SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR

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SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR is a suit of Generation 2 MJOLNIR powered assault armour, specially made and produced for hunter killer operatives specialising in STOLEN GAUNTLET type asset recovery or asset elimination operations. 
SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR represents a significant step forward for the operational capabilities of autonomous action groups and rogue-element engagement. It is a cornerstone for Spartans deployed to hunt down other rogue Spartans, apart from those times in which the Office wants the operation done quietly, as SHIKARI tend to be loud in their engagements.
While official reception towards the armour has been one of near-universal praise, the response of other Spartans towards the armour—and particularly towards those who don it—has been the exact opposite. The idea of an armour made specifically to fight Spartans has been condemned by the more vocal elements within the Spartan branch; force commanders and administrators alike.
It has reached the stage where Spartans who wear SHIKARI armour have been ostracised by their peers, which contributed in no small way to the SHIKARI being folded into the Asymmetrical Action Group. Of course, this removal of SHIKARI from the Spartan branch as a whole has only exacerbated the responses by other Spartans towards them, as they are now considered wholly 'other' and separate from mainline Spartans, or their comrades.
ONI has seen fit, in part, to encourage this attitude towards SHIKARI, both to secure the secrecy of the armour's components, and to utilise SHIKARI as covert intelligence-gathering operatives, separate from the Spartan branch, and thus 'leant' to the Spartan branch for purposes of training, briefings, or the spearheading of specialised War Games simulations.
This also allows the SHIKARI to gather intelligence on Spartans, their fighting styles, backgrounds, relationships, and new recruits. These files are then stored at various ONI locations around UEG space, for utilisation should the worst come to pass.
SHIAKRI are few in number, with only a precious dozen or so operating within the AAG as of December 2557. Their whereabouts and activities during the Created Crisis are, thus far, unknown. The existence of SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR's 'SMART' AI Assistant creates a potential scenario in which the SHIKARI are being utilised by, or are loyal to, Cortana's Created faction.
With the onset of the Office of Military Justice investigating ONI's black ops and wartime dealings, the executive decision was made by Admiral Serin Osman to silence, track down, or reassign those few individuals who had their hand in some of the more illicit operations and programmes. Many of them had gone missing, AWOL, or rogue during the post-war years, fearing reprisals for their wartime activities. To this end, the SHIKARI would also take part in the crackdown on rogue/AWOL individuals possessing state secrets, secrets pertaining to Spartan programmes, or secrets pertaining to the creation of MJOLNIR armour systems.
While the Office of Military Justice would see that an effort was being made to cooperate in the investigation, by handing over low-priority agents for questioning, ONI would utilise the opportunity to investigate the Office of Military Justice. Section Zero took a special interest in the newly-formed OMJ, in part due to a thinly-veiled threat sent via a message to Serin Osman herself.
With the SHIKARI folded into the AAG, Section 0 kept them in line by limiting their exposure to other Spartans, other military assets, or civilians. However, they actively encouraged hostility and, in a way, encouraged the SHIKARI's trademarked sadism when dealing with STOLEN GAUNTLET type runaways, in part due to the fact that a brutal response would deter potential future dissenters.
==Conception==
As the methods and procedures to surgically and genetically augment humans became safer, and thus more accessible to a general population, the number of Spartan soldiers naturally increased. With this increase in quantity came a distinct possibility that not all of these augmented assets would be loyal to Earth, the UEG, the UNSC, or ONI. To that effect, sometime after the creation of the Spartan branch as a separate branch of the UNSCDF, the UNSC protocol STOLEN GAUNTLET was created.
Any Spartan found to have gone rogue, AWOL, or even those who stole military equipment, would be declared in breach of the UNSC military code, the UCMJ, and the NDAs they signed to become Spartans. To this effect, they would be arrested, interred, or eliminated, pertaining to the level of threat they exerted to their surroundings, or to the UEG as a whole.
STOLEN GAUNTLET represented a theoretical worst-case scenario, and SHIKARI was the brainchild of seven technicians who sought to minimise the potential collateral damage said worst-case scenario might inflict upon citizens or soldiers of Earth, or the loyal UEG colonies.
Seeing the need for such a suit in the future, ONI agreed to the production and manufacturing of a dozen suits of SHIKARI, utilising ONI's own Watershed Division, and the Materials Group to do so. Other items needed to be producred in limited supply from manufacturing companies responsible for the production of other suits of MJOLNIR entering service alongside the Spartan Branch. One of these companies was MIRRIM Tech Solutions, who proved instrumental in the design of much of the armour's integral components and subsystems, but also paid a heavy price for their involvement in the project.
