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The Prologue
Date: 15 May 2003, 2:35 AM

Author's note.
I felt that I had to tell the story of what happened to the Flood before we arrive on Halo. If I didn't do this, the way I plan on making the story wouldn't make sense. I'll send in the first part on the Flood's point of view shortly.

       Deep inside the many crevasses of Installations 01-10, Flood samples were kept under high watch. The walls of their prisons were made specially by the Forerunners to prevent escape. Knowing the great danger and great importance of the Flood, they were kept for future study. Special guards were created to maintain the Flood and to make sure they didn't escape. The Forerunners were not unwise in keeping the Flood, as they knew of the importance they possessed. The Flood were the basic forms of bacteria-viruses. They were the missing link, the equivalence to "Big-Foot" in human evolution.
       The Forerunners discovered these creatures deep within the core of their home world. Once discovered, the Forerunners decided to take live specimens for future study. It was soon discovered that the Flood were trapped within the core, in hibernation, and that they were very dangerous. The Forerunners had to develop special weapons in order to combat these creatures because as it turned out, they had the ability to overtake even advanced species. This was not a problem for the Forerunners however. Being so technologically advanced, they eventually created a special class-12 armor, which completely prevented any Flood infection. With their new class-12 armor, all the Flood could do was watch as they were taken away from their world and brought to the surface. The Forerunners marveled at their new discovery. They studied and gathered as much information as they could.
       Then the day came, and the Flood escaped. The people in the Forerunner's cities, lacking the combat armor, fell victim to the Flood. Nearly 1/3 of the planet's population was infected before the class-12 armor was created in mass production for everyone's protection. The problem was that the Flood took control of all of the motor functions in their victims. The Forerunners had little choice but to kill each and every one of the infected people. Focused on never having this happen again, the Forerunners had some serious decisions to make. They could either destroy all of them, or, they could find some way of containing the Flood for future study.
       Thus, Installations 01-10 were created. The installations were ring shaped constructs that had oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, were 10,000 kilometers in diameter and 22.3 kilometers thick. They had gravity fields that controlled the ring's spin and kept the atmosphere inside. The ring shape was the easiest shape to construct because a large sphere was too broad and didn't give the control that the Forerunners needed. The design was also perfect for all the installations the Forerunners planned on having within the ring.
       The other installations were made for research but Installation 04 would become a zoo of sorts for all of the Forerunners. Deep underground, the Forerunners placed cages in which to hold the Flood "infectious forms." Here, they would be taken away and brought to the surface for study and analysis. The Forerunners wanted to see how each environment affected the Flood. The Forerunners believed that these Flood might have very well been the last in the universe. The Forerunners needed to study them; their survival as a race was dependant upon it. They created swamps, rivers, lakes, fog, and other variable weather patterns and geographical landforms they could think of. They would test out each of the Flood with great ease from the assistance their class-12 armor gave them. When they were not being tested, Forerunners could go to specific holding facilities where the Flood were kept. They could observe each creature from a very safe distance and with specially designed walls between them and the Flood. The ability for civilians to observe the Flood was the only thing that made Installation 04 unique.
       The problem was that the Flood needed a host body to survive. Although they could go into hibernation for very extended periods of time, they would need a host or all of the Flood specimens would eventually die. The Forerunners developed a special gas that would freeze and preserve the Flood. Vents were placed through the holding facilities to keep a constant supply of the gas for the Flood. The class-12 armor protected the Forerunners from the gas because the suit easily filtered it out.
       Throughout Installations 01-10, teleportation grids were installed for easy travel. The installations were also constantly supplying energy for those with the knowledge to tap into it because the Forerunner's armor was in regular need of it. Although the other suits had power packs within them, they were cumbersome and heavy. Scientists were able to carry more supplies and move more freely if they took the energy from the installation itself.
       No one had been to any of the installations in a long time since no new developments had been made. One day, a ship full of scientists landed on Installation 07 for more research. Unaware to the scientists, the installation had one small problem. Over the years, the power grid produced an unimaginable amount of power. The power generators were designed to cool themselves so that another coolant was unnecessary. Unfortunately, the power generators did produce a very minute amount of waste heat. It raised in temperature about 1 degree every decade. Since the power generators were constantly running, over time, they reached critical levels and shut down. Now that the scientists were unprotected, the Flood made their move. They easily infected the unprotected scientists. When they realized what was going on, one scientist managed to send for help. Before the help could arrive, however, the Flood learned how to drive their ship, and headed for the Forerunner home world in search for food.
