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 when Combat Forms, reach the end of their life span, or becomes to damaged to fight. 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 won't 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 Brain Form, to inform them of a potential sentient being.

Creation


When an Infection Form takes over a creatures 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 will also evolve into a carrier, regardless of its status.

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 through a chain reaction 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. This means that enough needles from a needler will kill it, or you can through a grenade down and shoot it to death.

Trivia

 * Carrier Forms are sometimes nicknamed "popcorn", due to how they "pop" and release Infection Forms.
 * 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 the spine of the Carrier Form's former body, can clearly be seen in the Halo 3 model.
 * In Halo 3 Carrier Forms are far more resistant to damage, with a full clip from a Covenant Carbine not even killing them.
 * Carrier forms have blotches of green on their sides.
 * In Halo 2, the Carrier forms drip liquid.
 * In Halo 3, even a Spartan Laser beam can only penetrate two Carrier Forms. In turn, this will make the Carrier Forms explode without releasing any Infection Forms at all, similar to sticking a Carrier Form with a grenade.
 * In halo 3, when they explode, their "legs" are all that's left.

Related Articles

 * Flood
 * Shielded Flood Carriers