DARKSTALKER-Class Mjolnir

"So, what the hell is this thing?""Son, THIS THING is the undoubted future of UNSC powered armour. Energy shielding, superior targeting system, and able to just disappear into the night. "Impressive. What's it's name?""Well, the squares have no name for it as of yet...But I, I call it Darkstalker.-A conversation between Tyson-B245 and a low ranking ONI operativeDARSTALKER class Mjolnir is a powered exoskeleton developed by the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence. One of the first suits in the Mjolnir series to incorporate energy shielding, DARKSTALKER was ultimately a prototype for later armours of the Mjolnir line. Although by 2556 it had mostly been phased out of service for newer models such as GEN2 class Mjolnir, its stealth features were still made use of by HeadHunters as late as 2558. 
== Operational Specifications ==
=== Onboard Combat Systems ===
DARKSTALKER class Mjolnir was well known for its excessively complex Heads Up display among ONI operators, with it featuring a Tacmap, ammunition readout, and triangular target reticule. The reason for this complicated system was ultimately because DARKSTALKER was intended to be a prototype, not a replacement for previous models. For its target users, however, this System was more than sufficient, with the efficiency of headhunters who wore the armour increasing by 3%. The HUD was actually entirely red tinted, a deviation from all other existing Mjolnir models, with the HUD being usually whitish blue, or transparent. The irritation of the red tinted HUD was noted by Tyson-B245, with him claiming that it gave him a headache during his little free time. One other feature unique to this model was that it had a small blade built into the gauntlet, designed for when close-quarters combat was necessary. The blade was manufactured from an unknown material that HeadHunters stated resembled plastic. In addition, a grenade belt was also built into the waistline of the suit, but due to the nature of the HeadHunter missions, was seldom used.
=== Durability levels and energy shielding ===
The durability of Darkstalker's composite plates was noted as being inferior to models such as Mjolnir's Mark VI and V. The reason was the plates were separated and built from a low level titanium. Due to the separation of the plates, the suit was faster and lighter than most other models, but came at a downside: the separation of the plates made the suit more vulnerable to bladed weapons and gunfire. The full body energy shielding somewhat compensated for the vulnerability granted by the plates, with the shielding notably having a hexagonal like shimmer to it. Plasma weaponry, however, was able to easily tear through the shielding, a fact accounted to the shoddily reverse engineered nature of the shielding. The shielding, although weak against plasma weaponry, was more than sufficient for human weaponry, and the average rifle was barely able to penetrate it. 
=== Stealth Capabilities ===
In many ways, the selling point for DARKSTALKER was its ability to seamlessly disappear into a stealth mode. With the technology of Special Operations Sangheili being studied for it's development, the stealth capabilities of DARKSTALKER were arguably the most advanced that the UNSC had at the time. Literally bending light around the user, the inbuilt E-19C Stealth Field Generator rendered the target virtually invisible. Able to be used at a split second, the E-19C was impressive to a point. However, it did have its downsides. The generator was only safe to use for a continuous 10 minute maximum period before being forced to cool off for 25 minutes. Another flaw was that the user arguably couldn't run while using the stealth generator, with the constant shimmering of light essentially giving the user away. Later models did fix this problem, but the generator built into the armour was constantly like this. However, to HeadHunters used to Semi-Powered Infiltration Armour, the E-19C was a lifesaver, with the basis being far more advanced than SPI's Photo-Refractive panels. The 10 minute running time was not even a problem, with HeadHunters learning to come out of stealth, eliminate a target, then go back into stealth, leading to rapid stealth attacks. 
== Usage ==
=== Human-Covenant war ===
DARKSTALKER-Class Mjolnir was used frequently by HeadHunters throughout the Human-Covenant war, with it mostly being used during counter-insurrection operations. Due to it's vulnerability to Plasma Fire, it was rarely used against the Covenant, but multiple HeadHunter Teams equipped with the armour did take part in an operation on earth to drive out the Jiralhanae from multiple tactical points. These missions were mostly successful, but the Armour was not responsible for this, with success usually resulting from coordination between attack teams. After the cessation of immediate hostilities, HeadHunter Squads were responsible for mopping up several Covenant strongholds, with the armour seeing use during this period.
=== Postwar Usage ===
After the introduction of GEN2 Mjolnir, DARKSTALKER was by and large phased out. Although several of its systems were continued into GEN2, the Armour itself saw little use outside of still-existing SPARTAN-!!! Headhunter Teams. 
== Trivia ==
* "Darkstalker" is the name of a major antagonist in the Wings of Fire novel series, being the equivalent of a wizard, an ancient dragon well known for his manipulation of others.
* The armour's design is lifted from the scrapped Halo MMORPG, with it being dubbed the "Unknown Mjolnir Variant".
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Category:Powered Armor
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