Capabilitites of the Changeling.

[The_Blade]

Couldn't ulerej just send a normal DT minion to kill a protoss leader then?

What's the point, they would know its Ulerej's minion and will eventually ignor it. But what if, Zeratul suddenly joins this high khalai protoss meeting and kills everyone within?

[XSOLDIER]

The fact that the changeling never responded verbally makes me wonder, though. It shouldn't be limitation of mental capacity, as it was clearly hacking into and reading computer information. Perhaps Kerrigan just hadn't yet tinkered with the verbal communication centers in the brain? If this is an innate limitation, however, I think Khalai, of all factions, pick up on changelings the fastest.

They do respond verbally though.

Finally Hendrix smiled and said, "Jokes," cryptically before pushing down his visor and covering his face.

I'm not sure what the full extent of their communicative capabilities are though.


X

[Visions of Khas]

They do respond verbally though.

I didn't catch that. 'Kay, thanks.

[XSOLDIER]

"Well, this is a rare sight if I do say so myself," Brody said gruffly. "I ain't never seen you not be the last out, dragging that lazy ass of yours."

Hendrix just looked at him.

Wynne cackled from behind Brody. "Hell, he ain't never been on time a day in his life."

Finally Hendrix smiled and said, "Jokes," cryptically before pushing down his visor and covering his face.

By this point, the Changeling had managed to kill Hendrix - the only person alone in the cave. It's assumed that Hendrix is killed, and a bit of an oversight on the Marines' part that they don't notice that Hendrix doesn't connect through his Comm Unit (at least as far as we're told). It does show that the Changeling is capable of vocalizing & mimicing it's target to the point that people he'd worked with for along time (Zeta Squadron) didn't suspect anything. The only thing that sets them off slightly before it starts attacking people is the fact that he's being a little more quiet than normal.

"Hendrix ain't Hendrix. We just finished poker when we caught him down there in the operations room, scanning for security codes. When I asked him what the fekk he was doing, he just turned and smiled and walked away. I grabbed his arm, and he punched me... harder than I ever been hit"

This section shows the Changeling does something that shows a significant level of techinical prowess, and cunning, as well as knowledge of Terran machines. It also shows a ruthless devotion to it's objective. Since these Changelings are later stated to have been held in stasis, it's unlikely that they had any specific objectives being actively given to them from Kerrigan, though there might be following whatever their mission was before they were obtained by the Dominion. Lots of speculation though.

The screeching from below was almost unbearable. "SKREEEEE, SKREEEEE, SKREEEEE!" It was the sound of a wounded animal desperately looking for some way, any way, out.

...

It was humanoid in shape, still bearing many of Hendrix's features, but even through the steam it was clear to see that its body was morphing, changing, part human, part zerg: it looked like a person who had been pushed through a meat grinder and come out partially insectoid.

...

The zerg's face peered back at him. But it wasn't Hendrix's torn face anymore… it was Wynne's. Wynne's face glared right at him, eyes burning into Walden's soul, staring in accusation. Walden couldn't pull the trigger and kill Wynne twice. No way.

Here are a few other things. The Changeling panics after being attacked, and doesn't keep the same level of calm after it's been discovered, screaming and running / killing anything in it's way. It also is unable to retain it's ability to transform fully remaining unstable after being injured. It's able to swap transformations at incredible speeds, changing from Hendrix to Wynne's quite quickly, even while injured.

Despite the panic, there's one thing that has me wondering: it changed from Hendrix to Wynne, but the only reason that I can think of for it to do that would be if either it's unable to control it's ability to absorb who it's interacting with (like the T-1000 in the special edition of Terminator 2), or if it was doing it because it knew that Walden would have a harder time shooting his friend twice.

"Well, we couldn't use the resocs, could we? We needed to see just how adaptable the changelings are."

Whether or not this is from proir testing hasn't been covered, but it's enough to show that it's fully capable of fooling normal, intelligent Terrans, not just your run of the mill brain-panned Marines. It means the application, and places we might see Changelings is a lot wider than one might suspect.

The changeling looked just like Hendrix. Like it was one of us.

Again - a final note on how compelling the Changelings are, even at close range to people who knew them.



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I'll copy that into the first post, but hopefully this'll get all the content in one place. It might also help us figure out what they might be capable of in terms of tricking the Protoss.


X

[The_Blade]

By this point, the Changeling had managed to kill Hendrix - the only person alone in the cave. It's assumed that Hendrix is killed, and a bit of an oversight on the Marines' part that they don't notice that Hendrix doesn't connect through his Comm Unit (at least as far as we're told). It does show that the Changeling is capable of vocalizing & mimicing it's target to the point that people he'd worked with for along time (Zeta Squadron) didn't suspect anything. The only thing that sets them off slightly before it starts attacking people is the fact that he's being a little more quiet than normal.

A changling tells better jokes than you do... THAT IS A MUST SEE jaja

[Kacaier]

Just wondering, did the changeling take Hendrix's CMC suit, or was that also morphed?

Because when it entered the command center, it too had to remove the suit like the rest of the team.

[XSOLDIER]

Just wondering, did the changeling take Hendrix's CMC suit, or was that also morphed?

Because when it entered the command center, it too had to remove the suit like the rest of the team.

This is something that I'd wondered as well initially.

I think that given the Changeling's variable morphology, it could fake it's size to match a CMC suit, and then slim down later. I don't think that (given the assembly process that we see with Tychus in the cinematic) it would be logical to tear out Hendrix, and then pilot his suit out, but it would have been more convincing. Either one seems possible though, but I can see why it was skipped over in the story.


X

[Quirel]

I don't think that (given the assembly process that we see with Tychus in the cinematic) it would be logical to tear out Hendrix, and then pilot his suit out, but it would have been more convincing. Either one seems possible though, but I can see why it was skipped over in the story.

Well, nobody said Hendrix would have to come out in one piece.
It seems VERY zerg-like to me, waiting until a Marine opens his visor before pouncing and clamping down over his face, rapidly clawing his body into shreds and dumping the excess into a waste disposal unit, before filling the suit with it's own body and licking the armor clean.

"Hey, Gwen, do you want a coffee?"
"No thanks. How 'bout a beer?"
"Yeah, right... Hey, I got a full house!"
"That's nice, Lewis."
"Heh. Must be my lucky day."

I suppose it could have mimicked the pieces of the armor by shaving off parts of its own body (supplementing it's biomass with Hendrix's) and using the time it took to walk home to 'perfect' the parts enough to fool the disassembly machinery. I think the first option is more likely.

And, from what I took from the story, it was probably CAPABLE of mimicking Hendrix's voice, but it probably killed him too fast to get a decent sample.

"Hey, Jan, I hear Wolfy barking. Is he OK?"
"Wolfy's fine, honey. Wolfy's just fine. Where are you?"

[Sheliek]

Perhaps it could, like an octopus, squeeze it's way into the suit?

I haven't read this yet, but everything I'm reading about it really makes me want to.

[Norfindel]

What's the point, they would know its Ulerej's minion and will eventually ignor it. But what if, Zeratul suddenly joins this high khalai protoss meeting and kills everyone within?

And how is a Changeling supposed to kill an entire Protoss group? Maybe he manages to kill one by surprise, then the others (not to mention the guards) will react, and destroy the abomination, discovering his true form.