Covenant drop pod

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The orbital insertion pod is a single-occupant high-altitude deployment vehicle used by the Covenant. Upon impact with the ground, the pod's hatch blasts open, revealing the interior and allowing the Sangheili inside to exit.

Overview
When the Covenant conduct ground operations on a planets, they use orbital insertion pods to drop Sangheili to the planet's surface as shock troops. Use of these pods is very hazardous, and is reserved only for critical situations, or when a surprise attack is necessary. The vaguely coffin-shaped pods are small and cramped, with barely enough room for one Sangheili and his weapon, and there appear to be no restraints or other devices inside, save for a control panel in the hatch, which may be used by the occupant to steer the pod. Upon landing, the front of the pod blows off to allow exit.

There are several variants of the insertion pod; one is cylindrical, with two tapered, slightly angular ends, while the other is bulkier and ovoid-shaped. It is made of burnished cyan-purple metal, but has an opulent, white interior with a contour that conforms to the physique of a Covenant Sangheili. An even larger variant of the pod exists, which allows the deployment of multiple Covenant troops.

Appearances
These pods made their first appearance in the Halo 2 E3 Demo, where the Elites came down and openly challenged John-117 with their energy swords. In the games, they first appear in the Halo 2 's campaign level Outskirts and subsequently are present around Mombasa. They also appear in the campaign levels Sacred Icon, Quarantine Zone, and Uprising, occupied by allies of the Arbiter.

They also appear in the Halo 3 's campaign level Floodgate, sent by the Shadow of Intent to aid John-117 and Thel 'Vadam against the Flood infestation in Voi. The impact is hard enough to break the occupying Elite's energy shield once it hits the ground.

They make a return in Halo: Reach, in which they appear to be more rounded and bulky than the previous versions. A multiple-troop variant of the pod is also introduced in Reach; along with appearances in the campaign, these pods are frequently used by the Covenant in the game's Firefight mode. In the campaign level Long Night of Solace, the Covenant corvette Ardent Prayer launches dozens of drop pods, which are destructible if the player can reach them in time. Destroying the pods, however, does not award kills or points.

Trivia

 * In Halo 3, one may enter the pods on the level Floodgate when playing on cooperative play as the second, third, or fourth player (a Sangheili), provided the pods are not shot at all. If the player approaches one and holds the Right Bumper, he can jump into the pod, as if it were a vehicle.
 * The appearance of the drop pod changed dramatically from the E3 2010 demo to its launch version. In the E3 demo it appeared to be more boxy and angular, while the launch version is smoother, more detailed and is more like a wider version of the the one from Halo 2.
 * The Halo: Reach daily challenge "Pod Kettle Black" is completed by destroying ten drop pods on the level Long Night of Solace. Interestingly, colliding with or ramming an insertion pod will destroy a fully-shielded Sabre and kill the player, despite the fact that the Sabre will typically survive a similar collision with a Banshee or Seraph. The death will register as "Collision Damage" and the player will receive a "Collision Damage" kill, but will not receive a Splatter Medal.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: Fall of Reach
 * Invasion
 * Halo 4
 * Halo: Spartan Assault

Related pages

 * Heavy orbital insertion pod