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Production of these suits is handled by established, industrial authorities, unlike the traditionally improvised vacuum suits known by space-dwelling Mayflys. Though the mechanical characteristics of the suit are said to be reliable in perpetuity so long as proper maintenance is upheld, the suit features an open framework software package, allowing for continuous upgrades throughout its service.

History

Engineer Pschimide Bezhau of the Syndicate vessel Tsaste Mingovy first proposed a design for a brand new suit, essentially an up-armored Outboard Combat Suit (OCS). This design would work well for exoatmospheric operations, its increased bulk compensated by better sensors and mobility equipment. However, this would not suit the needs of the burgeoning Zhenturo, as they would need a suit of armor that was also capable of operation in gravity wells, as demonstrated by the Monokhiin Uprising. Designers on Vachnadze piggybacked this design and added a 490 kilopascal hydraulic exoskeleton and hard armor to the suit, increasing the suit’s ability in a gravitational field (or under acceleration) as well as protection. The Zhenturo envisioned a single-person platform capable of traveling into any environment mankind could find and operating at high efficiency, policing and suppressing unrest in a vacuum and subterranean colonies alike.

The first prototypes of this suit, taken on by industries on nearby Israilov Station, proved promising. Mechanical mishaps (specifically the unintentional breaking of one test pilot’s femur) did occur but were expected that early in the suit’s development. These first prototypes were nearly completely devoid of much of the software present today except for a rudimentary crash-avoidance and flight program, as the focus of the testing was on the armored suit’s mobility and protection. During a test flight, the IUAP successfully navigated independently, without a tether, in a null-g environment as well as passing several cooling tests in the direct face of the irregular red dwarf VA1083M. Later on in its development, most of the software was installed alongside the weapon systems.

The Zhenturo had pushed for the IUAP to be a completely independent combat platform, capable of carrying enough firepower on its motor-assisted frame to turn one man into an army. In spite of this, the Monokhiin Uprising sobered the military and showed the importance of coordination and the networking of soldiers, allowing complex and dangerous operations like urban warfare from overwhelming their forces. Instead, they moved to have soldiers armed with these suits in small groups, coordinated by a support platform, whether that be a shuttle or vehicle. This would also allow the users of the IUAP to be resupplied and a route of escape. Another reason for stepping away from the complete independence of the suit was the ultimate drawback of the suit’s inability to fully traverse from the planetary surface of a Vachnadze-like planet to orbit on its own. This led to the IUAP forming a symbiotic relationship with the Strizhan, with the overhead shuttle providing air superiority, aerial reconnaissance, and supply drops for the surface-based powered soldiers.

Design

The IUAP has stores to operate life support for 12 hours before returning to resupply (as well as to perform maintenance). The tanks attached to the rear of the suit only provide oxygen to the pilot and not a nitrogen-oxygen mixture, so pilots will have to pre-breathe before operating in order to slowly filter nitrogen out of their blood. The IUAP has no relief facilities available to the pilot, so operators tend to wear body glove-like absorbency garments. To prevent unnecessary discomfort to the pilot, the garment is scented with an odor-repellant of their choice. In the same vein, waste recycling allows for sweat and portions of urinary products to be used to hydrate the pilot, accessed by an out-of-the-way nozzle in the helmet.

For vocal communication while under strain or distraction, sub-vocalization microphones are equipped in order to allow operators to remain focused on the job at hand and not the clarity of their speech.

Sensors and Communication

The most important part of the IUAP system is the Zhenturon controlling it; and that part of the system is useless if the pilot is not well-informed and aware. Most data gathered from sensors is available upon request via a chin-activated and eye-manipulated HUD displayed on the faceplate of the IUAP, while mission-critical data is typically constantly displayed in a corner of the screen. The HUD forms the visible portion of the Uchezhe combat integration system installed in the suit, which analyzes sensor input and sorts it based on priority to the pilot, where they can dismiss the information or act upon it. It also compresses the information to a concise and relevant format for ease of translation. The Uchezhe Combat Integration System also actively classifies targets using its database as well as identifying irregularities that could alert the user to a hidden or disguised hostile force.

