The Drae’giir Ballistic Vest, more commonly referred to as simply the Drae’giir, is an armoured infantry vest used and designed by the Shukara Volunteer Navy in EE004v1) as an upgrade to their previous generation of ballistic vests – it takes queues from armor both modern and archaic to come together as an armored cuirass for Neshaten’s armed forces.
The Drae’giir Ballistic Vest is available solely to Neshaten’s armed forces, and as such no price for the civilian market is listed.
It was decided in EE003v that a reform on their current infantry armor would be needed in-order to keep up with the increasing threats faced by Neshaten’s armed forces, at first progress was slow and involved a lot of head-scratching before one bright fox had an epiphany that in order to look forward you first had to look back, so she rummaged through archives and began implementing elements from archaic plate-armor into this new design. The designer was given funny looks at first but the prototype raised more than a few eyebrows, years of refinement later and the Drae’giir was ready for distribution in EE004v.
General information including the designer and manufacturer as well as some basic information and a nomenclature tag.
The Drae’giir appears to be the chest piece from a full suit of combat armor, though functions more like a plate-carrier, a soft base vest rated against knives and low-caliber weapons with optional plating that can withstand more damage when attached over the top of the softer base vest, segmented plating usually painted in correspondence with the intended environment it will be used in – the bottom third of the vest has a section of tactical webbing that runs around the front, sides and back, used to attach various pouches and equipment.
Freedom of movement without sacrificing protection.
Replacing plates is somewhat more time consuming.
See Damage Rating (Version 3) for a guide to damage ratings.
Base Vest: Tier 1, Light Personnel Armoured Plating: Tier 2, Medium Personnel
The softer inner layer is worn like most other ballistic vests, with the sides velcroed shut around the wearer while the armored plating is donned almost like a poncho – with the plating going down over the wearer’s head first and then closed up by fastening straps through the hidden channels, attaching and detaching this metal layer can sometimes take upwards of two minutes to do properly but this also means the straps are tucked away underneath said plating to minimize weak points.
There are two main components to the Drae’giir, a softer base layer designed to protect from knives or low-caliber rounds and then the armored outer plating designed to take multiple hits from heavier infantry weapons and continue functioning.
The softer layer is a tightly-woven Helio'namashe vest that covers the torso of the wearer2), a drag handle with the intended wearer’s name embroidered into it sits on the back of the neck with the majority of the vest’s upper 2/3 being rather bland and featureless save for a section of tactical webbing that runs around the bottom 1/3 as a kind of belt area for attaching various pouches and accessories. Sometimes this vest is worn under clothing by Neshaten Division 5 - Operatives for undercover operations because the low-profile nature of the vest means it can be worn underneath something as simple as a T-Shirt without leaving a noticeable outline.
The outer layer is a series of protective steel plates that have a thin layer of Titanium over the front face, this layer is designed to absorb the majority of incoming hits and slow the projectile before it is stopped by the steel beneath, it is fastened to the vest via a series of straps that run through corresponding channels in the soft layer beneath to minimize the risk of the straps being cut and plating falling off.
These layers work in tandem, with the metal shell taking the brunt of the blow and the soft layer beneath cushioning it further.
Both the armored outer layer and the soft inner layer of the Drae’giir vest system are available in a wide variety of colors and camouflage patterns to correspond with the wearer’s needs.
Tactical webbing that runs around the wearer’s waist, designed to carry various pouches and small bits of equipment.