Mark I
Although this has already been depicted, I felt like this series wouldn't be complete without it. Working off of the sketch from Halsey's Journal, I tried to pull some visual elements from the Fall of Reach comic version, applying them where it didn't stray too far from Halsey's sketch. Most notably, the helmet is very slightly altered to look more like it did in the comics, and I tried to depict the shoulder cannon's ability to swivel to either side, based on the needs/preferences of the user. I also added more screws and rivets, to make it look a little bit more like the dated tech I believe it should (looked a little too clean in the comics to me).

Mark II
Knowing that the Mk. II was very similar to the Mk. I (the fiction only says there were some minor improvements), I struggled to make this one different while also sticking closely to its predecessor. I took a lot of logical steps with its design, such as shrinking the shoulder cannon to a more compact explosives launcher (it wouldn't fire any already-known projectile in the Halo universe, rather some sort of micro-missile), which was inspired by a piece of equipment the Master Chief had in his original design, pre-Combat Evolved. The right shoulder has an overly large camera to assist the micro-missiles in target acquisition whilst in the air. I also updated the helmet so it looks similar to the original Mk. IV helmet the Spartans were going to wear in Halo Wars, mostly because I love that helmet design and would love it to be part of the canon somewhere. I updated the chest and head protection on the torso to complement its description of having refractive coating for explosives. I slimmed down the overall profile to make it look like it could be a little more mobile than the Mk. I, and shortened the arms to a more reasonable proportion, making it a little more grounded in what we know about future MJOLNIR iterations. Also there's a little skull on the left shoulder pauldron. :)

Mark III "Ogre"

Designated the "Ogre" by its designer due to the large, humanoid appearance of the suit, this term quickly took an ironic turn when the Mark III's wearers found themselves trapped inside an immobile suit following the destruction of its power source, leading to dark jokes about the operators being "eaten alive". Although these exoskeletons were fielded for a very limited time before being scrapped as ineffective for combat applications, the individuals that volunteered to operate them in spite of this risk came to call themselves "Jonahs", and affectionately referred to their exoskeletons as "big fish" or just "fish", to counter the negative connotations of human-devouring ogres, while still embracing the analogy of being swallowed alive.

Given that the "Cyclops" was only a [B] variant of the original design, I knew that the two should logically be pretty similar in appearance. However, instead of functioning as a mech with a cockpit (and likely a chair), I wanted to keep this one grounded in the exoskeleton family, which meant reducing its size. I started with the general appearance of the "Cyclops", but then slimmed it down and altered the proportions to better fit a human inside. In this way, the occupant's hands would only extend to the elbows of the suit, and likewise their feet would only extend to the knees of the suit. While certainly not comfortable, it would be effective at moving around the battlefield in this way. The "Ogre" nickname kind of came naturally after I had my design. I needed to keep it separate from the appearance of the "Cyclops" (with the cockpit as its single eye), and chose instead to look at it as a mouth... working off of this idea that the "Ogre" would "eat its occupants whole" if its generator was destroyed and the suit was immobilized. Although it was never fielded for very long in the fiction, I still like the idea of these crazy Jonah units who know that they're likely to end up trapped alive in their suit, but choose to volunteer to operate the things anyway.

Glad I participated in this one. I had a lot of fun with it. :)