The A-2841 Hardshell Loader is a commercially-available powered environmental suit used by working starfarers of all stripes at job sites throughout the Sol system. Designed as a collaboration between Horizon Adaptive Technologies Partnership and the Europan College of Engineers, The A-2841 combines the form-factor of a Europan EVO suit with the lifting-power efficiency of a Steelframe and presents an individual-scale wearable suit that can be operated intuitively and without the need for invasive neural implants. The primary role of an A-2841 Hardshell Loader is to protect a starfarer from harsh and inhospitable environments, from the freezing cold of Enceladus to the molten lava flows of Venus to the irradiated vacuum of space, ensuring its interior maintains a comfortable and breathable atmosphere that is uninfluenced by exterior conditions- this is where the Europan College of Engineers make their biggest contributions to the design, applying the same technology their EVO suits employ to air-breathing specifications. The secondary function of the A-2841 is to enhance the physical capabilities of its operator and allow for greater physical activity with less strain or fatigue from extended use- in this aspect, Horizon Adaptive Technologies Partnership applies its own experience building Steelframes and other modular hardware to enable the Hardshell Loader to perform the bulk of the work, and not simply be a heavy coat and pants the operator is wearing out in the freezing void. While Steelframes were an exciting idea, they developed into a bit of a niche technology operated only by a rare few qualified pilots; what the development of that technology ultimately produced was small-scale, mass-produced and universal work equipment usable by virtually any shiphand or roughneck in the Sol system to perform a wide range of jobs for an extremely affordable investment of money and training time. Ain't that the way, huh?
Operation of the A-2841 Hardshell Loader is dead simple, although they are designed with Inner Belt physiology in mind. A single suit comes in three pieces: the mantle, the sleeves and the trousers. An operator will don the suit by stepping into the trousers, which include a waistband that covers up to the pectorals, and secure a set of harnessing straps over their shoulders. Then, the mantle is lowered onto their shoulders from above- this mantle attaches to powered lifting strips in the suit's lumbar region, ensuring that the operator does not need to carry its weight with their spine. A connector plate fastens the mantle to the trousers, and the upper band of the trousers form an airtight seal against the interior of the mantle's chestpiece. A Europan-style collar isolates the headspace from the bodyspace, allowing a more efficient distribution of breathable air and climate control to the operator's chambers while also preventing the smell of bodily sweat from inhabiting the breathing dome; this is a welcome feature among many operators. After the mantle and trousers are assembled and sealed, the sleeves are applied to complete the Hardshell Loader; similarly attached to the mantle by powered lifting strips, the weight of the sleeves are supported by the mantle, whic itself is supported by the trousers, ensuring the A-2841 fits around its operator and not on top of them. These powered lifting strips are the miniaturization of Steelframe technology that allow an operator to lift more and work longer without fatigue than they could in a traditional space suit. The suit comes with a pair of large shoulder-mounted floodlights, a set of secure lifeline hook loops and a small air-puff maneuvering jet on the back of its mantle, providing an operator with all the tools needed to move about a job site safely.
One of the key difference between the A-2841 Hardshell Loader and a traditional Europan EVO suit is in its operation. EVO suits require Europans undergo a fair bit of training, and mostly employ mechanical arms and legs operated by a complicated control array inside the torso of the suit. In contrast, the A-2841 is meant to be worn around Inner Belt physiology and simply used as one would use their own body, making it much easier to train and suit up starfarers and get them onto a work site more quickly. They're easy to use, but they're not entirely without a learning curve, but that curve generally comes from learning how to properly don and doff the suit, and how to operate the controls at the ends of its arms and legs. A Hardshell Loader's hands are fully enclosed, the operator doesn't wriggle their fingers inside a glove, they instead hook into a set of internal controls used to precisely operate an array of tools mounted on the exterior of their mitts. Trigger-rings and thumb dials are common control interfaces, but grips with traditional trigger and thumb buttons are also available in select models. True to Horizon Technologies' expertise, Hardshell sleeves are very modular and easy to swap out, simply attaching or detaching from universal connectors and seals inside the suit's mantle. Saws, cutters, drills, wedges, spreaders, welders, hammers and sensors are all available options to kit up a Hardshell operator, but clamps tend to be the popular default hand module. Clamps are good for gripping, and their broad, square shape lets them lift and balance things too large to clamp onto by picking them up from below and letting the A-2841's array of powered lifting strips carry the weight for them. With the fidelity of control available to the operator, these clamps can be remarkably gentle and precise, and are available in needlenose variants where even more precision is required. Similar to its hand units, the feet of an A-2841 take a bit of getting used to before an operator fully acquires their sea legs. Rather than putting their feet directly into a set of shoes, operators' feet rest on a set of pivoting foot pedals. The feet seen outside the Hardshell Loader are fully mechanical, and their angle is controlled by the angle of the operator's feet- when they press their toe down on the control pedal, the toe of the Hardshell presses down. When the Hardshell steps on uneven terrain that lifts their toe, the pedal lifts up to press against the operator's toe. It can be a bit awkward at first but once an operator acclimates to it it makes walking around in a Hardshell feel completely natural. Additionally, should something damage the Hardshell's foot, the operator's own foot will not be damaged with it. That's that Steelframe utility in a practical, miniaturized package.
