@Zero Hex You mean the myraid of functions in your helmet, that the EMP blast fried? Yeah good luck with that XD
An EMP blast is an electrical discharge that goes across a large spectrum so it has the chance to blow many circuits, so any electronics with wiring will burn up like a fuse because of the sudden increase in voltage within the air around it. This, however will only affect items with a closed electrical current; so laptops, cars, radios, white goods, etc; and will not affect an item like a flashlight
(assuming that the wires aren't close enough to create an induced arc).
One of the main ways to protect against such a blast of energy is a Faraday Cage, which is basically a wire cage that disperses the energy into the cage itself and shields the inside electronics. A crude example would be to imagine you have a flyscreen and spray a hose of water at it. Chances are that the water will hit the screen and disperse onto the screen rather than through.
Bringing this up because it would be reasonable to assume that Maximilian would have a Faraday cage for his mask based on his home-world being Quent and the gas mask being of that planet's origin. In order to travel through space many electronics would have to be purposely protected or sealed by Faraday Cage devices in order to protect them from the naturally occurring radiation from the Sun and other cosmic energies. It was probably left in the cage for many, many years until the Enoh disaster, to which all he had to do was open his cage and pull out the protected electronic mask.
(Also bringing this up to help bring up a topical discussion on how Plasma weapons and lasers would work in this desolate future as well.
)