       The ship was blown into a million pieces before it came within the planet's atmosphere. The Forerunners were faced with the same decision. They could self-destruct all the installations, killing off the Flood specie and end the threat once and for all. Their desire to keep this missing link, this piece of evolutionary marvel, didn't allow them to do that. Instead, the Forerunners fixed the power generators heat by placing a few structures scattered around the installation that would shoot the waist heat out into the sky. In addition to that, the Forerunners also decided to make a new form of security.
       No Forerunner was allowed to freely go back and forth inside the installations. Instead, special A.I.'s were built to watch over the Flood. One A.I. would monitor each installation for research and security. They would do this in the installation's control room. In the control room, displays told the monitor everything from what was going on in the Flood's holding cells to the rotation of the installation itself. Special machines were also created. These "sentinels" would help in the research of the Flood. Armed with a special surgical laser, they could dissect each "infectious form" and do other menial duties. Progress reports would be sent to the Forerunners if any new developments occurred.
       A last resort fail-safe device was also put in the installations. This "doomsday device," which had a maximum affective radius of 25,000 Light Years, would rid the galaxy of all sentient life that had enough biomass and cognitive capabilities to sustain the Flood. The Forerunners didn't know of any other specie that could hold off against the Flood. If the Flood found enough food, they would be able to take them over as well. The Forerunners couldn't let that happen and so decided that this was the best way to stop the threat of the Flood. The "doomsday device" wouldn't affect the Forerunners however because all their home worlds were surrounded by a large shield. The Forerunners, having mastered shield technology, could easily come up with something to deflect the pulse.
       As the final piece to the device was built, it began to initialize itself. Before the device could obtain the required amount of power from the power generators, a small piece was taken from the device's core and it stopped. This piece, called an "index," was given to the monitor of the installation. It would be kept in one of the holding centers of the Flood. If by some chance, the Flood managed to find a way off of any installation, a distress signal would be sent to the Forerunners. A Forerunner would come to reclaim the "index" from the monitor and reunify the "index" with the installation's core. This would subsequently restart the device.
       The monitor designated to watch Installation 04 was named 343 Guilty Spark. As with the other A.I.'s, Guilty Spark had every bit of information on the Flood installed. He was made of class-12 armor and had a special language decoder. All he had to do was observe a specie and he would learn their form of communication, whether it be verbal or otherwise, with a complete understanding. This was in case another organism managed to find the installation. 343 Guilty Spark was there during the installment of the fail-safe device. During which, the Forerunner installing it asked him whether or not they were doing the right thing in not destroying the Flood. The monitor processed the question for a bit of time before he answered that he did agree with what the Forerunners were doing.
       The Forerunners left the A.I.'s in charge of the installations and went back to their own world. As time passed, less and less information was sent to the Forerunners. Eventually, the Forerunners came to the conclusion that they had learned all they could about the Flood. Even so, they kept the Flood on the installations for a deep desire of keeping this piece of the past. Eventually, the Forerunners began to use all of the natural resources in their planets. One by one, each planet was abandoned in search for new inhabitable planets. When one planet was moved from, some technology was left behind, partially because it could easily be remade and partially because it was too cumbersome to take with them. Eventually there were no Forerunners left occupying the space around the installations. The Forerunners told the A.I.'s where they had moved and how to contact them in case of a need to activate the "doomsday device." Although the Forerunners would take a longer amount of time to respond to an outbreak, they were confident that nothing would happen since the installations had been around for so long, without any tribulations.
       Finally, after centuries of research, the monitors on all of the installations came to the conclusion that they had gathered as much information as they could. Using the newfound research they had, the monitors told the sentinels how to create a new chemical that put the Flood in deep dormant stages. Unwilling to give the Flood hosts to survive, the monitors tried as best as they could to preserve the specie. Knowing that the Flood couldn't last forever without a host, the monitors had bought an estimated millennia for the Flood's survival. With no hosts and no way to escape, the Flood lay dormant for over a 100,000 years. Then the trespassers came, broke them free and fed them with their bodies. With food and a place to go, the Flood spread through the underground subsystems of Installation 04 looking for a way to escape.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Encounter (Part 1)
Date: 26 May 2003, 1:16 AM

Special Thanks: I'd like to thank Carrier Form for inspiring me to do this series and Geary, Someone, Wes M., BLown-Upp and c0ld vengeance for their input in the forums when I needed some help with the story. Thanks guys!

