Alright, That's It

I'm sick of it. I'm going to answer all this shit once and for all and put it to rest, because if I have to labour under the assumption that my race's special forces only hires leather fetishists for one more day, I am going to swallow a gun barrel.

So.



Exhibit A

The leather catsuits that commandos wear. And believe me, nobody hates these fucking things more than me, but that's more how complete assholes have used them than the actual outfits themselves, so hear me out. See, first of all that's not leather. They're called 'leathers' as a kind of word-drift because of my culture's utter obsession with fetishizing every single thing it can get its grubby mitts on, but there's only a thin layer of synth-leather as a general sacrifice layer against wear and tear. The real meat of the thing, as you can glimpse on our friendly model here, is this.



This sexy beauty, carbon fibre, woven into a flexible polymer to provide extra durability without sacrificing flexibility. I know what you're thinking, 'Celeste you shriveled-up no-sex-having hag, what does this have to do with your screed against commando leathers?'. I'm glad you asked. You see, commando leathers are mostly made of the aforementioned carbon fibre weave, but that's not the real moneymaker of the outfit. No, that's these.



These motherfuckers right here. Carbon nanotubes. If carbon nanotubes were a person, they'd be capable of beating a krogan to death with nothing but their majestically turgid willy. Mere microns in thickness and diameter, commando leathers contain a very thin layer of CNT floating in solution with non-Newtonian fluid. Not really designed to stop a knife or omniblade, but if a mass accelerator round breaks your barriers, the fluid hardens and aligns the CNT in a solid wall. Best-case scenario, the round stops completely and you get a nasty bruise, but you live. All but the worst-case scenario, you get a flesh wound and can keep on trucking.

'But Matriarch, why are you so pissed off that people talk about wearing commando leathers exclusively then?' Be quiet, I'm about to explain. That's because stand-up combat is not what commando leathers are designed for. You know what is designed for open conflict?



Hardsuits, motherfucker. And as an added bonus, you can whack on a helmet and seal yourself against minor issues like toxic environments, heat, cold, hard vacuum, incredibly sanctimonious and preachy porn actresses etc etc...

And while you can wear commando leathers in place of your undersuit when donning your hardsuit, most see it as overkill considering KBs, ceramics, and barriers. No, see, commando leathers are designed for something specific. You know, covert special forces actions.

The simple fact is that you can't just rock up to some warlord's pit of vice and debauchery in full hardsuit and expect to sneak in or blend in with the crowd. You also can't just walk in with nothing but a t-shirt and track pants then expect to survive a stand-up gunfight. What you do is you wear your commando leathers under your civvies.

'What a phenomenal and groundbreaking idea!' I hear you gasp. I know, I know, but it's true. If you wear respectable civvies to blend in over your silly bullet-resistant catsuit, you can reap the full benefits of both worlds without looking like a complete ninny. So ends our lecture, children. Auntie Celeste might still grace you with her knowledge and wisdom if anything else important comes up.

Interesting.

I have to say, whenever watching those HV shows that show our commandos always wearing the leathers, I always thought that if I were to get into a battle I'd prefer a nice bit of armour between me and bullets.

Having been in one now, with only a pistol and a KB generator, I have to say that opinion hasn't changed.

Though one of these would've been very nice.

I...frankly I don't know what to say.

Not out of any general sense of horror or sympathetic shame or anything like that, mainly because I was just

so unprepared for this to actually make sense. And it does actually, it does make a tremendous amount of sense. Out of curiosity how wide-spread is the material exactly, within the Republics that is, or, to rephrase, it is uncommon enough that it's simply rare to see it used at all much less properly or common and merely tragically underutilized and/or sexualized.

You can't buy it from Nos Astra Sporting Goods, if that's what you're asking. And nah, considering that the Republics only seem to give a shit about special forces actions, commandos aren't exactly hurting for choice regarding kit. Pretty much every Huntress has some version or another of the gear I just outlined for covert actions where direct engagement with the enemy is considered a last resort.

The problem is that the leathers cut a striking figure, and silhouette is everything when trying to make a character distinctive. So in all likelihood some retarded movie director decided to skip the 'covert ops/civvies on top' part and just have a Huntress in her leathers. Or, more likely, it all comes back to porn. As things are wont to do in the Republics.

So in short, it's easily available if you're in a job that would require it, but way too many directors of negative artistic merit have been able to get their hands on a suit or two.

Awesome stuff I can't afford.

