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I also recall Goya was deeply affected by the Peninsular War, one of the darker parts of the Napoleonic Wars that devastated Spain in the early 1800's from which Spain never really recovered. Many Spaniards were traumatized by the brutality of the war, and Goya's paintings may also be a reflection of that. It seems a fitting parallel to where humanity is after the covenant war. Traumatized and desperate to rebuild something, even if it means taking serious unnecessary risk.
while the ending was really cool, tbh I dont think its going to go anywhere super crazy, at most we will get a couple books about it where it gets resolved. As dumb as 343 is, they are still primarily a games studio, and they arent going to just sink/end the entire narrative of thier IP in such a way that doesnt allow them to make more games unless microsoft is planning to shutter halo as a whole, which is very unlinkley.
I only wish the story was a bit longer, i feel like the actual Spartan part and their following infection was just a little rushed, though it does make it fairly realistic that infected Spartans need to be destroyed immediately as soon as it happened.
Hell divers proved one of my two favorite ideas would work. I'm convinced both would be incredible franchises within halo. Idea one, ODST on the grounds meat grinder small squad mission based survival game. Basically exactly hell divers. My other idea was a small scale horror adventure/narrative driven regular marine centered story about the flood taking a ship. Basically dead space mixed with halo. I say my ideas, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking these would be incredible. Imagine struggling to survive for half a game. You struggle through basic infection forms and any turned humans are basically mini bosses. You are just a marine remember. Then, something triggers the AI on the ship to try and warn you of danger. Though it's slowly being corrupted it's able to update you. Something nearly 1200 pounds is moving on the outside of the ship, estimated speed... Over 75mph and closing. Then the warning breach alarms play, you get told you need to run. You need to blow up this ship, what's coming cannot exist. Cannot be allowed to exist. You get a short glimpse from the camera feed .. as Gen two armor comes TEARING through the ship. A twisted mutated machine of war.... A Spartan. . and it's coming.
Have you heard of branching sickness? Its basically what you’re talking about. Its not quite in the manner of dead space, but last I heard they are genuinely building it as a survival horror Halo game
A fun note about that helmet detonation, that failsafe is referenced all the way back in Halo 5! It's the Gallows VISR. It almost makes sense that it wasn't enough, considering (we can assume) the only testing of the Gallows VISR was done in the combat sims that Halo 5's multiplayer takes place in.
Feel like it's less to stop the flood from infecting the body and more to annihilate the Spartans brain and any sensitive information, training and experience they may have, so the flood isn't able to use it.
@@beastmode1915I think it’s unrealistic they would leave it up to the Spartan to detonate their own suit it should be automated or triggered by ONI but then I guess we wouldn’t have this story
@@enolastraight4829who says they were feral anyway though if there’s a gravemind in range we don’t know about they could just be pretending to be feral
@@nothanks9503 to be fair, considering the "ripples on the surface" (If I remember correctly) described in the story, there really could be a Gravemind or at least a proto-gravemind in the ship.
Its pretty haunting to think that somewhere out there is a flood infected UNSC Condor harbouring flood spartan combat forms, this has to be building up to something big for the Halo Universe going forward. so damn cool to have new Flood lore again!
I'm so glad they clarified that everyone on the bridge knew exactly what the flood was. I always thought ONI completely covering them up after a flood infestation touched down on Earth was absurd.
@@ddunfuh9239 I wanna say in halo 4 there was an armour set with flavour text that said used by Spartans to survive in flood hot zones or something like that so if there was a spartan 4 armour designed for use in flood zones fair to say that oni wasn’t in full KGB no talk about flood compartmentalization and I wanna say there was also a lore drop back then that said essentially the same thing as this one since Africa the flood was a bit of an new version of the Kraken tale for the navy not known by everyone but a bit of a legend since the navy lead the charge on flood encounters I think it was the og lore drop for what “Corrupter” protocol was cause they had implied back then it had never happened but there was a contingency gotta hand it too 343 they know how to world build 1000%
@@travisvanalst4698 sadly it’s spread to other franchises too. The cod reboots killed off the main villain of MW1 in a war zone cutscene that can never be played again. I am so sick of modern games just putting the story’s into books and cutscenes
I particularly love the depiction of the rapid evolution of the Flood in this story. The speaking entity starts out stricly focused on consuming, but when it infects the Spartan something changes. Instead of using its talon, it shoots the former Spartan's weapon to incapacitate the next victim and consume them. When noticing the evacuation, it kills another victim on the way to the Condor, but instead of sticking around to consume them (which would be expected in the feral stage), it leaves them behind to focus on the important task at hand: reach the Condor to get out and avoid nuclear annihilation. I personally think that was the best part of the story, this horrifying realization that the Flood can evolve from the feral stage to something more in a manner of hours.
i personally dont like it myself because the logic is out the window and it intentionally dodges the most obvious questions many people have about it. how did a very weak limited knowledge dormant flood infection on the planet even manage to win the fight so effortlessly? how did they easily outpower 1 spartan let alone 4 so easily when no other flood infections on other planets and rings had ever managed to before themselves despite being stronger and smarter? how was the spartan armour even weakened or cracked to even give the flood infection form the chance to take over the spartan. how do they even retain the knowledge and no how to infect a spartan, re use and weaponise the spartan when its the 1st ever time doing so, what flood forms even fought on the battlefield, how did each spartan get over run so easily, why didnt the spartans bother retreating when in danger? nothing obvious is explained because the intentionally hid that information. if its to make another short story on how it happened, im not going to be impressed because they couldve just easily explained it in detail within the 1st one and then just continued on with the story after what happened here.
@@surferdude5126 whats more scary is a primitive bare bones basic form of the flood that isnt that strong or as intelligent as the rest out there in which spartans have encountered and fought managed to beat not just 1 spartan but all 4 in 1 battle, killed an entire army despite being shot to high heaven by the ship and has managed to escape to the ship and likely is about to infect the whole condor ship as well solo. 1 or 4 infected spartans that are moreless taken over versus a whole condor ship isnt going to make it out alive. the flood on that planet literally went from nothing to one of if not THE biggest flood threat in the galaxy in just one fight and 1 short battle that seemed heavily 1 sided despite being easily overpowered in logical terms.
On the brightside this incident was (seemingly) contained, and now the UNSC is aware that their current anti-flood infection counter measures are not enough. Hopefully this leads to tighter protocols, micro explosives throughout a Spartan's armor to annihilate all the biomass, and hopefully a countermeasure against the AI override when the flood is involved.
If the Condor escape the incident is anything but contained… also I think the explosives in the head are not meant to destroy the biomass but only to annihilate the brain and the memories and training it contains. Though it seems even that didn’t quite work
@@hunterh1175 yeah...judging by the fact the spartan seems to panic when the gravemind speaks...im sure the spartans mind its very alive...and under eternal torture.
@@delawarevex4976 this was one of the most horrific realizations I got from one of instalation 00's video where he basically theorises that when an individual's consciounsness gets assimilated by the flood , that individual will still be aware, same as this guy in this story, even after death, and as long as there«s a gravemind around it will always be in that state... eternal torture.
My biggest issue with the short story is that we didn’t get any details on how the Spartan got infected. I need to know how the parasite got through the energy shields, the titanium plates and the incredibly tough under-suit. It really feels like the Spartan got infected because the writer said so. Other than that I find this a pretty good short story.
