Shield World 0459 was one of the most Flood infested structures in the galaxy at the time of Halo Wars, maybe more so than Installation 05. The entire surface and even parts of the access shafts and hollow interior were infected with Flood. So why is it there was simply just a Proto Gravemind here? As infected as this world was, wouldn’t it have not evolved into a full blown Gravemind? What did it lack to do that? An intelligent species? If it managed to infect Spirit of Fire and its crew, would it have helped it evolve into one or what am I missing?
Not enough biomass and good sentinel policing I would imagine.
Shield World 0459 was a research Shield World, or else the Flood wouldn’t have been contained there for study. They were kept safe on the Installation when the Halo Array fired, just as the Flood specimens were safe on the Halo Rings themselves. Due to poor maintenance, the Flood were released onto the surface of the shield installation, similar to Delta Halo. They were able to quickly overrun and populate the entire outer surface of the installation. The security forces on the shield world eventually gave up on saving the surface, and fell back into the interior of the installation to ensure utmost protection of the inner dyson sphere where the Forerunner Fleet was being held. Now think about it. The Flood absorb cognitive sentient organisms into their collective consciousness right? When an entire planet falls to the Flood and its entire population of sentient life (Humans, Forerunners or whatever) is infected, that planet becomes a Key Mind. But, the evolutionary process of the Flood (i.e. proto-gravemind, to gravemind, to keymind) is strictly based on the amount of cognitive intelligence and biomass they have collected. Both have to be equally presented.
Shield Installation 0459 was devoid of intelligent sentient life, therefore lacking the necessary cognitive intelligence the Flood oh so love and feed on. Why? Because all the remaining Forerunners had retreated back to the Lesser Ark by the end of the War, so there werent any sentient beings on 0459 when the Flood escaped containment. All there was to feed on were plant life and animals with limited cognitive intelligence. As such, the best the Flood could muster was a complete covering of simple biomass over the surface of the Installation, without any sense of direction or purpose. They had a lot of biomass, but not enough cognitive intelligence. They would be stuck in the beginning of the Feral Stage for a very long time; until the Covenant showed up.
When the Covenant arrived, and studied the Flood, many of their troops were infected. It wasn’t until the Covenant ventured into the Flood-free dyson sphere that the Flood could no longer absorb any more sentient life. By this point, they had enough total cognitive intelligence to begin forming a proto gravemind. When the Spirit of Fire arrived at the scene, many of its troops were infected by the Flood, further more adding to the overall collection of cognitive intelligence, finally leading to the creation of a Proto-Gravemind, as seen in the Halo Wars mission “The Flood.”
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
p1ay4OURFUN
> 2533274919463107;3:
> Shield World 0459 was a research Shield World, or else the Flood wouldn’t have been contained there for study. They were kept safe on the Installation when the Halo Array fired, just as the Flood specimens were safe on the Halo Rings themselves. Due to poor maintenance, the Flood were released onto the surface of the shield installation, similar to Delta Halo. They were able to quickly overrun and populate the entire outer surface of the installation. The security forces on the shield world eventually gave up on saving the surface, and fell back into the interior of the installation to ensure utmost protection of the inner dyson sphere where the Forerunner Fleet was being held. Now think about it. The Flood absorb cognitive sentient organisms into their collective consciousness right? When an entire planet falls to the Flood and its entire population of sentient life (Humans, Forerunners or whatever) is infected, that planet becomes a Key Mind. But, the evolutionary process of the Flood (i.e. proto-gravemind, to gravemind, to keymind) is strictly based on the amount of cognitive intelligence and biomass they have collected. Both have to be equally presented.
>
> Shield Installation 0459 was devoid of intelligent sentient life, therefore lacking the necessary cognitive intelligence the Flood oh so love and feed on. Why? Because all the remaining Forerunners had retreated back to the Lesser Ark by the end of the War, so there werent any sentient beings on 0459 when the Flood escaped containment. All there was to feed on were plant life and animals with limited cognitive intelligence. As such, the best the Flood could muster was a complete covering of simple biomass over the surface of the Installation, without any sense of direction or purpose. They had a lot of biomass, but not enough cognitive intelligence. They would be stuck in the beginning of the Feral Stage for a very long time; until the Covenant showed up.
