User:Kalon117/Hoardmind

Dualmindedness
Once Hordemind tapped into the Forrunner's main library on board the, an entire list of all catalogged life forms was "downloaded" into its memmory. This sudden influx of information, as well as the actions of several Forrunner AI's running anti-virus software to stop the biomechanical infection, caused massive problems within the Gravemind form's nervous tissues, effectivly causeing a split consciousness to form a "dual-mind'" with the intelligent, evil, millitant Hordemind, and the rampant, child-like Hoardmind.

Hoardmind
Hoardmind is one of the consciousnesses of the Horde/Hoard dual-mind. It is under the flood equivalent of a rampant state, with an almost childlike personality. As all flood, it trys to capture and infect life throughout the galaxy. It believes all biomass belongs to it, and will throw tantrums when potential food escapes. However, it is not consumed by a ravenous need to feed, as Hordemind usually takes care of keeping the hive healthy. Therefore, Hoardmind has more freedom, or "playtime."

This "playtime" includes trying to get at least on specemin of every lifeform cataloged in the forrunners library before the fireing of the Halo array, effectively hoarding enourmous amounts of living biomass. Its other conscious believes that finding examples of all of the lost species will recombine the two personalities, and allows Hoardmind to continue with its games in the hope of becoming whole once more.

Besides the naturally evil nature of the collection-by-infection process, the Hoardmind engages in cat-like play when dealing with it's more intelligent and emotional prey. It often will bait them with the bodies of infected friends or the possibility of escape, them ensnare and torture them before launching the final infection procedure on a thouroghly defeated opponent.

Story
Well shielded by the central library of the Forrunner during the first firing of the rings, the weakened Mind(s) stayed in a form of hibernation before escaping on a forrunner repopulation vehicle delivering cataloged species back to their home planets. Over their centuries of freedom, the dual-mind has had time to collect a large amount of useable biomass, only limited by the fact that its hijacked transport ship had a damaged slip-space drive, cutting its manuverability dramatically. Being centered of the far side of the galaxy has limited their contact with both the Covenant and the UNSC, but recent contact with an alien "junk yard" has allowed the accuisition of a ragtag fleet, including several working slipspace drives. Advance scouts of the dualmind have begun showing up in Covenant and Human controlled space, signaling their soon arrival.