Project HEART (Hazardous Environment Armoured Rescue Response Team)

Project HEART (Hazardous Environment Armour Rescue Team, although the Rescue has recently been changed to Response with the addition of two machine guns to the group)

The armour was developed in the US in a  partnership between University of California robotics department in Berkley and Lockhead-Martin. Its pilots are drawn primarily from the Marine corps.

The HEART armour has a few obvious limitations, primarily they require a large amount of power, so are teathered to a power supply when possible if they are disconnected, the armour has about 24 hours of power stored in the high energy capacitors. Also each machine is tailored to the size of the pilot within very narrow specifications, so it is very hard to wear another pilots suit.

The Hazardous Environment Armoured Rescue Team (HEART) is a development of the earlier Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) system

Major Helen Walters ( unit commander)
A skilled leader and combatant, who is upbeat and enthusiastic about her job, has a small black kitten back home called Mab and keeps a photo of the kitten and her husband inside the armour. She enjoys challenges and is a decent cook. Married to Joff Leader.

-Armour is equiped with a communication and senor array allowing her to perform C&C functions in the field. She also has a mounted light machine gun on a flexible gyro-mount.

Captain Timothy Knight  (unit engineer)
Tim was onboard the team that built the armour at Berkley and knows it workings extensively. Long brown hair and a tall slim build, he acts as the second in command of the squad and he's a huge fan of ball sports (American football, soccer, rugby and so on).

-Armour is equiped with a full load-out of tools for everything from micro-electronics to civil engineering projects, a "gun" that launches ballistic/structural foam-gel and a heavy cutting claw on one arm.

Lieutenant Elizabthe Schlappa  (Security specialist)
Short Black hair, Enjoys climbing and foreign travel, in her spare time she enjoys acting and dance.

- This suit of armour makes it clear that the project was only ever peripherally about search and rescue. Equiped with a gyro-mounted heavy machine gun, a shoulder-braced cannonm, a point defence system and a pod of surface to air micro-missiles. This suit is much heavier than the others, with corespondingly better armour, but also a tendency to sink in soft ground. It also comes equiped with a very thick and dense collapsable Ballistic shield.

Master Sergeant Joff Leader  (Unit Search and Rescue Specialist)
A cheerful goated man in his thirties.Joff is a good tactical planner and has some medical training. He enjoys a wide range of music, from classical and historical, to Scandanavian metal and pop music and often finds time to visit any music venues in the country he's visiting to get a taste of the local culture, he's also very fond of Helen's cooking to whom he is married.

- Armour is equiped with heavy lifting gear, deep penetration back-scatter X-ray, a cutting laser and a powerful fire-axe with a motorised sawing blade. It also has a fold-away stretcher and capacity to carry an injured victim without taking up the hands.

Technical Sergeant Jude Reid  (Unit medic)
A skilled doctor with black hair and a scar running down the righthand side of her face (Shrapnel from a IED). She has 6 years of experience in field medicine around the world, Judith enjoys sewing, playing the harp and other antiquated string instruments as is a keen penathlete.

- Armour is equiped with a full paramedic kit, the gloves incorporate an in-built defibrilator (which double as a defensive weapon) a drug auto-injector, medical sensors and a stretcher for evacuating people and capacity to carry it hands free.