well remember the h2 promo the chief turns it on when he is in the midst of the elites. So my guess is that the trigger mechanism has a delay, it is priming up to stick before you throw it. Then after so many seconds it can fuse to bio mass.
Spoiler The Plasma Grenade is a specially designed grenade that sticks to its targets. Once it hits a biological creature or a vehicle, the Plasma Grenade will immediately bond to it, and beep to tell you that it has stuck, making any removal impossible. The bonding mechanism holds its attraction, except to seemingly static objects, such as walls, until detonation, making it impossible to avoid its deadly explosion. Therefore, if you have been "stuck", it is a good idea to take out as many opponents around you to reclaim points. Although it will bond to any target it hits, if it attaches to a piece of armor or a weapon, removing said articles will allow one to distance themselves from the explosion. Once the Plasma Grenade has adhered to the target, it kills instantly. All one can do is to try and get as close to an enemy as possible, with the hope of killing them or at least damage them, thus leaving them vulnerable to any attack from another hostile. Although the Plasma Grenades can stick to the enemies or friendlies, in Halo: CE, it can be seen clearly that the Frag Grenade is much more powerful, but due to the enemy or friendly being stuck the explosion is close range thus the enemy being stuck has a higher chance of dying. It can easily be identified by its blue glow. The "sticking" mechanism is complex enough to allow the Plasma Grenade the ability to distinguish between targets and inanimate objects (the technology behind this is unknown, although it is thought to be vaguely Forerunner). For example, it will stick to a soldier or a vehicle, but not a tree or a wall etc. This does not, however, allow the grenade to act selectively. The Plasma Grenade will not distinguish between friend or foe, so accuracy and caution is strongly advised when throwing it, so as not to betray your allies. Theories Note: The following is speculation and theory. Sticking to Targets The Plasma Grenade may stick by producing a thin layer of plasma which, when in contact with a target, fuses to the target. The reason the Plasma Grenade sticks to vehicles and characters may be due to an ability to sense body heat and the heat from vehicles' engines. Since a "dead" wall doesn't emit heat, it will, however, stick to the "living" walls of a Flood Hive. One problem with this theory is that it will stick even to exposed skin (on Grunts, Jackals, or Marines as an example) even though there is no metal to fuse to - it would be nearly impossible to fuse the grenade to flesh using heat alone. Another theory is that when the grenade is thrown it will be covered by a thick layer of extremely hot plasma that when stuck to anything, will burn into the object, sticking there, and then explode. It is also theorized that there is a complex internal mechanism built into the grenade that gives it this characteristic. A gravity generator may be built into the core of the device, giving it its own force of attraction. This artificial force of attraction is highly concentrated, which is exactly why the grenade is impossible to remove. Another theory is that the Plasma Grenade has a energy shield hybrid shell to bounce off of walls and an internal magnet to pull it to vehicles and armour. Yet another theory states that the Plasma Grenade detects low-level and medium level electrical pulses that are in living things and that are in shield and vehicle technology. Jackal Gauntlet Defense systems emit a high rate of energy, enough to repel Human Projectiles, while the MJOLNIR Armour, Elite Combat Harness, and Brute Combat Harness all are damaged by projectiles. This could mean that the Plasma Grenade cannot stick to a device emitting high level electrical pulses, such as the ones that are in Jackal Gauntlets, but has sufficient energy to stick to low to medium power energy shields as well as vehicles. This would also explain why Brute Chieftains cannot be stuck, as their armour has extremely powerful energy shielding, albeit the fact that it can still be damaged by human projectiles. Another theory is that the grenade has a small A.I. that can allow it to understand what and what not to stick to. This would allow it to stick to any kind of flesh material and also let it to stick to the walls of the level Cortana. This would also allow it to stick to vehicles. Sticking to Throwers An interesting thing to note is the fact that when a Plasma Grenade is primed, it does not stick to the thrower. A theory for this could be that the grenade must be primed touching something emitting heat, and then leaving the heat-emitting object, thus activating its "stickiness", and finally landing and sticking to another heat-emitting object (i.e. the target). This is even better proven by the fact that it will stick to the person who threw it if it bounces back at them (such as hitting a wall). This theory is also supported by the fact that Kamikaze Grunts can hold them indefinitely, although it seems the Grunt has control over when it explodes. It's possible that the grenade has an adhesive activated by a timer. Once the grenade is activated, this timer is initiated, giving a few seconds for the thrower to release the grenade. Once the timer has run out, the adhesive activates and the surface of the grenade is made as sticky as glue by the activation of the adhesive, although this theory doesn't explain the environment/character principles of the grenade. It is also possible that it will not stick to the thrower because the user may have to hold down the activation switch and upon releasing the switch it will become sticky. Excerpt from Halopedia
i always just figured that there was a switch that, when pressed, put it into standby, and, when released, activated it. similar to how a frag grenade is used; pull the pin is standby, and release the grip is activated.
mhm. but even so unless it still took seconds to become sticky after the release, and then even longer to explode, it would still stick to your hands. i think the AI theory is good because it has to land, then a couple seconds after that it explodes.
you misunderstood me. i meant the sticky isnt activated until a few seconds after the button is released. and then a sensor would pick up when it stuck to something, and in turn the bonding would trigger a reaction exploding it. god we really need lives don't we? arguing the mechanics of plasma grenades...
Thats what i said it has a delay, oh say 30 seconds hit the button throw, then it will be sticky. so while your holding it it is regular but after the delay it becomes sticky. same way a frag works or anyother grenade for that matter. And lol yeah we argue about a lot of halo things, its just dreaming though. I think halo in real life would be cool well except the covenant killing everyone part and the flood.
I meant the time line the story is based in. a United world. space travel, new colony planets, and well if we discovered a halo but didn't let the flood out that would be cool too.
Possibly has some sort of heat sensing tech in it. More likely it's an advanced technology we dont even have in our time.
Well here is the reason for it all... Plasma grenades have magical technology only to stick to organic material, like people and aliens. They don't stick to your hand because they have a magical timer, for about however long it takes to get it out of your hand, that the sticky-ness becomes effective. The sticky-ness is caused by topical alien glue called STICK-ON-TO-STUFF-REALLY-WELL. It gets hot and becomes active. This is the only way that this reason can be explained in a simple way.