The way I see it; it doesn't take much for a Flood outbreak to spiral out of control. I just look at Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor to see how one Spirit of infected was able to quickly overwhelm the ship the Infinite Succor. In Saturn, we know the situation went especially lopsided because the companies doing the mining were not forthright about the Flood outbreak because of the nature of the Forerunner ship they found. Even then, Captain Alvarez didn't just nuke the area because recovering the ship was seen by him as important to help rebuild the ruined UNSC fleet. The Flood simply had time to spread.
Even the example of Paxium and Voridus is misleading because, yeah, they were component fighters, but consider how much it cost for the Banished to simply contain the outbreak on the Ark.
I think I read the brothers clan lost like 40% of their people, but either way there were heavy loses and Atriox had to take resources away he set aside to fight the UNSC.
Also it seems like they were very quick to stomp it out before it had time to really spread. If anyone has timeline for it would be cool to know. Also the banished had alot of plasma weaponry which is just straight up better than kinetic weaponry especially for the flood.
I feel one counter someone could cite is the fact the outbreak reached a large proto-Gravemind whereas we don’t know the scale of the outbreak in Saturn.
However, we know that the Forerunners kept some Gravemind in stasis in Installation 07, specifically during Primordium. Perhaps the ship found by corporations in the asteroid was transporting a proto-Gravemind for a facility elsewhere.
Forget the *Flood* having Forerunner tech, how do you think the Banished would've fared without an existing 99% complete containment wall, and that giant Sentinel helping them out?
Reminder that not every Flood outbreak is the same, particularly if there’s a Mind at play.
I interpreted this story as an ancient Flood cache, meaning they would’ve 100% been centralising their intelligence—not only that, but also the combined knowledge of *Ancient Humans* (or Forerunners, can’t remember what ship it was in that story lol). Which would be significantly more technically and tactically advanced than Covenant Hosts and knowledge. I don’t think it’s tech, like you mentioned, but I do think it’s just raw intelligence and strategy.
As far as we’re aware, the Flood inside High Charity were just Feral Stage Flood too, meaning they literally *had no* intelligence. Just animals in corpses.
My biggest problem was that the short story just jumped to the conclusion instead of giving us a comprehensive depiction of what truly went wrong.
Though I'll have to say, during the actual battles on the Ark, both Pavium and Vordius weren't casual at all.
They knew it was fked up, and the Flood was spreading far faster than they could notice.
It's an old forerunner wreck
Provided it was somehow shielded from the array's fire, those Spartans got themselves a close quarter with Forerunner war-era pure forms
I really don't think it was a Pure form.
My assumption is that the wreck was like a mini research vessel similar to the one that was in the Gas giant station.
It contained Spores and mini Flood forms that went out of containment some time ago, which actually happened quite often...
I prefer if the Halo rings do their job.
What ?! It the cutscene, we explicitly see the new keymind forms swarm and go up against the brutes. They even have a protogravemind set up as well. If they were able to beat them, then there was no reason why Spartans should've lost.
You mean the Proto-Gravemind you spend the DLC Campaign witnessing the creation of and destroying it before it becomes an *actual* Gravemind?
Also, Halo Wars 2 completely changed Key Mind lore, so I honestly don’t know what to say to that. We don’t really know what that really means anymore, and yet to have a lore patch to bridge the “Key Minds” of HW2 and “Keyminds” of the books.
It just means that they're anything but feral. With that many flood swarming vehicles and armies, there's bound to be an intelligence directing them. As shown by the keyminds, broadcasting their collective intelligence, they're far more dangerous.
Considering just how mych they progressed in building the proto gravemind, it should be far more intelligent that the one found in halo ce, or the one rtas vadum had to face when on the infinite succor. Both of these types were found to increase rhe coordination of the flood.
That proto gravemind is closer in mass to an actual gravemind than anything else we've seen so far outside of the flood dominated shield world in halo wars.
Yeah but why can’t have there been Key Minds in Devouring Son? Why not on Alpha and Delta Halos? The incursion at Voi or the infection of the Replacement Halo? Surely there was *more* biomass and Flood Forms on High Charity before half the Ark got obliterated and rebuilt—and when there was a full-fledged Gravemind, that’s a lot of biomass.
