#anatomy of a hev suit

[tchtra]

biblically accurate HEV mark V suit

;-;

[decks-writing-blog]

Whatever the Fuck Benrey is: Chapter Four: Didn't Matter

Chapter One

Previous Chapter

~

Benrey wasn’t tired but Gordon clearly expected him to go to bed. Normally he wouldn’t have but there wasn’t much else he could do. He wasn’t allowed to play on the Game Cube anymore because Gordon needed to sleep and apparently couldn’t with it on. And so, with a sigh, Benrey lay down on his side of the bed to stare up at the ceiling.

It was the perfect time to think. One of Benrey’s least favorite activities but maybe he could figure out a way to fix Gordon’s hand. The security officer uniform had been thrown out along with everyone else’s old clothes – excluding the HEV suit, that Gordon cleaned and put in a cardboard box – so getting that role back wasn’t likely to be an option anymore. But even outside of his having given it up at Gordon’s order because of the hand thing, he would still feel better if he could fix said hand thing.

And so he lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling, mentally going over everything he knew about human anatomy. Which beyond the physical layout of their bones that he copied for his own form and when creating his skeleton dudes, wasn’t much. There had to be something he could do though, right?

The answer came to him upon accidentally dozing off when his brain kindly replayed part of the first conversation he’d had with Gordon about his hand never growing back. In the dream they’d had the talk while in Xen and had been playing poker for some reason but it was close enough. Human limbs didn’t grow back but they could be reattached once lost.

Shaking himself the rest of the way awake, Benrey sat up and turned to look at Gordon. He’d rolled over to be facing Benrey. His face wasn’t calm as it should’ve been but instead scrunched up, his whole body tense and twitchy. Not a peaceful sleep then. Lucky him, Benrey was here to wake him from it.

He reached out to shake Gordon’s shoulder. “Wake up, buddy. ”

Gordon jolted awake with a loud gasp. He scrambled backwards, lifting his gun hand. Before it was all the way up though, he fell off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump and dragging the blankets with him. Benrey crawled over to look down at him. The fall hadn’t seem to bring him out of his post nightmare panic as he was still breathing heavy and his eyes roving around wildly.

Benrey took a deep breath and let out a stream of blue sweet voice. As always, Gordon calmed down immediately. Not many people responded to it as strongly as he did, making it another reason to like him.

By the time Benrey’s note ended, Gordon was starting to catch his breath. “That’s… very pretty.”

Him saying it was pretty was nothing new but not many people had nice things to say about it so Benrey was allowed to bask in that a little, right? “Eh, yeah, it is.”

With a groan, Gordon shifted before finally sitting up. Using the bed, he pulled himself to his feet and scrambled at the nightstand until the found his glasses. “Ugh, what happened?”

“You were having a nightmare so I woke you.” Benrey grabbed the blankets and pulled them back up onto the bed. “Also, I got good news. I know how fix your hand.”

Gordon raised and eyebrow but didn’t say anything as he sat on the edge of bed. Probably an invitation to continue, right? So pushing the pile of blankets on his lap to the side, Benrey shifted to sit next to Gordon, his legs hanging of the edge.

“You said, uh, that your hand can’t grow back but it can be reattached, right? So all we gotta do is go back to Black Mesa and find it, right?”

“Well, thanks for waking me and for the thought I guess. That won’t work though. It’s gotta be reattached like within a couple hours, I think. It’s been days, it’s probably rotted by now if something hasn’t eaten it.”

“Oh.” That was fine though because if reattachment was an option with one’s own hand why wouldn’t it work with someone else’s? “Just take my hand then.” He held up his right hand. “Chop off your gun hand and then put mine there instead. My hand grows back so it’s… uh, not a problem. If you want I can even do this.” He shifted his right hand to be about the same size and shade of brown as Gordon’s, even doing his best to mimic the nails and way the palm lightened. He did a pretty damn good job too even if the didn’t get all the little lines on the palm and fingertips quite right. In his defense those were impossible, there were too damn many. What purpose did they even serve?

Gordon stared at it in silence for a few seconds. “That’s a pretty cool trick and I appreciate the offer but I don’t… it doesn’t work like that. I don’t think hand transplants are a thing.”

“What? Why not?”

“I’m pretty sure they’re just not a thing people do.”

“Well, why don’t we try it and see what happens. I got, uh… magic healing powers or whatever so maybe it’ll work for us. You got a… a hatchet or something somewhere? Probably need towels too because it’ll get messy.” Benrey stood to start looking for one. “Or I could use my teeth. I can make them pretty sharp. Never bit through bone before though so that might…”

“Nope, absolutely fucking not! You’re not chopping or worse biting any part of me off. Don’t even fucking try it.”

Benrey turned to look at him to see he’d stood too. “Why so mad, bro? I’m trying to help.”

“I’m not mad.” True to his word, the emotion in his voice had settled down some. “I’m just… a bit freaked out because you just casually offered to bite my arm off.” He held his gun hand close to his chest as he turned his body away slightly. Did he think Benrey would try to bite it off without permission? “That’s a scary fucking thought, dude. Don’t bring that kind of thing up like it’s no big deal.”

“How else am I suppose to stick my severed hand to yours though? I don’t think it’ll attach to skin or… or your gun. So I gotta like… give it something to attach to.”

“Maybe drop the idea or at least it put on hold until we find a surgeon willing to try it so I don’t have to live through my hand getting cut off again. That shit hurts, man, like a lot. I know you probably don’t feel pain or whatever but… I’d rather keep the gun hand for forever then go through that again, all right?”

“So you can’t uh… just choose to stop feeling pain then?” Probably it was Benrey’s own fault for never paying attention before now. In his defense though, how was he supposed to guess humans were so fragile and pathetic? Maybe he should be disgusted with them for being so weak but… he didn’t really care. He disliked most humans anyway and Gordon had always been one of the few he did like, knowing he was soft and fragile didn’t change that. If anything, it made him like him more in a way because now he wanted to protect him.

