Can we just talk about how quick and smart the flood were here? They retreated to lure the marines in and got rid of any of their own bodies as to not throw anyone off. And then retreated again to lure the chief in. You can actually see the infected elites briefly doing this in the level itself. And the flood spread across nearly the entire ring in less than 3 days. They were actually possibly released before the Pillar of Autumn even crashed. They did all this strategic things without a gravemind either.
That depends...while they were trying to create a Proto-Gravemind to aid their co-ordination, we know that there was an outbreak on Installation 05. I wonder, is their a chance that the Gravemind on that installation was already formed, and was providing nascent direction from the astronomical distance through neural physics, or was he isolated by the Quarantine?
@@robianknight4001 I don’t think they treated it that way. Because there was still plenty of covenant inside the structure when the chief showed up. They were still hiding or being mopped up by marines, flood or the chief. You have to also consider all the different rooms and areas that you didn’t go into while playing as the chief. There could have been way more covenant or even marines still there. And the flood did leave the crazy marine alive too. Despite being able to kill and find him quickly. He was shooting randomly.
Well yeah the flood still resive the strategic inteligance of the combined minds they eat they don't need a grave mind for basic instincs the bad desgens are just plot point after.
"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." - 343 Guilty Spark
@@Installation00 I have A question; if the flood on the first halo ring had been successful in creating A gravemind-Wouldn't this gravemind have any connects to the Gravemind in Halo 2.
@@savagedarksider5934 Graveminds could talk to each other as far as I recall. They were technically all part of the same flood. But also curious about the answer.
@@Installation00 Oh, I love that topic, yet apparently didnt know about things like the sentinel factory being shot down. Do try to dig for "blink and you miss it" details in it!
Or, a much simpler answer: the glowing pads in the cells are stasis fields, all of the cells held one carrier form each for 343 to study within the facility. When the security was de-activated, either by the Covenant or Chief, the stasis fields released the carrier forms. When the carrier forms saw a potential host (Chief) that wasn't already being infected like the marines were, they decided to explode. The carrier forms explode then so Bungie doesn't have to model a super ancient Forerunner flood form. That's why the doors open with an explosion and there are only infection forms inside. Also, I think it would be funny if in speed runs when the player flings themselves through the security door using a warthog instead of de-activating the security system, the flood are just absent from the rest of the game.
@@Viviana088 does a carrier forms explosion have enough force though? There is also the possibility it could have been a tank form since some were kept in storage.
@@jacobweatherford4696 Well in terms of gameplay you do get launched into the air by a considerable amount when caught within the explosion radius of the carrier form. They are basically frag grenades but with legs; since you can use them as make shift grenades to kill large groups of enemies. I'm pretty sure multiple carrier forms are used to open the doors in 343 guilty spark and in the Maw considering the fact that it sounds like multiple "explosions" before the doors bust open. Ever noticed in Halo CE when the flood breaks down a door there is a shitton of infection forms that storm through first with combat forms being a bit further back from the door?
My favorite part of the release of the flood is that it's important to note the Covenant released it by opening doors all over the ring. Even though the locks on most forerunner tech require at least installation AI or at most Human genetic coding. The covenant, at least in some capacity, have an amazing bypass that never really explored beyond a hand wave notion, which is criminal.
a huragok could just rebuild the lock or the lekgolo could just worm their way through system doing their "tech thing"; i wouldnt chock it up to a handwave after playing ODST and Reach
I mean the covenant probably have dedicated centuries of cumulative time just opening forerunner doors. Like just the process of opening the doors, in total, centuries of time.
The idea behind the medpack being bait, and by extension are watching you throughout the level tracks with the book ‘The Flood’ with Chief feeling like he’s being watched.
They technically come from the precursors which were even more technologically advanced than the forerunners. The precursors were so smart they let themselves die for reasons us dumbass humans will probably never understand
The idea that Chief accidentally borked the entire installation's security systems during the events of TSC is something SPV3 explores slightly. In fact, the modders actually changed the text to "Press [button] to shut down installation security system"
They only appear so because its still the infected marines caring their transponders. So without a manuell update they are still listed as friendlies in the radars identification list
@13:05 Funny enough, that's exactly how Master Chief felt in the novelization "The Flood" no less. Ever since he entered the facility, he constantly felt like eyes were constantly burning a hole in the back of his head. That something was. . . . . .wrong here.
HERE IS A JUICY QUESTION: Why did Bungie go out of thier way to suggest the plant life on 343 guilty spark is the same color, texture and glow as the flood combat forms? Back in Halo 2 classic the Gravemind looks like an enormous plant, and the flood in both games use a lot of earthy tones in thier color. We know they can assimilate the environment, and that the monitor was out of his mind by the time chief arrived to the first installation. Because the flood have the same reproductive traits as plants, via spores, I always assumed the flood had been long escaped, and used the biomass of the environment to become most of the swamp plant life, until hosts could arrive to sustain thier (now retconned) need for calcium to hijack host minds and spread. While their certainly were flood spores released the covies found, I was certain for almost a decade that was a red herring.
A Clown actually some of the more ‘archaic’ plants like ferns still use spores, you could say Seeds are just upgraded spores but yeah, spores are typically a fungus thing
Some funguses also kill bacteria if I remember correctly, but the infected hosts of the flood decay, which should mean bacteria are eating at the dead flesh. Maybe the flood is some kind of hybrid between parasitic organism and microorganism, since they did emerge from genetically corrupted powder which gave birth to the supercell within the feru (ancient herbivorous reptilian dogs), a parasitic virus maybe? Viruses open up the chance for secondary bacterial infection (the decay) and viral mutation (flood forms), the flood do seem to change rapidly, perhaps out of control genetic mutations, or greatly controlled mutations.
Zalrohg Lekgolo Good theory I would say it doesn’t hold up, because we have to base this off 343 guilty spark not doing his job for decades, but it’s clear that he was terrible at doing his job.
The moment you showed the locked door from the silent cartographer, my heart went: “Oh sh*t. No... it can’t be... I didn’t... I couldn’t... I didn’t know.”
The flood in CE is in the feral stage of its life cycle meaning it doesn't do strategy or traps, it goes full on attack. While I agree the infection forms most likely couldn't have taken down the door please remember there size isn't portrayed correctly in the games, there actual size being close to about 3/4 foot tall. Still I do like your theory that Chief deactivation of the security effectively leaves the door open for them to escape I can't help but think the Forerunners weren't that stupid when it came to security over the most dangerous creature in the known universe.
And yet the Forerunner's thought it would be an absolutely amazing idea to keep Flood speciemens ALIVE on the very last ditch superweapons they built to destroy the Flood after said weapons have fired.
@@devastater97 The Forerunners left samples of flood biomatter on the rings as the flood could have escaped the galaxy(therefore escaping the range of halo ring fire) and could have came back at a later date therefore meaning they could possibly gotten a cure or effective method of sterilizing the flood before the eventual return of the parasite.
I don't think the flood was actually in the feral stage during the Battle of Installation 04. The flood outbreak of Installation 05 existed since about 200 years after the firing of the halo array, yielding ample time to build a gravemind.
@@derekmensch3601 the Gravemind used telepathic communication with the Chief across the distance from Earth to High Charity. Granted, we don't know what that distance was. If we are to assume that telepathy happens through Slipspace and/or the Domain (which I think is fair, given the nature of the flood) then the Gravemind should be able to communicate to any position in the galaxy.
I think a story (perhaps anthology) from the perspective of some of the denizens of High Charity during the schism and subsequent flood infestation would be great. It went from being the covenants holy capital city to being abandoned by all none flood life in a matter of maybe 48 hours.
Seriously keeping flood at Halo's and other facilities, when it should have been eradicated and/or starved is reckless at best. Chief, Covenant, Keyes - they may have not known that they would release the flood, but they also did something remarkably stupid.
@@SaviourSword995 That's why they went with starve option. As to eradicating, perhaps if you pulverize it and spread across the Universe it reaches below some minimal mass (or density) that is required for reproduction? Otherwise if there is ZERO possibility of destroying it, fighting it is impossible. There has to be something that can be done (admittedly it would be almost impossible) to make it inert. Perhaps some time without biomass makes the flood so starved it dies? Otherwise firing of Halo's would just mean they stop spreading, but the flood is alive and okay and as soon as someone finds it (even one molecule) the cycle starts all over. Even if this is the case - I come over to this channel to find out - then having it on Halo's is still very stupid idea.
Also at 16:15 I don't believe that chief initiated the flood outbreak or even disabled all of the security On the installation I don't think the forerunners were that dumb to keep some main station security pad in like the basement of a ring. That seems to be what the [Control] room is used for
I always assumed the Silent Cartographer had to be more of a security control facility rather than just a map and that Chief and Cortana were pushing buttons they truly didn't understand.
But knowing that Cortana is a repository for everything Humanity knows about the Forerunners you'd think she'd know what the systems do. Plus it's been known for years the Covenant went to that facility thinking it was a weapons cache and that they were the ones that let the Flood out.
Everyone knows you're being watched by combat forms. They literally pop up on your radar and you can see them hiding but peeking out at you before you enter the containment facility.
Playing Halo Wars for the first time. Was REALLY hoping it wouldn’t introduce the Flood, for the sake of my Halo project. Wanted CE to be the introduction for it and it’s horror, but I got a near instant “THE FLOOD ARE HERE”
@@EnigmaEnginseer Right, but the idea was to play the games chronologically and have the most horrifying introduction to the Flood as possible. That’s in CE, not Wars, so playing chronologically you don’t get that effect. They’re kinda silly in Wars.
2 years late but it was chief that released the flood, cortana even says as much during the mission. she SPECIFIES that the chief disabled halo's security system, meaning it was for the entire ring. for the flood it got its freedom & an all you can nom buffet. all thanks to mc's ignorance.
@@cr90captain89 This is false on multiple levels. Firstly, what the books say differs from this. It extremely heavily implies the Covenant released the flood, Secondly, the monitor says himself that "the other species" is responsible for releasing the flood.
@@Dennis19901 & how could they do that if the security system was still up? they couldn't. master chief disabled the security system in the mission silent cartographer, which then allowed the covenant to open flood containment facilities without issue in the mission 343 guilty spark. its classic cause & affect. mc disables security>covenant open containment>flood is released> parasite begins spreading> the ring becomes a clusterfuck of a battlefield. ergo the mc is responsible for releasing the Flood.
@@cr90captain89 "& how could they do that if the security system was still up?" Breaking and entering is quite literally the first option that comes to mind. "master chief disabled the security system in the mission silent cartographer, which then allowed the covenant to open flood containment facilities without issue in the mission 343 guilty spark." The actual lore of Halo disagrees with your assumptions. "its classic cause & affect." It's classic "pull shit out of your ass and make stuff up" And nothing in the dialogue itself indicates that there's some over encompassing security system that was disabled. The game literally says "This is a security override station for the main facility, located somewhere else on this island. Shut the system down so the Covenant won't be able to lock us out." > Located somewhere else on THIS ISLAND Not "located somewhere else on this ring about 10 hours of flight away" Stop. Making. Shit. Up.
@@Dennis19901 you good sir are making shit up, main facility is tied to all faculties, so take the L just because its in a separate location, does not mean it does not connect, your using wifi right? do you get it from a router? or from the satellite in orbit? turn off the router >satellite gets no signal> get no more wifi mc turning off security for main facility > turning off flood containment. if the mc did not turn off containment, the sentinels would have reacted to the covenants attempts to open the facility, but they did not. & remember how could Cortana deactivate flood containment when she was not even there? she was in the control room, which she warned mc to go find keyes almost immediately? mc released the flood. simples as. the only difference here is that instead of being wireless it has a hard cable connection to the satellite. & if you can not be civil in this discussion you need to fing leave. it only show how much a temper tantrum baby you are, & quite frankly you are embarrassing yourself in front of the internet. you have provided no proof beyond opinionable statements, Vague answers and are attacking me personally, that is not professional at all.
One thing I’ve always wondered, why wasn’t the flood containment facility on 04 heavily guarded? You would think with an enemy as dangerous as the flood, it would be almost impossible to infiltrate.
I don't know about that. There's very clearly a Flood Infection form Cylix stored on Zeta Halo that you can just walk up to unguarded the door wasn't even locked.