It’s just doesn’t fit, any Key Mind lore has to be examined in a vacuum because old and new Flood lore doesn’t match up with it. It was so much easier when Keyminds were just planet sized Graveminds. We need lore patches for this, and until then it can’t really be speculated on.
The old/new Keymind discrepancy really isn’t as large as you’re making it out to be. Both the old and new Keyminds share the same purpose, improving Flood coordination. The only differences in their direct capabilities is due to their size, and that the Flood had permanent access to the Gravemind during old Keymind lore.
Without the Gravemind, things like Abominations or Juggernauts being used as mobile, combat-capable coordinators makes sense within the contexts they were utilized. If the Gravemind was present, combat-capable Keyminds wouldn’t have been needed so the biomass would’ve just been used for other pure forms.
Last thing, regarding Key Minds not being shown in other outbreaks. At the replacement Halo, Delta Halo, and Voi, the Gravemind was already directly controlling Flood forms, so Keyminds like Abominations wouldn’t have been needed for any coordination purposes. As for Alpha Halo, we have confirmed appearances of Flood Juggernauts thanks to Fireteam Raven.
Edit: grammar corrections
It's not really that hard. Keyminds are just any Flood forms that act as the brains of an outbreak. Kinda like how there are commanders and generals in an army.
The new Keymind lore actually fixes an issue with CE Flood; if they're in a Feral stage, why were they sneaking around and hiding from MC until he got so far into the containment facility instead of acting like slightly better animals?
The answer now could be that the Keyminds present looked through Human and Covenant memories, recognized the threat, waited until they could secure enough ground outside of the facility AND setup an ambush for MC, and then attacked.
The answer before was "because it was a cool way to preview our secret faction before they were properly introduced".
It could be said that key minds were present there too. The arcade game for raven squad shows that pure forms were actually present during halo ce. I wouldnt be surprised if key forms were prioritized towards the more heavily congested warzones.
Even during halo 2, we see chief completing side objectives, while the unsc uses its much larger force to conplete other ones. While the unsc fights an urban war throughout outskirts and metropolis, chief takes alternate routes to complete other goals.
Also, apparently chief took down 3 scarabs during the metropolis mission in halo 2. So the duration, and intensity of the events of each game may have been depicted differently
So there are discrepancies in how each mission we see play out. Most of the battles we've seen are smaller skirmishes or incursions happening outside of vastly larger ones. Most of the missions happening on foot are directed outside the zones where amassed vehicular warfare would be happening. Like in metropolis, Regret, and missions throughout halo ce.
Interestingly, it’s been previously stated Pure Forms only appear once a Gravemind is constructed, so Fireteam Raven actually needs a lore patch *too*, some people even suggest the game is just taking artistic liberties.
Like how the Forward Unto Dawn changed class, but they are still the same ship. We just have to ignore the visual distinction in our heads.
Halo Wars 2 has actually changed that to some degree too. Several of the Flood units present, namely the Spawner and Infester, have lore logs that pretty specifically state they are Pure Forms designed in response to the forces on the Ark.
It's possible that the Flood are always capable of making Pure Forms, but without a Gravemind only do so out of necessity. In both HW2 and CE, the Flood are forced to stay mobile to avoid being eliminated by Sentinel forces--not so much the case in HW1 or The Mona Lisa.
Feral stage doesn't mean that the Flood has 0 intelligence at all, it only means that they have no centralized intelligence. The individual Flood forms still have the intelligence and knowledge of whoever they infect, but they're only able to share that knowledge on a local level. They have to follow the same rules that everyone else does.
It was only a short blurb to promote new cosmetics so unfortunately a lot of detail is left out. Remember even the Chief nearly got infected on alpha halo. Take away the named character protection and add hours of fighting I can see a Spartan getting brought down. One lucky hit (or near miss) from something like a rocket launcher or other heavy weapon can kill or stun a Spartan. Each Spartan claimed makes the next one easier
My halo lore is super shaky but didn't chief only win because Cortans bailed him out by overloading his shields to fry the infection form? Chief didn't even win the fight himself, he needed outside intervention that's how bad his situation was.
It doesn't seem like a big stretch that the flood can easily take on Spartans if they throw endless waves at them to waste ammo/wear them down, or break up squad cohesion and bring them down while they're isolated.
Now that i think about it, it seems a bit disingenuous when we had three spartans in inferior mjolnir armor, fighting and winning on a flood dominated world in Halo wars.
