Does defiance actually work?

So I had full aegis armour with the defiance set bonus so I went to rise feeling pretty confident that even if an order sniper shot me or really any of them did I’d maybe be ok but I swear this thing didn’t activate once the snipers tore into me and I subbed its lower defence when I could’ve had full carapace instead because I thought the bonus would be good but it just didn’t work I got hit three times by a sniper once separate and two of the shots together and got double bleed which didn’t make me panic too bad I dropped my case and healed but then my pet aggroed a captain who finished the job while I was still bandaging.

The thing that’s making me really mad is that the whole reason I brought the armour set is that I thought even if something like this did happen it would hopefully protect me but I know now that I am not coming back without security sector gear or hydroplant gear smh.