While I do like your views on the containment breach on Installation 04 I do have some things I might disagree/have other thoughts on. (this is a long one... sorry guys haha) Let's start with your theory that the flood is watching you and luring you in a trap. While the flood is extremely intelligent it needs a Gravemind as far as I know. Before that they have a Proto-Gravemind which we see in the level Keyes. If the flood was intelligent enough to place traps I think at the very least it needs a Proto-Gravemind and as we see them assembling a Proto-Gravemind in the Truth and Reconciliation I don't think they had another one (for one due to lack of biomass and the fact that we see the flood in a feral stage). Without a Proto-Gravemind I don't believe the flood is capable for creating traps. Next, while the doors could have been broken through combat forms I feel it's more likely that carrier forms exploded against the doors. The doors exploded and as there is no indication of combat forms in the games or the books while there are lots of infection forms I think that is the more likely explanation. While I can't explain why they were in the locked rooms it also makes sense as the marines and most of the covenant disappeared before the arrival of keyes.The victims could have been turned into carrier forms that the installation locked down until Keyes and the marines got close, got sensed by the flood and they broke through the doors. As for Master Chief releasing the Flood while shutting down the security for the maproom, I think it's possible but unlikely as the containment would have been a top priority for Spark and the Forerunners. I don't think shutting down the security for 1 level should enable the flood to escape containment. What I feel is more likely is that Master Chief by opening that security layer allowed the covenant to reach deeper in the facility. While they were there they might have opened/broken through just one layer of security that they shouldn't and accidentally released the flood, either in super cell form which allowed the flood to be transferred throughout the whole installation before transforming the covenant into flood forms which infected other members of the covenant (which could explain the confusion on their battlenet) or they got infected by a flood infection form and as they didn't know what they were dealing with and they wanted to research it (breaking their containment in the process, which I feel is also quite possible as the covenant worship everything of the Forerunners and they found the flood on the installation. If you made it here, thanks for reading ^^ please give me your thoughts as well
Can the Flood adapt to cellular level threats like nano machines and can they create any kind of pureform in size and body structure like say they make a huge kaiju city devouring worm pureform or a space traveling war ship pure form like the Tyranids but far faster, efficient, and with technology advantages?
The flood ranks are so diverse that it seems highly likely that the flood decides how to manifest itself depending on the situation. I don't know how else to explain the incredible difficulty faced by those that try to combat the parasite.
There are also some running along the top near a shade turret. After someone pointed them out to me, the next time I played it I killed them with the magnum before they ran off. 343 really is a masterpiece of environmental story telling.
I still have this theory that the outbreaks on Alpha and Delta Halos were allowed to happen. Like 2401 Penitent Tangent, he seemed to be talked like he was corrupted with the logic plague. So I still think they both happened intentionally.
Neither are right in the head, but I don't think either let it happen. Spark seems intent on wiping out the galaxy because of one flood outbreak, and Penitent Tangent is still trying to follow containment procedure even as he is captured by the Gravemind. Alpha Halo happened because of outside forces, Delta Halo may have happened because of outside meddling but it is probably because Tangent is either lazy, apathetic or both.
You all need to remember that 343 and penitent tangent go through rampancy, its already been stated that penitent tangent went through rampancy and thus he ignored all the containment issues on his installstion its probably why he seemed so broken in halo 2's gravemind cutscene, also in the terminals 343 expresses his loneliness and in one if them he starts showing a red static which is similar to a rampancy stage, just like cortana.
@@MistahFox Them wanting to fire Halo due to a local outbreak has nothing to do with them being crazy. They are programmed to assume that any Flood outbreak means they must fire Halo in order prevent what happened to the Forerunners.
Well Alpha Halo happened because the Covenant brute forced their way into forerunner structures they didn't know the purpose of. Delta Halo happened because about a 1000 years after the Halos fired a ship of unknown "Meddlers" accidentally unleashed the Flood, and Penitent Tangent did enact quarantine protocols. (Those protocols had been going strong for almost 100,000 years lol.)
13:12 Although they don't show up in game in 343 GS, active camo combat forms could do this. Camo combat forms do appear in vanilla CE, almost as an easter egg at the back of the armory room near the end of The Maw. 13:25 We never actually get to explore the entire containment facility. There's a third elevator shaft that goes even deeper, but the controls are broken and burning. The shaft goes up and down, but is only accessible from the lower section of the facility, so there could be at least two more wings that we never got to see.
i never thought about the disabling of the security system could've caused the outbreak of the flood. learn something new about this game every year pretty cool
The unidentified alien ship that crashed on 04, could it be possible that it was mid flight when the array was fired and that's why there were no survivors to be found? It would've been drifting empty through space and even with no fuel or power left in the engines momentum would still propel it as Newton's laws teaches us.
That's actually very interesting to think about, but I feel like the Forerunners would've kept tabs on other species and have some kind of information on their ship designs if it was back in that era
@@ToxicCoffeeTM True, but Spark and the other Monitors were cut off from the Domain when they were deployed with the Halo's, which itself was crippled when the Array fired, soooo idk maybe he just forgot? It's not that far fetched of a reason though it would be a very crappy one.
@@devastater97 or it couldve been the the writer being vague just as to not confirm or deny a race for lack of an image of the species or any real concrete stuff about their civilization or if they wanted it to be a covenant species. It helped them to do that quite well
@@tavianarmstrong974 But why include it and just give literally no information as to what they might be? The very least they could do is just give us a hint in whatever shape or form they want, a scrap of info or a single throwaway line of dialouge just as long as it's SOMETHING.
It's interesting that 343 Guilty Spark didn't even seem to care that someone just deactivated the security systems. You'd think he'd teleport his ass over to the Cartographer and find out who did it, but I guess that wasn't important to him.
all precursors that were in the galaxy during the beginning of the Forerunner-Precursor war(when the Forerunners purged the Precursors) were killed aside from the ones that dusted themselves (and subsequently caused the Forerunner-Flood war),of course excluding the(insert name of precursor who was sent adrift by the super-ancient Forerunners as punishment)
@@punctuationman334 Well maybe some of them survived but its highly unlikely seeing as the Books clearly state that The Forerunner Warrior Class went on a Genocidal Rampage throughout several Galaxies and then Exiled themselves after they made sure the Precursors (Except The Primordial) were all Dead,only a few of them survived but they turned themselves into Dust so they might one day return but the Dust corrupted over many tens of thousands of years and the Precursor Ships that had the Dust eventually Crashed into some Ancient-Human Controlled Worlds and the Ancient-Humans assumed that it was safe because it made the Feru(Pheru?)(The Ancient-Human equivalent to the Dog) show more "desired" traits/behavior but some of these Infected Feru were Consumed by Humans and that infected some Humans and the Feru and Humans that were Infected started sprouting Tentacle-ish growths and became Aggressive,and then Ancient Humanity realized they done fucked up once it was too late to Contain the Infection and they started losing Worlds and Systems to the Flood Infestation which is why they started Attacking and Taking-over Forerunner Worlds and Systems but by the Time the Forerunners reached Worlds lost to the Flood Humanity had "defeated" the Flood(Not really,the Primordial at that point Controlled the Flood and had it retreat from the Galaxy to return a couple Hundred Thousand Years later to take it over,whem the Flood returned to the Galaxy En Masse and started what is known as the Forerunner-Flood War,the War that killed 99.999999999% of All life in the Galaxy including 99.999999999999999% of all Forerunners that were alive when the Forerunner-Flood War began,and then 100,000-ish years later the events of Halo CE began when the Pillar of Autumn and a Covenant Fleet stumbled upon Alpha Halo and destroyed it within a Week of arrival) Note:this is a *very* brief summary of all known Halo Lore up until the Ending of Halo Combat Evolved,for a full dive into the Depths of Halo's Lore I would reccomend Watching many Videos about the In-game lore and Reading the Forerunner Trilogy aswell as some other Halo Books.
The only thing that really puzzles me is that why did the marines allow Keyes to come with them like they have to have protocols against such things like to prevent capture or anything like that.
The thing is you *are* being watched. Remember those radar blips as you close in on the containment facility? The flood was stalking/observing you from the start of the mission and likely til the end.
Can Flood become so intelligent that they can use battle tactics on the ground and space then you know not just overwhelming their enemies with large numbers but by using military strategy and tactics like false information, flanking, hitting weak points, ect, and using squad and vehicle tactics on ground battles.
Yes. On 343 guilty spark in Halo CE the flood go through the paces of luring the human forces, and then again the player. They already had access to the surface to use numbers to overwhelm the enemy, but they knew that would only work once. So ambush and bait tactics were used. Also the flood used amazing military tactics in space battles in the forerunner war.
The flood also used "false" information to lure in prey and creat a false sense of safety, like when the Marines and ODSTs were unaware of the floods true attack under thier base until it almost destroyed them.
Great new video! Definitely puts into perspective something that has always been somewhat confusing and poorly understood. I'd also like to point out that when you are going through the swamp you do see a combat form in the distance that quickly runs off, which could lend creedence to the theory that the Flood is constantly watching.
Oh... my god... I've played halo CE countless times (it was the only halo game on pc as a kid and for awhile) and I've NEVER thought about the door sec system theory... god that's brilliant
That opening scene where we all very very first encounter the flood. Such an epic moment in gaming. God this game is so amazing. It’s a classic at this point and I have played it so many times and beating it on legendary so many times That it is hard to enjoy it now because well yeah. But I will never stop appreciating it. Innoway this game changed my life or rather the story of master chief.
Have you guys seen the halo ring in the control room, half of the land mass is flashing red like something is wrong or broken, almost like the floor has already spread but we just lucky not to come across it and also explains why the battle net is so easy to access as they are fighting flood and the humans more of a second thought, it also explains why a fleet could not take out one ship of humans.
the idea of master chief accidentally releasing the flood while trying to get to the map is really, REALLY fascinating! maybe he's not quite as lucky as he's thought to be.
‘A number of spacefaring species.’ I don’t recall mention of that outside of the crashed ship. We know there are others in the galaxy but it’s hard to imagine a species discovering the ring and NOT try to study it in full force.
Especially since it's a superweapon. Sacred journeys, and ignorant flood releases aside, what could a nefarious party do in blackmailing half a galaxy with extermination via firing a ring? I always thought it terrifying that irl, there may be an interplanetary war occurring rn, between an all consuming parasitic fungus and a hyperadvanced alien race with a superweapons like halo, capable of wiping out all life, and the firing of which we'd never ever realise. We'd never know the circumstances, no option for debate, just one day, we cease to exist..
@14:00 - How the Flood were released on Installation 04 initially: Didn't the Covenant find doors that were super-locked and decided that it was obviously the place where the best weapons/treasure was to be found, and blasted them open, thus releasing the flood.
Headcanon: Chief lowered the security which allowed the Covenant into the restricted Flood areas, the Flood started to get out but the Covenant managed to reseal a lot of the doorways into the now Flood infested areas, Keys & his men broke the Covenant seal on that door, the soldiers infection then showed other Flood how to break the other Covenant seals. The idea of them using translocation pads makes sense, but those rooms could have also been cold storage rooms made for keeping the infection forms in a state of hibernation or suspended animation. Also the Doors in the level opened in more of an explosion than brute force. I could see the flood using carrier forms made from incapacitated Covenant combat forms to open the doors and allow the infection forms to attack the Chief.
Hey 00, I don't know if you'll see this comment, considering it's on such an old video, but I just wanted to say you are what keeps my love of Halo alive. I'm not a huge fan of any of the new games and I shall never speak of the abomination that is the Halo show, but your content goes far and beyond anything 343 has ever done for the series. Thank you.
Or 343 Guilty Spark released the flood while he was bored. He left for a long period if time and as mentioned in the video, jettisoned a section of the ring to "see what would happen".
I don't think he would as shown by the fact he blocked the distress signal from the crashed ship because nothing could know where the Halos are, this shows he still followed his duty of a Halo monitor
Tbh, I subscribe to the theory that 343 Guilty Spark enabled the flood to infect and spread. He was bored, and firing the ring, the highest of his creator's purposes given to him, was an exciting and thrilling test to him. He no longer cares about living beings, his own boredom and restlessness overtaking almost all of his priorities, to the point that all he wants is something to do to break the monotony
This makes So Much SENSE. I'll be completely honest, believe me or don't that's your choice, but waaay back in '02 when I finally played through the game for a second time, I wondered about the Exact implication of Chief unknowingly helping to set the Flood free! I ignored the idea after going through 343 again, deciding that was the outbreak and there was nothing more to it, but honestly it seems too good Not to be true now! He and Cortana had no way of knowing exactly what systems that security station would effect, how deeply its programming might've reached since Cortana wasn't able to really interface with Halo as thoroughly as she would later in the Control Room. This is officially my head canon and no one can change it, Thank You 00 this video was Mind Blowing!
If Chief released the Flood when disabling the security door during the Silent Cartographer, then who releases the Flood when Chief dives through the security door out of the driver seat of a Warthog when it's closing?
... what if we took this even one step further? When Keyes made a blind jump, they were brought to Installation 04. Would the Gravemind have power over slipspace in some weird domain-forerunner-entanglement kind of way, knowing a reclaimer would unknowingly release the flood? ... If not, watching what you presented and theorized had me thinking Guilty spark was a sociopath. Fascinating work, truly.
