[NGTM-1R]

I'm a little surprised with the current incarnation of the Flood. They certainly feel more Flood-y now (I saw one Carrier Form, almost didn't recognize it, and I don't ever wanna see another one.). but some of the new forms caught me by surprise, trying to figure out wtf they came from.

[Mefustae]

I'm a little surprised with the current incarnation of the Flood. They certainly feel more Flood-y now (I saw one Carrier Form, almost didn't recognize it, and I don't ever wanna see another one.). but some of the new forms caught me by surprise, trying to figure out wtf they came from.

I think the idea is that the Flood is evolving, producing new flood-forms that aren't merely mutations of other organisms. Namely, that weird trifecta of the spider flood-form, long-range sniper flood-form, and Hunter-esque juggernaut flood-form.

[TrashMan]

Is it just me or does the whole Food story suck?

I mean, the super-advanced alien dudes have supposedly created it on a space station of some sort (or some planet).. and they couldn't contain it? A advanced space-faring race that can build friggin halos cna't contain a measly organic parasite???
Ever heard of glassing a planet with a fleet of warships? Or send horeds of automated robotic guardians at it?

Technology PWNS organic evolution. Period.

How could the Flood spread faster than that race couldn contain it? It just makes no sense. And the whole - let's periodicly kill all life in the universe to get rid of "the flood" is stupid as hell.

While the human-covenant war is good read, the flood & halo parts gets a  from me.

[Mefustae]

While the human-covenant war is good read, the flood & halo parts gets a  from me.

The terminals found scattered throughout Halo 3 actually paint a pretty nice picture of that Forerunner-Flood conflict. Strategy, technology, doctrine, it all seems pretty sound when you actually get into it. Considering that even a single Flood-spore can destroy an entire race, it's not so hard to imagine the Flood spreading out like a highly virulent plague across a densely populated galaxy.

Anyway, artistic license pwns logic anyday. So pipe-down.

[NGTM-1R]

I mean, the super-advanced alien dudes have supposedly created it on a space station of some sort (or some planet).. and they couldn't contain it? A advanced space-faring race that can build friggin halos cna't contain a measly organic parasite???
Ever heard of glassing a planet with a fleet of warships? Or send horeds of automated robotic guardians at it?

If you read the terminals it becomes pretty obvious that they did glass planets to contain the Flood. (Hell, the first one I found says so.) It wasn't enough. The insidiousness of the Flood is that it's not just a parasite of biologicals but also technology. We've seen the Flood fly starships and use weapons. It doesn't just turn your people against you, but also your tools.
 
The reason the Halo network was created was that, having exhausted all other options for containing the Flood, the Forerunners decided to wipe the slate clean and let the galaxy start over rather than let the Flood control it indefinitely...or possibly figure out how to get to another one and doom that galaxy too.

It's also worthwhile to note that there's something people seem to be forgetting: there's a race in Halo immune to Flood infection, and possibly even the Halos firing. The Hunters. They're not a single being but a collective of them, and each individual is too small for an Infection Form to infest. Guilty Spark also made a comment in the first Halo suggesting there might be a lower limit on the size of life the Halos will kill.

[Dark Hunter]

Also: the fact that they had Halo installations encompassing the entire galaxy suggests that the Flood were quite literally everywhere by that point in the war. The Gravemind even says at one point: "I have beaten fleets of thousands, consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!"

Whereas the Covenant and humans were having trouble with just several thousand Flood on Halo, and possibly millions on High Charity. We know the Forerunners were tough, but could they fight trillions of such beings off? I don't think so.

I mean, the super-advanced alien dudes have supposedly created it on a space station of some sort (or some planet)..

I don't recall there ever being a mention of the Forerunners creating the Flood...

[Cyker]

Is it just me or does the whole Food story suck?

I mean, the super-advanced alien dudes have supposedly created it on a space station of some sort (or some planet).. and they couldn't contain it? A advanced space-faring race that can build friggin halos cna't contain a measly organic parasite???
Ever heard of glassing a planet with a fleet of warships? Or send horeds of automated robotic guardians at it?

Technology PWNS organic evolution. Period.

AIDS, cancer and cockroaches laugh at you.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

[TrashMan]

I still say rubbish.

the INITAL outbreak should have been something they could have contained.

Immagine the USA working on a virus. Would it leave the site unguarded? Would it produce it on aly location?

No, they would choose a location that can be easily quaranteened, they would have troops and assets in case something happened.

Also, the Flood is supposed to evolve, thus it's first forms prolly weren't as dangerous or adapative as laters ones. Wherever hte intial incident occured, chances that NO WARNING whatsoever managed ot get out immediately are 100000000000:1.
the flood can't take out a planet/sceince lab/station so fast that not a single alien guy working there can't hit hte alarm bottun or contact hte head guys. A fleet would bve there to vaporize everything.

Can hte Flood break out and steal a ship (if they could even do that at the very begining) so fast that the alien forces can't intercept it? Hardly.
Assuming they can't, they can still chase it and kill it wherever it goes, sterilizing everything it had contact with.
the alien empire was HUGE and they had thousands of ship to intercept/chase whatever few ships the flood might have captured initially.

