Following the activation of the Halo array and destruction of all possible flood hosts in the galaxy, how was the flood able to spread throughout the quarantine zone and even establish a Gravemind on Delta Halo? Where did it find sufficient biomass when all hosts were supposed to be eliminated?
It was never established I think penitent tangent was involved
All I could find on Halopedia was that 2401 Penitent Tangent ignored 343 Guilty Spark’s warnings about the outbreak.
It’s still one of the great mysteries of the Halo universe. All I can say is that 343i haven’t forgotten about this story yet, since it’s still mentioned in Penitent Tangent’s entry in the Universe section. “We don’t know”, basically. I hope we’ll get an answer, of course.
During the Halo: CEA terminals, 343 Guilty Spark began to lose contract with the other monitors of the Halo array since communication was so slow with the collapse of the Domain. The last messages he receives were cryptic and incomplete ones by 2401 Penitent Tangent. Then all communications ceased.
So it’s not really know. All we can assume is that 2401 did not correctly follow Flood protocol and the Flood escaped. It then probably sustained itself by consuming local wildlife in the Quarantine Zone built in response to the infestation, since it could not be immediately eradicated. The Flood must have gained a sufficient amount of biomass to build a Gravemind and then subsequently captured 2401. We don’t exactly know how and when these events occurred.
Penitent Tangent evidently suffered the same breakdown Guilty Spark was undergoing, leading to his dereliction of duty. The Cold Storage logs released by Bungie in 2008 told us that the Flood outbreak was the result of a mechanical failure, perhaps a manufacturing flaw in some of the machinery used, and hacked Installation 05’s slipspace translocation conduits in the early stages so the Flood could pretty much go anywhere they wanted to on the ring.
Naturally, they went to the Library since it’s the storage place for a great deal of biological information and the home of the Index.
The Cold Storage Transmissions (which were uploaded by Bungie in two of their blogs in a two-part series back in 2008) tells us that Flood Research and Containment Facility; [Delta Site] (more specifically, the location in which the Cold Storage multiplayer map from Halo 3 takes place) had a malfunction, which was purely mechanical in nature, and thus a manufacturing flaw. This happens 4,573 years after the firing of the Halo arrays (this was confirmed in the Halo CEA Terminal #4).
Luckily, the Flood is contained within the facility. However, “unauthorized hostile life forms” then landed on the ring. This happens 286.6 years after previously mentioned 4,573 years.
Then, 7 years later, the “unauthorized parties” gain access to the facility, and thus a Gravemind was soon formed afterwards.
LINK to the Cold Storage Transmissions (just scroll down until you see “Cold Storage Transmission”)
If you’re wondering where the Yoink this information has been all this time, don’t worry. I’ve been super fascinated by 2401 Penitent Tangent’s origins and the events that happened on Installation 05 for so long, and I didn’t even know the Cold Storage Transmissions existed until the end of last year.
As for who these “unauthorized hostile life forms/unauthorized parties” are, all we can be certain of them is that they are neither Covenant nor Human due to them arriving at Installation 05 a merely 4,866.6 years after the firing of the Halo arrays.
Well forunner said have flood stored on every installation to study deep underground so most likely there
> 2533274823479666;7:
> The Cold Storage Transmissions (which were uploaded by Bungie in two of their blogs in a two-part series back in 2008) tells us that Flood Research and Containment Facility; [Delta Site] (more specifically, the location in which the Cold Storage multiplayer map from Halo 3 takes place) had a malfunction, which was purely mechanical in nature, and thus a manufacturing flaw. This happens 4,573 years after the firing of the Halo arrays (this was confirmed in the Halo CEA Terminal #4).
>
> Luckily, the Flood is contained within the facility. However, “unauthorized hostile life forms” then landed on the ring. This happens 286.6 years after previously mentioned 4,573 years.
>
> Then, 7 years later, the “unauthorized parties” gain access to the facility, and thus a Gravemind was soon formed afterwards.