       Upon first seeing the other creatures, the Flood came up with names for them. They called Elites, "Engros'," Jackals, "Jarkvars," Grunts, "Gelefuses," Hunters, "Hakinofs," and humans "Haracs." Flood "Infectious Forms" referred to themselves as "Glasdices," "Carrier Forms" as "Frasdices" and "Combat Forms" as "Morgdices." When a Carrier Form gives birth to Infectious Forms, the individual ones are called G1, G2, G3, etc. depending on how many Infectious Forms are born. These names are designated within the Carrier Form ahead of time. Since so many Infectious Forms exist, it is easy to designate attacks by calling all G1s to go to one group, G2s to another, and so on. Carrier forms are called F3, F4, or F5 depending on how many Infectious Forms they carry within. Combat forms are called ME or MH depending on what form they infected. Since Hunters cannot be infected due to the inability to burrow into the thick armor, MHs are only Flood infected humans. Since there are so many Flood, and the mutated bodies looked so closely alike, no individual names were given to Flood. Instead, they used this system for configuring attacks.

       Above the planet Reach, the Covenant are about to glass the planet for good. Most UNSC ships able to move have long since escaped but one ship still remains. The ship, the Pillar of Autumn, is getting ready for a jump into slipspace. Seeing how well the ship handled the Covenant Cruisers, their leaders order a calculation be done to the ship's destination. When it was learned that the ship was headed for an ancient structure called Halo, built by the Forerunners, the superior officers ordered all ships to wait at Halo for the Pillar of Autumn.
       A battle started above the ring until both the Covenant and humans landed on Halo. The "annoying little humans" soon turned into a threat as the Covenant underestimated their power. The Covenant began to look for any weapons they could. Since the Forerunners built Halo, the Covenant expected it to have some technology that they could use against the humans. They explored every one of the structures on Halo. One of these structures was a holding facility for the Flood. As they entered they structure, they soon saw the air wasn't breathable due to some gas ventilating within. Persistent, the Covenant managed to find the control switch and shut down these gases to find what the structure was hiding.

       A group of G1s lay dormant within a Forerunner holding cell. They are completely unaware of anything going around them at the moment because the gases these strange creatures exposed them to, has paralyzed all the sensors on their bodies. Slowly, the gases started to dissipate and they began to awaken and sense things again. They are able to move but feel extremely strange, like being awaken after 1,000 years, which, is closer to the truth than they know. They look around but find escaping isn't possible, not at the moment anyway.

       The Master Chief was searching for the Silent Cartographer, which was a map room showing the location of Halo's control center. Finding that the Covenant had locked the doors leading to the Silent Cartographer, the Master Chief began looking for the security override. He found it, and disabled the security system. Like he had expected, the doors previously locked opened. Unfortunately, all of the previously locked doors opened. The switch he had just activated was Halo's security center, so it not only opened the doors leading to the Silent Cartographer, but it also opened all doors in Halo.

       Through their search for weapons, large doors had blocked the Covenant. All of a sudden, these doors began to open. Suspecting that the superior officers had opened the doors for them, the Covenant continued to push their way through the structure. All of a sudden, the Covenant began to hear this liquidy slithering sound. All at once the Flood began to attack the Covenant. Just as the doors preventing the Covenant from proceeding had been opened, the doors holding back the Flood had also been opened. Now, hungry and free, they began to feed upon the Covenant.
       There was no organized attack from the Flood. Everyone was starving and so G1's through G5's attacked the closest thing to them. After going through their first stage of shock, the Covenant began to fight back. Luckily for the Covenant, the other Flood were too far away to attack the Covenant but they were well on their way. Nearly half of the Covenant fell victim to the Flood before they began to retreat. As they were doing this, the doors that were previously locked and now open, began to close again. Only half of the remaining Covenant managed to get out while the others were trapped within the structure and were infected by the Flood.