“No, no I can’t. So, again, thanks for the offer but right now, it’s a big fucking no thank you.”

“Damn, okay.” And so Benrey would continue to feel bad and not be allowed to put the security officer uniform back on even if he ever did find a new one. He took something way from Gordon and couldn’t fix it, so it was only fair Gordon be allowed to continue to take that away from him.

“Good, glad we’re on the same page, finally. Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’m gonna play the Game Cube for a bit. I’ll keep the volume low so you can sleep if you want but I just… don’t wanna go back to bed right now.”

They’d played all their multiplayer games earlier and neither had had the chance to start the single player games. So instead of asking to play with him on one of those, Benrey pulled both chairs over so he’d be able to sit next to Gordon while he played. It wasn’t often he got a chance to watch someone else play something.

After choosing a game and inserting it into the Game Cube, Gordon settled into the chair Benrey had brought for him with a mumbled, “Thanks.”

***

“Mr. Freeman, are you sure you wanna go back to Black Mesa? I mean, uh… I mean we just got out and it wasn’t very fun when we were there. Especially for you, I think… right? You lost your arm and, and almost died like… a lot of times. Why would you wanna go back?”

Tommy was right, Gordon didn’t particularly want to go back, especially not after only maybe like four hours of sleep last night. If he was planning on suggesting this today he should’ve gone back to bed. But he’d already had one nightmare about losing his hand, adding the idea of Benrey biting it off to his mind could’ve far too easily resulted in returning to an even worse version of that dream. So instead he’d been stupid and played games for the rest of the night while Benrey watched and now he was regretting it because the only thing he’d done today was eat breakfast and step outside the hotel and he was already tired. The dessert heat that was starting to properly set in wasn’t helping. But alas, the longer they put off this reconnaissance trip, the harder it would be to get themselves to do it and so…

“No, I don’t particularly want to go back but we have to. We’re still trying to get in touch with someone who can give us some kind of compensation and to let us know what are jobs are if we still have any. We also should look for survivors and actually fucking help them if we can.” He looked pointedly at Benrey who didn’t even seem to be paying attention but whatever. Gordon had checked again with him before stepping out of their room and made sure he still didn’t have a gun. Not that that made him not dangerous, just less so. Though to be fair, he’d been far from the only one causing problems in that realm. Granted most of the people they’d killed had been clones so… it wasn’t as bad it as could’ve been. “I mean we know Darnold is probably still alive, right? So we should retrieve him even if he is the only one.”

Maybe Darnold would be able to do something about Gordon’s gun hand too since he was the cause of it. Probably not but in addition to being a living person and thus worth saving, it was more than enough reason to go back for him.

“I guess you’re right, huh? We got teleported out but not everyone’s so lucky.”

“Exactly.”

And so they went back to quietly waiting for Bubby and Dr. Coomer to return with the promised car. Hopefully they weren’t stealing it but Gordon wouldn’t put it past them. If so they would at least hopefully have the decency to do it in such a way that Gordon wouldn’t know for sure that it was stolen and thus he wouldn’t be considered complicit in the theft should they be caught.

It wasn’t a long wait as not even a full minute passed before a car rolled out of the hotel’s parking lot and made it way over to stop in front of them. Bubby was driving and Dr. Coomer sat in the passenger seat. The car was the same bright blue sedan that Gordon had somehow forgotten about seeing on Xen. His brain had been so shot at that point he’d likely have chalked it up to an hallucination if he wasn’t seeing it again here. He wasn’t going to ask though because digging Bubby’s secrets out of him wasn’t an adventure he was ready to embark on yet.

“Hello Gordon!” Dr. Coomer said as Bubby rolled down the window at Gordon’s gesture for him to do so.

“Yes, hello to you too, Dr. Coomer. Now Bubby, could you move to the back? I would like to drive.” It should help keep him awake and give him something to focus on that wasn’t bad thoughts.

“Hell no. It’s my car, I’m driving. Get in the back.” Without seemingly any button press from him, the back door clicked and swung open as if motorized. “I can’t believe you made me roll down my window for that.”

Gordon took a breath to insist he at least be allowed a turn at driving sometime during this trip but… let out it with a sigh instead. Arguing with Bubby was like arguing with a cat over dinnertime; useless, but unlike a cat, Bubby had the means to enforce his will. Besides, he was already rolling his window back up, again seemingly without any button press or crank. Did he control the car with him mind? That’d be pretty cool.

Tommy was already climbing in, sliding all the way to the far side. Very much not wanting to sit in the middle, Gordon turned to Benrey, gesturing him to go in. “You next. We, or you and Tommy if he volunteers instead, can swap for the window seat on the way back if you want.” It was only fair since the middle was always the worst seat. “As long you don’t put any glue in my seat this time anyway. If you do that, all bets are off and you’re getting shoved in the trunk for the return trip.” Not a threat Gordon could ever hope to enforce but it was the thought that counted.

“I’m outta glue. Used it all last time ‘cause I didn’t think I’d get another opportunity. What a waste.”

“Nope, not a waste. You got your laugh and now we don’t gotta worry about that anymore, a win-win. Now hop in the car.” Gordon gestured again.

Surprisingly Benrey obeyed without any further prompting. Gordon slid in after him, pulling the door shut behind him. Inside was pleasantly cool, yay for good air conditioning, and the seats were about as comfy as car seats could get. Which wasn’t very but it would help make the long trip there and back a bit less awful even if he did have to sit shoulder to shoulder with Benrey the whole time.

***

Tommy’s road games were fun for maybe a grand total of five minutes after they left the bounds of Tuefort. Not that Benrey had been able to participate much anyway being stuck in the middle back seat. He should’ve insisted they get a Game Boy or PS Vita before setting out on this road trip. Except he hadn’t even been given time to think about it. The others had all decided they were going without consulting him and then had just assumed he’d come with. A correct assumption because even if he didn’t want to go personally, if the rest of them were, he might as well too since he had nothing else to do, but it still would’ve been nice if they’d included him in the conversation.