Most of the awareness packages installed on the Interatmospheric Universal Assault Platform are attached on exterior points, with there even being a camera system on the main armament of the armor system. The principal sensor system is the Sokolye sensor mast, which serves as the combined electro-optical and radio antenna for the IUAP. On its tip, it hosts a variety of cameras providing perpetual coverage save for directly below itself. These cameras cover significant portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, from an array of thermographic cameras and ultraviolet cameras to high-resolution visual cameras, capable of passively searching and tracking up to 60 targets. Included as part of the mast structure is also the GZ-1102, a multipurpose LIDAR, which helps map out the area and prevent potential collisions even in low-light settings. The LIDAR also serves passively as a laser warning receiver, as well as a secure LOS means of communication that is typically unavailable in dense atmospheres. The rest of the mast is dedicated to the radio systems, which are capable of a wide range of transmission levels, from long-distance communication to low-power transmissions which are an integral part of its low-observable tactical communications as well as weapons guidance. Mounted on the “shoulder” of the suit, the IUAP has also a dual-purpose infrared laser for redundant long-distance rangefinding and for its primary purpose of weapons guidance. Using these scopes, the operator has the ability to augment his view through the faceplate via an optronic lattice, allowing the seamless display of sensor information converted to usable imagery over their normal view. An unusual feature of the IUAP is that the faceplate includes digital ‘blinders’ to reduce anxiety and distraction from the evolutionary kenophobia present in most space-faring Mayflys by creating a ‘fog-of-war’ that limits vision for the user outside of HUD indicators. This mostly tries to reduce the distressing effect of an open horizon, making it appear as if the pilot is under a roof or within a corridor.

The IUAP suit has the ability to constantly transmit encrypted data between other suits in their unit as well as, environment allowing, aerospace platforms like the Strizhan atmosphere-capable craft or spacecraft themselves in orbit-- typically this is only possible with the former.

For medical assistance, located on the rear of the suit is an accessible readout that displays the user's condition. Heart rate, breathing, limb damage, and other medical emergencies can be viewed by superior officers or their comrades for assessment and recovery. This manual method was chosen over an automatic one, as the risk of transmitting unnecessary information is high, and for secure communications a LOS link with compatriots may not be possible.

Protection

The first and foremost priority of the IUAP is to protect its user as they traverse through a potential combat situation. This is because the pilot is valuable-- more often than not being born into their profession and scrupulously trained from birth, as well as ‘optimized’ with performance and development enhancing drugs-- and the loss of such an asset is deemed an unacceptable casualty. As such, to complement its exorbitant armament, the IUAP is designed with a series of protective measures to prevent such an eventuality.

The first such measure is through its communications suite-- if it can coordinate with other IUAP units or higher-level assets, the operator can maintain situational awareness. This may involve a supporting Strizhan craft directing a Zhenturon complement (16 IUAP units) around or supporting them against a potential threat, or merely giving them an advantage in combat by allowing the pilot to know what lies ahead, how much, and where.

The second is denying the enemy an opportunity to detect the operator. This is achieved with the suit’s mobility and supporting electronic warfare from a support vehicle or craft, denying the enemy the ability to maintain awareness. Despite being a relatively small platform, the IUAP has a mobility unit that is effective both in the thick atmospheres above Vachnadze as well as in the vacuum of space. This grants it the ability to cross distances in times completely unheard of for a typical infantryman. Even when walking (or using its mag-boots in zero-gravity) the IUAP can maintain a minimum speed of 55 kilometers per hour across the suit’s tolerated gravitational range, capable of outmaneuvering motorized vehicles.

However, when the suit meets its opponents in combat on its own terms using the previous two means, it has methods to ward off acquisition and deny the enemy the opportunity to strike them. Part of the Sokolye sensor mast incorporates an electronic warfare system, focused primarily and radio and radar jamming, for the purpose of significantly degrading radar-created firing solutions and guided missiles as well as completely severing radio-activated improvised explosive devices popular for defenders in the tight confines of a station. The frequency range of 30 hertz to 2,500 megahertz can be completely jammed while seriously degrading performance in nearby frequencies. The radio jamming component is supplemented by the Silikone Electromagnetic Dazzling System, which combines two liquid-state laser arrays-- one off the left shoulder, one on the right side of the lower back-- in order to provide omnidirectional coverage with multispectral dazzling. Both Silikone emplacements provide jamming across the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectrums (1 cm - 10 nm wavelength), providing protection from a variety of threats with a strobe-like effect. However, due to the potential collateral damage from its usage (e.g. potential blindness), it is typically automatically deployed by the Uchezhe Combat Integration System when it will be effective. A six-barrel 20mm grenade launcher also is available, built into the left arm of the suit to fire chaff rockets and IR-UV smoke.

If an attacker manages to circumvent the previous countermeasures or is a projectile threat not accounted for by the other protection systems, the last resort to prevent damage resides in the Mengisk Defense System. Utilizing the multipurpose LIDAR (GZ-1102) and the Sokolye's photoelectric and infrared sensors, the Mengisk tracks and classifies incoming projectiles as small as ~42mm in diameter and uses the data to dispatch a Shubranets explosive charge at Mach 4; the APS determines target speed at distance in order to launch a Shubranets at the suitable time. The Mengisk disqualifies projectiles that pose no risk of impact, including ‘near misses’ of greater than two meters error, mostly focusing on those on a direct course towards the suit. The IUAP has a total of four Shubranets charges, based in two ‘quick-fire’ launchers of two each, one based on the upper thigh and the other on the rear of the mobility pack. When an incoming projectile is classified as a threat and its trajectory is plotted, one of the launchers (typically the closest) takes aim and fires using a smokeless charge. The Shubranets uses gyrojets to make necessary maneuvers while in motion, useful for fending against munitions with terminal evasive maneuvering. The Mengisk Defense System can engage projectiles at distances of 100 meters in a one g-force environment, or functionally several kilometers away in a vacuum. Upon triggering the charge’s laser weapons fuze several meters away (the fuze itself optimized by the Mengisk system after judging target velocity), the Shubranets detonates, spreading 800 explosively-formed steel fragments in a cone-like dispersion along its trajectory, catching the incoming projectile in its path and optimistically destroying it, at the very least defeating its penetrating potential.

