Interstellar Stage

The Interstellar Stage is the third stage of a Flood infestation. The Flood progresses into this stage when it has the technological ability to leave a given stellar system.

Although the initiation of the Interstellar Stage has less to do with the Flood's biological development and more with their access to viable space travel, late into this stage, the Flood transcends beyond its purely biological aspect. With the assimilation of entire planets and the development of Key Minds, planet-engulfing Gravemind forms, the sheer intelligence and processing power of the Flood's collective consciousness enables them to manipulate neural physics. In the final years of the Forerunner-Flood war, the Flood was able to control Precursor artifacts through this effect, which made them nearly unstoppable against the Forerunners. However, all Precursor artifacts in the galaxy were supposedly destroyed when the Halo Array was fired at the conclusion of the war, denying the Flood access to Precursor technology in later times.

This is the stage the Flood was in during the final years of the Forerunner-Flood war and the events of the Battle of Installation 00. After taking an entire galaxy, the Flood is theorized to enter the Transgalactic Stage.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3
 * Halo: Cryptum
 * Halo: Primordium
 * Halo 4
 * Terminals
 * Halo: Silentium