Corrupter Protocol | Lore and Theory 

Saturn Devouring his Son: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9H9Pj2YhpyQ.htmlsi=MtfjWqfjnvWgFQyA

"When a Spartan becomes infected with the Flood." That's a string of words I really don't want to see together.

To me the head bombs were definitely an asset denial for information and to hopefully destroy the neural-link to the armor

The Mjolnir tried to detonate, but the self destruction was neutralized by the infection form. And the brain was destroyed by the gallows protocol, but the infection form still managed to survive.

The GALLOWS procedure is exactly designed to prevent a Keyes-level situation. The suit was also attempting to initiate a self-destruct sequence, but somehow, the logic plague was used to circumvent that. There is a blurb on Waypoint that supports this. Which is wild because I thought only the Gravemind could do that at a certain level of growth, but crimony, that's terrifying.

It's low key comical that the protocol for dealing with the flood essentially boils down to a war crime exclusive operation

The captain in this story made my blood boil. Captain Keyes went through one of the most horrific deaths in the entire franchise to protect the galaxy from the Flood, and this prick spat in the face of Keyes and every other hero who died stopping them and put the whole galaxy at risk just to fatten his wallet.

to be honest, it was foolish for the Special Forces branches in Halo to assume their Guillotine Protocol would stop a Spartan from becoming infected. If they really wanted to be thorough, the whole body needs to be disintegrated to prevent the Flood from making use of any biological material needed to help it spread. The Guillotine Protocol is just extremely flawed to the point where I wonder if the ones behind the protocol just watched a bunch of zombie flicks and assumed that the head was the part needed to be intact for the Flood to spread

13:48 I’ve mentioned this in past videos but can we highlight just how smart the flood is, even in its opening stages? It lured the marines into the facility in Halo CE, ambushed the 2nd squad- Closest to the exit and also covering any retreat. And took down the 2nd pelican without alerting any of the marines that were with Keyes and Johnson. Then they lured the Chief into the same trap. Lastly they realized how important the captain was and made it a priority to get to a ship with him partially infected and away from any combat, and then placing him under heavy guard. If that isn’t horror idk what is. And it’s shame it’s never really touched on by the lord or RU-vidrs to that depth.

hype loved saturn devouring his son, my favorite part was the dude thinking about whether or not he could run from the unsc or accept his court marshal

Something critical you forgot to note that in the Gallows intel drop among the lines a code there’s a line that say “Nuclear Fusion Cell Detonation……… FAILED” I think that’s implying there is in fact a countermeasure to destroy the suit but the flood infection was able to stop it.

I think the flood were able to interface with the suit and turn off the hydrostatic gel layer being pressurized. It did turn off the suit's self-nuke protocol, I imagine it could disable the layer if it could do that.

A few thoughts come to mind. One, the fact that Chief managed to survive his first and multiple encounters against the Gravemind was not only lucky but extremely pissed off the Flood. No doubt this guy was making up plans to get his teeth on some Spartan biomass somehow after that. Two, during the climax of the battle I loved how it seemed to the other personnel that they might actually win the fight against the Flood. My first thought was holy fuck those Spartans must be getting pounded cuz they were definitely the parasite's target after they showed up. Failing to follow protocol was the biggest fuck up that day and everyone around knew it lol

15:30 there actually is measure to activate the fusion core just that the flood managed to get there before it actually detonated

The suit tried to blow but the flood compromised the failsafe. The head bomb is a back up to be sure that at least the most critical piece doesn't fall into enemies hands. It's really pretty smart, on humanities part. They hedged their bets by including another method of self destruction. At the end of the day, all the flood will walk away with is a stronger meat puppet, compared to other combat forms. Spartans are tough but it's their mind that's the real force multiplier, without they're just a stronger combat form in fancy armor.

I loved Saturn devouring his son, it was an amazing story and I really want a continuation!!! As far as theories go however, I have a few. It’s possible that the flood has already infiltrated the suits systems. I say that because even the text in the "Rusalka" armor kit states "CORRUPTER, UPSILON, no not for you" which makes me think the flood manually stopped the rest of the suit from being destroyed. Not only that but I’ve reason to believe (even if this wasn’t that important) that the Spartan in the rusalka armor was the first to fall. That being because the visor is literally split open, as if it exploded but failed to fully break the helmet. I’m not sure if all of fireteam leviathan was infected as it’s rather ambiguous. Anyway, just my thoughts, great video!!!

