What's worse is we got an earlier passage that was from the armors AI pov and when it was trying to detonate the armor the flood injected logic plague code into the armor and stopped it.
This then causes the AI to unfreeze the armor and restore the suits shields as if its own the infecteds side.
It wasn't the suit AI, at least not anything like Butlr or Circ or even Cortana. It was just the normal suit systems.
It's no more slaughtered lore than CE's Keyes-powered protomind.
The logic plague is essentially the gravemind morally corrupting an AI.
They can be stopped by the covenant locking the door in Halo 1 but can overnight a suit?
Considering the flood had clearly shown signs of infecting things \*outside\* that door, I don't think they were actually so much stopped as using it as an ambush point.
The logic plague isn't *just* a moral corruption. It's an umbrella term used to describe any kind of overloading of an A.I. It's not impossible that the feral stage of the Flood can overwhelm very basic A.I.
Logic plague is memetic. It's possible sound, radio, and any kind of signal form can carry it. Especially as the Forerunner network was compromised and it isn't physical mailing.
Another is the Didact got it too. It's why he also decided fuck humanity while the flood was attacking the greater ark.
Tldr: it's a memetic like from SCP in that it causes people to switch sides or becomes essentially hijacked.
It's absolutely forced, with even Cortana detecting how she also was being forced feed ideas and images.*
*Cortana looks to have gotten something similar but honestly could probably be used to describe logic plague from the victims point of view.
This makes me wonder if the "logic plague" was the "secret" the Primordial revealed to the Ancient Human scientists that caused them to commit suicide. The Precursors/Flood simply explaining the "truth" of the universe is enough to convince both biological organisms and artificial intelligences to side with them of their own free will (supposedly).
Most people say philosophical arguments, but really that shouldn't overwrite all principals. So logic plague is forcing more than just simply an argument made to switch sides.
Otherwise it can be ignored. Especially as switching sides is in favor of mass violence which is quite bad. Also I am pretty sure the old council which includes the master build and so on got couped or elected out. Specifically the halo weapon system and corruption charges did see the master builder getting a trial.
Edit: in a sense any entity affected by the Gravemind is affected by a tautology. Hmm.. the truth sounds like a "true universal" idea sounds. It's true even if you know it's not.
Probably something those ancient humans felt. They didn't want to believe it or tried to rationalizing it but their thoughts would lead to believing it.
Not even dogmatism can save them. It sounds something like a god or God when they speak it just is.
Not quite, the logic plague has a lot of stuff that goes along with it we are not aware of. In general AI can be corrupted even without the active communication with a Gravemind. That’s what makes it horrifying.
Yes also not a consistent implementation of the plague which is more complicated then “exposure”.
Someone said they could have a gravemind, but then it’s assimilation powers are gimped if anyone can meaningfully resist it’s powers after direct infection.
>The logic plague is now pandemic. It is no longer limited to direct Gravemind communication, but can be passed through interactions with any Flood-infected individuals, or even ancillas.
From silentium. Depending on reading a Gravemind isn't needed anymore.
Also to consider there is one flood. As in they communicate via what is essentially space magic. The flood will always know things since it's always connected to itself.
If they unearthed Gravenind, the assimilation would be much more smooth since it’s demonstrated power over host consciousness is so immense infection is seamless.
My issue isn’t capability, but the flood in this story are portrayed inconsistently. Either you have a feral flood group with imperfect assimilation (like Keys) but a logic plague that works on conduct or a grave mind who is gimped.
Also the logic plague isn’t like a virus. It’s a philosophical trap that corrupts the logic of an AI using the gravemind’s immense power of persuasion. It’s treated like a virus laden email here.
Brother we do NOT know enough about the logic plague or its use to say anything about it definitively, all we know for sure is what it is capable of corrupting (cortana mendicant bias the didact)
Its a fools gambit to think we know the full extent of capabilities or tools in the arsenal of the flood, whos progenitor is a tran sentient schizophrenic
Its entirely possible flood at the feral stage can have the ability to corrupt low level systems and Ai’s. A forerunner computer that controls a blast door is a million times more advanced then power suit AI hence why in CE they’re always breaking down the containment doors instead of infecting them open
Also assimilation itself isnt 1-1 if a individual is strong willed enough they can resist infection for a time obviously under the direction of a gravemind the infection is probably more aggressive and efficient but keyes was 1v1 a proto gravemind for a lil while it was literally tunneling around his skull
The issue is we have multiple low level groups of flood active throughout the universe including one group with a gravemind an a suborned monitor in halo 2 somehow contained by automated forerunner security.