They did specify how it happened, it was explained that the armor tried everything it can to stop the infection, it even blew up the inside of one of the spartans helmet in a desperate attempt to kill it, but failed.
yeah as pointed its nt that hard for an infection form to pierce the undersuit and theya re small enough to go for joints between titanium plates (or likely just go for the unarmored neck, which is also easy access to the nervous system) The one effective defense is the shields, and in the novels chief got saved by them only because Cortana fired them up in time to fry the infection form, meaning the shields wont automatically activate... Its possible that either the shields got overwhelmed, or that the AI failed to do the same as cortana. makes me wonder though why not create a special mjolnir suit focusing on more complete armoring even at the cost of some mobility (think and anti-flood EoD equivalent) to equip spartans that have to deal with the risk of a flood outbreak with
I'm guessing the ship was likely a forerunner ship previously consumed by the flood during the Forerunner Flood War. From the description of the ship being "within the rock itself" I feel like the ship may have been in slipspace when the rings fired destroying the domain and disrupting slipspace travel throughout the Ecumene. Hope we'll eventually get additional context or further story around this ship.
Let's not forget that the silver metallic architecture of the Forerunners is based on the architecture of the Precursors, so it's not strange that they simply confused the 2 factions, apart from the fact that it was "Trapped" inside the planetoid, it looks much more like the asteroid was formed around it.
Or it had a malfunction and teleported inside the asteroid. The 2 theories I’ve seen is the one I thought up or we’ll list as a) it being frozen in space and time for God knows how long, had rock and ice (bc space is really cold) form around it and harden to the point that it becomes strong and tough to break through, or b) the aforementioned teleport malfunction, which could be possible for this type of ship. On the official Halo channel video where this sorta audiobook story is posted, I have a more in-depth description of my theory
I can see where you’re coming from, but up until that point they probably only worked with simulations and theoretical scenarios. Let me tell you, simulations never truly prepare you for the real deal. Simulations can Instill over confidence, and being over confident is a form of complacency in itself. The flood even in its most basic forms are never a joke, and Spartans are definitely weaker than both the forerunners, and ancient human warriors that were much better equipped to deal with the flood, and they still got their asses handed to them. I know a lot of people are having issues with this story, and it for sure could’ve had more detail, but I love the direction. Flood Spartans would be a whole new level of fucked.
I'd like to imagine that the more that the flood goes into spartan armor; the more they know how to actually disable the protocols. As one has said "it is only a matter of time"
Much like the Flood hid in wait for 1000 years to catch ancient humanity off guard after they thought themselves safe, you caught us after we thought the spooky season was over with a big dose of Flood lore
I see it mentioned a lot, but it was the suit that failed to save Chief, the mjolnier suit is capable of repelling a single infection form to some extent which makes it resistant, but not entirely. It was Cortanas intervention controlling the suit to give the chief enough time to kill the infection form while it was stunned . I think even dummy AIs would be mandatory to each individual spartan in a spartan kill team assigned to a theater that contained Flood elements to not repeat the same security threat.
@@halomaster6121The Flood is a boring antagonist, no real goal other than complete assimilation. At least the Prometheans wanted to enact AI supremacy. The Covenant wanted a genocidal ascendancy into "godhood." The Banished want conflict. And the Endless probably want to come back to life.
This audio story gave me so many chills when I first heard it. It really goes to show ya that nobody is safe from The Flood. Also, the moral of the story should be this. If you’re a UNSC officer facing the possibility of a Flood outbreak situation, LISTEN TO THE SMART AI AND FOLLOW PROTOCOL!!!!!
Dude with your voice and editing skills I’d honestly watch the hell out of any content you put in this format. The segment of the Saturn painting was super interesting and historical.
I started writing a DnD campaign based on the Forerunners about 2 years ago. The story goes that an ancient civilization created a super weapon to deal with an impossible threat. Basically the same as the Halo rings and the Flood. I thought it would be cool if instead of the Halo rings still existing, what if they didn't, and instead what if they found a temple that sunk beneath the Earth when the super weapon was activated. The super weapon's power was so great that it breaks off a piece of space time and that shard, including the temple, loges itself in the DnD world, deep underground. While exploring the temple, the adventurers can hear sounds in the distance of some flood forms that have crossed the time barrier, and wandered deeper into the temple, they might even fight a few if they can find them. From here the story can develop two ways. If its a short mission, meaning not the focus of the campaign, the adventurers will find a weakened Gravemind hiding in the Temple. From the Gravemind's perspective, it just arrived. The shard of time broke off when the weapon fired and this gravemind happened to be here. It was damaged by the weapon when the shard was created, which is why it is weakened, so now it waits to regain it's strength, thinking of what to do next now that it has been severed from it's flood network. If this is the main focus of the campaign, then the Gravemind already regained it's strength and went back to the past to reestablish itself. It is then the adventurers find the time barrier and cross it to explore the other side, unaware of the nightmare they have stumbled into. Thoughts?
I really love the possibilities with a long form campaign imagine slowly exploring ancient architecture pot marked with plasma fire on exquisite art finding bodies that look far too fresh and far too rotted at the same time not knowing it’s a flood combat form about to rise again
Honestly, I don't think the fireteam was a flood containment unit. That's probably why they fell so easily, I really can't imagine a true containment unit falling so fast. Especially considering how well they should know the dangers of the parasite
Imagine being a genetically enhanced super soldier, the very best humanity has to offer, the UNSC's shield, and spear, and you don't die fighting off the enemy who wants the extermination of your people, you get devoured by an ancient parasite because a glory hungry officer sent you down to fight a near unstoppable foe. Not only did you lose, you become a puppet for the enemy which consumed you, and have been turned into a weapon against those you fought for.
I’m not sure if it was intentional, but corporations involved in a horrific situation, by a planet named LV, has a lot of the alien franchise vibes, and Halo CE’s big influence was Alien. I really love this.
A lot of aliens influences from the look of the marines to the assault rifle, the pelican design, sarg Johnson all taken straight from aliens aka alien 2
Oh yeah they openly admitted that a lot of inspiration was drawn from Aliens, I love it though, and I feel like this whole story is a callback in sense, going back to the roots.
I think the point of the countermeasures was less of trying to render the Spartan body unusable and more of destroying the Spartan's brain as that's what the Flood would draw from to learn about vital ONI and or UNSC information. A Flood-infected Spartan isn't *really* that much of a threat. If anything, their strength would be more akin to that of a Flood-Infected Brute or Elite. It's just unfortunate that we'll probably never see this translated into actual gameplay. The Flood really just feels less like an actual threat now and just a puppet that 343 can wave around to appease the Lore-Junkies.
Your forgetting that if a spartan falls then the DNA of that spartan is now know to all flood forms. Meaning spartans are going to be easier to infect as the flood becomes more and more knowledge of spartan anatomy.
@@vincentthought6130 The Flood has converted countless amount of different species and an overwhelming amount of Humans. Spartan DNA in of itself isn’t radically different from Humans, as they’re humans in of themselves. Spartan have their equals in Elites- Who also use shield based armor. If the Flood- Even at feral stage is able to overwhelm warriors that are in even greater strength than humans, then I doubt there’s really a takeaway the Flood would get from infecting a Spartan body.
I mean isn't all lore and story telling just a "puppet to wave around and appease lore-junkies"? Seems like an extremely pessimistic way to view fictional stories. There's also every possibility the Flood will return in a game. We know the Endless are connected to the Flood and Precursors, and the Flood will never truly be neutralized. It's not a matter of if the Flood will return, but when. 343 knows how popular they are, which is why we're getting this. They will always be the biggest threat in the Halo universe.
@@Major_Zephyr I envy your optimism. Really, I do. I’ve been wanting the Flood back in a true fashion ever since Halo 3. Awakening the Nightmare was a treat, but we really haven’t got any reason to believe 343 will be bringing them back in a gameplay sense anytime soon.
I’m curious if the condor returned to the Saturn? As you said the condor could leave the system with its FTL but it also could have returned to the Saturn itself, and then we would have a Mona Lisa situation all over again with a corrupted spartan onboard.