       343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of Installation 04, was doing his job of watching the control center for anything new. His sensors showed that some new life forms had landed on Halo and were entering restricted areas. Not having enough time to observe these new creatures on Halo and learn their form of communication, 343 Guilty Spark decided to inform the Forerunners. He thought that the Forerunners had caused the security shutdown but after monitoring the activity within the holding facility, he saw that these new creatures were feeding the Flood. He then reset the security lock on Halo, which closed the doors on the prison. He still left some doors open so that the Forerunners could access the required areas, but otherwise, everything was once again locked. He neglected, however, to restart the gas in the holding facility.

       All the Flood saw the opportunity for food and they took it. Now that the doors were once again locked, they couldn't go anywhere except explore the little room they were in. They soon found out that another door blocked any obvious means of escape. The newly acquired Combat Elites however, would help them escape this prison.
       Once infected, the Flood learned all of the host's memories including how to use the weapons they had brought. Once the Flood had manipulated the host's DNA to better suit their own needs, the host's body was ten times stronger than it had originally been.
       Looking for a way out of the confined space they were in, the Flood saw the vents that connected every room with each other. Since the gases no longer flowed out of the vents, the Flood could use them as tunnels. With their strength, they leaped into the air, inside one of the vents and followed it into the adjacent room. The Infectious Forms, having sticky tentacles, climbed up the walls and followed the Combat Elites into the vents. There, they met up with the other Flood Infectious Forms who, although had been released, couldn't get out of the room in time before the door closed. And so they moved on into the next room until all the Flood had met together in one place. Using their newly acquired weapons, the Combat Elites freed any Infectious Forms still trapped within. Their next objective was clear, they had to find food.

       The Carrier Forms, however, were stuck within the confined area. Carrier Forms were short stubby creatures that contained up to five Infectious Forms within their balloon-like sac. Grunts and Jackals were too weak to be made into Combat Forms and so they were made into Carrier Forms. Because of the host's natural weakness, the Flood couldn't make the body ten times stronger or when the strength was used, limbs would literally fly off the body. If a Combat Form became too injured to continue its duties, it would then become a Carrier Form as well. So, having no way of jumping into the vents and escaping this prison, the Carrier Forms waited to be freed.

       As soon as the gas's effect had completely worn away, the Flood wondered what exactly had happened to them. Only one Infectious Form, who had since become a Combat Elite, survived the dissecting process from the sentinels. He told them how he saw the others killed and taken apart by the flying machines. Set on getting the hell away from those damn machines, the Flood decided to make a break for it. They followed a series of pipes into a very high structure. Thinking they might find a way to escape, the Flood went higher and higher within the structure. Eventually they came across the top level, which had some sort of blue light in the middle. Curious, the Flood decided to go towards it. As soon as they did, the monitor unleashed sentinels, which took care of a great deal of the Infectious Forms.
       The Flood retreated and regrouped. They saw how the sentinels only attacked when the Flood would approach that blue beam so they decided to watch it. Although they didn't know what it was, they knew it was important. A quarter of the Flood were assigned to make sure no one else got to the beam. Whatever it was, whatever it did, the Flood didn't want anyone else to have it. They rest of the Flood kept trying to find a way off Halo. If they found a way, they would return for the remaining Flood. The Flood assigned to guard the blue beam, spread up and down the holding facility, waiting in the vents for anyone to come.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Encounter (Part 2)
Date: 26 May 2003, 1:19 AM

       The rest of the Flood made their way through the vents into another structure. Suddenly, the Flood sensed a lot of food nearby. They all swarmed to the location of the food and burst in to see many Covenant within. These Covenant, just like the first group, were in search of more weapons. The Flood attacked and devoured the Flood. It was a brutal battle between the Covenant who fought a never before seen enemy and between the Flood, who were in search of food for survival. The Flood overwhelmed the Covenant and soon the Flood added many more Combat Forms and Carrier Forms to their ever-growing army. The interior of the structure was splattered with Covenant blood and dead bodies. The Flood needed the host to remain alive for it to take it over for if it died, the host was useless. So, with all the Covenant either infected or dead, the Flood moved on back inside the vents searching for a way off Halo.