In the eventuality that an IUAP user should come under fire, it is more than well-equipped to withstand damage. The main body of the suit is a thick, hard shell composite made of chromium, vanadium, and osmium alloyed to steel to provide a resilient exterior to the suit and prevent damage or pressure loss. It is followed by an inner layer of hardened boride ceramics encapsulated in a closed-cell titanium metal foam, giving the suit a strong buffer against penetrating bodies, particularly micrometeorites and fragmentation. The final layer of the armor is a backing of glass-reinforced plastic and aramid fiber laminate, which may support depleted uranium armor plates in key areas (torso, around the head). The suit has a general protection level of around 200mm rolled homogenous armor equivalence, which is upwards of 400mm RHAe with the DU inserts. Against energy weapons, later versions of the suit include an insulative metamaterial between the metal foam and exterior steel layer, which also helps to keep the user and electronics cool from either laser or solar heat-up.

Finally, should an enemy weapon successfully be used against the suit, there are many measures the suit can use to improve the chances of survival of the user and perhaps even allow the suit to remain operational and combat-capable. Within the suit, the cabin is filled with a gelatinous fluid (Resheniyan solution) designed to brace the user’s body against impacts as well as soften the effects of high-g accelerations. While during normal operation this is more than enough to ensure the safety of the pilot, should a high-velocity impact happen it will prominently benefit the arms and legs, attempting to prevent them from breaking, as well as the neck and head. The Resheniyan solution also helps in the case of a pressure loss incident, rushing out to the breach and coagulating, giving the operator time to patch the opening before their inevitable death. Another benefit to the gel solution is that the cabin can have a lower operating pressure (13.8 kPa), complementing the slow flow speed of the fluid. The powered exoskeleton of the IUAP assists the user with shock-absorption measures, particularly along joints, in order to soften impacts and prevent injury. In addition, the exoskeleton takes a load off of its pilot when traversing high-g planetary environments. The IUAP also can provide the pilot with pharmaceuticals and performance-enhancing drugs, such as a dose of caffeine for non-emergency alertness to adrenaline and blood anticoagulants to improve performance under high acceleration. With medicinal assistance, the typical driver of an IUAP suit can sustain short bursts of 12 g-forces. The suit lists extremely brief (or 'momentary') accelerations of upwards of 438 g-forces as 'survivable', though bodily harm will likely occur. High energy events, such as non-penetrating projectile impacts, fall under the 'momentary' acceleration category due to the buffers of the rigid armor, its hydraulic support, and the Resheniyan solution-filled chamber. If the cabin were penetrated and maims the operator in any of their extremities, the suit can deploy automatic tourniquets as well as begin blood transfusions, prioritizing blood going to the chest and head.

In non-impact and penetration-related survival systems, the IUAP provides radiation shielding for up to 5 sieverts per hour through the boride ceramics, which absorb much of the energy of ionizing radiation. This is supplemented by the light magnetic field created by the powerplant of the suit. The faceplate of the IUAP, made from an aluminum-based transparent ceramic, provides automatic vision protection, preventing damaging light from entering and harming the eyes of the pilot. The suit also includes hearing protection-- the Resheniyan gel and the active earpieces on the pilot help to muffle out loud noises (>85 decibels) while staying in touch with the situation at hand. Keeping the suit and its biological operator cool is another important concern in the design of the suit; in the predecessors to the IUAP, directed energy weapons more than had the capability to simply overheat the electronics of or simply kill the occupant of combat suits, which is why the IUAP actively tries to regulate its internal temperature to 16^o Celsius using a lithium radiator system within both ‘shoulders’ of the suit, radiating at 990 kW at peak power use (maximum 12-g acceleration), capping out at 1200 kW. This, combined with the insulation, helps to keep the suit operational in environments where the ambient temperature exceeds approaches the melting point of its components, or 2,100^o Celsius. Due to the possibility of disruptive stellar phenomena such as solar flares negatively affecting electronics, the electronics of the IUAP are based in copper-bronze grids and enveloped in copper bonding foil for protection against solar flares and even electromagnetic pulses.

