In the first episode they say the weapon is an element based around the 120 family. But here’s my question, is it possible that a new element could actually start from such a violent reaction (Autumn’s destruction and Halo destroyed) can new elements even be created? Is it what Macer called a supernova event. I was really scratching my head at what the element was, why not just make it a compound? Wouldn’t a compound seem more reasonable then an element? Just seemed like a weird choice to me.
It’s one of the plot points I felt was just kind of swept under the rug so we could have a lifeboat story on a halo ring. Like the lekgolo acting odd on the ring, its sadly not delveloped. They didn’t even bother explaining why it effects some humans and not others.
I think the element thing is because supposedly new elements can be made during a fusion reaction. It sounds familiar to me, but I’m not sure where I’ve heard it before.
Hopefully we’ll eventually find out. Nightfall left a lot of plot holes and a lot of questions unanswered. I guess they just wanted to put the primary focus on Locke instead. They might have explained in the second stories, i haven’t had a chance to watch those yet. Hopefully it will give a little more exposition.
Wouldn’t it technically be a compound as it seems to be a mixture of the effect of the Halo ring (to an extent) and targeting Human DNA?
The second side story for episode 5 explains how it kills. I don’t remember anything.
> 2533274840469109;4:
> Wouldn’t it technically be a compound as it seems to be a mixture of the effect of the Halo ring (to an extent) and targeting Human DNA?
Yes it is a compound, and even referenced as a compound in the show. 
i think calling it an element is a mistake.
The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland creates theorised new elements by ramming existing ones together.
So how the element is created isn’t necessarily unheard of. And elements can have isotopes and variations.
The problem is more that a single element can specifically target something as atomic level complex as human. They’d have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had said it was a key component in a new compound like most have said.
> 2533274842918190;7:
> The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland creates theorised new elements by ramming existing ones together.
>
> So how the element is created isn’t necessarily unheard of. And elements can have isotopes and variations.
>
> The problem is more that a single element can specifically target something as atomic level complex as human. They’d have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had said it was a key component in a new compound like most have said.
Yeah, has anyone every heard of elements that are created to attack a certain DNA. Now it was based around the events following Installation 04’s destruction (but how does it attack Human DNA specifically), and why weren’t the smugglers affected by it? Ugh, quite a lot of plot holes in Nightfall. Maybe the element was given by the smugglers to the Covenant faction and they re-engineered it to attack Human DNA.
> 2533274840469109;8:
> > 2533274842918190;7:
> > The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland creates theorised new elements by ramming existing ones together.
> >
> > So how the element is created isn’t necessarily unheard of. And elements can have isotopes and variations.
> >
> > The problem is more that a single element can specifically target something as atomic level complex as human. They’d have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had said it was a key component in a new compound like most have said.
>
>
>
> Yeah, has anyone every heard of elements that are created to attack a certain DNA. Now it was based around the events following Installation 04’s destruction (but how does it attack Human DNA specifically), and why weren’t the smugglers affected by it? Ugh, quite a lot of plot holes in Nightfall. Maybe the element was given by the smugglers to the Covenant faction and they re-engineered it to attack Human DNA.
It’s infecting of humans isn’t flawless. The whole city pretty got hit by it, but not everyone seems to have been negatively effected by it. Locke was even at ground zero and fine.
So i’m assuming there’s something more to who it infects and doesn’t.
Im watching the second story, it seems the weapon is most likely the effects of the Halo ring that the Covenant Faction have been able to reverse-engineer it to only attack Humans.
It’s called notgoodforhumanium.
> 2533274860901607;11:
> It’s called notgoodforhumanium.
LAWL but seriously Nightfall raised way more questions than it answered 
And here I thought it would be the same substance the Precursors broke themselves down into during their periods of dormancy. Why didn’t they do that? It would have played much better into the whole survival-horror plot, we would finally learn more about the Precursors and it would have been a good link to The Forerunner Saga.
Seems like such a wasted opportunity. Especially when the substance itself has hardly been explained.
> 2533274863266427;12:
> > 2533274860901607;11:
> > It’s called notgoodforhumanium.
>
>
> LAWL but seriously Nightfall raised way more questions than it answered
It really did.
The info on the element so far indicates that it was not a compound and that it was specifically dangerous to human DNA in a way that was not dangerous to the other species on Sedra. The medical examiner went over the autopsy of Rowan Daoud and talked about the effects of the element on the human body. This was linked to an Alerian miner referenced who died and exhibited symptoms that were misclassified as guillain-barre. So exposure to the element itself appears to have been dangerous to the humans mining it, but the effects on Sedra show that someone found a way to weaponize it and amplify its effects.
While the deposits may have been destroyed by the Havok, the element remains a possible threat as the second stories also indicate that a mysterious financier was behind the illegal mining of this element on Alpha Shard and that it was one of the few sources of income for the citizens of Aleria. The Alerian miner referenced above was neither of the miners from Nightfall. So even if the deposits are gone, there is still an unknown amount of the element that had already been retrieved. I feel that this plot point was left unresolved on purpose. The situations that created the element may also be replicable as it was theorized to have been created by the destruction of the Autumn on the ring creating the right mix of fission and fusion with the materials available. That material was mostly Forerunner and the UNSC doesn’t have a solid grasp of their technology let alone how the created certain materials.
It’s also unknown who the middleman was who was obtaining the null state stasis container and who their client was. That client appears to have been funding the attack on Sedra and may also be the unknown financier of the illegal mining operation.
Then there’s the matter of the violation of the peace treaty caused by the ONI/Sedran Colonial Guard presence. The miners were also human. While there were Lekgolo there, it’s unclear if there was any connection to the Covenant. The specific Lekgolo strain on Alpha Shard appears to have been previously unknown to the UNSC based on the description of the Hunter Swarm Sunrise emblem reward. They may have been the life that the Pillar of Autumn’s recon drone data was connected to. There have also been new types of Lekgolo colonies named recently and these may be one of those or an entirely new type.
Aside from the new Lekgolo, when you put all of these things together there is a solid foundation for a significant conspiracy. The inclusion of the Yohnet and Zealot initially point to Covenant, especially when Axl still appears to believe in the Great Journey and is hostile to humanity per his conversation with Wisner. That could be a red-herring designed to distract from ONI or NCA involvement. Both groups are willing to manipulate, to work with and against the former Covenant and to sacrifice humans to achieve their goals. Without a better idea of the endgame, difficult to say who is behind it.
I may also be seeing possible connections where none were intended as I try to fill in the gaps.