Possibly.. though, might be drawing too much attention to Saturn and bit bigger risk of what flood there is to be wiped out by exterminatus the ship. Its a smarter move to get to a backwater world preferrably with sentient life and more of it with knowledge useful to the Flood
@@noneed4sleep64Unless the escaping Condor caused a new Flood outbreak which caught Cortana’s attention. Given her experience with the Gravemind as well as what she learned from the Domain, it’s likely that news of a major Flood outbreak would cause her to put many of her other plans on hold to reallocate resources to containing the outbreak, tracking the source of said outbreak, and scouring the galaxy to make sure no other outbreaks are occurring, possibly leaving her forces vulnerable to other forces, like the Banished.
I love the way it described the spartans from Julien's perspective, and Julien's perspective after he's been infected. He saw things in a new way, and just wanted to share his new outlook. So haunting.
Hey @HiddenXperia just got out of hospital after suffering my first epileptic seizure on Saturday. Your videos have been a surprising source of comfort during all of this
I think that Saturn represents the crew of the ship, and perhaps the UNSC/ONI as a whole. They try to destroy or "devour" the Spartan, a creation, or in other words a "child", of the UNSC because they are a threat to the UNSC's power, and if they don't deal with it the flood could overthrow humanity. The Spartan II's in particular can be considered ONI's children since they were raised by the military. And going off of Halsey's perspective on her own work- that the Spartans represent the next phase of human evolution, then Spartans could be considered the children of humanity as a species.
I love your lore videos. It genuinely makes me smile to see how happy you are covering Halo Lore. I can see the light in your eyes every time you cover anything. Keep up the good work!
Questions from the peanut gallery: So the bomb that Jorge detonated was actually just a slipspace drive right? so he didn't actually "die" persay- Just teleported into a random part of space, right? So that being said, the shop item of Jorge being infected could be canon by a speculation of technicality, right?
Jorge was completely un-personed. He improperly mounted the drive so that it had no destination, teleporting him and the ship into slipspace but nowhere else. Slipspace is literally a total void where matter doesn’t really exist, so the atoms that made up Jorge and the ship were completely deleted from the entire universe.
God, it feels good to be back. The Flood have always been one of my favourite parts of the lore, the horror and elder itch vibe they bring is something that I love in fiction (for another example HiddenX, the Tyranids. HORRIFYING). This was always going to be an amazing story and video and I loved how you framed it and the voice acting. But my god…that ending. When I heard the voice of the flood say the word “ship” and then “CONDOR” I knew what was coming and had an immediate fear reaction. No one in the galaxy is ready for the horror that is coming…(and I cannot wait)
This story just solidifies the fact that we need a flood survival horror game. It gave off heavy dead space vibes that I think would translate into a game.
My guess was that they were in fact cutting through bio mass. Considering that none of these guys have disassembled a a forerunner ship they probably didn’t know what it was
I have a feeling that this is 343's way of bringing the flood back into the universe officially. I have a feeling the next game will have them come in and come in rapidly.
I would love to see one long video as a collaboration of the flood and how its changed throughout the years, essentially a compilation of all past videos, it would be difficult and require alot of time but i think the end result would definitely be worth it
I thought this was a fanfiction the whole time to be honest. Wild to get a definitive answer of the first infected Spartan. I really do hope this gets used somewhere, I'd love to see the Flood again
I think the Flood voice was at most a Proto-Gravemind, at least a minor keymind like a Juggernaut. Also, the “Arm. Blade. Weapon” feels like a reference to Halo 4 Flood Spartans from Infection
Still wish we got a game that ties to the book Halo the flood or whatever it was called. Imagine even a game where we see alpha base and get to play as Jenkins. And imagine playing as him when he’s half human half infected right up to the explosion of the ring. That would be interesting or even Player 1 Jenkins player 2 Johnson.
Listening to this audiobook the other day Legitimately made me feel uncomfortable and freaked out. It was very well written. Even with the lack detail it allows the reader to fill generally scarred from either preconceived notions or the unknowns. Really hope we get more flood content in Infinite and future games
Seeing you so happy to be talking about Flood lore again and hearing how enthusiastically you read through the story is like a breath of fresh air for my Halo Lore loving brain. Here's to more great lore videos from you in the near future, I can't wait!
The nice part is that is feels like a genuine Flood story, not the bastardised stuff we have in Infinite rn with the glowing boils but I doubt this'll be picked up again
Imagine playing through the largest halo campaign ever, then hearing "we have an incoming ship, the..Unsc Saturn?" "I thought that ship was lost on a mining mission." Then put of nowhere, you see it jump in, covered and coated in flood, a mirror to how the flood showed up in halo 2 in high charity, and the high charity ship slipspacing on earth in halo 3
I know that the Flood is terrifying in the games, but it doesn't have *SH'T* on the horror that side stories like this make the reader/listener imagine.
Hidden You portrayed that flood story so well and disturbing especially with the Saturn references and with the voices for the flood, it was very interesting! I swear you could read me a scary story and id be under my blanket.
A well made flood horror game would be awesome. The Fall of High Charity as group of forgotten marines in the prison perhaps? You would need to evade the Covenant and flood alike with room for some desperate alliances.
@@delawarevex4976Forerunner-era pure forms that were gradually formed from the spores that remained after the Halos firing. Makes sense why the team was overrun, these weren’t modern day Flood forms. The team was prepared for typical human and Covie combat forms, not Forerunner-era pure forms. In that case, they would’ve done fine like other Flood outbreaks. They severely underestimated their enemy
Your interpretation of the use of Goya's painting is an interesting one I hadn't considered- Spartans being the rising Greek Gods casting out the Titans. Initially, when I read the story, I had a much different interpretation. The UNSC Saturn was Cronus, its captain's hubris was beckoning a downfall, but instead, it had to nuke the asteroid, killing its own men, slaughtering its own kind... the UNSC Saturn, nuking its own men, the first infected Spartan, his son. The Commander being forced to immolate his own troops- deployed on his orders, knowing he would one day be seen as the deranged man devouring his own son. The Flood, here, are the threat, they're the 'rising' children, the ones who will one day upend the Humans just as Humans finally took the Mantle from the Forerunners, it's a story of Cycles, just as in the Greek mythos, Forerunners destroyed Precursors, Humanity weakened and eventually inherited the mantle from their former forerunner enemies... and eventually, just as Humanity had to cast down Forerunners and Covenant to rise, the Flood threatens them, and in doing so, literally represents the cyclical revenge of the Precursors.
The difference in writing from the games and outside lore is just saddening. Halo really is a book and short story franchise with side games attached to it.
Would be great to see some of this in some sort of... oh I dunno, like some kind of interactive narrative or something. I wonder if 343 would be able to figure out how to do that. Like, take the multiplayer of Halo and attach like a STORY or something to it. I dunno, maybe I'm just a crazy guy with radical ideas. I dunno.
>Be a normal marine >Be deployed on the ground to an infection zone >First 30 minutes in you hear Code UPSILON over the comms >Immediately become the fastest marine in the UNSC as you sprint back to the dropship
Omg he liked my comment. Bro I’m recreating the halo reach boneyard invasion map with AI. Do you have any tips on how to forge a multi progressional zone/ctf game mode
Same tradition/style as the Mona Lisa story. I love it. As for the ship, the UNSC could have just made a mistake identifying it. I'm glad I found this regardless. My RL went insane, like crisis levels of insane, and I'm having trouble cleaning up my apartment so that inspectors can check for smoke damage. My allergies are making it worse. I'm literally waiting for the temperature to rise above freezing so i can turn off the heat and open the windows. Thank god I have my cat and youtube and thank god my mother was willing to bunny sit for me. Edit: and just so you know, the Mona Lisa is my FAVORITE flood story.
