The Food Nipple is an invention of the Covenant for feeding Unggoy.
Food Nipples are located in many facilities where Grunts are kept, such as Methane Tanks and Covenant starships. Also, in the (non-canon) Red vs. Blue episode Getting the Call, John-117 is shown endorsing them as "Uncle Grunty's Food Nipples", and a Grifball sponsor is "Aunt Gruntie's Old-Fashioned Sterilised Food Nipples".
Background
The Unggoy, having such a lowly place in Covenant society as cannon fodder and subservient thralls, lead an existence of servitude and feeding at these nipples is one of their very few real pleasures. They appear as a long tube with a mouth at one end to consume from. They contain a blue, bubbling paste that the Grunts find unappetizing but nutritious. [1] McKay describes the smell as "old socks wrapped in rotting cheese" [2].
They are described as free standing food-dispensers, with long tubes and receptacles that end in a nipple the Grunts use to distribute the food into their gullet [3].
Trivia
- During the Battle of Installation 05, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae Tartarus, referred to food nipples as a "Teat", when he said "You two whimper like Grunts fresh off the Teat. [4].
- The Thirsty Grunt in Halo CE says "Good thing the food nipples waiting for back at the star ship, cause man! I've worked up a big Grunty Thirst!
Sources
- ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 54
- ^ Halo: The Flood, page 189
- ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 54
- ^ Halo 2, level The Oracle