Mobility

The power plant of the suit is a miniaturized fusion reactor, relying on pressure and the production of magnetic fields to contain the reaction without much need for increased temperature, reducing the need for increased insulation or cooling facilities. The magnetic field is produced by two 17-tesla solenoids running along both sides of the assembly, creating an electromagnet. The IUAP contains stores of helium-3 and deuterium for fuel, which when fused can reliably release up to 7,500 kW of electrical power (86.4 GJ), helping power many of the suit’s electrical components, as well as its weapons for about 3.2 hours. The fusion assembly is located parallel to the suit’s z-axis between the legs of the suit-- though the reactor is more heavily shielded inward to the pilot than it is outward, it is still a common joke that pilots of the IUAP are effectively infertile, despite evidence to the contrary^{[citation needed]}. The main powerplant is backed up through two 500 kW (1.8 GJ) batteries for needed power.

The primary propulsive units of the IUAP are two fusion rockets, which utilize the energy release of the fusion reactor in order to accelerate propellant out of the back. Typically, the suit uses a separate tank of hydrogen as fuel, but filtering urea from the pilot's urine can also be used. These rockets take up much of the space on the back of the IUAP, but make up for it by being easily articulated while powerful and fuel-efficient after centuries of research and development into fusion power and propulsion. Each rocket produces 50.9 kN of thrust for a total of 101.9 kN. In a vacuum, this allows the suit to accelerate at an average of 9 G’s, or 88.2 m/s². This value can be pushed at a detriment to fuel efficiency. Attitude control, as well as backup propulsion, relies on an attitude control system that collectively can put out 20.5 kN of thrust on one axis. The attitude control system makes use of compressed CO₂ as its primary propellant, with enough stores for thirty minutes of continuous usage. For a fifty-kilometer turn-and-burn maneuver (typical for station boarding operations) at a constant 9.9 G acceleration, it takes just under 55 seconds to arrive at the desired location; this is one of the most physically demanding maneuvers that Zhenturons undertake frequently. The propulsion remains effective in gravity wells of 7 g-forces; after which, its efficacy dwindles until it becomes inoperable in gravity wells approaching 10 g's and beyond.

Assisting the pilot is a series of tactile rapid reaction controls along most of the high motion areas of the suit in order to provide sensitive control to the motion of the suit. This is furthered by neural sensors applied around the skull of the pilot, particularly around the motor cortex. This allows the suit to work with the pilot without much delay or effort, made easier by the powered nature of the armor. The redundancy of both the brainwave scanner and mechanical assistance of movement is partly due to the mild unreliability of the former, as well as to provide an opportunity to the operator of restraining a brief impulse.

When in a 1-G gravity well, the IUAP can use its exoskeleton-assisted movement to achieve running speeds close to 55 kilometers per hour, and in lower gravitational settings (such as those on moons, asteroids) the IUAP can make ‘jumps’, aided by the attitude control system for corrections and shock absorption in legs, to significantly increase mobility. In cases where zero-gravity has dissolved the concept of footing, the IUAP has togglable electromagnets on the boots of the suit that allow for attachment to the hulls of ships and stations. In case of severe damage to the conventional propulsion systems, the pilot can make use of four grappling hooks to return the suit to a position.

Armament

The IUAP is equipped with the Zhovchan-Yongrui AZT-725 autocannon as its main armament, providing swift anti-personnel and light anti-armor capabilities, as well as suppression. This autocannon is supplemented by Garpiyong Low-Yield Munitions and Trakhatsyan Guided Anti-Armor Missiles to provide heavy weapons support. The IUAP was designed to have all of its weapons systems be self-guiding or provide firing assistance to the pilot in some way, as to not divide the attention of the pilot. These guidance methods are also supposed to be redundant or difficult to fool to improve effectiveness against targets in perpetuity.