A simple infection pod overwhelming even a low level AI really makes any combat with the flood implausible from an information warfare angle.
The gravemind under that logic should be shutting chiefs down remotely by the radio waves in halo 3.
The gravemind is like a radio tower by himself he has a limited range, and during the fore-flood war a single planet would have multiple graveminds then eventually you would have keyminds to broadcast the graminds consciousness/ command signal, so yea you can have several isolated groups of feral flood and a gravemind and they might just be too far from eachother to connect
The gravemind on delta halo came about 1 of 3 ways, either was imprisoned there somehow, smuggled on at the last minute or infection forms broke out of containment and consumed the inhabitants of the ring forming a gravemind either way he was able to take over the ring and had control of its systems to some extent
The flood in the short story was trapped in that ship for thousands and thousands of years if not longer
Maybe the flood no matter what stage becomes more sophisticated with time
And the infection form was in DIRECT contact with the circuity of the armor so it could interface with it
The gravemind was able to broadcast directly into chiefs mind to taunt him
And maybe he can override chiefs armor but chooses not too because of some kind of long game he’s playing
Or maybe thats not how flood/computer interface works maybe it requires direct impingement by flood tissue to circuity
Edit context: the flood are not a knowable enemy they are the byproducts of a schizophrenic space god, they arent gonna follow too many hard and fast rules, there is a few things we can know about them, the way they infect their general behavior and escalation etc. but thats it, we know how to contain them and worst case scenario what to do if they become too powerful I wouldn’t look at them like space zombies or a fungus, i would look at them like demons, we know generally what theyre are up too and capable of but nothing is certain with them
It's not a simple philosophical trap since the Ur Didact was forced into thinking a way about humanity. Such that he ignored the flood and instead focused on composing humans.
That's not touching how it can affect simple sentinels. So really it's kind of a memetic that takes any form.
It's also practically forced in a way since the Ur Didact knew that something was done to him, but he also couldn't undo it.
So there is some kind of force of information or dogmatic argument that can't be ignored.
Because it does have to overwrite personal morals basically in full. Because as the Ur Didact knows... the flood has expanded beyond the scope of conventional means like the Promethean knights can handle.
And they were the lucky one. At least their brain was obliterated before they got completely subsumed by the Flood: that other Spartan, still conscious, fighting for control of his Floodified body as it claws its way on board a Condor, gets taken for a ride that will last forever.
It's definitely Julien, I think people are assuming it's a Spartan because of the mention of combat training being co-opted by the Flood, and they forgot that Julien was established as being a military veteran at the beginning of the story.
The thing is the last we saw of flood Julien was him seeing the horizon get engulfed in flames while sharing his gift with Abe implying he was incinerated by the blast.
It's also implied that Julien didn't could no longer resist the flood as he was happy to share his "gift" with others.
The flood spartan is much more dangerous and it makes sense that he would be able to resist for a whole.
honestly, would love to see a short story of the conscious Spartan being tormented by the gravemind to more fully show the horrific nature of the flood. Maybe the Gravemind even toys with him like it did with Captain Keyes, burrowing deeper into the Spartan’s mind and mocking him all while the Spartan tries to resist it in vain.
I thought Spartans couldn't be affected by the flood because of something that's injected into them. Like what happened with Johnson? I just started getting into the lore after all these years so things are confusing to me here and there
The Orion enhancements only made it easier for Johnson to escape from the swamp. During the events the CE Chief was almost infected by the Flood until Cortana popped the infection form with a burst of electricity from the suit.
>The thing is the last we saw of flood Julien was him seeing the horizon get engulfed in flames while sharing his gift with Abe implying he was incinerated by the blast.
The last scene *also* has the Flood seeing the horizon on fire, so...?
Alluding to the idea that at least one combat form has survived the nukes..? The Condor only seems to come in after the blast though… Maybe some scavenger from Elvie? I could imagine someone with low critical thinking skills doing exactly that, checking out what’s up after a UNSC Frigate nuked a random asteroid to see if there’s some juicy booty to be plundered, only to find their own juicy booty being plundered.
By the Flood.
Not a book but a short story 343 released for Halloween on there YouTube Channel called Saturn devouring his son, it's 35 minutes and pretty good.
