So, I know the background of the Flood and Gravemind, but there are some questions I have left about how everything fits together.
It has been stated that infection forms are only one vector of infecting a host. Hosts have been infected by use of Flood spores before, as well. However, I was under the impression that the infection form actually controls the host, as the host is rendered dead if the infection form is removed from the body. If this is the case, how do the other vectors of infection work?
During Halo CE, the Flood were in their “feral” stage. Given that a Gravemind existed on Installation 05, why would the Flood be in this state?
Speaking of Installation 05’s Gravemind, where did it come from? The containment failure on Installation 05 occurred somewhere around 200 years prior to Halo 2, if memory serves me correctly. Obviously Gravemind is composed of assimilated victims, but where did these victims come from? There’s no indication of any suitable hosts for the Flood existing on Installation 05 prior to the arrival of humanity and the Covenant.
I’m not too sure about the details about infection, it’s a little inconsistent.
However, regarding why the Gravemind has no control over the Flood on Installation 04, he might simply be too far away. Or 05 has the ability to suppress his signal that controls Flood.
As to why a Gravemind is even on 05, I’m probably wrong about this, but didn’t the Forerunners capture him and imprison him there for study? But the monitor got lazy or corrupted by the Gravemind and allowed the outbreak to occur. I might be wrong about that, but it sounds right.
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> I’m not too sure about the details about infection, it’s a little inconsistent.
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> However, regarding why the Gravemind has no control over the Flood on Installation 04, he might simply be too far away. Or 05 has the ability to suppress his signal that controls Flood.
>
> As to why a Gravemind is even on 05, I’m probably wrong about this, but didn’t the Forerunners capture him and imprison him there for study? But the monitor got lazy or corrupted by the Gravemind and allowed the outbreak to occur. I might be wrong about that, but it sounds right.
No that would be 07 you’re talking about and that was the Primordial from 100,000 BCE. There is a chance that the gravemind formed using the local inhabitants of the Halo (fauna) animals ,etc … any visitors to the Halo in the last 100,000 years could have also been assimilated as well. We simply don’t know. We know that communication with 2401 Penitent Tangent had stopped some time ago which means an outbreak occurred that 2401 couldn’t control.
Right now the known ways of infection are: Infection Forms, Spores, and mutated Precursor Powder (which i don’t think exist anymore).
Humans were actually the ones that discovered the Timeless One and brought it to Charrum Hakkor and with the help of the san shyuum were able to communicate with it briefly. After the Forerunner-Human War, 07 was fired in the Hakkor system where the Primordial was able to escape and basically took control of the ring.