So I couldn't help but notice that the Shanks seem to be a rather integral part of the Fallen foot soldier toolbox. While I do appreciate a solid spray n' pray drone, I suspect that these are going to get a lot more brutal than we know. Like many existing weapon platforms today, the Shank seems to be just a platform. It's just a matter of tweaking software to turn it from a spray n' pray to a longer range accuracy bot or to turn it into a kamikaze unit. On one hand I'm hoping to see this kind of variation just for the challenge of it, but on the other hand.... oh god why?!!! Nothing quite like picking up your spleen after a 2 min walk. I'll break down what I'm betting on seeing as far as Shank variants up to this point. Spray n' Pray- We've seen the spray n' pray variant already in the E3 demo and will likely be the dominant thing we see out of them much like the grunts in Halo. Rocket Ranger- This is rather the obvious next step I see out of the Shanks. A solid artillery style rocket or guided missile shank seems to be the next step in support units for ground units with the air superiority aspect of it and the speed at which they move. If they're using a single rocket they could be rather devastatingly accurate, but if they're using a volley of smaller rockets they may be a lot less accurate. Plasma Drone- Given the ground units weapons and the requirement to charge the weapons to fire what looks much like the plasma weaponry that the Covenant used, I'm betting on a similar type of drone in the Shanks. I expect the Shank version to this would be more along the lines of the fuel rod cannon grunts in Halo. That is to say, more of a slow firing unit that would be launching a heavy plasma ball like projectile that would travel in an arc. Accuracy Shooter- I expect we'd also see an accuracy and ranged based Shank in the mix as well. I'm betting on a much slower firing drone that doesn't really have to fire slow, but takes most of the time to try and get an accurate lock on. I expect it to hit like a truck in a single shot, but will probably be a bit prone to target tracking issues while moving. Tip, keep moving. Suicide Drone- Just like we saw in the grunts from Halo, I expect we'd see the obligatory suicide unit out of the Shanks. They are after all expendable. What makes this potentially more deadly than the Halo grunts is that they're all about business and their potential speed. Imagine one of these strafing the battle field looking for a lock on and then suddenly making a rocket run for you. I can imagine a ton of other ones making it into drones, but I can only see so many actually making it into the game.