Assault harness

Assault armor redirects here. For the Mjolnir armor accessories, see Armor accessories/Assault.

The Assault harness is an armor set of the Sangheili, and features a dynamic recharging energy shielding.

Design details
The Assault harness is a reissued pre-Covenant Sangheili harness that features reinforced aligned composites and buttress principal protective stratum to preserve structural coherence of underlying tissue, and ultra resilient deltoid protection to aid in the concussive shock force and direct kinetic energy. Much like the standard combat harness, the Assault harness is also designed to be intimidating and damage the enemy's psyche and morale. The Assault harness shares a distant origin with some variants of the Ranger harness, though both are now different armor systems.

The helmet is completely sealed unlike the combat harness and its main feature is a rounded plate around their forehead and head. It then features a pair of orange goggle like lenses. Both mandibles are protected by an angular guard and features a neck ring to the back with a pair of lights on each side. Unlike most other Sangheili armors, this helmet only has two mandible guards instead of four separate ones. The helmet also has metal plates along the Sangheili's neck.

The shoulder pauldron is squared off with a simple set of shapes and rectangle plate with a roughly triangular form on each side. The thoracic cage of the Assault harness is nearly identical to that of the standard combat harness. The differences include a pair of clasps on each shoulder and a hexagonal piece armor set on the center of the chest.

Usage
The Assault harness is a pre-Covenant Sangheili design, restricted from use following the signing of the Writ of Union due to its effectiveness. Throughout the Covenant empire, the armor remained in use in only limited quantities, though the onset of the Great Schism ultimately saw the design brought back into service. A bridge officer aboard the Resplendent Fervor wore the Assault armor during Operation: WARM BLANKET in 2544. In 2549,during the Invasion of Algolis a Sangheili employing the armor participated in the Surprise assault on Weapons Research Facility T12A. A Sangheili serving onboard the Fleet of Righteous Vigilance's Flagship employed the Harness. Usze 'Taham employed the armor during the Battles of Battle for Earth and Battle of Installation 00. Rtas 'Vadum employed the Assault armor chest and shoulder pieces during these events.

In the 2558 Ealen IV peace talks, several Assault-clad troops of the Swords of Sanghelios accompanied the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam as part of the leader's personal guard.

Halo 3
The Assault harness is unlockable as an armor permutation for Elite characters in Halo 3. In co-operative play in the campaign, the fourth player will play as Usze 'Taham and employ the Assault harness in the process.

Production notes

 * In the Halo 3 level Floodgate, some Sangheili corpses have an Assault helmet, but due to a glitch, the Combat helmets are on them as well, making a combination helmet. These corpses only appear toward the end of level in the crashed Flood ship.
 * In concept art released for The Package, the Assault harness was incorrectly labeled as the Flight harness.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Legends
 * Prototype
 * The Package
 * Halo: Evolutions
 * The Return
 * Halo: Escalation