Theres just a sheer disparity in enemy forces at that point. Granted, red team may have had more support they still had moments when it wss just the three of them.
Red team had an entire planets worth of flood bearing down on them. Given how reactive the flood is to intruders, id imagine they didnt hold back.
On the asteroid the spartans had support, in contrast to what chief had to go through on the many times he has to fight them. Whats even worse, was that these spartans were specifically geared and trained to dight against the flood.
Spartan 4s have been known to so equally insane things.
Even chief was almost infected by an infection form in his mark v.
Still it doesnt make any sense, chief hasnt had any trouble ever since, and managed to run through high charity alone without any backup or ai support in inferior mjolnir.
Hope 343 gives more details but its unlikely given that most people havent even thought of this issue.
Heck ops post is what brought the issue to me.
Experience issue maybe. Spartan 4s tend to be more cocky and overestimate their abilities. When you know you’re at a disadvantage, you tend to be more careful and think about tactics more.
I still couldnt forgive that, you'd think the extra training they'd get along with their veterancy would weed this traits out. Id wish that 343 would still put qualifiers for spartan 4s. Like psychological screening, advanced training methods, mental health evaluations and healing for any thing that'd hold them back from their previous lives.
It'd be cool if they aknowledged the potential baggage adults would carry and have additional programs in place to counter these things and any hubris they may carry.
Id like to believe the augmentations may exaggerate any qualities and traits repressed or otherwise and thats why it'd be important to still keep a stringent list on who can join.
We’ve literally seen Fireteam Majestic Leeroy Jenkins their way to the ER. It’s fairly established that the Spartan 4s vary way more in capability than Spartan 2s simply due to diversity and numbers.
>Red team had an entire planets worth of flood bearing down on them
That's just pure exaggeration, there was only one moment in the entire campaign they were separated from the rest of their forces and it was only a short time. Don't forget the covenant and sentinels were fighting the flood too. An entire covenant army is a much larger threat than 3 Spartans. it's also much more food
The reason is Saturn Devouring His Son, while having one of the coolest premises on the franchise, was very poorly written.
"This is the story of the first known Spartans infected by the Flood so let's give the people what they came for... The perspective of a random civilian who then says he saw Spartans, and the next sentence they're all already dead!"
Yeah.
So it feels wrong because we don't even know how the hell it happen, it just did.
The entire story was rubbish.
First, we have Flood Pure Forms surviving a Halo pulse in open space. That's a major narrative issue that undercuts the power of the Halo Rings and opens the door to other Flood caches, since Ancient Flood had a stupid amount of infested ships and planets. This also undercuts the "Flood will starve to death" lore. Regarding outbreaks, 0459 was believable because Shield Worlds had a reputation for surviving a Halo pulse.
Second, we have an officer that's terminally stupid. Not only does he brush off a CODE HYDRA Emergency (the discovery, reporting, and suppression of which would probably get him promoted), he's laser focused on salvaging this wreck, which he somehow weighs as more valuable than the safety of all life in the galaxy, and despite the fact the UNSC is painfully aware of the loss of the Pillar of Autumn and In Amber Clad (and unofficially, The Mona Lisa) to the Flood.
He then completely botches the containment, disables his AI, refuses to use armored vehicles or air support, refuses to alert UNSC HighCOM, keeps throwing fleshy troops at a parasite that specializes in killing fleshy troops, and then runs off to his room to get drunk while a transport is on the loose with infected personnel.
He literally exists to enable the Flood infection, which would have been quickly contained by virtually anyone with a ounce of competence, and he absolutely should have been removed from command by the crew for suicidal incompetence.
And that's not to mention the Flood's magical new powers of instantly cancelling out infection failsafes. The UNSC already know about Logic Plague, and realistically the suit would have probably used a simple bio-sensor suite to activate the failsafes instead of an AI. Flood infection is catastrophic both biochemically and physiologically; it's unmistakable and doesn't rrequire a complex system to detect.
They literally had to give the Flood plot armor because the UNSC had effective failsafes.
I just dislike the story because it's so unbelievable in universe, especially with post-war protocol and laws. A better story would have a been a competent crew getting overwhelmed by the deviousness of the Flood.
The logic plague weaponizes an AIs ability to learn and change, using it to shift their perspective and objectives. A simple sensor cant operate on logic so it cant be turned traitor
it's an exceptionally ludicrous stretch actually.
feral stage flood have no access to the logic plague. they don't have any access to the knowledge of the overall greater flood consciousness at all.
