Helmacron
Encyclopedia
The Helmacrons are a fictional race of aliens
in the Animorphs
universe. They are about a sixteenth of an inch tall with humanoid bodies with another set of legs. Their heads are perfectly flat on top, with large green eyes sitting on them. Their faces come down from the top in an inverted pyramid
to a hooked, barbed chin. Their mouthparts are insectlike, with gnashing sideways teeth. They dress in silver colored one-piece suits with turquoise or magenta collars depending on their ship.
They are mentioned and/or present in books 24
, 39
, and 42
.
to comment that they were "an entire species of Rachel
s"). The Helmacrons kill their leaders before promoting them to make sure the captain will never make an error in judgement and thus have to be executed for making mistakes (a philosophy that Marco found particularly disturbing because it actually made "a sick kind of sense").
Helmacrons have the unusual mental ability to transfer their minds to another when their bodies are destroyed. Therefore, one can never really "kill" a Helmacron mind, since it dwells within other Helmacrons. Despite this, the Helmacrons seem to be no wiser than if they had only one, or even no mind at all; despite their tiny size and relative weakness, they have inflated personalities and further inflated egos, constantly proclaiming that they will crush all other races even when their ships can be threatened by large bricks- on one occasion they even vowed to take control of "this vast expanse of huge blue fur" and then use it as a base when their ship was lost, apparently unaware that they were on Ax
's fur-, and of all the alien species in the Animorphs universe, seem to be the least mentally stable. It is possible that the fluidity of their minds is the cause of this.
After the first Helmacron encounter, Marco and Cassie
had given the male Helmacrons a pep talk, inspiring them to revolt from their slave-like existence. The subsequent revolt of male Helmacrons throughout their empire has ultimately destabilized their already shaky social order. When last they appear, the Helmacrons are well on their way to engaging a massive civil war
between the sexes.
Helmacrons, or at least the males, do not have names; a male, whom Marco dubs "Wuss", did not even know the meaning of the word "name".
They have never apparently had any contact with the Andalite
s, as Ax was unaware of their existence, but they are aware of the Yeerk
s, with Visser Three regarding the destruction of a Helmacron ship as no great challenge, even mockingly referring to the damaged ship as 'cute' after he had destroyed it with a hand-held Dracon beam. They are also somewhat of a joke among the Yeerks, as Visser One mocks Visser Three's pride by saying he had been hanging around with the Helmacrons.
Galaxy Blaster is shaped like a baton, with three clusters of three long tubes at the far end and a fierce death's-head bridge at the front. It resembles a Romulan D'deridex starship from the television series, Star Trek
, albeit a tiny one; when Cassie initially finds it, she believes it to be an old toy. Their second craft, Planet Crusher is similar in appearance.
They also possess a shrinking and anti-shrinking beam. In the books these are powered using the morphing energy of the Escafil device
, but they can presumably be powered by other energy sources. When used against the Animorphs, it reduced Marco, Cassie
and Tobias
to the same height as the Helmacrons- with Tobias being the same height as Marco and Cassie despite having started out smaller than them due to the Helmacrons shrinking everything to a specific baseline-, simultaneously causing all morphing to be restricted to that baseline; when Marco and Cassie morphed flies, they were reduced to a size where they could see individual cells
. However, new morphs acquired during this time frame would not be shrunk; when the Animorphs and Visser Three acquired and morphed an anteater
to effectively battle the Helmacrons, the resulting anteaters were all normal sized (Although whether this would remain the case if it was morphed again remains unknown, as the anteater morph was never used afterwards).
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
in the Animorphs
Animorphs
Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. Five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill , obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They name...
universe. They are about a sixteenth of an inch tall with humanoid bodies with another set of legs. Their heads are perfectly flat on top, with large green eyes sitting on them. Their faces come down from the top in an inverted pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
to a hooked, barbed chin. Their mouthparts are insectlike, with gnashing sideways teeth. They dress in silver colored one-piece suits with turquoise or magenta collars depending on their ship.
They are mentioned and/or present in books 24
The Suspicion (Animorphs)
The Suspicion is the twenty-fourth book in the Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Cassie.-Plot summary:...
, 39
The Hidden (Animorphs)
The Hidden is the thirty-ninth book in the Animorphs series. It was ghostwritten by Laura Battyanyi-Wiess . It is narrated by Cassie.-Plot summary:...
, and 42
The Journey (Animorphs)
The Journey is the forty-second book in the Animorphs series, written by K. A. Applegate. It is known to have been ghostwritten by Emily Costello. It is co-narrated by Rachel and Marco.-Plot summary:...
.
