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The Flood can spread without the rangers
Posted By: Ciarán <halo2screensaver@blackice.ie>Date: 2/10/03 7:28 a.m.

I was just looking through the level transcripts over at the Halo Story Page when I noticed this:

"343GS: You can see how the body's been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small rangers carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent."

This could just be referring to the formation of Carriers, but I don't think so. It specifically states "The small rangers carry spores that cause a host to mutate." This means that the rangers themselves don't directly infect the host, but they do carry the spores that infect the host. They do control the host, and on the Flood anatomy pages, the ranger form in the body seems to be referred to in the diagrams as the "Flood Controller".

The next scentence is interesting - "The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others." This would seem to mean that all flood-infested hosts can pass on the "infection", not just Carriers. In fact, 343GS goes on to imply this when he says "As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent." I think he is saying "As long as any [infected] hosts remain" they can pass on the spores. This would also seem to be borne out by the diagram on the Flood anatomy page for the Human Warrior, where the body cavity is highlighted as "Spore Incubation".

The reason I'm pointing this out is that there was a thread a while back about Halo misconceptions, and one that was mentioned was that the Flood spread via airborne spores. This is probably not quite correct, since the spores are probably not airborne, but it is spores that spread the flood, and the spores are not the rangers, though we tend to use the term "Spores" to mean the rangers.

This leads me to my next question - would the real Flood please stand up?

Are the spores actually the Flood? Are the rangers actually the Flood at all? Is the Flood actually a symbiotic pairing of the spores and the rangers? The rangers carry the spores, the spores infect the host, enabling the rangers to control the hosts, and the spores to reproduce, and continue ad finitum - well, as long as there's hosts to infect.

But, could the spores spread without the rangers? If you killed the ranger controlling the host, do the spores die too? What triggers the spores to spread from a warrior host? Maybe warriors eventually turn into Carriers, and we then have a type of lifecycle: ranger/spores -> warrior/controller ranger/spores -> Carrier/spores -> rangers/spores. I know it states on the Flood anatomy pages that Carriers are hosts that can't be warriors for whatever reason, but what happens to the Warriors if they don't get killed?

Just some food for thought.

Ciarán.


Message Index




Replies:

The Flood can spread without the rangersCiarán 2/10/03 7:28 a.m.
     Cue spooky music *NM*Louis Wu 2/10/03 8:12 a.m.
           Re: Cue spooky musicCiarán 2/11/03 10:25 a.m.
                 Re: Cue spooky musicLouis Wu 2/11/03 1:29 p.m.
                       Re: Cue spooky musicmnemesis 2/11/03 4:44 p.m.
                 Re: Cue spooky musicCount Zero 2/11/03 8:00 p.m.
                       Re: Cue spooky musicCiarán 2/12/03 6:30 a.m.
                             Re: Cue spooky musicCiarán 2/12/03 7:09 a.m.
                                   Re: Cue spooky musicLouis Wu 2/12/03 7:41 a.m.
                                   Re: Cue spooky musicLouis Wu 2/12/03 8:05 a.m.
                                         Re: Cue spooky musicCiarán 2/12/03 9:06 a.m.
     Lone Flood Rangerpoena.dare #CP# 2/10/03 8:43 a.m.
           Re: Boo...hiss *NM*Warbow 2/10/03 8:49 a.m.
                 Re: Lone Flood Rangerkiro69 2/11/03 2:18 p.m.
     Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersRoss Mills 2/10/03 10:04 a.m.
           Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersCiarán 2/10/03 10:15 a.m.
                 Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersRoss Mills 2/10/03 10:16 a.m.
                       Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersCiarán 2/10/03 10:22 a.m.
                             Let me speculate man! It's healthy! :-) *NM*Ross Mills 2/10/03 10:35 a.m.
                                   Re: Let me speculate man! It's healthy! :-)Ciarán 2/10/03 10:51 a.m.
                                         Re: Let me speculate man! It's healthy! :-)Warbow 2/10/03 11:00 a.m.
                                               Rangers = Infection Forms - justification *LONG*Ciarán 2/10/03 11:51 a.m.
                                                     Re: Rangers = Infection Forms - justification *LONWarbow 2/10/03 12:14 p.m.
                                                           Re: Rangers = Infection Forms - justification *LONWado SG 2/10/03 6:33 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Rangers = Infection Forms - justification *LONCiarán 2/11/03 6:39 a.m.
                                                                       Reply about Flood Spores - longWado SG 2/11/03 12:03 p.m.
     Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersBarkbat 2/10/03 8:13 p.m.
           Re: The Flood can spread without the rangersCiarán 2/11/03 6:37 a.m.



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