Flood

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The Flood were an adaptive parasitic race discovered by the Forerunners  thousands of years ago.

[edit] History

The Flood, an extra-galactic threat in fact, proved to be hostile when encountered by the Forerunners, and a war soon broke out between the two factions. After the war had dragged on for quite some time, the decision was reached that the Forerunners could not stop the Flood, so the Halo Installations were built. The purpose of the Halo Installations was to eliminate all life in the galaxy with sufficient bio-mass to sustain the Flood, at the same time killing Flood within the blast radius as well. These rings also doubled as containment facilities meant to research and study the Flood's behavioral patterns, anatomy and physiology, etc. The Flood began to develop a Hivemind, eventually forming the Gravemind entity; it was the combined mind of the Flood. Gravemind represented the Flood race as a whole, and was near omniscient; all those who fell to the Flood gave away their intelligence to the Gravemind. Eventually, the Flood broke loose and the Forerunners were forced to activate the Halos, killing themselves in the proccess. However, the Forerunners left all that they had for the Humans to inherit.

The Flood were supposedly defeated at the Second Battle of Earth, as the Gravemind was destroyed, however it is highly unlikely that they were permanently destroyed, as the Flood are capable of rebuilding the Gravemind, and the Gravemind cannot truly "die" unless the Flood all die as a whole.

[edit] Flood Forms

 The Flood life cycle begins with Flood spores which float through the air until they land on any type of biological material. They use this biological material to grow and expand themselves into Flood forms known as Flood growth pods.

Flood growth pods are large masses of flood biomass that are roughly a meter or larger in size. They create and contain Flood spores and Infection forms that gestate within the Flood growth pod until it reaches full capacity or it senses a suitable host neaby where then it releases its deadly contents.

Infection Form; these relatively small, grotesque balloon-like creatures are very fragile, however still represent a threat in large numbers.The Infection Form will burrow into the body of a host, using its tentacles to tap into the hosts spianal cord and gain control of its neural pathways. After it gains control of the host body, it will begin to mutate it to suit its needs. The Infection Form from then on resides in the host body's chest but can still leave te host body if it becomes too damaged.

The next form is the Combat Form. These zombie-like creatures are the result of a successful Flood infection. They are intelligent enough to utilize weapons, and drive basic vehicles such as tanks, warthogs, and banshees. However, they are also able to attack via tentacles created by the Infection Form within. The host's head is generally partly severed, with sensory stalks protruding from the neck-hole. Once a Combat Form sustains too much damage to be used in combat, or reaches a cretain age , it will further mutate into a Carrier form.

The final form of the basic Flood life-cycle is the Carrier Form. They are large, bloated creatures with a small lower torso and two long tentacles protruding from their blown-up upper torso. At this stage, there is little to no resemblance at all to the original Combat Form. Within their bloated upper torso they carry varying numbers of Infection Forms (Halo 1:3-4, Halo 2:5-7, Halo 3:10-11), and they will explode on contact with suitable hosts which they will actively seek out. Like Infection Forms, they are very fragile. Carrier Forms are created when a Combat Form is unfit for combat, or if the original host was unfit to become a Combat Form, or if the Cobat Form becomes too old.

Pure Forms, like the Infection Forms, are not infected hosts. Pure Forms' bodies are unable to be destroyed after death, being recompiled bones and other hard materials, rather than rotting flesh and broken bones like Combat Forms. However, Pure Forms are unable to "return from the dead."

• The base form of this group is the Stalker; a quadrapedal Flood creature that is very agile, and deadly. It is apparent that a Stalker will mutate into either a Ranged Form or a Tank Form.
• Tank Forms are strong, large, and extremely durable forms. They also have the ability to talk, although it is the Gravemind who talks through them, not the Forms themselves. They are very powerful, able to rip a Human apart easily.
• Ranged Forms are another mutation of the Stalker form. They are able to shoot missiles as a distance, made from battlefield deitrus such as bones, metal, and other materials on the ground.

Brain Forms, more accurately known as Proto-Graveminds, are conglomerates of various bodies of fallen Combat Forms and corpses of enemies, however, require bodies of intelligent beings. These forms are used to pilot sophisticated vehicles such as ships and pelicans. In addition, they are able to command groups of Flood. The Brain Forms resemble large bloated sacs, with tentacles attached to various computer terminals, etc.

Graveminds are the next step of Brain Forms. They are the most intelligent of all the Flood, each representing the Flood. They contain billions upon billions of corpses of slain foes or infected creatures, and are all near omniscient. They known Gravemind took a form that resembled a large venus flytrap-like plant, even being referred to by the Bungie team as "The Plant Thing". They are able to speak, and possess countless numbers of tentacles, which a Gravemind is allegedly supposed to shed often.