But didn't the Flood take over a ship in H2? If you walk in it, organic "stuff" is creeping up out of the floorboards.

Now, for AI, I dunno, but something is obviously wrong with Cortana after meeting up w/ GM.

there is a delicate line between "taking over" machines and "interfacing directly" with them.

I (really want to) agree, but what strongly supports the other view (that GM can interface directly) is his relationship to 2401 pt. Why the hell wouldn't the monitor of delta 05 teleport away, tentacle holding him or not? Why is he so agreeable in the face of the flood overmind? And how does GM use the teleportation grid anyway?

yes in a way penitent tangent seemed to be oblivious to his enslavement to Gravemind.

Yes but he was still assimilated and absorbed by the Gravemind a few seconds after we saw him. I think Gravemind can pretty much fuse with anything and increase his knowledge with it, just like a Flood Brain form. That's why I still think he's just a highly evolved Brain form.

I'm curious as to how GM took over Regret, especially considering two things: 1) The player, as Master Chief kills Regret, with his bare hands...okay bare gauntlets. 2) Even if Regret was barely alive after the beating by Master Chief, he would've been vaporized along with any Covenant still remaining in the temple when the ship opened fire. So, how did he live? Was he dying and somehow escaped the blast then a Flood Infection form took him over thereby "saving" Regret's life and then he was assimilated into GM? (Hmm seems kinda Borg from Star Trek...)

That seems to be the case, if you notice that Regret was very green when we saw him with Gravemind, that would be the pigmentational effects of the Infection form on living tissue. So I'm guessing that'd about right.

It's a good question. Remember that in the HGN the 'new' gravemind/brainform thing was formed from lots of dead bodies gathered together (like what would have happened to the bodies Cortana remarked on in level 9 of H:CE), so maybe GM's able to assimilate knowledge or some form of animation from even dead bodies? Who knows? It is a mystery.

Yeah, who ever says the Prophet WAS alive?

If you think about it this way, a Flood infection form can control all movement through tentacled that are inserted into the victim's spinal cord and muscles, if a flood can control movement, what's to say it can't control speech? What if the Prophet was dead and was just being used as a puppet for the Gravemind? In the same way he could've used 2401 Penitent Tangent as a puppet. By putting on this cherade he could tell Master Chief, Cortana and the Arbiter anything he wanted and they would blindly believe it.

Then... could there be another use for the Halos? Why else would Gravemind want to stop the firing sequence?

Okay, I've been giving it thought and I'm sure that something similar has been posted on the topic (if not here than on the Halo Story Page). DISCLAIMER: I have very little evidence to support this theory, it was mostly thought up because of several quotes from Joe Staten:





I believe that the Flood is a creation by the Forerunners. What initially led me to that conclusion was Joe's choice of words, specifically "The Flood was the Forerunner's undoing..." "Undoing?" sounds like they brought the Flood upon themselves, which leads into my theory.

The Forerunners being such an advanced race had grown large and powerful. Perhaps, they were powerful enough to think themselves gods, after all they first gave machines life, as evidence by the eons old Sentinels and Monitors. Perhaps, the even tried to modify their genes, and made themselves perfect. Perfect, except that the were still mortal, still chained to their existence until it ended. Hence, their "damn good reason." They decided to either create or modify a symbotic organism, so that their relationship with it could pronlong their life. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Perhaps, at first the Forerunners willingly submitted themselves to the symbiote, unaware of any danger. But the symbiote also took gained from the relationship, the knowledge of the original being, and it found it wanted more. Perhaps, the symbiote realized that it could control the host, in minute ways first, then it began to escalate until it controlled the host entirely. That's about where it mutated, or evolved. It began to consume the Forerunners, and their knowledge, and anything and everything in its path, hence the the name Flood.

Like Icarus, the Forerunners fell and they tried desparately to take the symbiote now parasite with them. At the beginning of the level with the same title, Gravemind tells us, "[he is] a monument, to all [our] sins." What "sins"? The sin of trying to be god(s)? The blood on the hands of the decedents of the Forerunners (us)? Hmm, I seem to have drifted off-topic, but I think that about wraps it up. Someone want to get the flak guns ready and fill this full of holes?