After perusing countless field reports and watching extensive vid on troubleshooters shooting trouble, several important facts came to light. Most are above your security clearance, but one isn't. Troubleshooters get shot... generally by a wide range of things that aren't always lasers.

Emboldened by this discovery and emboldened by my use of the word "embolden", the R&D techs decided to build armor that could change to suit the environment that the troubleshooter was thrown into. In other words, armor that could protect the troubleshooter from a variety of different things.

Part 1: There's too much STUFF:
R&D quickly realized that a "catch-all" suit wouldn't work. It got too bulky as you slapped reflec material over kevlar over plating. The test clones in the lab couldn't move, and still managed to get shot. So the all-in-one theory was almost scrapped... until impact-gel was discovered.

Part 2: Impact WHAT?:
Impact-gel is a thick, gooey gel that had been used as coolant in Armor-bots and Vulturecraft. When it got hit by projectiles (fired by other Armor-bots and Vulturecraft), it managed to disperse impact force nearly as well as some other armor plating systems. Extensive testing was ordered by the Computer, and the variable armor idea was reborn.

Part 3: Goooooey:
Originally, a thin layer of impact-gel was sandwiched between the reflec plating in the armor, but early tests proved that it wasn't enough. As the amount of gel was increased, another important discovery was made, the gel transferred the kinetic shock of explosions, but it simply spread it around the armor to the back, creating a gooey mess... of whatever was INSIDE the armor. Finally, the gel was pumped through tubes throughout the armor in a long spiral, which transferred the impact or explosion force around and around the armor until it ran out of power. Variable armor was born!

Part 4: The Upside:
The net upside is that the armor has both a reflec and impact/slugthrower defense rating that should be pretty impressive. It's heavy-duty armor with no moving parts or computer chips to cause trouble. Troubleshooters will start to scratch their heads.

Part 5: The Downside:
The net downside is threefold:

• If hit with an impact or slug weapon, the armor will protect the clone inside, but it will do so while rattling them around like the ball-bearing in a spraycan. They won't take any damage from this, but there's the possibility of dropping weapons or falling over.
• Once the armor is cracked, the goo will seep out, eliminating ANY impact-shielding value.
• The goo is highly toxic to touch, eat, inhale fumes from, and it will start to corrode clothing, untreated synthsteel, and reflec armor at a rate of 1 cm2 per round. This means that the wearer will go from damaged suit to painfully eroding suit in about 5 minutes.

Part 6: The Short of it:
For the GM, the suit is fairly benign, as it's just fancy armor. The rest of the party will KNOW that the guy has it, that the armor is, in fact, RED and not painted over, and that the clone wearing it now has some sort of protection that they don't. After a few firefights, though, or 2 or 3 good hits with a slugthrower or explosion, the wearer will be forced to try and take it off... quickly, without touching the green goo that's seeping out. The stuff moves like honey, and any clone exposed by touch or a few good whiffs will start to feel light-headed. Eventually, the toxic nature will rear up and the clone might be in a world of hurt.