Exos and The Darkness (Destiny)

by Durandal, Sunday, August 10, 2014, 13:08 (3567 days ago) @ DaDerga

Exos don't eat, they don't sleep, they can use the same weapons and gear as humans without modification. They are smart enough to act on their own for extended periods. Logistically that makes them very easy to support with a high operational tempo.

Exo's are a weapon for the long haul. A supplement to the limited number of humans you could conceivably throw at an enemy. Look at World War 1, there is a finite number of military age bodies a country can throw into war before it pretty much ceases to be. Sure, you can augment this with better guns, strategic weapons and equipment, but as soon as the casualty rate exceeds your a birth rate then you are racing to the bottom. Mass producing exos bends the curve back up.

Making them individuals, self aware units with a broad spectrum of design features is a risk. Self aware units are more effective, more flexible, but the risk of cybernetic revolt increases. By changing up the design you limit how many could be subverted by a weakness in any one specific design or the chance of revolt in a single model group. Given the level of flexible production systems in the golden age the individual customization was probably not as difficult as it would be today.

So yes, they are not much better physically then a human, but that isn't the problem they are meant to solve. We have tanks, planes, walkers and such to fight with. We need people to fight in them, to man the walls, to fill in the gaps while we train the next generation to fight, a generation that knows only war. Exos, supremely flexible replacements for any human in any role, fit that bill perfectly.