The Zhovchan-Yongrui AZT-725 is a magnetically-assisted, electric action, belt-fed autocannon developed for use with the IUAP suit. Weighing a considerable amount, nearly 112 kilograms empty, the single-barreled gun has its muzzle climb mitigated by the exoskeleton allowing extremely accurate fire on the move (even in flight), though suppression of recoil overall only proves effective when the suit has some proper footing in order to return recoil momentum to the ‘ground’; otherwise, the user would need to rely on the attitude control system to mitigate recoil. The AZT-725 fires 209 gram, 26 x 171 mm APHE caseless ammunition, fed with disintegrating links into the right side of the weapon via a ‘kidney compartment’ in the side of the suit which houses 140 rounds of ammunition. The IUAP suit can be modified to have additional 140-round ammunition storage on their dorsal hardpoint. On impact, the round is meant to collapse a tungsten-steel (a combination chosen for density and ductility) liner into a shaped jet penetrator, while the explosive portion around the liner detonates around the point of impact, lethal to nearby soft targets. Once struck by the electric action, the 26mm round will begin accelerating due to the electromagnets surrounding the barrel until it reaches a muzzle velocity of 2000 m/s relative to the firing position. The AZT-725 can penetrate 265 millimeters of RHAe at 800 meters in the presence of non-negligible gravity, more than enough to incapacitate light spacecraft, vehicles, or rival vacuum combat suits. Its explosive aspect gives it a lethal radius against soft targets of 1.3 meters under one G and 2 meters in zero-G. The autocannon has two firing modes, selected electronically by the operator; 670 rounds per minute automatic or 1400 rpm burst, which lasts for half a second. A single round has a muzzle energy of 418 kilojoules, and using the burst setting the AZT-725 can put 11 rounds on target with another on the way, or 4.598 MJ of energy delivered within an 80-centimeter CEP at maximum range of 6,000 meters. The barrel, made primarily of tungsten, is reliable for up to 300,000 rounds before needing to be changed. Most of the materials for the weapon were chosen to reduce weight, though not compromise ruggedness. The receiver, apart from the ammunition feed, is sealed from potential particulate matter that would interfere with the performance of the weapon by stamped aluminum alloys. Though much thought was put into integrating the AZT-725 into one of the arms of the IUAP suit, this would ultimately compromise its ubiquitous nature as freeing both hands allows for greater utility other than direct combat, including carrying loads or other compromised pilots. Instead of integration, the suit’s ‘hands’ are able to be locked around the pistol grip, needing only the pilot’s input to fire. Attached to the autocannon is a fiber-optic camera system, allowing the user to fire behind cover, as well as the Umering Microwave Tracking System. The Umering, when activated, provides high-resolution target detection and tracking for fire control purposes. Though this system is less than effective in its intended purpose against soft targets, the typically heavy armor of vacuum-suited individuals in null-G environments paired with the possibly high delta-V of both the shooter and the target makes a microwave-based system necessary. Transmitting at the 1.8 GHz wavelength at a throughput of 4600 watts, the Umering finds another, more frowned-upon use against soft targets. The Umering Microwave Tracking System allows the user to lock onto hard targets merely by aiming the weapon at them and provides a niche-enough frequency range to provide ECM resistance by default. The weapon’s firing gases are redirected directly backward to provide some cushion against many tens of thousands of newtons being exerted on the shooter (per bullet the weapon imparts 126,445 of the original 418,000 newtons backwards due to the magnetic assistance and another 83,600 newtons because of the muzzle brake; the gas redirection further helps by counteracting 101 kN of that force) To prevent weapon overheat, the AZT-725 relies on a heat sink underneath the receiver, which feeds along the length of the barrel with a liquid cooling jacket, converting the heated coolant’s thermal energy to infrared energy release. Under normal circumstances, the infrared signature of the gun is null, but after prolonged periods of firing it can prove detrimental to the firer’s infrared signature. To protect against sympathetic detonations, the explosive liner in each AZT-725 Caseless round is made to be insensitive up to a certain point, and if detonation is to occur the kidney compartment is meant to close, cutting the belt and preventing any would-be accidents from spreading into the main ammunition compartment. The belt can be refed into the weapon if it still functions.

To complement the autocannon, the IUAP makes use of the Garpiyong Low-Yield Munition for indirect fire. The Garpiyong was originally envisioned to be used with ship point defense, delivering explosive force in lieu of spending the ship’s power supply on point defense lasers, but was found to be too costly even for its small size and simple design. The design was later resurrected to complement the IUAP, which can carry twelve of the devices in a magazine located on the rear of the suit. Equipped with a 0.7-kilogram warhead, the Low-Yield Munition can host either armor-piercing high explosive or high explosive-fragmentation cluster warheads. The armor-piercing warhead uses a tandem-shaped charge in order to penetrate around 340mm of RHAe, enough to destroy most armored vehicles in service across the Syndicate bar some with improvised armor. The high explosive warhead carries seven 100 gram submunitions, which individually can spread four hundred tungsten ‘needles’ of fragmentation at extremely high velocities. This fragmentation does not tumble and cause flesh damage but instead penetrates soft armor and some hard armors causing bleeding and pressure loss, which can almost certainly be fatal in foreign and atmosphere-free environments. In vacuum, the HE cluster warhead has a lethal radius of 10 meters. The chemical, solid-fuel rocket on which the missile is based can accelerate up to 30 g’s with its smokeless motor, providing a no-escape zone (a range in which the missile can maneuver to hit any target) of two kilometers in 101 kPA of atmospheric pressure, or 8 kilometers in a vacuum. The rocket’s nozzle is fitted with an infrared suppressor to reduce the signature of the missile, giving the target less of an indication that they are being fired on. The missile can reach a target at the edge of the maximum no-escape zone in seven seconds. The missile is cued on target by the pilot of the suit selecting the target if it is within visual range, or set on a preselected trajectory utilizing inertial guidance. The Garpiyong has two methods of weapons guidance; the first involves maser-assisted command guidance, which allows for the Sokolye sensor mast’s low power transmissions to be detected at far greater ranges while making it difficult for the user to compromise their position with full-power emissions. The missile’s receiver automatically caps out beyond a certain input of radio energy, allowing it to focus on the guidance coming from the user and not the distracting false signals from hostile electronic countermeasures. The missile also has an adaptive target selection program that relies on its onboard database of known targets, adopting what input it gathers from its dazzling-resistant dual electro-optical and thermographic seeker head to one of the categories before engaging.