Or you could read it online.
Pretty sure the Audio version on YT is narrated by Toby Stevens, who played Captain Flint in *Black Sails*. He also narrated the *Sea of Thieves* lore book - his voice is a force of nature.
the mjolnir blew the spartan head...and in the end you can still see the spartans mind was still consumed by the flood in agony...not even death saved him...lovecraftian shit right there
MJOLNIR: sets explosives and blows Spartan’s head to kingdom come.
Flood: _Kek lmao_
If that isn’t a reason to immediately turn the area into a piñata via nukes and a few MAC rounds idk what is.
Oh it’s definitely a contingency plan.
Emergency Protocol Upsilon “is a protocol used to limit Flood expansion and initiate full quarantine. All Unified Earth Government and United Nations Space Command rules of engagement are suspended during the duration of the containment.”
-Halopedia
Corrupter protocol “indicates that a Spartan has been infected by the Flood, that safeguards have failed, and that weapons of mass destruction have been authorized for use in sterilizing the area.”
-Halopedia
Generally these contingency plans have worked, since nobody has heard of a Flood outbreak. Doesn’t mean it’s a terrifying thought for individuals witnessing it in person.
That's what they did in the story.
In fact Upsilon doesn't even require a spartan to be infected, it's scorched earth on contact with the flood by default.
Corrupter is an additional protocol to make sure if a spartan is infected they get extra exploded.
yeah, in the story the saturns AI tries to revoque te captain from sending spartans and his first thought was to nuke it all....till the captain fucked up by neutralizing the AI (HOW THE FUCK DID HE GOT THE AI CONTROL CODE IF THE PROTOCOL SAYS THE AI CAN KICK THE CAPTAINS ASS IN AN EMERGENCY, DOES EVERY CAPTAIN HAVE A AI CONTROL CODE OR SMTH? THAT WAS MY ONLY GRIPE WITH THE STORY)
this subreddit always does the gbu-31 so dirty lmao
people just simply do not understand that the scale of infantry is just so small from the perspective of any sort of heavy weapon. 1 normal jdam or laser guided bomb from the 20th century and you won't even be able to find pieces of that infected spartan. just about ANY fixed winged air support will take care of the problem without breaking a sweat.
if you readed the story, you will realize that juliens last POV says he accepted the flood and wanted to spread the infection...while in the graveminds POV, the flood combat form that escaped, is resisting while mentioning sum training, thats the spartan
also if you are well versed in the flood lore, you will know that no it doesnt matter if you are dead, the gravemind can still suck your mind because of neural physics.
It would be incredibly stupid writing if the last pov is suddenly a new one that we haven’t had before without the story telling us so. I’m 100% sure that it’s still following Julien. And I’m pretty sure the flood need more than a single combat form to be able to do neural physics, although on that I may be wrong.
read it again I guess
im gonna directly quote the story:
>and then detonating microexplosives within the helmet which shattered the Spartan’s visor as it immolated the head within . . . and it still wasn’t enough.
>
>Julien wanted to run. To cry. To hide. But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear himself away from the sight of a Spartan turning on its own kind.
>
>Couldn’t stop watching in horror as it tore apart those it had once protected.
>
>And then it turned towards him, and Julien knew his big payday would never come.
>
>Tearing. Scratching. Kicking. Burrowing. Breaking. Slicing. Chest cavity. Spine. Nest. Devour. oh-god-get-it-off-me-get-it-off-me Become. Become. Become!
What is that quote supposed to prove? The Spartans head goes pop and then it begins to attack the other Spartans. Nothing in that quote proves that the last pov is from a spartan
Yes and I’m part of this sub, now what am I supposedly missing from that quote? Julien sees the spartan get infected then the spartan infects him. The last bit is the pov of julien/gravemind being infected.
It pretty much slaughters/infects any humans left alive in the area. The dumbass captain of the Saturn then finally realizes how badly he fucked up and declares corrupter protocol.
After that the whole area is cleansed via nuclear fire.
The latter.
> "Julien wanted to run. To cry. To hide. But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear himself away from the sight of a Spartan turning on its own kind."
> "Couldn’t stop watching in horror as it tore apart those it had once protected."
> "And then it turned towards him, and Julien knew his big payday would never come."
