Huragok (Earth-5875)

"I don't exactly understand how the huragok work... no surprise there, but they can fix just about anything you can break. They can also hook up to just about any kind of computer hardware in the galaxy. Forerunner, Covenant, and even human."

- - Edward Buck

Huragok (Latin Facticius indoles, meaning "artificial genius"), known to humans as Engineers, are a sapient biomechanical species created by the forerunners to maintain and repair their technology. Ingenious at their function, patient, serene and docile, huragok are single-mindedly devoted to repairing tools. Alongside the san'shyuum, they were the only non-combatant species of the Covenant, although many of them became rigged to explode as suicidal bombers during the First Contact War.

During the Great Schism, most huragok allied with the sangheili, and following the end of the war, many mysteriously disappeared, as others continued to serve with splinter factions of the Covenant, such as the Swords of Sanghelios and the Banished, and some even allying with the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command.

Origins
The huragok were created by forerunner Builders through nano-cellular technology in order to serve as their maintainers, repairmen, and engineers, being branded as "servant-tools". The Lifeworkers also had their own huragok, which were specialized in medicine and were smaller in size. They served aboard maintenance stations through the galaxy, many of those which existed near Janjur Qom, the san'shyuum home planet.

As they are mechanical in nature, huragok survived the activation of the Halo Array, with most of them remaining at their respective maintenance stations, or shield worlds, where they stood for the next 100,000 years.

Covenant
Huragok were discovered by the recently space-faring san'shyuum Reformists aboard the Dreadnought in 873 BCE, becoming their specialists at science, archaeology and maintenance, and being used to dissect forerunner artifacts the Reformists found along their travels. They did not resist their slavery, instead only focusing on obeying their orders. They operated aboard the Dreadnought during the War of Beginnings against the sangheili, and after the formation of the Covenant, they continued serving on their slave roles.

As engineers, huragok had one of the most vital roles in the Covenant, to repair and maintain their technology, medicine, and interfacing with orokin artifacts. While culture dictated only san'shyuum were "holy" enough to interact and handle orokin research, huragok were, in fact, the ones that had to unlock, excavate, and transport orokin tools because of their sensitive nature. They were also used to secure data from one place to another.

Unable to speak Digom, huragok communicated exclusively in sign language with high-ranking san'shyuum, contributing to the chain balance of power between the Hierarchs and sangheili, usually ignoring anything that wasn't san'shyuum nor orokin. They participated in most of the Covenant's conflicts, such as the First Contact War, where they were the only non-hostile species towards humans. They were rarely seen by the UNSC until the final years of the war, and they were mostly deployed to search for forerunner artifacts and to shield Covenant troops. Many huragok were brutally implanted with explosive charges that detonated when they were killed by their sangheili and jiralhanae commanders, so the UEG would not take them over. Initially believing it to be a prevention against humans defilingforerunner relics, they did not resist the measures, but once they discovered it was an effort to make them suicide bombers, many attempted to resist the charges, but failed. Many of them realized that the only way to stop the jiralhanae would be siding with humanity and defeat the Covenant, and as a result, multiple huragok sacrificed themselves to allow their companions to live on, such as was the case of Quick to Adjust's family.

Post-Human-Covenant War
Following the end of the war against humanity, many huragok that once served the Covenant either died or disappeared without a trace, which left all the hegemony's species, but most notably sangheili at a deep loss without the huragok's mastery and knowledge of orokin and Covenant technology. However, some huragok remained at the Swords of Sanghelios and other Covenant splinter factions, such as the Banished.

Some huragok, however, became employed by the UEG and the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence, assisting them into reverse-engineering forerunner and Covenant technology. Many survivors of the war found during Operation FIRST STRIKE became workers at the UNSC Infinity or researchers of forerunner sites, such as Sarcophagus. Rear Admiral Saeed Shafiq of UNSC Procurement revealed his desire to have huragok personnel on all UNSC ships by 2561, however, Admiral Margaret Paragonsky was awry of his idea because of the risk of having huragok fall in enemy hands. By 2563, the UNSC Infinity have a contingent of 12 huragok,

Anatomy and physiology
As an artificially species by the forerunners, they do not possess real tissues and organs, but their nanomechanical surrogates are able to closely mimic a real biological analog, making their anatomy indistinguishable to a casual observer. They have multiple translucent pink/purple gas-bladders on their backs, which serve as their method to move around and float. These bladders contain lighter-than-air gases, which have to be maintained at a certain mixture to allow both the flight and locomotion. They are able of floating a few feet from the ground, but they can float higher for a short period of time. The bladders have their own specific capabilities, some elevate, while others supply the necessary bodily chemicals, also serving as a huragok's respiratory system. If the bladders deflate, a huragok will asphyxiate and die.

They possess small, elongated heads, featuring six black eyes, and four tentacles that can split into small, microscopically fine cilia, which they use to construct and repair machinery on microscopic levels. Some forerunner installations feature hidden panels that only a huragok is capable of locating and operation. They are strong, being able to take whole vehicles and rearrange their structure in seconds. Fast learners, huragok can store information for future references if the need to repair something else comes in. They are able to survive in environments with few oxygen and even methane.

