Flood Carrier Form

The Carrier Form is a type of normal Flood form primarily used to create and transport Infection Forms thus spreading the Flood.

Overview
Carrier forms are formed by the Flood from species with insufficient calcium reserves for transformation to Combat Forms or from Combat Forms. Carrier Forms perpetuate the Flood species by acting as incubators for newly created Infection Forms and keeping them safe until they're fully developed.

Once the Infection Forms are ready, the carrier simply explodes spontaneously, sending the new Infection Forms flying into the air. As soon as the Infection Forms are released, they begin searching for new hosts. It should be noted that Carrier Forms will not wait until full maturation has occurred.

If potential enemy hosts are nearby it will simply get close to them and explode, sending the Infection Forms flying at the unsuspecting and often injured or killed enemies. The explosion of a Carrier Form is like the explosion of a fragmentation grenade, and deals damage to any players nearby.

The Carrier form has a simple mindset, which is to release the Infection Forms it carries to a suitable host. Other than organic bodily sounds, they cannot speak or make any other sound. Though they can somehow communicate with other Carriers, possibly through a Gravemind or Proto-Gravemind, to inform them of a potential sentient being.

Creation


When an Infection Form takes over a body that is unsuitable for combat, has insufficient calcium reserves for transformation to a Combat Form, or once a Combat Form has been damaged beyond usefulness, it becomes a Carrier Form. Eventually when a Combat Form has lived long enough, it too will evolve into a carrier, regardless of damage taken.

Combat
Carrier Forms are usually considered slow and of little threat unless they are close to the player. However, one particularly dangerous trait of exploding Carrier Forms is the explosive chain reactions they can cause. A Carrier explosion will cause any other Carrier Forms close enough to explode also. They also cause any nearby explosives or objects to explode. This means a single Carrier can cause a massive explosion filling much of a small area. This can be used to a soldier's advantage if there are Combat or Infection Forms surrounding the Carrier(s).

Any direct explosion eliminates the threat of the Carrier, as well as any Infection Forms that were incubating inside of it.

Trivia



 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, a Carrier form could rapidly gain speed for a short time.
 * In Halo 3, Carriers are more or less common but come in groups of 2-4 which are even deadly on Easy difficulty and are most resistant to Human firearms.
 * The outline of spine of the Carrier Form's host can clearly be seen in the Halo 3 model.

Related Articles

 * Flood
 * Shielded Flood Carriers