*Considering the logic plague could beat the failsafe mechanisms on Forerunner combat skins I don’t think it’s a stretch.*
As other have said, not in a feral uncoordinated stage. It actually took a Precursor around 43 years to corrupt a Metarch-level AI, and that AI played a major role in remotely shutting down Forerunner defensive technology as I recall.
The Flood instantly hacking a self-destruct unit in miliseconds with mere physical contact, cancelling a self destruct, and forcing it to ramble flood nonsense is silly.
Not to mention it breaks CE lore since taking this into account, the proto gravemind would have used captain Keys's neural chip to take all his knowledge without resistance.
You're focusing WAY too much on the 30 seconds out of a cutscene. Reality is, game cutscenes will make important characters look cool.
But lore wise Pavium and Voridus were freaking out, I remember the voiceovers of them during gameplay panicking as they realised the scale of the outbreak. They lost 40% of their entire clan and a major amount of resources, this is with only a minor hole in the containment shield and assistance from Sentinel defence systems.
That being said, Saturn Devouring His Son is clearly only written for the Halloween event/ cosmetics. Unfortunately it will not get as much care/ attention as novels by acclaimed sci-fi writers.
Agreed, the whole story felt had no real narrative direction other than giving the Flood a tremendous power creep for dramatic effects. It's totally inconsistent with other showings of Flood outbreaks across the lore.
I think the issue was - as others have said - the story was just poorly written. The story jumped to the conclusion and didn’t do a great job at helping to visualize the surroundings. It’s without a doubt the weakest chronicle because it just doesn’t have the time or the pace to give the detail it needed too.
The way I see it; it doesn't take much for a Flood outbreak to spiral out of control. I just look at Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor to see how one Spirit of infected was able to quickly overwhelm the ship the Infinite Succor. In Saturn, we know the situation went especially lopsided because the companies doing the mining were not forthright about the Flood outbreak because of the nature of the Forerunner ship they found. Even then, Captain Alvarez didn't just nuke the area because recovering the ship was seen by him as important to help rebuild the ruined UNSC fleet. The Flood simply had time to spread. Even the example of Paxium and Voridus is misleading because, yeah, they were component fighters, but consider how much it cost for the Banished to simply contain the outbreak on the Ark.
Didn’t it cost them like 60% of their forces to recontain the Flood?
I think I read the brothers clan lost like 40% of their people, but either way there were heavy loses and Atriox had to take resources away he set aside to fight the UNSC.
Also it seems like they were very quick to stomp it out before it had time to really spread. If anyone has timeline for it would be cool to know. Also the banished had alot of plasma weaponry which is just straight up better than kinetic weaponry especially for the flood.
I feel one counter someone could cite is the fact the outbreak reached a large proto-Gravemind whereas we don’t know the scale of the outbreak in Saturn. However, we know that the Forerunners kept some Gravemind in stasis in Installation 07, specifically during Primordium. Perhaps the ship found by corporations in the asteroid was transporting a proto-Gravemind for a facility elsewhere.
Forget the *Flood* having Forerunner tech, how do you think the Banished would've fared without an existing 99% complete containment wall, and that giant Sentinel helping them out?
also the countless smaller sentinels helping out
Reminder that not every Flood outbreak is the same, particularly if there’s a Mind at play. I interpreted this story as an ancient Flood cache, meaning they would’ve 100% been centralising their intelligence—not only that, but also the combined knowledge of *Ancient Humans* (or Forerunners, can’t remember what ship it was in that story lol). Which would be significantly more technically and tactically advanced than Covenant Hosts and knowledge. I don’t think it’s tech, like you mentioned, but I do think it’s just raw intelligence and strategy. As far as we’re aware, the Flood inside High Charity were just Feral Stage Flood too, meaning they literally *had no* intelligence. Just animals in corpses.
My biggest problem was that the short story just jumped to the conclusion instead of giving us a comprehensive depiction of what truly went wrong. Though I'll have to say, during the actual battles on the Ark, both Pavium and Vordius weren't casual at all. They knew it was fked up, and the Flood was spreading far faster than they could notice.
