Husk

Husks were synthetic-organic creatures, often likened to walking dead, created from the bodies of organic beings by Reaper technology. Mindless and relentlessly hostile, they retained none of their former selves and served the Reapers and those who wielded their technology as expendable ground troops. More than shock soldiers, they were a weapon of terror, forcing the living to fight against the converted bodies of their own dead. They were encountered first alongside the geth and later across the galaxy during the Reaper War.

Creation and characteristics#

When a victim was captured, they were placed on the huge impaling spikes that Alliance marines nicknamed dragon's teeth. Over time the body's organs, skin, and water were converted into cybernetic material, the blood replaced by a sickly green fluid, and the body came to generate an electrical charge. When the spikes were approached, as when marines tried to recover their fallen comrades, the husks were released to attack, charging their enemies and, at close range, loosing a powerful electrical blast that stripped shields and dealt heavy damage. A fully converted husk retained no trace of its former personality.

Research recovered from the Cerberus facility called Sanctuary on Horizon later revealed more of the process: the nanomachines that transformed a victim rode on molecules of adrenaline, or analogous chemicals in non-humans, to spread quickly through the body, and each finished husk served not only as a combatant but as a transmitter node for Reaper signals, letting the Reapers communicate through them.

From geth weapon to Reaper origin#

Husks were first encountered widely on Eden Prime and then wherever humans fought the geth, who used them as a tool of terror and once filled the freighter MSV Cornucopia with them as both trap and warning. At the time no one understood why the geth converted their captives, and it was only when Sovereign possessed the implants in Saren Arterius's corpse, producing something that strongly resembled a husk, that the dragon's teeth were recognized as Reaper technology. It later became clear that the geth had received the dragon's teeth from Sovereign. Caches of the spikes were found buried on worlds such as Trebin with no clear sign of who had placed them, and husks were found aboard a derelict Reaper alongside dragon's teeth thirty-seven million years old, evidence of how ancient the practice was.

Advanced variants#

Beyond the basic husk, the Collectors employed three more advanced forms. Abominations charged and detonated near their enemies, Scions were three husks fused together to wield long-range cannons, and Praetorians were thirty husks fused into a single construct that could devastate a battlefield. The basic Collector-produced husk differed somewhat from the geth's version, relying on armor rather than kinetic barriers and lacking the electrical attack, and notably appeared without any dragon's teeth, suggesting the Collectors transported their husks from elsewhere.

During the Reaper War of 2186 the Reapers converted the populations of conquered worlds into many specialized forms, each drawn from a different species. Banshees were made from asari Ardat-Yakshi and devastated the field with biotics; Brutes combined krogan and turian flesh; Cannibals from batarians consumed the fallen to armor themselves; Marauders from turians armored other husks; and Ravagers and Swarmers were drawn from rachni. Reaper victims judged unfit for full processing into DNA were the ones converted into husks to serve as these ground troops.

Related horrors#

The Reaper-derived technology behind husks gave rise to other creatures as well. Beyond the Omega 4 Relay, Cerberus established research bases to study recovered Reaper artifacts, and at Avernus Station they experimented with husk-like creatures called Adjutants. Bred from a Reaper-based virus, the early Adjutants proved uncontrollable and broke containment, infecting organics to transform them into more Adjutants, a process with no known cure that could be stopped only by killing the infected. They later infested the station Omega during its takeover by Cerberus forces, unleashed against Aria T'Loak and Commander Shepard.

If Shepard activated the Crucible at the end of the war, the husks across the galaxy were affected by the choice made: destroyed outright if the Reapers were destroyed, ceasing their attacks and fleeing if the Reapers were controlled, or falling docile if organic and synthetic life were merged.