Mk. 3 Individually Powered Heavy-Lift Suit

The Mk. 3 Individually Powered Heavy-Lift Suit is a single occupant exoskeleton designed to allow an individual to carry heavy loads.

Overview
The Mk. 3 IPHLS was a large powered exoskeleton designed to carry heavy loads. It was based loosely off of the Mjolnir Mk. 1 armor system, though it was engineered for a completely non-combat role. Initially, designers wished to have the suit be able to lift only three tons, but this amount was changed to six after a series of breakthroughs during development. The Mk. 3 was piloted by a single occupant who could control it with controls mounted on its interior, and featured an integrated helmet hud display so that crews could monitor the shape of their suit. The Mk. 3 had light armor to prevent damage from possible drops, but this was not substantial enough for anything but this. The gauntlets of the Mk. 3 featured optional magnetic couplings to allow occupants to grasp metal containers more firmly, but it also was designed to have optimum ability to grasp objects without this.

Usage
The Mk. 3 entered usage in late 2523, two years before the human covenant war. In the booming economy of pre-war humanity, it sold like wildfire, and many major docking ports had legions of Mk. 3 exoskeletons. However, when the war began, the economic dropoff negatively impacted the Mk. 3, and sales dropped. It continued on the market, doing midly well, and at one point the military theorized militarizing it to issue to marines, though this never came to fruition. The Mk. 3 enjoyed a mild surge of success when the SPARTAN-II project was revealed due to the superficial resemblance to MJOLNIR armor, though this lasted only a short time. The Mk. 3 survived the war despite destruction of many of its prominent buyers and many of its production bases, and continued being used up until the late 2580s.

Commentary From Loading Crews
"Reminds me alot of those early Mjolnir prototypes we used back in 24, but better at its job."

"Sometimes its nice to not have to get a crane to lift cargo out of a landed freighter, especially when its got a small bay."

"Unloading and loading cargo from freighters isn't what I'd call a glamourous job, but at least we get cool toys to do it!"