So much talk about people wiping the floor with the Flood...anyone considered that maybe we've only seen the tip of the Flood iceberg? Bear in mind that the Flood encountered on Halo had been starved for several thousand years (However long 343 Guilty Spark was there, to make an educated guess), and were probably not at peak fighting condition. Obviously, the Flood must have been a serious threat, otherwise the forerunners wouldn't mandate a power armor six times stronger than the Mark V MJOLNIR as part of containment proceedure. If all it took to contain the Flood was a coffin load of hot lead, then wouldn't the weapons Master Chief had on hand not be considered "Ineffectual" by Spark? Needless to say, the Forerunners weren't (or aren't, as it could be. Not ruling out that they could still be out there, working on some other project) stupid: They kept the flood on different rings for a number of reasons. For example, Separation of subjects: Assume that the Flood were being studied and/or experimented with, not just contained. Any biologist will tell you that you need to keep your samples separate, as a control. This also makes it easier to prevent/eliminate outbreaks without endangering the entire species. (The fact that the ring is in space also reinforces that Theory) Strictly plot-wise, yeah, it would be really stupid of Bungie to not include the flood, especially since there are new species to infect. (If they include the book storylines, then it's possible that a SPARTAN-II could very well be infected. Imagine fighting that beast.) After all, Library is one of the hardest levels in FPS history, and I haven't met a single Halo player who didn't get completely freaked out at somepoint. Bungie master inducing the filling of pants with that level; they'd be unbelivably stupid to toss out the Flood. On a side note, exactly what kind of "pulse" does Halo fire? The only think I could think of would be a massive radiation pulse, or something else that would destroy organic matter but leave innorganic matter largely intact. Also, if Halo had fired, would whatever's on the ring itself have been killed?