Technically its left up in the air if the infected spartan managed to escape on the condor. But considering the story took place a few years before Infinite, it would be safe to assuming it got incinerated too/
The ship in orbit says fuck that and gives all allies 7 minutes to evacuate before immediately nuking the entire area.
It's left ambiguous whether a condor with an infected spartan escaped or not.
Yes, it takes place right after halo 3 and hunters in the dark, the only really questionable part is that it implies the flood escaped and has been somewhere for the last 5 years.
Thank you. Yeah that’s a big gap in time but I’m dying to see more of the flood in game. I was hoping with what we see in 4, 5, and HW2 that 343 was going to do the logic plaque plot. Then infinite tossed it in the garbage it would seem.
My god imagine 343 somehow briging infected spartans onto Infinite. With the amount of new Spartans we have nowadays, the Chief having to mow down his fellow infected Spartans would be just insane...
What's terrifying is the Flood now know how to reset any active countermeasures and repair as much of the damage an infection would cause. I also wonder if they learned about UPSILON and CORRUPTOR
That's the Logic Plague at work. It can work around the Mjolnir subsystems, and stop countermeasures cold.
The Flood definitely knows about CORRUPTOR and UPSILON Protocols. In one of the new armor lore tabs, the GraveMind essentially laughs at them.
Found it. Lvl 50 of the S5: Reckoning BattlePass gets you the Rusalka Armor Kit, whose lore reads:
Devour.
Deluge.
Unity.
Peace.
We hunger. We find. We envelop.
Searching. Seeking.
More.
Patterns and process and places.
More.
UPSILON. CORRUPTER. No. Not for you.
No solution. No security. Let them come. You are ours. You are us. You are mine. We have waited. We are waiting still. We are outside you, but you are within us.
Your great strength made all the greater. Become this. Become us. Become one.
And sing victory everlasting.
The Flood has always given me the frights. I love all Halo, but I kinda avoid the levels they're featured in, even if they're considered some of the best levels in the original trilogy.
I've beat the Library on Legendary back in the day. I feel like I did my time fighting The Flood. It's been nice fighting other factions since H3 - the Prometheans, The Covenant Remnant, the Banished.
...now The Flood has returned. And Fireteam Leviathan is part of them. As Voridus said, "Prepare yourselves..."
I haven't listened to it yet but is the title a reference to the Precursors? If I remember correctly the Precursors basically seeded life in our galaxy, and when the Forerunners attacked them they transformed themselves into dust which somehow turned into the flood.
nah, its a reference to a painting made by francisco de goya, where saturn, its eating his own son, its related to the story because, the captain of a ship from the UNSC called "saturn", sended his spartans to deal with the flood....ending with the saturn bombarding its own troops and spartans in the ship...like saturn eating his own son
Possibly! Art is subjective, and Created VS Creator is a running theme in Halo. I think that interpretation has merit!
However, the painting with the same title is featured in the story itself, so it's a pretty on-the-nose reference. You should give it a listen. It's really good!
If this is the same Spartan who has the pov at the end, then his brain got annihilated and the flood were still able to capture his mind forever. The brain doesn't even have to be intact for the soul to be tortured forever by the flood. Actually the most terrifying bit for me. If you want to not be stuck in Halo's hell equivalent then you have to be completely decomposed before it finds you.
the fucking armor froze in place and blew up the spartan’s head and the flood was still like “ah yes, a minor setback” hardcore
What's worse is we got an earlier passage that was from the armors AI pov and when it was trying to detonate the armor the flood injected logic plague code into the armor and stopped it. This then causes the AI to unfreeze the armor and restore the suits shields as if its own the infecteds side.
It’s truly some slaughtered lore for a feral state flood form to do all of this.
It wasn't the suit AI, at least not anything like Butlr or Circ or even Cortana. It was just the normal suit systems. It's no more slaughtered lore than CE's Keyes-powered protomind.
The logic plague is essentially the gravemind morally corrupting an AI. They can be stopped by the covenant locking the door in Halo 1 but can overnight a suit?
Considering the flood had clearly shown signs of infecting things \*outside\* that door, I don't think they were actually so much stopped as using it as an ambush point.
The logic plague isn't *just* a moral corruption. It's an umbrella term used to describe any kind of overloading of an A.I. It's not impossible that the feral stage of the Flood can overwhelm very basic A.I.