UNSC Command - “A Spartan has been infected, prepare a full strike team and nuclear weapons, this is a major threat” The Spartan II and III’s around when the call is made - “which Spartan is it, whats there number?” UNSC Com - “It’s a Spartan IV named…” Spartan II/III - “oh, I though you said it was a threat? Yeah the flood part is but the Spartan part not so much, just send a few of us older ones down we’ll see the situation cleaned up in seconds”
Listened to the story this morning. Was awesome. I wish it was longer. I love the flood voice (grave mind/proto or what ever it is) I wonder if any of the Spartans got onto the condor. And would love to see it appear somewhere
Th e fact that the flood is going to some corner of the galaxy reminds me of venezea or however it's spelt a planet of humans who betrayed the unsc and is full of crime and they sided with the banished according to what i read from items in the Rakshisha armour core
Stuff like this is proof that there’s still interesting places to take halo, it’s just that the last couple of games just happened to take it into the most brain dead places possible
I love how Julien is also a dead space reference. Nothing left but his laser cutter? With an infection spreading throughout a space complex? Seems familiar.
I'm just saying if in the future playable elites come back, we must have a flood infected elite. Or if they instead want to make brutes playable same thing with them. Man i dont get why i love the flood so much maybe its the atmosphere, brutality and their design. Plus the hivemind is extremely smart and only gets smarter the more it infects. Man i would love a halo horror game similar to FEAR if you remember that game or dead space
Okay, I have some beef with the story. The failsafe has a massive hole in the lore were Spartans would active and explode the reactor core in their suits to prevent being captured by the covenant. This would expand to any type of capture with no escape was possible. It makes no sense the Spartans suit wouldn't cause a massive explosion after dying in a flood infected zone.
I have to read it myself but the flood could have easily used a logic plague to stop the reactor protocol from going off. Why the reactor didnt blow but the helmet did, is a bit odd to me. Could be a lot of factors why, newer reactors that are smaller, the helmet explosives meant to take place of the entire reactor going off, its hard to say Edit: it was from halo way point, reckoning data. Gallows.
I love the interpretation of the Flood incading the host mind. It's not a bunch of horryfyong images, its just a voice literally invading your mind. "WEAPON, MEMORIES, HUNGER, FIRE, SPRINTING, SLICING, DEVOURING, LEAVE BEHIND, DEVOUR" The host can still think, the host no longer controls its own body. Those words that the hist can hear are actually the things that its body its doing, and what used to be a person, is now but a mere passenger on its own body. Terrifying.
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Happy Belated Halloween my friends! Hopefully the horrors that occurred at Site 22 will live up to season...
Unrelated but imagine a squad of Master Chief, Noble 6, Jerome and Rookie.
I also recall Goya was deeply affected by the Peninsular War, one of the darker parts of the Napoleonic Wars that devastated Spain in the early 1800's from which Spain never really recovered. Many Spaniards were traumatized by the brutality of the war, and Goya's paintings may also be a reflection of that.
It seems a fitting parallel to where humanity is after the covenant war. Traumatized and desperate to rebuild something, even if it means taking serious unnecessary risk.
while the ending was really cool, tbh I dont think its going to go anywhere super crazy, at most we will get a couple books about it where it gets resolved. As dumb as 343 is, they are still primarily a games studio, and they arent going to just sink/end the entire narrative of thier IP in such a way that doesnt allow them to make more games unless microsoft is planning to shutter halo as a whole, which is very unlinkley.
Whoever did the gravemind voice did a fantastic job
November halloween? makes sense
I only wish the story was a bit longer, i feel like the actual Spartan part and their following infection was just a little rushed, though it does make it fairly realistic that infected Spartans need to be destroyed immediately as soon as it happened.
Agreed, and I feel the ending can make up for it in the future. Hopefully in a game
Anime pfp spotted, opinion rejected
@@adityagarg3931 a Master Chief PFP without being called Master Chief? opinion invalid.
"Chief, you mind telling me what you're doing in that reply section of a RUclips comment?"
"Sir.. picking fights with anime pfps."
@@adityagarg3931Prejudice spotted, opinion discarded.
*FLOOD MENTIONED, NEURONS ACTIVATED*
literally me
Same
Relatable
Monke afraid
NEURONS _REPURPOSED_
"sir a spartan has been infected"
"glass the planet"
"...Its the Master Chief"
"...............Activate the rings"
get the yamato, we're sending doomslayer and guts to put an end to this.
Sir, doomslayer has been infected too.@@JongsungChoi
@@TALONYT_Editz_XYZ Okay then get Guts, Skull knight, dante and vergil to clean up both messes
@@JongsungChoi sir, how about we blow up the whole planet along with the solar system? because chief and doomslayer killed them all
Send Ellie from last of us she should be immune
I love that the ex-marine character fought the Flood with a Dead Space plasma cutter for a few minutes
Bro thinks he’s Isaac
Bro thought he was at least.
First we had the Mona Lisa resembling the USG Ishimura. Now we have this.
Really teasing that Dead-Space style Halo
imagine if Isaac were a spartan, he would be master chief 2.0 xd @@Franz0818
Hell divers proved one of my two favorite ideas would work.
I'm convinced both would be incredible franchises within halo.
Idea one, ODST on the grounds meat grinder small squad mission based survival game.
Basically exactly hell divers.
My other idea was a small scale horror adventure/narrative driven regular marine centered story about the flood taking a ship.
Basically dead space mixed with halo.
I say my ideas, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking these would be incredible.
Imagine struggling to survive for half a game.
You struggle through basic infection forms and any turned humans are basically mini bosses.
You are just a marine remember.
Then, something triggers the AI on the ship to try and warn you of danger. Though it's slowly being corrupted it's able to update you.
Something nearly 1200 pounds is moving on the outside of the ship, estimated speed... Over 75mph and closing.
Then the warning breach alarms play, you get told you need to run. You need to blow up this ship, what's coming cannot exist. Cannot be allowed to exist.
You get a short glimpse from the camera feed .. as Gen two armor comes TEARING through the ship.
A twisted mutated machine of war.... A Spartan. . and it's coming.
Now we need a deadspace style horror game. Imagine being a unsc engineer trying to survive the flood
Have you heard of branching sickness? Its basically what you’re talking about. Its not quite in the manner of dead space, but last I heard they are genuinely building it as a survival horror Halo game
@@AmphetamemeOverdose looked it up. Pretty interesting hope that this fan game will be great
You know that wouldn’t sell well if it doesn’t have Master Chief in the cover art. Same with a Sangheili-only game
@@brawler5760 its a fan game, dawg. Its being made for a niche audience to begin with
@@AmphetamemeOverdose I wasn’t talking about the game you mentioned, I was just talking in general. Spinoffs usually don’t sell very well
Using Starfield's breathtaking vistas as a way to help depict locations in Halo stories is such a galaxy brain move
The game takes its name from the concept, not the other way around 😂
@@CavemannerThere's even Reach in starfield.
@@thesuperintendent4290many of the planets in halo are based on actual planets
Mass Effect would have been better. ME LE has much better visuals than Starfield :)
A fun note about that helmet detonation, that failsafe is referenced all the way back in Halo 5! It's the Gallows VISR. It almost makes sense that it wasn't enough, considering (we can assume) the only testing of the Gallows VISR was done in the combat sims that Halo 5's multiplayer takes place in.
Feel like it's less to stop the flood from infecting the body and more to annihilate the Spartans brain and any sensitive information, training and experience they may have, so the flood isn't able to use it.