Most of the heavy fire support equipped on IUAP suits comes from its four Trakhatsyan missiles. Armed with a variable yield nuclear warhead, the Trakhatsyan Guided Anti-Armor Missile is a catch-all device to be used against anything that the preceding weapon systems cannot penetrate or cause significant damage to. The Trakhatsyan has the ability to dislodge the most heavily fortified foes, as well as demolish any infrastructure that stands in the way. The missiles are stored and fired from an articulated Over-The-Shoulder mount, capable of carrying four of the munitions at a time. The 5-kilogram primary warhead, the J1032, has its yield digitally scaled prior to firing from either 50 tons of explosives to an upper range of 1.5 kilotons. It has a minimum arming distance of 600 meters, where even at the highest yield the user will likely survive without much damage; this prevents proactive point defense or random collisions from accidentally vaporizing the pilot of the IUAP. It can, however, be overridden. The warhead in the atmosphere produces a fireball of 90 meters in diameter, from which overpressure values from 20 psi upwards extend for about 400 meters. In a vacuum, the warhead includes mirror plates that focus the massive release of X-ray energy caused by the nuclear warhead’s detonation onto its target, pumping nearly 6280 gigajoules of energy into it (if a 1.5 kt detonation); otherwise, as a general 1.5 kt detonation, it has a 'kill radius' of 15 meters, with heavy mortality expected in the surrounding 70. The Trakhatsyan has a laser proximity, magnetic, and contact fuze. If used in space, the detonation distances are set much higher (light seconds away) as to complement the bomb-pumped laser. The missile is guided initially by either a laser-designated target or passive maser-assisted command guidance, from which the Trakhatsyan can seek out the target using midcourse and terminal guidance optical-thermographic cameras, LIDAR, and AESA K-S band radar. Like the Garpiyong, it uses an adaptive target selection software, which helps it remain effective against unforeseen or unusual threats. The smokeless solid-fuel rocket used by the Trakhatsyan has an acceleration capacity of 98 g-forces in a vacuum, using compressed, ultra-high-velocity streams of CO₂ for rapid attitude adjustments. The attitude adjustment system can accelerate the missile laterally at 470 m/s², or nearly 48 g-forces; the missile is designed to use these rapid course adjustments to make terminal evasive maneuvers, ‘dodging’ kinetic or explosive countermeasures in order to increase the probability of a kill. The missile has a no-escape range in an atmosphere of 20 kilometers, though in space, using an optimized flight path, the missile can still hit ‘lightly accelerating’ spacecraft or smaller targets from an average of millions of kilometers away. The missile can reach a target 20 kilometers out in 6.4 seconds. Because of the yield of the blast, the suit has rated an atmospheric detonation distance of 520 meters as ‘survivable’ and 600 meters as ‘safe’.

However, as an alternative to both the Garpiyong and AZT-725 weapon systems, the IUAP can be outfitted instead with the Bai-Mov AZM-2 Suppression System, itself a modified version of the AZT-725 platform. Removing its magnetic barrel and replacing its receiver assembly, the AZM-2 is essentially a gutted AZT-725 chambered instead to fire 530-gram, 52x96mm 'Caseless Suppression Shell' grenade rounds. The receiver is unique from its predecessor in that it is capable of variable muzzle velocities, achieved through selective venting of firing gases to control the pressure buildup behind a shell traversing the barrel. This way, it is capable of seamlessly switching between indirect and direct fire modes, putting out more firepower in a shorter amount of time than the Garpiyong while retaining an indirect fire ability the AZT-725 lacks. The receiver can put out shells at velocities as low as 60 meters per second and as high as 430 m/s; in an atmospheric, 1-g environment this gives the AZM-2 similar effective ranges as its autocannon counterpart of 6,000 meters for direct LOS targets, while having the ability to strike indirect ground targets as far away as 10,000 meters. The AZM-2 is meant to be counter-defilade, engaging entrenched targets behind or through cover, as well as providing an area-of-effect favorable against close-in aerial targets, such as drones or support aircraft. The resource cost of Garpiyong Low-Yield Munitions makes the AZM-2 much more cost effective in destroying mass soft targets or providing high-level suppression against area targets. The 52x96mm 'Caseless Suppression Shell' contains about three megajoules of explosive energy, some of which is transferred to its 350 1.3-gram fragments. These fragments reach up towards 3700 meters per second, becoming capable of penetrating most infantry soft and hard armors, as well as light vehicle armor (~60mm RHA). In a gravitational setting, it has a 'kill' radius of 7 meters (where at its edge, 50% chance of being hit by at least one fragment), a 'lethal' radius of 16 meters, raised to 24 in a vacuum, and then an 'injury' radius of 30 meters. The 52x96mm round can be fuzed quite simply, with the sensor suite of the IUAP providing range and trajectory calculations to the electronic fuze-setter within the AMZ-2. This allows it to be smart-fuzed to detonate behind cover, over area targets, or against aerial targets, optimizing its hit chances against numerous small aerial targets. This setting is lethal against drone swarms, allowing the Zhenturo operator to near instantaneously track and engage swarms of even miniscule targets like a turret: even being deemed more effective than previous attempts to use handheld electronic warfare devices. The Bai-Mov AZM-2 has a maximum fire rate of 430 rpm, with a three-round burst setting of 700 rpm. Weight and size constraints of the AZM-2 and its ammunition allow only for 80 rounds to be carried internally in the IUAP.

