The Flood

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Summary
The Flood is a species of virulent, parasitic organisms that thrive by consuming other sentient life of sufficient biomass. In their Infection Form, the Flood are relatively harmless as far as inflicting damage. However, they are able to infect a host after which time the host's body decays and mutates into the Combat Form of the Flood. Usually only strong host bodies are taken over. A reduntant or weakened Combat Form may be used as an incubator for more Infection Forms. Weaker races may also be used for Incubators - namely grunts.

Next to nothing is known about their origin. Some have suggested that the Flood were a weapon of mass destruction that grew beyond their masters ability to control. Others think that they are some kind of primitive life form accidentally discovered by the ancient Forerunner race. Many also think that they were a Forerunner attempt at cloning or ressurection. However, their destructive ability is not to be doubted.

In Halo 1, a Flood Combat Form could be incapacitated by shooting off both arms, then killed with a headshot. In Halo 2, however, shooting off a Combat Form's arms resulted in the Infection Form coming out of the Combat Form's chest, then attacking you; making it extremely difficult to pacify a Combat Form for study. This does, however, get rid of the Combat Form. In Halo 2 you can instantly kill a Combat Form by shooting at it's chest, where the tendrils come out. You will know that you have a perfect shot when the crosshairs turn solid bright red and a small red dot appears in the center. You may have to do this multiple times, though, even though it may appear like you have a perfect shot. This cannot be done with Sniper Rifles or Beam Rifles. Shotguns also do not work, since they kill it anyway. This is best done on Sacred Icon (Level) with a Battle Rifle.

The Flood were kept by the Forerunners for scientific study on the Halos.

Assimilation
Flood take over the bodies of hosts and assimilate them into Flood. This is done by the Flood Infection Forms. Infection Forms have a long tendrils that pierce the skin of the host and find their way to the spine. They sychronize with the host taking over the brain functions to prevent resistance or cries for help. After this time, the original mind is erased memory by memory, till nothing is left but a "hungry" flood form. Separate tendrils release agressive Flood DNA into the host, causing the body to mutate into a combat form or a carrier form.

The tendrils latch onto the host's Brain and Spine and try to find a match with their DNA. It then infects the host with its own DNA changing the host into a Combat Form. If the host is too damaged or of too little Biomass the host will become a Carrier Form. As the host's skin mutates and becomes soft, the Infection Form deflates itself and crawls into the chest of the host between the heart and lungs. It does this often while the host is still alive. It would normally be an agonizing process if the mind of the host was still intact. The Infection then gains control of all the host's neural systems and thus controls its body permentantly. They use the Combat Form for the most obvious reasons, to have a "military" to attack and later capture more able bodies. The only known way to effectively stop a Flood infection is to have Boren's Syndrome, the radiation-caused disease that Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson has. Boren's does not completely deny the infection, however, which is proven by the fact that Johnson has an increased, but still limited, regeneration ability.

Of the many species in Halo, only two are known to produce fully matured Combat Forms; the Humans and the Elites. Smaller races, such as Jackals, Grunts, Drones, and possibly Engineers, are speculated to be directly mutated into Carrier Forms because they are too small to be effective. Hunters cannot be sucessfully assimilated by the Flood due to their bodily makeup consisting of multiple, possibly hundreds of invertebrate entities in one. It is suspected that other, larger races, such as Drinol become larger Flood organisms, such as Flood Juggernauts, but neither of these creatures has been encountered by humans yet. Brutes can probably be affected, but as of yet no Brute-derived Combat Forms have been seen.

Species Behavior
Though the Flood can survive in environments that are suitable to both Covenant and Humans, they prefer to alter it to their own preferences. This happens when the Flood release a deadly gas that only they can breathe. Only someone wearing a gas mask or other protective garment can survive through the change. The Flood can alter the atmosphere and thus the planet transforming it so Non-Flood life forms cannot survive and thus they become easy prey for the Flood. After the Flood was released on Halo they began to change it, but thankfully they did not succeed.

The Flood are a very intelligent race. They gain the knowledge of the hosts they infect. In addition, they are under the control of the Flood "puppetmaster" Gravemind (this is reveiled in the Halo 3 plot summary on bungie.net). The UNSC, tends to use firepower rather than numbers, preferring a tactic of using a few strong, well trained units, with a lot of firepower, to achieve their goals. The Covenant, tend to outnumber and overrun their enemies. Relying more on the bravery and courage of their loyal soldiers rather than pure firepower. The Flood on the other hand have no obvious strategy. They fight without fear of death or injuries, as a lone Combat Form will sometimes sacrifice itself for the further case of the whole. They attack by finding a group of enemies and send everything they have with whatever weapon they have, sometimes no weapon at all! They seem to prefer close combat. Their poor weapons skills make them poor shots. But they have powerful whipping tentacles that cause great damage at close range. They also have been known to kill their own on accident. They can do this and not worry, as disabled Flood bodies can be reanimated by Infection forms. Dead Flood can only be permanently disabled by being completely destroyed. Methods of destruction can be high-powered explosions, the form taking too much damage, extreme heat, or decomposing.

Flood Forms

 * Infection Form


 * Carrier Form


 * Combat Form


 * Prophet form


 * Brain Form


 * Gravemind

Also:


 * Flood Juggernaut - Removed from Halo 2.