...When I've done intersperses sparring, I generally wear my typical costume over my cheap, but turianproof leotard. At least half of the asari competitors are doing the same, is it really that hard to grasp that this stuff is for layering?

...Though that makes me ask, is it hard to cover that thing? It's got a lot of ridgy looking seams.

Meh. Not really. I mean, if you're trying to wear a tank top and boyshorts then, no, you aren't going to cover up properly. Just leave the boots, wear some tough combat pants, like surplus fatigue pants, maybe a thick shirt or sweater and a jacket. Unless someone tries to feel you up, it's super unlikely that anyone's going to figure it out.

I'm going to interject here and point out that it runs on a unit-by-unit basis. Some of the more intelligent less retarded actually professional unorthodox commanders will of course, sensibly broaden the capabilities of the cadre. Though the above statement is, unfortunately, correct in most circumstances.

That, uh, actually is a very logical explanation.

I feel very silly for not having looked this up earlier. The idea is so bloody pervasive that I just, well, assumed.


So it isn't going to work for more than half of the board's asari population.

Only half?

It would make sense if the former were your Utes (Utility uniform). But how you're explaining it? Whoever came up with that needs to be brought to an active combat zone.

I'm trying not to be racist.

Well, yeah. I'm just making broad, sweeping statements because those are the most enjoyable kinds of statement.


Logic wins the day once more.


Stop stealing my job.


That's... did you even read what I said? The entire point is that you don't exclusively wear these in active combat zones. I spend several paragraphs explaining that they're only used commonly as part of covert operations in civilian areas or other locations where full hardsuits would be conspicuous and/or counterproductive.

Utility uniforms don't need armour. Hell, we have battledress with armoured plating for when we're out of hardsuits and I'd honestly prefer this stuff to that.

If you'd read it properly, you'd know that this is for when they're infiltrating and things like that, where they need to conceal the fact that they are, you know, commandos. Not for an active combat zone. Where they'll be wearing hardsuits. As Celeste explained.

In the actions Celeste is speaking of, the advantage of surprise and special forces training will usually overwhelm the enemy, and usually special forces will retreat and quite literally disappear if they run into anything they can't handle anyway.

So they won't, you know, actually need the extra protection of a hardsuit in this metaphorical situation.

Wait, so yer sayin tha thems ain't porno suits?

What's crazy is getting fitted for these suits. I'm not the tallest asari so any standard sizes look ridiculously oversized on me, like someone trying to wear her mother's armor. Adorable, but impractical. I had to get custom-fit stuff and while there was a fund to help people in my situation, it ate away about 30% of my income for the last two years. What's worse is the doctors don't think I'll be growing any more... so I'll be stuck at my terribly short 1.25 m tall for the rest of my life. (They say it has to do with malnutrition during developmental phases.)

Very impressive dissertation, Matriarch. It's a bit more detail than I knew.

But... but... but, this makes you look fat!!11!! (some were waiting for this, right?)

Funny thing how this can be mentioned over and over and still won't stick. I too was saying the same thing (with less pictures) just a few months ago. Maybe those pics will make the difference.

...No. No you were not. If memory serves you were spouting off some completely random garbage about hardsuits being too difficult and encumbering for military personnel to wear before going "lol whatevs :)" like some tittering, vapid, bimbo when called on your bullshit.

It's not even in the same geographic area much less even remotely rationally connected.

1) That would be in specific micro circumstances, such as baiting the enemy into an ambush. Not on a macro scale of 'tee-hee isn't our military useless' and then only springing after billions of casualties and collateral damage.

2) I'm pretty sure those scrolls are fake, because even a cursory extranet search reveals that that name is a horrible and thoroughly uninspired pun on 'Sun Tzu', the famous Terran strategist.

Aww come on hard ass, she just bullshittin(learnt tha' from a human, I like their insults) yehs, yeh aint gotta be so serious!

Oh heck no, have you seen what CNT fabrics cost? No, even in a really high-budget show or film, it'll be a simple nanoweave, or a combo of smart fabrics - Suana make a really nice replica that's as light as air to move in, looks just like the real thing, and even has a programmable micro-VI to change hue and finish, open up gaps, even shed whole pieces, on cue, and it's still something like a tenth the cost of the real thing. Although if you're willing to put up with a bit of discomfort, some very simple basic fabrics can recreate the look of a commando bodysuit quite well - wouldn't dance in something like that, but that's most often what you'll see in film. They're all rubbish if you're being shot at of course, but if that happens you're in the wrong kind of club anyway.