Another reason he’d have liked to be consulted was, despite their intended destination, Gordon hadn’t put he HEV suit back on, nor had he even bothered to bring it. Benrey hadn’t thought much about his safety before but that was before he knew exactly how weak humans were. It was a miracle he’d survived and the fact that he did was probably due solely to the HEV suit because unlike the rest of them, he was just a normal human. So Benrey would’ve told him to put it back on if he’d been given the chance because him dying and staying that way would be a bummer. Too late now though, he should’ve paid better attention to their breakfast conversation.

About an hour into the ride, Gordon fell asleep. At first just slightly slumped towards Benrey. But then the bouncing of the car over the less than perfectly maintained road brought him closer and closer until he was leaning into Benrey. His height meant that his head rested against the side of Benrey’s instead of on his shoulder as was supposedly supposed to happen when one person fell asleep on another. Benrey didn’t care though, he was just sitting here doing nothing anyway.

He cared a bit more though when Gordon stole his arm. Hugging it, he pulled it to his chest. Gently trying to pull his arm out failed. Meaning if Benrey wanted freedom, he’d probably end up waking Gordon. Which… he couldn’t do, right? Because that was one of the rules for having a pet; when it fell asleep on one’s self, moving enough to wake it was wasn’t allowed. That’s what everyone who had pets always said anyway. Benrey had never understood why but he’d also never had a pet before. And he still didn’t quite get the point of such a law but Gordon was his pet now, right?

He’d taken responsibility for making sure Gordon didn’t steal anything during their journey through Black Mesa. And now because of how weak and fragile he knew Gordon was, especially without the HEV suit, Benrey was taking responsibility for helping keep him alive. Which, as far as he knew was how having a pet worked – unless the pet was immortal, like Sunkist but she was a special case – which made Gordon his pet and thus he wasn’t allowed to move enough to wake him. Meaning he was stuck like this for the rest of the trip.

Not necessarily a the worst thing though. Gordon was warm, soft and… so much touching was a lot but not an unpleasant ‘a lot’. Benrey had never been touched this much before. It was new and thus he was content with it continuing for a little while.

~

“We’ve made it black to Back Mesa!” Coomer said, jerking Benrey out back to the present. “Again!” He climbed out and slammed the door behind him.

Gordon stirred, hugging Benrey’s arm a little tighter but somehow didn’t wake.

“Oh, I hope my Beyblades aren’t too covered in zombie goo.” Once out, Tommy closed his door much more softly.

Benrey wanted out too but… Gordon. What was he supposed to do? Could he pick Gordon up without waking him? If so, that wouldn’t count as breaking the law, right?

“Wake him up or push him out,” Bubby said, making no move to get out himself.

“I can’t. He’s asleep. You’re not allowed to wake your pets up when they fall asleep on you. It’s illegal.” Benrey even kept his voice low because he was a good pet owner.

Bubby cackled. “That’s real cute but we got stuff to do.” He pressed down on the steering wheel’s horn, making seemingly the whole car vibrate with a blaring beep louder than any horn in any of the car games Benrey had ever played.

Gordon jerked awake with a loud gasp, shooting up and finally letting go of Benrey’s arm so he could raise his gun hand. That was fine though because Benrey wasn’t the one who’d woken him so no laws had been broken. “What the fuck man?” His gun hand remained up but he seemed aware enough to know there was nothing to fire it at.

Bubby let go of the horn. “We’ve arrived so stop cuddling your boyfriend and get out of the car.”

“What? Boyfriend? I don’t have…” He cut off as he looked Benrey. “Oh, you mean… No. We weren’t. … Wait, we weren’t cuddling right?”

“Nah, not cuddling. You were just sleeping on me and uh… stealing my arm.” Which now felt awfully cold.

Gordon grimaced before quickly turning away and scrambling out of the car. Benrey followed. The door closed automatically behind him.

“Hello Gordon! I hope you had a nice nap,” Coomer said. “As you can see we’ve arrived at our destination. Where do you suggest we begin looking for survivors?”

“Oh, um… actually yeah, I did a have a nice nap, thanks. I feel much better now. First, I think we should…” Gordon cut off as he turned around. “Where’s the car?”

Benrey turned to look too. Where the car had just been, Bubby stood alone between the tire tracks. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s go.” He set a quick pace as he started for Black Mesa’s entrance. To keep the place secret, the building wasn’t much but it was intact. Meaning the secret elevator in its basement would probably safely take them to the living area.

As the rest of them set in to following Bubby, Gordon fell into step with Benrey. “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s up with Bubby and that car, would you?”

“Nope. Got no idea.”

“It’s just, assuming you were made in the lab like he was, I thought you might like… I don’t know, have the same powers or something. I guess that’s stupid though, huh? Why would they make two beings with the same exact powers? Obviously they’d want to change things in their next unethical experiment.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty stupid. It’s kinda rude to assume we’re the same just ‘cause I might’ve come from a tube too.”

“It’s not… you know what? Sure, that was a rude assumption. I’m sorry I made it.” At the building now, Gordon pulled them to a halt before entering, grabbing Benrey lightly by the elbow to stop him from continuing in. “But, uh, before we go in, you really know nothing about where you came from? Like you have no idea at all if they kidnapped you as a baby or an egg or whatever or if they literally made you in a tube? No one ever mentioned it to you or around you? Really?”

“Uh… if they did I don’t remember it.” Benrey had already told Gordon he wasn’t sure if he was made in the lab or not yesterday. Why was he bringing it up again? Benrey had certainly found himself a pet who was bad at listening, huh? Maybe he should try to train him better. How did one train a human though? “Do you remember when you were born?” It was ‘born’, right? Or did humans hatch from eggs like birds? What did it even mean to be ‘born’? How did it differ from hatching from an egg?

