Talk:Flood Combat Form
From Halopedia, the Halo Wiki
When a female Marine is infected, will she look like a male human Combat Form? BPL 01:25, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
gee, being converted into a combat form sounds painful...LOLMAN180
[edit] Lesser Infections
In a discussion with Specops306, I mentioned the issue of Flood infection of Grunts and Jackals, and looking at one of the books, I found something interesting, which when looked at carefully, considerably undermines the past assumption that these two species weren't used by the Flood beyond biomass.
As far back as Halo: The Flood, there are two passages that state something very interesting about the Flood's usage of Grunts and Jackals:
""We suspect that Grunts and Jackals are deemed too small for first-class combat material, and are therefore used as a sort of nucleus around which carrier forms can grow (pg.271).""
While this quote makes it seem that Grunts and Jackals aren't used beyond that of biomass and as incubators, it does mention something very interesting. Lt. McKay suggests that Grunts and Jackals are used as a kind of "nucleus" around which a carrier grows and forms around, as if the infected being has to be augmented in some way to become a Carrier Form. This suggests that Grunts and Jackals are in fact readily infectable by the Flood, and are later augmented in some way to become Carrier Forms.
Presumably, before that happens, the infected being is in a sort of limbo state, with an attached infection form and presumably some altered biomass prior to becoming a Carrier Form. And surprisingly, the book shows that even Jackals will be taken as hosts, and presumably Grunts as well;
"Finally, with only three containers left to go, Bok undogged a hatch, pulled the door open, and disappeared under an avalanche of infection forms. One of the attacking pods grabbed onto the Jackal's head, wrapped its tentacles around the creature's skull, drove a penetrator down through his throat, and had already tapped into the soldiers spine by the time Yayap yelled, "Fire!" and the rest of the Jackald opened up (pg.298)."
This shows clearly what is the beginning of a process of a lesser being's conversion into a Flood form or resource. That means that an Infection Form will wrap itself around a Jackal's head, take control of the body, quite likely mutate it to some degree, and voila, you have an infected Jackal, most likely armed, and readily used in combat if necessary. Same would likely go for a Grunt, and for the time before they are turned into Carriers, they can fight, albeit likely not using melee attacks and less effective than proper Combat Forms, but useful nevertheless.
And this is exactly what happens in Halo Wars. When I played a Halo Wars skirmish game on a 2v2 Flood map, I deliberately forced some Grunts to be killed and infected. Sure enough, the infected Grunts run after the units I sent to inspect them, but never employed any melee attacks, and only fire their weapons. Infected Jackals do the same thing.
If they're going to be called anything, infected Grunts and Jackals should be called Sub-Combat Forms, for they are inferior to normal Combat Forms, and are easily disposed of. If a lesser Feral-stage group of Flood manage to infect a group of Covenant that are mostly Grunts and Jackals, and need to attack another Covenant force, wouldn't they quickly send all able forms, including freshly infected Grunts and Jackals?
If they survive, they would be turned into Carrier Forms, but that clearly requires some sort of augmentation to occur, for it is unlikely that the infected creature could supply the resources to grow four or more Infection Forms and the explosive features that are the Carrier Form's signature trait. Maybe the Flood attach bits of Flesh to the Carriers-to-be, which take that and develop that extra biomass as a part of themselves as they change? Maybe that extra biomass comes from the stores that the Flood inevitably create, especially in the Feral Stage.
Halo Wars hardly contradicts established canon in this area when following this logic, which is straigthforward and very plausible. Ensemble/Robot actually made a good choice here, for if the Flood infect any sentient species, even those that are fairly weak, then wouldn't the Flood use them in any way the can, including direct combat, even before becoming Carrier Forms? Works well beyond just mere gameplay, doesn't it?
Good theory, but if the sub cobat forms have a weak melee attack then they would be more useful as ranged infantry. The flood themselves seem to prefer meleeing their oppenents so it would make more sense for them to use lesse suitable hosts as biomasss to create more carrier forms and infection forms. Although, if the flood were in need of new rcruits, they would probably take whatever hosts they could assimilate.(Drone232 13:33, October 30, 2009 (UTC))
--Exalted Obliteration 02:06, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
[edit] Problems Fixed on the Page
Admins, please mark problem #29.450 fixed. --Mr Slippy IV 05:13, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
