In Response To: Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Round 5 (Quirel)
:
: Yeah, this is my entry. Don't laugh, it looked better on paper.
: This is my idea of what a Warrior-Servant Rate might look like. This mutation
: would be equally comfortable piloting a War Sphinx or fighting on the
: front lines as infantry. Since it's a form optimized for combat, it's one
: of the most extreme mutations available to the Forerunner.
: Artificial components are woven throughout the Forerunner's body, but the
: most notable is the Nexus, the disk set into the stomach. In addition to
: allowing a deeper connection to the combat skin, it distributes air, food,
: medication, and surgical microchines into the body, and is where the waste
: is extracted. Yup. Three hundred thousand years of self-directed
: evolution, and the Forerunner still aren't above the bear necessities.
: You may note the lack of arms or legs. These were lost in the mutation,
: discarded as useless. If the Forerunner requires limbs, either as infantry
: or in polite company, prosthesis will do the job. In other roles, such as
: piloting starships, aircraft, or the Forerunner Tank, control is handled
: via direct neural interface.
: Future mutations may regrow the limbs, if the Warrior-Servant chooses a
: non-combat role, but many choose to keep their prosthesis. Why step down
: from perfection?
: In addition to the limbs, the digestive tract has been completely overhauled.
: The stomach is replaced with a smaller, more efficient organ which can
: digest actual food if necessary. That's a rare occurrence, because the
: combat skin recycles the body waste and returns the nutrients. The
: intestinal tracts are smaller and include redundancies in case of injury.
: The lungs are redesigned from the ground up. They are no longer bellows
: driven by a diaphragm, but move air through biological lobe pumps. Air
: circulates continuously through them and back out through the Nexus.
: Specialized tissue inside the lungs scrubs impurities from the air. Dust,
: toxins, and biological matter are all collected and excreted from the
: body.
: The skeleton. Well, let's just say that the Warrior-Servant won't be doing
: any crunches anytime soon, even if he did have limbs. The ribcage has been
: extended to cover more of the stomach, the spine extends further into the
: torso, and the entire body is honeycombed with strands of ceramic and a
: cartilage analogue. This is mostly for high-speed maneuvers. Even if the
: inertia dampers on a War Sphinx fail, the Warrior-Servant can still pull
: off maneuvers that would reduce a Human or Sangheili into runny spaghetti
: sauce.
: Besides, if gunfire pierces the combat skin and the armored epidermis, that
: extra bone structure can't hurt.
: The esophagus and windpipe are replaced with more connective tissue, ceramic
: bone, and a larger spinal cord. Safe to say, if a Forerunner Warrior
: Servant is decapitated, enough energy was applied to destroy the body
: anyway. In the meantime, the Forerunner retains enough freedom of movement
: to turn his head sixty degrees to either side.
: The head is really an aesthetic conceit. There's nothing stopping the
: Forerunner from relocating the brain and the sensory organs into the
: torso, where it would be better protected. Indeed, the body is studded
: with sensory microstructures, and a concentration of neural tissue exists
: in the space between the lungs. However, the head (and particularly, the
: face) is almost unanimously retained. Forerunner appreciate the ability to
: look into the mirror and see themselves as more than a lump of tissue,
: even if they won't see a mirror for decades.
: Therefore, sculpted faces are common, even if the nose, ears, and mouth are
: vestigial. The guy above? Well, he was a Minimalist in the first place. It
: has absolutely nothing to do with my nonexistent drawing skills.
: Shallow pits across the face serve the same function as the nose, although
: the sensory data they provide is more akin to 'chemical analysis' than
: 'smell'. The jaw has been absorbed into the head while the mouth and nasal
: cavity have been re-purposed as extra room for the brain. Size does
: matter, especially when your job is inevitably going to involve directing
: hundreds of Sentinels.
: Inspirations: Protoss Dragoons are a big one. The general idea of shedding
: limbs to be more combat effective is derived from musings on Protoss
: technology. Seeing as how Dragoons are piloted by warriors who are only
: mostly dead, I assumed that they have decent prosthesis technology for the
: Zealots who only lost a hand or a leg. Which then raised the question of
: whether these prosthetic limbs are, in fact, better than the original.
: I also leafed through my Art of Mass Effect 3 booklet, hoping to take some
: inspiration from the Geth. Sadly, the book was lacking, though I did
: borrow a few ideas from the Cannibals.
Apologies, I did not see your recent submission until after I hit 'Post'. I'll provide individual thoughts on this as well. :)
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