       When word came that they had lost contact with most of the search teams, the Covenant knew it couldn't be the humans. The Prophets were the Covenant's spiritual leaders. All other members of the caste had to listen for it was said that they knew everything and spoke the word of god. It was true that the Prophets knew more than the rest of the Covenant because of where their race developed. The Prophets evolved from the planets that the Forerunners had abandoned. Although the planets were unsuitable for the Forerunners, the species that could adapt to their environments did and eventually the Prophets came to exist. They had learned all about the Flood from records they found. They knew that these installations existed but could never comprehend the significance to them. They instantly understood that the search groups of Covenant must have run into the Flood and so a Special Ops task force was deployed. They would seal any doors that might've contained the Flood to prevent them from spreading.
       As the Covenant searched, they locked any doors they thought the Flood might have come from, as ordered. They fought the Flood along the way but for once, the Covenant won. It wasn't long before they returned to the Covenant master ship and told the high Prophets that they had neutralized the threat. Getting reports that the Flood had been spotted on the surface, the Prophets scolded their failure and punished the Elite who had been in charge of neutralizing the threat, Soha 'Rolamee. With any chance of containing the Flood now gone, the high Prophets ordered every ship to abandon Halo. Unfortunately for them, it was too late.

       All of a sudden, a new food source arrived for the Flood. Not one but two groups of humans lay in a close radius to the group of Flood. Since the Covenant had locked all the doors, the Flood had been searching for a new way to escape. The Infectious Forms needed a host to be of any real help to the Flood, so they split into two groups and went after the humans.
       Captain Jacob Keyes was leading a group of marines to uncover a supposed weapons cache. Unfortunately, the humans were about to uncover a greater threat than they could ever imagine. They searched the interior of the structure, saw the carnage that was left behind, and could only imagine what had taken place. They eventually emptied into a room that they had found locked. No sooner had they entered the room than the other team of marines, set to guard the entrance of the structure, radioed in. Something was attacking them and they needed help but before they could give specifics, the signal stopped. Just as the sergeant had told a marine to check it out, they heard this liquidy slithering sound. All of a sudden, these half-meter long creatures began to attack the team.
       Although they were weaker than the Elites, food was food and the little Infectious Forms began to infect the nearest human they saw. The humans acted more quickly than the Flood had. Right away they tried to fight back with shotguns and assault rifles. Shells carpeted the floor but there were too many Infectious Forms around for the humans to destroy. Eventually, all the humans had been infected, although two of the humans varied in their infections than the rest.
       One human, Private Wallace A. Jenkins, had been infected by an Infectious Form that had been severely weakened by the hibernation inducing gases. Thus, this human had more control of his body and regained more of an understanding to what was happening to him than the others did. The other human, Captain Jacob Keyes, was infected just like the others. When this particular Infectious Form began to sift through his memories, he soon found much data on navigation. Although, amazingly to the Infectious Form, the human was still managing to hold back some memory, the Infectious Form had learned much information on the location of other worlds. These other worlds contained a buffet of creatures just like him. The Infectious Form decided the human was too valuable to be turned into a Combat Form and instead turned him into an Assimilation Form. This form was reserved for creatures that were thought to be too important to turn into any other form. The Assimilation Form looked like a giant blob when it was resting. If it desired to move, however, it would freely take the host's limbs and protrude them out into the environment and use them. Too important to stay, the Flood decided to go to a safer place until it was time to use this newly acquired information.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Sergeant
Date: 6 June 2003, 1:34 AM

Author's Note: Some references in my story are talked about in Halo: The Flood. Alpha Base, for example, is one of them. If you have read the book, you'll understand my story a little better. If you haven't, you can still understand it, but I suggest you read the book. It fills in some important information that went on in Halo.

       Meanwhile back at the front of the structure, the group of marines who had been assigned to guard it came under attack by the Flood. With better weapons and more room to retreat and regroup, the marines managed to kill off all of the Infectious Forms that assaulted them. Since contact with Keyes' group had been lost, the marines decided to stay stationed just outside an entrance to the structure. Unable to make any radio contact with Alpha Base for evac, due to the thick canopy, the team decided to broadcast an SOS through the downed pelican's com channel. Hopefully when a search and rescue team came, they would hear it. Uncertain if the "creatures" were scattered around the swamp area, the entire team slowly made their way to the pelican, recorded the message, and returned to their hiding place, waiting for help.

