The Warharness
This device is seldom featured in the entertainment sims, but it represents a crucial component of tribal armor. The warharness holds the unused firearms on the armor and allows a warrior to swap between weapons swiftly. Simple warharnesses are little more than woven metaplas and alphasilk combat webs with attachment points for grenades, weapons, mines, and the like. They typically have mechanisms that release the weapon quickly upon the wearer grabbing and pulling the desired object. More advanced versions of this web contain interface-integrated microservos (IIM) so as to hold weapons automatically upon command, and to shift so that the desired weapon is easy to reach.

The most advanced warharnesses-which are quite rare-are composed of nothing more than a layer of nanites incorporated onto the armor's torso. These nanites are programmed to hold weapons and make them available to the user upon command. Hence, the weapons of a warrior possessing such a warharness simply "stick" to her back until needed for use. When the warrior wants to draw a weapon, she simply reaches for it, perhaps triggering the request with a quick macro such as by tapping first her fist and then her middle finger on her breastplate. The selected weapon then swiftly slides along the armor's surface so that the grip slides into the warrior's waiting hand. When the warrior closes her hand, the warharness releases the weapon. Needless to say, this feature is heavily customized. The Blood Eagle possess the greatest number of this type of warharness.

Armors also have standard belt attachments for holding grenades, flares, medkits, and the like. Blasters are light enough to be slung from the hip, despite their size being close to that of a carbine. For holding more or heavier weapons, however, a warrior must use a warharness.

The Grievers and some indie tribes sometimes use a spidery mechanical variation of the warharness, but these jury-rigged devices are prone to malfunction or damage in the field and have not found acceptance among the Four.

Table of Contents | Donning and Removing Armor