The Genocide Option- Planning for the worst case scenario

[Allanea]

Complete safety from the flood would require a civilian population that has no organic components whatsoever (and quite possibly, no organic lifeforms whatsoever), and/or having your entire population armed with military grade weaponry and environmentally-sealed power armor, constantly.

Or a big server to upload you mindstates to.

Then massproduce armored combat drones and fight-kill-burninate.

[Kanuckistan]

Complete safety from the flood would require a civilian population that has no organic components whatsoever (and quite possibly, no organic lifeforms whatsoever), and/or having your entire population armed with military grade weaponry and environmentally-sealed power armor, constantly.

Theatre shields help alot, especially in terms of buying time to suit up or find shelter.

[The Mindset]

Can someone explain, exactly, what the "flood" is and how it spreads?

[Central Facehuggeria]

Can someone explain, exactly, what the "flood" is and how it spreads?

Hmm. They're a race of parasites around the size of a poodle. They latch onto you and basically turn you into a killer mutant tool-using zombie with tentacles and superstrength.

The dangerous thing about them is that they reproduce extremely quickly and always charge in great masses. AZN's flood can apparently saturate the air with flood spores, which lets them infest people much more easily.

And honestly, I don't think they're nearly as threatening as their source material makes them out to be. You want a truely scary entity? Go for Vernor Vinge's Blight. *Shudders*

Failing that, go for Chryssalids. Creatures capable of carving right through a tank, moving at least thrice as fast as a human in peak condition, and which have a gestation time measured in the single digit second range from egg implantation (they use humans as incubators) to growth of a newborn Chryssalid. Oh, and they can jump several stories in the air, shrug off twenty millimeter high explosive and armor-piercing rounds, and are roughly as intelligent as a chimp. My national animal, and a big reason why the Facehuggerians are so violent. Though I've toned down the truely insane gestation in Facehuggerian Chryssalids.

[The Mindset]

Oh. Hrm. Well, the Mindsetti, via implants, have such control over their bodies that if they were infested they'd probably trigger total cellular necrosis and cause every single cell to die, thus preventing further outbreak. Then they'd be cloned and their memories transferred. Viral and anti-bacterial/fungal blocks are installed in their major arteries so they're pretty hardy and difficult to infect in the first place. If the flood thingy latched itself onto a limb, they'd simply shut down all fluid delivery too and from it and prevent the rest of the body becoming infected. To take down a Mindsetti through viral warfare, biological creature based or otherwise, is fairly hard.

[Central Facehuggeria]

...Except that the Flood necrotize flesh as part of the infestation. When I was mentioning zombies, I wasn't kidding.

[The Mindset]

...Except that the Flood necrotize flesh as part of the infestation. When I was mentioning zombies, I wasn't kidding.

What's the point in that? Necrotised cells can't do shit.

[Xenonier]

Since when could bungie ever write a hard science fiction story in the first place? ;P. That said mindset, I don't think you'll get a believable answer to many of your questions given the nature of the game, and how bungie loves their 'awesome truly awesome unexplained uber plasma weaponry'.

That said, It just so happens that my evil filthy nation of chronomancers do all wear power armour the moment they go outdoors, being the filthy chronomancers that they are. The whole plan reminds me a little of kythons, in that it's most effectiveagainst the unprepared or the foolish. Which is all well and good, it's what biological weapons do.

And as for 'genocide' weapons, I'll write those up in awhile. Finally got the time to do so.

[Central Facehuggeria]

That said, It just so happens that my evil filthy nation of chronomancers do all wear power armour the moment they go outdoors, being the filthy chronomancers that they are.

...Egads. You're like a benevolent and filthy chronomancing version of myself.

[Kreshh]

Can someone explain, exactly, what the "flood" is and how it spreads?

My understanding of the source material is that the flood infestation takes place in several stages, of which what is described by CF is only the first. The flood parasites infest the tissue of any life they encounter, using their lifeless bodies as tools to further spread the infection even as they feast upon their mass.

These infested forms eventually swell up, becoming living bombs that detonate their bodies upon encountering an enemy. Thing is, none of these flood forms are particularly difficult to kill, but this ease belies their true purpose. When a flood is destroyed, it releases into the atmosphere spores. Eventually these spores build to such a dense concentration that all unshielded life is consumed merely from contact with the atmosphere. This eventually results in the creation of a massive, possibly planet encompassing, flood super-organism.

By killing them, you aid them.


Still, its far from the worst FT organism ever envisioned. The Beast from Homeworld: Cataclysm, for instance, could to the same thing in about an hour.