He was pretty sure covenant were responsible but couldn't be 100% sure without investigating. Also at this time Spark had started going crazy, although being alone for 100'000 years would drive anyone insane.
The Covenant were the ones persistently trying to get into all sorts of restricted areas on the ring. At the Cartographer island, there were no sentinels of any flavor present during the battle. Spark may not have actually seen 117 disable the security, and assumed the Covenant did it, since they had a team trying to do the exact same thing. Assuming that's what actually did it, and not some random Covenant archaeology team. Also, we know that Spark doesn't have a real time link to all of the ring's systems. He was genuinely surprised to find Cortana in the control room, even though she had been there in the core for over twelve hours. Considering that Cortana knew exactly what 117 was doing in the Library, she probably had a means of spying on data feeds from sentinels that Spark could not detect. After all, Cortana was the best cyberwarfare AI the UNSC had ever developed. Spark's mental state was also worn out after 100 millennia. He could have simply been too distracted by all the excitement to notice the containment breach until either his sentinels spotted it, or the Covenant battle net started going crazy about the Parasite.
@@icyknightmare4592 I still don't think chief did it mainly because having one security system to unlock everything is just outright stupid, especially when containing the most dangerous thing in the universe. I know the forerunners did questionable stupid stuff like keeping flood specimens in the first place but I don't believe for one second that they make a stupid mistake like that.
@@shadowphoenix1696 the forerunners thought it was possible the flood were on other galaxies so they kept specimen for study for whatever species found the ring, presumably for weapon development, protective gear and possibly a vaccine or cure. If the forerunners were right and the flood were on other galaxies they would presumably have an insane amount of forces, you don't want all life to be caught with their pants down. We for example keep samples of diseases we have driven to extinction, just in case we were wrong about the disease being gone or if the disease was in ice and the ice melts. We have discovered ancient viruses in glaciers before and they have survived after being thawed out.
@@jamestor6700 keeping spores and information I get but they keep full infection forms and even pure forms which would allow any outbreak to spread much faster. This is not some disease that acts as nature intended too, this is a highly intelligent parasite that uses tactics to spread. The flood did trick both ancient humans and Forerunners that there was a cure when there wasn't and even turned the Forerunners own AI against the them.
Forunners: We must eradicates the flood. Also the forunners: but let’s keep some for study because it’s not like the flood has ever breached containment before.
I mean the medpack is there for any low health players for gameplay. But when you put it like that. That it may be a trap. It adds onto the flood combat forms you see in the fog approaching the facility. How they watch and run away and move outside where you can't reach. Until you move into the main facility after they may have sprung the same trap on the covenant party that was escaping when Chief arrived and the downed gunships nearby. It does fit into a nice pie with all the information and detective work.
Your suggestion regarding the Flood using translocation pads to release infection forms and then retrieve combat forms is interesting, but would feral Flood have that kind of foresight and strategic acumen? Typically it isn't until the Flood assimilated a large number of hosts and begin construction of a proto-grave mind that they move beyond the feral stage and start to demonstrate real intelligence.
The explanation of specifics for how the Flood containment breach occurred are less interesting than the conditions that allowed it, and I think that responsibility should be laid directly at the feet of 343 Guilty Spark. A couple things to bear in mind: - We never actually get a definitive 'map' of that facility so we have no clue how large it was or how deep that elevator system went. For all we know any human forces present (including John-117) only made it to the outer layers of the facility while the Covenant were able to penetrate the deepest areas and accidentally (or maybe intentionally) disabled vital security systems to aid their progress, and in effect released the Flood. - The location in a swamp actually makes sense since the purpose of the facility would have lent itself towards being placed in a biome undesirable for initial exploration by potential future visitors (likely expected to be humans based upon what we know from the Forerunner's plans) but vital to the installation's ecological diversity. The geological and biosphere characteristics of that region would have also potentially shielded the facility from initial visibility by those same visitors, especially when you consider the level of Forerunner technology for unobtrusive methods of shielding and hiding objects or locations. - Based upon what we can infer from Cold Storage, a facility of a similar if not identical purpose to the one encountered on Installation 04, there were most definitely automated protocols that should have gone into effect in the event of flood containment breach (facility security lockdown, atmospheric evacuation, temperature reduction). We also have proof of teleportation nodes present within the facility which can be redirected into a 'recursive' mode, meaning they are isolated from the rest of the installation's slipspace translocation grid. None of that appears to have happened at the facility on Installation 04, at least based upon what we know. - Given what we know now from the Halo CE: Anniversary terminals, 343 Guilty Spark was programmed to see any deliberate approach to Installation 04 by an unknown vessel as an aggressive action meriting violent defensive response. The assumption is that those measures were to have been directed at the Pillar of Autumn and the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice without bias or distinction. However, we do not have sufficient understanding of how those measures operate or how Spark chooses to deploy them. - The only other example we have is Spark's questionable recount of a damaged vessel being allowed to crash land on the ring. There is a reason to doubt his recollection of the event given the onset of rampancy and even more so from the perspective of the terminals. We are only told of the vessel's arrival within range of Installation 04 at the end of Terminal Four and then it is introduced after a 'passive' approach in Terminal Five. My assumption is that Spark might very well have been responsible for damaging the vessel and killing those on board. - Spark's emerging rampancy brought on by boredom and loneliness that might explain his peculiar behavior towards the vessel and why he allowed it to 'passively' approach after executing his programmed responsibilities. That reinterpretation of his programming about security protocols allowed him to fulfill his obligation to satisfactorily eliminate the threat of the vessel but then allow it's remains to crash land upon Halo's surface so he can conveniently be allowed an opportunity to make contact and learn more of the galaxy beyond his installation. This is also represented by two more curious protocols and abilities Spark exhibits which are curiously absent in Halo CE: scrubbing of atmospheric gases leaked from the vessels and blocking of all communications beyond the ring. - Another incredible ability at Spark's command is the ability to manipulate the gravity tether system that binds the inner surface of a halo installation. By releasing or even reversing the gravity tether the entire artificial surface of a section of the ring (biosphere, geological formations, maybe even atmosphere?) can be jettisoned into vacuum. That function most definitely could and should have been utilized as a stop gap measure to slow down any large Flood infestations or even the presence of unauthorized and hostile sapient beings. - In a move similar to his reinterpretation of his programmed responsibilities, Spark immediately dropped his security protocols when he determined the presence of humans and instructed the Pillar of Autumn to a designated landing zone to await his determination of the presence and pitch of their geas. Since there is no acknowledgment of the installation attempting to contact the Pillar of Autumn prior or during Chief's presence on the bridge it can be assumed Spark had not yet issued the warning or welcome as at the very least Cortana would have been able to determine an unknown but definitely artificial electromagnetic radiation source was acting as a carrier wave for some sort of communication, especially if there were any repeating patterns. - The lack of response from humans followed by the 'passive approach' (aka crash landing) of the Pillar Of Autumn at a location other than the designated landing and coupled with humans landing on the installation at multiple locations must have shocked 343 Guilty Spark who either did not know how to address this situation or had reinterpreted his programming so much that he no longer had directives that he could follow that would not necessitate the activation of the aggressive defensive response protocols. - All of this sets the stage for how the events of Halo CE play out. Spark impulsively lowered all security measures after his rampancy caused him to become far too eager at the opportunity of contact with humans. That inadvertently let the far superior force of the Covenant land on the ring unimpeded and begin to secure the immense number of facilities across the installation, drawing away Spark's focus and attention. The division of Covenant forces on a massive structure like a halo installation also greatly factored into the survival and success of the human forces who never had to face any concerted efforts from the Covenant and were allowed to move about relatively unnoticed in small teams. These conditions greatly favored a unique special operations soldier like Chief who could execute strike operations on key locations against relatively small numbers of Covenant forces with ease. - Unfortunately, these conditions also are what allowed for the Flood containment breach and spread of the Flood across the ring. The spread of Covenant forces and small teams of humans operating across the ring were perfect targets to be isolated, defeated, and infected by an enemy they were unfamiliar with and unprepared to handle. Additionally you can attribute the relative instability in the Covenant command structure present to have been a huge factor in the Covenant role in the outbreak of the parasite and a subsequent impediment in their ability to respond to it. - 343 Guilty Spark appears to bear ultimate responsibility after having completely botched this entire event when he abdicated his responsibilities and in the process lost control of the situation. Based on what we know now of the protocols and abilities at his command he appears to have been reluctant or unable to use them. My assumption is that he still was reinterpreting his programmed responsibilities and hoping the situation would resolve itself much as he did when he allowed the unknown vessel to land. That lack of action proved costly as the Covenant were able to breach Flood containment and unleash the parasite. After that it appears Spark defaulted to a more prime directive that demanded that the release of the parasite was to be resolved with an activation of the Halo Array. To that end he ignored any protocols that might have slowed down the Flood's progress and instead finally made contact with humans in order to retrieve the activation index which lead him to become preoccupied with Chief and Cortana. We all know how the story goes from there.
Just a few last things that have relevance to the topic: - The parasite released on Installation 04 acted and behaved as expected within the stages of evolution of an outbreak, but they most definitely were not 'feral'. The Gravemind on Installation 05 already existed within quarantine and would have likely been able to coordinate the efforts of the outbreak on Installation 04 through the manipulation of neural physics effecting 'telepathy' over great distances (as evidenced by the many 'moments' in Halo 3 when Chief is mentally assaulted by the Gravemind and false images of Cortana). This might cast doubt on the interpretation that how the Flood behaved on Installation 04 is representative of a truly 'feral' outbreak in the sense of lacking a collective neural intelligence and network as would be expected in a true initial outbreak. It stands to reason that any localized outbreak regardless of the presence of outbreaks elsewhere follows a similar pattern based upon the necessity of securing biomass as quickly and expediently as possible to establish a foothold while minimizing the threat for total eradication in the local area. That would warrant a universal Flood behavior of aggressive initial expansion that was exhibited right after the release of the Flood on Installation 04, but that doesn't explain how the Flood at such an early stage were able to quickly adapt to using weapons, equipment, and vehicles without any sort of Keyminds present at the initial outbreak site of the Flood containment facility. Something as insane as them immediately hijacking a Spirit Dropship to invade the Infinite Succor knowing that the starship harbored an abundance of vulnerable biomass is clear evidence that there was greater coordination going on immediately after the first Flood containment breach. - Based upon the behavior and response of 343 Guilty Spark we now have a more firm understanding of what might have happened on Installation 05 that allowed for the creation and quarantine of a Gravemind. A keymind of that size would have necessitated an immense amount of biomass and sufficient time to be produced. That leads me to believe that 2401 Penitent Tangent not only went rampant but encountered a sapient space-faring species (possibly the same race as the unknown vessel on Installation 04?) that he allowed to land in great numbers on the ring in violation of the aggressive defense response. Something happened where the Monitor was compromised or otherwise unable to respond to an eventual release of the Flood, with the Flood containment facility in Cold Storage being the likely site for the initial outbreak. Now either this sapient species fled with their vessels or destroyed them to prevent the Flood from capturing them, but either way we can assume that none of the Flood escaped the ring otherwise the Flood would have had a nearly 40,000 year start on consuming the galaxy yet again with no one to stop them. - Whatever compromised or detained 2401 Penitent Tangent left him vulnerable to capture by the Flood, but the installation's automated systems must have been able to contain the Flood outbreak and quarantine it. This is further evidenced by the very counter intuitive solution of erecting a quarantine zone to contain the Flood with the activation index trapped within which prevented anyone from retrieving it in order to activate the Halo Array in response to a Flood outbreak. The haphazard nature of this response and the fact that the Gravemind appears to have had access if not control of the slipstream translocation grid despite the quarantine measures leads me to believe that there was more than one quarantine site on Installation 05 but that location surrounding the Library was the only one encountered in Halo 2 for deliberate reasons. - Curiously the outbreak on Installation 05 does not appear to have been that widespread as evidenced by the existing and stable biosphere present in 2552. However there does appear to be possible evidence of a conflict and possible actions by the unknown species that released the Flood in the level Regret when Cortana remarks that the lake with numerous ruins at the bottom is not natural and was either created that way on purpose or the result of a cataclysmic event. A part of me always thought that it was meant to be ironic by Bungie as an ancient Forerunner city that was literally consumed by a 'flood' of water, but later developments in the story now lead me to believe that it's existence and the presence of metal structures 'honoring it' can be interpreted as a memorial or possibly even security measure for what happened there. - Another thing to note is that the absence of 2401 Penitent Tangent being in charge as the monitor of Installation 05 might have been what prevented the installation from adopting an aggressive defensive response when Covenant and UNSC vessels came in range during the events of the Battle of Installation 05, but it also stands to reason that if automated systems were left running then they should have activated anyways with no possibility for deactivation (especially if those automated systems knew there was already a Flood outbreak present). This lack of a response might further be explained by the actions of the previous unknown species who somehow managed to undermine the installation's security systems, compromised or subdued 2401 Penitent Tangent, and prevented any coordinated response to the Flood outbreak, reminiscent to to the events that happened on Installation 04. If Chief and Cortana hadn't decided to use a startship's fusion reactor as an improvised explosion to destroy Halo it questions what sort of measures 343 Guilty Spark and the installation's automated systems might have taken to quarantine the outbreak. That places even more emphasis on 343 Guilty Spark lack of appropriate responses to slow down or halt the progress of the Flood while he sought to retrieve the activation index. - Beyond that we have no clue as to how the Flood survived within those quarantine zones or Flood containment facilities for thousands of years (or how they survived within High Charity after the overload of the fusion reactors). Surely they must have devolved and reduced their collective metabolic requirement in order to preserve biomass but we still don't have an understanding if or how they're able to enter a hibernation or stasis. Their control and manipulation of neural physics and some of the transcendental biological quirks of the Precursors must allow them to have incredible abilities that we have no documented evidence of. We also know that the Forerunners exhausted numerous conventional and exotic methods for dealing with the Flood and found nothing that could be applied universally on a large scale to be effective in completely eradicating the parasite except for brute force application of destructive technologies. There's also plenty of evidence that even Forerunners were able to access the neural physics-enabled quantum information storage medium of the Domain even when in a form of biological stasis inside a cryptum, so it stands to reason that the Flood would be able to do so as well after placing themselves within a similar state.