       The Flood were spreading more and more rapidly throughout Halo. Sifting through their host's memories, they soon found the locations to many downed ships, all but one of which were Covenant. The Flood continued to attack the Covenant, each time adding more and more bodies to their impressive army. Although the Flood weren't necessarily physically stronger than the Covenant, the addition of the Infectious Forms proved them to be too much to handle for the Covenant. Grunts and Jackals lacked the full body shielding the Elites had and so they were very easily infected. Since the Infectious Forms attacked in very large numbers, Grunts and Jackals were overwhelmed and as soon as an Infectious Form inserted its needle-like tentacle into the creature's spine, it lost all control over its body. Elites, on the other hand, were a bit more difficult to infect. If an Infectious Form attacked an Elite while its shields were up, it would simply explode.
       The barrier that the shields created didn't kill the Infectious Forms, just as running into a wall didn't kill them. Instead, when the Infectious Forms came in contact with the energy given off by the shields, it killed them. This just made infecting Elites more difficult, not impossible. The former Grunts and Jackals, that were now Carrier Forms, had a good method for dealing with the Elite's shields. Upon seeing an Elite, the Carrier Form would approach it and explode at its feet. The visual explosion was deceiving because although it didn't look like it, the Carrier Form's explosions had the same effect as grenades. The explosions would, hopefully, take out the Elite's shields and the resulting birth of Infectious Forms would infect the shield-less Elite.

       Sergeant Marvin Mobuto had been thrown out of his warthog during the trip back to Alpha Base from the Pillar of Autumn. Left for dead, the Sergeant lay unconscious ten feet from his overturned warthog until the rain woke him. He stood and examined the battlefield, saw the dead bodies strewn across the valley, and knew his chances of getting back to Alpha Base were slim. He had no way of contacting the base and no vehicle to get him there. He rationed what he could from the overturned warthog, a health pack, a fully loaded shotgun, six grenades and enough food to sustain him for five days. He tried in vain to correct the warthog, but it proved to be too heavy. As he started to walk in the general direction of Alpha Base, he saw a fairly intact ghost on the ground with its Elite driver dead, still holding the handlebars. He removed the Elite and began pressing buttons until the engine started. He familiarized himself with the controls and began to drive to Alpha Base thinking that maybe he'd survive after all.
       The battle hadn't been over for long since groups of Covenant, set to survey the area, were just arriving. The Sergeant heard the Banshees and had just begun to turn the Ghost around when they spotted him. At first, the Banshee pilot thought it was a lucky Elite that had survived the battle. He tried to contact him through the Ghost's communication system but there was no response.

