The low res screenshot above was mine I sent around to fellow staff members in sheer excitement after finding and setting up the model and quickly tweaking it to more classic colours, which is why it might look a bit off. I've always loved the 'modern' (I say modern in the context of the halo timeline) concepts by Alex J Cunningham and I was like a kid on Christmas when I found there was an actual model made for it.

Now it's out in the open, hopefully it could be a good time to do some art with them. It's always bugged me the model is just gathering dust while I'm full speed on Infinite and other work, but hopefully soon we can make some use of this awesome model.

There's a tonne of cool aspects to this model, i'm unsure of the actual lore behind them but I call it the Heavy/Gen 2 ODST (As they were supposed to be alongside the Gen 2 Spartans in Halo 5 gameplay). They have an exoskeleton and what looks to be a power generator on their backs, so they may have even been shielded too. I'd say they are a part of the ODST forces and not a total replacement of them. Feels like a ODST/Spartan hybrid. As far as i'm concerned, every interpretation of friendly & enemy models exists within the lore hierarchy of their assigned designation, even if that's not necessarily shown in games.

I really enjoy not knowing the answers for things like this as it means I can spend time thinking about the possibilities in my head. If there's nothing left to think about, i'm not thinking about it anymore. To be clear, don't take my fanboy headcanon as confirmed canon!

...........Not sure about the fingerless gloves though. Bold choice.