Usually the Flood try to prioritise killing Spartans over infecting them because majority of the time it's too difficult due to the augmentations and it takes too long, so they'd rather kill them.

...but what if the human physiology can take only that much, and the spartan simply cannot be so highly overclocked as a regular human, even by the flood? I'd say it's most likely that while a human flood form is strengthened by X, the spartan might not possess as much hidden/unused potential. It might still be much powerful as a non-infected spartan, but not such a jump as the spartan is to a baseline human.

"Shout out to John for... I don't fucking know" 😂😂😂

Thanks for this upload while you're going through so much. Your community is always here for you bro.

A Spartan is a terrifying thing to behold but it was only a matter of time before one became infected they way I look at it of course ONI would want to keep that under wraps

I'm glad some people recognize Halo Wars lore

On the Halo lore, Spartans II John 117 and Jerome 092 were almost infected, but were saved by Cortana & Serina before the flood managed to pierce through their armour after their shields got depleted, and that was in both cases with Mark V armour that wasn't designed for flood encounters. This short story game me thoughts, maybe the spartans IV encountered forerunner flood forms or even pure forms like tanks, juggernauts or else thst were able to infect them, the only certain thing is that there's a condor on the lose with 4 infected spartans IV floods that can start a new outbreak if this story is handled properly.

Flood Spartans aren't completely destroyed almost certainly because ONI wants to study them. Definitely something they'd try despite the unbelievable risk

My theory is that, regardless of if the suit detonated, it would not be considered enough for ONI comfort. Even if they detonate the suit, they would then on top of that be nuking the entire continent that spartan was on anyway. So at that point, why worry about it? Lock it in place, destroy the brain, and even everyone within the solar system drops every ounce of ordinance they have on the location. Detonating the chest isn't seen as necessary, especially since they probably don't know the Flood Spartan can move in Armor Lock since it's never happened before now.

A message is heard over all UNSC communication channels the message repeats: Corruptor is engaged, Corruptor is engaged

Not only the fact that the Spartans have key information thay should not get leaked but by blowing the head you also destroy the ai core in the Spartans helmet, the ai while rare are potentially the single worst thing the flood could infect with the logic plague, as found by the forerunners

so if the suit kills the Spartan but that was still not enough to kill the parasite, I remember reading the Flood novel and it does gives us the horrifying account of a marine who was infected and he was literally not in control of his body, to know Flood infection doesnt kill you, you consciousness still lives only for you to witness this other thing take use you like that, terrifying...

I've wondered this before and had always assumed there was some reason they hadn't. Will be interesting to watch this and challenge the things I had taken for granted. It would be kinda fun if the armour had a self-destruct function when flood invasion of the suit is detected. Edit: just over halfway done. This is way more intense that I had been visualising. You'd think the ship could use generators to generate a shock or energy discharge to destroy the form and incinerate the body. But maybe the biomass could simply fill in the suit anyway

Listening to the story there were a lot of factors that led to the Spartans being infected and it was the fault of the captain for disobeying The ship’s AI warning to send a spartan team to try to reclaim the forerunner ship . Even though they had Hellbringers and cyclops units as backup but it was still not enough to save them.

I will mention this about the Armour Kit Rusulka, the armour seen on the Spartan is the, Recon helmet (as seen on Jun marksman of the Spartan team Noble), ODST shoulder pads and Type FJ knee guards

The uncomfortable answer, the one every spartan alive dreads, Is yes. And that answer is already staring us in the face, waiting for us to stare back.

*I feel really bad for the Spartan. That’s one helluva way to die.*

Something maybe overlooked... what happens to a Ai that is paired to an infected spartan?

343 need to wise up and get the flood back into the campaign

Halo lore just brings me immense joy. It feels necessary as a part of my life it means that much to me!!

Informative! That was both fun and immersive to listen to. Great job on the video. Kudos!✨👏👏

You know, I feel it would have been smarter to set off a 2 stage detonation. First the head is destroyed to 100% guarantee that the flood won’t get info out of the spartan, then have the rest of the armor or at least the chest cavity explode, neutralizing it’s ability to fight.

You should try and do an autopsy of a flood infected spartan by an Oni-Cdc specialist.