=Developmental History=
The developmental history of the SHIKARI armour was marred by political strife and inter-sectional vitriol, from both ONI Section Zero and ONI Section Three, who both had a vested interest in the armour's schematics and potential use as deniable wetwork assets. Section Three's interest may have been for the more conventional reasons of wishing to make use of said assets, however, Section Zero's interest in the armour was purely for reasons of accountability and assurance that the suit, its technology, or its various intrusion protocols would not be utilised for nefarious purposes.
When the purpose of the armour became clearer, later on in its developmental cycle, both Section Zero and Section Three voiced similar complaints, though motivated by different rationale. The thought of a Spartan hunter being themselves a Spartan was something that Section Zero sought to avoid, as conventional units, or other suits of MJOLNIR, were being created, or trained, to perform such tasks, should the need ever arrive.
Section Zero also raised objections about the sheer volume of cyber warfare and intrusion software placed into the armour's software, as much of it was developed by the AAG as theoretical software that may be encountered by hostile human powers during the post-war years. Many of the programs utilised by SHIKARI were not meant to be exploited in ways that the developers of SHIKARI were now using them for, and they were certainly never intended to infiltrate a Spartan's own suit of MJOLNIR.
To that effect, Section Zero raised concerns about the possibility of the software and programs falling into hostile hands, and being used against the very same Operators who were wearing the armour. This then lead to a secondary objection; the accountability of the SHIKARI, and their unusual degree of planned independence and autonomy under the AAG.
While Section Zero's objections were typically focused on policing and keeping track of dangerous assets or software, Section Three's objections came more from a place of discomfort. The AAG was formed as a way to disrupt and disorient Covenant splinter groups during the tumultuous post-war years, and the thought of such a formidable force of Spartans being turned inwards was a thought not many within Section Three's admiralty board wanted to consider.
In an age where threats came from both aliens and humans, where bitter rivalries and ideologies severed ties as quick as they formed them, Section Three objected over both their mission objective, and the means by which they would go about to achieve it. The potential of a rogue SHIKARI operative armed with such formidably armour and anti-MJOLNIR instruments became something of a sensitive topic among the Admiralty board, despite assurances from the developmental team that all operatives chosen to wear SHIKARI would be screened, vetted, and examined in triplicate before being allowed to even see the armour.
Eventually these two sides raising similar objections for different reasons attracted the attention of those higher up within ONI's chain of command. These individuals forced the developers of the armour to include a fully redundant helmet cam storage, recording, and broadcasting suite, so that each SHIKARI would be able to not only record their surroundings and operations in totality, but be unable to tamper with or remove these recordings without the rest of the SHIKARI deployed also removing them, and the local Handlers having to remove them from their instruments as well.
This was nicknamed the 'Chain Link' project, and set the armour's development back by several weeks while the software was added, and linked to the TRIFECTA VISR.
Section Zero was also given full permission to review these files and logs, and come to their own conclusions as to the necessity of any force displayed by the SHIKARI during their deployments against other Spartans.
==Inspiration==
Inspiration from the armour came from the Sangheili's own Silent Shadow and Spec-Ops armours, seeking to incorporate unique identifiable features and stealth technology in order to fill a specific combat role. Rather than being a generalised suit of armour, or one made to excel in many areas, this suit would be hyper-focused on the combat of Spartan personnel. The effectiveness and fringe usage of this suit saw it have many detractors during the conceptualisation stage, as many argued that the limited effective use of the suit would be cost-prohibitive, the more were produced.
On the other side, the argument was that not many of these suits would be produced. It would be rare for the Watershed Division to deem it necessary to create one, as only a select few Spartans were ever in danger of going rogue at any one time. Even if something were to happen to cause an entire ship's worth of Spartans to go rogue, the hyper-focused nature of the SHIKARI suit would see it be highly effective in engaging even a numerically superior opposing force.
There was also the added benefit of the suit being able to directly assist in tactical simulations training with Spartan personnel in service onboard ships with the prototypical TAC/SIM technology installed. Holographic rooms and full-immersion sims were a huge stride in the ability for Spartans to desensitise to the act of potentially killing one another, should the need arise. Furthermore, the training was far more tactile and hands-on than many other training regimes, as the simulations were made as safe as they could be.
Another advantage of SHIKARI being employed during the simulations is the ability for the SHIKARI to accrue combat data on the various Spartans they engaged. This data would be stored on the armour and be delivered to ONI during the next assessment. This data would be added to a Spartan's CSV, and be instrumental in the event that any Spartan goes rogue. A full tactical assessment of that Spartan's combat capabilities, styles, and weaknesses would be available to anyone tasked with bringing that Spartan in.
==Funding==
==Electronic Warfare==
==Lockdown==
==TRIFECTA==
One of the major challenges that would be faced by SHIKARI operatives on their missions would be the use of Spartan abilities, or armour enhancements. The SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR, naturally, had been built with these advancements in mind. However, as they would be deployed on missions in which their enemy may also utilise these enhancements, countermeasures to them had to be created.
