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Name: The Flood
Origin: Halo
Classification: Alien, parasitic being
Age: Unknown
Powers and Abilities: Able to consume and assimilate any species acquiring all knowledge and abilities that being held including technology.
Weaknesses: Cannot consume certain beings that have irregular nervous systems, a being that can manipulate electric signals throughout his body can theoretically be immune to the flood control. Flood forms that were in hibernation for extended periods of time may not be able to fully control their victim. Pure forms are weak against fire. Can only coordinate attacks on a local level through pheromones until a Gravemind form is created. Taking away their food source is the only viable way to defeat the flood.
Speed: Depends on form.
Durability: Depends on form, typically human level durability.
Strength: Depends on form.
Intelligence: The flood are a hive mind and gain all knowledge from consumed victims. Theoretically they have no limit to the intelligence they can gain with a Gravemind form.
Notable attacks:
The Flood first entered the Milky Way Galaxy and were first found by the Forerunners in 98,379 BCE on planet G617 g1, and by 97,488 had control of most of the galaxy forcing the Forerunners to activate the Halo Rings in order to save life in the galaxy. Their hierarchy can best be described as a type of utopian socialism where each member of the flood works only for the benefit of all. The flood can consume beings at an incredible rate, consuming individuals at rates in excess of billions per hour. The Flood are best wiped out immediatly while they are still not organized, after a Gravemind forms the flood can coordinate attacks all across the Galaxy.
Stages of a Flood infestation
- Feral: lowest form: communicating via pheromones, and have the natural instinct to harvest enough calcium to establish a viable Gravemind.
- Coordinated: stage is when the Flood become truly dangerous; they now take orders from the Gravemind that was created in the first stage.
- Interstellar: allows the Flood to take control of most technology and spread throughout the galaxy to infect more hosts.
- Intergalatic: last known stage the Flood enters, theoretically, in which it utilizes all captured technology to depart to uninfected galaxies to further replicate. It is assumed that the Flood that had arrived in the Milky Way had descended from Intergalactic level Flood.
Flood Forms (From Halopedia):
Flood Spores:
Flood Spores are the most simple Flood organism, facilitating the creation of infection forms out of available biological material to advance infestation. These are small airborne contaminants, capable of terraforming the surrounding environment.
Flood Infection Form:
The Infection Form is the second most basic and simple form of the Flood, and is larger only than the Flood Spores, and thus the easiest to defeat. It is believed to be the most essential form to the flood, as it is the Flood's most common method of infecting and assimilating other species, as these infections attack in dozens or even hundreds at a time.
Flood Combat Form:
After an Infection Form has successfully assimilated a sentient creature with sufficient biomass and combat potential, it will neurologically and physiologically mutate the host, twisting it into a Combat Form. Combat Forms oftentimes maintain the general profile of the original host organism, and possess the original clothing and armor they were wearing before infection. When a Combat form has served its usefulness, the infection form may dislodge itself from the body and look for a new host, leaving the body for use as spare biomass. Alternatively, the Combat form could be made into a Carrier form.
Flood Carrier Form:
The exact origin of Carrier Forms is unknown, although they are theorized to be former combat forms that are too damaged, or too aged to be useful for future combat. The purpose of a Carrier Form is to nurture and disseminate Infection forms upon attack or proximity to a host.
Pure Form:
Pure Forms are not the product of infecting a biological host, but are instead composed entirely of Flood biomass. They are a new stronger strain of Flood that develops once a coordinated stage has secured sufficient resources, namely in the form of calcium from host species. The Flood make use of those reservoirs of calcium to develop an adaptable framework upon which the Flood Super Cell is attached, which creates a fearsome biological war machine. Initially, this form's primary function is to aid Infection Forms by securing more biomass in the form of hosts, as well as enough complex neurological systems to strengthen the local Gravemind. This duty overlaps with the Combat Form, but once enough Pure Forms have developed, the Combat Forms are relegated to defensive roles, or adding to the biomass and calcium reservoirs.
