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This is an overview article, listing content appearing in multiple games. |
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Chinese stealth armor, also known as Hei Gui stealth armor,[1] was one of China's greatest military assets deployed during the Sino-American War.
Background
 Part of a series on |
| China |
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| Politics |
| Chairman Cheng · Communism · Sino-American War |
| Military |
| People's Liberation Army (Iron Army, Crimson Dragoons, "Ghost Fleet") · People's Republic of America · Chinese remnants · Operation Trinitite |
| Technology |
| Stealth technology (Stealth armor) · Liberator · Yangtze-class submarine · Warmachine |
| Other |
| Military vehicles |
This dark black, form-fitting bodysuit with an opaque faceplate is a suit of armor designed for one thing: Making the operator nigh-invisible. Harnessing Chinese expertise in stealth technology, the suit contains a man-portable device that generates a modulating field that transmits the reflected light from one side of an object to another. The result is near-perfect active camouflage. The bodysuit is designed to maximize the effect by simplifying the wearer's silhouette and creating flat surfaces where possible to reduce the complexity of the area being camouflaged.[2][3] Deployed under the designation Hei Gui, the suit was worn by elite units like the Crimson Dragoons, and allowed China to counter American brute force with subterfuge and deception, although some units were captured and reverse engineered by the Americans.[1]
The suit was just barely out of the prototype stage around the time of the Sino-American War, with the refinement of the technology varying. Some Chinese infiltrators on American soil, such as those captured during the Hoover Sabotage, used early generation suits without the ability to cloak,[4] while the Crimson Dragoon troopers deployed in Alaska used cutting edge iterations granting long-lasting invisibility.[5]
The underlying principle of bending light was reverse-engineered by the United States from captured Chinese suits in two ways. Robert Mayflower reverse-engineered captured Chinese stealth armor to create the portable, but unstable Stealth Boy 3001 units.[6][Non-game 1] Big MT researchers focused more on the suit itself and its stealth-enhancing properties, taking the Chinese suits apart and then designing a new stealth suit from scratch. This resulted in the creation of two prototypes before the war: the assassin suit and the stealth suit Mk II.[7]
Models
Anchorage campaign armor
The Chinese spent some time redesigning the stealth armor before issuing it to their elite Crimson Dragoons on the Anchorage Front Line. A single copy was captured by the US and sent to several companies for study and reverse-engineering. The Lone Wanderer may find it in the armory which is unlocked after finishing the Operation: Anchorage add-on. Another copy of the suit was worn by Agent Mochou and brought to Appalachia.
Hoover Sabotage armor
There are two Chinese stealth armors located at Hoover Dam by 2281. NCR forces found and later misplaced the suits in a storeroom with radioactive waste in the Hoover Dam offices. A terminal on the same level mentions the suits, and are marked as owned, incurring Karma loss when taken.[8] These two suits differ from the Anchorage version in that they do not create a stealth field around the wearer when sneaking and have a lower sneaking bonus.
During the Hoover Sabotage, Americans caught their first glimpses of China's elite soldiers wearing the stealth armor. Because Sub-Level 1C was sealed, several of the Chinese soldiers' bodies remained in the compound.
Notes
Mercy in Fallout: New Vegas has Hei Gui Bye Bye written on its chassis.
Behind the scenes
- No specific pronunciation or spelling was given in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios, where the term appeared for the first time, without diacritics. The author of the term seems to have created the name in English first, then used a Chinese dictionary to translate the words separately, combining the symbols for the color black (黑) and ghost (鬼), and then romanizing the result, arriving at Hei Gui. Unfortunately, the resulting term, hēi guǐ (黑鬼), is an idiom used as a racial slur against people of African descent in China, rather than literally meaning Black Ghost.
- The intended meaning is never given in the games, and was only stated by Joshua Sawyer in a forum post, noting that it was a step up from the UAF armor of the federal Unamerican Activities Force.[Non-game 2] As such, the exact meaning of the word is not defined in any released game. It can be pronounced as Hēi guī (黑龟), which means "black turtle" and has some mystical, special meanings behind it. Crimson Phoenix and Black Turtle are two of four sacred beasts in Chinese mythology, so these names could be official military names for the corresponding units.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Switchboard terminal entries; research terminal, > 2075 Dec 17
- ↑ Fallout item description: "{5400}{}{Stealth Boy}"
"{5401}{}{A RobCo Stealth Boy 3001 personal stealth device. Generates a modulating field that transmits the reflected light from one side of an object to the other.}"
Note: This is a reverse-engineered Chinese technology and provides information on the underlying mechanics. - ↑ Museum of Technology placard: "This is the RobCo "Stealth Boy" Model 3001 Personal Stealth Device. Developed by Robert Mayflower, the Stealth Boy generates a modulating field that transmits the reflected light from one side of an object to the other making the bearer almost invisible to the untrained eye."
Note: This is a reverse-engineered Chinese technology and provides information on the underlying mechanics. - ↑ Functionality of Fallout: New Vegas stealth armor
- ↑ Functionality of Operation: Anchorage and Fallout 76 stealth armor
- ↑ Stealth Boy
- ↑ X-13 testing facility laboratories where the stealth suit was developed contain captured Hei Gui suits.
- ↑ Hoover Dam terminal entries; Inventory terminal, No clue what these are
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Rulebook p.171: "One of the most interesting technologies developed before the War, the Stealth Boy 3001 is a compact device which generates a modulating refraction field which transmits light from one side of the field to the other. The result is near-perfect active camouflage, ranging from a sort of distorted transparency when moving to almost total invisibility when stationary. The Stealth Boy was reverse engineered from captured Chinese Stealth Armor during the War, and while the technology was never perfected—even the most advanced Stealth Boy consumes its battery in around 30 seconds—it was still seen to be reliable enough for service. Long-term use of Stealth Boy technology has been observed to cause permanent neurological changes, resulting in paranoid delusions, hallucinations, and other mental changes."
- ↑ J.E. Sawyer: "UAF stands for Unamerican Activities Force. Basically they were federal (usually) undercover agents that worked to ferret out commie sympathizers in the American population. It was one of the "stealth armors" in VB. Light armor, but gave a small stealth bonus. The step up from it was Hei Gui/"Black Ghost" armor."