Shua'ee-pattern Locust

Locust

The Locust is a Covenant ground combat vehicle featured in Halo Wars. It is described as a "building killer" and Spartans can hijack it, like many other vehicles.

Appearance
The Locust is a smaller version of the Scarab walker, with only one rotating turret which hosts a single large cannon. It does not however share the Scarabs spiked "feet", Its four legs may allow it to kneel down or climb over obstacles, like its larger cousin. Its central turret looks similar to a Banshee cockpit. It fires a straight purple-pink beam, useful against ground and air targets. The vehicle itself is roughly similar to the Scorpion in size.

Combat and Tactics
The Locust is, like the Scarab, another mining unit refitted for combat, probably the top-long-range Covenant ground unit, and, for this reason, a quite slow one. Specifically designed to take down static targets, it can be upgraded to have the "Overdrive" special attack, which allows it to divert energy from its shield generator to the main cannon increasing its damage, and to have a "Shield amplifier" which makes the Locust shield regenerate at a much faster rate. The Locust is known to open fire only when stationary. A very good combo when fighting as the Covenant is to field two Scarabs and three Locusts. The Locusts will move ahead of the two Scarabs, and use their weapons to destroy anything, be buildings, infantry, or vehicles. The two Scarabs will move in from behind, effectively obliterating anything the Locusts left behind. The only downside to this formation is that the Scarabs and Locusts aren't super effective against aircraft, and may be vulnerable. The Locust is also extremely vulnerable to anti-vehicle fire, such as from Scorpions or Marine Rocket Launchers, and, once its shields are down, can be taken out with as little as a couple of rounds from a Scorpion's cannon.

Due to the nature of their long range weapon, large groups of locusts can combine their firepower with extreme efficiency and effectiveness, unlike all other land vehicles, for whom condensed groups can prove to be a problem. Coupled with amazing range, virtually nothing can come within effective range of an army of Locusts, save for another one (or perhaps a Scarab, which is going down anyways). For this reason, forces entirely composed of Locusts have proven to be vastly superior to forces entirely composed of other land vehicles, save for an army of Scorpion tanks and UNSC Cobras, which are extremely effective against Locusts and can match their range when deployed.

Upgrades:
 * 1.Overdrive- enables overdrive special attack which drains shield to boost power.
 * 2.Shield amplifier- increases shield regeneration rate. Useful for using the overdrive ability repeatedly. Also stacks with the "shield of the forerunners" upgrade from the temple, allowing a quicker recharge rate.

Resource: 300

Minimum Tech Level: 2

Population Count: 3

Trivia

 * The Locust cannot be made until the Age of Doubt is researched.
 * The Locust follows the naming scheme used on Covenant walkers, starting with the Scarab, where the vehicle is named after an insect.
 * The Locust is the Covenant's equivalent to the Cobra's special (single) cannon and the Cyclops.
 * It resembles its larger counterpart, the Scarab, especially the Scarabs from the Halo Graphic Novel.
 * It seems to be a cross between a Banshee and a small Scarab.
 * It also resembles the Anti-Aircraft Batteries from Halo 2 and Halo 3.
 * It is possible that that the Locust are the insect-like mining vehicles seen at the Battle of Reach, as mentioned in Halo: First Strike attempting to break into CASTLE Base. These vehicles were previously believed to be an early version of the Scarab.