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Subject: How long ago was the last halo firing?
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Posted by: ThePBM
Supposedly starving the flood would kill them, so does anyone know how long it actually takes flood to starve?
Cause if flood being able to starve to death is true, then the previous firing of the halo systems was within the lifespan of a flood to not die.
It's a little off balanced to presume that flood could survive for the entire timespan that it took for humans to evolve to the time the covenant having just recently feed themselves to the flood.
Maybe the lesson this time around is that the flood just does not starve so firing off the halos would not change anything other than leaving a buffet of corpses layin around for the flood


Hey kids! here's what the first post was.

My question was that if the halos were designed to starve the flood, why have the flood persisted over the whole time since the last firing (hundred thousand some years ago)?

  • 05.29.2006 10:23 PM PDT

* Pr: ĭnʹtərnĕts: "I hear there's rumors on the uh (pause), Internets...

Because they can manifest themselves as infection forms just from being microscopic organisms needing no outside host.


Read, 'The Art of Halo' book, and it will explain.

  • 05.29.2006 10:25 PM PDT
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Bloody hell. THIS is why i never come here. Thanks for the reminder Darthbob. Jackass.

  • 05.29.2006 10:25 PM PDT

Dawn of the Dead video Here
6 Minutes of Hell video here

Stations were built to preserve them for further study, thus defeating the purpose of killing everything.

  • 05.29.2006 10:25 PM PDT
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Ok so the bottom line is, how could the monitors even consider the first time it fired to be a success? It appears that more flood have died at the hands of MC than by starvation

  • 05.29.2006 10:27 PM PDT

* Pr: ĭnʹtərnĕts: "I hear there's rumors on the uh (pause), Internets...

Posted by: Smaddady
Bloody hell. THIS is why i never come here. Thanks for the reminder Darthbob. Jackass.


Hey, get my name right.

  • 05.29.2006 10:27 PM PDT
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darthbob: He didn't swear, he said "na-zi", which apparently, might be offensive to some people, which is most likely why it was blam'd, even though he was just trying to point out your correlation between grammar and intelleigence. I'm sure some foreign scientists can't speak english for crap, but can destroy you in terms of intelligence anyday of the week. Finally, get a grip, ITS A GAME, we come to the forums to toss out ideas and fulfill some weird need we have created, not to read your desperate attempts to hold onto what little dignity you have left.

thePBM: I'm sorry your thread has been ruined, you should have just ignored his comments. I've seen you flame unneccesarily as well, so chill. From here, I'd try ignoring him and and there-by salvage this thread.

Topic: I've seen so many theories on almost everything Halo related, and from what I can tellm there is no real set-to-date conclusion we can go to for a lot of things. Everything is pretty much up in the air until BUngie gives up the straight facts and we can all let out some collective "sigh", because we won't have anything to think about when we're bored anymore.

edit: sorry, its late, and i'm out of stimulants

[Edited on 5/29/2006]

  • 05.29.2006 10:47 PM PDT
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switch "ThePBM" and "darthbob" around in your post and then you got it.

  • 05.29.2006 10:49 PM PDT
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Robert and PMb stop fighting.

Also it seems my original account has been deleated or something.....:(

  • 05.29.2006 11:38 PM PDT
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Posted by: ThePBM
Ok so the bottom line is, how could the monitors even consider the first time it fired to be a success? It appears that more flood have died at the hands of MC than by starvation

How do you know? Flood could have been swarming all over Threshold and every other planet within Halo's firing range. Let me try to explain how I understand the past of the Halo universe:

"After exhausting every strategic option..." 343 Guilty Spark. Strategic, huh? That sounds like warfare to me. See, The Flood as we know it in Halo is simply an outbreak of a parasitic organism which is contained to anywhere that has the correct atmosphere. Containment has nothing to do with strategy; it is simply cutting off a limb so the body will live. War is strategic.

I think the Flood stole Forerunner vessels and fleets, repaired them (the Flood were repairing the Truth and Reconsiliation in Halo 1, remember?), inhabited them, morphed ships into 'one of their wretched Hives' (Truth); there was plenty of evidence of that in High Charity. They probably reached every corner of the galaxy and 'flooded' over planets, consuming all possible life that would support them, and obliterated any opposition. They were only fueled by what they consumed, nothing of what they did themselves (except repair and rebuild what they consumed), and, seeing this, the Forerunners built the Halos to counter the Flood. Weapons had failed, destroying the Flood outright had failed. Unorthodox methods needed to be taken.

So, the Halos were fired. All the flood quickly died after being starved of all their precious food. But the Halos were (probably) first built 'to study and contain the Flood' (343 GS, Halo 1). The Forerunners most likely found some way of preserving the Flood and kept them in a controlled enviroment, with Moniters to make sure they are kept in check. And they would have stayed contained and controlled, continuing to be studied, except something happened.

The Covenant landed on Halo, pursued the Forerunner Installation's secrets, and released the Flood. And that is where we get to 'today'.

So, going back to your question: How do we know that there were not two groups of flood: one that was very large and uncontained which was starved to death after the firing of the Halos, and a second, very small portion that was contained on Halo (and given certain means (maybe chemicals?) to survive without their conventional food). The Halos being fired might have been a huge success at a great cost.

[Edited on 5/30/2006]

  • 05.30.2006 12:17 AM PDT
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It is impossible to tell how long ago the last firing was, for all we know this whole thing has happened again and again. No way of prooving it wrong or right though.

  • 05.30.2006 12:28 AM PDT
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So what you're saying is that flood were intentionally sustained?

