Mgalekgolo Armor / Lekgolo

Community Halo Universe
1

So, we know for absolute fact that Hunter shields are crafted from the discarded hulls of Covenant ships, and are thus probably made of nano-laminate. However what do we know about the rest of their armor-set? It certainly doesn’t stop the Hunter from being killed by a SPANKr or two to the face. Is it manufactured by the Covenant, and any given colony is expected to just mold itself into the appropriate shape, or is Hunter armor some sort of natural exoskeleton formed from something like a metamorphosis stage?

We know that Mgalekgolo are capable of having as many or as few limbs as they want, and are capable of being as large as they can get the calories to support. But where’s the cut-off point? If a Hunter were to grow itself a tail, or something, would it be considered an “Mgalekgolo”, still? I suppose that there are only so many names the Sangheili language can come up with for every possible variation of Lekgolo colony, so it must depend on the colony’s size, right? The Goliaths from Halo Wars 2 are, essentially, colonies that are roughly equivalent to two Mgalekgolo, so would Goliaths be one of the many varying “types”, mentioned in lore?

The number of Lekgolo in a given colony seems to determine how intelligent and strong the colony itself is. But how does that work? Does each Lekgolo in a colony just… combine it’s nervous-system with every other worm? That would explain how they become smarter the more worms there are, though I’m not certain that Lekgolo have nervous-systems. But we see in Halo 5 that Hunters, even when in the field, are capable of “disassembling” and “reassembling” at will, and seemingly with no strain or slowing down. Which… seems like a bit of a stretch if the nervous-system of every worm is being stitched and re-sticthed together, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, ad hoc. So… unless a “colony” is defined as the number of Lekgolo that share some variety of psychic connection… I don’t see how that works.

I hesitate to think that it’s some kind of mental, thought-reading malarky, because this is supposed to be science-fiction, and psychics aren’t very scientific.

Speaking of psychic communication…
We know that, in a pair of Bond Brothers, the spines on their backs are used for communication between the two, and that modifying said spines (with what appears to be a bunch of glowing red lights on the Hunter Captain) allows for an increase in the “effective range” that the spines can function. Excuse me, but… what?! What scientific basis do we have for this? Is there some Precursor, Forerunner buggery I’m not familiar with?! Some evidence that psychic, mental communication is real, in Halo?! Especially among a species of worms that only become sapient after they’ve reached a certain threshold of individuals?!

I’m willing to believe it, I just want an explanation.

2

Covenant armor is very capable of being punctured, all of them can be.

A thing to keep in mind about body armor is why things wear it. In the Halo Universe, most species have switched to things like plasma weaponry and forms of energy weapons that heat up surfaces. Most armor in the Halo universe is basically designed to have a higher melting point because that’s most of what the armor is going to be getting hit with. You can even argue that’s why modern Elites lost some armor because at a point it’s just not worth carrying. As a result of being designed for things that aren’t kinetic weaponry it basically explains why a Spnkr can wreck a hunter (not to mention because of open joints for the worms). Also keep in mind that ship hulls are also mostly designed for dispersing and holding heat so realistically it makes sense that while very strong, a strong enough projectile will ruin it. Armor doesn’t just stop at durability because materials can and do warp, so while Covenant armor doesn’t deform as much or takes longer to do, it’s simply designed more for heat dispersal. Armor as we know it today isn’t for blocking projectiles (though it can), it’s more for slowing a projectile down. Also note that it’s not really designed much for heat but it can take awhile before burning up. Same sort of thing applies to the Covenant.

3

> 2533274861593686;2:
> Covenant armor is very capable of being punctured, all of them can be.
>
> A thing to keep in mind about body armor is why things wear it. In the Halo Universe, most species have switched to things like plasma weaponry and forms of energy weapons that heat up surfaces. Most armor in the Halo universe is basically designed to have a higher melting point because that’s most of what the armor is going to be getting hit with. You can even argue that’s why modern Elites lost some armor because at a point it’s just not worth carrying. As a result of being designed for things that aren’t kinetic weaponry it basically explains why a Spnkr can wreck a hunter (not to mention because of open joints for the worms). Also keep in mind that ship hulls are also mostly designed for dispersing and holding heat so realistically it makes sense that while very strong, a strong enough projectile will ruin it. Armor doesn’t just stop at durability because materials can and do warp, so while Covenant armor doesn’t deform as much or takes longer to do, it’s simply designed more for heat dispersal. Armor as we know it today isn’t for blocking projectiles (though it can), it’s more for slowing a projectile down. Also note that it’s not really designed much for heat but it can take awhile before burning up. Same sort of thing applies to the Covenant.

That… is mildly infuriating. Not the part where you basically ignored 90% of my post, but the part about Covenant armor being easily punctured. That is… very annoying.