@@beastmode1915 Damn, didn't know that even in feral stage Flood is somewhat intelligent and is capable of dealing with Spartan armor
@@beastmode1915I think it’s unrealistic they would leave it up to the Spartan to detonate their own suit it should be automated or triggered by ONI but then I guess we wouldn’t have this story
@@enolastraight4829who says they were feral anyway though if there’s a gravemind in range we don’t know about they could just be pretending to be feral
@@nothanks9503 to be fair, considering the "ripples on the surface" (If I remember correctly) described in the story, there really could be a Gravemind or at least a proto-gravemind in the ship.
Its pretty haunting to think that somewhere out there is a flood infected UNSC Condor harbouring flood spartan combat forms, this has to be building up to something big for the Halo Universe going forward.
so damn cool to have new Flood lore again!
Not in any game lol.
@@travisvanalst4698 Yeah, they'll probably be killed off in a novel or short-story.
@@Razgriz_01 Or off screen in a game.
Halo 7 77@@thekrazmaster1893
Could be a potentially dangerous asset if it crashed into a small colony... Correction, a grand threat
I'm so glad they clarified that everyone on the bridge knew exactly what the flood was. I always thought ONI completely covering them up after a flood infestation touched down on Earth was absurd.
If i remember correctly the flood infestation on earth was covered up but the flood itself was revealed to the public
@@ddunfuh9239 I wanna say in halo 4 there was an armour set with flavour text that said used by Spartans to survive in flood hot zones or something like that so if there was a spartan 4 armour designed for use in flood zones fair to say that oni wasn’t in full KGB no talk about flood compartmentalization and I wanna say there was also a lore drop back then that said essentially the same thing as this one since Africa the flood was a bit of an new version of the Kraken tale for the navy not known by everyone but a bit of a legend since the navy lead the charge on flood encounters I think it was the og lore drop for what “Corrupter” protocol was cause they had implied back then it had never happened but there was a contingency gotta hand it too 343 they know how to world build 1000%
@@ddunfuh9239as it should be. The flood is an extinction level threat
Considering Saturn had a flood containment team on board, I would hope they knew what the flood was
Now if only 343 could get some of this fantastic lore in their games...
its gonna be put in some book like most modern games do.
Turning into destiny
Nah. 343s thing is to build worlds and stories they never finish to have them tie off the best parts in a book
Keep that same attitude for how bungie did so much of their lore for the original halo games
@@travisvanalst4698 sadly it’s spread to other franchises too. The cod reboots killed off the main villain of MW1 in a war zone cutscene that can never be played again. I am so sick of modern games just putting the story’s into books and cutscenes
I particularly love the depiction of the rapid evolution of the Flood in this story. The speaking entity starts out stricly focused on consuming, but when it infects the Spartan something changes. Instead of using its talon, it shoots the former Spartan's weapon to incapacitate the next victim and consume them. When noticing the evacuation, it kills another victim on the way to the Condor, but instead of sticking around to consume them (which would be expected in the feral stage), it leaves them behind to focus on the important task at hand: reach the Condor to get out and avoid nuclear annihilation. I personally think that was the best part of the story, this horrifying realization that the Flood can evolve from the feral stage to something more in a manner of hours.
Even scarier is It seems this whole ideal took less than an hour
i personally dont like it myself because the logic is out the window and it intentionally dodges the most obvious questions many people have about it. how did a very weak limited knowledge dormant flood infection on the planet even manage to win the fight so effortlessly? how did they easily outpower 1 spartan let alone 4 so easily when no other flood infections on other planets and rings had ever managed to before themselves despite being stronger and smarter? how was the spartan armour even weakened or cracked to even give the flood infection form the chance to take over the spartan. how do they even retain the knowledge and no how to infect a spartan, re use and weaponise the spartan when its the 1st ever time doing so, what flood forms even fought on the battlefield, how did each spartan get over run so easily, why didnt the spartans bother retreating when in danger? nothing obvious is explained because the intentionally hid that information. if its to make another short story on how it happened, im not going to be impressed because they couldve just easily explained it in detail within the 1st one and then just continued on with the story after what happened here.
@@surferdude5126 whats more scary is a primitive bare bones basic form of the flood that isnt that strong or as intelligent as the rest out there in which spartans have encountered and fought managed to beat not just 1 spartan but all 4 in 1 battle, killed an entire army despite being shot to high heaven by the ship and has managed to escape to the ship and likely is about to infect the whole condor ship as well solo. 1 or 4 infected spartans that are moreless taken over versus a whole condor ship isnt going to make it out alive.
the flood on that planet literally went from nothing to one of if not THE biggest flood threat in the galaxy in just one fight and 1 short battle that seemed heavily 1 sided despite being easily overpowered in logical terms.
On the brightside this incident was (seemingly) contained, and now the UNSC is aware that their current anti-flood infection counter measures are not enough.
Hopefully this leads to tighter protocols, micro explosives throughout a Spartan's armor to annihilate all the biomass, and hopefully a countermeasure against the AI override when the flood is involved.
If the Condor escape the incident is anything but contained… also I think the explosives in the head are not meant to destroy the biomass but only to annihilate the brain and the memories and training it contains. Though it seems even that didn’t quite work
@@hunterh1175we don't get anything that suggests we saw the Spartan's thoughts so I assume it worked?
@@hunterh1175 yeah...judging by the fact the spartan seems to panic when the gravemind speaks...im sure the spartans mind its very alive...and under eternal torture.
@@delawarevex4976was it the spartan that the flood voice was talking to? I thought it was the ex marine guy that got infected
@@delawarevex4976 this was one of the most horrific realizations I got from one of instalation 00's video where he basically theorises that when an individual's consciounsness gets assimilated by the flood , that individual will still be aware, same as this guy in this story, even after death, and as long as there«s a gravemind around it will always be in that state... eternal torture.
My biggest issue with the short story is that we didn’t get any details on how the Spartan got infected. I need to know how the parasite got through the energy shields, the titanium plates and the incredibly tough under-suit. It really feels like the Spartan got infected because the writer said so. Other than that I find this a pretty good short story.
chief almost got infected on the halo ce ring, so I imagine it must have happened much the same way
They did specify how it happened, it was explained that the armor tried everything it can to stop the infection, it even blew up the inside of one of the spartans helmet in a desperate attempt to kill it, but failed.
@@Diogenesiz Yeah the little infection forms are really strong and can pierce the undersuit, after shields have been cracked by heavier units.
@@mattshelton7423infection forms are stupid strong in terms of piercing capabilities.
yeah as pointed its nt that hard for an infection form to pierce the undersuit and theya re small enough to go for joints between titanium plates (or likely just go for the unarmored neck, which is also easy access to the nervous system) The one effective defense is the shields, and in the novels chief got saved by them only because Cortana fired them up in time to fry the infection form, meaning the shields wont automatically activate...
Its possible that either the shields got overwhelmed, or that the AI failed to do the same as cortana. makes me wonder though why not create a special mjolnir suit focusing on more complete armoring even at the cost of some mobility (think and anti-flood EoD equivalent) to equip spartans that have to deal with the risk of a flood outbreak with
"Then the Spartan fell" was such a chilling line absolutely loved this audio story and incredible video here, much love ma dood
Was the ex marine augmented and later on became a Spartan to do this mission I don’t remember him saying it I just need clarification pls
@odstsoldier6252 a Spartan containment team get deployed later on in the story separate to the mining operation
As I hear you tell this story, I am reminded of the words of an especially intelligent Brute:
“I told you. NOT. To go. Inside…For good reason!”
The Fact that the last flood story was named “Mona Lisa” and now “Saturn Devouring his son” which both are from artworks
Amazing
Dude The Mona Lisa is the best flood story I wish we could get a movie of it. The artwork video is damn good
@@acrustykrabpray we could get more flood story near future😭👏🏽
God help us if any of Dali's paintings is the next Flood story name...
