M808 Scorpion

"Tank beats Ghost! Tank beats Hunter! Tank beats everything! Oh, man, I could do this all day!"

- An anonymous Marine's remark of the M808 Scorpion during the Battle of Installation 00.

The M808 Main Battle Tank, commonly referred as the "Scorpion tank", is the United Nations Space Command's mainline armored mobile weapons platform. It was manufactured by Chalybs Defense Solutions.

Design details
The M808 Scorpion is the UNSC's lead armoured vehicle, having served for almost thirty years. Its four-track nacelles design, with each track mounted on an independent computer-controlled suspension system, allows the M808 Scorpion to traverse, climb over, or manoeuvre around large debris or other battlefield obstacles, and prevents the vehicle from being easily disabled. The Scorpion is not the most powerful or quickest UNSC MBT, but it is often considered to be the best marriage between those two qualities.

The central chassis is simple in design containing the main armament at the stern of the hull, a pintle-mounted machine gun, and the crew compartment forward of it. The chassis is covered with heavy titanium-ceramic armor plating, making it incredibly resilient to small-arms fire; however, it is still possible for infantry-portable anti-armor weapons to inflict catastrophic damage. The M808 Scorpion only requires two personnels to fulfill its effective role; the driver pilots the vehicle and has complete control of the main armament while the gunner would man the machine gun. Up to four additional passengers may ride on (and fire from) the vehicle's "jumpseats", though doing so would put them at great risk of enemy counter-attack.

Along with its weapons system the Scorpion is equipped with anti-mine detecting software and electronics to help increase safety while in use.

Armament
The M808 Scorpion is equipped with a two-tier weapon system. Its primary armament is the M512 Smooth-Bore High-Velocity Cannon, a gun capable of firing 90mm tungsten shells and canister rounds with a three-to-four-second interval between each firing session. The primary weapon is also equipped with an autoload feed system, requiring no manual loading from the armor's personnel. The tank can also be outfitted with a 105mm gun for greater offensive power.

Its secondary armament is a pintle-mounted M247T machine gun, capable of firing 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds at a very high rate.

Advantages
The M808 has proven itself to be the workhorse of UNSC armored attack vehicles. Its 90mm cannon can deliver a devastating blow to anything it targets - infantry or armor. Its thick titanium-ceramic armor can withstand a direct hit from a Covenant Fuel Rod Cannon and continue on with enough armor to keep fighting.

Its one man crew severely limits human casualties; along with its main offensive capabilities, four infantrymen can sit on the tread pods of the tank, providing support while using the tank as a transport until they reach their destination.

The Scorpion's efficient engine allows it to travel up to 466 miles or 750km before needing to be refueled. Along with its offensive capabilities as an anti-vehicle platform, the M808 also fulfils the role of anti-infantry; its machine gun can effectively take down heavily armored and shielded targets at medium range, and the main gun is devastating to infantry targets at any range, instantly killing targets at the impact zone and severely injuring those close by.

Disadvantages
The M808's 90mm cannon must be reloaded after every shot and takes between three to four seconds, the time it takes for the cannon to reload may give the enemy enough time to react against the tank. Its deep dead-zone, or the area within which fire from the tank's guns cannot hit targets, puts the vehicle at risk from enemy anti-tank infantry.

Although the Scorpion can carry up to four passengers, any infantryman sitting on the tread covers of the Scorpion would be vulnerable to small-arms fire, and any explosions near the tank can kill all personnel riding on the treads. The M808's slow speed also puts it at a disadvantage, as other more nimble vehicles like the Ghost can out-maneuver the tank and get within its dead-zone.

Operational history
"How does 90 millimeters of tungsten strike ya?"

- A Marine's remark of the M808 Scorpion's main cannon during the Battle of Installation 00.

The M808 Scorpion was still in service during the events of the Human-Covenant War, serving alongside the M808B Scorpion and the M850 Grizzly.