So it seems the only thing this protocol wanted to accomplish was delaying the Graveminds memory absorption in the end. Its incredible how well-thought the Halo series is. Factoring limitations, solutions and overall goals.

Probably will be the last well executed and interesting expansion of the Halo lore. At least they’re going out answering a few lore fan questions.

Honestly ive always thought a glassing followed later by a railgun barrage would be great flood control while leaving the earth mixed enough to repopulate the area shortly afterwards.

You know looking back on what you described here. The post Halo 4 era would have been actually perfect for a galactic wide exploration of the Halo array in the games. You could still implement plenty of enemies such as put out of contact rouge covenant groups in rare encounters, the sentinels itself with their wide variety of varient classes, and most importantly the flood being a main centerpoint of threat due to outbreaks occuring due to mistakes from inexperience with containment protocol. Overall it would make for a fitting plot to explore the bigger picture of this universe and the games finally shedding light on the precursors as well. Even future events following Infinte still has the opportunity to explore these possibilities.

I really liked that ending! Was rather haunting. One thing I think is terrifying about an infected spartan isn't the strength but the SPEED of them. If they can just about keep up with a Spartan II then imagine what they could theoretically be capable of. Not to mention combat speed. Their strength, combat speed enhanced with spartan augmentations would probably exceed that of Mjolnir armour, as in just punch straight through it lol. Imagine a tank from H3 with the speed of a combat form, evasion of a infector form and strength to one shot you. Real scary stuff...

Why don't they just set the armor's reactor to self-destruct in the event of flood infection, like the Chief did to Grace-093 after she was killed by Brutes during Operation FIRST STRIKE? The resulting explosion destroyed the entrance of a power complex on the Unyielding Hierophant, and that was a Mark V suit, so Gen II's reactor overloading should instantly vaporize the wearer and any infected tissue immediately.

This would seem to be the very first flex of practice of epsilon and corrupter

Oh no, this sounds almost like an ONI plot to see the capabilities of flood infected Spartans against enemies. Theyve done similar before. Also if they wanted to keep the Spartan alive they could have pulsed the shield, we know Cortana did that and it worked

Ahhh yes, I to remember when Humanity in Halo learned the tech of "MASS Accelerator Cannons"< take that, Mass Effect! xD

im happy to be part of this channel for the past 5 years or so :)

Ah yes the return of my favorite Halo RU-vidr

A regular human marine infected by the Flood is enough to send chief flying if he gets a hit off. A Flood infected Spartan would be actual hell on Earth or any planet it’s on.

At the end of halo 2 the gravemind said he would ask cortana questions what were those questions exactly

I assumed it was the back area of hosts the flood POD infector preferred since the spine is closer and would explain it burrowed and apperared face-first through the chest. Also the infected spartan could have been infected NOT by a pod infection form but airborne spores caused by them infiltrating breaches, gaps and wounds in the armor and undersuit. Caused f.ex by combat forms infectious claw appendages in melee combat or the protection harmed by debri etc in thick floaty infectious spore pockets of infectious fog, mist pockets etc. Spores might infect and transform a bit slower than by a pod i.form but still. Interesting nontheless! And its canon so thsts great to hear 👏

Hi. I've being thinking about the UNSC arcenal and came to One sollution: it's All utilises Electro-Ignition instead of modern-based trigger... As such: in "Halo: Nightfall" series (which is lore) there is a moment, where One of the ODST's says: "So what?! I'll turn it on to shoot ya, and turn it off immediately!" Refering to his MA5 rifle... That reference makes no sence for trigger-based weapons, but Absolutely "must have!" for electro-ignition... That also explains power source in Every UNSC weapon

Would the suit's systems even be susceptible to the logic plague? Unless I'm mistaken, the suit doesnt have any smart AI technology natively in it (or dumb AI for that matter). Wouldnt the logic plague require an entity to understand that logic for it to work? I could be wrong, but thats how i understand it.

Spartan 117B reporting

I’d like to point out that in halo 5, chief was able to move while his armor was locked by Cortana near the end. He’s only able to move his head and arm a bit but he’s able to overcome through his own strength.

I think 343 would be stupid to not use this as a way to introduce the Flood into the main games.

