incoming object penetrates the plates, it closes the circuit to discharge the capacitor (which has been readied by the magnetic field disturbance), dumping a great deal of energy into the penetrator, which vaporizes parts of it and turns the rest into a plasma, significantly diffusing the attack, and practically disintegrating a bullet.A high-frequency magnetic field dispersed energy attacks.This particular Tango armor has been through the rigors of many combat situations, yet, for all the damage it has received, it looks practically brand new.That reason is simple: self-healing armor, an invention humans had had since the late twentieth century.A combination of smart-materials made from DARPA scientists, in conjunction with materials created by Parnes Industries, makes it all possible.A solvent-borne urethane coating from DARPA works with a three-layered system from Parnes’s R&D department.A specially-formulated plastic forms the inner and outer layers, and can stretch to triple its normal size.When a bullet tears through the coating and the armored exterior walls, this plastic stretches around it, and then snaps shut.It leaves a pinhole-sized leak, not even noticeable, and easily re-coated.But, the thin, middle layer seals it shut, since it’s made of tiny leaking beads that absorb condensation from the inside of the hull and expand, making it airtight after penetration.Much of this technology was available by the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.Such materials and research made it possible for mankind to venture out further from its solar system, out into the quantum slipstream.The Bleed.The Cerebs call it the Bleed.In recent years, Rook has come to use some of their terminology.The Deep, for instance, was an accurate description of infinity, of the vacuum.And the Bleed…where all matter became a blur, all colors bled together, and one section of space became even more indistinguishable from another.Now, Rook is lost in thought.He recalls his first time away from Earth, out into the Bleed, that cascading light, the stars wheeling over end sickeningly.That first liberating burst of speed, that exhilarating feeling of pushing beyond the final boundaries.It’s as if every human being’s suspicion was suddenly confirmed—there was a way to go beyond the limits set by Nature.Progress.One new discovery here, another newly invented material there [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]