It could be that a few Flood Pure Forms samples were kept. When the Covenant (or whomever) released those Pure Forms they were then easily able to overpower the surprised Covenant troops present before turning themselves into Carriers and birthing Infection Forms to harvest all the dead troops. It would explain why we see that dead Covenant Elite in Jenkin's log that was not turned into a Combat Form and also why the place was so deserted afterwards was because the Pure Forms were switching to Carriers. When Chief arrived the Pure Forms turned Carriers birthed the Infection Forms and started havesting the dead for Combat Forms.
We probably were being watched because you can here the flood in the facility before you ever actually see them. Like before the cutscene you can here them on the walk towards the room
Thank you for a tremendous amount of revealing content on the lore. However, just a quick one, this might be blindingly obvious to others but I haven't worked it out. If flood need biomass to survive, how did they survive without any on the ring for so long? Was 343 feeding them? Or were stasis fields keeping them alive? Many thanks!
I can confirm in 343 guiltyspark you are being watched, in the jungle at the beginning I manage to get a peak at a combat from running away from me right before I got in visual range of the facility
I think the first option seems more likely. That the covenant reached the actual containment facility and in activating things released the flood. The curious part is that the sentinels didn’t activate immediately and contain the outbreak as soon as it started. Maybe they attacked the covenant and were destroyed? I highly doubt the containment facilities didn’t have firepower on hand to immediately fry an outbreak.
I always found it interesting that the water level around the Silent Cartographer's island used to be much higher. I doubt it means much of anything other then the passage of time, but it's still an interesting detail.
I think if the control room was the primary security access point on installation 04 then the cartographer could have been a secondary monitoring station and security failsafe. In the event of a containment breach or if the control room itself or another important location was compromised, it would make sense to have such a redundancy. Even if whatever breached the control room could unlock local systems in a limited capacity, the access point in the cartographer would be able to lock down the rest of the ring section by section or all at once if need be. The covenant could have initially breached local containment and then chief could have overridden that secondary contingency which kept the spread minimal to that point. After this the covenant would begin to encounter the flood more, leading to increased interception of covenant battle net chatter by the remaining crew of the autumn which leads to the events as they play out in the game and book. The fact that no one in the story is aware of all this except possibly 343 guilty spark only fits the lore as both the humans and covenant would be completely ignorant of what was happening until it was far too late anyway. Short version, I agree with I-00 says about it. It makes sense for even the feral flood to capitalize on all of this.
We do know you're being watched by the flood during the whole level, if you pay close attention at the start of the level before even entering the facility, the 'friendly' marks on the radar, if you zoom in with a scope, are actual combat forms.
Remember what Cortona says when you get back: I’ve been watching you todie around for hours helping that thing get sent to slit our throats, meaning she was watching us fight the flood the whole time through some sort of forerunner cameras, and I think your 100% right
@Installation00 As you mentioned, These do appear to be holding cells for some type of life forms. However I propose a couple theories (bare in mind, these theories are gonna be a heavy read ye be warned): 1. If this is a Flood containment facility, it is entirely possible that a healthy supply of flood infection forms were held and studied within these cells. Take a look at the environment; there are smaller cells within a larger area. Most likely, this area was meant to release the parasite in that of a pseudo-environment with absolute quarantine and sterilization in mind (e.g. no plant life or natural forms within the "play area"). Also, keep in mind (whether it was intended or simply an oversight [let's be honest, Bungie never thought they'd think this deep into a game]) there are windows that are 2-way; both parties can see what each other are up to. The Flood, at their very basic core, is to infect and spread regardless of intelligence/complexity level; ASSIMILATE AND SPREAD. it is also mentioned that each infection form is the size of a human chest cavity so it can be assumed that they weigh could weigh a certain amount. Let's say, since their bulbous "upper body" is filled with gasses/spores and can leap great distances with simple tendrils (none of which are really adapted for leaping as seen with natural animals with strong hing legs) lets say they're a modest 10lbs per infection form ASSUMING they're all uniform in shape and size. in each cell contains DOZENS of infection forms. lets say they hold about 5 dozen forms per cell; 5 x 12 = 60, 60 x ~10 = ~600lbs of just mass, not including energy exerted which can be greater than the mass of any organism. so 600lbs of pressure on a technologically advanced security door. That's not too bad assuming the security systems are up to date and maintained well enough (by this time, 343's mental status had started to show signs of unstability and beginning to lax on protocols [not as sever as Penitent Tangent, but i have a theory he released the parasite on purpose, but for another time i guess]). However, a security installation with perhaps the most dangerous organism in the galaxy is found relatively abandoned. Not a single Sentinel, Constructor, or any type of maintenance drone in sight UNTIL the outbreak. Let's not forget to neglect the old adage of "never fuck with anything that has nothing to lose." Going back to the "windows" of the cells, if an infection form saw ANY potential hosts, regardless of sentience or not it WILL get out. It WILL fight to infect. The primary task is simple, no unnecessary complexity: INFECT, CONSUME, SURVIVE. Like that of a starved carnivore seeing any type of meat it would fight beyond exhaustion to get it. For let's even nerf the dozens of Infection Forms and say they only put out double their effort to bust through that door; ~1,200lbs of pressure on a single door. We can tell a couple Combat forms can bust through that door with enough effort, and i'm sure it doesn't need over a literal ton of physical energy to do it otherwise every swing of the "rip-arm" would make any target fucking explode (it'd be funny to see for like the first couple minutes of that happening though). 2. The cells contained in that facility housed other animals for study including the flood. As mentioned before, the flood were being kept alive for further study and would require some sort of sustenance. That being said there are 2 small sub-theories to this: A. The Infection forms were being held in the cells and one cell would be released upon a sacrificial animal being released into the "play area" of the containment room. The possible reason for there being no biomass is that over considerable amounts of time the biomass of the consumed sacrificed animal had all of its biomass consumed to sustain the infection forms. It is entirely possible "growth pods" could've been developed but over time, broken down to further maintain any living infection forms (possible cannabalism to stay alive). Rinse and repeat for millenia. B. The cells were initially meant for other animal/specimens for study, occasionally released into the "play area." It would also be a more secure way of sustaining an infection form from within a cell of a cell, then moving the sustained infection form back with its containment populace to survive and remain captive/studied. That being said, "why were there dozens of forms within each cell of the animal containment room?" Well, if you release a flood form among a single living organism it can reproduce exponentially (e.g. the brief outbreak on UNSC Spirit of Fire via a single Infection Form). it would be preferable to ensure that either a majority of the infection forms die out within each cell or that all the cells be infected, eventually released into the "play area," then herded before being transported to another containment cell/facility. tldr; an organism desperate enough will break through captivity (my personal primary theory on how the infection forms escaped) or the cells in the facility (at least in the one the Chief was in) were meant for other animals/specimens of study falling victim to the flood by seemingly flawless security/containment/reproductive/study design.
Ide like to see a flood containment breach at the price is right. HERES YOUR HOST BOB BARKERRRRRR! (the doors open and a infected bob barker runs out with tons of infection forms and attacks the audiance while the theme song plays)
Interesting theories personally I always thought Keyes decision to open the door to the quarantine room was odd sure you could say Keyes was reckless in his choice but Keyes was an intelligent man it just never Sat right with me that he would do such a thing after clearly seeing dead covenant and knowing none of the unsc forces killed them but that's just me and also his desicion to even go there in the first place was odd you'd think alpha base would need him there to coordinate their efforts rather than chase after a supply cache himself.
Ok I'll give you that, that Chief let the flood out. But how then did the flood escape on other installations before this? "The Meddlers"? Delta Halo maybe?
All the biomass came from the covenant, and used them to make more infection forms, you got me on the doors though, and they were stored in those objects, but the covenant let them out through their meddling.
Can we just talk about how quick and smart the flood were here? They retreated to lure the marines in and got rid of any of their own bodies as to not throw anyone off. And then retreated again to lure the chief in. You can actually see the infected elites briefly doing this in the level itself. And the flood spread across nearly the entire ring in less than 3 days. They were actually possibly released before the Pillar of Autumn even crashed. They did all this strategic things without a gravemind either.
That depends...while they were trying to create a Proto-Gravemind to aid their co-ordination, we know that there was an outbreak on Installation 05. I wonder, is their a chance that the Gravemind on that installation was already formed, and was providing nascent direction from the astronomical distance through neural physics, or was he isolated by the Quarantine?
And now that I think about. The Proto Gravemind wouldn't be made until the ship seen in Keyes. So that is also something to note.
@@crimsonquill4255 I think that one is 10.000 years old so its possible
@@robianknight4001 I don’t think they treated it that way. Because there was still plenty of covenant inside the structure when the chief showed up. They were still hiding or being mopped up by marines, flood or the chief. You have to also consider all the different rooms and areas that you didn’t go into while playing as the chief. There could have been way more covenant or even marines still there. And the flood did leave the crazy marine alive too. Despite being able to kill and find him quickly. He was shooting randomly.
Well yeah the flood still resive the strategic inteligance of the combined minds they eat they don't need a grave mind for basic instincs the bad desgens are just plot point after.
"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."
- 343 Guilty Spark
YOU DON'T SAY!?
Bthsr71 a lot of what the Forerunners did and thought were...questionable to say the least.
Yeah just better to destroy it
Jaela Aurelius lol yeah no shit.
Jaela Aurelius I’m still confused by that decision. Did the librarian save the flood on the halos to test humans?
The appearance of The Flood in Halo 3 really creeped me out when I was a kid just playing back in 2007. Good times.
The flood doors on High Charity still disgust me as much as they did in my youth.
Imagine how they would look in a *Halo 3: Anniversary.*
That would look terrifying.
@@Stratonetic you mean the big flood buttholes ?
The H2 flood levels are far more terrifying.
@@nuclearjanitors
So true.
You should discuss the Flood outbreak on Delta Halo, lotta juicy stuff there
Next on my agenda!
That's going to be fun, so much has been retconned from the original concept, the final story, to the now re-established lore.
@@Installation00 I have A question; if the flood on the first halo ring had been successful in creating A gravemind-Wouldn't this gravemind have any connects to the Gravemind in Halo 2.
@@savagedarksider5934 Graveminds could talk to each other as far as I recall. They were technically all part of the same flood. But also curious about the answer.
@@Installation00 Oh, I love that topic, yet apparently didnt know about things like the sentinel factory being shot down. Do try to dig for "blink and you miss it" details in it!
Or, a much simpler answer: the glowing pads in the cells are stasis fields, all of the cells held one carrier form each for 343 to study within the facility. When the security was de-activated, either by the Covenant or Chief, the stasis fields released the carrier forms. When the carrier forms saw a potential host (Chief) that wasn't already being infected like the marines were, they decided to explode. The carrier forms explode then so Bungie doesn't have to model a super ancient Forerunner flood form. That's why the doors open with an explosion and there are only infection forms inside. Also, I think it would be funny if in speed runs when the player flings themselves through the security door using a warthog instead of de-activating the security system, the flood are just absent from the rest of the game.
If that's the case the game would've been alot shorter.
That would’ve been a hilarious Easter egg
Yea I was about to say this. Carrier forms could have definitely opened the door.
@@Viviana088 does a carrier forms explosion have enough force though? There is also the possibility it could have been a tank form since some were kept in storage.