I'm not sure how I feel about Spartans being infected now being cannon, I can somewhat understand it slightly with the spartan 4's having less augmentation that previous iterations of spartan how ever I am still under the impression that Spartans are considered dead, degenerated or rotten with the augments they receive and so can't infect them, is this not the case anymore? also with that on top of the suits themselves being able to kill any infection forms or spores that try to infiltrate the suit. I don't know, I feel like this kind of just removes the nuance of the Spartans which they should retain. maybe I'm just still holding a candle to for the old lore.

Real world answer: Corporate greed. If the armor enters meltdown, then they can't entice players back with Flood Spartan skins [and to sell said skins]. In universe answer: possibly also greed. By locking the armor and destroying the head [including not only the Spartan's knowledge, but the comms and other sensitive equipment in the helmet], they probably thought the infested spartan to be effectively neutralized, and thus... retrievable for study [and possibly salvage of the rest of the armor].

[Warning: spartan has fallen to the flood!] Everyone: ............ ODSTs: nah. Ain't gonna deal with that! Marines: ..... where's chips when you need him.. Other spartans: oh god.. ONI: nuke. EVERYTHING!!

Imagine a mini series where a 6 Spartan Flood containment team is on a mission to frigate of some kind and during the mission one of the Spartans get infected and we see from another Spartan’s POV as the infection form burrows into their teammate all you hear the shrieks a cries of immense pain, as the spartan armor begins to lock up due to the protocol, simultaneously all noise over the radio just goes silent and the spartan’s head drops down just as the armor locks up completely, nothing but silence as the rest of the team knew the micro explosives went off and they all stare for a second thinking they’re in the clear but then the head moves up and the flood mutations start and it’s just more horror like from then on in the series. I doubt any of the Spartan IVs have had any experience with the flood so they wouldn’t really know what to expect. They may be trained on what to expect but nothing could prepare them for the real deal. If done right I think it could make for a great mini series

I just find it funny how when these got announced i asked does these skins mean that spartan 4s are susceptible to the flood and the spartan 4 stans got mad at me when you soon later say there is in universe lore of even spartans getting infected 😂

Isnt there recent lore that 343 released from this seasonal update that gives a description of the mjolnir software enacting the safety protocols of the armor, but then was overcome by the logic plague very quickly? I dont remember if it was a post or one of the new flood armor/effects in customization that gave the description

I love your take on this. Keep em coming. Thank you for your hard work!

They probably don't have better protocols because ONI wanted to see what would happen.

I remember when spartans were just immune to the flood

I want to see a short animation of what that would look like, the shield popping and the form latches on, blood and gore and metal being torn apart as the spartan struggles to pull the infection form out of his fresh chest cavity, him trying to fight back as his body twists and contorts and reforms, and then finally the infection reaching for the head as a light shines behind the visor, overloads, and then explodes sending brain matter and glass shooting out just as the infection takes control of what’s left inside the helmet and the jagged destroyed armor then slumping over before reanimating and letting out a horrible flood roar

Essentially Cole Protocol. In that case, NAV data, AIs, and any information pertaining to Earth were to be scrubbed, whatever the means necessary. The Protocol itself simply doesn't state to self destruct a whole ship/station to do so. It gives a focused intent on what is to be accomplished, so even someone down to the lowest rank can achieve it by knowing the simplest task and condition. That's where it relates to suspending laws of war and rules of engagement and also having that explosion mechanism in place here. No matter what happens, that Spartan's mind must be destroyed.

remember that the mjolnir armor is like a class 4 out of class 19 for powerarmor by forerunner standards, and in the flood war, they had millions of forerunners, presumably with power armor of the top tier.

Honestly it seems 343 might have forgot about the nuclear reactor on their back lol😊

Reminds me of what happened to Deathlok in the Marvel Zombies series. His cybernetic side detected the infection and pretty much self-destructed.

I find it weird to begin with that the forerunners didn't get rid of the flood research faciilities shortly before the rings were activated so they can't be conserved in any way..

I think the real question would be where are the flood infected Forerunner, Ancient Human, et al, Ecumene-era or legacy advanced combat armors running around? While after Mendicant Bias was defeated and with him so too the Flood, given the Flood surviving an all-out galactic level extinction event didn't wholly eradicate the Flood with many dispersed across the galactic expanse as well, one would imagine that given the sheer number of Forerunner, Ancient Humans and other previous species, atleast a few would've survived because of the probability. Also, are the Flood similar to Dragonball Z's villain Cell in which, like Cell the Flood only need to assimilate something once to retain that knowledge and possibly replicate it ad infinitum thereafter? [In which ever manner, whether that's with or without the Gravemind.] ...Or nah?