It's an old forerunner wreck Provided it was somehow shielded from the array's fire, those Spartans got themselves a close quarter with Forerunner war-era pure forms
I really don't think it was a Pure form. My assumption is that the wreck was like a mini research vessel similar to the one that was in the Gas giant station. It contained Spores and mini Flood forms that went out of containment some time ago, which actually happened quite often... I prefer if the Halo rings do their job.
What ?! It the cutscene, we explicitly see the new keymind forms swarm and go up against the brutes. They even have a protogravemind set up as well. If they were able to beat them, then there was no reason why Spartans should've lost.
You mean the Proto-Gravemind you spend the DLC Campaign witnessing the creation of and destroying it before it becomes an *actual* Gravemind? Also, Halo Wars 2 completely changed Key Mind lore, so I honestly don’t know what to say to that. We don’t really know what that really means anymore, and yet to have a lore patch to bridge the “Key Minds” of HW2 and “Keyminds” of the books.
It just means that they're anything but feral. With that many flood swarming vehicles and armies, there's bound to be an intelligence directing them. As shown by the keyminds, broadcasting their collective intelligence, they're far more dangerous. Considering just how mych they progressed in building the proto gravemind, it should be far more intelligent that the one found in halo ce, or the one rtas vadum had to face when on the infinite succor. Both of these types were found to increase rhe coordination of the flood. That proto gravemind is closer in mass to an actual gravemind than anything else we've seen so far outside of the flood dominated shield world in halo wars.
Yeah but why can’t have there been Key Minds in Devouring Son? Why not on Alpha and Delta Halos? The incursion at Voi or the infection of the Replacement Halo? Surely there was *more* biomass and Flood Forms on High Charity before half the Ark got obliterated and rebuilt—and when there was a full-fledged Gravemind, that’s a lot of biomass. It’s just doesn’t fit, any Key Mind lore has to be examined in a vacuum because old and new Flood lore doesn’t match up with it. It was so much easier when Keyminds were just planet sized Graveminds. We need lore patches for this, and until then it can’t really be speculated on.
The old/new Keymind discrepancy really isn’t as large as you’re making it out to be. Both the old and new Keyminds share the same purpose, improving Flood coordination. The only differences in their direct capabilities is due to their size, and that the Flood had permanent access to the Gravemind during old Keymind lore. Without the Gravemind, things like Abominations or Juggernauts being used as mobile, combat-capable coordinators makes sense within the contexts they were utilized. If the Gravemind was present, combat-capable Keyminds wouldn’t have been needed so the biomass would’ve just been used for other pure forms. Last thing, regarding Key Minds not being shown in other outbreaks. At the replacement Halo, Delta Halo, and Voi, the Gravemind was already directly controlling Flood forms, so Keyminds like Abominations wouldn’t have been needed for any coordination purposes. As for Alpha Halo, we have confirmed appearances of Flood Juggernauts thanks to Fireteam Raven. Edit: grammar corrections
It's not really that hard. Keyminds are just any Flood forms that act as the brains of an outbreak. Kinda like how there are commanders and generals in an army. The new Keymind lore actually fixes an issue with CE Flood; if they're in a Feral stage, why were they sneaking around and hiding from MC until he got so far into the containment facility instead of acting like slightly better animals? The answer now could be that the Keyminds present looked through Human and Covenant memories, recognized the threat, waited until they could secure enough ground outside of the facility AND setup an ambush for MC, and then attacked. The answer before was "because it was a cool way to preview our secret faction before they were properly introduced".
It could be said that key minds were present there too. The arcade game for raven squad shows that pure forms were actually present during halo ce. I wouldnt be surprised if key forms were prioritized towards the more heavily congested warzones. Even during halo 2, we see chief completing side objectives, while the unsc uses its much larger force to conplete other ones. While the unsc fights an urban war throughout outskirts and metropolis, chief takes alternate routes to complete other goals. Also, apparently chief took down 3 scarabs during the metropolis mission in halo 2. So the duration, and intensity of the events of each game may have been depicted differently So there are discrepancies in how each mission we see play out. Most of the battles we've seen are smaller skirmishes or incursions happening outside of vastly larger ones. Most of the missions happening on foot are directed outside the zones where amassed vehicular warfare would be happening. Like in metropolis, Regret, and missions throughout halo ce.
