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This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo 3 and the Flood - Will this ever be explained?
  • Subject: Halo 3 and the Flood - Will this ever be explained?
Subject: Halo 3 and the Flood - Will this ever be explained?

Just finished playing through Halo and Halo 2. In Halo 343 Guilty Spark states that the Halo was created to keep the flood alive, because otherwise they would have died out. But then the Halos themselves are basically used to destroy all available hosts so that the flood can't spread.

Now, I'm wondering if Halo 3 will actually explain to us why the forerunners kept the flood alive at all. If they're so dangerous that you need to create an array of massive structures across the whole universe in case they ever spread again, why not just let them die out and/or kill them off?

Is this discussed in the books at all? I just finished The Fall of Reach and will probably read the other two books this weekend.

[Edited on 5/26/2006]

  • 05.26.2006 6:11 AM PDT
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I read all the books and I don't recall anything about why they kept the flood alive..

Anyway, Two Thumbs up to You for playing halo And halo 2!!

  • 05.26.2006 6:14 AM PDT

Well Halo was created to kill the Flood's food, which in turn would kill the Flood. However, something that I dont understand is over the 100,000 years since Halo was created, the Flood layed dorment without food and still survived that long. So how exactly does Halo starve the Flood, if they can live without food for hundereds of thousands of years?

  • 05.26.2006 6:14 AM PDT
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I belive i can explain that with a quote

343 GUILTY SPARK:

Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak...for study. It seems... that decision may have been an error.

  • 05.26.2006 6:17 AM PDT

Posted by: Spartan117_John
I read all the books and I don't recall anything about why they kept the flood alive..

Anyway, Two Thumbs up to You for playing halo And halo 2!!


Well, that wasn't the first time I played through them ;)
Probably my 4th time for each game, I just hadn't done it for quite a while. I actually forget about quite a bit of Halo. I just love those night levels later in the game in the caverns when you're battling the flood and the Covenant.

  • 05.26.2006 6:19 AM PDT

Posted by: ObsidianAura
I belive i can explain that with a quote

343 GUILTY SPARK:

Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak...for study. It seems... that decision may have been an error.


Ahh... perfect. I must have missed that somehow.

  • 05.26.2006 6:21 AM PDT

343 Guilty Spark states in the level "The Library", Part 3: "But I Don't Want To Ride The Elevator!":
Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak...for study. It seems... that decision may have been an error.
The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce.
So the forerunners kept some of the Flood alive to study them.

Edit: Holy crap I'm late...

[Edited on 5/26/2006]

  • 05.26.2006 6:22 AM PDT
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Posted by: BlockBurner
Well Halo was created to kill the Flood's food, which in turn would kill the Flood. However, something that I dont understand is over the 100,000 years since Halo was created, the Flood layed dorment without food and still survived that long. So how exactly does Halo starve the Flood, if they can live without food for hundereds of thousands of years?

It starves the combat forms and other higher forms, which leaves all of the infection forms to go into hibernation. And if you knew what you were doing the infection forms would not be that difficult to finish off.

  • 05.26.2006 6:24 AM PDT

Oh alright thanks Hedwig, I didnt see your post before I re-posted. That makes sense.

Yes, but take a look at this. From the book The Flood, in the Library.

Deep within the crecesses of Halo, Flood specimens were confined to facilitate future study, and to prevent them from escaping. Aware of the extreme danger the Flood posed, and their capacity to multiply expnentially as well as take over even advanced life forms, the ancient ones constructed the walls of their prison with great care, and trained their guards well. With NOTHING TO FEED UPON, and nowhere to go, the Flood lay dorment for more than a hundred thousand years.

So it seems the Flood didnt have anything to eat for a hundered thousand years, yet they still survived, so how would Halo starve them?



[Edited on 5/26/2006]

  • 05.26.2006 6:25 AM PDT

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Maybe the Forerunners didn't know that they had the ability to lay dormant for long periods of time.

  • 05.26.2006 6:42 AM PDT
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I imagine the combat forms and such like, needed food to sustain them but in basic form they lay dormant.

The mystery to me is how something the size of the gravemind surived, unless the halos dont kill life aboard

  • 05.26.2006 6:51 AM PDT

Quick as a razor, sharp as a bullet.

Posted by: Hedwig
Posted by: BlockBurner
Well Halo was created to kill the Flood's food, which in turn would kill the Flood. However, something that I dont understand is over the 100,000 years since Halo was created, the Flood layed dorment without food and still survived that long. So how exactly does Halo starve the Flood, if they can live without food for hundereds of thousands of years?

It starves the combat forms and other higher forms, which leaves all of the infection forms to go into hibernation. And if you knew what you were doing the infection forms would not be that difficult to finish off.


it seems the flood are impossible to beat.
activate halos destroys flood food
infection forms lie dormant with no food
cannot kill them because was anything that could killed by halos.
if something evolves and tries to destroy them, they get infected and the whole cycle starts again

  • 05.26.2006 6:56 AM PDT
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Combat forms are actually... dead corpses that infection forms have infected. The infection forms use their tentacles and fuction like a brain to the dead corpse. It sends signals to the muscles which react, like a usual brain. If you have frog legs and find the nerves then send electrical signals in them the legs start twitching, but it doesn't prevent the legs from decomposing. To not decompose, cells need air, water and other minerals and get rid of the crap they produce.

  • 05.26.2006 7:04 AM PDT
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My guess is that they wanted to study the floods immortal properties. The Halo were built to study and contain them. The were also built to eliminate them if the escaped.

  • 05.26.2006 7:14 AM PDT

Quick as a razor, sharp as a bullet.

maybe that's how the forerunners became...oh wait that's wrong

  • 05.26.2006 7:15 AM PDT

The Flood buried deep within Halo for study were in hibernation.

  • 05.26.2006 7:23 AM PDT

Quick as a razor, sharp as a bullet.

shortround mcfly, good idea with a link in the sig, but i got a bingo popup and had to leave

[Edited on 5/26/2006]

  • 05.26.2006 7:30 AM PDT