During the Fall of Reach in 2552, Scorpions were dispatched around the continent of Eposz, battling the Covenant invaders, particularly during the Battle at Szurdok Ridge. As the invasion draws to the end, a Scorpion was abandoned near the Covenant-occupied Farragut Station, near the ONI facility Sword Base. It was recovered by SPARTAN-B312 and the ODST squad accompanying the Spartan, later causing the destruction of the nearby Covenant anti-air cannons, and paving the team's way to Sword Base's gate. More Scorpions saw action during the Battle of Aszod, but most of them were destroyed under the overwhelming Covenant forces.

Numerous Scorpions were utilized by the UNSC Marines during the Battle of Mombasa, but most of them, again, were destroyed by the Covenant, especially because the diminishing number of Marines in the city. As the battle draws to an end, three ODSTs from a surviving squad commandeered a Scorpion during their escape on the city's Waterfront Highway and escort an important asset.

During the later parts of the Battle of Earth, the military base Crow's Nest was used as a storage for UNSC vehicles, including Scorpions, some of which were destroyed when the Covenant assaulted the base.

Near the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War, particularly throughout the Battle of Installation 00, three Scorpions, one of them commandeered by John-117, were deployed from near Installation 00's Cartographer to punch through the Covenant defense to get to the Cartographer. In the ending hour of the war, a Scorpion, dropped from a D77H-TCI Pelican was utilized in the Battle of the Citadel, in which it played a vital role to eliminate the two Covenant Scarab walkers.

Variants

 * M808B Scorpion

Changes from Halo 3/Halo 3: ODST to Halo: Reach

 * The tank has received a visual upgrade, giving it a grittier, more military look, including a greener paint scheme.
 * The tank has considerably less armor than its earlier counterparts, making it somewhat more balanced with the Wraith.
 * The tank visually recoils when firing the main gun. Shell casings are released out the back of the turret when it is fired.
 * The cockpit now has a translucent canopy, which reveals the driver.
 * The main gun is more powerful, with a larger blast radius; it has the ability to destroy a Wraith with two shots.
 * The main gun can be blasted off, rendering the tank ineffective in assaulting.
 * The velocity of the main cannon fire has been slightly decreased.
 * The reticule of the main gun now has vertical bars on its sides that fill as the the cannon is reloaded.
 * The secondary turret now overheats after continuous fire, much like the Wraith's turret.
 * The turret now slows down to a stop after rotating, it also turns slower than in Halo 3 and the Scorpion's rotating speed is also slower.
 * The tread coverings may be destroyed, which prevents the ODSTs on the level The Package from riding on them.

Changes from Halo: Reach to Halo 4

 * The velocity of the main cannon has been drastically reduced, now travelling at a fraction of the speed seen in any other game. The shot also arcs visibly at long range.
 * Along with other UNSC vehicles, a heavily damaged Scorpion will emit a siren.
 * The tank's speed has once again been decreased.
 * The pintle-mounted machine gun has been given more accuracy and now behaves more similarly to the Warthog's machine gun turret.
 * The tank's reticule has been changed to a more closed design with a circle at the centre.

Campaign

 * Unless there is a large amount of infantry who can inflict large damage to you, let your gunner eliminate them. Vehicles, if present, are always your first priority.
 * You should always try to give your allies good weapons, such as the M41 Rocket Launcher. A good configuration, especialy in tight quarters, such as those offered by Kizingo Boulevard, is to give the rear-most Marines Rocket Launchers, so they can destroy vehicles, and the other two Marines either the MA5C Assault Rifle or the M90 Shotgun, if possible, so they can kill any enemies which get close to the hull.
 * On higher difficulty levels, the Scorpion is highly vulnerable to being EMP'd by a Plasma Pistol. Any sign of anything charging a charged Plasma Pistol shot should be eliminated as soon as possible.

