: I think the reaction may be latent in all Elite combat Flood, but normally
: never triggered because aggression related behaviour dominates. If so,
: that could be a design oversight or maybe Bungie realized but just weren't
: fussed to address it.

The mystery deepens! (I wonder if even the original Bungie guys would remember if you asked them about it now.)

: The animation can be caused multiple ways, not just with a pistol shot, so I
: was curious about the term 'pistol' being there. But from looking at the
: file names for sounds relating to covies, I believe it's just a code word
: relating to the armed status of the subject. It indicates something like
: "armed with typical weapon or none at all". The point being, his
: armed status causes no additional sound in regard to movement (unlike the
: case of a Grunt with an FRG, for example).

Ah, k.