Chitokevlar represents the latest in a series of advancements in polymeric composites research. Kevlar has been around for decades, and its mechanical properties are widely known and documented. The most famous of the rigid-chain polyamid copolymers, Kevlar has been utilized around the world in progressively larger quantities with each passing year. Kevlar possesses incredible rigidity/modulus, tensile strength, and resistance to deformation. What is does lack, however, is compressive strength and ease of refining.

The research labs of Crucis Arms Industries now bring us Chitokevlar. Chitokevlar utilizes a standard polyamid backbone, but its similarity to Kevlar stops there. Using dually-functional macromonomeric grafts of a polysaccharide, Chitokevlar is effectively a polymer of Kevlar crosslinked with chitin, a naturally occuring substance that is responsible for the rigid outer shell common in insects and some paranormals.  This crosslinking reinforces the polymer backbones, providing extra strength and a limited degree of flexibility relative to Kevlar alone.

This extra stregth and flexibility allows armor designers to utilize Chitokevlar in a slightly bulkier fashion that results in a reduction in overall armor weight. Heat dissipation is also a problem of the past with Chitokevlar.  Due to the reduction in weave density, micropores are naturally integrated into the suit, permitting a limited transfer of heat and air.

Comfort and improved protection, all at a fraction of what you might expect to pay -- that's Chitokevlar from Crucis Arms Industries!

Any armor can be purchased with chitokevlar instead of the protective material it is normally made with. The armor values are adjusted as above, rounding down for impact armor and rounding up for weight. Chitokevlar armor is virtually unconcealable due to the way in which it is formed and molded.

Another factor in chitokevlar armor is its porosity. The armor does indeed breath, resulting in a cooler feel for the wearer. If an attack involves the transfer of a liquid or gas, chitokevlar provides very poor protection. Treat both ballistic and impact armor values during such an attack as being 50% of their unmodified (pre-chitokevlar) rating. Chitokevlar never counts as rigid armor and cannot be modified by Dikote. Chitokevlar cannot be layered with other chitokevlar armor, although standard layering rules for normal armor do apply.

Sarge

[It may be, Sarge, but you can't deny the protection it offers.  I bought a partial armor suit made of this stuff, and it is a dream! What amazes me is how something with all those "micropores" can protect as well as it does. My guess is that it would weaken it.]

Bailey

[The pores have nothing to do with weakness. Composites are a lot more complicated than that. I'll tell you what the pores will do to you, though -- get you cacked by someone utilizing acid or DMSO. This stuff is worthless against it, as a buddy of mine found out. By the time we managed to get the carapace he was wearing off of him, the only thing left of his chest cavity was some still-smoking black goo.  You couldn't pay me to wear this stuff.]

Tool

[When this stuff hit the streets, Lone Star caught on real quick. Since you can't really conceal this stuff with any effectiveness, anytime Lone Star suspected that this type of armor was involved in a high-threat situation, they brought in an FRT armed with a lot of special weapons firing DMSO cocktails. It apparently cut down on the losses they suffered and was actually more efficient than a standard takedown. Word to the wise, chummers -- leave the bug suit in the closet unless you need it.]

Windwalker