  • 05.30.2006 12:30 AM PDT
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Posted by: DjjakDarkBlade
It is impossible to tell how long ago the last firing was, for all we know this whole thing has happened again and again. No way of prooving it wrong or right though.

well we know alpha halo was only fired once before, because that's what GS said. whether this means the other halos were also fired just once is up in the air.

  • 05.30.2006 12:32 AM PDT
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maybe, they just can't die without "external stimulation" ex, shotgun

  • 05.30.2006 12:33 AM PDT
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I think we get to know that it was fire only 1 time before.

I read a theory once that said that, once the Forerunners had fired the halos they would take small samples of all the species in the universe and save them after all life had been removed. Then the machines they had made, would travel around the universe and replant theese samples on their place of origin. Seeing as how even the forerunners would have a chance of dieing, they hid samples of their DNA strings aswell incase something happened.

Now seeing as the Forerunners pretty much had knowledge to most, if not all, life in the universe and were studying such, it could mean that they also were the protectors of life.
Even though the flood was the source of horrible abnormalities to the host, they were still a lifeform, and had to be saved for study and presservense after the forerunner state of mind.

  • 05.30.2006 12:39 AM PDT
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Posted by: ThePBM
Ok so the bottom line is, how could the monitors even consider the first time it fired to be a success? It appears that more flood have died at the hands of MC than by starvation


The first firing was a success in terms of what it was meant to do: stop the infestation from spreading any further and eventually destroy all remaininf "free" flood.

The flood specimens that were taken for research were taken so that a anti-virus could be developed to destroy the flood on a cellular level. The flood that are on the rings and installations are meant for this purpose, they were released by accident and do what flood do best, consume and multiply.

  • 05.30.2006 12:40 AM PDT
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Wow, I waded through a couple of pages of blam, but see how my faith has been rewarded! Nice intelligent posts from Spinkcleft, Frozen and Solaris125 in answer to a good question from the original poster.

My take? Spinky is right, the installations were meant to "study and contain" the flood (343GS, The Library, H1), so it follows that they were sustained in the installations before the first firing, quite possibly to study them in order to find an effective method of wiping them out. Those flood that were contained would not be able to feed (hence not being able to spread after the firing) but would be kept "alive" by some other means, possibly cryogenics or something similar.

One other theory I had come up with is that the flood were actually around on the Halos, and that the weapons themselves have a "blind spot" at the centre of their sphere of effect, like at the heart of a bunsen flame where it is not hot. Maybe those on the rings fired them, dooming themselves to consumption by the flood? The flood that were left free on the rings perished eventually (starved), but the few that were kept in statis survived? Just a theory, and it really has no bearing on how the story pans out.

I'm also pretty sure that the first firing was approximately 100,000 years ago ("100,000 years war", Sacred Icon, H2).

  • 05.30.2006 1:50 AM PDT

Quick as a razor, sharp as a bullet.

i have 2 questions:
when were the halos built?
when was the ark built?

  • 05.30.2006 2:11 AM PDT
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Posted by: darthbob
Did you know that light travels faster than sound?
I suppose that explains why you appeared bright, until I heard you talk.


Did you even watch the final cutscene? If the Halo fired, how come Miranda and Sarge are still alive, and everyone is still fighting at Earth. Would they not get killed my the Halo?

Also, are you deaf? Cause if you were thats the only way I could forgive you, cause 343 Guilty Spark CLEARLY says at the end of Halo 2 that what you saw Halo "fire" was a beacon that put all the remaining Halos on stand-by ready to be fired form the Ark.

  • 05.30.2006 2:32 AM PDT
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Posted by: Tartan 118
i have 2 questions:
when were the halos built?
when was the ark built?


On that note (sorry for dbl post) we have no idea. There is no time scale reference so we can't tell.,

[Edited on 5/30/2006]

  • 05.30.2006 2:34 AM PDT
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Approximately 250,000 years ago. THe length of the Monitor's existance.

  • 05.30.2006 5:08 AM PDT

Quick as a razor, sharp as a bullet.

a link or quote perhaps?

  • 05.30.2006 5:10 AM PDT

-Mess With The Best Die Like The Rest-
_Having A Wepon Doesnt make You A Hero, What You Do With IT Does_

It would take more than 100,000 years for life to rebuild itself. Probably 15 billion years.

  • 05.30.2006 10:35 AM PDT
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Posted by: Tartan 118
i have 2 questions:
when were the halos built?
when was the ark built?

Unfortunately, we have no possible clue (at least that I know). These are simply relics from the past; no carbon dating done on them yet =)


Posted by: H3 Elysium
Approximately 250,000 years ago. THe length of the Monitor's existance.

Where does it say the Moniter's life span? I must have missed this...

If he is truly 250,000 years old, then it would make sense that the Halo he was supposed to be monitering was built just before he was made.

  • 05.30.2006 10:58 AM PDT

Posted by: ThePBM
Supposedly starving the flood would kill them, so does anyone know how long it actually takes flood to starve?
Cause if flood being able to starve to death is true, then the previous firing of the halo systems was within the lifespan of a flood to not die.
It's a little off balanced to presume that flood could survive for the entire timespan that it took for humans to evolve to the time the covenant having just recently feed themselves to the flood.
Maybe the lesson this time around is that the flood just does not starve so firing off the halos would not change anything other than leaving a buffet of corpses layin around for the flood


Someone said in another thread that the infection forms of the Flood will not die without food, but lay dorment. Thats what happend in the Library. I suppose that since infection forms are easier to deal with they did only focused on killing the other forms? I'm not really sure, but until the Covenant opend the Library, and supplied them with food (themeselves), infection forms layed dorment, and potentially harmless.

  • 05.30.2006 11:06 AM PDT

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