Re: Berets and other head varients.

In a message dated 97-08-12 21:57:27 EDT, you write:

<< >
 ><<I wonder, this is SF where the high tech battle field rules?  What
about
 >the
 >radio R/T, infra red pop down interface, helmet cam, built in map
projector
(
 >with the "you are here red arrow!), ammo status, magna gogles, aural
 >magnifier, em detector, etc.
 >
 >In the High Tech battlefield the elite troops would be the ones with
helmets
 >and the militia would be the ones without. 
 Tom Hughes >>
 
 #>Pfc. Hoskins crouched silently in the bush, sweating in the
overweight
 laughably named 'cool' suit. The freezon-12 can had run out at least
two
 weeks ago, along with the batteries for the chil-pak on his newfangled
 MPPG, forcing him to fire it in semi-auto mode only. He groaned as he
 carefully removed the newlar "squat-pot" off his head and used the high
 tech helmet for what it did best, provide a stable seat during the long
 ambushes in the bush. At least the Indig militia had those old steel
 pots that could hold water for shaving or a quick cat-cat bath in the
 field. Hell, the Ell-tee had traded his cool-suit to a gadget-hungry
 Indie Captain for a set of the local's cammies and a bottle of
coconanna
 hooch weeks ago. Maybe some of the new lightweight battle dress would
 >come through on the next shuttle...... Maybe....##>>


Cpl Schneider was walking point when his aural enhancement unit picked
up the
sound of the flexing newlar helmet. He looked around with his infra-red
vision till he spotted a thermal plume coming from the other side of a
cane
break some 50 meters ahead and off the trail. As he keyed the mike to
Sgt
Heinz, he was studying
the trail ahead on 4X magnification. Sgt Heinz said to hold it there
until 3
troopers managed to work their way in behind the suspect location, Cpl
Schneider listened to the sarge coach his teammates into position from
his
helmet display. A quick check of their relative positions on his vid
visor
showed him just where he needed to let off the flash-bang when he
stepped
down the path. The rest of the patrol moved up to less than 10 meters
behind
him, he focused he helmet cam on the trip wires just visible from his
position till everyone knew their location, the 10 minutes he had been
stuying the trail under magnaficion had paid off. Sarge gave three
clicks
into his mike and the counter ambush started.

Schneider walked forward loudly enough to attract the attention of the
ambush
squad, with the rest of his patrol close and quiet behind him. When he
was
just inside the ambush, in one move he threw the flash-bang and dropped
to
center of the path. The burst of light and noise went off between him
and
ambushers causing them to fire blindly and higher than they planned.
That was
all the edge his patrol needed, in 30 seconds it was over. He stayed
down for
quiet a bit longer than that. Between the 3 troopers in behind the
ambushers
and his patrol mates at his back they had sprung a crossfire on the
ambushers
and gotten three of the ambushers with no casualties.  He grinned to
himself
"knowledge is power."

Pfc Hoskins said nothing,  he was dead, more interested in comfort than
knowledge he died unaware of what killed him, lying on top of a helmet
that
would have told him about the patrols' manuevring first. 

Tom Hughes
The deadliest weapon is knowledge