For many years, human soldiers have used performance-enhancing equipment of varying nature. From early visual targeting computers to more modern implanting and augmentation, no soldier in his right mind would refuse an upgrade.

The MJOLNIR Mark V battlesuit is the culmination of years of enhancements to the human body: the ultimate performance enhancer. Its design was the work of Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN II program. The armor is specially tailored to interface with SPARTANs and cannot be used without specific augmentations of a risky type, and currently a limited number of Spartans, including Master Chief 117 (left), survive. However, rumors of a new group of SPARTANs in training lead military experts to believe the MJOLNIR suit may go into more widespread use soon. 

make a virtually invulnerable personal combat system. The first outer layer consists of a remarkably hard alloy not unlike that used in tank armor. A late addition to the outer shell was the layers of an iridescent green reflective plating, designed to refract energy weapons in use by the Covenant, who had just been encountered at the time the armor was completed.

The armor's interior, however, is where the beauty truly lays. The inner layer of the suit is a highly advanced, reactive gel substance. It is capable of adapting exactly to the wearer's body temperature and molding itself to their body at a molecular level. It can also reactively change in density and absorb bodily fluids. The result is total comfort for the wearer. Also contained within the armor is a computer interface designed for the SPARTAN neural lace augmentation. The lace directly interprets signals from the brain, including motor functions, and feeds them directly to the armor. This system replaces the negative-feedback control systems used in earlier models, and, when operated by a SPARTAN, with their enhanced nervous system and reflexes, can improve reaction time and speed by up to five times. However, this enormous advantage comes at a price: the enhanced reflexes of a SPARTAN are required to pilot the battlesuit. An un-enhanced human cannot control the suit's control functions at the speed required, and thus loses control over the armor, often resulting in injury or death.

The final design consideration that made MJOLNIR armor practical was a portable fusion reactor system providing the necessary power to operate the battlesuit. For many years, battlesuits were impractical due to their power requirements. Previous armor systems were forced to rely on either a limited battery charge or inefficient broadcast power, also limited by its range. Reactor systems were impractical due to their tremendous heat output. However, with the MJOLNIR system, a new method of cooling was introduced. The excess heat output was routed through a multiple-filtration system which removed the heat from the air and processed a fraction of it into usable energy. The remainder was jettisoned through an advanced system of exhaust ports which minimized the heat signature of the battlesuit, making it less likely to be visible to thermal detection systems.

Recently, the system was upgraded to Mark V. It features an improved fusion reactor and slightly enhanced armor plating, but there are two major upgrades worth noting. The first is the layer of advanced optic crystal woven between the armor's inner lining and outer shell. This allows the suit to support one starship-grade artificial intelligence unit, in far less space than would normally be required. The second is a full-body energy shield. The shield can be diverted to or away from specific body sections, and is capable of sustaining multiple direct hits before failing. This impressive enhancement, almost identical to the shield worn by the Covenant Elite, should give the SPARTANs a significant edge.