The modern battlefield environment is a harsh place under the best of circumstances. Lasers, plasma and fusion weapons, gravic enhanced explosives, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, all serve to make it a killing zone for the vulnerable. The modern soldier is adequately protected in this environment from these hazards by battlesuit or CES(Combat Environmental Suit). Vehicles are seal against these dangers.
This equipment allows the modern soldier or Imperial Marine to operate in conditions that would result in sudden death for the unprotected civilian. The Imperial Army and Marines are setup to operate under these conditions of marginal environmental habitability. If they had the choice all wars would be fought on nice balmy garden planets or in other hospitable environments. But wars are fought on hellish balls of rock, where one mistake can suck a trooper's life out into the vacuum of space; at the bottom of the sea, where the pressure can crush a set of battledress like a tin can; in hostile environments where the darkness lasts all day long.
The Redding Assault Battledress has life-support for relatively short enduarance. This is more than adequate for most field conditions in toxic or polluted atmospheres. Combat typically consists of relatively short periods of high intensity action in a potentially hostile environment, broken by long periods of inactivity, during which a trooper in battledress can "open-up" to conserve life support.
Soldiers operating for extended periods on (Z) catagory missions do not have this luxury. Even between engagements they must maintain life support merely to survive. The equipment and tactics used under these conditions are somewhat different. Any suit of battledress or CES is sufficient for short term exposure to the vacuum of space. Mounting a campaign on an airless world requires more specialized equipment. Battledress must posses extended life support capability, as does the Vishhii 60-CS and Reardon 62-CS. Combat Environmental Suits are inadaquate to the task. In this environment soldiers must wear Combat Armor, an armored vac suit, optimized for battle in space.
Silvan's Troopers is a Mercenary Profor Unit specially outfitted and train to operate in this environment. The Magash Dragoons are an Imperial Army Profor Drop Infantry Regiment trained to do the same.
Space optimized Battledress or Extended Service Army Combat Armor gives the gives the Profor Trooper a variety of transport options. For long distance planetary travel the Troopers are typically deployed in their Kushkikkan or Astrin Grav Armored Personnel Carriers. They can cover shorter distances using bullet bikes.
For planetary assaults Troopers in BD are dropped in Orbital Drop Capsules. Integral flight units in the Vishhii and Quasi-Reardon Battledress give the Troopers high mobility, but unless they stick to Nap of Earth (NAP) trajectories, flight leaves them vulnerable to anti-air targeting weapons systems. In an environment without forests or jungles to provide cover the ground is the safest place to be.
A Trooper in BD can easily leap 70 feet (21.5 m) in a running broad jump. Since the suit musculature is doing all the work the user feels no fatigue for this effort. A Trooper in BD can cover ground very quickly in hops, very much like someone acclimated to a 1G gravity planet moving in a low G environment. Troopers in Battledress have been known to cover an average of 20 mph (32 kph) over broken ground during tactical forced marches. But BD is too cumbersome for use inside a spacecraft or in most underground habitats or urban settings.
Combat on the surfaces of airless worlds is typically done in vehicles. This is the arena of the grav tank. Camouflage is of little use, the extreme temperatures make sensors very effective in this environment. Observation satellites, sensor drones and ships in far orbit make the kind of stealth warfare practiced on living planets impossible. The enemy often knows you are coming and can judge comparative strenghts and deployment.
The Troopers and their mates in the Dragoons are not equipped to go toe to toe with a large armored force. Their strengths lay in mobility and tactical surprise. Their specialized equipment, long endurance ACA, and light transport give them superior mobility. Their high quality training and experience in hard vacuum environments often gives them the edge they need