Logic plague is memetic. It's possible sound, radio, and any kind of signal form can carry it. Especially as the Forerunner network was compromised and it isn't physical mailing. Another is the Didact got it too. It's why he also decided fuck humanity while the flood was attacking the greater ark. Tldr: it's a memetic like from SCP in that it causes people to switch sides or becomes essentially hijacked. It's absolutely forced, with even Cortana detecting how she also was being forced feed ideas and images.* *Cortana looks to have gotten something similar but honestly could probably be used to describe logic plague from the victims point of view.
This makes me wonder if the "logic plague" was the "secret" the Primordial revealed to the Ancient Human scientists that caused them to commit suicide. The Precursors/Flood simply explaining the "truth" of the universe is enough to convince both biological organisms and artificial intelligences to side with them of their own free will (supposedly).
Most people say philosophical arguments, but really that shouldn't overwrite all principals. So logic plague is forcing more than just simply an argument made to switch sides. Otherwise it can be ignored. Especially as switching sides is in favor of mass violence which is quite bad. Also I am pretty sure the old council which includes the master build and so on got couped or elected out. Specifically the halo weapon system and corruption charges did see the master builder getting a trial. Edit: in a sense any entity affected by the Gravemind is affected by a tautology. Hmm.. the truth sounds like a "true universal" idea sounds. It's true even if you know it's not. Probably something those ancient humans felt. They didn't want to believe it or tried to rationalizing it but their thoughts would lead to believing it. Not even dogmatism can save them. It sounds something like a god or God when they speak it just is.
Not quite, the logic plague has a lot of stuff that goes along with it we are not aware of. In general AI can be corrupted even without the active communication with a Gravemind. That’s what makes it horrifying.
It’s only become self replicating without direct contact at the end of the forerunner flood war. It’s also inherently doesn’t rely on physical touch.
Chief gets locked in that room and the flood kick the fucken door down to get to him. They weren’t locked in
Yeah, Feral stage is a bit early for the Logic Plague to come into play. That's Gravemind territory.
Yes also not a consistent implementation of the plague which is more complicated then “exposure”. Someone said they could have a gravemind, but then it’s assimilation powers are gimped if anyone can meaningfully resist it’s powers after direct infection.
>The logic plague is now pandemic. It is no longer limited to direct Gravemind communication, but can be passed through interactions with any Flood-infected individuals, or even ancillas. From silentium. Depending on reading a Gravemind isn't needed anymore. Also to consider there is one flood. As in they communicate via what is essentially space magic. The flood will always know things since it's always connected to itself.
I'm not sure if the Flood in question was actually feral
If they unearthed Gravenind, the assimilation would be much more smooth since it’s demonstrated power over host consciousness is so immense infection is seamless. My issue isn’t capability, but the flood in this story are portrayed inconsistently. Either you have a feral flood group with imperfect assimilation (like Keys) but a logic plague that works on conduct or a grave mind who is gimped. Also the logic plague isn’t like a virus. It’s a philosophical trap that corrupts the logic of an AI using the gravemind’s immense power of persuasion. It’s treated like a virus laden email here.
Brother we do NOT know enough about the logic plague or its use to say anything about it definitively, all we know for sure is what it is capable of corrupting (cortana mendicant bias the didact) Its a fools gambit to think we know the full extent of capabilities or tools in the arsenal of the flood, whos progenitor is a tran sentient schizophrenic Its entirely possible flood at the feral stage can have the ability to corrupt low level systems and Ai’s. A forerunner computer that controls a blast door is a million times more advanced then power suit AI hence why in CE they’re always breaking down the containment doors instead of infecting them open Also assimilation itself isnt 1-1 if a individual is strong willed enough they can resist infection for a time obviously under the direction of a gravemind the infection is probably more aggressive and efficient but keyes was 1v1 a proto gravemind for a lil while it was literally tunneling around his skull
The issue is we have multiple low level groups of flood active throughout the universe including one group with a gravemind an a suborned monitor in halo 2 somehow contained by automated forerunner security. A simple infection pod overwhelming even a low level AI really makes any combat with the flood implausible from an information warfare angle. The gravemind under that logic should be shutting chiefs down remotely by the radio waves in halo 3.
