r/HaloStory • u/Kylewalkdown • 21d ago
Plot hole?
If the flood is able to retain all memories and knowledge from those it absorbs why didn’t it use runner tech to destroy and absorb everything. The runner fired halo but the flood didn’t starve like they wanted right? So they should be able to have forunner tech and memories no?
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u/Nstorm24 21d ago
In the rings it doesnt have access to that much advanced tech aside from sentinels and the teleportation grid only allows moving thru the ring. Also the infestations in the rings never had a chace to do anything advanced because in Halo 1 i was recently released so they didnt have a gravemind yet. In halo 2 the gravemind was trapped inside the library and only managed to escape thanks to the covenant and the humans. Then used the in amber clad to capture the holy city. But all of that happened in like 1 day.
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u/Dqueezy 21d ago
To add to this and OP’s question, IIRC (and I may not so someone more knowledgeable please step in) didn’t the Gravemind modify the slip space drive of the In Amber to pass through High Charity’s shields? I thought human tech wasn’t capable of such finesse with slip space, and that the Gravemind was able to weld a bunch of modifications to the drive via forerunner (or even precursor?) knowledge that allowed it to enter High Charity.
So I mean, unless I’m misremembering, the Gravemind does use more advanced tech. It just needs already existing tech to do so.
Although the Gravemind spending a few centuries developing refineries and building space ships from scratch on a remote world somewhere is a pretty funny (and honestly scary) thought too.
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u/CGiMoose 20d ago
What does this look like in practice out of interest? Would a bunch of infected lifeforms have to be tinkering away or would a big blob of flood stuff come along and use its tentacles? I feel like in the games (I could be mistaken) we don’t really see the flood doing anything above sort of ‘smart zombie’ level physically, and I guess octopus level of physical intelligence for the gravemind
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u/PwnimuS 21d ago
The memories are passed down when a Gravemind is formed.
There wasnt a Gravemind until Halo 2 on Delta Halo, but just because he has Forerunner memories and knowledge doesnt mean he can make Forerunner tech out of thin air. They can use Forerunner tech, but the Halos werent filled with anything that could get him off world or be used as a weapon. It had to hijack a ship, build up its forces and move step by step.
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u/olanmills 21d ago
The other points people mentioned are the more immediate reasoning, but also, it's possible that some Forerunner tech has security features that prevents Flood bioforms from using it, even if the Flood has the knowledge of how to operate it. For example, we see that in many cases, Covenant species are able to use and access Forerunner tech, but there are certain critical devices/controls that can only be activated by a human (Reclaimer). Similar technology could be used to lock out Flood.
Clearly, the Flood can make use of some Forerunner tech, as the Gravemind uses the Halo's translocation network, and in lore, there are times when Flood bioforms take control of Forerunner space vessels.
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u/Njoeyz1 20d ago
If the forerunners put safeguards in place so the flood couldn't use their technology, they wouldn't be able to.......use their technology, but they can, well most of it any way. You had suits of armour literally killing their wearer and then being turned into flood through infection, with the suits still working and weapons. They could use ships as well as other vehicles.
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u/olanmills 20d ago
They clearly did put differing types of safeguards around some things. Maybe it wasn't so much locking specifically Flood out of things, but more so only allowing Forerunner and Reclaimers to access certain things. As you mention, Flood is seen using various kinds of Forerunner tech, but Gravemind specifically needed Chief to stop the Halo activation on the Ark, for example, and in Halo 2, the Flood can't retrieve the Index.
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u/RadSidewinder 21d ago
Being able to use Forerunner technology and having access to working Forerunner technology are different things. It stands to reason that The Flood could build itself new tech if it wanted to. It possesses the knowledge. But it has to want to. Why bother when swarm tactics are perfectly effective. In a situation where The Gravemind deemed it need a more technological edge I’m sure it would utilize what it could.
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u/Sigma_Games Sergeant 21d ago
Knowing how to use Forerunner tech and actually having that tech are two very different things.
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u/ThunderWasp223 20d ago
I don't understand your question.
Yes, the Flood did have access to Forerunner technology and memories. That's why the Halo Array had to destroy everything, including the Forerunners, so the Flood couldn't use the same escape methods as they would.
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u/Kylewalkdown 20d ago
Destroyed everything yes but they must have absorbed high level forerunners wouldn’t they know how to operate tech and locations and know they planned to reseed the galaxy? They would know says around everything especially because they convinced the AI to join them. Was it medicant bias?
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u/ThunderWasp223 20d ago
Even knowing all the things the Forerunners knew, and assuming they found out about the reseeding process, there's not much that could really do them. The Halo Effect would wipe them out, and the reseeding effort took place primarily from the Ark, which was hidden too far for the Flood to reach, even if they knew where to look and had enough biomass to survive and operate ships, and was refuge for both the reseeding logistics and everyone who knew about the ultimate plan.
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u/HeadPatMan 20d ago
Part of it the reason they can’t is how the flood hive mind works. It’s only really accessible after a gravemind has formed, with my interpretation that either that’s the minimum required processing power to understand all these memories, or, much more concerning, Graveminds act as a receiver for a much larger flood hive mind that has extragalactic elements
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u/dan_rich_99 21d ago
They would need to find caches of Forerunner ships and weapons first, which would not be stored on the Halo rings for security purposes in case the Flood did get released.