Optimistically more of a utility than a weapon, the IUAP suit can also rely on its mechanically assisted hands to manipulate the environment to one’s advantage, from forcing open airlocks to prying metal off of the nearby environment to use as cover. With hydraulic and electrical assistance, the suit can exert 275.75 MPa of crush force, enough to seriously dent carbon steel with a single blow and tear it apart with several, or shattered hardened ceramics used in armor. Alternatively, the hydraulic framework of the IUAP, in peak condition, stable footing, and using both hands, can lift with 204 kilonewtons of force, equivalent to lifting 20,000 kilograms in a 1 g-force environment.

Hello newbie, welcome to NationStates! NationStates is a multiplayer text-based nation state simulator which was created to promote a new novel known as Jenn- oh whoops you drifted off already.

Yeah no .. I'm not going to bore you. You're welcome. The guide is written in chronological order, but you can skip to specific parts using the contents page.

My telegrams are being bombarded. How the f*ck do I stop this spam?

Oof. The first thing most new players get is a cascade of junk mail in their inbox. A large majority of your spam mail are recruitment telegrams which want you to join their region (I'll explain that in the future, but basically they're like tribes or clans).

But right now you don't give a sh*t. Firstly, we need to stop more garbage polluting your inbox. To do this, click this link. Under Filter, go to Recruitment and click Block All.

Click update filter when done. Now you will no longer receive more recruitment bullsh*t! Hooray🎊! All you need to do now is to delete your inbox and send angry telegrams telling your spammers to never spam you again.

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What are issues?
Issues are the main feature of NationStates and it's the thing that makes the game fun! You are the leader of your country, and issues are scenarios your country is going through. Each issue has a list of different options you can pick to resolve these scenarios. The fun thing about all the issues is that usually none of the options are 'good'. They all have drawbacks and some of the options you pick can have unintended consequences.

Let's take a look at an example...

Oh dear. In this issue, you basically have two options: force the company to give the pay rise or frankly fire the fish farmers furiously (I apologise for the abject alliteration).

The unintended consequence however is that now your people know if they want something, they can go on strike. So they will do... like all the time. And you'll be getting a f*ckton of strikes now.

To illustrate why this may not be a good thing, I have hired an economist from the Department of the Treasury of His Excellency to draft a graph showing the relationship between economic productivity and the amount of people going on strike:

In other words, your economy is going to die. Oof.

As a side effect of relaxing industrial laws, now thousands of people will randomly be fired (because their bosses don't like them or something), creating mass unemployment. And also.. uh.. rolling in the tanks isn't very.. shall we say.. conducive to democracy I mean like, as a dictatorship this is actually a very very good thing, but this guide is supposed to be "impartial" so pshhh.

So overall, none of the options are 'good' options. They all have glaring flaws in them. So you have to pick the best one out of all your crappy options. But that is what makes this game so fun! There is no 'right' answer, and some options have wildly unanticipated side effects. Issues are important because the way you answer issues affect the statistics and status of your country (which will be explained in more depth in the next question).

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What are civil rights, economy and political freedom? Isn't 'political freedom' an oxymoron?

Civil rights, economy and so-called political freedom are the main gauges of your nation. Every time you do an issue, your civil rights, economy or political freedoms will go either up or down. Your nation classification (in this example, the classification is Civil Rights Lovefest) depends on how much civil rights, economic freedom and political freedoms your country has.

So to roughly recap, here is a table you can refer to tell you what your country is like:

Presumably you are a noob, in which case your graph will consist of three straight lines. If you're an old player, you can see something slightly more interesting than straight lines like squiggles, bumps, dramatic falls and exponential rises. *The audience proceeds to go "ooooh"*

Just look at this very exciting graph!

What do you mean you don't care?

