Armored Body Suit

The Body Suit is the fully-sealed combat armor worn exclusively by the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST), special-operators of the Marine Corps.

Description
The helmet of the suit has a dark protective plate with matte black titanium armor surrounding it. The suit itself is black around the torso with a black and grey camouflage pattern around the legs. The boots and gloves are also black. There are often ad hoc additions on the shoulder plates, such as various color flashes or the blood type of the ODST in question. There are also several variations to the ODST armor including Ranged, Close Quarters, and Recon; each designed for different missions.

Systems
The Body Suit has cooling and heating units that masks the infrared signature of the wearer, as well as creating a comfortable environment. The body armor, boots and gloves are fully encased and airtight, making them operable in a vacuum for up to fifteen minutes when equipped with an additional oxygen tank. The helmet has encrypted communications gear and a HUD, along with thermal and motion detectors giving the user an advantage over the standard Marines.

Advantages
The Body Suit is lightweight and offers protection in hard vacuum. It supplies more armor protection than standard Marine armor, and contains an enhanced communications suite. Along with the protection and communications gear, the Body Suit provides increased agility and maneuverability not afforded by standard Marine Armor. The Body Suit's helmet can withstand several headshots. The armor’s black coloring gives wearers an advantage at night and in space, as well as providing a psychological advantage over foes. The suit also protects against the extreme heat created the HEV's that ODST's enter a planet in.

Disadvantages
Unfortunately, the suit's general complexity leads to complications. Over prolonged periods of time the suit will become very uncomfortable to wear, and is difficult to repair in the field. Its effectiveness is decreased in desert or arctic environments where harsh light and sparsity of dark colors make its grey and black camouflage BDUs/armor useless. Therefore it is more suited for night time, urban, and forest operations. Despite being improved over the standard armor, it is still vulnerable to energy weapons and larger ballistic projectiles.