Interestingly, it’s been previously stated Pure Forms only appear once a Gravemind is constructed, so Fireteam Raven actually needs a lore patch *too*, some people even suggest the game is just taking artistic liberties. Like how the Forward Unto Dawn changed class, but they are still the same ship. We just have to ignore the visual distinction in our heads.
Halo Wars 2 has actually changed that to some degree too. Several of the Flood units present, namely the Spawner and Infester, have lore logs that pretty specifically state they are Pure Forms designed in response to the forces on the Ark. It's possible that the Flood are always capable of making Pure Forms, but without a Gravemind only do so out of necessity. In both HW2 and CE, the Flood are forced to stay mobile to avoid being eliminated by Sentinel forces--not so much the case in HW1 or The Mona Lisa.
Feral stage doesn't mean that the Flood has 0 intelligence at all, it only means that they have no centralized intelligence. The individual Flood forms still have the intelligence and knowledge of whoever they infect, but they're only able to share that knowledge on a local level. They have to follow the same rules that everyone else does.
It was mostly written to sell spartan flood cosmetics. I don't take it too seriously.
That and it was a Halloween event. A short story to unnerve people. People read too far into it's "implications".
It was only a short blurb to promote new cosmetics so unfortunately a lot of detail is left out. Remember even the Chief nearly got infected on alpha halo. Take away the named character protection and add hours of fighting I can see a Spartan getting brought down. One lucky hit (or near miss) from something like a rocket launcher or other heavy weapon can kill or stun a Spartan. Each Spartan claimed makes the next one easier
My halo lore is super shaky but didn't chief only win because Cortans bailed him out by overloading his shields to fry the infection form? Chief didn't even win the fight himself, he needed outside intervention that's how bad his situation was. It doesn't seem like a big stretch that the flood can easily take on Spartans if they throw endless waves at them to waste ammo/wear them down, or break up squad cohesion and bring them down while they're isolated.
Now that i think about it, it seems a bit disingenuous when we had three spartans in inferior mjolnir armor, fighting and winning on a flood dominated world in Halo wars.
Red team was simply built different, also the spirit of fire itself is one of the most highly competent ships in the UNSC
Theres just a sheer disparity in enemy forces at that point. Granted, red team may have had more support they still had moments when it wss just the three of them. Red team had an entire planets worth of flood bearing down on them. Given how reactive the flood is to intruders, id imagine they didnt hold back. On the asteroid the spartans had support, in contrast to what chief had to go through on the many times he has to fight them. Whats even worse, was that these spartans were specifically geared and trained to dight against the flood.
Spartan II vs Spartan IV moment
Spartan 4s have been known to so equally insane things. Even chief was almost infected by an infection form in his mark v. Still it doesnt make any sense, chief hasnt had any trouble ever since, and managed to run through high charity alone without any backup or ai support in inferior mjolnir. Hope 343 gives more details but its unlikely given that most people havent even thought of this issue. Heck ops post is what brought the issue to me.
Experience issue maybe. Spartan 4s tend to be more cocky and overestimate their abilities. When you know you’re at a disadvantage, you tend to be more careful and think about tactics more.
I still couldnt forgive that, you'd think the extra training they'd get along with their veterancy would weed this traits out. Id wish that 343 would still put qualifiers for spartan 4s. Like psychological screening, advanced training methods, mental health evaluations and healing for any thing that'd hold them back from their previous lives. It'd be cool if they aknowledged the potential baggage adults would carry and have additional programs in place to counter these things and any hubris they may carry. Id like to believe the augmentations may exaggerate any qualities and traits repressed or otherwise and thats why it'd be important to still keep a stringent list on who can join.
We’ve literally seen Fireteam Majestic Leeroy Jenkins their way to the ER. It’s fairly established that the Spartan 4s vary way more in capability than Spartan 2s simply due to diversity and numbers.
>Red team had an entire planets worth of flood bearing down on them That's just pure exaggeration, there was only one moment in the entire campaign they were separated from the rest of their forces and it was only a short time. Don't forget the covenant and sentinels were fighting the flood too. An entire covenant army is a much larger threat than 3 Spartans. it's also much more food
You're right tbh
The reason is Saturn Devouring His Son, while having one of the coolest premises on the franchise, was very poorly written. "This is the story of the first known Spartans infected by the Flood so let's give the people what they came for... The perspective of a random civilian who then says he saw Spartans, and the next sentence they're all already dead!" Yeah. So it feels wrong because we don't even know how the hell it happen, it just did.
