How does Halo work?

[Pak]

"Even if the Flood were to run, the blast would inevitably catch up to them."

The problem is that with a radiation wave that isn't true. All the preceding paragraphs about slipspace are good arguments that slipspace doesn't interact with normal space. But if you are (like the flood) an intelligent menace capable of hiding in slipspace, normal radiation would just not be a problem. You could just hide in slipspace till the radiation passed. In fact the best strategy would be this:
Step 1: See oncoming radiation wave.
Step 2: Run 25,000 light years (or so) in front of it via slipspace.
Step 3: Hang out for 24,999 years.
Step 4: Return to origin area of the wave via slipspace.
Step 5: Take over planets that have had 25,000 years to regenerate.

What you need is something that has an effect on both slipspace and real space. Like the mini-halo from ILB, which shut down the chatter net, and sent a ftl signal.

The flood dosn't need to hide. They are not harmed by Halo.

It is possible the graveminds are harmed by halo. After all, halo eliminates life of sufficient biomass. A category which a gravemind extensibly falls into. The purpose of the Halos might not be to eliminate all flood, but to destroy their centralized intelligence and send them into a sort of dormancy.

[urk]

But if you are (like the flood) an intelligent menace capable of hiding in slipspace, normal radiation would just not be a problem. You could just hide in slipspace till the radiation passed. In fact the best strategy would be this:
Step 1: See oncoming radiation wave.
Step 2: Run 25,000 light years (or so) in front of it via slipspace.
Step 3: Hang out for 24,999 years.
Step 4: Return to origin area of the wave via slipspace.
Step 5: Take over planets that have had 25,000 years to regenerate.

Step 6: Starve to death.

You seem to have missed the most important point.

I think we are all being a little short-sighted here. Who knows what the Forerunner and their technology could do with Radium. It isn't limited by what we know of it and how we can deploy it today. They may have a method of speeding and amplifying it's effects.

[Pak]

But if you are (like the flood) an intelligent menace capable of hiding in slipspace, normal radiation would just not be a problem. You could just hide in slipspace till the radiation passed. In fact the best strategy would be this:
Step 1: See oncoming radiation wave.
Step 2: Run 25,000 light years (or so) in front of it via slipspace.
Step 3: Hang out for 24,999 years.
Step 4: Return to origin area of the wave via slipspace.
Step 5: Take over planets that have had 25,000 years to regenerate.

Step 6: Starve to death.

You seem to have missed the most important point.

I think we are all being a little short-sighted here. Who knows what the Forerunner and their technology could do with Radium. It isn't limited by what we know of it and how we can deploy it today. They may have a method of speeding and amplifying it's effects.

And for all we know, it may simply be a component in the firing mechanism. We reall don't know enough to draw any real conclusions about the Halo mechanism.

[urk]

And for all we know, it may simply be a component in the firing mechanism. We reall don't know enough to draw any real conclusions about the Halo mechanism.

Nope, we've only got spec. We can, however, rule out stuff like, "Hey, the Flood could just jump into slipstream and avoid the whole thing," because we know that they would return to an ecosystem that could not support them longterm.

That kind of logic leads me to believe that the Halo effect might not have to be something immediate, like a nuclear blast or a tidal wave, but rather something more like the Biblical Flood it references so liberally. Forty days and forty nights and all that.

[Dalthanas]

That kind of logic leads me to believe that the Halo effect might not have to be something immediate, like a nuclear blast or a tidal wave, but rather something more like the Biblical Flood it references so liberally. Forty days and forty nights and all that.

Just for the sake of saying it, many Biblical scholars approach measurements of time in the Old Testament with an open mind in attempts to make it match to scientific data now proven true.

So the 7 days it took to create Earth could really be millions of years, and it would seem to me that in terms of the wholesale destruction of life on a planet, these 40 days and nights could have been in fact a very long time. In short, given the lore we're dealing with, I agree. I think the halo effect, or at least its after effects, would be long lasting. This would give time for the Flood to starve without allowing life it could feed on near it, and then whoever could emerge from a shield world, ark, or what have you. Essentially riding out the flood.

As to why its referenced as 40 days and 40 nights, who knows, maybe the authour was an optimist? Whereas most people would say "GOD! It feels like we've been in here forever" s/he said, "Nah, it's only been like... 40 days or so."

[kulervo]

Okay, I see your point with step 6, but I think you have missed mine. I am not arguing that the flood did, or could have acted that way. I am suggesting that Halo and the forerunner plan (pyrrhic) must have accounted for that option by the flood. I am suggesting that a plan including FTL consequences was required.

We know that there is life capable of sustaining the flood now. We know there was life 100k ago, I was trying to point out that at STL speeds the flood would have been able to evade the blast, and find food in previously devastated areas 75k ago.

The forerunners would not have sacrificed everything they knew if they hadn't thought the plan through.

I do not have an opinion on how radium is used in the initiation of halo. I do not have theories on slipspace mechanics. What I am suggesting is that the "Halo destroys calcium stores in biomass at FTL rates" is the best theory we are going to get. (see my earlier comments). It appears to be consistent with what we know from canon.

Additionally: I have no opinion on how long it lasted. There appear to be many biblical tie-ins to the flood, forerunners, etc. On that topic I am not yet ready to spec.

[Dalthanas]

I am suggesting that Halo and the forerunner plan (pyrrhic) must have accounted for that option by the flood.

Pyrrhic is not the name of the plan, it is a description. A pyrrhic victory is one with devastating costs to the victor. Its a suggestion that when they set off the halo's they planned on going down with the flood.

[kulervo]

I am well aware that pyrrhic is an adjective. I did take roman history. I was merely trying to point out that the plan had a terrible cost, and was not likely conceived in haste.

[The_Hillmanater]

Hey I thought that the Halos weren't designed to destroy the Flood,
weren't they made to destroy their food (Humans, Covenant, Forerunner, and other sentient beings) that way they would starve to death, so wouldn't that mean that they are not effected
by the Halos radiation or whatever it uses in this process?

[Dalthanas]

I believe you are correct, making my statement about going down with the flood incorrect, rather they're going down TO stop the flood. I meant more that, as to my post just above, that after the halo's activate the Flood would be starved to death.