The gravemind is like a radio tower by himself he has a limited range, and during the fore-flood war a single planet would have multiple graveminds then eventually you would have keyminds to broadcast the graminds consciousness/ command signal, so yea you can have several isolated groups of feral flood and a gravemind and they might just be too far from eachother to connect The gravemind on delta halo came about 1 of 3 ways, either was imprisoned there somehow, smuggled on at the last minute or infection forms broke out of containment and consumed the inhabitants of the ring forming a gravemind either way he was able to take over the ring and had control of its systems to some extent The flood in the short story was trapped in that ship for thousands and thousands of years if not longer Maybe the flood no matter what stage becomes more sophisticated with time And the infection form was in DIRECT contact with the circuity of the armor so it could interface with it The gravemind was able to broadcast directly into chiefs mind to taunt him And maybe he can override chiefs armor but chooses not too because of some kind of long game he’s playing Or maybe thats not how flood/computer interface works maybe it requires direct impingement by flood tissue to circuity Edit context: the flood are not a knowable enemy they are the byproducts of a schizophrenic space god, they arent gonna follow too many hard and fast rules, there is a few things we can know about them, the way they infect their general behavior and escalation etc. but thats it, we know how to contain them and worst case scenario what to do if they become too powerful I wouldn’t look at them like space zombies or a fungus, i would look at them like demons, we know generally what theyre are up too and capable of but nothing is certain with them
It's not a simple philosophical trap since the Ur Didact was forced into thinking a way about humanity. Such that he ignored the flood and instead focused on composing humans. That's not touching how it can affect simple sentinels. So really it's kind of a memetic that takes any form. It's also practically forced in a way since the Ur Didact knew that something was done to him, but he also couldn't undo it. So there is some kind of force of information or dogmatic argument that can't be ignored. Because it does have to overwrite personal morals basically in full. Because as the Ur Didact knows... the flood has expanded beyond the scope of conventional means like the Promethean knights can handle.
And they were the lucky one. At least their brain was obliterated before they got completely subsumed by the Flood: that other Spartan, still conscious, fighting for control of his Floodified body as it claws its way on board a Condor, gets taken for a ride that will last forever.
Is it a spartan or Julien in the end?
It's definitely Julien, I think people are assuming it's a Spartan because of the mention of combat training being co-opted by the Flood, and they forgot that Julien was established as being a military veteran at the beginning of the story.
The thing is the last we saw of flood Julien was him seeing the horizon get engulfed in flames while sharing his gift with Abe implying he was incinerated by the blast. It's also implied that Julien didn't could no longer resist the flood as he was happy to share his "gift" with others. The flood spartan is much more dangerous and it makes sense that he would be able to resist for a whole.
could be a pvt. Jenkins scenario, with the spartan having brief moments of control or consciousness.
Given that the flood here came from a forerunner ship and aren’t new like the ones on Delta Halo it’s entirely possible.
honestly, would love to see a short story of the conscious Spartan being tormented by the gravemind to more fully show the horrific nature of the flood. Maybe the Gravemind even toys with him like it did with Captain Keyes, burrowing deeper into the Spartan’s mind and mocking him all while the Spartan tries to resist it in vain.
I thought Spartans couldn't be affected by the flood because of something that's injected into them. Like what happened with Johnson? I just started getting into the lore after all these years so things are confusing to me here and there
The Orion enhancements only made it easier for Johnson to escape from the swamp. During the events the CE Chief was almost infected by the Flood until Cortana popped the infection form with a burst of electricity from the suit.
>The thing is the last we saw of flood Julien was him seeing the horizon get engulfed in flames while sharing his gift with Abe implying he was incinerated by the blast. The last scene *also* has the Flood seeing the horizon on fire, so...?
Alluding to the idea that at least one combat form has survived the nukes..? The Condor only seems to come in after the blast though… Maybe some scavenger from Elvie? I could imagine someone with low critical thinking skills doing exactly that, checking out what’s up after a UNSC Frigate nuked a random asteroid to see if there’s some juicy booty to be plundered, only to find their own juicy booty being plundered. By the Flood.
There were also Hellbringers and Cyclops pilots, both of which are more likely than a Spartan.
The Flood’s brutality and horror was on full display in that passage. Love to see it.
What book is this?
Not a book but a short story 343 released for Halloween on there YouTube Channel called Saturn devouring his son, it's 35 minutes and pretty good. Or you could read it online.
Pretty sure the Audio version on YT is narrated by Toby Stevens, who played Captain Flint in *Black Sails*. He also narrated the *Sea of Thieves* lore book - his voice is a force of nature.
The audio version is voiced by Alex Wakeford I believe, also known as Haruspis, who is a writer at 343.
