Rifts Up Close: Plastic Man Body Armor

By Tim Willard

By 2026 multiple orbital yards were in place around Earth. Everything from exotic material manufacturing to shipbuilding yards for the Mars race, to satellite repair yards to massive orbital stations all sat in zero gravity with hundreds of personnel living and working at the facilities.

In 2025 alone, over 40 people were killed, despite armored suits, when micro-meteorites, orbiting dust, or even small screws and nuts dropped by other crews, holed the suits. In every case, massive lawsuits emerged, often costing the parent company more than the facility itself would in the long run. Space was rapidly becoming unprofitable to companies, who found themselves with dozens of lawsuits every year concerning things they could not prevent or influence.

In 2026 Virgin Spaceways unveiled the Harsh Environmental Protective Armor for use by their orbital and lunar work crews. This armor could withstand micrometeorites, debris impacts, cosmic radiation, had life support for 6 hours without additional environmental packs added, and could withstand hits from misfired construction equipment.

The armor consisted of lightweight, molecularly bonded synthetic neoplastics. The molecular bonded helped interlock the atomic valence bands, increased the density of the plastic without adversely affecting weight through advanced processes, which prevented radiation from penetrating the thin armor.

The next layer is thin layer of molycircs that monitors the armor's integrity, as well as radiation levels so that it can warn the wearer of an increase of radiation that might herald an incoming solar flare radiation surge.

Next is close fitting neoprene that slightly inflates to keep the person inside comfortably snug within the armor. The first run of this armor suffered from perspiration pooling, with the feet having as much as 4 liters of water in the feet and lower legs. This was solved with uni-directional water transfer where the water was collected, purified, and returned to the drinking water reservoir.

The bodily functions equipment are attached when the wearer dons the waist peices, and bodily waste is stored in a small compartment on the right hip. This waste collection system can be changed out in a vacuum without danger to the wearer, and each collection cube can store up to 8 hours of waste.

In addition, each segment could "auto-tourniquet" to prevent a hole in the hand from completely depressurizing the suit. A hit to the inner thigh would result in hip tourniquet, preventing loss of life even though the leg was exposed to vacuum. The tourniquet prevented blood loss through "vacuum boiling" and kept a wearer alive. In one case, a worker lost his leg from the knee down, and was still able to keep his thigh and his life.

The helmet has a wide area of vision, a video feed on the left side, an illumination lamp on the right side, and is capable of passive or active nightvision as well as displaying the time left on environmental, the integrity of the armor, and the status of the electromagnetic tie.

The communications system is built into the helmet and is a 150 channel capable system with a broadcast range of 1 miles in space or 5 miles in atmosphere. (Radiation in space degrades the radio signal significantly) with the communications array antenna deployable from behind the right shoulder.

The internal environmental system is computer controlled, and keeps the wearer cooled despite the close fitting neoprene sleeve. The oversize hip sections also contain cooling fins that bleeds off the heat from the environmental tubing running through the neoprene, to keep the armor from overheating in space when the wearer has to work directly exposed to the suns rays. In addition, the hips contain the heater units to keep the tubing running through the neoprene sleeve warm when the wearer is working in the shade.

An electromagnetic tie can be plugged into the suit on the abdominal section, in order to keep a worker safely tethered. The right forearm plate contains programming controls to allow effective use of CAD controlled manufacturing equipment, as well as programming a thruster pack. A popup joystick can be used to perform careful maneuvers or instructions to CAD equipment or a thruster pack.

In 2045 Virgin Spaceways upgraded the armor to provide nearly double the protection of the first suit, as well as upgrading glove articulation to allow for careful work under harsh conditions. The radiation shielding was increased to further protect the wearer, as well as keeping the suit from becoming radioactive itself.

In 2047 the nation of Russia purchased several hundred of these suits in order to allow workers to enter the Chernobyl site to clean up the area, clear away radioactive debris, and tear apart the reactor safely so that the area could be reclaimed. Out of over 500 workers, not a single one was ever exposed to more than normal background radiation, despite working in the core itself for a brief time to remove the fuel elements.

In 2055, when North America started refitting the aging Interstates, highways, and freeways, Virgin Spaceways sold thousands of these suits to the NAA Department of Transportation. These suits had the heating/cooling fins removed, as well as lowered radiation shielding. The suits prevented lost man hours from injuries, as well as saving the NAA taxpayer millions in disability payments and pensions. In several cases, when bridges being repaired collapsed, workers were uninjured despite tons on concrete collapsing on them. Workers assigned to bridges over water, dams, or other work sites where submersion was a danger, a mechanical gill system was applied to the armor to prevent drowning.

The NAA Department of Transportation version had orange paint on the chest and back, as well as better gripping soles on the soles of the boots. The sight of this armor on road construction sights became common, and by 2060 nobody even really made the connection between DoT protective gear (Department of Transportation Individual Protective Equipment) and military body armor being fielded by UN and NEMA peacekeepers.

In 2078 when the NAA civil defense programs were reactivated, Virgin Spaceways produced over one hundred microfabricators for the armor, which promptly disappeared. Civil defense planning called for survivors of a massive disaster, housed in one of the large underground facilities, to have access to this armor for exploration of the world after a massive disaster.

During the Cataclysm, the armor was handed out as often as possible to important civilians, including non-military trained politicians. This armor saved people's lives more than once. However, the volcanic ash often overloaded the suit's filters, forcing the wearer to go helmetless.

During the Second Dark Ages, many of the microfabricators were found, and this armor was briefly produced by short lived companies that ran the microfabricators until they were out of materials, sold all the armors, and folded. Despite the low protection offered by this armor, most settlements decided it was better than nothing.

In Rifts-Earth, the armor is considered the bare minimum of protection for militia or explorers, but is most popular in hot climates, as the armor has superior heat dissipation. Some arctic condition settlements consider the plastic man to be superior to armors that provide more armor protection, as the suit can handle sub-zero temperatures without armor degredation or the wearer becoming uncomfortable.

Weight: 13 lbs
Available Sizes: Child to adult (2' to 7')
Mobility: Fair
Availability: Excellent
Manufacturer's Cost: Often free or 3,400 Cr
Wholesale Cost: 9,000 Cr
Manufacturer's Recommended Price: 18,000 Cr
Black Market Price: 15,000 Cr
Wilderness Price: 10,000 Cr