Flood Stalker Form:
Stalker forms are extremely agile and can jump over large distances. They tend to crawl on ceilings and walls before leaping at an opposing enemy to attack. A stalker form usually turns into a tank form when a target gets close to it, and a ranged form if you're shooting at it and a wall is nearby. Ranged forms mainly turn back into stalkers before transforming into tank forms.
Flood Ranged Form:
Ranged Forms can usually be found clinging to ceilings or walls, though unlike the Stalker Form, they rarely move from a given spot. They can fire sharp projectiles at you, without the need of a weapon. The ranged form is susceptible to the Covenant Needler. It is especially weak against plasma, spike, and firebomb grenades, though they don't usually have a long range. The ranged form can also fold itself while remaining on a wall; when folded, it is much harder to kill. Also the spikes may look familiar because they are similar to spikes from a Brute Spiker. Sometimes, when on Legendary difficulty, the Ranged Form will drop Spike Grenades, and like Spike Grenades, their projectiles do no damage to Deployable Cover, making it an ideal defense against them.
Flood Tank Form:
Tank Forms are large and easily spotted. Unlike the other Flood Pure Forms, they cannot climb on walls and ceilings. These Flood can take a tremendous amount of damage. They also occasionally spew Infection Forms from their 'mouths'. Tank forms may be mistaken for a (nonexistent) Hunter form, mainly because a tank form has one over sized hand (equivalent to a Hunter's shield), a small arm (equivalent to where a Hunter's gun would be), its roar which sounds similar to that of a Hunter, and even more similar body mass. It is however, impossible for a Hunter to be infected (despite these similarities) due to the fact that Hunters are a colony of invertebrate worms lacking bones (i.e. calcium) and with insufficient biomass per worm for an infection form to modify.
Grave Mind Form:
The Gravemind is the lead intelligence of the Flood. There can only be one at a time, although if one is killed another may form, though it is unknown if the dead Graveminds knowledge is passed on to the new one, but the statement above supports this. Another thing that may happen is that the Gravemind is the same from before in a different body. The Gravemind is the assumed highest state of transformation that a Flood form can achieve. It is believed that once a "critical mass" of Flood forms has been synthetically fused, similar to the Brain Form, but on a larger scale (and very likely the next stage of a brain form), a Gravemind form is created. It assumes a centralized sentient intelligence that is believed to lead the general Flood species itself through unknown means, possibly telepathic. It also appears to hold all of the Flood's memories, even those of individual organisms, and of the previous Gravemind as well, through extraordinary and enigmatic "genetic" means. While it is capable of directing the overall Flood species, it also possesses micro-managing capabilities for small encounters.
The Gravemind is the personification of Flood psychology, ravenously seeking to assimilate all sentient life in the galaxy, and is of unusual intelligence: of inventive plans for Flood propagation and serpentine delusions and betrayals, capable of manipulating others to do its bidding. It appears that only one is present at a time: one existed over 100,000 years ago, but was destroyed by the first firing of the Halos. Another was recreated afterward, and settled in the depths of Installation 05: it showed remarkable understanding of Forerunner technology, even going so far as to capture the resident Monitor, 2401 Penitent Tangent, manipulating the installation's teleportation system, and understanding the purpose and intricacies of the Halo installations. The Gravemind is also remarkably long-lived, surviving for a millennium.
Physically, it somewhat resembles an engorged Venus Fly Trap: it is a "massive, tentacled...entity" with a gigantic, fleshy neck and indistinct head, prominently featuring a massive mouth that speaks in low, gravely tones. It possesses massive tentacles of extraordinary length and strength, capable of stretching from the dark interior of Installation 05 and believed to be extending hundreds of kilometers to above the surface of the Halo. It is also believed that a Gravemind can weigh several thousand tons.
Notable OBD Victories:
Notable OBD Losses:
Other: Not to be confused with the lifeform of the same name from Doctor Who