The M374 Hephaestus Combat Suit is a modified version of the armor that once belonged to the Meta, designed by Charon Industries. According to the Chairman, the suit contains all of the known Project Freelancer Armor Enhancements. It is first seen in Along Came a Spider, when Chairman Hargrove shows it to the mercenaries.
Role in Plot
Malcom Hargrove introducing the suit to Locus and Felix.
The M374 Hephaestus Combat Suit was originally a reward offered to Felix and Locus by Malcolm Hargrove if they could successfully eradicate the inhabitants of the planet Chorus. Unfortunately, Locus and Felix fail to do so; the former going rogue while the latter being killed in action. The suit later appears in The End, where it is discovered by the Reds and Blues. As a last resort, Epsilon asks Tucker to put on the suit, therefore obtaining the armor and its abilities. However, in order to operate the suit's capabilities, Epsilon deconstructs and ultimately sacrifices himself to run it and ensure the crew's victory.
As Tucker explains in Previously On, he successfully defeated Hargrove's forces with the suit, which became useless following Epsilon's death. It is unknown whether the crew or the people of Chorus kept the suit or discarded it comletely.
Trivia
- According to the Charon Industries T-Shirt in the Rooster Teeth Store, the Meta's re-purposed suit has been patented by the Chairman under the name "M374: Hephaestus Combat Suit". Fittingly, Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metals, fire and volcanoes; the former two referencing how the suit has been re-crafted to suit the Chairman's needs and how Sigma re-purposed Maine into a tool for his own needs, and the latter two referencing Sigma himself (as an entity resembling fire) and Charon, the ferryman who ferried people to Hades (hell), a place typically associated with fire in modern depictions.
- "M374" is also a reference to the original owner of the armor, the Meta; the "374" being commonly accepted number replacements for the letters "E", "T" and "A" respectively.
- The suit is equipped with a Motion Tracker, Hardlight Shield and Active Camouflage, according to its blueprints. However, the armor still requires an A.I. to properly control these functions. As stated by Malcom Hargrove, the A.I. fragments created from Project Freelancer are insufficient for this purpose.
- This conflicts with Hargrove stating that the suit contains all Project Freelancer enhancements in Along Came a Spider. Considering Tucker is able to use Adaptive Camouflage to change the suit's color after he dons it, it is probable that the blueprints are only intended as a small showcase of what the suit can do.
- The latter two enhancements appearing on the blueprints could be a reference to Felix and Locus, who used those armor enhancements respectively.
- The active camouflage enhancement could be a reference to the Meta himself who used the enhancement many times during the Recollections trilogy.
- The suit can be recreated in Halo 3 as it consists of the following: EVA helmet, Scout chest plate and Security shoulders. As the armor's color scheme follows the Halo 2 color patterns however, the orange accents cannot be properly replicated.