Helmacron society
Helmacrons are tiny creatures. Female Helmacrons are dominant to male Helmacrons, holding the important military positions on a spaceship, while male Helmacrons have janitorial or guard jobs (Prompting MarcoMarco (Animorphs)
Marco is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series, Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. His last name is never mentioned.-Biography:...
to comment that they were "an entire species of Rachel
Rachel (Animorphs)
Rachel is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs. Her full name is never explicitly mentioned in the books, but her relation to her cousin Jake Berenson through their fathers makes it most likely to be Rachel Berenson, if it was never changed or hyphenated.-Biography:Before the...
s"). The Helmacrons kill their leaders before promoting them to make sure the captain will never make an error in judgement and thus have to be executed for making mistakes (a philosophy that Marco found particularly disturbing because it actually made "a sick kind of sense").
Helmacrons have the unusual mental ability to transfer their minds to another when their bodies are destroyed. Therefore, one can never really "kill" a Helmacron mind, since it dwells within other Helmacrons. Despite this, the Helmacrons seem to be no wiser than if they had only one, or even no mind at all; despite their tiny size and relative weakness, they have inflated personalities and further inflated egos, constantly proclaiming that they will crush all other races even when their ships can be threatened by large bricks- on one occasion they even vowed to take control of "this vast expanse of huge blue fur" and then use it as a base when their ship was lost, apparently unaware that they were on Ax
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs.-Biography:Aximili is a young Andalite who becomes stranded on Earth when the Andalite Dome Ship GalaxyTree is shot down by Yeerk fighters...
's fur-, and of all the alien species in the Animorphs universe, seem to be the least mentally stable. It is possible that the fluidity of their minds is the cause of this.
After the first Helmacron encounter, Marco and Cassie
Cassie (Animorphs)
Cassie is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. Her last name is never mentioned, although she referred to it as being "nice" in The Secret.-Biography:...
had given the male Helmacrons a pep talk, inspiring them to revolt from their slave-like existence. The subsequent revolt of male Helmacrons throughout their empire has ultimately destabilized their already shaky social order. When last they appear, the Helmacrons are well on their way to engaging a massive civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
between the sexes.
Helmacrons, or at least the males, do not have names; a male, whom Marco dubs "Wuss", did not even know the meaning of the word "name".
They have never apparently had any contact with the Andalite
Andalite
The Andalites are a fictional alien race of grazers in the Scholastic book series Animorphs.-Biology:The Andalites are fictional aliens from the book series and TV series Animorphs....
s, as Ax was unaware of their existence, but they are aware of the Yeerk
Yeerk
Yeerks are a fictional extraterrestrial species from the book and television series "Animorphs" written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic.-Biology:...
s, with Visser Three regarding the destruction of a Helmacron ship as no great challenge, even mockingly referring to the damaged ship as 'cute' after he had destroyed it with a hand-held Dracon beam. They are also somewhat of a joke among the Yeerks, as Visser One mocks Visser Three's pride by saying he had been hanging around with the Helmacrons.
Technology
The Helmacron spaceshipStarship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
Galaxy Blaster is shaped like a baton, with three clusters of three long tubes at the far end and a fierce death's-head bridge at the front. It resembles a Romulan D'deridex starship from the television series, Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, albeit a tiny one; when Cassie initially finds it, she believes it to be an old toy. Their second craft, Planet Crusher is similar in appearance.
They also possess a shrinking and anti-shrinking beam. In the books these are powered using the morphing energy of the Escafil device
Escafil device
The Escafil device is a fictional technological apparatus from K.A. Applegate's popular children's book series Animorphs. It is the proper name for the "Andalite morphing cube", a device that when operated gives the user the ability to 'acquire' a copy of DNA patterns from any animal that physical...
, but they can presumably be powered by other energy sources. When used against the Animorphs, it reduced Marco, Cassie
Cassie (Animorphs)
Cassie is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs, written by K. A. Applegate. Her last name is never mentioned, although she referred to it as being "nice" in The Secret.-Biography:...
and Tobias
Tobias (Animorphs)
Tobias is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs written by K.A. Applegate. His surname is never mentioned, but had the Ellimist not altered time in order to take his father, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, back to his old life, his full name would have been Tobias Fangor, the...
to the same height as the Helmacrons- with Tobias being the same height as Marco and Cassie despite having started out smaller than them due to the Helmacrons shrinking everything to a specific baseline-, simultaneously causing all morphing to be restricted to that baseline; when Marco and Cassie morphed flies, they were reduced to a size where they could see individual cells
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
. However, new morphs acquired during this time frame would not be shrunk; when the Animorphs and Visser Three acquired and morphed an anteater
Anteater
Anteaters, also known as antbear, are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...
to effectively battle the Helmacrons, the resulting anteaters were all normal sized (Although whether this would remain the case if it was morphed again remains unknown, as the anteater morph was never used afterwards).