Guardian Custode
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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- 031 Exuberant Witness: "A single Guardian can effectively police a solar system. This show of force is unsettling."
- Olympia Vale: "I'm sorry, 'police'? 'Show of force'?!"
- 031 Exuberant Witness: "Indeed. Guardians are how the Forerunners enforced peace on the lower systems."
- — 031 Exuberant Witness and Olympia Vale, after Cortana called several Guardians to Genesis.[2]
Guardian Custodes,[3] commonly known simply as Guardians, are powerful Forerunner constructs built to enforce the Mantle within the ecumene.[1] Custodes are part of a wider category of policing constructs known as Peacemakers. Along with the Preceptors, the Guardians were classified as tier-two Peacemakers that were largely used to enforce order among the Forerunners' lesser subject species rather than Forerunner-inhabited systems,[3] achieved through the utilization of EMP blasts that disarm conventional military forces and the firing of lethal beams that can kill the populace of cities or destroy entire worlds as a last resort.[6][4]
Manufactured by the Minoris Assembler Vats, the Guardians were controlled by ancilla and operated through their connection to the Domain.[3] In October 2558, Cortana took control of the Guardians to enforce the will of her Created until her demise, leaving them deactivated.[2][7][4][8][9]
Overview[edit]
Design details[edit]
- "Whoa. They built them big, didn't they? Figure that's the Guardian?"
- — Spartan Edward Buck, upon first spotting a Guardian.[10]
The body of the Guardian Custode is variable and ever-changing, shaping itself to awe, inspire, and maximize effectiveness of all defensive systems. Generally, Guardians have a segmented body and elaborate, phoenix-like wings consisting of multiple segments - very similar in appearance to Abaddon, the knowledge engine of the Precursors. They possess a head that is vertically roughly elliptical, topped with a broad, vaguely conical protrusion and a roughly humanoid face similar to that of the Promethean constructs. The appearance of the Guardians unnerved many Forerunners, though all attempts to change their look were unsuccessful.[3][4] The Guardians are enormous constructs, measuring just over 1,412 meters (4,635 feet) in height,[1] with a mass of two hundred million metric tons.[3]
They are capable of concealing themselves underground,[11] underwater,[12] and under lava, and are also capable of traveling through slipstream space.[13] The wings of the Guardians, known as "focus wings", contain energy condensers which draw power from the surrounding quantum vacuum. They also contain effectors which magnify the Custode's electromagnetic pulse.[3] Guardian shielding is capable of withstanding the attack from a human frigate's Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, as well as numerous missiles.[14] Guardians had the authority to plant assembler vats on the worlds they monitored, which would eventually grow and expand to staging areas and factories for the lesser Sentinels and weapon-ships that served them.[3]
The constructs have no crew and instead each Guardian is controlled by an anci