M8 Wolf Spider

An M8 Wolf Spider turret in its active and inactive states.

The M8 Automated Defense System (M8 ADS), nicknamed the Wolf Spider, was an automated defense turret manufactured by Misriah Armory and utilized by the UNSC on sites labelled important by the Office of Naval Intelligence. During the Fall of Reach, four Wolf Spiders were deployed around Dr. Catherine Halsey's lab at the Forerunner artifact beneath SWORD Base.

Overview

Design

The Wolf Spider fires 12.7×99mm Armor-Piercing rounds, which are contained in a 10,000-round drum. To sight and calculate targets, an optic sensor is mounted under the barrel. As a networked array of mounted turrets, the Wolf Spiders need to be deployed on overlapping field of fire to put their use into the best effect. They can attack both ground and air forces.

Operation

Multiple Wolf Spiders act as a single machine, sensing, tracking, and firing on targets. With overlapping fields of fire, they can easily eliminate said targets with their automatic fire. After being seriously damaged, the Wolf Spider trips a killswitch, which drops the weapon back into the pod and closes the hatch for protection, requiring a manual reactivation after they finished recharging. They could be linked to a heads up display that would display their structural integrity.

Trivia

• The turret's firing sound and firepower is the same as the UH-144 Falcon's Autocannon and also seems to fire in bursts. This may indicate that the guns are related or that both use a different variant of the Autocannon, though they use different size of rounds.
• In Halo Mash-Up: Minecraft Evolved, the Shulker mob is retextured to look like the Wolf Spider turret.

Gallery

• HR WolfSpider Concept.png

  Concept art of the M8 Automated Defense System.

• 

  In-game views of the M8 ADS Wolf Spider Turret in its active and inactive states in the Babd Catha Forerunner Complex in Halo: Reach.

List of appearances

• Halo: Reach (First appearance)
• Halo: Ground Command
• Halo: Lone Wolf