In Response To: Multiple Outbreaks & Installation 04's history (Boxer [subnova])
: ...samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak...for study.
: So, how many Flood outbreaks have there actually been, and when was Halo
: built in relation to them?
: On the basis of what 343GS has told us, there must have been at least two.
: One prior to Halo being built and the second afterward.
: Both of his comments imply that Halo was built after the last catastrophic
: outbreak, for the purpose of studying the Flood.
: If it were in existence prior to the last 'catastrophic' outbreak, then
: surely samples would already be there being studied, since that was one of
: its original design parameters.
: Arguable as well, you don't specifically embark on building something on that
: colossal scale to study and control a species unless there is a good
: reason to do so. In the circumstances, a catastrophic outbreak seems like
: a good enough one to prompt you.
: Now, given that we know, from 343GS later comments, that 'Halo' appears to
: have actually been fired previously, does that imply that its firing did
: not take place because of a 'catastrophic' outbreak of Flood? On the basis
: of the above, the answer is, no.
I'll only address the above because you have so many good thoughts here and I'm investigating something else related to this. Anyway, Halo could have been built during and as a result of the last catastrophic outbreak. The outbreak may have started very quickly and caught the Forerunners by surprise but perhaps years later its advancement had been slowed but NOT stopped. During these years is when the Halos could have been built.
Considering just how long and hard it might be to truly get rid of the Flood, it could be possible that the last catastrophic outbreak left many planets uninhabitable by the Forerunners because even though all the food on the planet was consumed, the Flood still lay dormant deep underground, hidden from detection. This means that you cannot colonize those planets anymore unless you completely sterilize them (something like glass them) and then wait the required hundreds or thousands of years until they can be terraformed and made habitable again. Quite a task and who is to say that glassing a planet really will get rid of the Flood?
Samples may have been necessary for study because the Forerunners needed to find a way to detect the Flood spores while in dormant form. The Forerunners had all the weapons they could ever need, what they really needed was a super-scanner to detect Flood.
To add to this line of thought, if 343 GS is talking about the Flood when he is glad to see that some of them survived to reproduce, does not this indicate that 343 GS had no idea how many Flood were still around? Does not this suggest that Forerunner technology was not good enough to build scanners that could detect dormant Flood.
If you think this theory is plausible, go read my old Fan Fics because that is exactly what the problem is in the battle against the Flood -- How do you stop something that you can't detect and when it does reveal itself it spreads so quickly your only choice is mass sterilization to stop its advancement?
: If that is so, does it mean that is was fired due to a minor outbreak, or by
: mistake, or for other reasons..?
: Question: Why would you activate something as terminal as Halo for anything
: less than a 'catastrophic' outbreak...?
: Here’s my question. If there have been at least two outbreaks (including the
: one that occurs during HALO) then wouldn’t it stand to reason that The
: Flood were somehow stopped before the building of Halo if the statement,
: " The installation was specifically built to study and contain the
: Flood... ", is being interpreted accurately. Which could therefore
: mean, that the Forerunner or some other highly advanced race mopped the
: floor with The Flood prior to the building of Halo and its’ counterparts.
: So, why should a race that could so thoroughly thrash The Flood need to
: build a weapon so powerful that it would wipe out all life, with
: sufficient bio-mass, from the face of the galaxy. Perhaps the Forerunner
: stumbled upon the Halos, and being so egotistical removed all mention of
: ‘the other race’, which had probably vanished from the galaxy, that wiped
: out The Flood and then built the Halos to house and experiment on the few
: remaining specimens. Perhaps the Forerunner were merely adaptive rather
: than innovative just as the Covenant are. Now that I’ve theorized as to
: why there is even a Halo, I’ll discuss 343GS’s dialogue. 343GS throughout
: the entire game is very prideful of Halo and his knowledge in all its’
: uses, or so it would seem by the tone in his voice. I’m still having a
: very hard time with this statement, “ ...samples were kept here after the
: last catastrophic outbreak...for study ”, it seems to me that the adding
: of ‘…for study’ at the end of this statement was an afterthought. Perhaps
: he was merely justifying the existence of The Flood to the Reclaimer
: (Mater Chief) because he believed that the MC was the first Reclaimer who
: had apparently fired Halo before, which if true would negate the validity
: of the statement “ One prior to Halo being built and the second afterward
: ”, because there would have had to have been a Halo before the first
: outbreak if it was indeed fired to stop The Flood once before and
: therefore it would negate my earlier musings about ‘another race’ other
: than the Forerunners. But if Halo did exist prior to the first time The
: Flood escaped then the next logical step in this progression of events
: would be that the Halos were fired and in doing so who ever fired them
: would have been wiped out; i.e. Forerunner. Now, I’m not saying that all
: of the Forerunner would have been wiped out; on the contrary, I’m saying
: that at least one Forerunner would have been killed. So, when 343GS says “
: Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it? ” which he
: eventually answers by saying that he would, should have been fully aware
: that if Halo had been fired once before, knowing what it’s for and what it
: does, that the Reclaimer would have been killed when it was first
: fired…unless anything housed within Halo remains unaffected by its firing.
: If that’s the case then it’s understandable why 343GS might mistake the MC
: for the Reclaimer that had previously fired Halo.
: - Boxer
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