For the typical enhancements such as the Overshield, Bubble Shield, Drop Shield, or Armour Lock enhancements, the SHIKARI's own infiltration software and AI could play havoc with these systems from the moment of engagement, right up until the end. Overshields, Bubble Shields, and Drop Shields could each be overcharged via the Spartan's own fusion pack, and thus they could be made to suffocate, crush, or trap the user in a small area. 
The Armour Lock enhancement could be remotely activated and sustained in laboratory tests, and in theory, it would be possible to do the same to an active Spartan enemy, thus removing much of the danger of SHIKARI needing to engage a Spartan opponent. All of these breakthroughs were added to the repertoire of the SHIKARI armour itself, and when SMART AI assistants were introduced to the armour, they collected the knowledge themselves, and utilised it in a variety of ways in the future.
For enhancements such as active camouflage, or adaptive camouflage, the standard VISR mode was deemed too unreliable to accurately assess, with any degree of certainty, whether a Spartan operative utilising said equipment was operating in the area. During the post-war years especially, many Covenant splinter groups or even human operatives were making use of advanced av-cam systems that could trick or bypass a VISR system in 32% of instances. As many standard Spartan field VISRs made use of similar systems, it was deemed inefficient.
However, due to the light-bending properties of nearly all active camouflage systems, a VISR that could detect ultraviolet wavelengths was added. This VISR was an adaptation of the REX VISR, and effectively presented the user with a real-time display of the area, covered by a 'sheen' of ultraviolet wavelengths. This sheen would be present on nearly every surface during daylight, due to stellar bodies often giving off this particular radiation in great amount. When in the presence of an active camouflage system, the VISR would be unable to present a clear image of the area. As av-cam bent light around the user, it physically bent the light photons around it, and thus there would be a radiation 'dead zone', presented by the VISR as a void in the shape of the target.
The upgraded REX VISR would be further improved with a broadcasting UV source for interiors, or night-time operations, following a similar practice as the use of infrared sensors and sources in use by other SOF operatives. The UV VISR also had the built-in functionality of being able to detect bodily fluids left behind in an environment, to better facilitate target tracking, or the removal of evidence as to the SHIKARI's own presence, if necessary.
The second part of the TRIFECTA VISR came in the form of a standard-issue thermal detection VISR, augmented with advanced sensitivity adjustment options, so as to detect smaller heat sources in the ambient environment. This meant that the SHIKARI could effectively track down a nearby target by examining otherwise-invisible footsteps, as their body heat or armour heat would heat up anything that they had come into contact with by an imperceptible amount.
This, however, was a fringe-use of the IR VISR, and would otherwise be used as a standard operation tool during low-light operations, or within low-light environments. This could also be used to detect an Av-Cam enemy, as many active-camouflage units still gave off a tremendous amount of ambient heat, or they failed to mask the user's heat signature. Camo modules that utilise energy within an external storage medium still posed a problem for thermal sensors to detect, as they both had no ambient heat source to detect, nor would it compromise thermal shielding, such as or thermally reflective coatings utilised by MJOLNIR armour systems.
The final VISR added was a standard MJOLNIR VISR, utilising many of the same features and compatabilities as other MJOLNIR suits. They had similar HUD layouts, similar VI assistance programs, and support modules. They had full compatibility with most weaponry, and displayed a variety of modularity suites to better acclimatise to an individual operator's desires.
However, the unique feature of this standard VISR mode would be its ability to link up with the other two VISRs and seamlessly switch between them. Each VISR could be utilised as the individual's main input to their interior helmet feeds; in effect, the user could switch between UV, IR, or regular VISR modes on a whim, including those which were already implemented into the standard VISR mode now employed in the helmet's center-lens.
The VISR also features the ability to overlay all three VISR types into one overlay. In this way, the SHIKARI can highlight the environment with the standard Spartan VISR, display thermal blooms in the ambient environment, including from potential hostiles, and scan for Av-Cam users by looking for absences in UV radiation. This, however, is incredibly resource-intensive, and may overwhelm the user with sheer amount of sensory data. The use of this VISR mode is reserved for the direst of needs, such as when operating in hazardous environments, in zero-light conditions, or as a method by which a user may test the VISRs lenses, to see if they are all functioning.
The functionality of effectively having three different VISR inputs comes at an increased software and hardware interface, increasing maintenance times should any of the lenses be damaged in combat, or malfunction. This was deemed an acceptable tradeoff for the sheer amount of versatility that the TRIFECTA VISR could offer a SHIKARI operator.
The SHIKARI's TRIFECTA VISR also comes with an ability to broadcast light sources from its various VISRs, including a UV light, IR laser, and standard lights from the center lens. This ability can also be switche doff, or reduced to low settings to avoid compromising Av-Cam abilities, or avoid detection at range.