       Trying to get the hell away from the Banshee, Sgt. Mobuto was driving as fast as he could when this strange noise came from the Ghost. He recognized the sound as the language the Elites spoke. Realizing they must be trying to contact him, thinking he was an Elite, the Sgt. drove into a small structure he saw, hoping that it would buy him some time. He hopped out of the Ghost and ran deeper and deeper into the structure, looking for a back door to escape from. He finally found an extremely long tunnel and, thinking it was better than facing the Covenant, he began to walk through it.
       Unknown to the Sergeant, the long tunnel was leading him to the Flood's holding facility but even more than that, to the index. The tunnels were reinforced to prevent the Flood from destroying them and blocking the Forerunner's access to the index. The monitor, who had been waiting for the Forerunners to reclaim the index, was observing the tunnels when he noticed the Sergeant. So much time had passed, without word from the Forerunners, that the monitor was beginning to think that they had gone extinct. As he scanned him, the monitor found out that he was immune to the Flood. The Flood, due to some natural resilience, couldn't infect his body. As in any organism, if a new threat was introduced to their environment, those who could adapt, usually a very small percentage, would. The Sergeant was very lucky indeed. Knowing that Halo must be activated, at all costs, the monitor approached him.
       "Hello, my name is 343 Guilty Spark. The Flood have escaped and it is essential that we activate this installation. Please, follow me."
       Thinking the monitor was some sort of Covenant camera or weapon, the Sergeant unloaded 5 shells of his shotgun before he realized that it wasn't attacking him, it was trying to talk to him, and that the shotgun was having no effect. The only thing the Sergeant could make out was "Please follow me." All of a sudden, gold light began to circle the Sergeant and he began to feel nauseated. Before he knew it, he was within some sort of building.
       The Flood knew the moment the Sergeant had entered the building. They all began to swarm to him, eager to get him infected and to stop him from reaching the blue beam, three levels up.
       The Sergeant had no idea what the hell these things were. For that matter, he didn't care. All he knew was that they were easily killed by the shotgun and that was good enough for him. The problem was that there were too damn many of them. He had no one to cover his six except for the Infectious Forms, which took any opportunities they saw to attack. The Combat Forms left the Infectious Forms alone; they knew the Sergeant's infection was inevitable since he was only one person. They also didn't want to risk harming the host beyond infection. Finally Sgt. Mobuto shot his last shell and, with not enough time to reload, an Infectious Form jumped on his back and inserted its tentacle into his spine.
       The Sgt. felt an unimaginable sharp pain in his back as the tentacle touched his spine. Without even thinking, he punched the little bastard clinging to his back. It burst and gave the Sergeant time to reload the shotgun and finish off all of the Infectious Forms in the area. With a moment to relax, the Sergeant pulled out what remained of the Infectious Form's tentacle and used his health pack to seal the wound with bio-foam.
       His hands were shaking uncontrollably, his eyes were darting from one shadow to the next, and he wondered what the hell was happening to him. Besides the sharp pain in his back, he felt fine. Fortunately for him, the Infectious Forms didn't sever the spinal cord for if they did, they risked being unable to control the host's body. As the marine was checking to make sure there weren't any more Infectious Forms, he noticed this unmistakable bright blue light, the monitor.
       "Who the hell are you and why did you bring me here? You almost got me killed!" In his fit of rage, the leatherneck put five additional shells into the monitor.
       "That was unnecessary reclaimer. As I have previously stated, I am 343 Guilty Spark and the monitor of this installation. We must activate this ring and stop the Flood from spreading. You must retrieve the index and reunite it with the core."
       Before the Sgt. could respond to that, the Combat Forms chose that moment to attack. Having a wide variety of Covenant weapons, the Combat Forms posed a serious threat. Luckily, the shotgun proved to be a very effective weapon and before long, no Flood were left on that floor. Looking at the carnage that was left behind and unable to get a response from 343 Guilty Spark, the marine picked up a plasma rifle and four plasma grenades and followed the monitor hoping for an exit.
       The other Flood had heard the noise and were well alerted that there was someone within the structure. They thought, however, that whoever it had been was now infected since the gunfire had ceased. To their astonishment, they heard the elevator begin to rise. Although they didn't know what the noise was, they did know that it wasn't another Flood who had activated it.
       The Sergeant walked through a narrow corridor, off the elevator and found himself in a seemingly empty room. As the monitor was leading the way, still unable to get a response from him, the Sergeant was following very closely hoping that they could get out before anymore of the creatures appeared. Just as the leatherneck was in the middle of the room, the other Flood attacked.
       Surrounded on all sides by Flood, the marine desperately threw grenades to suppress the coming onslaught of Flood. With no more fragmentation grenades left, the Sergeant was glad he decided to pick up the plasma grenades and began throwing them as well. One plasma grenade, the last one, stuck directly to a Combat Form. It leaped into the air and landed right next to the marine, tentacles flailing. Rather than fire his weapon, the marine dived away from the Combat Form and caught a bit of the explosion.
       When he had leaped, he didn't care of what was on the other side, but now, after surviving the grenade, the marine could look up to see he had landed about ten feet from an entire group of Infectious Forms. He quickly tried reaching for his shotgun but found that it had dropped during the dive. Remembering his plasma rifle, he quickly tried to fire it. Desperate and scared, the leatherneck held down the trigger for an automatic spray of plasma.
       He began to feel the weapon heating up and before he knew it, the gun had stopped firing and was releasing its waste heat. The Sergeant couldn't do a thing except scream as the Infectious Forms tried to infect him. Although they were unable to, the two-inch wide holes that were punched through his skin to his spine made him feel like he was going through hell. Though not enough to instantly kill him, the Sergeant couldn't even move.
       Finally the Infectious Forms gave up and left the body. The Sergeant, who was barely conscious, just lay in a pool of his own blood and watched as multiple fire from Combat Forms finally ended his misery.
       With that, the Flood decided to return to their hiding places within the vents in case anyone else decided to cross their path.

Halo From the Flood's Point of View: The Harboring Mist (Part 1)
Date: 9 July 2003, 12:41 AM

Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of additions to the story. I've been busy as of late. The next submission will come sooner, I promise. Make sure you've read the entire series before you read this or you won't catch the connections. Enjoy!

       The Master Chief, having been in search of the Captain, came across his downed pelican. He followed the trail and was eventually brought to a large structure. He entered it and saw signs of a brutal battle. He ventured deeper and deeper within the structure until he came to a door. After opening it, a dead marine lay at his feet. Using the video recording, the Master Chief viewed what he had been through. Just as he finished seeing what had happened to the Captain and his crew, the Flood decided to attack.