>
> LINK to the Cold Storage Transmissions (just scroll down until you see “Cold Storage Transmission”)
>
> If you’re wondering where the Yoink this information has been all this time, don’t worry. I’ve been super fascinated by 2401 Penitent Tangent’s origins and the events that happened on Installation 05 for so long, and I didn’t even know the Cold Storage Transmissions existed until the end of last year.
>
> As for who these “unauthorized hostile life forms/unauthorized parties” are, all we can be certain of them is that they are neither Covenant nor Human due to them arriving at Installation 05 a merely 4,866.6 years after the firing of the Halo arrays.
Great info, thanks! Sorry I’m just now seeing this.
OT: Just under 5,000 years is a short time for a species to start over after repopulation and develop space travel, unless they just found left over technology or artifacts.
> 2535415710012035;9:
> > 2533274823479666;7:
> > The Cold Storage Transmissions (which were uploaded by Bungie in two of their blogs in a two-part series back in 2008) tells us that Flood Research and Containment Facility; [Delta Site] (more specifically, the location in which the Cold Storage multiplayer map from Halo 3 takes place) had a malfunction, which was purely mechanical in nature, and thus a manufacturing flaw. This happens 4,573 years after the firing of the Halo arrays (this was confirmed in the Halo CEA Terminal #4).
> >
> > Luckily, the Flood is contained within the facility. However, “unauthorized hostile life forms” then landed on the ring. This happens 286.6 years after previously mentioned 4,573 years.
> >
> > Then, 7 years later, the “unauthorized parties” gain access to the facility, and thus a Gravemind was soon formed afterwards.
> >
> > LINK to the Cold Storage Transmissions (just scroll down until you see “Cold Storage Transmission”)
> >
> > If you’re wondering where the Yoink this information has been all this time, don’t worry. I’ve been super fascinated by 2401 Penitent Tangent’s origins and the events that happened on Installation 05 for so long, and I didn’t even know the Cold Storage Transmissions existed until the end of last year.
> >
> > As for who these “unauthorized hostile life forms/unauthorized parties” are, all we can be certain of them is that they are neither Covenant nor Human due to them arriving at Installation 05 a merely 4,866.6 years after the firing of the Halo arrays.
>
>
> Great info, thanks! Sorry I’m just now seeing this.
> OT: Just under 5,000 years is a short time for a species to start over after repopulation and develop space travel, unless they just found left over technology or artifacts.
Better late than never. Missing very interesting info like this always sucks (like how I didn’t know about this for 6 freaking years).
It’s possible the species’ home planet had Forerunner tech just lying around, including ships. The San Shyumm, once they were able to steal the Dreadnought, were able to roam the galaxy pretty easy, and it got easier after more and more understanding. The same could’ve happened with this species.
We do know one species (neither Covenant nor Human) landed on the Halo 4 map, Wreckage (this was confirmed in the Halo 4 Essential Guide). This could be the same species.
Or the species that landed on Installation 04 in the CEA Terminal are the same ones that landed on Installation 05. And some people theorize this species was sent by the Precursors. If that’s true, then the Precursors could have sent this species to unleash a Gravemind and have control of at least two of the rings. One obviously failed, and one obviously worked.
Really though, anything’s possible.
Just more mysteries still yet to learn about on Installation 05.
> 2533274823479666;10:
> > 2535415710012035;9:
> > > 2533274823479666;7:
> > > The Cold Storage Transmissions (which were uploaded by Bungie in two of their blogs in a two-part series back in 2008) tells us that Flood Research and Containment Facility; [Delta Site] (more specifically, the location in which the Cold Storage multiplayer map from Halo 3 takes place) had a malfunction, which was purely mechanical in nature, and thus a manufacturing flaw. This happens 4,573 years after the firing of the Halo arrays (this was confirmed in the Halo CEA Terminal #4).