Ah! Thank you! I missed the VO credit on the audio story.
The Athena's Fortune audio book is sublime. A good read made even better by Toby Stephens.
the mjolnir blew the spartan head...and in the end you can still see the spartans mind was still consumed by the flood in agony...not even death saved him...lovecraftian shit right there
MJOLNIR: sets explosives and blows Spartan’s head to kingdom come. Flood: _Kek lmao_ If that isn’t a reason to immediately turn the area into a piñata via nukes and a few MAC rounds idk what is.
IIRC according to the spartan manual, that's actually the canon contingency plan if a spartan was ever infected by the flood.
Oh it’s definitely a contingency plan. Emergency Protocol Upsilon “is a protocol used to limit Flood expansion and initiate full quarantine. All Unified Earth Government and United Nations Space Command rules of engagement are suspended during the duration of the containment.” -Halopedia Corrupter protocol “indicates that a Spartan has been infected by the Flood, that safeguards have failed, and that weapons of mass destruction have been authorized for use in sterilizing the area.” -Halopedia Generally these contingency plans have worked, since nobody has heard of a Flood outbreak. Doesn’t mean it’s a terrifying thought for individuals witnessing it in person.
That's what they did in the story. In fact Upsilon doesn't even require a spartan to be infected, it's scorched earth on contact with the flood by default. Corrupter is an additional protocol to make sure if a spartan is infected they get extra exploded.
yeah, in the story the saturns AI tries to revoque te captain from sending spartans and his first thought was to nuke it all....till the captain fucked up by neutralizing the AI (HOW THE FUCK DID HE GOT THE AI CONTROL CODE IF THE PROTOCOL SAYS THE AI CAN KICK THE CAPTAINS ASS IN AN EMERGENCY, DOES EVERY CAPTAIN HAVE A AI CONTROL CODE OR SMTH? THAT WAS MY ONLY GRIPE WITH THE STORY)
this subreddit always does the gbu-31 so dirty lmao people just simply do not understand that the scale of infantry is just so small from the perspective of any sort of heavy weapon. 1 normal jdam or laser guided bomb from the 20th century and you won't even be able to find pieces of that infected spartan. just about ANY fixed winged air support will take care of the problem without breaking a sweat.
No, the last bit is about the guy we followed for most of the story, Julian or whatever
ummm no, julien was fully assimilated by the flood and didnt wanted to resist anymore.
Yes but Julien was just some guy, the Spartans were never named. And their heads blew up
if you readed the story, you will realize that juliens last POV says he accepted the flood and wanted to spread the infection...while in the graveminds POV, the flood combat form that escaped, is resisting while mentioning sum training, thats the spartan also if you are well versed in the flood lore, you will know that no it doesnt matter if you are dead, the gravemind can still suck your mind because of neural physics.
It would be incredibly stupid writing if the last pov is suddenly a new one that we haven’t had before without the story telling us so. I’m 100% sure that it’s still following Julien. And I’m pretty sure the flood need more than a single combat form to be able to do neural physics, although on that I may be wrong.
read it again I guess im gonna directly quote the story: >and then detonating microexplosives within the helmet which shattered the Spartan’s visor as it immolated the head within . . . and it still wasn’t enough. > >Julien wanted to run. To cry. To hide. But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear himself away from the sight of a Spartan turning on its own kind. > >Couldn’t stop watching in horror as it tore apart those it had once protected. > >And then it turned towards him, and Julien knew his big payday would never come. > >Tearing. Scratching. Kicking. Burrowing. Breaking. Slicing. Chest cavity. Spine. Nest. Devour. oh-god-get-it-off-me-get-it-off-me Become. Become. Become!
What is that quote supposed to prove? The Spartans head goes pop and then it begins to attack the other Spartans. Nothing in that quote proves that the last pov is from a spartan
and you said people in this sub had the reading comprehension of a 3 year old...thats funny...be more respectful next time.
Yes and I’m part of this sub, now what am I supposedly missing from that quote? Julien sees the spartan get infected then the spartan infects him. The last bit is the pov of julien/gravemind being infected.
what happens to the spartan in the end?
It pretty much slaughters/infects any humans left alive in the area. The dumbass captain of the Saturn then finally realizes how badly he fucked up and declares corrupter protocol. After that the whole area is cleansed via nuclear fire.