@@PelemusMcSoyI'mma put $20 on the line cuz let's be honest, it's bound to happen
I'm guessing the ship was likely a forerunner ship previously consumed by the flood during the Forerunner Flood War. From the description of the ship being "within the rock itself" I feel like the ship may have been in slipspace when the rings fired destroying the domain and disrupting slipspace travel throughout the Ecumene.
Hope we'll eventually get additional context or further story around this ship.
Let's not forget that the silver metallic architecture of the Forerunners is based on the architecture of the Precursors, so it's not strange that they simply confused the 2 factions, apart from the fact that it was "Trapped" inside the planetoid, it looks much more like the asteroid was formed around it.
Or it had a malfunction and teleported inside the asteroid.
The 2 theories I’ve seen is the one I thought up or we’ll list as a) it being frozen in space and time for God knows how long, had rock and ice (bc space is really cold) form around it and harden to the point that it becomes strong and tough to break through, or b) the aforementioned teleport malfunction, which could be possible for this type of ship.
On the official Halo channel video where this sorta audiobook story is posted, I have a more in-depth description of my theory
My only issue with the story was how quickly a Flood Containment specialised Spartan fell soooo quickly to the Flood.
I can see where you’re coming from, but up until that point they probably only worked with simulations and theoretical scenarios. Let me tell you, simulations never truly prepare you for the real deal. Simulations can Instill over confidence, and being over confident is a form of complacency in itself. The flood even in its most basic forms are never a joke, and Spartans are definitely weaker than both the forerunners, and ancient human warriors that were much better equipped to deal with the flood, and they still got their asses handed to them. I know a lot of people are having issues with this story, and it for sure could’ve had more detail, but I love the direction. Flood Spartans would be a whole new level of fucked.
Bare in mind that Chief barely made it out of the Library alive. Truly scary stuff.
@sodium7127 and in the books, he was almost infected had Cortana not fried the Pod Infector.
I'd like to imagine that the more that the flood goes into spartan armor; the more they know how to actually disable the protocols. As one has said "it is only a matter of time"
Chips dubbo vs an infected spartan. A worthy opponent for the flood hunter indeed.
Flood spartan would likely lose in seconds do to the raw power of chips
You fool
Not even Chips Dubbo can harm Chips Dubbo
Then it is an even fight
Much like the Flood hid in wait for 1000 years to catch ancient humanity off guard after they thought themselves safe, you caught us after we thought the spooky season was over with a big dose of Flood lore
I see it mentioned a lot, but it was the suit that failed to save Chief, the mjolnier suit is capable of repelling a single infection form to some extent which makes it resistant, but not entirely. It was Cortanas intervention controlling the suit to give the chief enough time to kill the infection form while it was stunned .
I think even dummy AIs would be mandatory to each individual spartan in a spartan kill team assigned to a theater that contained Flood elements to not repeat the same security threat.
Would be cool if we could see all this cool stuff in a game, but I guess we won’t
Agreed, but I tried my best to visualise it all :)
@@HiddenXperiayou did a great job.
Ya it would be nice too have the flood back in the mainline games
I believe their going to add the flood eventually but there are more important issues to discuss sadly
@@halomaster6121The Flood is a boring antagonist, no real goal other than complete assimilation.
At least the Prometheans wanted to enact AI supremacy.
The Covenant wanted a genocidal ascendancy into "godhood."
The Banished want conflict.
And the Endless probably want to come back to life.
This audio story gave me so many chills when I first heard it. It really goes to show ya that nobody is safe from The Flood.
Also, the moral of the story should be this. If you’re a UNSC officer facing the possibility of a Flood outbreak situation, LISTEN TO THE SMART AI AND FOLLOW PROTOCOL!!!!!
I wonder if LV-31 was a reference to LV-426 from the Alien series. Which funnily enough was also orbiting a gas giant.
Absolutely love your flood videos, hopefully they bring them more to the main story for the next Halo, its definitely my favorite scifi antagonist
A new flood lore video?
This will bring us victory, EVERLASTING.
Dude with your voice and editing skills I’d honestly watch the hell out of any content you put in this format. The segment of the Saturn painting was super interesting and historical.
I started writing a DnD campaign based on the Forerunners about 2 years ago. The story goes that an ancient civilization created a super weapon to deal with an impossible threat. Basically the same as the Halo rings and the Flood. I thought it would be cool if instead of the Halo rings still existing, what if they didn't, and instead what if they found a temple that sunk beneath the Earth when the super weapon was activated. The super weapon's power was so great that it breaks off a piece of space time and that shard, including the temple, loges itself in the DnD world, deep underground. While exploring the temple, the adventurers can hear sounds in the distance of some flood forms that have crossed the time barrier, and wandered deeper into the temple, they might even fight a few if they can find them. From here the story can develop two ways. If its a short mission, meaning not the focus of the campaign, the adventurers will find a weakened Gravemind hiding in the Temple. From the Gravemind's perspective, it just arrived. The shard of time broke off when the weapon fired and this gravemind happened to be here. It was damaged by the weapon when the shard was created, which is why it is weakened, so now it waits to regain it's strength, thinking of what to do next now that it has been severed from it's flood network. If this is the main focus of the campaign, then the Gravemind already regained it's strength and went back to the past to reestablish itself. It is then the adventurers find the time barrier and cross it to explore the other side, unaware of the nightmare they have stumbled into.
Thoughts?
They are so screwed
I really love the possibilities with a long form campaign imagine slowly exploring ancient architecture pot marked with plasma fire on exquisite art finding bodies that look far too fresh and far too rotted at the same time not knowing it’s a flood combat form about to rise again
sounds derivative
Honestly, I don't think the fireteam was a flood containment unit. That's probably why they fell so easily, I really can't imagine a true containment unit falling so fast. Especially considering how well they should know the dangers of the parasite
Imagine being a genetically enhanced super soldier, the very best humanity has to offer, the UNSC's shield, and spear, and you don't die fighting off the enemy who wants the extermination of your people, you get devoured by an ancient parasite because a glory hungry officer sent you down to fight a near unstoppable foe. Not only did you lose, you become a puppet for the enemy which consumed you, and have been turned into a weapon against those you fought for.
@jonkoenig2478 Now you peg me
@jonkoenig2478are you scared, Spartan?
I’m not sure if it was intentional, but corporations involved in a horrific situation, by a planet named LV, has a lot of the alien franchise vibes, and Halo CE’s big influence was Alien. I really love this.
A lot of aliens influences from the look of the marines to the assault rifle, the pelican design, sarg Johnson all taken straight from aliens aka alien 2
Oh yeah they openly admitted that a lot of inspiration was drawn from Aliens, I love it though, and I feel like this whole story is a callback in sense, going back to the roots.
Even the marine in Truth and Reconciliation was a nod. The “WE’RE SCREWED, WE’RE SCREWED MAN!!” Was ripped from Aliens.
I think the point of the countermeasures was less of trying to render the Spartan body unusable and more of destroying the Spartan's brain as that's what the Flood would draw from to learn about vital ONI and or UNSC information. A Flood-infected Spartan isn't *really* that much of a threat. If anything, their strength would be more akin to that of a Flood-Infected Brute or Elite.
It's just unfortunate that we'll probably never see this translated into actual gameplay. The Flood really just feels less like an actual threat now and just a puppet that 343 can wave around to appease the Lore-Junkies.
Your forgetting that if a spartan falls then the DNA of that spartan is now know to all flood forms. Meaning spartans are going to be easier to infect as the flood becomes more and more knowledge of spartan anatomy.