However, civil rights, economy and political freedom aren't the only metrics and measurements you can use to gauge your nation. There are also other ways you can measure your nation such as the policies it has enacted (which will be discussed in the next question).

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What are policies? And lul wut since when did I legalise polygamy?

Or, another example, marriage laws. If you have a compassion level that is higher than a literal kidney stone, you would be naturally inclined to legalise gay marriage. However, read the small print very carefully. Or ... SURPRISE BISH💥 You just legalised polygamy. Not what you meant? Sorry, your civil servants got a bit overzealous and now you have this weird law you did not ask for or maybe you did, I mean I won't judge😒.

Like statistics and all the other metrics, policies are reversible. So don't worry if you have a democratic robo-socialist polygamous pot-smoking feudal society. Just give it time, answer the right issues, and it will change.

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So unless if this arouses you in some way...

You really needn't bother. I am only aroused when 100% of money is spent on defending oil- I mean uh self-defence yeah.

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"Holy sh*t. Why are there so many statistics in NationStates?" That's a dumb question. You're playing a text-based simulator you dimwit. What did you expect? "Are you making me ask stupid questions to insinuate and perpetuate stereotypes of my ignorance as a noob?" Yes.

Depending on how you answer every issue, your plethora of statistics change. To see these changes, you can scroll down after answering an issue.

What makes ranks so much more different that the other eight million other statistics in NationStates, is that you can get badges for ranking high on each of these ranks!

These badges appear below your nation's main page and they are usually a source of honour and pride for the owner of the account. Green badges are given to top 10% of nations (of that certain statistic) in the entire game, orange badges are given to the top 5% and golden badges given to the top 1%.

As you can see, this is my own private collection. I'm extremely proud and honoured to have the Top 1% for Public Nudity. "I don't care, do you have any other information regarding ranks?" My golden badge reflects on a sadder tone of general society. Societal progres- "Yeah OK, I'm going then." - WAIT WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

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What are regions?

If you are a newbie, you are probably in one of the five main starter regions: the Pacific, the North Pacific, the South Pacific, the East Pacific and the West Pacific. New nations are automatically randomly assigned to be born in one of these starter regions, s-pacifically known as 'feeder' regions. I refuse to apologise for this pun.

Years ago, NationStates used a different create-a-nation questionnaire that was widely researched, allowing players to easily start any nation with any nation type they desired.

The new system hasn't been nearly as widely researched as the previous one, presumably because it includes a new "Random" option that can be mashed until it outputs the desired stats from the beginning. This is an effective, if admittedly tedious, way to easily start any nation with the desired WA classification.

Fortunately, it is still possible to obtain any such classification by simply selecting one of the 9 starting freedoms and answering the 8 questions in the first page. More variation can be added with the 9 history options, but they are not really required to obtain any specific classification and as such will be omitted from this guide.

This guide is based on a forum post I made that is over one year old now, but it will probably get more exposure (and better formatting and detail) through a dispatch. The original post also forgot a category: Liberal Democratic Socialists.

The underlying mechanics are very complex, as is the case for anything directly related to NS stats. Furthermore, due to how the questionnaire works, it is possible to obtain a WA classification through multiple paths. The one considered for this guidelist is the most simple I discovered.

The 9 starting freedoms
These are the 9 starting freedoms available. The resulting freedom stats are shown in this list, without replying to any question. They are ordered as shown in the create-a-nation page:

Remember that negative Economic Freedom values imply a socialist state-planned economy.

*Not to be confused with Economy!

The 8 questions

• Q1. A country should be judged by how it treats its worst-off citizens.

• Q2. Corporations are good for society.

• Q3. Marijuana should be legal.

• Q4. The world needs to rediscover its spirituality.

• Q5. Young people should perform a year's compulsory military service.

• Q6. Capitalism is on the way out.

• Q7. Without democracy, a country has nothing

• Q8. It's better to deter criminals than rehabilitate them.

These questions modify the stats preselected through the 10 freedom choices (9 + Random) by a variable amount, that depends on the base stats of your nation-to-be. Not all of them affect the freedoms used to determine the WA classification, and as such will be omitted below.

How to start with the WA classification you want
This table indicates how to start with any WA classification. The listed method is the most simple I have discovered. Freedom indicates which of the 9 Freedoms (see above) you should select, while questions indicate how to answer each one. Questions not explicitly mentioned should be left blank. If two Freedoms are shown, both are valid options that will result in the same WA classification.

WA categories are in alphabetical order.

*To obtain a Mother Knows Best State, follow the steps for a Father Knows Best State, but on the second page of the nation creation questionnaire select either "Matriarchy" or "Queendom" as the nation pre-title.

Throughoutly tested the 31st of January 2019, updated 11th of April 2020, and still valid as of 2024. With a bit of experience, the questionnaire is quite intuitive and it is easy to recognize the pattern I used to get every possible type from the start.