Multiplayer

 * Another popular tactic is to use a "hull-down" position. The tactic essentially requires the tank to be positioned such that its hull (the main part of the vehicle) is behind a crest or other raised ground, but its turret (or a superstructure or roof-mounted weapon) is exposed.
 * Using a Power Drain or a Plasma Pistol Overcharge will temporarily disable the tank's mobility and will greatly weaken its driver. While the tank's weaponry will still be functional, it will be unable to move and can be easily boarded.
 * An effective hijacking technique is to grab Active Camouflage and wait for the tank to pass-by or approach the player. This is especially brutal in Halo and Reach, where Active Camoflauge is an Armor Ability that can be activated at will.
 * On Sandtrap, a good tactic to hijack a Scorpion is to wait for the tank to go into the middle depression and board it from above.

General

 * A scorpion is a predatory arthropod animal, in keeping with the UNSC's tradition of naming atmospheric vehicles after real animals, with the exceptions of the Cyclops and Gremlin, which are named after mythical creatures, and the Longsword, Shortsword, and Sabre, which are named after bladed weapons.
 * The Scorpion tank resembles an actual scorpion with the front body being the pincers, the rear body being the legs and the cannon being the tail and its stinger.
 * The Legendary Map Pack features the map Avalanche, a remake of the classic Sidewinder. For the remake, the Scorpion tank is adorned in full snow camouflage, along with all other UNSC vehicles. Avalanche is also the first Halo 3 multiplayer map to have a Scorpion placed in it by default.
 * In Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta, the Scorpion had the word "MARINES" marked on its armor. This is not present in the final game.
 * In Halo: Reach, the achievement "Tank Beats Everything" is earned by keeping the tank intact during the ninth mission on Legendary difficulty.
 * In Halo: Reach, if enough damage is directed into certain areas of the Scorpion, it is possible for the main turret to be destroyed and become useless, but you can still drive the tank. The same is true of the tank's machine gun turret.
 * A Scorpion tank is on display in the Museum of Humanity. A small model of the tank is also on display in the museum.

Easter Egg

 * Underneath the turret of the Scorpion in Halo 2, there is a Jack-O-Lantern drawn in blood. This can be found by destroying the turret, then standing on the upside-down turret.
 * In Halo: Reach, the code "S-052" is painted on the side of the Scorpion. This is a reference to SPARTAN Jorge-052, as well as a reference to Bungie's obsession with the number seven (0+5+2=7).
 * In Halo 4 several different warning labels are present on the Scorpion. They read: "DANGER! STRONG MAGNETIC FIELD; NO METALLIC IMPLANTS; NO NEURO STIMULATORS; SERIOUS INJURY MAY RESULT", "DANGER: KEEP HANDS CLEAR OF MOVING MACHINERY", "DANGER: ELECTRIC SHOCK RISK 121 GW", "ELECTRICAL CONNECTION PORT; CONTAINS HIGH VOLTAGE: RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK; CAN CAUSE INJURY OR DEATH; DISCONNECT ALL REMOTE ELECTRICAL POWER SUPPLIES BEFORE SERVICING", and "INVISIBLE LASER RADIATION: AVOID EYE OR SKIN EXPOSURE TO DIRECT OR SCATTER RADIATION LASER TYPE UNSC HIGHVOL WAVELENGTH 343NM, 1024NM; OUTPUT POWER: CLASS IV LASER". One of the labels appears backwards.
 * All of the Scorpions in Halo 4 bear the number 0383, yet another reference to the number seven (0+3+8+3=14, 14/2=7). They also bear two skull decals; one on the left front tread and another on the left side of the main gun's barrel.

Glitches

 * It is possible to perform the Turretless Vehicle Glitch on a Scorpion. It is not possible, however, to then attach another weapon and still be able to drive; for some reason, the Scorpion automatically applies the parking brake.
 * If you melee off the machine gun turret, it will still fire with the bullets appearing to be coming out of where the turret barrel would have been.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo 4