- RogueElite
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- Exalted Legendary Member
"I came back to life for THIS?!" -Sgt. Johnson
I really want to see the intelligence and full capability of the flood in Halo 3. The forms in the past two games have mostly been quick resurgence combat forms. This means that fresh bodies are used for quick warriors and carriers.
However, on High Charity, blobs of visceral mass are all over the place, and with the Gravemind, it becomes obvious that the flood can pool biomass and bioenergy in new and creative ways. Basically, without a power source like a sun, the flood depend on existing energy stored and concentrated by plants and animals. This energy is consumed and combined. I think I heard somewhere that some forms require several bodies to complete the metamorphosis. All unnecessary flesh decays and is absorbed, while the bare basics are kept and modified (with tentacles or carrier sacs).
So, given tons of bodies (a Covenant city-station), the flood might be able to craft an invasion force of new forms out of the old. Cerebral masses to guide ships and vehicles, juggernauts to fight enemies, and who knows what other forms might be used in a well-fed flood swarm. I really want to see the more calculating nature of the flood to be featured in Halo 3. They can wait for millenia to reassert a foothold, and that requires perseverence and a plan. A collective that can modify a UNSC ship to pinpoint-jump can certainly do much more with Covenant technology. I would expect a new breed of flood, fed by the biomass of the lesser zombie forms, that not only provides brute strength, but a sharp tactical intelligence and stunning capability for innovation. Limits of modern AI probably made the earlier flood less cooperative in maneuvers than initially intended, but with Halo 3, the possibilities are endless.
Think about it. Well-stocked juggernauts might have capabilities beyond any previously seen flood form. Regeneration, environmental manipulation (throwing stuff), and maybe even more could conceivably be part of an elite flood amalgam unit.
[Edited on 7/3/2006]