@@vincentthought6130 The Flood has converted countless amount of different species and an overwhelming amount of Humans. Spartan DNA in of itself isn’t radically different from Humans, as they’re humans in of themselves. Spartan have their equals in Elites- Who also use shield based armor. If the Flood- Even at feral stage is able to overwhelm warriors that are in even greater strength than humans, then I doubt there’s really a takeaway the Flood would get from infecting a Spartan body.
@@JoynautiSpartans have AIs in their armor. If they get infected, the location of Earth and other important Human places is in the hands of the Flood.
I mean isn't all lore and story telling just a "puppet to wave around and appease lore-junkies"? Seems like an extremely pessimistic way to view fictional stories.
There's also every possibility the Flood will return in a game. We know the Endless are connected to the Flood and Precursors, and the Flood will never truly be neutralized. It's not a matter of if the Flood will return, but when. 343 knows how popular they are, which is why we're getting this. They will always be the biggest threat in the Halo universe.
@@Major_Zephyr I envy your optimism. Really, I do. I’ve been wanting the Flood back in a true fashion ever since Halo 3. Awakening the Nightmare was a treat, but we really haven’t got any reason to believe 343 will be bringing them back in a gameplay sense anytime soon.
Perhaps that "Forunner" ship was just one of the countless flood-controlled Forunner ships that was in the Forunner Flood War?
I’m curious if the condor returned to the Saturn? As you said the condor could leave the system with its FTL but it also could have returned to the Saturn itself, and then we would have a Mona Lisa situation all over again with a corrupted spartan onboard.
Possibly.. though, might be drawing too much attention to Saturn and bit bigger risk of what flood there is to be wiped out by exterminatus the ship. Its a smarter move to get to a backwater world preferrably with sentient life and more of it with knowledge useful to the Flood
I doubt it made it out, this is four years prior to halo infinite and we’ve heard nothing about it in the years after
@@noneed4sleep64well it wouldn’t be the first time that the Flood retreated for years, they did that to ancient humanity and the Forerunners.
@@noneed4sleep64 He's lurking and he's stalking when you least expect it
@@noneed4sleep64Unless the escaping Condor caused a new Flood outbreak which caught Cortana’s attention. Given her experience with the Gravemind as well as what she learned from the Domain, it’s likely that news of a major Flood outbreak would cause her to put many of her other plans on hold to reallocate resources to containing the outbreak, tracking the source of said outbreak, and scouring the galaxy to make sure no other outbreaks are occurring, possibly leaving her forces vulnerable to other forces, like the Banished.
I love the way it described the spartans from Julien's perspective, and Julien's perspective after he's been infected. He saw things in a new way, and just wanted to share his new outlook. So haunting.
Hey @HiddenXperia just got out of hospital after suffering my first epileptic seizure on Saturday. Your videos have been a surprising source of comfort during all of this
This was such a great Halloween treat. Also, loved the bit where Julian said that the cave wasn't a natural formation.
So a captain's goal of greed and honor was what made this situation 100x's worse.....sounds about right
Lmao rewatching the flood ambush on Keyes and his squad, I realized that Keyes wasn’t aiming for anything, he literally was shooting at a ramp 😂
Unless. The ramp was infected by the Flood lol
He wanted to ramp up his firepower since he doesn’t keep it loaded lol
I think that Saturn represents the crew of the ship, and perhaps the UNSC/ONI as a whole. They try to destroy or "devour" the Spartan, a creation, or in other words a "child", of the UNSC because they are a threat to the UNSC's power, and if they don't deal with it the flood could overthrow humanity. The Spartan II's in particular can be considered ONI's children since they were raised by the military. And going off of Halsey's perspective on her own work- that the Spartans represent the next phase of human evolution, then Spartans could be considered the children of humanity as a species.
I love your lore videos. It genuinely makes me smile to see how happy you are covering Halo Lore. I can see the light in your eyes every time you cover anything. Keep up the good work!
"After contracting a mystery illness"(shows flood spore), no way my man just implied that Goya was infected by the flood💀
Questions from the peanut gallery:
So the bomb that Jorge detonated was actually just a slipspace drive right?
so he didn't actually "die" persay- Just teleported into a random part of space, right?
So that being said, the shop item of Jorge being infected could be canon by a speculation of technicality, right?
Jorge was completely un-personed.
He improperly mounted the drive so that it had no destination, teleporting him and the ship into slipspace but nowhere else. Slipspace is literally a total void where matter doesn’t really exist, so the atoms that made up Jorge and the ship were completely deleted from the entire universe.
The radiation would’ve taken care of that completely
God, it feels good to be back. The Flood have always been one of my favourite parts of the lore, the horror and elder itch vibe they bring is something that I love in fiction (for another example HiddenX, the Tyranids. HORRIFYING). This was always going to be an amazing story and video and I loved how you framed it and the voice acting.
But my god…that ending. When I heard the voice of the flood say the word “ship” and then “CONDOR” I knew what was coming and had an immediate fear reaction. No one in the galaxy is ready for the horror that is coming…(and I cannot wait)
This story just solidifies the fact that we need a flood survival horror game. It gave off heavy dead space vibes that I think would translate into a game.
My guess was that they were in fact cutting through bio mass. Considering that none of these guys have disassembled a a forerunner ship they probably didn’t know what it was
Didnt expect the real lore of the painting. I appreciated that. Adds more depth to the story.
I have a feeling that this is 343's way of bringing the flood back into the universe officially. I have a feeling the next game will have them come in and come in rapidly.
I would love to see one long video as a collaboration of the flood and how its changed throughout the years, essentially a compilation of all past videos, it would be difficult and require alot of time but i think the end result would definitely be worth it
I’ve loved this painting for some time. Really appreciate the explanation you gave, including its unique origin ❤
Whenever you cover flood lore. You always know it out of the park with the level of respect and gravitas it deserves.
I thought this was a fanfiction the whole time to be honest. Wild to get a definitive answer of the first infected Spartan. I really do hope this gets used somewhere, I'd love to see the Flood again
I think the Flood voice was at most a Proto-Gravemind, at least a minor keymind like a Juggernaut.
Also, the “Arm. Blade. Weapon” feels like a reference to Halo 4 Flood Spartans from Infection
We love new Flood lore, especially hearing CORRUPTOR. My god, the chills I would get if we heard that in a game🫣
Still wish we got a game that ties to the book Halo the flood or whatever it was called. Imagine even a game where we see alpha base and get to play as Jenkins. And imagine playing as him when he’s half human half infected right up to the explosion of the ring. That would be interesting or even Player 1 Jenkins player 2 Johnson.
Wasn't that book just a recap of Halo 1?
@@General_CNah goes into more depth and what happens at Alpha base and what we don’t see in the game.
We see Alpha Base in the Halo Arcade game, and SPV3 (Halo 1 mod)
Listening to this audiobook the other day Legitimately made me feel uncomfortable and freaked out. It was very well written. Even with the lack detail it allows the reader to fill generally scarred from either preconceived notions or the unknowns.
Really hope we get more flood content in Infinite and future games
Seeing you so happy to be talking about Flood lore again and hearing how enthusiastically you read through the story is like a breath of fresh air for my Halo Lore loving brain. Here's to more great lore videos from you in the near future, I can't wait!
The nice part is that is feels like a genuine Flood story, not the bastardised stuff we have in Infinite rn with the glowing boils but I doubt this'll be picked up again
Imagine playing through the largest halo campaign ever, then hearing "we have an incoming ship, the..Unsc Saturn?"
"I thought that ship was lost on a mining mission."
