Jin Won: Angel: capn qwerty:
Sounds like they're going the same route that UNSCDF did - mostly accurate information, with corners cut when convenient and occasionally just made-up stuff.
Never was the version of Mark V armor that John-117 wore prior to the shielded version referred to as Mark IV armor. I checked his page number references in The Fall of Reach, and all it was describing was the unshielded version of the Mark V. The versions that they HAD been using, I'm guessing, were just near-complete prototypes that they were forced to gain access to ahead of schedule. Later, they were able to give them access to the FULLY complete version of the Mark V.
In either case, the supposed "Mark 4" armor that they are referring to in that article looks identical to the Mark V armor, unlike the Halo Wars version of MJOLNIR armor, which looks like a different take on the Mark VI armor, the helmet especially.
Hope I've dispelled some of the BS floating around. Hate that stuff. It smells. :P
The Mark VI armor was not in developement until 2552, Halo: Graphic Novel, the Mark V armor was not until 2551-2552, counting testing and such. There is no way in hell that the armor in trailer is a "variation" of the Mark VI armor. This game takes place in the early years of the Human-Covenant War, it is most likely a preversion of the Mark V armor, thus making it a Mark IV. Unless stated otherwise we can safely assume that is what it is.
Uh... Hmm.
Where to begin?
The nearly-complete Mark-5 armor was first donned by John-117 and crew on Chi Ceti 4 back when John was 14 years old, which was the year 2525.
The Mark-6 armor was first donned by John-117 in 2552, at the beginning of Halo 2.
That said, there is still no mention of the phrase "Mark-4" in any Halo novel, at any point, at any time. Ever.
We can call the nearly-complete version of the Mark-5 whatever we feel like calling it, sure, it's a free country. But, that doesn't mean that there ever was, or ever has been, an ACTUAL mention of Mark-4 armor anywhere in Halo canon. We have no idea what the naming scheme was based off of, and entirely arbitrary guesses as to how this naming scheme works won't help. Common sense tells us that if you have a painting, and you're almost finished with it, and you have to finish painting it AFTER you take it to its first exhibition, that you don't think of the painting as being two different paintings; it's the exact same painting the whole time, at one point with everything it was intended to have, and at another point only with most of what it was intended to have. The two suits of Mark-5 armor donned in 2525 and 2552 are the exact same thing. They're each an instance of the original design, called "Mark-5." One was rushed, the other was not. Same painting. Same armor.
In either case, the MJOLNIR seen in the trailer is definitely not Mark-5, prototype or otherwise. It has the APPEARANCE of being like the Mark-6 armor, even though WE KNOW that that doesn't make sense. Probably an oversight, unless there's an interesting story behind it. Especially since a group of SPARTAN-2's like that would have to be either from the books, or part of an entirely separate story that we have not been introduced to yet. And that's assuming that those guys are SPARTAN-2's. They could be a different part of the Orion Project that spawned the SPARTAN -1.0's (like Sergeant Johnson [if you don't know about that, check the text on the assassination page near the back of the "Art of Halo " book - it shows two ONI spooks hiding Johnson's 1.0 records from Halsey] ) and could be completely new to the Halo fictional universe.
Hope this helps.
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