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  • Subject: Question on the flood
Subject: Question on the flood

I assume everyone here is 14 years old until proven otherwise. -bobcast

My friend brought up an interesting question today. Since the Halo is supposed to destroy all sentient life except for on the shield worlds, what's the point of it? If the flood escape the Halo, then wouldn't they just be able to infect all sentient life anyways?

Isn't the Halo just doing the flood's job, but just faster? What's the point of killing everyone if the flood are going to do it anyways?

I'm a die hard Halo fan, but I really don't get this. Maybe we're both -blam!- stupid, I don't know, but it's confusing me.

  • 01.18.2012 6:36 PM PDT

The idea is to deprive the flood of a food source. By removing the food source, it can't grow. Denying an enemy resources is a basic battle strategy. If the flood can't replace losses, eventually it can be defeated. Hope it helps.
-Code

  • 01.18.2012 6:38 PM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.

The Forerunners had plans to reseed the galaxy with life after they fire the Halos. they take species to the Arks where they wait for the Halos to fire. When they do they return the species to their homeworlds. The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.

  • 01.18.2012 6:39 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.


Posted by: Xd00999
The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.

Was that in Primordium? Or did the Gravemind establish that in the trilogy?

  • 01.18.2012 6:41 PM PDT

I assume everyone here is 14 years old until proven otherwise. -bobcast

Posted by: Xd00999
The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.


You sure about that? And do the flood starve on their own? I thought they just needed food to reproduce.

  • 01.18.2012 6:44 PM PDT

Posted by: Commander GX
Bungie.Match.com: Our Johnson knows what the ladies like.


Posted by: SEAL Sniper 9

Posted by: Xd00999
The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.

Was that in Primordium? Or did the Gravemind establish that in the trilogy?


The Timeless One says it in Primordium.

  • 01.18.2012 8:05 PM PDT

97% OF TEENS WON'T STAND UP FOR GOD. IF YOU'RE ONE OF THE 3% WHO WILL, PUT THIS IN YOUR SIG.
As comrades we have outlasted this storm known as life.
As allies we have fought through the fires across the depths of Hell. As friends we are victorious but as brothers we stand united. WE ARE RESURCTED!
The Revisionaries

The flood would eventually spread beyond the galaxy it starts to infect. The act of wiping a galaxy saves the others. Starve the Flood, and you save the vast majority of sentient life.

  • 01.18.2012 11:23 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.


Posted by: M94 Mushroom Man

Posted by: SEAL Sniper 9

Posted by: Xd00999
The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.

Was that in Primordium? Or did the Gravemind establish that in the trilogy?


The Timeless One says it in Primordium.

Ah, okay thanks. I really need to finish Primordium...I've been slacking off, haha.

  • 01.19.2012 3:36 AM PDT

Its because the flood would be able to get to other galaxies etc that the rings wouldnt reach, so by sacrificing themselves so that there arent any hosts for the flood they can save places that arent contaminated yet.

  • 01.19.2012 7:26 AM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!


Posted by: SEAL Sniper 9

Posted by: M94 Mushroom Man

Posted by: SEAL Sniper 9

Posted by: Xd00999
The Flood don't actually want to kill everything, however. They want to assimilate all so that all are equal and there is no war.

Was that in Primordium? Or did the Gravemind establish that in the trilogy?


The Timeless One says it in Primordium.

Ah, okay thanks. I really need to finish Primordium...I've been slacking off, haha.

You aren't kidding. There's a ton of things to be learnt from that book.

  • 01.19.2012 7:36 AM PDT
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oops wrong gamer tag linked to my bungie.net account hehe...

you see the forerunners never meant to release the flood the covenant thought it was weapons but it was the flood,after the flood was released 343 guilty spark wanted to stop the flood with the halo. so it was not made just to make the flood infect faster it just happened that the covenant thought it was weapons and they released the flood shortly after the flood was released a gravemind was formed(or as you remembered a proto-gravemind) and in the second halo the proto-gravemind turned into a gravemind and as all flood experts know flood, under the influence of a gravemind flood is much more smarter and so the flood in the halos that was dormant awoke and broke free and the gravemind toke over High Charity and everyone there was infected it just so happened that the halos were placed were the flood wanted them.

  • 01.19.2012 5:26 PM PDT
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Posted by: chotato
smart, interesting, seems out of place.


