I won’t be surprised if this is true. ONI wants to eliminate any possible threat to Humanity and the chemical from Nightfall would really help them. The chemical from Nightfall was (Second Stories explained) the effect of the Halo installation reversed to affect Humans only. Do you think possibly ONI secretly got their hands on this chemical and plan on engineering it on other species? I might be completely talking out of my -Yoink-, but it could be possible, what do you think?
It was an element.
The element’s effect on humans was not a reverse engineered version of the Halo Effect. This was fan conjecture prior to Nightfall’s release. Radiation from the element had a specific, lethal effect on humans. There were long-term effects on those who were mining it, which was established in the second stories. This effect was amplified and enhanced when it was weaponized and used in the device unleashed on Sedra. Whereas the colonists began exhibiting symptoms within minutes vs. hours depending on where they were, the miners’ symptoms and deaths likley occured over weeks/months.
The notion here is that the Alerian miners have been going to Alpha Halo for some time and gathering the element at the behest of the Unknown Financier. Some of it was used to create the device from the Sedran Incident. Whether the Financier is related to ONI is unknown, but it wouldn’t be above some of its members to deploy such a weapon on Innies.