Did it say he did or did it imply he did? I’m just curious and it doesn’t matter which one but still
The latter. > "Julien wanted to run. To cry. To hide. But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear himself away from the sight of a Spartan turning on its own kind." > "Couldn’t stop watching in horror as it tore apart those it had once protected." > "And then it turned towards him, and Julien knew his big payday would never come."
Brutal
Quite Metal.
And because it wasn't done earlier, don't forget that spartan is still out there with a condor somewhere.
Technically its left up in the air if the infected spartan managed to escape on the condor. But considering the story took place a few years before Infinite, it would be safe to assuming it got incinerated too/
The ship in orbit says fuck that and gives all allies 7 minutes to evacuate before immediately nuking the entire area. It's left ambiguous whether a condor with an infected spartan escaped or not.
I just realized. 7 minutes. *7*. Again, what number is always important in this franchise? Nice Easter egg!
With that in mind. Is the short story canon?
Yes, it takes place right after halo 3 and hunters in the dark, the only really questionable part is that it implies the flood escaped and has been somewhere for the last 5 years.
Thank you. Yeah that’s a big gap in time but I’m dying to see more of the flood in game. I was hoping with what we see in 4, 5, and HW2 that 343 was going to do the logic plaque plot. Then infinite tossed it in the garbage it would seem.
My god imagine 343 somehow briging infected spartans onto Infinite. With the amount of new Spartans we have nowadays, the Chief having to mow down his fellow infected Spartans would be just insane...
They could have even made it a boss fight.
I think it's open-ended if the Infected Spartan escapes on the Condor or not. I saw it as a horror-movie ending. *"THE END...?"*
What's terrifying is the Flood now know how to reset any active countermeasures and repair as much of the damage an infection would cause. I also wonder if they learned about UPSILON and CORRUPTOR
That's the Logic Plague at work. It can work around the Mjolnir subsystems, and stop countermeasures cold. The Flood definitely knows about CORRUPTOR and UPSILON Protocols. In one of the new armor lore tabs, the GraveMind essentially laughs at them.
Which lore tab?
Found it. Lvl 50 of the S5: Reckoning BattlePass gets you the Rusalka Armor Kit, whose lore reads: Devour. Deluge. Unity. Peace. We hunger. We find. We envelop. Searching. Seeking. More. Patterns and process and places. More. UPSILON. CORRUPTER. No. Not for you. No solution. No security. Let them come. You are ours. You are us. You are mine. We have waited. We are waiting still. We are outside you, but you are within us. Your great strength made all the greater. Become this. Become us. Become one. And sing victory everlasting.
Glad I wasn’t the only one horrified by this moment
The Flood has always given me the frights. I love all Halo, but I kinda avoid the levels they're featured in, even if they're considered some of the best levels in the original trilogy. I've beat the Library on Legendary back in the day. I feel like I did my time fighting The Flood. It's been nice fighting other factions since H3 - the Prometheans, The Covenant Remnant, the Banished. ...now The Flood has returned. And Fireteam Leviathan is part of them. As Voridus said, "Prepare yourselves..."
What is this from? Where can I read more?
It's an Audio recording on YouTube. Check Official Halo channel. It's called Saturns Son or something.
I haven't listened to it yet but is the title a reference to the Precursors? If I remember correctly the Precursors basically seeded life in our galaxy, and when the Forerunners attacked them they transformed themselves into dust which somehow turned into the flood.
nah, its a reference to a painting made by francisco de goya, where saturn, its eating his own son, its related to the story because, the captain of a ship from the UNSC called "saturn", sended his spartans to deal with the flood....ending with the saturn bombarding its own troops and spartans in the ship...like saturn eating his own son
Possibly! Art is subjective, and Created VS Creator is a running theme in Halo. I think that interpretation has merit! However, the painting with the same title is featured in the story itself, so it's a pretty on-the-nose reference. You should give it a listen. It's really good!
If this is the same Spartan who has the pov at the end, then his brain got annihilated and the flood were still able to capture his mind forever. The brain doesn't even have to be intact for the soul to be tortured forever by the flood. Actually the most terrifying bit for me. If you want to not be stuck in Halo's hell equivalent then you have to be completely decomposed before it finds you.
This is probably some of my least favorite addition to the lore. Iv always hated the way the Flood can magically corrupt technology.
This whole thread proves to me that this sub has the reading comprehension of a 3 year old.
Cry about it snowflake. Always funny to see dumb people like you try to act smart.