In the book Halo: Silentium, the last in the Forerunner trilogy, we see the end stages of the Forerunner's war with the Flood. The latter have completely overrun the galaxy, and the last of the Forerunners are stationed at the Lesser Ark outside the reaches of the galaxy (where Halo 3 takes place).
In the final battle, a fleet of Flood ships, machine piloted ships led by a corrupted Mendicant Bias, and Precursor star roads shows up and attacks the Lesser Ark. The Rings Array is then fired, and all sentient life in the galaxy is wiped out, ending in an extremely Pyrrhic Forerunner victory (or draw).
The book says that after the Rings fire, in the Flood fleet only the AI piloted ships and Mendicant remain active, and are quickly dispatched by the Forerunner AI fleet.
My question is, I thought the Lesser Ark was outside the range of the Halo Rings – so why would the Flood fleet there be affected? Same goes for the Flood fleet that had previously destroyed the Greater Ark, also beyond the edge of the galaxy. If any Flood ships were left there, they might too have survived. Was it that with the galactic Graveminds destroyed, the local Flood drones lost all animation? If so this seems to contrast with Halo 1, where only combat drones were present, though the early stages of a Gravemind was forming on the crashed Covenant cruiser. Yet they were perfectly capable of coordinated action.
Is this ever addressed or explained? A continuity error?