>
> When the Covenant arrived, and studied the Flood, many of their troops were infected. It wasn’t until the Covenant ventured into the Flood-free dyson sphere that the Flood could no longer absorb any more sentient life. By this point, they had enough total cognitive intelligence to begin forming a proto gravemind. When the Spirit of Fire arrived at the scene, many of its troops were infected by the Flood, further more adding to the overall collection of cognitive intelligence, finally leading to the creation of a Proto-Gravemind, as seen in the Halo Wars mission “The Flood.”
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Sincerely,
> p1ay4OURFUN
Excellent points but I guess the Covenant could have still be infected. The one thing you mentioned that may be incorrect is that the dyson sphere was Flood-free because we do see them in both the shafts and the interior hollow ‘dyson sphere’ portion of the world. I also thought the Proto Gravemind existed before Spirit of Fire’s arrival to the planet but I can’t recall all the dialogue.
> Excellent points but I guess the Covenant could have still be infected. The one thing you mentioned that may be incorrect is that the dyson sphere was Flood-free because we do see them in both the shafts and the interior hollow ‘dyson sphere’ portion of the world. I also thought the Proto Gravemind existed before Spirit of Fire’s arrival to the planet but I can’t recall all the dialogue.
Members of the Covenant were infected before the Spirit of Fire arrived. Also, the Flood only managed to appear in the shafts and the dyson sphere because they used the Spirit of Fire as a vessel to get further inside the installation. Before the Sentinels opened the portal into the shield world, allowing the Spirit of Fire inside, there weren’t any Flood within.
> 2533274919463107;3:
> Shield World 0459 was a research Shield World, or else the Flood wouldn’t have been contained there for study. They were kept safe on the Installation when the Halo Array fired, just as the Flood specimens were safe on the Halo Rings themselves. Due to poor maintenance, the Flood were released onto the surface of the shield installation, similar to Delta Halo. They were able to quickly overrun and populate the entire outer surface of the installation. The security forces on the shield world eventually gave up on saving the surface, and fell back into the interior of the installation to ensure utmost protection of the inner dyson sphere where the Forerunner Fleet was being held. Now think about it. The Flood absorb cognitive sentient organisms into their collective consciousness right? When an entire planet falls to the Flood and its entire population of sentient life (Humans, Forerunners or whatever) is infected, that planet becomes a Key Mind. But, the evolutionary process of the Flood (i.e. proto-gravemind, to gravemind, to keymind) is strictly based on the amount of cognitive intelligence and biomass they have collected. Both have to be equally presented.
>
> Shield Installation 0459 was devoid of intelligent sentient life, therefore lacking the necessary cognitive intelligence the Flood oh so love and feed on. Why? Because all the remaining Forerunners had retreated back to the Lesser Ark by the end of the War, so there werent any sentient beings on 0459 when the Flood escaped containment. All there was to feed on were plant life and animals with limited cognitive intelligence. As such, the best the Flood could muster was a complete covering of simple biomass over the surface of the Installation, without any sense of direction or purpose. They had a lot of biomass, but not enough cognitive intelligence. They would be stuck in the beginning of the Feral Stage for a very long time; until the Covenant showed up.
>
> When the Covenant arrived, and studied the Flood, many of their troops were infected. It wasn’t until the Covenant ventured into the Flood-free dyson sphere that the Flood could no longer absorb any more sentient life. By this point, they had enough total cognitive intelligence to begin forming a proto gravemind. When the Spirit of Fire arrived at the scene, many of its troops were infected by the Flood, further more adding to the overall collection of cognitive intelligence, finally leading to the creation of a Proto-Gravemind, as seen in the Halo Wars mission “The Flood.”
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Sincerely,
> p1ay4OURFUN
Well said! Great work.