Bryce and his crew at Timberwolf Reclamation & Demolition make good use of their collection of Hardshell Loaders, maintaining a broad collection of sleeves to aide in their work. When they're on demolition contracts and they're decommissioning obsolete satellites or the like, a Hardshell Loader is an invaluable tool for precisely and cleanly separating bulkhead and support beam and anything in-between- Timberwolf's job is to clean up things that no longer need to be in space, so breaking down a metal structure in a way that doesn't create a field of smaller debris is of the utmost importance. Bryce, Emily, Alan and Clayton are generally the ones sealing into their A-2841s; Pixel is the crew's primary engineer but the Hardshells aren't made for his physical proportions, so he instead wears a traditional Neptunian spacesuit and directs the gruntwork in a supervisory role. Often they'll deploy in a particular configuration, where Emily will come equipped with the plasma cutter and the hydraulic spreader wedge, Clayton will wear one needlenose clamp and one hammer, and both Alan and Bryce will bring a pair of square clamps into a job site. Mahnoor will position the Ermine and Jack will operate the ship's laser cutters to make large incisions into the site's bulkhead. The four crewmembers in Hardshell Loaders, under Pixel's supervision, will ensure that the cut piece is separated and positioned to hand off to the Ermine's large robotic arms, which feed the cut debris into the ship's cargo hold. The Hardshells are handy to have in Reclamation work as much as they are in Demolition, but Timberwolf will generally deploy them after a salvage site has been secured- you never know what's hiding in those old shipwrecks, and while a Hardshell's loadout is very useful for work, it's not as helpful for security or self-defense as a well-armed expedition party in traditional spacesuits. Their rivals, Red Raven Towing & Salvage, generally don't make use of the A-2841, since their primary work as a tow company doesn't need them in the way a Demolition crew might, they've just never been a vital budget item. When Bryce and his crew secure a piece of salvage before Amy and the Red Raven crew could get there, however, his collection of Hardshell Loaders help Timberwolf make short work of a shipwreck, breaking it down and packing it up with clockwork efficiency. It's one edge his crew has over the competition.
Bryce has taunted Amy more than a few times over this, suggesting if she wanted to keep up with Timberwolf that her crew should get some real Hardshells themselves. It was, of course, an unexpected surprise when he learned that Red Raven had pulled a particular piece of salvage out of the haunted wreck of the MoonGate colony, all the way on Luna. "Get a Hardshell yourself," he'd said. It was at the wreck of the Albatross where the Jackal, the old blue Steelframe, first cast its shadow over Bryce and his Hardshell Loaders, with Red Raven's ace pilot Haley inexplicably behind the controls. Alan could not conceive of how an outdated HAL-3 unit was able to operate a Steelframe, with neither the brainshape nor the neural implant to wire into its cockpit; Haley rather enjoyed hearing her rival Android sputter to try and calculate the discrepancy. Bryce could still hear Amy's voice crackling over the comms channel, the weight of her smugness heavy even in the vacuum of space. "How's that for a Hardshell?" Bryce had no kind words to share in reply.