Then put of nowhere, you see it jump in, covered and coated in flood, a mirror to how the flood showed up in halo 2 in high charity, and the high charity ship slipspacing on earth in halo 3
man that audiobook was hardcore dark haha i think halo needs more
23:44 Imagine if the Halo universe had their own version of the Unitologists.
Technically they did, but that was before new humanity. I wonder if there is a newer version of that cult
I mean, the Covenant had a cult that was kinda similar
More flood lore is always great
I know that the Flood is terrifying in the games, but it doesn't have *SH'T* on the horror that side stories like this make the reader/listener imagine.
Your story telling and the editing was super good !!! I love this video !!!
I enjoy the format you did for this. Semi voiced with some appropriate sound effects, reminds me of a high quality audiobook.
Saturn Devorering His Son alldues to the UNSC Saturn, causing the death of its spartans, thus having to destroy them.
Hidden
You portrayed that flood story so well and disturbing especially with the Saturn references and with the voices for the flood, it was very interesting!
I swear you could read me a scary story and id be under my blanket.
Nice to see some new flood content
A well made flood horror game would be awesome. The Fall of High Charity as group of forgotten marines in the prison perhaps? You would need to evade the Covenant and flood alike with room for some desperate alliances.
All I want to know is what kinds of flood forms were trapped there that they managed to threaten a squad of hellbringers and cyclopes. Gaunts, maybe?
you mean forerunner-era floods?
@@delawarevex4976Forerunner-era pure forms that were gradually formed from the spores that remained after the Halos firing. Makes sense why the team was overrun, these weren’t modern day Flood forms. The team was prepared for typical human and Covie combat forms, not Forerunner-era pure forms. In that case, they would’ve done fine like other Flood outbreaks. They severely underestimated their enemy
A spin off game of this or even a movie would be SICK
HiddenXperia never fails to Flood our insides with amazing content.
Ayyyy tha- wait PARDON
🤨
🤨
🤨
mmmfffgghhhh
Your interpretation of the use of Goya's painting is an interesting one I hadn't considered- Spartans being the rising Greek Gods casting out the Titans. Initially, when I read the story, I had a much different interpretation. The UNSC Saturn was Cronus, its captain's hubris was beckoning a downfall, but instead, it had to nuke the asteroid, killing its own men, slaughtering its own kind... the UNSC Saturn, nuking its own men, the first infected Spartan, his son. The Commander being forced to immolate his own troops- deployed on his orders, knowing he would one day be seen as the deranged man devouring his own son.
The Flood, here, are the threat, they're the 'rising' children, the ones who will one day upend the Humans just as Humans finally took the Mantle from the Forerunners, it's a story of Cycles, just as in the Greek mythos, Forerunners destroyed Precursors, Humanity weakened and eventually inherited the mantle from their former forerunner enemies... and eventually, just as Humanity had to cast down Forerunners and Covenant to rise, the Flood threatens them, and in doing so, literally represents the cyclical revenge of the Precursors.
The difference in writing from the games and outside lore is just saddening. Halo really is a book and short story franchise with side games attached to it.
If we get short stories like this every season ill take it. Id like more but something is better than nothing.
we also hear the Spartan consciousness force the hive to say the word 'abort' so:
- Spartan Flood in space
- Friendly Flood? major halo 2 vibe
Would be great to see some of this in some sort of... oh I dunno, like some kind of interactive narrative or something.
I wonder if 343 would be able to figure out how to do that. Like, take the multiplayer of Halo and attach like a STORY or something to it.
I dunno, maybe I'm just a crazy guy with radical ideas. I dunno.
>Be a normal marine
>Be deployed on the ground to an infection zone
>First 30 minutes in you hear Code UPSILON over the comms
>Immediately become the fastest marine in the UNSC as you sprint back to the dropship
Any time something from Halo Wars 2 gets acknowledged by 343 it's a good day... seeing a flood infected cyclops would be terrifying
That was so sick the painting reference was so unreal. the story felt more legit
Omg he liked my comment. Bro I’m recreating the halo reach boneyard invasion map with AI. Do you have any tips on how to forge a multi progressional zone/ctf game mode
Same tradition/style as the Mona Lisa story. I love it. As for the ship, the UNSC could have just made a mistake identifying it. I'm glad I found this regardless. My RL went insane, like crisis levels of insane, and I'm having trouble cleaning up my apartment so that inspectors can check for smoke damage. My allergies are making it worse. I'm literally waiting for the temperature to rise above freezing so i can turn off the heat and open the windows. Thank god I have my cat and youtube and thank god my mother was willing to bunny sit for me.
Edit: and just so you know, the Mona Lisa is my FAVORITE flood story.
You always made videos feel like a debrief. Keep up the good work best ONI agent
Like the Rusalka armor kit is how a woman essentially drowns in water, or a flood haunts people
Slavic lore thing
UNSC Command - “A Spartan has been infected, prepare a full strike team and nuclear weapons, this is a major threat”
The Spartan II and III’s around when the call is made - “which Spartan is it, whats there number?”
UNSC Com - “It’s a Spartan IV named…”
Spartan II/III - “oh, I though you said it was a threat? Yeah the flood part is but the Spartan part not so much, just send a few of us older ones down we’ll see the situation cleaned up in seconds”
True lmfao
Yeah wake me up when a Spartan II gets shreked
A SPARTAN INFECTED BY THE WHAT?????????!?!?!?!
I would love to see someone make a machinima based on this short story
Listened to the story this morning.
Was awesome. I wish it was longer.
I love the flood voice (grave mind/proto or what ever it is) I wonder if any of the Spartans got onto the condor. And would love to see it appear somewhere
Now we need this in game with animations and cutscenes.
Th e fact that the flood is going to some corner of the galaxy reminds me of venezea or however it's spelt a planet of humans who betrayed the unsc and is full of crime and they sided with the banished according to what i read from items in the Rakshisha armour core
Stuff like this is proof that there’s still interesting places to take halo, it’s just that the last couple of games just happened to take it into the most brain dead places possible
I hope 343 can leverage the ending of this story towards a potential major event in a future game
Imagine the Created being forced to contend with a major Flood outbreak.
I love how Julien is also a dead space reference. Nothing left but his laser cutter? With an infection spreading throughout a space complex? Seems familiar.
I'm just saying if in the future playable elites come back, we must have a flood infected elite. Or if they instead want to make brutes playable same thing with them. Man i dont get why i love the flood so much maybe its the atmosphere, brutality and their design. Plus the hivemind is extremely smart and only gets smarter the more it infects. Man i would love a halo horror game similar to FEAR if you remember that game or dead space
30:12 this just made my stomach drip. Realizing what’s happening
Okay, I have some beef with the story. The failsafe has a massive hole in the lore were Spartans would active and explode the reactor core in their suits to prevent being captured by the covenant. This would expand to any type of capture with no escape was possible. It makes no sense the Spartans suit wouldn't cause a massive explosion after dying in a flood infected zone.
I have to read it myself but the flood could have easily used a logic plague to stop the reactor protocol from going off. Why the reactor didnt blow but the helmet did, is a bit odd to me.
Could be a lot of factors why, newer reactors that are smaller, the helmet explosives meant to take place of the entire reactor going off, its hard to say
Edit: it was from halo way point, reckoning data. Gallows.
I love the interpretation of the Flood incading the host mind.
It's not a bunch of horryfyong images, its just a voice literally invading your mind. "WEAPON, MEMORIES, HUNGER, FIRE, SPRINTING, SLICING, DEVOURING, LEAVE BEHIND, DEVOUR"
The host can still think, the host no longer controls its own body. Those words that the hist can hear are actually the things that its body its doing, and what used to be a person, is now but a mere passenger on its own body.
Terrifying.
Yes my favorite halo lore RUclipsr uploaded thanks for the great videos Xperia love all of it