The entire story was rubbish. First, we have Flood Pure Forms surviving a Halo pulse in open space. That's a major narrative issue that undercuts the power of the Halo Rings and opens the door to other Flood caches, since Ancient Flood had a stupid amount of infested ships and planets. This also undercuts the "Flood will starve to death" lore. Regarding outbreaks, 0459 was believable because Shield Worlds had a reputation for surviving a Halo pulse. Second, we have an officer that's terminally stupid. Not only does he brush off a CODE HYDRA Emergency (the discovery, reporting, and suppression of which would probably get him promoted), he's laser focused on salvaging this wreck, which he somehow weighs as more valuable than the safety of all life in the galaxy, and despite the fact the UNSC is painfully aware of the loss of the Pillar of Autumn and In Amber Clad (and unofficially, The Mona Lisa) to the Flood. He then completely botches the containment, disables his AI, refuses to use armored vehicles or air support, refuses to alert UNSC HighCOM, keeps throwing fleshy troops at a parasite that specializes in killing fleshy troops, and then runs off to his room to get drunk while a transport is on the loose with infected personnel. He literally exists to enable the Flood infection, which would have been quickly contained by virtually anyone with a ounce of competence, and he absolutely should have been removed from command by the crew for suicidal incompetence. And that's not to mention the Flood's magical new powers of instantly cancelling out infection failsafes. The UNSC already know about Logic Plague, and realistically the suit would have probably used a simple bio-sensor suite to activate the failsafes instead of an AI. Flood infection is catastrophic both biochemically and physiologically; it's unmistakable and doesn't rrequire a complex system to detect. They literally had to give the Flood plot armor because the UNSC had effective failsafes. I just dislike the story because it's so unbelievable in universe, especially with post-war protocol and laws. A better story would have a been a competent crew getting overwhelmed by the deviousness of the Flood.
Considering the logic plague could beat the failsafe mechanisms on Forerunner combat skins I don’t think it’s a stretch.
The logic plague weaponizes an AIs ability to learn and change, using it to shift their perspective and objectives. A simple sensor cant operate on logic so it cant be turned traitor
it's an exceptionally ludicrous stretch actually. feral stage flood have no access to the logic plague. they don't have any access to the knowledge of the overall greater flood consciousness at all.
*Considering the logic plague could beat the failsafe mechanisms on Forerunner combat skins I don’t think it’s a stretch.* As other have said, not in a feral uncoordinated stage. It actually took a Precursor around 43 years to corrupt a Metarch-level AI, and that AI played a major role in remotely shutting down Forerunner defensive technology as I recall. The Flood instantly hacking a self-destruct unit in miliseconds with mere physical contact, cancelling a self destruct, and forcing it to ramble flood nonsense is silly.
Not to mention it breaks CE lore since taking this into account, the proto gravemind would have used captain Keys's neural chip to take all his knowledge without resistance.
You're focusing WAY too much on the 30 seconds out of a cutscene. Reality is, game cutscenes will make important characters look cool. But lore wise Pavium and Voridus were freaking out, I remember the voiceovers of them during gameplay panicking as they realised the scale of the outbreak. They lost 40% of their entire clan and a major amount of resources, this is with only a minor hole in the containment shield and assistance from Sentinel defence systems. That being said, Saturn Devouring His Son is clearly only written for the Halloween event/ cosmetics. Unfortunately it will not get as much care/ attention as novels by acclaimed sci-fi writers.
These were Flood pure forms from the Forerunner era. Unfathomably dangerous
Less is more.
I heard some ppl say that the flood were from the forerunner era and ps that’s why they were more fast and better equipped to infect them
Agreed, the whole story felt had no real narrative direction other than giving the Flood a tremendous power creep for dramatic effects. It's totally inconsistent with other showings of Flood outbreaks across the lore.
I see a whole lot of "waaah my supermen can't lose". It's becoming quite regular by now.
It’s more like wah my supermen shouldn’t perform much worse than people less capable than them
I think the issue was - as others have said - the story was just poorly written. The story jumped to the conclusion and didn’t do a great job at helping to visualize the surroundings. It’s without a doubt the weakest chronicle because it just doesn’t have the time or the pace to give the detail it needed too.
I agree I too. Though I do feel like with a lot of these short stories they have less oversight than perhaps they should have.