Combat bridging vehicle

The combat bridging vehicle, colloquially known as a CBV, is a Covenant vehicle designed to launch a bridge of up to one kilometer in length over chasms that would otherwise be an obstacle to Covenant forces. The process to create this bridge so that Covenant forces can continue their advance takes less than a minute to complete.

Description
The combat bridging vehicle possesses articulated cylinders on the back of the unit that contain the bridging apparatus when it is ready to be deployed. The CBV itself possesses heavy-duty energy shielding in order to prevent the bridging equipment from being destroyed before it reaches its destination. In the front of the vehicle is a bulbous driver's cabin with a canopy.

Operational History
In 2526, during the Human-Covenant War, the Covenant deployed 3 CBVs with support from 100 armored personnel carriers (APCs) as well as several Wraiths and rapid assault vehicles (RAVs) on the planet Mesra in an attempt to cross a gorge and gain access to a mine and its resources. Blue Team was tasked with destroying the CBVs to prevent them from crossing the gorge. After the first two were destroyed, the Covenant pulled back their third vehicle and reinforced their wraiths with 50 combat support vehicles shortly after.

Trivia

 * The APCs that support the CBVs' advance are described as "slow moving" and possess a plasma cannon. This description matches the Type-29 Shadow. Whether or not this vehicle is a Shadow, an Umbra, or a completely diffierent Covenant vehicle is unclear.
 * The CBV is the first ground vehicle to feature a Kig-Yar operator.
 * In addition, the Rapid Assault Vehicles supporting the CBVs are described as "single seat RAVs" that "looked like motorcycles with front wings and no wheels", which matches the description of the Type-32 Ghost. However, Blue Team refers to these vehicles only as RAVs throughout the book. Oddly enough, like the CBVs, they are also piloted by Kig-Yar, which is unusual. Whether or not these vehicles are ghosts, but were not designated as such by ONI yet or if they were completely different vehicles altogether is unknown.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Oblivion