“No but I know what I am and I know who birthed me and on what date and in which state and city. Heck I even know the hospital. Where you came from and what you literally fucking are, are like… important things to know, man.”

“Well… I don’t know any of that stuff ‘bout me.” Nor did he really care. “What’cha gonna do ‘bout it?”

Gordon stared at him in silence for a few seconds, his face unreadable. “Nothing, ‘cause I can’t do anything. But we’re gonna talk about this more later.”

Before Benrey could ask what more there was to talk about, Gordon turned and headed into the building. It was nice that he was paying more attention to Benrey without Benrey even needing to do anything but why’d he have to be so weird about it? Why did he care about what Benrey was or where he came from? Those things didn’t matter… did they?

Next Chapter

[glitteraffe-art]

I’ve been wanting to make a series of posts on the HEV suit(s) and what technology would be involved in making them work, so here’s the first one! This one covers mostly basic canon info-- the differences between the Mark IV and V, and the components involved in each.

Anatomy of a HEV Suit Series: 1 / 2 / 2.5 (cw drugs, needles, injections)

[mythyk-art]

Whump 3: My way or the highway

This is based on “Cruelty Potential,” an HLVRAI story. I guess you could say it’s “unsympathetic gordon”? It’s a good painful. (I’ll add the link in a reblog!)

Also, here’s a version without the shadows under the cut:

[nekoxarien]

My hands and brain are on a roll~ with art!

very quick sketches

i will not finish them cos im still not liking the way i draw them... they look very stiff :/

[1990exejunkdata]

listen i was trying to draw the HEV suit from the official art

and i don’t know anatomy? but that fucking cinched waist has me all KINDS of confused, help 

[sweetertangerine]

Ah yeah I gotta do day 3 of my anatomy practice don't I

Okay, I did Coomer and Tommy

Now I got Benry, Forzen, Darnold, Gordon, and Bubby

Uhhhhh

I hate drawing the HEV suit, so Gordon can funkin wait

I'm still thinking about Darnold's design

Hmm...

[glitteraffe-art]

On this episode of “Anatomy of a HEV Suit”: an in-depth look at the Mark IV!

Anatomy of a HEV Suit Series: 1 / 2 / 2.5 (cw drugs, needles, injections)

[glitteraffe-art]

How much could Kleiner have improvised or modified the Mark IV HEV into the Mark V (assuming the theory that G-man dropped off Gordon's Mark IV for Kleiner to fix and upgrade)? Any particular details you can point out?

A LOT of modifications would have to be made to get the Mark IV all the way to being the Mark V.

Many of the changes from the Mark IV to the Mark V could potentially handwaved by saying that Combine technology was just reverse-engineered and integrated into the suit, but I’ll do my best.

Visible Changes:

Visible changes can be seen in these panels from the first Anatomy of a HEV Suit entry:

The Mark V’s most notable change is the new fabric undersuit—Kleiner would have had to replace the accordion-style joints with a fabric undersuit (likely with numerous layers) that provide all the necessary protections. This layer needs to be resistant to slashing, puncture, bullets, biohazards, extreme heat and cold, radiation, etc like normal, but ALSO protect against Combine energy weapons (which is, of course, something that the Mark IV was never designed to do). I’m not really sure what or how Combine guns work, but I’m inclined to say that you’d have to reverse-engineer the Combine-produced armor and fatigues off of (dead or captured) Combine soldiers and/or CPs to get this correct.

The Mark V also swaps out the IV’s accordion joint stomach for stomach plating. Better in terms of protection of your vital organs, but it would reduce overall flexibility, i.e. make it hard to bend over or crouch fully. Similarly, the IV’s ‘underwear armor’ has been swapped for hip plates. This armor configuration would make leg and some hip movements easier than they were in the Mark IV, and would probably reduce chafing, as the legs would rubs against the armor less due to the new configuration.

The Mark V does not have a visible flashlight, yet has a flashlight somewhere (since you can turn it on and off in gameplay); the IV’s original flashlight may have been swapped to a much smaller bulb hidden somewhere (to me, it might not be an LED—based on how the light looks, it looks more like a conventional bulb).

The Mark V lacks the IV’s button panel—it may have been ripped out due to redundancy; with futuristic Combine tech, you can miniaturize wiring and circuits and put it somewhere else, and switch button controls to be somewhere else, and then take out the unnecessary bulky button panel.

Interior cushioning layer has changed color—it’s now red in the Mark V instead of gray like in the Mark IV. The original may have worn out been replaced if it wore out or tore or may have been replaced with a new material that’s more protective against Combine energy weapons.

Feature changes:

Compared to the Mark IV, the Mark V only gets limited sprinting time. I like to think that due to Combine tech, the Mark V is really heavy, way heavier than the Mark IV. To walk at all probably takes the aid of pnematic artificial muscle embedded in or under the suit – and running takes even more effort from the pneumatics (as indicated by the noises the pneumatics make when running, and the decrease in power when running). I feel like the limited sprint can be explained by Kleiner only being able to do so much with the pneumatics and power source on hand – all systems are fine and good when walking, but start running and all the overtaxed power allocation from whatever Combine tech they have powering it will throw a hissy fit after only a short amount of time.

Unlike the Mark IV, the Mark V is Combine outlet and Combine health station compatible, so it probably has… whatever the Combine equivalent of an RFID chip is, in order to allow access to them, as well as the correct ports and storage tanks/battery/reservoirs/etc for whatever juice the stations are dispensing.

Obviously, the Mark V has an added Poison Headcrab Antidote storage and injection mechanism, which wasn’t in the Mark IV, though it is probably based on the same morphine dispensing system—just has a different drug and potentially different injection area.

