It sounded like a good idea at the time.
The Human Augmentation Project (or HAP), instituted by Marshal Sarah Dunmeyer in 2243 during the Third Civil War, was a dramatic form of bio-augmentation to convert ordinary mundane human soldiers, currently serving in the Light Infantry, into super-soldiers, giving them the reaction time, stamina, pain tolerance, and strength equivalent of a Tech Infantry trooper. Dr. Thomas Kraitor was the scientist in charge of this project and, under orders from Dunmeyer, converted several hundred of these LI troopers to serve the Tech Infantry Rebels faction.
The downside was that the human's life expectancy was significantly decreased. If the chemicals weren't removed within five years, the body died, worn out from the constant strain. Worse, the reversal process was only 60% effective. It was this project—among other reasons—that led to the coup that toppled Dunmeyer's leadership. Following the end of the Third Civil War, the project was disbanded and its research materials destroyed on orders from Chairman Arthur Clarke... although of course rumors persist that research was quietly continued behind a veil of secrecy.
Behind the Scenes[]
HAP was first mentioned in Guilty by Design, Act III during Season 4.3. It allowed Alistar Dimiye to get reinforcements for his unit prior to the Battle of Babylon, and also allowed a political element into Dimiye's story. Writer/player Frank D'Antuono was probably inspired by the "Juicer" super-soldiers from the RIFTS role-playing game.
Amusingly, the picture we used to illustrate it is from the single most fate-temptingly named project in human history. A Japanese company named Cyberdyne actually designed a robotic/cybernetics project HAL -- Hybrid Assistive Limb.