Ghoul

The Ghoul, known to the Covenant as the Tempest-class armored assault sled and classified by the UNSC as the Type-33 Main Battle Tank, is a somewhat uncommon Covenant ground war-machine.

Design details
The Ghoul has an easily recognizable tear-shaped hull with its cockpit(s) forward of the main armament, located in the center or back-center. The number of crew positions is dependent on pattern - with the Ghoul sometimes having a separate gunner for the main armament and/or having a gunner for the secondary armament.

The Ghoul's armor is focused entirely on its dorsal side, with its ventral side being high susceptible to most types of UNSC mines. The armor's toughness varies depending on pattern once again, however most are fairly resistant to UNSC auto-cannons and anti-materiel rifles. The Ghoul is also capable of absorbing "a shot or two" from some human anti-tank weapons. Heavier variants have shielding, though they are quick to fail due to power constraints and are often left off entirely. Like many Covenant ground vehicles, the Ghoul uses boosted gravity propulsion to hover and maneuver. Despite it being generally smaller and lighter than the Wraith, the Ghoul has long standing issues of poor power-to-weight ratio thanks to its small and cheap reactors. This results in sub-par speed, poor stability and power failures when firing. Measures to counteract these flaws were usually to replace its standard heavy plasma cannon with with a bastardized heavy fuel rod cannon instead, lessening the power draw and potential for failures. Early shielded production runs had their generators removed entirely.

Retrofitted Ghouls during the war with humanity used great stocks of Wraith-based reactors to correct the issue. However, they were still badly unstable, particularly when struck with explosive munitions, and are known to flip over entirely as a result.

Armament-wise, the Tempest assault sled could carry a wide variety of armaments to fulfill many roles within the Covenant military, though specialized patterns could make better use weapon systems with built in sensors and munition control. Rare variants also include light and heavy plasma mortars, though these are superseded by Wraiths and Revenants, as they were simply better platforms.

Aspan-pattern
The original production run of the Tempest, initialized more than 300 years before contact with Humanity. It was originally shielded and mounted a heavy plasma cannon. Wildly unpopular with its pilots, it saw little adoption outside of regional garrisons. Despite this, the Aspan-pattern was the most commonly sighted variant of the vehicle during the Human-Covenant war, most of them being pulled from warehouses. Most Aspan Tempests bore little resemblance to their production appearances, having been retrofitted in service.

Khichii-pattern
A rare line of Tempests made with another attempt to get them adopted into mainstream Covenant service but still ultimately losing to the Wraith. The Khichii was the largest variant of Tempest and bore a great resemblance to its competitor. The Khichii had a pilot, two gunners, a plasma mortar, and a secondary plasma turret. The chassis had stabilization fins and a more powerful reactor to alleviate the problems with initial patterns.

Mentu-pattern
Based on the Aspan than the Khichii, the Mentus were a specialty variant designed around air defense. This pattern is fitted with an array of sensors for targeting and search, making it a far deadlier foe to opposing aircraft.

History
Conceived as a competitor to the Wraith three hundred years prior to the Human-Covenant War, the Tempest was ultimately sidelined due to a myriad of problems. While the Wraith would go onto become part of the Covenant's "big three" of armoured fighting vehicles, the Tempest saw most of its service on the fringes of the Empire and in regional garrisons.

At the advent of the war with Humanity, many Tempests were brought out of warehouses, initially as cheap cannon fodder to be used against the undeserving humans. As the war dragged on, the Ghoul (as it was known to the UNSC) operated in a second and third line capacity of the Covenant's armoured forces. It generally did not have the armor to withstand shots from UNSC main battle tanks and was easy pickings to light infantry in an ambush stance. Despite this, it made an occasional appearance on the ground throughout the war.