Armiger Soldier

Armiger Soldier
Overview
Role:	Combat construct; Infantry defence;
Manufacturer:	Ferrarius Assembler Vats
Height:	248.7 centimeters (8.16 ft)
Mass:	183.7 kilograms (404.9 lb)
Armament:	Various Forerunner infantry weapons

"Soldier" redirects here. For the Mjolnir armor, see SOLDIER-class Mjolnir.

Soldiers are the baseline classification of armiger developed by the Forerunners for use in war. Although technically a form of Sentinel,^[4] Soldiers are sometimes termed "Armiger Soldiers" due to their usage by Warrior-Servant and Promethean forces - though they do not share a relation with the superficially-similar Promethean Knights, Crawlers or Watchers.^[2]^[3]

Overview

Design details

Although they bear some superficial similarities to the Promethean Knights, these similarities are only aesthetic. Where Knights are created from composed essences of formerly-sentient living beings, Soldiers (as with all armigers) are driven by a controlling ancilla.^[2]^[5] As such, armigers are classed as a form of sentinel automata - not a Promethean.^[4]

Soldiers are the baseline production unit of armiger, designed with a balanced focus of attack designed to engage and overwhelm enemies with speed and numbers as opposed to firepower or tactical superiority. As such, they are the most common form of armiger, and were near-universally deployed by the Forerunners in all of their major wars.^[3] They have a distinctly humanoid appearance in comparison to other Promethean constructs, having one set of arms with small, five-fingered hands. Their main locomotion is provided by a pair of long, thin legs designed for agility and speed. Soldiers are covered in patterns of light and have a fire-like glow inside their heads. In addition, they are capable of slipspace translocation. Unlike other Sentinel units, Armiger Soldiers are also capable of speech. The Soldiers encountered in the modern era are known to taunt their human opponents in English.^[6]

Variants

With the widespread proliferation of Soldiers across the ecumene, they came to be employed by a number of political blocs and minor factions across the Forerunners' empire - each producing their own unique Soldier variants to perform specialised functions as-needed. A number of these units' have been recovered by the modern-era United Nations Space Command and utilised within the War Games training simulations in a purely-theoretical framework.^[3]

Armiger variants used in War Games, built upon the base Soldier platform include;

History

During the Human-Forerunner war, the Ur-Didact deployed Armigers. Due to their bipedal form and agility, the Armigers proved incredibly useful for raiding ancient human warships, particularly when infiltrating the vessels' confined spaces.

Following the conflict, the Didact was forced into exile by the ecumene Council, and his rate was diminished. When the Flood eventually returned, the ecumene found themselves dangerously unprepared, and so the Master Builder Faber recommissioned the production of Armigers to combat the Flood and to compensate for the dwindling number of Warrior-Servants.

While most Soldiers were expended during the Forerunner-Flood war, some were tasked with guarding key Forerunner sites in the event the Halo Array was fired. The UNSC first encountered these Soldiers in 2558 under control of Cortana and her faction, the Created, and they have since been integrated into the Spartan-IV War Games simulations aboard the UNSC Infinity.

Known Soldiers

Hestro
Spark

Gallery

Concept art of the Armiger Soldier for Halo 5: Guardians.
Concept art of various Soldier types.
A study of the Armiger Soldier in Halo 5: Guardians.
An Armiger Soldier during the Battle of Sunaion.
Jameson Locke engaging a Soldier.
Frederic-104 assassinating a Armiger Officer in the Gateway.
A Soldier trapped by 031 Exuberant Witness on Genesis.
Armiger Soldiers on the Warzone map Escape from ARC.
A Soldier on Escape from ARC.
Various types of Armiger Soldiers.
A pair of Soldiers.
A damaged Soldier in combat.
The "face" of a Soldier.
Soldiers teleporting.
Soldiers assaulting Pinnacle Station on Meridian.
A Soldier with an MA5D assault rifle on Raid on Apex 7.
A Soldier piloting an Ultra Type-54 Ghost.
Soldiers driving an Urban M12 Warthog LRV on Attack on Sanctum.
A Legendary Soldier on Skirmish at Darkstar.
A Mythic Soldier.
Concept art for Halo Infinite depicting Jiralhanae in combat with Soldiers.

List of appearances

Sources

^ Halo Waypoint, Soldier (Retrieved on May 14, 2021) [archive]
^ ^a ^b ^c Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Under Locke & Keynote (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2021) [archive]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 330-331
^ ^a ^b Halo: Warfleet, page 90: "Forerunner combat Sentinels used in planetary operations. The spread of the logic plague and corruption of armiger forces was a major blow to Warrior-Servant military effectiveness."
^ Halo Waypoint Forums, Canon Fodder 6-19-15: Under Locke & Keynote (Retrieved on Mar 5, 2021) [archive]
^ Halo 5: Guardians, Soldier in-game units

[universe-1] Halo Waypoint, Soldier (Retrieved on May 14, 2021) [archive]

[CFLocke-2] Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Under Locke & Keynote (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2021) [archive]

[Enc22-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 330-331

[WFG-4] Halo: Warfleet, page 90: "Forerunner combat Sentinels used in planetary operations. The spread of the logic plague and corruption of armiger forces was a major blow to Warrior-Servant military effectiveness."

[Forum-5] Halo Waypoint Forums, Canon Fodder 6-19-15: Under Locke & Keynote (Retrieved on Mar 5, 2021) [archive]

[6] Halo 5: Guardians, Soldier in-game units

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