Official fan of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, (Problem with that?) Halo, and Bungie, also a total gaming junkie.

They killed all the Flood, then repopulated the galaxy. Though it was pretty stupid to keep specimens of the Flood alive.

  • 01.19.2012 5:31 PM PDT


Posted by: Ktan Dantaktee
They killed all the Flood, then repopulated the galaxy. Though it was pretty stupid to keep specimens of the Flood alive.


It's the only chanche they had of finding the cure (which doesn't exist, but they don't know that). The Forerunners knew that the Flood they fought wasn't the last of them, so keeping them around was the only way to learn from them.

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

[Edited on 01.19.2012 5:43 PM PST]

  • 01.19.2012 5:42 PM PDT

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstien

Also keep in mind that the Flood could easily send themselves to other galaxies in a dormant form, so this not only ensures they don't spread through the entire galaxy (lying in wait for anyone to stumble on) but keeps them from leaving it.

Its also difficult to restart life in the galaxy if every planet/habitable moon is infested with dormant flood.

  • 01.20.2012 12:08 AM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: ROBERTO jh
It's the only chanche they had of finding the cure (which doesn't exist, but they don't know that).


There is a cure, Gamelpar overheard MB speaking with the Primordial saying



"And Green-eye said to the Beast, 'Not all resist . . . not all survive.' But most do. Why? Why do many survive, but some do not?"



This is when he was talking about being inside the Palace of Pain. You forget that the Primordial doesn't want the forerunners to live, so why would the conversation go like this?


Didact: But most humans are immune... Is there a cure?

Primordial: Herp De Derp, yep there is a cure!


When being deceitful you can only go so far. The Primordial wouldn't still be lying to MB after it joined it's said and has been with it for decades. It needed MB, It was stated and implied several times during the novel that there is a cure. We already know that if you mess up your neural pathways the flood can't get you. Which seems to fit with starhammer.

  • 01.20.2012 7:13 AM PDT

"This is the prototype NOVA Bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor. When detonated, it compresses its fusionable material to neutron-star density, boosting the thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. I am Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, temporarily in command of the UNSC military base Reach. To the Covenant uglies that might be listening, you have a few seconds to pray to your damned heathen gods. You all have a nice day in hell..."

On the subject of there being a cure... no specific cure has been formulated. however a clue to this could be what has been mentioned in Primordial....

along with this there is the clear evidence that SGT Avery Johnson, resisted the flood infection due to a rare disease which he contracted due to a high level dose of plasma radiation.

This effected his nervous system, and made it impossible for the flood to take a hold through the usual neaural link to the brain when he was attacked on installation 04.

Hypothetically then, there could be a way to block the floods entry to the brain via a "safe" radiation therapy/serin/other medical procedure.

But this is all just theory, as the Forerunners in all their wisdom, could not save the universe, which as we all know brought about the activation of the rings

  • 01.20.2012 11:52 AM PDT

I'm a Blarg Blarg.

What I want to know is if the halo rings can destroy ALL LIFE in the galaxy why can't kill the flood?

  • 01.21.2012 8:59 AM PDT

Well the Array does kill the flood indirectly. It kills their food, making them starve to death.

  • 01.21.2012 9:04 AM PDT

I'm a Blarg Blarg.

I know that! But why dosen't it kill them the same way it does with every other life form, instantly.

  • 01.21.2012 9:08 AM PDT

I guess that not every flood form has enough intelligence to be in the Array's target range. Just my theory.

  • 01.21.2012 9:10 AM PDT

I'm a Blarg Blarg.

That makes sense.

  • 01.21.2012 9:13 AM PDT

While the forms like the Gravemind get wiped out, putting the flood in disarray as well as starving them.

  • 01.21.2012 9:14 AM PDT


Posted by: AGENT BL4CK

along with this there is the clear evidence that SGT Avery Johnson, resisted the flood infection due to a rare disease which he contracted due to a high level dose of plasma radiation.

This effected his nervous system, and made it impossible for the flood to take a hold through the usual neaural link to the brain when he was attacked on installation 04.



Unfortunately not, In fact the Boren's Syndrome from radiation was a lie, It was an ONI cover up for the fact he was in the ORION Project, which attempted to make SPARTAN-Is, Which performed procedures on him, Which granted him immunity by accident.



  • 01.21.2012 10:18 AM PDT