It jsut doens't make sense.. then again, its' a game.

[Gloriano]

I mean, the super-advanced alien dudes have supposedly created it on a space station of some sort (or some planet)

Flood weren't created they came from another galaxy, Forerunners used every strategic option to try and kill them the Halos were build to study flood and as weapon last of resort

[Turnsky]

I still say rubbish.

the INITAL outbreak should have been something they could have contained.

Immagine the USA working on a virus. Would it leave the site unguarded? Would it produce it on aly location?

No, they would choose a location that can be easily quaranteened, they would have troops and assets in case something happened.

Also, the Flood is supposed to evolve, thus it's first forms prolly weren't as dangerous or adapative as laters ones. Wherever hte intial incident occured, chances that NO WARNING whatsoever managed ot get out immediately are 100000000000:1.
the flood can't take out a planet/sceince lab/station so fast that not a single alien guy working there can't hit hte alarm bottun or contact hte head guys. A fleet would bve there to vaporize everything.

Can hte Flood break out and steal a ship (if they could even do that at the very begining) so fast that the alien forces can't intercept it? Hardly.
Assuming they can't, they can still chase it and kill it wherever it goes, sterilizing everything it had contact with.
the alien empire was HUGE and they had thousands of ship to intercept/chase whatever few ships the flood might have captured initially.

It jsut doens't make sense.. then again, its' a game.

well, granted the earlier flood outbreaks weren't contained very well, that's why the halo rings were built in the first place. the flood also have a really nasty habit of utilizing whatever tech they can get their tendrils on, hence what we've seen in all three halo games, on the rings, it's a localised infestation, the moment they get a ship, and make it move, it's a highly mobile, and very dangerous infestation.

the latest outbreak was largely a product of the covenant poking around where they really shouldn't, and effectively unleashing the plague, the problem with fighting the flood on a stellar scale would be that you'd be fighting a war of attrition.

[jr2]

... and, as far as containing the Flood, it could be some high-powered politician (s) and/or general(s) trying to cover his/her/their tracks for violating some treaty or w/e... so he doesn't call for help until after the problem is well out of hand.

[TrashMan]

Very interesting...
to tell the truth, all those organic menaces in Sci-Fi are slowly begining to get on my nerves.. Zuul, Zerg, Flood, Alien, various organic ships/parasites, etc.. In hte end they never make sense since technology pwns organic evolition. No matter what you come up with, something built by technology will be more durable, more deadly, more easily replaced.

b.t.w. - how does the flood assimilate technology?

[brandx0]

If technology is so much better than organic methods, why is it that we can't cure a whole host of various diseases, viruses, bacterias, etc?

[General Battuta]

Very interesting...
to tell the truth, all those organic menaces in Sci-Fi are slowly begining to get on my nerves.. Zuul, Zerg, Flood, Alien, various organic ships/parasites, etc.. In hte end they never make sense since technology pwns organic evolition. No matter what you come up with, something built by technology will be more durable, more deadly, more easily replaced.

b.t.w. - how does the flood assimilate technology?

Aside from the fact that you're wrong, the Flood has all the best assets of an organic and a technological menace. When it infects someone, it gains their memories and the skills they possessed. The Flood are not only a biological menace, but they can use ships, weapons, and everything else that ordinary 'technological' civilization can.

They have everything we do, and more.

You're also making the assumption that the 'initial Flood outbreak' was localized, when, in fact, all the evidence suggests the Flood was of extragalactic origin. For all we know, the Flood first arrived in an enormous number of ships, descending on hundreds of Forerunner worlds at once.

If I were the Flood, that's how I'd do it.

[Dark Hunter]

Are we counting the information from the Terminals as spoilers? Well, in case we are:

Spoiler:

Indeed, the Terminals seem to suggest that the Forerunners were caught off-guard by a huge Flood invasion force the first time they'd met them: the Flood had already consumed several worlds by that point, in other words. They make references to over a billion Flood troops attacking Forerunner installations on the ground.

[TrashMan]

If technology is so much better than organic methods, why is it that we can't cure a whole host of various diseases, viruses, bacterias, etc?

ERm..gimme a M16 or a Humvee or a Tank...send anything organic after me...I win!

[Hippo]

get cancer and say that

[General Battuta]

Yeah. Do you honestly believe an M16, a Humvee, or a tank is going to help you if you contract Spanish flu? Smallpox? Ebola?

[JGZinv]

Forgive someone who hasn't read the books... but I didn't see the
oversized Covenant city High Charity blow up or anything after it looked
like the Flood spores came out of the warp tunnel in H3.

So ah... there's an entire moon sized mobile station crawling with Flood still out there.

Earth's mostly beaten, the Covenant are in disarray, the Elites it looks like want to go
check if their home world is safe (*cough* why wouldn't it be except for the Flood, it's not
like we humans were winning the war), so there's still more than enough I think left over for a continuation.

Not to mention we've not established who sent the Flood, or how they came to be if they invaded
the Forerunners before.

Ah also, if you've not sat through/past "all" of the credits, there's another extra cinema at the "very very end" of H3.