Drawingman818 wrote:
Actually, I think flood forms CAN infect dead bodies.
Three things:
1) If the flood needed to keep their victims alive to infect them, why is there a combat form? Why start killing things when it prevents you from infecting them?
2) Infection forms can bring dead combat forms back to life.
3) Play the level "The Oracle" in Halo 2. In the beginning of the level there is a big elevator that you take down to a laboratory. There's a hallway full of dead bodies, and if you still have an ally left, it says something like:
"We should have brought weapons to burn these bodies, Arbiter. Every one is a potential host for the flood."
All valid counterpoints. Now if you allow me to riposte.
1) The combat form can be seen as a means to procure more lifeforms by subduing them. Note that Combat forms like to get in close, and melee the target, thereby rendering it unconscious and prime for the assimilation. Also, the Combat forms can provide a distraction, while the Infection forms attack from weird angles.
2) They can only bring recently dead Combat forms back. And if the body has been mutilated (more than what the Flood did to it) then the Infection form is of little use.
3) Again I believe it to be applicable to only recently deceased bodies, though the Flood may yet have use for the bodies, if they are too far gone to reanimate, possibly as incubators or as nutrition. EDIT: Perhaps the Covenant knows more than we do, after all, they've had run ins with the parasite before now. EDIT #2: The quote used is "Vessels for the Flood" which seems to support my claim as a possible use as incubabtors of Infection forms, or perhaps they are used as part of the atmosphere altering process.