According to the HL wiki, “In the original Half-Life, the HEV Suit's armor not only absorbed 66% of all damage received, it also reduced the total amount of damage any given attack would inflict on the player (i.e. enemy melee attacks would do a total of 6 damage instead of 10 if the suit had power). This changes in Half-Life 2, where the player receives the same amount of damage whether or not the HEV suit has any armor energy. To compensate, the HEV suit armor is more effective in Half-Life 2, absorbing 80% of all damage received instead of 66%.” (https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/HEV_Suit, under Trivia). This means that the Mark V must have a different power armor/shielding system in use than the Mark IV did. Not sure what the exact details would be, but as I mentioned before, I think whatever the Mark V’s made of is much heavier than the Mark IV.

(HL:A SPOILERS BELOW)

The Mark V suit design used in Half Life Alyx:

Half-Life: Alyx does have a version of the Mark V in glorious HD. However, I’m not sure about the canonicity of its design, since they may opt to go with different suit details should they make another HL game with the Mark V in it (ahahahah…hah), as it is not clearly seen in game and can only be seen in detail with the powers of Modding. Therefore, I’ll write about the implications of its design in its own section below.

This version of the Mark V, as seen in the details of the battle damage, seems to be solid metal this time (silvery metal painted orange (1) and unpainted silver metal (2). Additionally, the Mark V seems to have the gray plating as a ceramic or other nonmetal material composite, like resins, coated with a carbon fiber or maybe metal coating (3). So, compared to the Mark IV, it has a completely different armor system for defense.

The Mark V here also seems to have quite a thin fabric undersuit (4). This could be explained in several ways: maybe Kleiner just did not have access to parts to make a new series of undersuits, or maybe it’s made of reverse-engineered Combine tech that’s good enough that it can achieve all the functions (or at least, the most important functions) of the multiple undersuits of the Mark IV in a single thin layer. As seen in the battle damage, there seems to be…a spot (5) with a rubber texture? This would either indicate a rubbery underlayer to the fabric that is potentially resistant to energy weapons (since it seems…melted) or maybe…the energy weapon just. Melted the fabric together.)

The crotch armor (7) seems to just cover the front instead of being “underwear” shaped (unless the fabric undersuit is just clipping through) – which would increase range of movement and flexibility, but would decrease protection in that area, since now the only other protection there is the undersuit.

As seen in the battle damage, there seems to be a kind of metal thing (8) which some people have speculated is either part of the bandage or maybe part of some kind of metal understructure. In the case of it being a metal understructure, it could potentially be part of the powered exosuit part of the suit, allowing for sprinting/etc. So, instead of artificial muscle like I suggested earlier, the “powered” portion of the suit might be metal and regular (but small) hydraulics.

[glitteraffe-art]

Could the HEV utilize other drugs and saline besides morphine for its users? If so, what do you think the suit would utilize?

Yes, the HEV could use other drugs, as long as they were injectable in some form. In fact, in the case of the Mark V, it has an injectable antidote for Poison Headcrab Venom. As more drugs are added, though, there would definitely need to be modification—for each other drug added, there would have to be a corresponding reservoir, tubes, needle inserted into correct area for the drug, pump automation, and programming for dose within the HEV for each drug. Another possible issue would be if the drug requires special conditions, like refrigeration, for storage – in that case, you’d have to add a whole temperature control system in there. It might not be practical to carry both the drug AND a whole new refrigeration unit… Additionally, the possibilities of negative drug interactions increases with the more drugs the suit is able to inject.

More under the cut:

For example, let’s say the suit is also carrying the drug epinephrine (which is sometimes called adrenaline), the same drug used in EpiPens (used to treat severe asthma attacks or severe allergic reactions). Epinephrine, once injected, causes the body to go into fight-or-flight mode – it stimulates the nervous system. This contrasts with the effects of morphine, which induces drowsiness and relaxation, and decreases pain— it’s a nervous system depressant. If a user was injected with morphine for an injury, then injected with epinephrine for a different injury, then the two would negatively interact with each other—I’m not sure what the exact side effects would be, since I’m not well versed in the nuances of drug interaction, but it is probably not fun.

Just off the top of my head, here’s two other potential drugs:

Caffeine—I feel like it’s something that Black Mesa might do. There’s not much of a use except for as a legal stimulant. It may be useful when strength is failing or if a workday is going too long. (But I have the feeling that Gordon probably developed a really high tolerance for caffeine a long time ago…)

Amphetamines—a class/type of drugs which stimulate the nervous system. Like caffeine, amphetamines are stimulants, and some are used in treating narcolepsy, and ADHD. Amphetamines have been used by the military, though, so there’s a possibility they could be used in the suit, not to treat injury but as a way to forcefully prevent fatigue and increase alertness. Amphetamines are very addictive, though.

[glitteraffe-art]

So how would recharging the HEV suit work in your imagining? Would recharging the suit mean replacing spent non-Newtonian fluid with energized fluid. If so, where does spent fluid go? If not, would the suit fluid just be re-energized? If the suit becomes compromised and leaks fluid, would it permanently decrease the suit's charge capacity?

I’m no electrical engineer, but the conducive non-Newtonian fluid I came up with for the HEV Mark IV is fictional, I think I have a little wiggle room.

In my imagining, recharging the HEV Mark IV would require a mix of both replacing fluid and recharging (re-energizing) the suit’s power. The fluid itself does not get ‘spent’. Instead, it is rechargeable. It relies on being recharged for its ability to remain bulletproof.

More under the cut:

Since the suit typically has access to suit charge (power), while charged (1% and above) the fluid would act Non-Newtonian and would be difficult or impossible to remove from the suit, due to the fact that any force, from a vacuum (sucking fluid out) to moving down a tube (friction) would cause the fluid to harden up, preventing it from flowing. Therefore, the suit fluid cannot be removed while the suit has a charge.

Assuming the fluid is Bulletproof while charged, there should not be a problem with losing any fluid while the HEV is still charged except in extreme circumstances (Since it’s meant as armor, you Want it to be the maximum amount of bulletproof, if that makes any sense). Therefore, recharging the suit at any point when the suit still holds a charge (1%-100%) would only require its battery to be recharged.

