Husk

From Mass Effect Wiki

Husks are synthetic 'zombies' created by the geth. When a human is captured they are placed on impaling devices, huge spikes that Alliance marines have nicknamed 'dragon's teeth'. Over time the body's organs, skin and water content are converted into cybernetic materials; their blood is changed to a sickly green. and the body generates an electrical charge.

When the spikes are approached - say, if marines try to recover their dead comrades - the Husks are released and attack. The Husks will charge at their enemies and, once close enough, give off a powerful electrical blast which disables shields and causes massive damage.

Spoiler warning: plot and / or ending details follow.

Husks are encountered throughout the game, first on Eden Prime and then anywhere humans have been fighting the geth. No one knows why the geth do this to their captives: it seems like a lot of effort for a small result, though it is effective psychological warfare to make soldiers fight their own dead. The geth used a ship full of Husks, the MSV Cornucopia, partly as a trap and partly as a warning to other organic races not to enter their space.

Cerberus were studying Husks as part of their experimental programme into creating a super soldier. They deliberately exposed a colonial pioneer team on Chasca to dragon's teeth, and had more Husks as test subjects on Binthu. There were also Husks in Saren Arterius' research facility on Virmire, likely part of his study into indoctrination.

When Sovereign 'possesses' Saren's body, the resulting creature strongly resembles a Husk, and the Reaper indoctrination effect is similar to the 'zombie' nature of Husks, but though this suggests the dragon's teeth are Reaper technology, it is never explicitly stated. A cache of the spikes was found buried on Trebin and had to be excavated by the local research team, but there is no evidence of who put them there or why.

[edit] Tactics

While not as resistant to damage as Thorian Creepers, Husks are still quite resilient. If they get close enough on foot, their electrical blast carries over a large area. This damages the entire squad and overloads their shields, and if there is a large group of Husks this can be lethal. Husks are vulnerable to Warp and Neural Shock (although they appear robotic, they count as organic enemies as they are corpses, and AI Hacking does not work), and tech abilities like Damping or Sabotage can also slow them down. Otherwise, if they haven't used their electrical attack, it's safer to keep them at a distance and pick them off, using Throw if they get too close.

Like Thorian Creepers, the unarmored bodies of Husks are vulnerable to mêlée strikes. The Husk tends to pause for a brief period after using its electrical attack, allowing ample time to perform a mêlée attack. This tends to inflict light to moderate damage and is virtually guaranteed to knock the Husk down.

"The chances of surviving are... slim." — spoilers for Mass Effect 2 follow.

[edit] Mass Effect 2

The Collectors appear to make use of Husks as well as several variations:

• Abominations, which glow red rather than blue, and act as suicide troops.
• Scions, three Husks morphed together and grafted around a single weapon on the left arm.
• Praetorians, formidable flying creatures made of 30 husks that no longer even resembles a human being.