Benthic Products 'Brigman' Marine Hardsuit
The Brigman has been in service for years as a marine construction and salvage hardsuit. It is heavily built, and only easily mobile in the water, where it balances out its mass through forced buoyancy and ducted marine thrusters. For years, the suit was used in the construction of seacologies, deep sea habitats, and with modifications and special equipment, marine mining operations. It proved well suited to underwater rescue operations, and salvaging marine wrecks. Benthic Products made a name for itself by building seacologies and salvaging the forests of abandoned drilling rigs and sunken ships in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea.
The Brigman is well known for its hulking stature, deep sea reinforcement, and the iconic arm mounted drill. This device, technically a powered melee weapon, is used for rock coring, and for making holes to set marine charges in for demolition. The militarized version of the Brigman, the Coffey, exchanges the mining equipment for a backpack mounted mini-torpedo launcher, marine grenade launcher, and a progressive lance. The Coffey is named for the marine commando Hiram Coffey, who used a marine encounter suit, a progressive knife, and a bracer of grenades to severely damage the South American destroyer 'Rivadavia' which was later destroyed by a surface barrage.
The Brigman/Coffey is not a popular suit, as it is primarily designed for deep sea operations. Comfort is secondary to keeping the pilot alive. The suit is uncomfortable, and given the amount of time an operator can reasonably expect to be in it, it can start smelling bad, and most pilots dislike the fact that unlike more advanced suits, instead of being connected to the suit through a neurolink, they are connected through a waste collection system.
The River Rat Company is a special forces unit equipped with Brigman/Coffey power armors and they are known for spending as long as two weeks inside their power armors, the amount of time it takes them to walk from a drop off point, up a river, and to their targets. The Rats have dropped bridges, performed surgical strikes, and sunk more than a few ships at anchor. The Rats have done most of their work in South America, but have been in operations in Europe and Polynesia as well.
Ed Mastrantonio, a Cuban by birth, is one of the most decorated Brigman/Coffey pilots in the Federation. He has only seen minimal combat, and then in a supporting role. Mastrantonio has done a good deal of search and rescue work, and has saved the lives of dozens of people. While his emergency repair work at the Port-Au-Prince in the Federation Riviera is the most publicly known display, he saved many more lives when he prevented a terrorist launched weapon from hitting the New Miami seacology, sacrificing his life and his suit to stop the rogue weapon.