(“Hey, wait! Even above 0% suit charge, the HEV Mark IV can notify the wearer that they got lacerations/vital signs critical/etc. which would indicate that the suit was punctured while in the bulletproof state!”. In those situations, the wearer was probably hit in an area unprotected by the orange armor like the belly or joints (since the orange armor is the only part with the Non-Newtonian fluid armor in my imagining). )

Once the suit reaches 0% charge, though, the suit will likely need some amount of fluid as a refill. This is because once the suit loses all charge, it stops being bulletproof. Since Gordon takes full damage without suit charge (in fact, more damage—according to the wiki, the HEV in HL1 while charged reduced the damage the player received and absorbed 66% of that reduced damage), we can assume that bullets, slashes, etc. damage could possibly puncture the outer metal layer. Of course, that would lead to leakage of the fluid. (So yes, the suit would lose charge capacity as the fluid leaks out)

Then, and only then –when fluid is lost after power reaches 0%, when recharging from a 0% state the suit would need both an infusion of brand new uncharged fluid to replace the fluid lost, and the suit power would also need to be recharged (re-energized).

(Other situations requiring a fluid replacement may be if the wearer has taken environmental damage, such as fire or cold. Though this doesn’t really do anything that different in the game, mechanically, if this was implemented in real life, extreme conditions would probably knock the fluid out of whack and mess it up, so a replacement would probably be necessary.)

This of course brings up the question: how to fix the gaping holes in the suit so that this brand new fluid Stays There (since, y’know, now there’s bullet holes in it.)

I don’t have as good of an answer for this one, but I would assume that since these suits were routinely used for work and for exploring Xen there may be emergency patches, similar to patching a tire, that would be used to block up any punctures or scratches in the outer metal. (Might be literal patches, potentially with a silicone layer to prevent leakage, and attached through some adhesive, or might be just a tube of quick-drying epoxy that just gets squirted into the holes. Or maybe one of those clay-like two-part epoxies…)

These fixes wouldn’t be perfect – and would probably only be meant to last until the wearer could get themselves to a proper HEV station like the one in the locker room to get it entirely fixed by the staff. And until the lost fluid is replaced, the suit’s charge capacity would be lowered.

(Therefore the suit would be weaker and weaker every time the user reached 0% charge and had to slap on some emergency fixes to prevent themselves from spilling un-bulletproofed suit juice onto the floor through the bullet holes.)

So, this brings us to the battery and the wall-mounted suit chargers. I assume that the battery would have both a supply of extra fluid AND charging power. Yes, it looks like a huge 9volt battery, but if they have the tech to make the HEV they probably have the tech to make smaller batteries that don’t need the whole space. The rest of the space inside the battery would probably be extra suit fluid, in the case of a user needing a replacement. Fluid in the battery would be uncharged so that it can flow and get put into the suit.

Yes, that means if you just grabbed the battery to top off your suit charge, you would not be any of the fluid at all, only the battery charge. Considering that there’s not any way to put MORE fluid in a space already filled by fluid, you just wouldn’t be able to use it.

The wall-mounted suit charger stations would have a supply of (uncharged, so that it’s able to flow) suit fluid, power, and repair patch supplies. Uncharged suit fluid would be dispensed, if needed, along a duct or tube parallel but separate from the electric charging cable. Despite the fact that the facility has access to electricity, the suit charger only has so much power to give the suit before it runs out. So, I imagine that the suit charger stations run out of power because they act as something like a fast charger to get a lot of charge in the suit in a matter of seconds (Like those fast charging power bricks for phones). You could theoretically charge the suit with a regular wall plug, but it would take Way too long to get a reasonable charge.

[glitteraffe-art]

How could the HEV perform a diagnostic test of the user to apply medical attention? Using sensors?

Yes, the HEV could perform diagnostic testing of the user with a variety of sensors. In my version of the HEV suit, the sensors and associated health monitoring accessories would be:

“Atmospheric contaminant sensors”

· Sensor for radiation (Geiger counter)

· Sensor for chemical waste

· Sensor for biohazards

· Sensor for acid/corrosive chemicals

· Sensor for heat damage

· Sensor for cold damage

“Vital Signs Monitoring”

· Sensor for electric damage

· Sensor for blood toxins

· Major and minor lacerations detection

· Major and minor fracture detection

· O2 Meter

· Heart Rate

· Blood Pressure (Blood loss and internal bleeding detection)

· Electronics associated with morphine injection mechanism

(Yes, this list is a little longer and differently organized than the one in the first Anatomy of a HEV suit because I’ve double checked a few things and found I was missing a few! By the way, here’s a short video that I thought was relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oPGjA5-4AM. It covers how the HEV handles status and damage conditions in the gameplay of the original Half-Life.)

Instead of having a single diagnostic test, the HEV would constantly monitor the readings from each of its sensors. Should the sensor detect something that falls outside of the threshold of ‘normal’ health, the HEV would then apply the appropriate medical treatment.

More under the cut:

In the case of the electrical, heat, cold, radiation, chemical waste, and biohazard status condition sensors listed, multiple of each kind of sensor would be placed on the outside of the HEV. If the sensors sense a level of radiation/chemicals/biological contaminants that exceeds a set amount, or exposure to electric shock or extreme heat/cold, they would signal the HEV, and the HEV would flash the appropriate status icon to the wearer (in-game the icon shows up on the lower left hand of the screen, but to the wearer it would be on the HUD (Heads Up Display) on the helmet), verbally alert the user of exposure to the substance, and potentially attempt an appropriate treatment based on the situation.

For the blood toxin sensor – there only needs to be one of those, and it would be inside the HEV, with a port into a vein (In my version of the HEV, it would likely be connected somewhere in or around the morphine injection mechanism’s port). Again, if the sensor senses that one or more toxic chemicals has risen above a certain concentration in the blood, it would signal the HEV, which would register that there are toxins in the blood, verbally alert the user, and potentially take immediate medical action.

As for major and minor laceration detection, and major and minor fracture detection, the HEV doesn’t have the opportunity of direct sensing and must infer the state of the user through the data it detects.