@@jacobweatherford4696 Well in terms of gameplay you do get launched into the air by a considerable amount when caught within the explosion radius of the carrier form. They are basically frag grenades but with legs; since you can use them as make shift grenades to kill large groups of enemies. I'm pretty sure multiple carrier forms are used to open the doors in 343 guilty spark and in the Maw considering the fact that it sounds like multiple "explosions" before the doors bust open. Ever noticed in Halo CE when the flood breaks down a door there is a shitton of infection forms that storm through first with combat forms being a bit further back from the door?
My favorite part of the release of the flood is that it's important to note the Covenant released it by opening doors all over the ring. Even though the locks on most forerunner tech require at least installation AI or at most Human genetic coding. The covenant, at least in some capacity, have an amazing bypass that never really explored beyond a hand wave notion, which is criminal.
a huragok could just rebuild the lock or the lekgolo could just worm their way through system doing their "tech thing"; i wouldnt chock it up to a handwave after playing ODST and Reach
Oh I am well aware, but it's never explored
I mean the covenant probably have dedicated centuries of cumulative time just opening forerunner doors. Like just the process of opening the doors, in total, centuries of time.
@@calebblaha7854 I know, but they never bring it up
@@calebblaha7854 the Halo community loves the idea that unless something is specifically said, it's not real. Which is both great and terrible.
The idea behind the medpack being bait, and by extension are watching you throughout the level tracks with the book ‘The Flood’ with Chief feeling like he’s being watched.
I keep forgetting that the flood is an incredibly smart lifeform
That's an understatement. Everytime they infect someone or something, the collective as a whole just got smarter and more crafty.
They technically come from the precursors which were even more technologically advanced than the forerunners. The precursors were so smart they let themselves die for reasons us dumbass humans will probably never understand
@@sleepshouter5017 they died to experince the cycle of life XD
The fact they are capable to team up with humanity is spooky af
Oh yeah if they’re so smart why did they die to bullets, checkmate
The idea that Chief accidentally borked the entire installation's security systems during the events of TSC is something SPV3 explores slightly. In fact, the modders actually changed the text to "Press [button] to shut down installation security system"
At the beginning of the mission flood actually are watching you they appear as friendly's
They only appear so because its still the infected marines caring their transponders. So without a manuell update they are still listed as friendlies in the radars identification list
@@leiferikson850 that makes so much sense thxs never thought about it
I mean...
I noticed that back in 2001 when I was 6 years old lol.
Theres even one that drops a plasma pistol on top of the roots of a huge upturned tree,just past the crashed Spirit Dropship
@@leiferikson850 that's impossible, the combat forms visible at that point were Elite Combat forms.
@13:05 Funny enough, that's exactly how Master Chief felt in the novelization "The Flood" no less. Ever since he entered the facility, he constantly felt like eyes were constantly burning a hole in the back of his head. That something was. . . . . .wrong here.
HERE IS A JUICY QUESTION: Why did Bungie go out of thier way to suggest the plant life on 343 guilty spark is the same color, texture and glow as the flood combat forms? Back in Halo 2 classic the Gravemind looks like an enormous plant, and the flood in both games use a lot of earthy tones in thier color. We know they can assimilate the environment, and that the monitor was out of his mind by the time chief arrived to the first installation. Because the flood have the same reproductive traits as plants, via spores, I always assumed the flood had been long escaped, and used the biomass of the environment to become most of the swamp plant life, until hosts could arrive to sustain thier (now retconned) need for calcium to hijack host minds and spread.
While their certainly were flood spores released the covies found, I was certain for almost a decade that was a red herring.
A Clown actually some of the more ‘archaic’ plants like ferns still use spores, you could say Seeds are just upgraded spores but yeah, spores are typically a fungus thing
Some funguses also kill bacteria if I remember correctly, but the infected hosts of the flood decay, which should mean bacteria are eating at the dead flesh.
Maybe the flood is some kind of hybrid between parasitic organism and microorganism, since they did emerge from genetically corrupted powder which gave birth to the supercell within the feru (ancient herbivorous reptilian dogs), a parasitic virus maybe?
Viruses open up the chance for secondary bacterial infection (the decay) and viral mutation (flood forms), the flood do seem to change rapidly, perhaps out of control genetic mutations, or greatly controlled mutations.
Zalrohg Lekgolo Good theory I would say it doesn’t hold up, because we have to base this off 343 guilty spark not doing his job for decades, but it’s clear that he was terrible at doing his job.
@@antoine121 I mentioned he had gone crazy, I assumed that implied his inability to do his job.
@@Stratonetic your reply is exactly like the ones I used to say when this was relevant. Back in the old days
The moment you showed the locked door from the silent cartographer, my heart went: “Oh sh*t. No... it can’t be... I didn’t... I couldn’t... I didn’t know.”
The flood in CE is in the feral stage of its life cycle meaning it doesn't do strategy or traps, it goes full on attack. While I agree the infection forms most likely couldn't have taken down the door please remember there size isn't portrayed correctly in the games, there actual size being close to about 3/4 foot tall. Still I do like your theory that Chief deactivation of the security effectively leaves the door open for them to escape I can't help but think the Forerunners weren't that stupid when it came to security over the most dangerous creature in the known universe.
And yet the Forerunner's thought it would be an absolutely amazing idea to keep Flood speciemens ALIVE on the very last ditch superweapons they built to destroy the Flood after said weapons have fired.
@@devastater97 The Forerunners left samples of flood biomatter on the rings as the flood could have escaped the galaxy(therefore escaping the range of halo ring fire) and could have came back at a later date therefore meaning they could possibly gotten a cure or effective method of sterilizing the flood before the eventual return of the parasite.
I don't think the flood was actually in the feral stage during the Battle of Installation 04.
The flood outbreak of Installation 05 existed since about 200 years after the firing of the halo array, yielding ample time to build a gravemind.
@@ethanwagner6418 the flood on 04 were in feral stage though. The gravemind on 05 was too far to communicate
@@derekmensch3601 the Gravemind used telepathic communication with the Chief across the distance from Earth to High Charity. Granted, we don't know what that distance was.
If we are to assume that telepathy happens through Slipspace and/or the Domain (which I think is fair, given the nature of the flood) then the Gravemind should be able to communicate to any position in the galaxy.
I think a story (perhaps anthology) from the perspective of some of the denizens of High Charity during the schism and subsequent flood infestation would be great. It went from being the covenants holy capital city to being abandoned by all none flood life in a matter of maybe 48 hours.
Ah, I see we're covering the coronavi- I mean flood outbreak...
Haro Shito you dirty little minx 😉
Nah. Even a 3.4% death rate pales in comparision to the flood's.
Welp the corona virus is in my region😑
Symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath BEFORE YOUR HEART IS LITERALLY RIPPED OUT :D
@@7MikeM7 welp
Seriously keeping flood at Halo's and other facilities, when it should have been eradicated and/or starved is reckless at best. Chief, Covenant, Keyes - they may have not known that they would release the flood, but they also did something remarkably stupid.
Flood cannot be eradicated. That's the whole point they contained it. How can you destroy when you have no means to destroy it??
@@SaviourSword995 That's why they went with starve option. As to eradicating, perhaps if you pulverize it and spread across the Universe it reaches below some minimal mass (or density) that is required for reproduction? Otherwise if there is ZERO possibility of destroying it, fighting it is impossible. There has to be something that can be done (admittedly it would be almost impossible) to make it inert. Perhaps some time without biomass makes the flood so starved it dies? Otherwise firing of Halo's would just mean they stop spreading, but the flood is alive and okay and as soon as someone finds it (even one molecule) the cycle starts all over. Even if this is the case - I come over to this channel to find out - then having it on Halo's is still very stupid idea.
Jan Negrey in another vid about the forerunner flood war its said firing the rings kill flood cells also
@@jannegrey I am pretty sure that a Halo is supposed to kill flood as well as it's food.
@@jannegrey the halos kill the floods food but also the higher flood forms anything combat form and up
Also at 16:15 I don't believe that chief initiated the flood outbreak or even disabled all of the security On the installation I don't think the forerunners were that dumb to keep some main station security pad in like the basement of a ring. That seems to be what the [Control] room is used for
He didn't. Both the book surrounding the events of Halo 04 and the monitor himself (in the game) say the Covenant are responsible.
I always assumed the Silent Cartographer had to be more of a security control facility rather than just a map and that Chief and Cortana were pushing buttons they truly didn't understand.
But knowing that Cortana is a repository for everything Humanity knows about the Forerunners you'd think she'd know what the systems do. Plus it's been known for years the Covenant went to that facility thinking it was a weapons cache and that they were the ones that let the Flood out.
Now do a video about how the Flood was released on the shield world on Halo Wars.
It probably wasn't released as Shield Worlds are armory bunkers and not research labs. That was probably original Flood.
Everyone knows you're being watched by combat forms. They literally pop up on your radar and you can see them hiding but peeking out at you before you enter the containment facility.
Playing Halo Wars for the first time. Was REALLY hoping it wouldn’t introduce the Flood, for the sake of my Halo project. Wanted CE to be the introduction for it and it’s horror, but I got a near instant “THE FLOOD ARE HERE”
CE came out way before Halo Wars though..
@@EnigmaEnginseer Right, but the idea was to play the games chronologically and have the most horrifying introduction to the Flood as possible. That’s in CE, not Wars, so playing chronologically you don’t get that effect. They’re kinda silly in Wars.
Installation 00 the kind of guy to look so closely at something he uses the Hubble telescope to read his newspaper
I find it unlikely that a reclaimer could have released the flood without the monitor saying anything
2 years late but it was chief that released the flood, cortana even says as much during the mission. she SPECIFIES that the chief disabled halo's security system, meaning it was for the entire ring.
for the flood it got its freedom & an all you can nom buffet. all thanks to mc's ignorance.
@@cr90captain89 This is false on multiple levels.
Firstly, what the books say differs from this. It extremely heavily implies the Covenant released the flood,
Secondly, the monitor says himself that "the other species" is responsible for releasing the flood.
@@Dennis19901 & how could they do that if the security system was still up?
they couldn't.
master chief disabled the security system in the mission silent cartographer, which then allowed the covenant to open flood containment facilities without issue in the mission 343 guilty spark.
its classic cause & affect.
mc disables security>covenant open containment>flood is released> parasite begins spreading> the ring becomes a clusterfuck of a battlefield.
ergo the mc is responsible for releasing the Flood.
@@cr90captain89 "& how could they do that if the security system was still up?"
Breaking and entering is quite literally the first option that comes to mind.
"master chief disabled the security system in the mission silent cartographer, which then allowed the covenant to open flood containment facilities without issue in the mission 343 guilty spark."
The actual lore of Halo disagrees with your assumptions.
"its classic cause & affect."
It's classic "pull shit out of your ass and make stuff up"
And nothing in the dialogue itself indicates that there's some over encompassing security system that was disabled.
The game literally says "This is a security override station for the main facility, located somewhere else on this island. Shut the system down so the Covenant won't be able to lock us out."
> Located somewhere else on THIS ISLAND
Not "located somewhere else on this ring about 10 hours of flight away"
Stop. Making. Shit. Up.
@@Dennis19901 you good sir are making shit up, main facility is tied to all faculties, so take the L
just because its in a separate location, does not mean it does not connect, your using wifi right?
do you get it from a router? or from the satellite in orbit?
turn off the router >satellite gets no signal> get no more wifi
mc turning off security for main facility > turning off flood containment.
if the mc did not turn off containment, the sentinels would have reacted to the covenants attempts to open the facility, but they did not.
& remember how could Cortana deactivate flood containment when she was not even there? she was in the control room, which she warned mc to go find keyes almost immediately?
mc released the flood. simples as.
the only difference here is that instead of being wireless it has a hard cable connection to the satellite.
& if you can not be civil in this discussion you need to fing leave.
it only show how much a temper tantrum baby you are, & quite frankly you are embarrassing yourself in front of the internet.
you have provided no proof beyond opinionable statements, Vague answers
and are attacking me personally, that is not professional at all.
One thing I’ve always wondered, why wasn’t the flood containment facility on 04 heavily guarded? You would think with an enemy as dangerous as the flood, it would be almost impossible to infiltrate.
I don't know about that. There's very clearly a Flood Infection form Cylix stored on Zeta Halo that you can just walk up to unguarded the door wasn't even locked.
@@sorrenblitz805yeah that's the question, why?