> > >
> > > Luckily, the Flood is contained within the facility. However, “unauthorized hostile life forms” then landed on the ring. This happens 286.6 years after previously mentioned 4,573 years.
> > >
> > > Then, 7 years later, the “unauthorized parties” gain access to the facility, and thus a Gravemind was soon formed afterwards.
> > >
> > > LINK to the Cold Storage Transmissions (just scroll down until you see “Cold Storage Transmission”)
> > >
> > > If you’re wondering where the Yoink this information has been all this time, don’t worry. I’ve been super fascinated by 2401 Penitent Tangent’s origins and the events that happened on Installation 05 for so long, and I didn’t even know the Cold Storage Transmissions existed until the end of last year.
> > >
> > > As for who these “unauthorized hostile life forms/unauthorized parties” are, all we can be certain of them is that they are neither Covenant nor Human due to them arriving at Installation 05 a merely 4,866.6 years after the firing of the Halo arrays.
> >
> >
> > Great info, thanks! Sorry I’m just now seeing this.
> > OT: Just under 5,000 years is a short time for a species to start over after repopulation and develop space travel, unless they just found left over technology or artifacts.
>
>
> Better late than never. Missing very interesting info like this always sucks (like how I didn’t know about this for 6 freaking years).
>
> It’s possible the species’ home planet had Forerunner tech just lying around, including ships. The San Shyumm, once they were able to steal the Dreadnought, were able to roam the galaxy pretty easy, and it got easier after more and more understanding. The same could’ve happened with this species.
> We do know one species (neither Covenant nor Human) landed on the Halo 4 map, Wreckage (this was confirmed in the Halo 4 Essential Guide). This could be the same species.
> Or the species that landed on Installation 04 in the CEA Terminal are the same ones that landed on Installation 05. And some people theorize this species was sent by the Precursors. If that’s true, then the Precursors could have sent this species to unleash a Gravemind and have control of at least two of the rings. One obviously failed, and one obviously worked.
> Really though, anything’s possible.
>
> Just more mysteries still yet to learn about on Installation 05.
It’s easy to forget it’s a big galaxy with a lot of unexplored life. There’s a lot of story possibilities out there!
Because not all potential flood hosts were destroyed. Humans and Covenant are still around, aren’t they?
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> Because not all potential flood hosts were destroyed. Humans and Covenant are still around, aren’t they?
Because they were reseeded after firing the array.
> 2533274798731851;13:
> > 2533274953123640;12:
> > Because not all potential flood hosts were destroyed. Humans and Covenant are still around, aren’t they?
>
>
> Because they were reseeded after firing the array.
Exactly.
However the fact the Gravemind was able to fight a war with the sentinels on the ring for 100,000 years is strange as well.
> 2533274830587831;15:
> However the fact the Gravemind was able to fight a war with the sentinels on the ring for 100,000 years is strange as well.
He may not have tried to fight them for very long. He obviously didn’t have anything to take down their Factories until the events of Halo 2 where he accessed the Covenant’s weaponry, so he would’ve lost the fight eventually due to the Sentinels having an infinite amount of forces compared to his limited forces.
Plus, the more important factor, 2401 Penitent Tangent was smart enough (plus he finally got off of his lazy rear) to activate the barrier at the Library. It wasn’t activated to keep people out. It was activated to keep the Gravemind in.
That, or when the Gravemind capture Tangent, he was then able to activate the barrier to keep the Sentinels out.
I think flood forms were kept in storage on all halo arrays and thus were not killed by firing of the array by the forerunners. When the covies found delta halo, they let the flood out, and it ate a bunch of them and made a gravemind.
I would love to revisit Delta Halo. It would be great to visit the Ring to see the remnants of the Flood and Sentinels war and the Brute and Elite war as well.
Something me and mates have mentioned a few times is that surely the Flood in the research facilities on the other Halo rings surely must still be alive. So there would be an easy way to get them to return.