Two Parter here
Part 1: ASC Body Armor Shields
Various lineart presentations (and some commercial bumps) that appear concerning the body armor in use during TRM saga show the bodyarmor sporting shields.
This is true in the old coloring books, the RPG, and appear on the DVD extras. Yet the actual number of occurances we see them in the show is pretty low.
IIRC the only instances that come to mind we see them are:
-Gaurding the Govt. HQ
-Dante and VHT squad the 15th releives in Monument City (the Officer of the other VHT unit had it for sure)
-When Space Forces are scrambling on the ground to assist Carpenter
-Could be wrong, but wasn't Nova carrying a shield on the hostage exchange at the end while riding in a VHT?
The only reasons I can think of for a lack of display is:
A. The Shields are more for cerimonial use than practical use for most branches. That would seem to match up with the screen use.
B. The mass of the shield is better utilized by the solider carrying other items.
C. The shields offer no practical protection, but where intended as part of a modular system much like the 1st Series RPG has the Cyclone Forearm/FrontHub
weapons as modular. The Shields in this case work as the Fronthub shield on the Cyclone to which a weapon's pod could be attached, but those units where
still in development.
So why do you think the Southern Cross commercial bumps and lineart show these shields in use, but the animation is usally silent on the topic?
Part II: REF & ASC Body Armor
In a few instances in TRM and NG we see characters do super leaps into mecha while wearing their body armor.
Scott did it once when getting into Lunk's restored Alpha for the first time when it was on the second floor of a barn.
Dana did it into and out of the VHT, but this wasn't as high up as the Alpha so it might be gynmastics.
We know that the body armor Scott was wearing was also part of the Cyclone System. So could his armor actually be some type of powered exo-skeleton? Given
the bulkier look of ASC armor, and Dana's feats of gymnastics these older suits might also have that capacity.