I guess more firepower equal more risks to accidentally release the flood
3:42 the covenant said “surprise motherfuckers” when they saw the pillar of autumn leave slip space
This has always been My favourite videos, love installation 04’s and 07’s history xD
ONWARD TO THE SACRED ICON
Dang that was a good video. This is why I watch your channel. Always exploring Halo at the depth it deserves. Thank you. Keep doing what you're doing
While I do like your views on the containment breach on Installation 04 I do have some things I might disagree/have other thoughts on. (this is a long one... sorry guys haha)
Let's start with your theory that the flood is watching you and luring you in a trap. While the flood is extremely intelligent it needs a Gravemind as far as I know. Before that they have a Proto-Gravemind which we see in the level Keyes. If the flood was intelligent enough to place traps I think at the very least it needs a Proto-Gravemind and as we see them assembling a Proto-Gravemind in the Truth and Reconciliation I don't think they had another one (for one due to lack of biomass and the fact that we see the flood in a feral stage). Without a Proto-Gravemind I don't believe the flood is capable for creating traps.
Next, while the doors could have been broken through combat forms I feel it's more likely that carrier forms exploded against the doors. The doors exploded and as there is no indication of combat forms in the games or the books while there are lots of infection forms I think that is the more likely explanation.
While I can't explain why they were in the locked rooms it also makes sense as the marines and most of the covenant disappeared before the arrival of keyes.The victims could have been turned into carrier forms that the installation locked down until Keyes and the marines got close, got sensed by the flood and they broke through the doors.
As for Master Chief releasing the Flood while shutting down the security for the maproom, I think it's possible but unlikely as the containment would have been a top priority for Spark and the Forerunners. I don't think shutting down the security for 1 level should enable the flood to escape containment. What I feel is more likely is that Master Chief by opening that security layer allowed the covenant to reach deeper in the facility. While they were there they might have opened/broken through just one layer of security that they shouldn't and accidentally released the flood, either in super cell form which allowed the flood to be transferred throughout the whole installation before transforming the covenant into flood forms which infected other members of the covenant (which could explain the confusion on their battlenet) or they got infected by a flood infection form and as they didn't know what they were dealing with and they wanted to research it (breaking their containment in the process, which I feel is also quite possible as the covenant worship everything of the Forerunners and they found the flood on the installation.
If you made it here, thanks for reading ^^ please give me your thoughts as well
Love your videos so glad you and eckhart did that collaboration a while back and found your channel that way.
Can the Flood adapt to cellular level threats like nano machines and can they create any kind of pureform in size and body structure like say they make a huge kaiju city devouring worm pureform or a space traveling war ship pure form like the Tyranids but far faster, efficient, and with technology advantages?
Yes there are titan size flood
The flood ranks are so diverse that it seems highly likely that the flood decides how to manifest itself depending on the situation. I don't know how else to explain the incredible difficulty faced by those that try to combat the parasite.
The stages after gravemind are moon and planet sized colonies so yeah
This gives me chills. I love it!!!
You legit see combat forms when you climb the big tree on your rader if you did not notice that
Covex right. I always try to stop it but never have been able to yet.
There are also some running along the top near a shade turret. After someone pointed them out to me, the next time I played it I killed them with the magnum before they ran off. 343 really is a masterpiece of environmental story telling.
@@MistahFox you realize that that has nothing to do with 343, right? They were there in the original game, made by Bungie...
The Lonely Rogue The Mission is also called 343 Guilty Spark
@@tylerellis9097 I read that as, "343 are masters of..." my bad.
You’re a bloody legend mate. Keep up the awesome work.
I still have this theory that the outbreaks on Alpha and Delta Halos were allowed to happen. Like 2401 Penitent Tangent, he seemed to be talked like he was corrupted with the logic plague. So I still think they both happened intentionally.
Neither are right in the head, but I don't think either let it happen. Spark seems intent on wiping out the galaxy because of one flood outbreak, and Penitent Tangent is still trying to follow containment procedure even as he is captured by the Gravemind. Alpha Halo happened because of outside forces, Delta Halo may have happened because of outside meddling but it is probably because Tangent is either lazy, apathetic or both.
Good point
You all need to remember that 343 and penitent tangent go through rampancy, its already been stated that penitent tangent went through rampancy and thus he ignored all the containment issues on his installstion its probably why he seemed so broken in halo 2's gravemind cutscene, also in the terminals 343 expresses his loneliness and in one if them he starts showing a red static which is similar to a rampancy stage, just like cortana.
@@MistahFox Them wanting to fire Halo due to a local outbreak has nothing to do with them being crazy. They are programmed to assume that any Flood outbreak means they must fire Halo in order prevent what happened to the Forerunners.
Well Alpha Halo happened because the Covenant brute forced their way into forerunner structures they didn't know the purpose of. Delta Halo happened because about a 1000 years after the Halos fired a ship of unknown "Meddlers" accidentally unleashed the Flood, and Penitent Tangent did enact quarantine protocols. (Those protocols had been going strong for almost 100,000 years lol.)
13:12 Although they don't show up in game in 343 GS, active camo combat forms could do this. Camo combat forms do appear in vanilla CE, almost as an easter egg at the back of the armory room near the end of The Maw.
13:25 We never actually get to explore the entire containment facility. There's a third elevator shaft that goes even deeper, but the controls are broken and burning. The shaft goes up and down, but is only accessible from the lower section of the facility, so there could be at least two more wings that we never got to see.
I just realized that the video started when chief input the video chip. does that mean the chief also watched this video too?
i never thought about the disabling of the security system could've caused the outbreak of the flood. learn something new about this game every year pretty cool
The unidentified alien ship that crashed on 04, could it be possible that it was mid flight when the array was fired and that's why there were no survivors to be found? It would've been drifting empty through space and even with no fuel or power left in the engines momentum would still propel it as Newton's laws teaches us.
That's actually very interesting to think about, but I feel like the Forerunners would've kept tabs on other species and have some kind of information on their ship designs if it was back in that era
@@ToxicCoffeeTM True, but Spark and the other Monitors were cut off from the Domain when they were deployed with the Halo's, which itself was crippled when the Array fired, soooo idk maybe he just forgot? It's not that far fetched of a reason though it would be a very crappy one.
@@devastater97 that is also possibility
@@devastater97 or it couldve been the the writer being vague just as to not confirm or deny a race for lack of an image of the species or any real concrete stuff about their civilization or if they wanted it to be a covenant species. It helped them to do that quite well
@@tavianarmstrong974 But why include it and just give literally no information as to what they might be? The very least they could do is just give us a hint in whatever shape or form they want, a scrap of info or a single throwaway line of dialouge just as long as it's SOMETHING.
It's interesting that 343 Guilty Spark didn't even seem to care that someone just deactivated the security systems. You'd think he'd teleport his ass over to the Cartographer and find out who did it, but I guess that wasn't important to him.
I wish 343 would give some hints if there were still precursors alive
I want to know that too!
all precursors that were in the galaxy during the beginning of the Forerunner-Precursor war(when the Forerunners purged the Precursors) were killed aside from the ones that dusted themselves (and subsequently caused the Forerunner-Flood war),of course excluding the(insert name of precursor who was sent adrift by the super-ancient Forerunners as punishment)
I know that they are dead in the Milky Way, but it would be nice to know if there are some alive at all
Bruh Moment there has to be more in other galaxies.
@@punctuationman334 Well maybe some of them survived but its highly unlikely seeing as the Books clearly state that The Forerunner Warrior Class went on a Genocidal Rampage throughout several Galaxies and then Exiled themselves after they made sure the Precursors (Except The Primordial) were all Dead,only a few of them survived but they turned themselves into Dust so they might one day return but the Dust corrupted over many tens of thousands of years and the Precursor Ships that had the Dust eventually Crashed into some Ancient-Human Controlled Worlds and the Ancient-Humans assumed that it was safe because it made the Feru(Pheru?)(The Ancient-Human equivalent to the Dog) show more "desired" traits/behavior but some of these Infected Feru were Consumed by Humans and that infected some Humans and the Feru and Humans that were Infected started sprouting Tentacle-ish growths and became Aggressive,and then Ancient Humanity realized they done fucked up once it was too late to Contain the Infection and they started losing Worlds and Systems to the Flood Infestation which is why they started Attacking and Taking-over Forerunner Worlds and Systems but by the Time the Forerunners reached Worlds lost to the Flood Humanity had "defeated" the Flood(Not really,the Primordial at that point Controlled the Flood and had it retreat from the Galaxy to return a couple Hundred Thousand Years later to take it over,whem the Flood returned to the Galaxy En Masse and started what is known as the Forerunner-Flood War,the War that killed 99.999999999% of All life in the Galaxy including 99.999999999999999% of all Forerunners that were alive when the Forerunner-Flood War began,and then 100,000-ish years later the events of Halo CE began when the Pillar of Autumn and a Covenant Fleet stumbled upon Alpha Halo and destroyed it within a Week of arrival)
Note:this is a *very* brief summary of all known Halo Lore up until the Ending of Halo Combat Evolved,for a full dive into the Depths of Halo's Lore I would reccomend Watching many Videos about the In-game lore and Reading the Forerunner Trilogy aswell as some other Halo Books.
The only thing that really puzzles me is that why did the marines allow Keyes to come with them like they have to have protocols against such things like to prevent capture or anything like that.
You just gave me a whole new perspective on this topic
How did Johnson get out
The thing is you *are* being watched. Remember those radar blips as you close in on the containment facility? The flood was stalking/observing you from the start of the mission and likely til the end.
Can Flood become so intelligent that they can use battle tactics on the ground and space then you know not just overwhelming their enemies with large numbers but by using military strategy and tactics like false information, flanking, hitting weak points, ect, and using squad and vehicle tactics on ground battles.
Well, yeah, that's... Kind of the point of why the flood is so dangerous.
Yes. On 343 guilty spark in Halo CE the flood go through the paces of luring the human forces, and then again the player. They already had access to the surface to use numbers to overwhelm the enemy, but they knew that would only work once. So ambush and bait tactics were used.
Also the flood used amazing military tactics in space battles in the forerunner war.
The flood also used "false" information to lure in prey and creat a false sense of safety, like when the Marines and ODSTs were unaware of the floods true attack under thier base until it almost destroyed them.
Given enough biomass and time, a Gravemind can rage a full-fledge campaign against humans and covies alike. And there's nothing we can do about it.
Yes, yes they can. in fact you even see it in halo 3
This is my new favorite Halo channel
Great new video! Definitely puts into perspective something that has always been somewhat confusing and poorly understood. I'd also like to point out that when you are going through the swamp you do see a combat form in the distance that quickly runs off, which could lend creedence to the theory that the Flood is constantly watching.
Oh... my god... I've played halo CE countless times (it was the only halo game on pc as a kid and for awhile) and I've NEVER thought about the door sec system theory... god that's brilliant
That opening scene where we all very very first encounter the flood. Such an epic moment in gaming. God this game is so amazing. It’s a classic at this point and I have played it so many times and beating it on legendary so many times
That it is hard to enjoy it now because well yeah. But I will never stop appreciating it. Innoway this game changed my life or rather the story of master chief.
Have you guys seen the halo ring in the control room, half of the land mass is flashing red like something is wrong or broken, almost like the floor has already spread but we just lucky not to come across it and also explains why the battle net is so easy to access as they are fighting flood and the humans more of a second thought, it also explains why a fleet could not take out one ship of humans.
the idea of master chief accidentally releasing the flood while trying to get to the map is really, REALLY fascinating!
maybe he's not quite as lucky as he's thought to be.
I remember the first time I played Halo CE and got to the flood, I was genuinely scared
‘A number of spacefaring species.’ I don’t recall mention of that outside of the crashed ship. We know there are others in the galaxy but it’s hard to imagine a species discovering the ring and NOT try to study it in full force.
Especially since it's a superweapon. Sacred journeys, and ignorant flood releases aside, what could a nefarious party do in blackmailing half a galaxy with extermination via firing a ring?
I always thought it terrifying that irl, there may be an interplanetary war occurring rn, between an all consuming parasitic fungus and a hyperadvanced alien race with a superweapons like halo, capable of wiping out all life, and the firing of which we'd never ever realise. We'd never know the circumstances, no option for debate, just one day, we cease to exist..
@14:00 - How the Flood were released on Installation 04 initially: Didn't the Covenant find doors that were super-locked and decided that it was obviously the place where the best weapons/treasure was to be found, and blasted them open, thus releasing the flood.
Duude that theory with cheif being the one who released the flood got me hooked and subbed
16:04 good question
Headcanon: Chief lowered the security which allowed the Covenant into the restricted Flood areas, the Flood started to get out but the Covenant managed to reseal a lot of the doorways into the now Flood infested areas, Keys & his men broke the Covenant seal on that door, the soldiers infection then showed other Flood how to break the other Covenant seals.
The idea of them using translocation pads makes sense, but those rooms could have also been cold storage rooms made for keeping the infection forms in a state of hibernation or suspended animation.
Also the Doors in the level opened in more of an explosion than brute force. I could see the flood using carrier forms made from incapacitated Covenant combat forms to open the doors and allow the infection forms to attack the Chief.