==Industrial Espionage==
=Implementation=
==Recruitment==
==Reception==
=Performance=
==Initial Success==
==Section ZERO==
==EPIMETHEUS==
==Issues==
===Favours===
==Attitudes==
==Premeditation==
==Operational Logs==
===Operation: REGICIDE===
Operation: REGICIDE was the SHIKARI's first major military deployment, as well as their first combat encounter with a rogue Spartan asset. Their mission was to bring the target in alive, by any mean's necessary, and many of their armour's features were utilised to achieve this goal.
Most notable of all, however, was the evidence ascertained from post-combat helmet recordings, that the use of four SHIKARI was overkill. One SHIKARI operative would have been sufficient to immobilize and capture the rogue Spartan, and against four, the rogue asset stood no chance.
The SHIKARI eventually captured the asset via the use of Lockdown MJOLNIR armour restraints, forcing the Spartan to remain still, before being rendered unconscious and carried to a secure, unmarked vehicle for transportation.
The Spartan in question was taken to a secure facility for interrogation, and a formal investigation into the nature of the Spartan's desertion of the UNSC was opened by Section Zero, to better understand the reasonings behind their decision, and so as to potentially prevent future similar incidents.
===Operation: SLACKJAW===
===Operation: AVEKSHATA===
===Operation: FORTHRIGHT===
===Operation: DOWAGER===
===Operation: FRONTFALL===
Operation: FRONTFALL was the first time that the SHIKARI went up against individuals who were not Spartans, but utilised some of MJOLNIR's framework. Two SHIKARI were deployed to assault a corporate convoy on the colony world of Crytoss, following the revelation that MIRRIM tech solutions—a company which had assisted in the creation of SHIKARI-Class MJOLNIR—was fielding their own inferior versions of the armour under the code-name of GUARDIAN-Class Exoskeletal Assistant Armour.
The two SHIKARI operatives deployed to curtail this squad of corporate supersoldiers were Spartan Evelina Slade, of the Epimetheus Programme, and Spartan Joeth Kunder of the same programme. They were deployed in a standard headhunter configuration, with one (Kunder) providing overwatch from five point eight (5.8) kilometers out with an M99-B, and the other (Slade) assaulting the convoy directly.
This is among the handful of operations in which the SHIKARI were allowed to deploy without a handler, and advised to remove their helmets either just before their engagement, or during it. This advice came directly from their Section Zero accountability team, who passively encouraged their sadism during this operation.
To that effect, the operation was conducted in broad daylight, on a busy highway, with high explosives and maximum prejudice. There were no civilian casualties, due in part to the SHIKARI forcing them to vacate the area by staging a multi-vehicle collision before engaging the convoy.
All of the members of the corporate team were eliminated with zero SHIKARI casualties.
===Operation: RIG & ROOT===
===Operation: GOLDEN JAW===
===Operation: LOADBEARER===
===Operation: DUSKCHASER===
===Operation: DRUMCIRCLE===
===Operation: SHAKEUP===
==Equipment and Gear==
The equipment and gear that SHIKARI employ during their operations can vary from operative to operative, however, there are a few constants that see the majority of combat encounters, aside from the obvious one being their armour and distinctive VISR.
SHIKARI typically employ magnetically operated weaponry; railguns, M99 Stanchion rifles, or variants thereupon, M6M1 'Deadbolt' magnetic slug pistols, and the 'Lockdown' armour restraint. 
These weapons prove to be potent when coming up against Spartans, or any other shielded operative the SHIKARI may encounter in the field, with the Stanchion alone being lethal to shielded targets at a range exceeding forty five kilometers.
Another weapon utilised by SHIKARI is the MA5K ONI variant; a cut-down, altered version of the MA5K in service with ONI and its various SOF operatives. The variant employed by SHIKARI has been further altered to be virtually undetectable, and untraceable by conventional methods of investigation. The frame is made of a ceramo-metal alloy, and rifling on the interior of the weapon has been almost entirely removed. 
The magazine uses caseless ammunition, to avoid leaving behind any traces of the SHIKARI's presence, and the rounds themselves are hollow-point, exploding on impact with solid surfaces or flesh. The purpose of this weapon, despite its limited effectiveness against shielded or heavily-armoured targets, is to prioritise non-lethal damage to extremities over stopping power or lethal force. SHIKARI typically will not shoot for center mass at targets they have been ordered to bring in alive, instead opting to aim for the limbs, particularly the legs, inner thighs, knees, ankles, or even the upper hip.
SHIKARI also carry biofoam cans to give limited medical aid to injured targets, so as to keep them alive until transport to secure facilities, or cryogenic storage. This biofoam can even seal severed arteries for a limited time, thus reducing the risk of death via blood loss.
==Quotes==
Category:Powered Armor
Category:SPARTAN
Category:SilverLastname