Duo to their nature as biomechanical lifeforms, huragok are able to interface with electronic waves of data storage, quickly "downloading" entire systems within themselves. They can also "read" biological life-signs, such as when a huragok analyzed Lucy-B091's brain activity on Onyx so it could determine her vocal disarticulation. The Covenant trained their huragok warriors to sense signals broadcasted in specific forerunner frequencies. They are capable of self-repairing any damage inflicted upon them, provided it is not fatal, and they can also repair other members of their species once they have access to enough raw materials. Huragok are bio-luminescent, and under dark conditions, their heads, gas-bladders and tentacles emit a bright, bluish glow, which either brightens or dims depending to their emotional state. Huragok blood is luminescent pink.

Reproduction and life cycle
Huragok reproduction consists of bio-mechanized process rather than a biological one, although traits and pieces of biological reproduction can be seen during it. They reproduce through the gathering of organic materials they can muster in order to construct another huragok. The new organism is built through deft application of their tentacles' cilia. The offspring air sacs are then quickly filled with a mixture of different lighter-than-air gases, which is the most difficult step of the reproduction, duo to the fact the precise gas mixture is incredibly difficult to achieve during the birth of the offspring. During the process, all present huragok relay the information they gathered through their life to their children. The process takes roughly forty-five minutes with two huragok, if the number doubles, so doubles the effectiveness and the time decreases, as huragok value the intelligence given to them to their offspring. If a third parent is involved, the huragok undoubtedly generates more intelligently.

Right after their birth, a huragok either float or sink, as per the gases that were used to inflate their air sacs during the reproduction process. Huragok are long-lived; a huragok theoretical lifespan was recorded to be 87,600 hours, although it is better classified as indefinite duo to potential injury or disease the huragok can contract.

Culture
"They are almost without volition—too easily influenced. And difficult to communicate with."

- - Zo Resken As tools created by the forerunners, the huragok hardly possesses any sort of what compared to other species would be a "culture". They focus on repairing and maintaining technology, filling roles assigned to them. As evidenced by human soldiers during the First Contact War, drawing to distinction between their allies (the Covenant), and their enemies (the UNSC), instead only ever showing curiosity towards humans, which is speculated to be because of their status as another forerunner creation. They are apathetic towards combat, floating around areas during firefights and shielding their Covenant allies. When they were shot by human enemies, huragok did not react, but rather simply curled up and floated in fright to safe distances.

Huragok also show great compassion and caring towards others. During the Battle of Mombasa, scientist Dr. Daniel Endesha observed as six huragok selflessly sacrificed themselves while trying to disarm the bomb of one of their own, Quick to Adjust, which detonated and killed all of them with the exception of the one saved.

Role within the Covenant
During their enslavement to the Covenant, huragok were not tactical threats, being rarely deployed in combat and firefights. As members of the Covenant, huragok only desired food and work. Despite their pacifism, UNSC soldiers still marked them as enemies during firefights, and would shoot them first as their equipment provided the surrounding Covenant troops with energy shields. Unlike the other Covenant species, huragok did not regard humans as enemies and targets. Because huragok were easily manipulated and difficult to communicate with, they were not admitted as witness during trials of the Covenant High Council.

Huragok were assigned to work under the command of sangheili and jiralhanae warriors, and were of extreme value for a ship's crew as they could fix anything. They enjoy fixing things and care about nothing else, and, upon improving something they fixed, they feel great pride and accomplishment. Huragok also enjoy being confined by gravity, as they float a meter off the ground. They are pacifists by nature and have an incredibly respect for life.

Once Covenant troops were deployed to an intended location, the huragok present were immediately sent to excavate, transport and document all forerunner artifacts they could, being monitored by a san'shyuum attached to a force. During large-scale operations, huragok used massive recharge stations, where they would rest and repair one another.

Symbols
Huragok are recorded to mark certain areas, many observed to hold some significance, with forerunner glyphs of unknown meaning, found on walls, ceilings, transmissions and floors.

Languages and communication
Much like mgalekgolo, and yanme'e, huragok cannot speak the Covenant's lingua franca Digom, but, like the others, they found special methods to do so. In their case, the huragok communicates with other Covenant species by flexing their tentacles in different directions, which overlap to form specific formations for each word in the sangheili language, which resemble the various human sign languages. After forming the signals, huragoks would convey their symbols, imparting them at high speeds, either represented by the tipping of the tentacle in a corkscrew shape, crossing the tentacles, or the tentacles being shaped into "O" and "V". Much like they did with the other non-Digom speaking species, the sangheili used a translation software to display what a huragok was trying to convey.

To others, the huragok are heard through melodic whistling sounds, their verbal communications slightly resembling that of Earth's whales. They can make an array of different sounds to indicate emotion, from chirping noises to show joy, to fluting whistles to show sadness.