The focus beam is a Forerunner laser weapon employed by monitors and Facilitator-class ancilla.[1][2]
Overview
The focus beam appears to be a more powerful iteration of the sterilization beam commonly associated to Sentinels.[3] Though, unlike the standard sentinel beam typically mounted on Aggressor Sentinels, the focus beam is fired from the monitor's lens on its alloy carapace; doing so turns the lens' glowing light from its default coloration to red.[4][5][6][7][8] As with all sterilization beams,[3] the focus beam could seemingly be tuned for multiple power levels; whereas 686 Ebullient Prism's focus beam disintegrated Reff 'Talamee's body, leaving behind only a heap of gore,[9] when 343 Guilty Spark turned on the UNSC-Sangheili team at Installation 08, his initial burst of focus beam only mortally wounded Avery Johnson, even leaving Johnson alive for long enough to assist John-117 in Spark's defeat.[5]
Production notes
In Halo: Reach Forge, the monitor's default biped weapon is the M'tara-pattern focus rifle, seemingly a reference to the focus beam used by the monitors in fiction. Fittingly, the focus rifle uses reverse-engineered Forerunner technology,[10] particularly copying some aspects of the sentinel beam and the Z-510 focus turret.[11][12]
Gallery
686 Ebullient Prism vaporizes Reff 'Talamee with his focus beam in Halo: Blood Line.
343 Guilty Spark firing his focus beam at a Kig-Yar in the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Terminals.
859 Static Carillon firing his focus beam at the Didact in Halo: Escalation.
117649 Despondent Pyre fires her focus beam at a Skimmer in Halo Infinite.
John-117 shields the Weapon from Adjutant Resolution's focus beam in Halo Infinite.
Adjutant Resolution fires what appears to be a focus beam from the Eradicator Sentinel chassis in Halo Infinite.
List of appearances
- Halo 3 (First appearance)
- Halo: Blood Line
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
- Halo: Escalation
- Halo Infinite
Sources
- ^ Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, chapter 38: "Until the submonitor, that small orb of gray alloy and blue light, came barreling up the pass, focus beam raging from her lens, and everything faded away into black..."
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 237: "Monitors possess a powerful offensive laser much stronger than those of the Sentinels, as well as access to local teleportation grids."
- ^ a b Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 326
- ^ Halo 3, campaign level Floodgate
- ^ a b Halo 3, campaign level Halo
- ^ Halo: Escalation, issue 10
- ^ Halo Infinite, campaign mission Connections: Conservatory
- ^ Halo Infinite, campaign mission Connections: Spire
- ^ Halo: Blood Line, issue 5
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 293
- ^ Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide, page 103
- ^ Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, page 193
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