Suicide attack

There is more information available on this subject at Suicide attack on the English Wikipedia.

Not to be confused with Suicide Mission, which refers to a mission with little-to-no chance of survival

An Unggoy Storm priming two plasma grenades in Halo 5: Guardians.

A suicide attack is an attack intended to kill others and inflict widespread damage, in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process. This tactic is commonly, though not exclusively, used by Unggoy troops due to their cannon fodder status, and the general disregard for their morale by their Sangheili or Jiralhanae commanders.

Tactics

A Banished suicide squad.

Suicide attacks have been used throughout human history. Japanese Kamikaze pilots were often assigned suicidal missions, during World War II. Suicide attacks have been used by many terrorist groups to instill fear to other people.

Various Insurrectionist groups have used suicidal tactics, including the use of "Rumbledrugs" which gave the user superhuman abilities but also caused irreversible physiological damage, often killing the user.^[1] In addition, it was not unheard of for insurgents to sacrifice themselves in terrorist bombings.^[2] The Spartan-III program was initiated to create expendable Spartan soldiers to combat the Covenant in high-risk, suicidal missions during the Human-Covenant War. Several of these missions include Operation: PROMETHEUS and Operation: TORPEDO, which both resulted in high Spartan-III casualties.^[3]^[4]

In combat, Unggoy troops will sometimes enter a berserker rage, similar to that of the Jiralhanae, but instead will brandish a pair of ignited plasma grenades and rush the enemy. Additionally, the Covenant and the Banished sometimes employed specialized units of Unggoy, called "suicide squads" by the UNSC, whose primary offensive tactic was to rush toward the enemy with a pair of ignited plasma grenades or with explosive methane canisters.^[5]^[6]

Notable incidents

A suicide bomber affiliated with the Freedom and Liberation Party loaded a commercial nuclear explosive along with several tons of scrap Cadmium into a rental truck before detonating it in the promenade of the Haven arcology. The blast killed two million people and injured a further 8.3 million.^[7]^[8]
In Casbah City on Tribute, an insurrectionist detonated nearby bombs in a Jim Dandy's restaurant, killing herself. The bombing killed three Marines, and 38 civilians.^[9]
ODST Michael Baird ingested the deadly Rumbledrugs aboard UNSC The Heart of Midlothian in order to gain the strength needed to combat boarding Covenant forces. At the bridge of the ship, he intentionally attacked the commanding Sangheili in order to get the alien to kill him. With no other humans onboard, the ship's AI, Mo Ye, was able to make the ship self-destruct to kill the Covenant forces and destroy the ship's navigation data.^[1]
During the Fall of Reach, Covenant suicide squads were deployed within the buildings of New Alexandria as a shock tactic against civilians and UNSC forces.^[5]
Towards the end of the Battle of Mombasa, the Huragok were forced to don armor that would explode if it took too much damage, dispersing smaller charges in a wide radius.
During the Onyx Conflict, squads of Unggoy plasma mortar operators were successfully deployed in a suicidal diversionary attack to distract Spartan forces as a battalion of Sangheili make ready to attack the core room antechamber of Onyx.^[10]
During the Battle of Installation 00, pilots of Longsword fighters too damaged to return to their ships attempted to smash their fighters into enemy ships.^[11]
During the Battle of Draetheus V, numerous Unggoy suicide troops were used in an attempt to breach Faraday Base's wall.^[12]

Gallery

An Unggoy Minor charging a foe with a pair of active plasma grenades in Halo 3.
Suicide Unggoy in Halo Wars.
Halo Wars Suicide Unggoy in-game
Closeup of a single Suicide Unggoy
A suicidal Unggoy Minor brandishing twin plasma grenades in Halo: Reach.
A swarm of suicidal Unggoy wielding plasma grenades.
Several suicidal Unggoy preparing to rush the enemy.
A group of suicidal Special Operations Unggoy attacking SPARTAN-B312.
Concept art for an unused belt bomb in Halo 4.
Banished suicide Unggoy in Halo Wars 2.