M12G1 Gauss Warthog

The M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle, abbreviated as the M12G1 LAAV and commonly known as the Gauss 'Hog, is a United Nations Space Command ground vehicle. The Gauss 'Hog is a variant of the M12 Force Application Vehicle and features a mounted M68 ALIM Gauss Cannon.

Design details
The M12G1 LAAV is one of UNSC's anti-armor vehicles, designed to quickly and efficiently defeat lightly armored vehicles such as Type-25 RAV "Chopper" and Type-32 RAV "Ghost", while also being a threat to Type-26 Assault Gun Carriage "Wraiths". The Gauss 'Hog is almost exactly the same in every detail to the M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle except that it is equipped with a mounted M68 Gauss Cannon, which fires a 25mm hypersonic projectile by means of magnetic acceleration. It takes about a half a second to recharge between cannon shots. Although it appears more rarely than the standard Warthog, its capabilities make it a fearsome, agile and powerful vehicle to use.

Operational history
In the opening actions of the Fall of Reach in July 2552, Noble Team members Noble Two and Six drove a Gauss Warthog when returning to Sword Base after clearing out Covenant hostiles in Sword Base's outposts Airview Base and Farragut Station.

During the Battle of Mombasa in October, Gunnery Sergeant Stacker drove a Gauss Warthog and offered it to MCPO John-117 in Kilindini Park Cultural Center, New Mombasa. The Warthog led the Spartan-II commando to the UNSC Marine command post in Sector B, which caused the end of the Covenant Scarab in the city. As the Battle of Mombasa draw to a close, three ODSTs from a surviving squad commandeered a Gauss Hog during their escape on the city's Waterfront Highway and escort of an important assest.

Later in the same year, UNSC Marine forces assaulting the Installation 05 Library used a Gauss Warthog to battle the Flood forms in the Quarantine Zone. The Flood combat forms then killed the humans and took the Warthog, which was later destroyed by the Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee and his SpecOps forces.

During the end of the Human-Covenant War, the Marines from the utilized a Gauss Warthog during their battle near Installation 00's Cartographer. Once again, the Gauss Warthog was offered to John-117, but by PFC Chips Dubbo, and yet again, the Gauss Warthog played a vital role in bringing down the Covenant Scarab defending the Cartographer. Another Gauss Warthog was dropped by a Pelican supported the UNSC forces attacking the Citadel.

In 2554, during the first combat operations on Requiem, several M12G1's were deployed to engage Covenant ground forces. Several were attached to Gypsy Company, and John-117 used one during his defense of the Mammoth assigned to destroy the Forerunner particle cannons guarding the gravity well holding the within the planet.

Upon the Infinity's return to Requiem later in the same year, more Gauss Hogs were deployed to the interior of Requiem to aid in the removal of Covenant forces. Several were used by Fireteam Crimson during their missions, including the clearing of the location known as Quarry and the defense of Cauldron Base.

Trivia

 * In the E3 2000 Halo: Combat Evolved trailer, a Warthog was shown featuring a turret similar in appearance to the Halo 2 Gauss turret.
 * In the Halo Wars campaign, Sergant Forge's Warthog will always be an M12G1, regardless of whether the player has researched the Gauss cannon.
 * During the Halo 2 E3 Demo, the Gauss cannon of the Gauss Warthog was shooting at a fairly decent speed. In an early beta multiplayer phase, however, the Gauss Warthog seemed to be slowed down and also seemed to have lost all of its hype. It was later revamped to its original rate of fire during the game's final stages.
 * In Halo Reach, the Gauss cannon is capable of shooting clean through all forged objects in the multiplayer map Forge World.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo: Uprising
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Palace Hotel
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo 4