MV-29 Wyvern

The MV-29 Gunship, commonly known as the Wyvern is a heavily armed, combination ground-attack gunship and troop carrier aircraft employed by the Colonial Military Authority and the Gao Republic's Ministry of War.

Design details
A Wyvern is a dark, delta-winged aircraft armed with large amounts of weaponry, including four weapon hardpoints on each wing capable of loading a mix of anti-tank missiles and guided rockets, and two M328 LMGs and two M413 HMGs manned by a total of four gunners. An additional GAU-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannon is available for heavy-duty use.

The Wyvern is optimised for frontier usage, and as such have jet engines and wing-mounted rotors to provide lift and allowed them to travel at high speeds. Wyverns are equipped with forward-looking, infrared, augmented imaging systems that allows the occupants manning the turrets to find and track targets on the ground. Combination ground-attack and troop carrier craft, Wyverns are considered ungainly and slow by the standards of the United Nations Space Command. Capable of carrying twenty passengers, Wyverns can also carry a relatively large complement of Gao battle-jumpers that they can deploy into engagements via drop lines attached to the bellies of the aircraft and accessed by hatches.

Operational history
The MV-29 entered service with Colonial Military Authority air cavalry units shortly before its dissolution in 2525. After this point, most Wyverns were transferred to UNSC Army units or other local planetary security forces on troubled worlds.

On July 6, 2553, President of Gao Arlo Casille issued the order to launch Wyverns against the United Nations Space Command forces looking for an ancilla on Gao. Blue Team and Special Inspector Veta Lopis fled the pursuing Wyverns in M12 Warthogs with the ancilla down the Road of Wonders, occasionally firing shoulder-mounted missile launchers to discourage the aircraft. The Spartans eventually managed to destroy two of the aircraft. Hoping to cause a distraction, Lopis mislead Casille into recalling most of the Wyverns to the Singing Grottos while the Warthogs continued towards the Well of Echoes to use a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon to blow up the Forerunner installation beneath Gao's surface. Blue Team and Lopis dropped the HAVOK into the Well of Echoes and escaped on D102 Owl Silent Claw with the ancilla; as a dozen Wyverns attempted to pursue, the nuke detonated and destroyed the aircraft.

Trivia
A wyvern is an older, more serpentine style of dragon with two wings and two legs.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Last Light