Hey 00, I don't know if you'll see this comment, considering it's on such an old video, but I just wanted to say you are what keeps my love of Halo alive. I'm not a huge fan of any of the new games and I shall never speak of the abomination that is the Halo show, but your content goes far and beyond anything 343 has ever done for the series. Thank you.
Always a pleasure listening to your videos, thank you
That moment of chief holding the helmet and taking two deep breathes not wanting to watch the footage man.
Or 343 Guilty Spark released the flood while he was bored. He left for a long period if time and as mentioned in the video, jettisoned a section of the ring to "see what would happen".
I don't think he would as shown by the fact he blocked the distress signal from the crashed ship because nothing could know where the Halos are, this shows he still followed his duty of a Halo monitor
Tbh, I subscribe to the theory that 343 Guilty Spark enabled the flood to infect and spread. He was bored, and firing the ring, the highest of his creator's purposes given to him, was an exciting and thrilling test to him.
He no longer cares about living beings, his own boredom and restlessness overtaking almost all of his priorities, to the point that all he wants is something to do to break the monotony
This makes So Much SENSE. I'll be completely honest, believe me or don't that's your choice, but waaay back in '02 when I finally played through the game for a second time, I wondered about the Exact implication of Chief unknowingly helping to set the Flood free! I ignored the idea after going through 343 again, deciding that was the outbreak and there was nothing more to it, but honestly it seems too good Not to be true now! He and Cortana had no way of knowing exactly what systems that security station would effect, how deeply its programming might've reached since Cortana wasn't able to really interface with Halo as thoroughly as she would later in the Control Room. This is officially my head canon and no one can change it, Thank You 00 this video was Mind Blowing!
If Chief released the Flood when disabling the security door during the Silent Cartographer, then who releases the Flood when Chief dives through the security door out of the driver seat of a Warthog when it's closing?
... what if we took this even one step further?
When Keyes made a blind jump, they were brought to Installation 04. Would the Gravemind have power over slipspace in some weird domain-forerunner-entanglement kind of way, knowing a reclaimer would unknowingly release the flood?
... If not, watching what you presented and theorized had me thinking Guilty spark was a sociopath.
Fascinating work, truly.
these videos are so interesting and detailed. thanks for the content!
Spark says "Someone has released the flood" How does spark not have any idea?
He was pretty sure covenant were responsible but couldn't be 100% sure without investigating.
Also at this time Spark had started going crazy, although being alone for 100'000 years would drive anyone insane.
The Covenant were the ones persistently trying to get into all sorts of restricted areas on the ring. At the Cartographer island, there were no sentinels of any flavor present during the battle. Spark may not have actually seen 117 disable the security, and assumed the Covenant did it, since they had a team trying to do the exact same thing. Assuming that's what actually did it, and not some random Covenant archaeology team.
Also, we know that Spark doesn't have a real time link to all of the ring's systems. He was genuinely surprised to find Cortana in the control room, even though she had been there in the core for over twelve hours. Considering that Cortana knew exactly what 117 was doing in the Library, she probably had a means of spying on data feeds from sentinels that Spark could not detect. After all, Cortana was the best cyberwarfare AI the UNSC had ever developed.
Spark's mental state was also worn out after 100 millennia. He could have simply been too distracted by all the excitement to notice the containment breach until either his sentinels spotted it, or the Covenant battle net started going crazy about the Parasite.
@@icyknightmare4592 I still don't think chief did it mainly because having one security system to unlock everything is just outright stupid, especially when containing the most dangerous thing in the universe.
I know the forerunners did questionable stupid stuff like keeping flood specimens in the first place but I don't believe for one second that they make a stupid mistake like that.
@@shadowphoenix1696 the forerunners thought it was possible the flood were on other galaxies so they kept specimen for study for whatever species found the ring, presumably for weapon development, protective gear and possibly a vaccine or cure. If the forerunners were right and the flood were on other galaxies they would presumably have an insane amount of forces, you don't want all life to be caught with their pants down. We for example keep samples of diseases we have driven to extinction, just in case we were wrong about the disease being gone or if the disease was in ice and the ice melts. We have discovered ancient viruses in glaciers before and they have survived after being thawed out.
@@jamestor6700 keeping spores and information I get but they keep full infection forms and even pure forms which would allow any outbreak to spread much faster. This is not some disease that acts as nature intended too, this is a highly intelligent parasite that uses tactics to spread. The flood did trick both ancient humans and Forerunners that there was a cure when there wasn't and even turned the Forerunners own AI against the them.
Forunners: We must eradicates the flood.
Also the forunners: but let’s keep some for study because it’s not like the flood has ever breached containment before.
You deserve a noble prize 🏆
The flood in Halo 2 when you run alone with few grunts and jackels scattered to help you and the music creeped me out
I mean the medpack is there for any low health players for gameplay. But when you put it like that. That it may be a trap. It adds onto the flood combat forms you see in the fog approaching the facility. How they watch and run away and move outside where you can't reach. Until you move into the main facility after they may have sprung the same trap on the covenant party that was escaping when Chief arrived and the downed gunships nearby. It does fit into a nice pie with all the information and detective work.
Your suggestion regarding the Flood using translocation pads to release infection forms and then retrieve combat forms is interesting, but would feral Flood have that kind of foresight and strategic acumen? Typically it isn't until the Flood assimilated a large number of hosts and begin construction of a proto-grave mind that they move beyond the feral stage and start to demonstrate real intelligence.
The explanation of specifics for how the Flood containment breach occurred are less interesting than the conditions that allowed it, and I think that responsibility should be laid directly at the feet of 343 Guilty Spark. A couple things to bear in mind:
- We never actually get a definitive 'map' of that facility so we have no clue how large it was or how deep that elevator system went. For all we know any human forces present (including John-117) only made it to the outer layers of the facility while the Covenant were able to penetrate the deepest areas and accidentally (or maybe intentionally) disabled vital security systems to aid their progress, and in effect released the Flood.
- The location in a swamp actually makes sense since the purpose of the facility would have lent itself towards being placed in a biome undesirable for initial exploration by potential future visitors (likely expected to be humans based upon what we know from the Forerunner's plans) but vital to the installation's ecological diversity. The geological and biosphere characteristics of that region would have also potentially shielded the facility from initial visibility by those same visitors, especially when you consider the level of Forerunner technology for unobtrusive methods of shielding and hiding objects or locations.
- Based upon what we can infer from Cold Storage, a facility of a similar if not identical purpose to the one encountered on Installation 04, there were most definitely automated protocols that should have gone into effect in the event of flood containment breach (facility security lockdown, atmospheric evacuation, temperature reduction). We also have proof of teleportation nodes present within the facility which can be redirected into a 'recursive' mode, meaning they are isolated from the rest of the installation's slipspace translocation grid. None of that appears to have happened at the facility on Installation 04, at least based upon what we know.
- Given what we know now from the Halo CE: Anniversary terminals, 343 Guilty Spark was programmed to see any deliberate approach to Installation 04 by an unknown vessel as an aggressive action meriting violent defensive response. The assumption is that those measures were to have been directed at the Pillar of Autumn and the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice without bias or distinction. However, we do not have sufficient understanding of how those measures operate or how Spark chooses to deploy them.
- The only other example we have is Spark's questionable recount of a damaged vessel being allowed to crash land on the ring. There is a reason to doubt his recollection of the event given the onset of rampancy and even more so from the perspective of the terminals. We are only told of the vessel's arrival within range of Installation 04 at the end of Terminal Four and then it is introduced after a 'passive' approach in Terminal Five. My assumption is that Spark might very well have been responsible for damaging the vessel and killing those on board.
- Spark's emerging rampancy brought on by boredom and loneliness that might explain his peculiar behavior towards the vessel and why he allowed it to 'passively' approach after executing his programmed responsibilities. That reinterpretation of his programming about security protocols allowed him to fulfill his obligation to satisfactorily eliminate the threat of the vessel but then allow it's remains to crash land upon Halo's surface so he can conveniently be allowed an opportunity to make contact and learn more of the galaxy beyond his installation. This is also represented by two more curious protocols and abilities Spark exhibits which are curiously absent in Halo CE: scrubbing of atmospheric gases leaked from the vessels and blocking of all communications beyond the ring.
- Another incredible ability at Spark's command is the ability to manipulate the gravity tether system that binds the inner surface of a halo installation. By releasing or even reversing the gravity tether the entire artificial surface of a section of the ring (biosphere, geological formations, maybe even atmosphere?) can be jettisoned into vacuum. That function most definitely could and should have been utilized as a stop gap measure to slow down any large Flood infestations or even the presence of unauthorized and hostile sapient beings.
- In a move similar to his reinterpretation of his programmed responsibilities, Spark immediately dropped his security protocols when he determined the presence of humans and instructed the Pillar of Autumn to a designated landing zone to await his determination of the presence and pitch of their geas. Since there is no acknowledgment of the installation attempting to contact the Pillar of Autumn prior or during Chief's presence on the bridge it can be assumed Spark had not yet issued the warning or welcome as at the very least Cortana would have been able to determine an unknown but definitely artificial electromagnetic radiation source was acting as a carrier wave for some sort of communication, especially if there were any repeating patterns.
- The lack of response from humans followed by the 'passive approach' (aka crash landing) of the Pillar Of Autumn at a location other than the designated landing and coupled with humans landing on the installation at multiple locations must have shocked 343 Guilty Spark who either did not know how to address this situation or had reinterpreted his programming so much that he no longer had directives that he could follow that would not necessitate the activation of the aggressive defensive response protocols.
- All of this sets the stage for how the events of Halo CE play out. Spark impulsively lowered all security measures after his rampancy caused him to become far too eager at the opportunity of contact with humans. That inadvertently let the far superior force of the Covenant land on the ring unimpeded and begin to secure the immense number of facilities across the installation, drawing away Spark's focus and attention. The division of Covenant forces on a massive structure like a halo installation also greatly factored into the survival and success of the human forces who never had to face any concerted efforts from the Covenant and were allowed to move about relatively unnoticed in small teams. These conditions greatly favored a unique special operations soldier like Chief who could execute strike operations on key locations against relatively small numbers of Covenant forces with ease.
- Unfortunately, these conditions also are what allowed for the Flood containment breach and spread of the Flood across the ring. The spread of Covenant forces and small teams of humans operating across the ring were perfect targets to be isolated, defeated, and infected by an enemy they were unfamiliar with and unprepared to handle. Additionally you can attribute the relative instability in the Covenant command structure present to have been a huge factor in the Covenant role in the outbreak of the parasite and a subsequent impediment in their ability to respond to it.
- 343 Guilty Spark appears to bear ultimate responsibility after having completely botched this entire event when he abdicated his responsibilities and in the process lost control of the situation. Based on what we know now of the protocols and abilities at his command he appears to have been reluctant or unable to use them. My assumption is that he still was reinterpreting his programmed responsibilities and hoping the situation would resolve itself much as he did when he allowed the unknown vessel to land. That lack of action proved costly as the Covenant were able to breach Flood containment and unleash the parasite. After that it appears Spark defaulted to a more prime directive that demanded that the release of the parasite was to be resolved with an activation of the Halo Array. To that end he ignored any protocols that might have slowed down the Flood's progress and instead finally made contact with humans in order to retrieve the activation index which lead him to become preoccupied with Chief and Cortana.
We all know how the story goes from there.
Just a few last things that have relevance to the topic:
- The parasite released on Installation 04 acted and behaved as expected within the stages of evolution of an outbreak, but they most definitely were not 'feral'. The Gravemind on Installation 05 already existed within quarantine and would have likely been able to coordinate the efforts of the outbreak on Installation 04 through the manipulation of neural physics effecting 'telepathy' over great distances (as evidenced by the many 'moments' in Halo 3 when Chief is mentally assaulted by the Gravemind and false images of Cortana). This might cast doubt on the interpretation that how the Flood behaved on Installation 04 is representative of a truly 'feral' outbreak in the sense of lacking a collective neural intelligence and network as would be expected in a true initial outbreak. It stands to reason that any localized outbreak regardless of the presence of outbreaks elsewhere follows a similar pattern based upon the necessity of securing biomass as quickly and expediently as possible to establish a foothold while minimizing the threat for total eradication in the local area. That would warrant a universal Flood behavior of aggressive initial expansion that was exhibited right after the release of the Flood on Installation 04, but that doesn't explain how the Flood at such an early stage were able to quickly adapt to using weapons, equipment, and vehicles without any sort of Keyminds present at the initial outbreak site of the Flood containment facility. Something as insane as them immediately hijacking a Spirit Dropship to invade the Infinite Succor knowing that the starship harbored an abundance of vulnerable biomass is clear evidence that there was greater coordination going on immediately after the first Flood containment breach.
