- "You know, one day your Maghook isn't going to work."
- —Book II on Schofield's luck with Maghooks
The Armalite Maghook is a grappling hook apparatus with magnetic adhesion properties, often employed by members the U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance units. Shane Schofield has used them many times, often saving his life.
History[]
Early History[]
Developed by the United States Marine Corps prior to the mid 1990's, the Armalite MH-12 Maghook was designed for reconnaissance units in order to provide them with a multi-purpose grappling unit for traversing the various terrains.
By 1999, they were made standard issue to all members of recon units, while some were made available to other units such as the President's Helicopter Squadron, albeit in limited numbers.
After seeing the Maghook in action during exercises with special forces units from other countries, many attempts were made by other nations to develop their own version of the Maghook. The Indian Marine Commandos would later complete a crude copy of the Maghook which they called the ARDE-7 grapple gun, while the French special forces ended up designing and building a superior version, the Le Magneteux. The U.S., meanwhile, would continue to develop new versions of the Maghook, usually in an attempt to reduce the size of the unit.
Ice Station[]
Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield and the members of his reconnaissance unit carried Maghooks with them as they ventured to the Wilkes Ice Station.
Area 7[]
Some Maghooks were kept inside Marine One's weapons locker during the President's visit to Area 7. Some time after the base's forces turned against them, Schofield and his team eventually managed to get a hold of a pair of the Maghooks.
Scarecrow[]
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The Six Sacred Stones[]
Astro offered Jack West Jr his MH-12A variant of the Maghook when the Coalition of Minnows team was trying to get back onto the Halicarnassus.
Even after being captured by Wolf's force, Jack managed to maintain possession of Astro's Maghook, and carried it with him into the second Vertex beneath Table Mountain. After seeing that Switchblade was about to drop the pillar into the abyss, Jack fired it at the inverted pyramid, correctly guessing that it had magnetic properties, and swung over to the Japanese Blood Brotherhood agent to grab the Pillar and set it in place.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
As they were falling into the chasm beneath the inverted pyramid, Jack took Switchblade's Maghook from the treacherous Marine's back holster, and used its grappling hook to stop his fall. Jack then proceeded to use the Maghook to help him scale back up the abyss wall to safety, and to traverse the buildings to reach the abandoned Alby Calvin.
Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves[]
Schofield had a Maghook on him when his research unit was forced to confront a hostile force at Dragon Island, and used it to get to the top of the Bear Islet stadium as he cleared out some of the enemy troops assailing them.
When they soon began preparing a plan to get to the Main Tower, Schofield noted that the Maghook wouldn't be able to get them across the trench, and inquired about Veronique Champion's French Magneteux, opting to use them in his plan to steal the Red uranium spheres due to their superior weight-bearing capacity instead.
When he and Typhon were dropped out of Marius Calderon's plane in a Jeep, Schofield was able to grab his Maghook and fire it at the plane's loading ramp, arresting his fall and enabling him to reel himself back onboard.
The Three Secret Cities[]
When they arrived in Thule and saw the army of Bronze Guardians blocking their way, Pooh Bear lamented that he wished they had a Maghook, and Stretch responded that, in the absence of one, they would find another way around.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
Jack had a Maghook on him when he went to the first iron mountain. When Brother Bertie de Montreuil was about to be set on by Sphinx's bronzemen, Jack fired the Maghook at one of the nearby cranes and swung over to the Hall of the Falling Temple, picking up the Jesuit before swinging back to the ledge.
Jack and Zoe both had a miniaturised version of the Maghook among their gear as the West family began their journey into the Supreme Labyrinth.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
When Zoe was falling with the great stalactite in the First Cavern, she hurried to pull the Maghook in the pack out and fired it into the wall of the chasm, halting her fall. With her Maghook's aid, Zoe was able to climb back up to the Cavern's exit.
Zoe kept the Maghook with her as she, Lily and Alby ventured into the second half of the Labyrinth after Jack, and when she found her husband being held at gunpoint by two monks from the Order of the Omega, she quickly drew her Maghook and fired it at one of the monks, the head of the grappling unit striking and breaking the monk's head.
Later, as one of General Garthon Rastor's men attempted to kamikaze Jack with a number of crimson orbs, Jack dove into a pool of water beneath a cupola and released some greystone powder, which solidified and created a protective shell from the explosion. Though trapped, Jack had positioned the maghook he carried so that he could still pull the trigger to launch the grapple-launcher against the stone, after after a few quick launches managed to crack through the solidified greystone enough to let him escape.
Attributes[]
The Armalite MH-12 Maghook is shaped like a Tommy Gun and roughly the same size, with a double handed grip. The 'head' of the Maghook is a magnetic plate, which can be switched on and off via buttons on the rear grip. There are also standard hooks that emerge from the plate so that it will enable it to act as a grappling hook.
Maghooks have up to 150 feet of cable, and when the desired target is latched onto, a clamping mechanism in the barrel locks the cable in place. The Maghook launches its hook/magnet via propellant used in the barrel, however overuse can occur if the propellant runs out. Should this happen, the cable can be manually released from the Maghook instead, but with the hook/magnet's reach being restricted to the user's own throwing range.
The MH-12A variant of the Maghook is smaller than its predecessor, about the size of a large pistol. A later model of the Maghook, referred to only as a "mini-Maghook", was developed by 2016, although how it differs from previous designs apart from a smaller size is currently unknown.
Trivia[]
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