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Description

Originally an experiment involving the selective augmentation of a handful of ODST battalions, the HOPLITE program was the UNSC's first major success with adapting bio-augmentations to adult subjects, albeit with a decrease in performance compared to the Spartan-IIs and IIIs.

Initiated in the mid-Human-Covenant War, the HOPLITE program stemmed with the 105th Shock Troops Special Missions Detachment's experiments with ODST-Spartan joint operations. The considerable gap in the physical capabilities of the common ODST and the Spartans led to NAVSPECWAR looking into options for applying biological and/or cybernetic augmentation to ODSTs. Despite early setbacks, the Hoplite program proved moderately successful in the war's final years, though budget limitations and immature technology kept it relatively fringe even among the ODSTs. It was only in the post-war years that the project took off and expanded to other ODST divisions, fueling further interest in biological and mechanical augmentation within the entire UNSC Special Forces community. While initially restricted to select units of ODSTs, the ultimate goal of the program is to widen its scope and make augmentation technology safer, more reproducible, and more widespread in the UNSC military as a whole.

The Hoplite augmentations represent a return of sorts to Project ORION protocols, coupled with many technologies directly or indirectly derived from the parallel SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III programs. However, the latter types of augmentations had to be "watered down" in order to safely apply them on adults, whereas in some cases they were substituted with alternate procedures. In terms of raw physicality, the Hoplites are around halfway between an ODST and a Spartan as of the program's third generation. While physically quite strong, the Hoplites lack the Spartans' superconducting neural augmentations due to the difficulty of applying such augmentations on fully-grown adults. Much like the SPARTAN-III augmentation procedures, the Hoplite augmentations seek to rely on chemical injections and gene therapies over complex surgeries as much as possible, though some surgeries remain necessary. The augmentation of larger batches of candidates along with the establishment of permanent facilities in the program's third generation also allows economies of scale to occur, lowering the costs of each augmented individual.

Piloted in the second generation and widely issued in the program's third generation, the Hoplites' ASPIS Semi-Powered Assault Armor (colloquially known simply as the Hoplite armor) is a hybridization of technologies developed for Projects MJOLNIR and MIRAGE, as well as various ODST armor development programs that ran during the war. The ASPIS armor is designed to be compatible with most other modern UNSC armor systems and webbing according to the Universal Combatant Equipment System standard, and can be customized with swappable modules and variant components. Manufactured by Earth-based Beweglichkeitsrüstungsysteme, the current ASPIS suit was the best option chosen out of several contractors' offers.

Pictured here are third-generation Hoplite commandos Sgt. R. Meshkat and SSgt O. Behm on Draco III in 2558.

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Project Daybreak is an alternate-continuity reimagining and expansion of the Halo universe. Hoplites are our version of the Spartan-IVs. In this continuity, the MacWorld 1999 armor design has no relevance to 343i's recent use of it as an ORION armor set.

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Commission information

Description

Originally an experiment involving the selective augmentation of a handful of ODST battalions, the HOPLITE program was the UNSC's first major success with adapting bio-augmentations to adult subjects, albeit with a decrease in performance compared to the Spartan-IIs and IIIs.

Initiated in the mid-Human-Covenant War, the HOPLITE program stemmed with the 105th Shock Troops Special Missions Detachment's experiments with ODST-Spartan joint operations. The considerable gap in the physical capabilities of the common ODST and the Spartans led to NAVSPECWAR looking into options for applying biological and/or cybernetic augmentation to ODSTs. Despite early setbacks, the Hoplite program proved moderately successful in the war's final years, though budget limitations and immature technology kept it relatively fringe even among the ODSTs. It was only in the post-war years that the project took off and expanded to other ODST divisions, fueling further interest in biological and mechanical augmentation within the entire UNSC Special Forces community. While initially restricted to select units of ODSTs, the ultimate goal of the program is to widen its scope and make augmentation technology safer, more reproducible, and more widespread in the UNSC military as a whole.

The Hoplite augmentations represent a return of sorts to Project ORION protocols, coupled with many technologies directly or indirectly derived from the parallel SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III programs. However, the latter types of augmentations had to be "watered down" in order to safely apply them on adults, whereas in some cases they were substituted with alternate procedures. In terms of raw physicality, the Hoplites are around halfway between an ODST and a Spartan as of the program's third generation. While physically quite strong, the Hoplites lack the Spartans' superconducting neural augmentations due to the difficulty of applying such augmentations on fully-grown adults. Much like the SPARTAN-III augmentation procedures, the Hoplite augmentations seek to rely on chemical injections and gene therapies over complex surgeries as much as possible, though some surgeries remain necessary. The augmentation of larger batches of candidates along with the establishment of permanent facilities in the program's third generation also allows economies of scale to occur, lowering the costs of each augmented individual.

Piloted in the second generation and widely issued in the program's third generation, the Hoplites' ASPIS Semi-Powered Assault Armor (colloquially known simply as the Hoplite armor) is a hybridization of technologies developed for Projects MJOLNIR and MIRAGE, as well as various ODST armor development programs that ran during the war. The ASPIS armor is designed to be compatible with most other modern UNSC armor systems and webbing according to the Universal Combatant Equipment System standard, and can be customized with swappable modules and variant components. Manufactured by Earth-based Beweglichkeitsrüstungsysteme, the current ASPIS suit was the best option chosen out of several contractors' offers.

Pictured here are third-generation Hoplite commandos Sgt. R. Meshkat and SSgt O. Behm on Draco III in 2558.

-----------

Project Daybreak is an alternate-continuity reimagining and expansion of the Halo universe. Hoplites are our version of the Spartan-IVs. In this continuity, the MacWorld 1999 armor design has no relevance to 343i's recent use of it as an ORION armor set.

----

Commission information