For all the Halo folks around here, step on in.
So I was doing some thinking the other day, specifically about the efforts the Forerunners put into finding a cure for the Flood, and how all results seemingly pointed to there being none.
Now, memory is a bit iffy as I haven't read some of this stuff for some time, but if my memory is right, then I believe the supposed cure ancient humanity possessed was non existent, a ploy used by the Flood.
But, even if the cure was lost, or simply a ploy, there still may be something out there, and it may have been in the hands of the Forerunners the entire time.
We know the Forerunners are advanced, and we know they were advanced enough to tinker with time itself, some examples include the slipspace crystal found in an installation on Reach, and the device used to destroy the Primordial, which subjected it to aeons worth of time in an instant, until it turned to dust.
Now you ask, how could time factor into a cure for the Flood? Well, we gotta go a few years back, to a particular novel, and a particular man in the novel.
And no, it's not our good buddy Johnson.
No, we're talking about a man known as Wallace A. Jenkins.
See, Jenkins was infected by the Flood, but he didn't follow the normal procedure of having his mind taken control of and wiped and stripped of useful information. No, he retained his own mind, and to some extent, could could regain control of himself when the parasite in him was subjected to pain, or through considerable willpower, held it at bay.
And the reason for this, the reason he wasn't fully taken over, was because the parasite was old. Jenkins was in tune with the parasite to some degree, and could make out its motivations and such, and knew that he wasn't like the others around him.
So, in theory, if the parasitic form of the Flood spends a long enough time alive, then it becomes less potent. The time isn't known however. So lets say we take it to another level. Lets say we subject some Flood supercells to time based aging, would it be possible that they would wear out, and lose their ability to multiply and spread through the host?
In any event, I would find it very ironic if a potential way to stop flood from infecting its host was to subjugate it to the wear of time, which ironically was how the flood originated.
Ignoring Johnson's fluke, which has the possibility of not being replicated in other humans or various aliens, I think there's some viable option for fighting the Flood with time based equipment.
Care to discuss?
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I have to wonder if that is more of a waiting game than an actual cure though.