- Based upon the behavior and response of 343 Guilty Spark we now have a more firm understanding of what might have happened on Installation 05 that allowed for the creation and quarantine of a Gravemind. A keymind of that size would have necessitated an immense amount of biomass and sufficient time to be produced. That leads me to believe that 2401 Penitent Tangent not only went rampant but encountered a sapient space-faring species (possibly the same race as the unknown vessel on Installation 04?) that he allowed to land in great numbers on the ring in violation of the aggressive defense response. Something happened where the Monitor was compromised or otherwise unable to respond to an eventual release of the Flood, with the Flood containment facility in Cold Storage being the likely site for the initial outbreak. Now either this sapient species fled with their vessels or destroyed them to prevent the Flood from capturing them, but either way we can assume that none of the Flood escaped the ring otherwise the Flood would have had a nearly 40,000 year start on consuming the galaxy yet again with no one to stop them.
- Whatever compromised or detained 2401 Penitent Tangent left him vulnerable to capture by the Flood, but the installation's automated systems must have been able to contain the Flood outbreak and quarantine it. This is further evidenced by the very counter intuitive solution of erecting a quarantine zone to contain the Flood with the activation index trapped within which prevented anyone from retrieving it in order to activate the Halo Array in response to a Flood outbreak. The haphazard nature of this response and the fact that the Gravemind appears to have had access if not control of the slipstream translocation grid despite the quarantine measures leads me to believe that there was more than one quarantine site on Installation 05 but that location surrounding the Library was the only one encountered in Halo 2 for deliberate reasons.
- Curiously the outbreak on Installation 05 does not appear to have been that widespread as evidenced by the existing and stable biosphere present in 2552. However there does appear to be possible evidence of a conflict and possible actions by the unknown species that released the Flood in the level Regret when Cortana remarks that the lake with numerous ruins at the bottom is not natural and was either created that way on purpose or the result of a cataclysmic event. A part of me always thought that it was meant to be ironic by Bungie as an ancient Forerunner city that was literally consumed by a 'flood' of water, but later developments in the story now lead me to believe that it's existence and the presence of metal structures 'honoring it' can be interpreted as a memorial or possibly even security measure for what happened there.
- Another thing to note is that the absence of 2401 Penitent Tangent being in charge as the monitor of Installation 05 might have been what prevented the installation from adopting an aggressive defensive response when Covenant and UNSC vessels came in range during the events of the Battle of Installation 05, but it also stands to reason that if automated systems were left running then they should have activated anyways with no possibility for deactivation (especially if those automated systems knew there was already a Flood outbreak present). This lack of a response might further be explained by the actions of the previous unknown species who somehow managed to undermine the installation's security systems, compromised or subdued 2401 Penitent Tangent, and prevented any coordinated response to the Flood outbreak, reminiscent to to the events that happened on Installation 04. If Chief and Cortana hadn't decided to use a startship's fusion reactor as an improvised explosion to destroy Halo it questions what sort of measures 343 Guilty Spark and the installation's automated systems might have taken to quarantine the outbreak. That places even more emphasis on 343 Guilty Spark lack of appropriate responses to slow down or halt the progress of the Flood while he sought to retrieve the activation index.
- Beyond that we have no clue as to how the Flood survived within those quarantine zones or Flood containment facilities for thousands of years (or how they survived within High Charity after the overload of the fusion reactors). Surely they must have devolved and reduced their collective metabolic requirement in order to preserve biomass but we still don't have an understanding if or how they're able to enter a hibernation or stasis. Their control and manipulation of neural physics and some of the transcendental biological quirks of the Precursors must allow them to have incredible abilities that we have no documented evidence of. We also know that the Forerunners exhausted numerous conventional and exotic methods for dealing with the Flood and found nothing that could be applied universally on a large scale to be effective in completely eradicating the parasite except for brute force application of destructive technologies. There's also plenty of evidence that even Forerunners were able to access the neural physics-enabled quantum information storage medium of the Domain even when in a form of biological stasis inside a cryptum, so it stands to reason that the Flood would be able to do so as well after placing themselves within a similar state.
It could be that a few Flood Pure Forms samples were kept. When the Covenant (or whomever) released those Pure Forms they were then easily able to overpower the surprised Covenant troops present before turning themselves into Carriers and birthing Infection Forms to harvest all the dead troops. It would explain why we see that dead Covenant Elite in Jenkin's log that was not turned into a Combat Form and also why the place was so deserted afterwards was because the Pure Forms were switching to Carriers. When Chief arrived the Pure Forms turned Carriers birthed the Infection Forms and started havesting the dead for Combat Forms.
0:11 At that moment I knew I F up playing this game. Damn Flood. Still to this day the Flood makes my skin crawl. :(
3:57 “
“accidentally released the flood”
-There are no accidents
[MasterOogway]
How did Johnson get out
343 Guilty Spark: "you are pondering questions which I cannot answer....by design of course."
Man, these theories just fuck my shit up.
Good stuff I love it
We probably were being watched because you can here the flood in the facility before you ever actually see them. Like before the cutscene you can here them on the walk towards the room
Thank you for a tremendous amount of revealing content on the lore. However, just a quick one, this might be blindingly obvious to others but I haven't worked it out. If flood need biomass to survive, how did they survive without any on the ring for so long? Was 343 feeding them? Or were stasis fields keeping them alive? Many thanks!
The stasis field kept them alive for research.
I can confirm in 343 guiltyspark you are being watched, in the jungle at the beginning I manage to get a peak at a combat from running away from me right before I got in visual range of the facility
This reminds me of how the undead in Residence Evil got released! The computer A.I. 343 Guilty Spark, was doing another experiment!
only issue is guilty spark hypothesized the Covenant released the flood either during 343 guilty spark or the library
I think the first option seems more likely. That the covenant reached the actual containment facility and in activating things released the flood.
The curious part is that the sentinels didn’t activate immediately and contain the outbreak as soon as it started. Maybe they attacked the covenant and were destroyed? I highly doubt the containment facilities didn’t have firepower on hand to immediately fry an outbreak.
I always found it interesting that the water level around the Silent Cartographer's island used to be much higher. I doubt it means much of anything other then the passage of time, but it's still an interesting detail.
I think if the control room was the primary security access point on installation 04 then the cartographer could have been a secondary monitoring station and security failsafe. In the event of a containment breach or if the control room itself or another important location was compromised, it would make sense to have such a redundancy. Even if whatever breached the control room could unlock local systems in a limited capacity, the access point in the cartographer would be able to lock down the rest of the ring section by section or all at once if need be.
The covenant could have initially breached local containment and then chief could have overridden that secondary contingency which kept the spread minimal to that point. After this the covenant would begin to encounter the flood more, leading to increased interception of covenant battle net chatter by the remaining crew of the autumn which leads to the events as they play out in the game and book.
The fact that no one in the story is aware of all this except possibly 343 guilty spark only fits the lore as both the humans and covenant would be completely ignorant of what was happening until it was far too late anyway.
Short version, I agree with I-00 says about it. It makes sense for even the feral flood to capitalize on all of this.
I'll keep watching your six as long as you stop saying "disactivated" and start saying "deactivated" :P
Great video, though!
Shhh! 😂
@11:31 I think the infection forms could manage to break the doors if they all hit it in unison like a horde would
We do know you're being watched by the flood during the whole level, if you pay close attention at the start of the level before even entering the facility, the 'friendly' marks on the radar, if you zoom in with a scope, are actual combat forms.
Remember what Cortona says when you get back: I’ve been watching you todie around for hours helping that thing get sent to slit our throats, meaning she was watching us fight the flood the whole time through some sort of forerunner cameras, and I think your 100% right
Maybe the Meddlers (as mentioned in some of HiddenXperia's videos) released them?
@Installation00 As you mentioned, These do appear to be holding cells for some type of life forms. However I propose a couple theories (bare in mind, these theories are gonna be a heavy read ye be warned):
1. If this is a Flood containment facility, it is entirely possible that a healthy supply of flood infection forms were held and studied within these cells.
Take a look at the environment; there are smaller cells within a larger area. Most likely, this area was meant to release the parasite in that of a pseudo-environment with absolute quarantine and sterilization in mind (e.g. no plant life or natural forms within the "play area"). Also, keep in mind (whether it was intended or simply an oversight [let's be honest, Bungie never thought they'd think this deep into a game]) there are windows that are 2-way; both parties can see what each other are up to.
The Flood, at their very basic core, is to infect and spread regardless of intelligence/complexity level; ASSIMILATE AND SPREAD. it is also mentioned that each infection form is the size of a human chest cavity so it can be assumed that they weigh could weigh a certain amount. Let's say, since their bulbous "upper body" is filled with gasses/spores and can leap great distances with simple tendrils (none of which are really adapted for leaping as seen with natural animals with strong hing legs) lets say they're a modest 10lbs per infection form ASSUMING they're all uniform in shape and size. in each cell contains DOZENS of infection forms. lets say they hold about 5 dozen forms per cell; 5 x 12 = 60, 60 x ~10 = ~600lbs of just mass, not including energy exerted which can be greater than the mass of any organism. so 600lbs of pressure on a technologically advanced security door. That's not too bad assuming the security systems are up to date and maintained well enough (by this time, 343's mental status had started to show signs of unstability and beginning to lax on protocols [not as sever as Penitent Tangent, but i have a theory he released the parasite on purpose, but for another time i guess]).
However, a security installation with perhaps the most dangerous organism in the galaxy is found relatively abandoned. Not a single Sentinel, Constructor, or any type of maintenance drone in sight UNTIL the outbreak. Let's not forget to neglect the old adage of "never fuck with anything that has nothing to lose." Going back to the "windows" of the cells, if an infection form saw ANY potential hosts, regardless of sentience or not it WILL get out. It WILL fight to infect. The primary task is simple, no unnecessary complexity: INFECT, CONSUME, SURVIVE. Like that of a starved carnivore seeing any type of meat it would fight beyond exhaustion to get it. For let's even nerf the dozens of Infection Forms and say they only put out double their effort to bust through that door; ~1,200lbs of pressure on a single door. We can tell a couple Combat forms can bust through that door with enough effort, and i'm sure it doesn't need over a literal ton of physical energy to do it otherwise every swing of the "rip-arm" would make any target fucking explode (it'd be funny to see for like the first couple minutes of that happening though).
2. The cells contained in that facility housed other animals for study including the flood. As mentioned before, the flood were being kept alive for further study and would require some sort of sustenance. That being said there are 2 small sub-theories to this:
A. The Infection forms were being held in the cells and one cell would be released upon a sacrificial animal being released into the "play area" of the containment room. The possible reason for there being no biomass is that over considerable amounts of time the biomass of the consumed sacrificed animal had all of its biomass consumed to sustain the infection forms. It is entirely possible "growth pods" could've been developed but over time, broken down to further maintain any living infection forms (possible cannabalism to stay alive). Rinse and repeat for millenia.
B. The cells were initially meant for other animal/specimens for study, occasionally released into the "play area." It would also be a more secure way of sustaining an infection form from within a cell of a cell, then moving the sustained infection form back with its containment populace to survive and remain captive/studied. That being said, "why were there dozens of forms within each cell of the animal containment room?" Well, if you release a flood form among a single living organism it can reproduce exponentially (e.g. the brief outbreak on UNSC Spirit of Fire via a single Infection Form). it would be preferable to ensure that either a majority of the infection forms die out within each cell or that all the cells be infected, eventually released into the "play area," then herded before being transported to another containment cell/facility.
tldr; an organism desperate enough will break through captivity (my personal primary theory on how the infection forms escaped) or the cells in the facility (at least in the one the Chief was in) were meant for other animals/specimens of study falling victim to the flood by seemingly flawless security/containment/reproductive/study design.
Don't worry mate, I won't go Jenkins on you.
Ide like to see a flood containment breach at the price is right.
HERES YOUR HOST BOB BARKERRRRRR!
(the doors open and a infected bob barker runs out with tons of infection forms and attacks the audiance while the theme song plays)
Quick question, why in the cutscenes and other media, do the Flood infection forms seem to deflate when killed, but in-game, they pop?
Any other game you'd have been a mad lad to take on the flood with a plasma pistol like that
Whose grave do I need to desecrate for keeping the flood around after firing the arrays?
Interesting theories personally I always thought Keyes decision to open the door to the quarantine room was odd sure you could say Keyes was reckless in his choice but Keyes was an intelligent man it just never Sat right with me that he would do such a thing after clearly seeing dead covenant and knowing none of the unsc forces killed them but that's just me and also his desicion to even go there in the first place was odd you'd think alpha base would need him there to coordinate their efforts rather than chase after a supply cache himself.
Ok I'll give you that, that Chief let the flood out.
But how then did the flood escape on other installations before this?
"The Meddlers"?
Delta Halo maybe?
All the biomass came from the covenant, and used them to make more infection forms, you got me on the doors though, and they were stored in those objects, but the covenant let them out through their meddling.