UNIT #SFMC4701-4304-33:  Mark 33 Personal Armor Suit:

To the Chief of Starfleet Operations, the Corps of Engineers, the Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense, the Mark Thirty-three unit is referred to by the politically correct term of "encounter suit."  To the Starfleet Marine Corps, it is classified as a battle suit.  To the select few chosen to wear the ultra-sophisticated piece of hardware, it is referred to as the "war wagon."  It is, without question, the most sophisticated and versatile piece of technology ever created for the battlefield.  Wherever that battlefield may be.

It is said that, as the Space Marines go, based on their training, skills and aptitudes alone, any one of them would hold a position of command amongst the Starfleet "regulars."  And that is undeniably true.  The nature of their duties not withstanding, Starfleet command tabs many of these unique and talented individuals for officer’s candidate school and other advanced training.  And, a surprising number go on to become successful engineers and doctors in Starfleet.  This is a tribute to the high academic standard that has been set for the Space Marines.  A factor that is often overlooked by most of the Regulars.

Nowhere is this evidenced better than with the Space Marine’s most visible symbol: the encounter suit.  Learning to use one of these suits effectively is akin to advanced tactical training in weapons operation and starship combat strategy and tactics, with a healthy dose of practical engineering thrown in.  A number of potential Space Marines, pass the grueling physical battery, only to weed out when faced with the requirements of mastering the Mark Thirty-three.  In effect, the Mk-33 is, in itself, a mobile spacecraft.

The Mk-33 is designed to provide the Space Marine the ability to combat any foe in any type of environment:  shipboard, sea, air, land, space, or hostile environment.  And it is brutally capable of performing this function.

While many mistake the Mk-33 for being, merely, an armored EVA suit (from which the concept sprang from), it is more appropriate to think of it as a vessel.  Part hovercraft.  Part tank.  Part atmospheric re-entry vehicle.  Part interceptor.  In reality, the suit did not take on its present configuration until Medusan Shadrach Domo, lent his services to the design team.  A Zee Magnees prizewinner for cybernetics, Domo revolutionized the program.

The true marvel of the suit is the amount of computing power, or "brains" it contains.  Its computing systems utilize revolutionary nanotechnology, still classified at the highest levels of Starfleet.  This vast and adaptable computer "mind," gives the wearer the equivalent of a mobile battle computer.  And it has the ability to learn.  In fact, the longer it remains online, the more the system learns about tendencies, strategies and tactics.  And it feeds these solutions to the wearer constantly.

Features of the suit include:

· Enhanced visual, audio, and sensor systems.

· Extensive electronic and photonic countermeasures.

· Internal battle computer.  Including enhanced and automated targeting features.

· Primary, secondary and tertiary control systems which include, HUD technology, keypad commands and sub-audio commands processed through a sub-dermal (implanted) subvocalizer.

· Enhanced artificial musculature.  Provides wearer with enhanced strength, speed and agility.

· Personal shield systems.

· A-Grav propulsion technology with enhanced thruster abilities.

· Extensive life support systems, including gill pack technology for underwater ops.

· Magnatomic supplemental adhesion systems.

· Primary (heavy) and secondary armor plating.

· Planetary re-entry systems.

· Quantum Gradient Translator.