What do you mean why didn't they implement core overload? upon flood infection Mjolnir systems go into a 3 stage process 1st immobilize 2nd destroy spartan cranial vault and neural lace 3rd detonate suit fusion pack the flood somehow interrupted stage 3 and off lined the armor lock it's in the season intel you overlooked it Edit halo waypoint halo infinite reckoning intel 1 gallows it shows detonation failure followed by suit systems being restored and altered

Now just imagine how bad it was when the forerunner warriors were infected. Remember mjolnir is a hazmat suit to them.

I think the main reason the flood could move through armour lock is because we unknowingly limit our strength so we don't hurt ourselves. And with the flood overriding your nervous system would probably override the limitations on our bodies.

Experimental weapons of teh unsc. Weapons that are not standard like the ion field missile on the hannable mantis

Am curious, wasn't it stated in the lore that a Spartans armor can be made to self destruct like a mini nuclear bomb? If so that should of been easily priority.

Imperium of Man: We will send in space marines, and if we can spare them, our highly specialised daemon hunting space marines, against chaos astartes. UEG: Pffft, Lax *commits exterminatus whenever a spartan is infected*

On that other channel of breakdowns. I'm curious if you can do a serious breakdown & go into extreme detail of a T800 from Terminator. From the theoretical hyperalloy that it uses like tensile strength, the power source, & the neuromorphic processor it has, leave no stone unturned. 😂

2:34 his neck insignia looks oddly familiar

I'd be interested in a video that catalogs exactly how many spartans have been confirmed to have fought the flood.

I know it wouldn't be a Spartan 2 or Orion Project (Spartan I's) since the nature of their augmentation regiments renders it impossible for the Flood to force a match like normal

That wouldve been a way cooler death for some of the spartans in reach, especially the one who got domed with a needler.

I think it was Halo Envoy where at the end Gray team was paired up with a team that contained different species that would go through the known universe and find forerunner artifacts and Or covenant remnants to find and deal with it would be cool if this type of story used gray team

I just assumed all the tendrils punctured the hydrostatic gell so it couldn't pressurize and lock up.

Nice video. But at 2:40 you mention the question of this story being canon or not, but I don't recognize any details that confirm this canonically. Its a little abrupt to use Alex's odd wording as a proof to OFFICIALLY CONFIRM a spartan being infected in the Halo cannon. Yes, it is pretty well packed into the Halo story, but there is ofcourse still nothing here preventing this from being a fracture. Even the fact that this happened before Halo4 yet we hear nothing about it in later games or other lore, should be a pointer to this being a fracture or simply a simulated scenario used by the UNSC to train and test protocol. I think this is likely a fracture, but I also think 343 choose to not specifically confirm or deny this now, in order to be able to build on this story later if needed.

Finally, u did the new Halo flood lore

Yo Instalation00, I'd like to see another versus video. Master Cheif vs. Jorge. (As factual as the Cheif vs. N6 vid) please do this, it'll make my day.

Thought: The Neural link implant connects directly to the suit, replacing the "Brain" requirement. Decapitation of a Spartan has no impact is because of this link, the flood form exploiting this and then supplanting any hardware restrictions or limitations by tapping into and eventually overriding the implant's need to be a bridge. Flood forms have shown they can influence tech (2401 Penitent Tangent?) so I don't see this as outside of their capabilities.

Just as FF7 was about fighting and saving the planet; Halo is the quest to regain the universe and fight agains the ones who were to instill life.

Idk seems like an oversight by the writers of 343i....or they are just making things up as they go, i wouldnt get too hyped

Wait, NO! Go over the last part! Was the last part of the story the flood speaking through the Spartan or the MC!? Nooooo talk about that please 😭

Doesn’t Spartan armor fail safe detonate the armor to prevent their armor to the enemy? Like what happened with grace , that alone should have been enough

I agree there's alot more that can be done with the Spartans reactor.

Adeptus Astarte's deep brake down please if not here 00 multiverse?

I just assumed the head explosives were incase they had an AI in their head

Could you please also dive into how the flood came to be on the ship? Did they survive the firing of halo or did they escape later? They can't have been in there for 100k years, they would have starved.

another reason why to place the explosives in the helmet is so if it was hacked the spartan could remove the helmet