4

> 2533274955203897;3:
> > 2533274861593686;2:
> > Covenant armor is very capable of being punctured, all of them can be.
> >
> > A thing to keep in mind about body armor is why things wear it. In the Halo Universe, most species have switched to things like plasma weaponry and forms of energy weapons that heat up surfaces. Most armor in the Halo universe is basically designed to have a higher melting point because that’s most of what the armor is going to be getting hit with. You can even argue that’s why modern Elites lost some armor because at a point it’s just not worth carrying. As a result of being designed for things that aren’t kinetic weaponry it basically explains why a Spnkr can wreck a hunter (not to mention because of open joints for the worms). Also keep in mind that ship hulls are also mostly designed for dispersing and holding heat so realistically it makes sense that while very strong, a strong enough projectile will ruin it. Armor doesn’t just stop at durability because materials can and do warp, so while Covenant armor doesn’t deform as much or takes longer to do, it’s simply designed more for heat dispersal. Armor as we know it today isn’t for blocking projectiles (though it can), it’s more for slowing a projectile down. Also note that it’s not really designed much for heat but it can take awhile before burning up. Same sort of thing applies to the Covenant.
>
> That… is mildly infuriating. Not the part where you basically ignored 90% of my post, but the part about Covenant armor being easily punctured. That is… very annoying.

There is only so much I could immediately answer.

  • If there is no limit then the forms are simply so we can differentiate them. There are six kinds of worms but its unclear how much of a difference between the kinds of worms there are. Otherwise within the Covenant the ones operating a Scarab or as a Hunter are just so they can be differentiated. - They do not have central nervous systems but are able to communicate through electrical and chemical means among the masses of worms. However you should note that Lekgolo are also very dumb individually, and it takes a lot to form and create any sort of meaningful intelligence. Even among the Covenant they had difficulty communicating and using certain technologies to the point they had to be given it. - A colony is an unknown (in terms of size) mass of worms.
5

> 2533274861593686;4:
> > 2533274955203897;3:
> > > 2533274861593686;2:
> > > Covenant armor is very capable of being punctured, all of them can be.
> > >
> > > A thing to keep in mind about body armor is why things wear it. In the Halo Universe, most species have switched to things like plasma weaponry and forms of energy weapons that heat up surfaces. Most armor in the Halo universe is basically designed to have a higher melting point because that’s most of what the armor is going to be getting hit with. You can even argue that’s why modern Elites lost some armor because at a point it’s just not worth carrying. As a result of being designed for things that aren’t kinetic weaponry it basically explains why a Spnkr can wreck a hunter (not to mention because of open joints for the worms). Also keep in mind that ship hulls are also mostly designed for dispersing and holding heat so realistically it makes sense that while very strong, a strong enough projectile will ruin it. Armor doesn’t just stop at durability because materials can and do warp, so while Covenant armor doesn’t deform as much or takes longer to do, it’s simply designed more for heat dispersal. Armor as we know it today isn’t for blocking projectiles (though it can), it’s more for slowing a projectile down. Also note that it’s not really designed much for heat but it can take awhile before burning up. Same sort of thing applies to the Covenant.
> >
> > That… is mildly infuriating. Not the part where you basically ignored 90% of my post, but the part about Covenant armor being easily punctured. That is… very annoying.
>
> There is only so much I could immediately answer.
> - If there is no limit then the forms are simply so we can differentiate them. There are six kinds of worms but its unclear how much of a difference between the kinds of worms there are. Otherwise within the Covenant the ones operating a Scarab or as a Hunter are just so they can be differentiated. - They do not have central nervous systems but are able to communicate through electrical and chemical means among the masses of worms. However you should note that Lekgolo are also very dumb individually, and it takes a lot to form and create any sort of meaningful intelligence. Even among the Covenant they had difficulty communicating and using certain technologies to the point they had to be given it. - A colony is an unknown (in terms of size) mass of worms.

But the Lekgolo are credited as having human-level technology before encountering the Covenant. And the difficulties in communication are due to biology, not necessarily intelligence. In the same way that the Drones aren’t dumb but simply can’t speak, and instead use their wings to talk. Mgalekgolo don’t have vocal chords, and thus, have to vibrate their entire bodies to speak. And they can speak Sangheili.

6

Halo has stopped being “Science-fiction” since Halo 3. Don’t you remember the Gravemind communicating with the chief through telepathy? And don’t give me any “hacking suit-systems” trash, the filter that appears with the dialogue indicates that’s obviously not the case.

Also…

It’s better to be a little ambiguous about it, rather than have some silly justification. If the Precursors’ philosophy of “Pan-psychism” is anything to go by, then it’s pretty concrete that it’s not some weird cyborg-technobabble. Hell, I think even the Needler leans a little more towards mysticism…

7

Even the Didact has an implied form of telepathy. Speaking to Cortana, John asks where the source of the signal is coming from when referring to it, and Cortana doesn’t pick up anything. The artefact in Halo 4 is even more cryptic.