Right. I was just thinking maybe there was atleast some way to trap a single cell. I mean don't get me wrong, what you're saying makes total sense. But its not like they can't sacrifice someone for it, hell ONI does the shadiest things in the Halo universe. Like you said, the Forerunners couldn't devise a cure, but I mean its not impossible to capture one little Flood infector, or even supercell. Granted it wouldn't even have to be a person, even just an animal would do. They could learn from it, the Flood seem to be not so resistant to extreme temperatures. I never understood why the UNSC or ONI doesn't develop some kind of mass fire or extreme freezing weapons. The Covenant figured it out early and started glassing them to subdue them. Idk, just a thought. One thing I never understood is how Forerunners detonated STARS, but yet that didn't stop the Flood. Like wut duh hell. One last thing I just thought of is we never hear anything about Forerunners utilizing or even describing any of their knowledge on black holes, which is weird. A sun going supernova and turning into a black hole sure seems sufficient enough to put down the Flood if you ask me.

In regards to the suns going supernova, keep in mind it gets to a point of being counterproductive. They weren't detonating all the suns they found Flood in. That'd just be unfeasible.

Wait isn't that [i]exactly[/i] what they said they would do to lost systems? Any planet with an established flood presence was deemed lost and was to be destroyed or abandoned, the same principle would apply to an entire system.

Yes. I never denied they didn't do it. But as I said, it gets to a point of being counter productive. There are far too many flaws in the strategy anyway.

Right but I'm saying that's what their standard MO was when a system was deemed lost. At that point, nothing more could be done, so nuking the system wouldn't cause anymore loss of resources than leaving it to the Flood since there is no such thing as taking a system back from them without burning it to the ground anyway. It would only deny them resources, which is basically the only way to slow them down anyway so what would be stopping the forerunners from doing it exactly?

[quote]In regards to the suns going supernova, keep in mind it gets to a point of being counterproductive. They weren't detonating all the suns they found Flood in. That'd just be unfeasible.[/quote] I mean it makes sense to, especially when they declared all out war on the Flood instead of the containment and disease plans. The Stars would've obliterated the Flood, and not killed anywhere near as many Forerunners as a Halo pulse. It would've left alot more of a fighting chance, even though how much is unknown.

[quote]The Stars would've obliterated the Flood[/quote]And destroy resources, and bring about the extinction of millions of species. The speed at which the Flood spread means you need to cause the sun to go supernova as soon as they arrive in system so they don't grab a new ship and leave with more Flood. Additionally, what happens when the Flood detect this strategy? All they'd need to do is jump past the stars and exit slipspace at core Forerunner worlds, or the Capitol itself. Then what? Or what happens when the Precursor architecture begins reactivating and join the Flood ranks? It's an effective strategy, but not one they can use short term or on a large scale.

[quote]And destroy resources, and bring about the extinction of millions of species. [/quote] This is pretty much the only arguable part of your post. I mean it could work temporarily, but sacrificing millions of species is much more affordable than perishing every life form in the known galaxy

Except the difference is that all of them were cataloged. For a moment of utter desolation, life was preserved. So that was my only arguable point? Hell, we don't even know what it takes to artificially cause a sun to go supernova. When the Flood realize what the Forerunners are doing, what happens when they bypass the majority of the Ecumene and head right to the core worlds and capitol? Are the Forerunners just going to cause those stars to go supernova too? Destroy their critical and crucial systems and locations? What then when the Precursor Architecture reactivates? How the hell are suns going supernova (mind you one of the functions of the Star Roads was to move suns, and alter their density) going to stop objects that can only be destroyed by technology that disrupts neural pathways? Additionally, the effects of causing a massive amount of suns going supernova might be even more disruptive than the Halo Array. The Forerunner homeworld, Ghibalb, is still uninhabitable after the Forerunners caused a series of suns in the Orion Complex to go supernova after a stellar accident. Lastly: [i]"[u][b]After exhausting every other strategic option[/b][/u], my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned." -Cutscene, The Great Journey, Halo 2[/i]