Joe says that the Elites were hampered because the Hunter fortifications were the Forerunner structures. The structures were the rings - the fight was on the rings. So it wasn't just that he didn't mention the word Te - in Joe's book the gas giant was just the place that the rings orbited.

: They would have to have had a long-evolved history. One of the larger two
: moons of Te would be ideal if Svir V is in fact a gas giant.

The Beastarium says:

HOMEWORLD
Te
STAR, POSITION
Svir, V
SATELLITE(S)
Rantu, Uhtua, 23 smaller natural satellites

I parse that as Te is the 5th planet of the star: Svir.

: As above, there are two larger moons of Svir V and 23 smaller moons. This is
: not counting the Forerunner structure ring debris of Svir V (which Lekgolo
: can also survive in).

If they evolved on some moon then they wouldn't have to worry about Te's gravity. It would just be a difficult place to visit. Well easy to get to - hard to leave :-)

: The Lekgolo go there under their own power (technology) long before Covenant
: contact. The Bestiarum states: "The High-G world made progress in
: space technology painfully slow for such an otherwise advanced
: culture."

OK.

I think that Joe really muddied the waters...

I think that people have tried to reconcile the two versions by suggesting that Te was the gas giant - that it was mistaken for a gas giant.

I don't think that anyone could mistake a medium sized, dense, rocky planet for a gas giant, even if it was a cloudy day.

I don't think that there is a perfect way to reconcile Joe's account with the other accounts, but...

What if Te and the gas giant are in the same system but are separate planets.

Either the ring dwellers were on the FI when it asploded and survived in the remains or they colonized them from Te some time after.

The Elites did fight Lekgolo on the rings but decided to bombard Te as the ring campaign was going nowhere.

Either they wanted to persuade the Lekgolo on Te to persuade the ring dwellers to stop eating Forerunner ruins. Or the Covies decided that the ruins were too damaged to worry about and they just decided to incorporate the Lekgolo into the Covenant and the orbital bombardment was how they got the Lekgolo to the negotiating table.

: No info on this.

: Perhaps. Respiration seems needed for life, but that's only Earth life for
: sure.

Bacteria and water bears can survive in space but Lekgolo are BIG in comparison. They are just tough SOBs.

: Nothing has mentioned Hunters are lethal to stand next to due to radiation.
: Not sure about this. You'd think they'd be more resilient to being
: squashed under boot like in Forward Unto Dawn.

Did Chief squish one? I see that as dramatic license. The Chief's just so cool.

The h2 manual mentions that the Carbine uses radioactive ammo and that the FRG's radioactive ammo makes it particularly effective against human ground forces.

Sounds like radioactivity isn't a problem for the Covie races. It may not be as bad for them as it is for us. Maybe they are more tolerant. Don't the Lekgolo keep themselves to themselves?

And maybe they can convert nuclear activity into high energy chemicals that can store energy for later release. Maybe they can split sodium compounds. So they huddle together into a large mass (2 colonies combined?), go critical to cook up some food, and that lasts them until they get hungry again.

So maybe they are not spitting out high levels of radiation all the time. It wouldn't be efficient to do so. They probably evolved to capture as much radiation as they could and convert it into usable energy.