To detect lacerations (cuts, scratches, gashes), just off the top of my head, the suit could potentially use a web or mesh of interwoven sensors woven into or in between one of its lower layers. Should the sensor mesh be broken in an area (by a slash or other wound), the loss of a signal in the area would indicate the suit has been breached and the skin has probably been broken. It’s not 100% going to be accurate –there’s always the tiny possibility of the sensor mesh being broken, yet the wearer underneath being miraculously unharmed – but if it’s strong enough to break through all the HEV layers it probably slashed through the wearer too. However, this mesh layer would lose accuracy over time as it gets more and more slashed, so I would have to look a little deeper into the topic of laceration detection before designating a mesh of sensors as the go-to method of detecting cuts/gashes/slashes.

As for fractures (broken bones), it would likely again be more of an inference. There isn’t a way to directly detect fractures outside of X-rays, and an internal X-ray machine is out of the question. The HEV is supposed to prevent you from getting exposed to radiation, not expose you to more of it! So, instead, the HEV would have multiple accelerometers (which measure the speed something is accelerating in) in several orientations and locations, as well as force sensors (to sense if the suit got hit by a force), and potentially gyroscopes (for orientation), would be placed all over the HEV.

Should the HEV detect a force greater than a certain limit on a body part, it would assume that the wearer got a fracture there. For example, if somebody throws a bowling ball at the wearer, once the wearer was hit, the suit would detect the force of the bowling ball hitting the wearer and the location it was hit at, and determine if the force would have broken a bone there.

Alternately, should some part of the wearer suddenly accelerate and then stop suddenly it could also infer that the wearer has probably broken their bones. For example, is the wearer falls from a tower, the suit would measure sudden acceleration, then would detect the force on the suit and sudden deceleration when the wearer hits the ground and infer that the wearer got a fracture and the location of the fracture.

The O2 meter detects remaining oxygen available to the user and alerts the user of the amount left. The HEV does not have a visible oxygen tank, and the wearer does not tend to last long underwater, so it may just be measuring the amount of oxygen circulating within the suit as the wearer breathes in and out the same air. (The HEV could potentially be refreshing/recycling the air with chemical means, but I would have to look more into that.)

Heart rate sensors, of course, detect heart rate. Blood pressure sensors (think blood pressure cuffs), of course, measure blood pressure. These sensors would constantly monitor heart rate and blood pressure and help the suit determine if overall vitals are dropping –obviously, if the wearer flatlines, that’s bad, but even things like erratic heart rate could indicate issues. A sudden drop in blood pressure (especially associated with detection of a sudden force/slash/acceleration) likely indicates to the suit that the wearer has lost a significant amount of blood (both external and internal blood loss will decrease blood pressure), so should the blood pressure sensor sense that, it would alert the suit, which would trigger the suit to verbally alert the user of blood loss and (potentially, in light of the compression suit in my version of the HEV suit) activate compression at an area where the force/slash/acceleration was registered at.

Lastly, the electronics associated with the morphine injection mechanism would be necessary to determine whether or not to inject morphine into the wearer, and the time of last injection (to prevent overdose – if the wearer gets badly hurt a bunch of times in 10 minutes, there’s no point in injecting them with morphine every time they got an injury!).

[glitteraffe-art]

@sanguith​ first of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU FOR THE FEEDBACK! I’m a biomedical engineering student (engineering for medical devices), so most of my information for my MIP headcanons comes from ‘reading free online nursing textbooks at 11PM’ haha, so I’m glad to see actual feedback (and a video! I actually never even THOUGHT to look up videos as a source… ) from someone with real-life experience!

Onto the questions:

How is the needle+catheter placed inside the suit? / What happens to this discarded needle? It would need to be removed and thrown away somehow, and safely.

Presumably, the placing of the catheter & discarding of the needle would be done by a person (likely a trained staff member of Black Mesa in the case of the Mark IV), not by the suit itself.

This would be done prior to putting on the LCVG layer of the HEV (i.e., while the user is just wearing their undergarments). The LCVG and the Mechanical Compression Suit would probably have specialized splits/openings allowing for the tube to be passed through while minimizing lost cooling- and compression- coverage area.

 How is the pump-tube connected to the PVC after the original insertion-needle is removed?

In my version of the HEV suit, I think that the MIP’s tubes would be attachable & removable from the main body of the suit (since being able to remove them would make it easier to put in a sterile tube for every use). The MIP itself would be accessible by opening up the back of the HEV torso armor (Haven’t decided where the opening/closing parts would be, but just based on the torso armor’s dimensions it would need to be able to come apart somewhere to be able to wear it at all.)

In order to connect the PVC to the pump’s tube, I think the pump’s tube would be replaceable for every use and would likely have a specially made sterile packaging that allows it to be put in as sterile-ly as possible. (Something like “just like the normal packaging that standard IV tubing comes in, but packaged so that the tube is straight, not coiled, and it can open at both ends”).

The steps to connect the pump-tube to the PVC would kind of be somewhere between ‘connecting to an IV’ and ‘replacing a cartridge on an insulin pump’. It would be like this, very roughly (didn’t put in every Use Hand Sanitizer/similar steps):

(Person doing this procedure is assisting the person who will be wearing the HEV; the wearer has had the PVC placed and is wearing the LCVG and Mechanical Compression suits. The PVC is threaded through the suits in such a way that its cap is free & not stuck under the layers)

(The HEV opens up at the torso and at the forearm areas when wearing—haven’t quite decided exactly How but it opens in those places)

Open up PUMP end of sterile tube packaging (careful not to open up the wrong end or all the way)

Attach sterile saline cartridge to PUMP end of tube

Place & lock cartridge + tube into the MIP on the back of the opened up HEV armor

Align & lock tubing into attachment areas on the inside of the armor up to a certain point (ensures it doesn’t get loose during movement)* , allowing some tube closer to the CATHETER end (which is still enclosed in its sterile packaging) to be loose for ease of maneuvering about

Put on armor except for the left-hand forearm armor/sleeve (left arm/hand still Unarmored)

Open up CATHETER end of sterile tube packaging, hold this end of the tube as the HEV internal computer instructs the MIP to flush the tubing with the saline (gets rid of air bubbles; saline will travel down the tubing. May need to catch drips from the other end, though)

Sanitize PVC’s cap with alcohol wipe & flush with saline from a syringe

Attach CATHETER end of tube to PVC

Align & lock remaining length of tube in place into the inside of the HEV armor as it is put onto the left arm (very carefully…)

 (Admittedly this is a pretty rough answer)

 *Kinda embarrassed to say I don’t have a 100% good answer for how the pump tube would be embedded/attached to the inside of the HEV, though.

