unforum

[thunderclap8]

My personal theory is that the flood was a forerunner experiment in the area of eternal (or at least greatly extended) life. Something went wrong with the process, flood escaped, and bang the halos had to be fired.

Before it was fired, the forerunners quickly hid away a method of 'rebooting' their own species on Earth, somehow immune from the Halo death waves. Or maybe coming into action only after the waves pass. That part I can't figure out as well given the lack of info we have.

Meanwhile samples of the flood were in storage on the halos and other research outposts, which became what we face in the games. In their haste to cleanse the galaxy, the forerunners either didn't have time to get rid of the samples or refused to destroy the entirety of their research.

Just some wild spec on my part, but it seems to make sense in my head at least.

And NSA, I really like the idea of Keyes in Halo 1 being part of a new gravemind or some such thing.

I wonder if the emergence of the (or at least a) gravemind was the incident that triggered the initial firing of the halos.

[DM]

[Incitatus]

Krystyn, way too serious, I was kidding around, not being serious. Though I did say it first, chill. no need to nit pick my every word.

Here is the Complete, EXACT convo:

[vector]

[NSA]

I am pretty sure that the Covenant on Halo 04 were locked down HARD in specialized holding cells. According to Guilty Spark 343 (which ix 7*7*7) he mentioned in one of his rambles in the first game that perhaps keeping some for study was, in retrospect, a bad idea.

Also according to him: "I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood. They seem most persistant in their attempts to access restricted areas." Since he is talking TO the Master Chief, we assume he means the Covenant. Though, one interesting note is that the Covenant is a COLLECTION of races, not one single species. Could just be an oversight, or is it?

Anyways, likewise I believe Halo 05 (Why on EARTH is it called 'delta halo then?') had the Flood locked down at one point, and I am not sure if Halo 2 mentioned if the Covenant released them again or what. The Gravemind speaks as if he is REALLY REALLY old, and has been around a while. Since he knows what the Halo's are really for, and knows the extent the damage will be, I can only speculate that somehow he (it?) survived the last round of firings and has been chilling underneath the surface for some 100,000 years. He managed to capture the Penitent Tangent 2401 (7*7*7*7!!) at some point, but must have been unable to procure transport off the Ring.

My questions are: How did he survive the activation last time? Though since the Halo's kill the Flood's food and not the Flood themselves, perhaps the Gravemind doesnt need to eat? Or slowly (REAL SLOWLY) feasted upon the remaining Flood on Halo 05? Sigh. We'll find out eventually.. but its interesting!!

As for Captain Keyes in the first game, it seemed like he WAS something special, the entity he had become apart of was studying the Covenant computer systems aboard the Truth and Reconcilliation, apparently looking for a new home. In the novelization it mentions the Flood was probing his mind, searching for a new feeding ground, aka Earth. This seems to imply a greater intelligence, and would also explain why the Flood managed to work in such large groups. The Keyes/Flood THING was somehow controlling/overseeing it all perhaps? Like a Minor Gravemind? Yeah its a stretch but I don't think they made the Keyes flood-form unique just for looks.

[vector]

It seems to me that it is possable that everything within the ring is not effected by the rings blast. This would explain why the flood survived inside them and possably how it could be possable that humans are desendants of the forunners.

[ubersaurus]

[ABoxInABox]

I don't think that Gravemind would have survived a Halo shot. He seems too much like sentient being. I think maybe the Flood make a new, intelligent leader when they need to do something, like spread. Gravemind could have once been an animal on Halo that had the potential to be sentient, but wasn't quite there yet. The Flood simply made it sentient afterwards. And as for Captin Keynes, he was already sentient so it seemed like an easy choice.

[ROBOGriff]

[thebruce]

also notice that Regret was quite merged with GM, assumingly having been there for quite some time, and even PT2401 seemed pretty one and the same... whereas MC and Arbiter, being new additions, were still pretty detached... so who knows what other lifeforms actually make up the body of GM, or the ligaments...

[archon]

[thebruce]

well I think if the gravemind hadn't decided to let them go, the same thing would have happened to them... really there's no way to tell the 'process' of a being merging with GM, but it seemed like it was holding MC and Arbitor pretty much the same way he was holding regret & PT... I dunno... but it's freaky nonetheless

[NSA]

I dont know to what extent he controlled 2401 PT. Since, obviously he could use the teleportation device, he had some control over it, but PT kept talking about how the Reclaimer needed to activate the Ring and kill the flood etc. So some of the "host" survived obviously, like the Prophet, but since PT was a machine it seems like it would be harder to "incorporate" it into the fleshy Gravemind.

Also, the Prophet fell into the water fairly close to when Master Chief did, and the Prophet seems to really be merged physically with the Gravemind, which seemed to take place really quickly.

[archon]

[Motoss]

No, you've got the wrong prophet. Regret is the one in Gravemind's tentacle, not Mercy. Mercy was the one that got gobbled.