Article 47: M.I.H.

While many regard the Elemental League's Consortium of corporations little more than a galactic-scale mafia, to do so is to forget that at the heart of this is a series of businesses, and those businesses strive for the same things that other businesses strive for. Profits and productivity, of course, but also a good image in the public eye in order to facilitate the sale of their goods and services. To that extent, the Consortium will often engage in projects that at least on their surface appear to have good intentions at heart. One such project resulted in a line of powered armor referred to as the Morkarium Inclusivity Harness.

As is often the case with these sort of things, the idea at its heart was a good one: Create a support exoskeleton to assist anyone unable to work in completing tasks that they otherwise could not perform. To that extent, the technology certainly already existed. A frame similar to that of the GA's powered armor suits could provide movement even to quadriplegics, and low-level AI systems linked to a larger remote computer could coordinate movements when the suit's occupant was not skilled enough to do the task at hand. At this point, a logical person would begin to wonder why the suit would even need an occupant, and indeed when the earliest models of the harness were tested, the employees using them would quickly learn that they could take naps while doing their jobs, letting the suit do all the work. This setback would cause many projects to be scrapped, but as the Morkarium Inclusivity Harness was designed to be a goodwill project, the designs were sent back to committee, and from there the project quickly began to mutate beyond its original intentions.

First off, the whole sleeping on the job thing had to go. Requiring the suit to do all of the work without even the slightest bit of assistance from the user was generating undue wear and tear on the suits. To that extent, electrostimulant pads were installed throughout the suit, causing muscles to involuntarily flex along with its own movements, increasing efficiency while decreasing stress on the equipment. It also, the designers argued, taught its occupant the muscle memory to perform its duties even when the suit was not worn. This, of course, brought in a new issue, that being that anyone trying to override the suit's own AI commands would find themselves quickly exhausted, and suit operators less able to keep up with or predict its movements were being rapidly exhausted. This was a problem with the pilots, however, not the suits, the committee decided. As a means of increasing the suit's productivity its fittings were redesigned to automatically adjust for permutation of body shapes, horns, tails, wings, and other extraneous body parts within its operational size parameters. Adding to that a fast-deploy system of tiny maneuvering jets on the various pieces allowed the suit to be transferred from operator to operator within seconds, maximizing its productive output. This wasn't the end of it, however. The harness was then equipped with biometric scanners that could detect exactly who was inside and automatically credit their account with their earnings from the job worked, as well as charge them for any damage dealt to their equipment, and when linked with its control unit could even stimulate its occupant into utilizing some of their inherent racial abilities to help complete tasks, compensating them automatically for the effort. It was very nearly declared a complete success when someone on the board realized that these suits were incredibly valuable assets, and in order to safeguard those assets defensive weaponry and layers of armor were added to the suit, though not enough to cover its occupant.

It's entirely possible that someone within the Consortium had themselves come up with the idea of the Morkarium Inclusivity Harness as a weapon and gingerly pushed the committee in the direction it had gone, but it's equally likely that corporate meddling and executive stupidity turned what should have been merely a wonderful tool for those less able to work into a terrifying enslaver of literally anyone at random, but in either case the end result is that the Inclusivity Harness is more often used in skirmishes or in what are essentially forced labor camps than by willing pilots. The transports that carry them and provide them with their orders look like nearly any other Consortium transport, a plain-looking metallic box on hoverskirts. It's only once the pieces of the harness have been shot out of the top and they seek for a target that most enemies of the Consortium realize what they're dealing with. On the battlefield, it's a terrifying thing to deal with as it clamps around you and puppets you into fighting against your allies, all the while leaving you completely exposed and charging your accounts for damages dealt to Consortium property. Only the strongest can prevent it from dictating all of their actions, much less trying to extricate themselves from its cold, metallic grasp, and once it's exhausted a target it will simply disengage itself and pick another to wrap around. In some cases, a single Morkarium Inclusivity Harness can cause an entire enemy squad to dispatch themselves, all the while calculating exactly how much the aggressors owe the consortium. It's understandable, then, that the committee that designed the thing has called it one of their most successful accessibility initiatives.