I like those ideas a lot! As another thought, it would be pretty easy to convert Surge Dice from Altered State into shields.
As an action, you can bank a surge die. On any subsequent enemy turns when you get hit you can choose to expend a surge die (Lets call them Shield Die) to absorb some of the enemies effort against you.
To have this ability, you must be equipped with a shield generator (Like in the video game, you need the actual item). Depending on your shield generator, there are different limits on how many shield dice you can bank (A standard shield might have 2). Further, stronger shields could use a higher effort die. And shields (Like guns in Borderlands) can have special modifiers that depend on these die as well (Bonus damage using the shield die, Elemental resistance, etc). This would keep closer to the lore of the video game.
Anyway, after all the discussion here i think the first thing I should do is write up some Loot rules and tables. They might be a fun concept for any sci-fi game as it is.
