Skar'wa-pattern Mantis

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"They're setting up an AA battery. That thing'll tear the Dawn apart..."

- ODST

The Anti-Aircraft Battery is a Covenant Loyalist ground-based stationary anti-aircraft emplacement. It fires bolts of plasma that are extremely damaging. A single round can destroy a C709 Longsword-class Interceptor.

Halo 2 E3 Demo


The AA Battery was first seen in the Halo 2 E3 Demo. When the Covenant invaded Mombasa, they stationed a handful of artillery pieces on the ground, which demolished UNSC buildings. Eventually, SPARTAN-117 and his group of Marines encountered one, and Sergeant Banks called in a Longsword air strike to destroy the stationary mortar. They fired plasma bolts similar to that of Wraiths and in indirect parabolic trajectories. A sizable difference is that in the demo the Anti-Aircraft Battery is larger than its Halo 2 and Halo 3 successors, being a spire-size when Longswords bombed it.

Halo 2
The roles of the AA Battery pieces as an active part of the Covenant assault were greatly downgraded in Halo 2, as the entire First Battle of Earth was downgraded. The Covenant apparently placed several artillery pieces on the beachheads of New Mombasa, but did not fire them.

It is possible they were a form of Artillery rather than an Anti-Air unit as it is called that in the Halo 2 E3 gameplay trailer. In the trailer the wounded Sergeant Banks tells HQ that he has hostile Artillery 200 meters north/northeast of his position.

Halo 3


The AA Battery can be seen in the level The Storm and is the main objective of the level, which is to destroy it so that Lord Hood can start attacking Truth's ships. This time, the bolts that it fires are in a teardrop shape similar to shade and plasma rounds and in an almost straight trajectory. The plasma bolts are extremely powerful, since only their wake are able to take down a Longsword. However, in order to contain the cannon's efficiency, the battery must cool off and release its excess plasma in order to fire again. This makes the AA battery vulnerable to infantry and vehicle attacks (exploited by Spartan 117 and other UNSC participants during The Battle of Voi). One that is in construction can be seen in the level The Ark. Troops are often stationed on and around the gun to safeguard it from ground forces.

Trivia

 * The Covenant Locust bears noticeable resemblance to the Halo 2 design of the AA battery.
 * Oddly it can be destroyed by overcharged plasma pistols.
 * In Halo 2, it is unknown whether the Covenant placed them as a deterrent or as an effective offensive weapon, since none appears to be fired.
 * In Halo 2, if you mod the maps with the AA battery present, you can witness the intended projectile of the weapon. It is very similar to the E3 Demo projectile. This projectile looks exactly the same as a Wraith's Plasma Mortar shot, but has very high damage and an extremely large explosion radius, which is about twice that of the Scarab's main gun beam.
 * It is found in the level The Storm and The Ark in Halo 3
 * It is unclear about how powerful these weapons are. In The Ark, it was reported that one AA gun could "tear the Dawn apart!"