I never got around to thinking too deeply about HOW they would be connected to the suit in such a way to be removable, since I wasn’t satisfied with any of the ideas I came up with, so ‘exactly where the needle and catheter are in the suit layers’ never made it to the final Anatomy of a HEV Suit 2.5. The only really finalized idea I came up with is that “the tubes are under the radiation-shielding layer but above the Mechanical Compression Suit” (since it would be bad to have the drugs be exposed to radiation, but also bad to compress the tubes)

Some examples of ideas I had:

 Velcro or a Slipcover: fine for the accordion-like parts, but would squish the tube between the wearer and the armor, resulting in impaired flow

Recess into the radiation liner with Velcro or snap system: bad since that removes most of the protective liner from the tube area

A recess in the armor with Velcro or snap system: worried that would eat into structural integrity

Another idea—a raised/stiffened sheath underneath the radiation-shielding layer where the tube can fit in: again, squishes against the wearer, so probably irritating to wearer. Still not great.

Plastic U-shaped snaps that tubes can be attached into (cant remember what they are called): prone to breaking off, again irritates/pokes into wearer

Sorry for not having a definite answer there! Maybe I’ll have a strike of inspiration (or find a similar device from which I can draw inspiration, which is what I’ve mostly done) and figure out a better way to attach the MIP to the HEV in a month or three…

 How is the catheter tube guaranteed to stay perfectly inside the vein when the user moves around, as well as minimizing the risk of blood loss or infection?

This was one of the fictional concessions that I made that made it into the final post. It’s straight-up not guaranteed to stay perfectly inside the vein as the user moves, but I figured, with so much of the HEV being only plausible with fictional materials, a fictional tape sticker that stays on & makes sure the needle doesn’t move at all even during extreme movement would be the least of my concerns with the build.  (That clear sticker is called a sticker? I had no idea! I just assume all sticky things can be called a variant of a tape…my bad for not looking it up!)

 A very plausible alternative to a peripheral IV-cannula could be a central venous catheter.

I actually did consider a central venous catheter, but I chickened out, haha! The mantra of engineering a medical device is “if it can be done in a less invasive way, do it in a less invasive way” With that in mind, I went with the peripheral venous catheter instead of the central venous catheter, despite the whole host of issues that come along with it (which you articulated very nicely!). Anyways I 100% endorse the idea of using a central venous catheter for the MIP instead of peripheral!

[glitteraffe-art]

Hey I am doing a research project for summer school and I chose to research ways something like the HEV suit could exist in the real world, so can I use your anatomy of a HEV suit series as a source for my project?

Yes, of course! I can also give you the website sources that I used for reference, if you need them.

[glitteraffe-art]

In your imagining of the HEV Mark IV, would the foam padding act to protect Gordon from Houndeye attacks and other harmful shockwaves? Or would something else be needed to protect against internal bleeding?

It depends on whether the shockwaves are treated like blunt-force trauma or like sonic weaponry. More under the cut:

Answer #1: Assuming the shockwave attacks act like blunt-force trauma (like a physical blow)

In my imagining of the Mark IV, the foam’s mainly for the comfort of the wearer, with protection being mainly the job of the non-Newtonian fluid armor. The armor’s going to receive the brunt of the blow, and the foam just prevents the armor from being smacked straight into the user (spreading out the force from the impact). So yes, the foam would help to protect a little from a blunt-force-trauma-style shockwave.

Though, when the impact of a shockwave hits All Of You At Once, there’s not really any place for the impact to be spread out to, so you’ll probably get bruising, get the wind knocked out of you, and possibly get other injuries if you got knocked over (But at least your ribs are less broken than they could have been.)

Answer #2: Assuming the shockwave attacks act like sonic weapons (like the LRAD)

No, not really. Though foam can muffle sound, with a sound at the level of ‘doing organ damage’, the couple inches of foam present in the HEV wouldn’t really help. Plus, the sound-muffling abilities of any foam are linked to the shape of the foam (which is why sound-muffling panels have that ridged look). Since the foam in the HEV is just molded to the HEV itself, its shape would not help it muffle soundwaves. Overall, it might help a little as “another layer between you and the thing that could hurt you”, but it wouldn’t be able to truly cancel out/protect from the soundwaves.

Again, the bulk of protection would probably fall to the non-Newtonian fluid armor. The fictional non-Newtonian fluid in the HEV is, to some degree, resistant to sonic attacks, since the HEV will absorb some damage from Houndeye shockwave attacks (at the cost of some battery power) in the game like any other form of damage. I’m not sure if any research has been done on real-life experimental non-Newtonian fluid armor vs. high-decibel LRAD-style attacks, so I can’t say for sure that a real-life version would be very effective.

(Just as a side note, non-Newtonian fluids like cornstarch& water (oobleck) have been recorded to have some interesting reactions to low-frequency sounds, like in this video.)

[likopinina]

On this in-between episode of “Anatomy of a HEV Suit”: a discussion of the morphine injection mechanism of the HEV suit! (Both the Mark IV and V probably have a similar injection system, so this system would be applicable to both suits.)

Anatomy of a HEV Suit Series: 1 / 2 / 2.5 (cw drugs, needles, injections)