       A new food source, that's what the Flood sensed. They gathered from all over the structure to that tiny room that the Master Chief lay in wait. Bursting through the doors, the Flood attacked, all of them eager to get a host. This host, however, wouldn't be infected so easily. Just as he had almost completely killed the first wave of attackers, more Flood came after him. A total of four waves of attackers came after the Master Chief, but he managed to kill them all. There were still Flood in the room, many of them, but after seeing what had happened to the rest of the Flood, they chose not to try and infect him just yet. They decided they had better get the help of combat forms first.
       The infectious forms slithered out of the room and informed the combat forms of what they had just seen. Careful not to kill the Master Chief, word was spread to take great care with the human. Every combat form that the Master Chief encountered, however, was killed.
       Three marines who had been waiting at the opening of the structure, chose to venture within in search of the Captain. They had just been attacked by a handful of combat forms when the Master Chief found them. In desperate need of assistance, he managed to kill off all of the attackers but the effort proved to be a waste of time. Too emotionally distraught to listen to reason, the Master Chief had no choice but to leave them behind in search of the Captain.
       As soon as he left, the infectious forms easily infected the tired and injured marines. Sifting through their memories, the infectious forms struggled to learn who that special human was. Eventually, they found what they were looking for. Before the boarding parties attacked the Pillar of Autumn, the marines had been briefed that the Master Chief was onboard.
       The Flood took great interest in infecting this particular human. They were hopeful that this 'Master Chief' would not only help them get off the ring world but, ultimately, find all of the other worlds that they had seen from other hosts.
       Now, not only had the Covenant constructed a special search party after the Master Chief, but the Flood had as well.

       The Prophets, knowing of the Flood on Halo, knew that it would only be a matter of time before they found Covenant vessels. One such vessel, The Harboring Mist, a fairly large Covenant Carrier, was stranded, hovering above Halo's surface.
       It was the closest Covenant ship to where the first Flood outbreak had begun so it was also the first attacked. Martimere 'Berty, the Ship Master, was standing in the ship's control center monitoring the status of the ship. During the fight with the Pillar of Autumn, above Halo, The Harboring Mist had taken a lot of damage. They had managed to stop the coolant leaks but the reactors still needed to be repaired.
       All of a sudden, 'Berty heard an alarm coming from one of the holo panels surrounding the ship's control center. Motion censors were picking up thousands of creatures approaching the gravity lift. Thinking that they must be malfunctioning, 'Berty decided to ignore the warnings for now and shut them off. The nearby Prophet, however, demanded to see what he had just done by speaking through 'Berty's assistant, Inigmus 'Rofle. Since the higher Prophets spoke a very unique Covenant dialect, only few people could fully understand them. Those who were taught the sacred language always accompanied the Prophet and served as its translator. A very high honor.
       "The Prophet requests to know what has been detected," 'Rofle said.
       "A minor equipment malfunction," replied 'Berty, "nothing to be bothered with."
       The Elite relayed the message to the Prophet who was hovering inches off the ground. After hearing 'Berty's response, the Prophet's face took a look of suspicion. He told 'Rofle something in his language to which the Elite turned to 'Berty.
       "The Prophet desires to know exactly what the sensors were picking up."
       'Berty had become annoyed. Thinking this was nothing but an equipment malfunction, he saw no reason as to why the Prophet was focused on this subject. Besides, the Elite had better things to do since he needed to watch over the repairs going on in his ship but, he was a Prophet and so his decisions must not be questioned.
       "The motion censors picked up thousands of creatures inbound to the gravity lift. The humans would have no way of being dropped this close to the ship without us detecting their vehicles. That is why I shut down the motion censors at the moment, to be repaired later."
       'Rofle translated for the Prophet and almost wished he hadn't. The moment the Prophet heard what the Ship Master had done, he began screaming instructions to him.
       'Rofle, with an obvious tone of fear in his voice shouted at 'Berty, "DISABLE THE GRAVITY LIFT AT ONCE! Order all personnel to gather their gear and await further instructions. Now!"
       'Berty, having no idea what had just happened, rushed to fulfill the Prophet's orders. No doubt the Prophet would inform him of what was going on as soon as he complied with his requests.
       The Prophet began to continuously talk to 'Rofle, giving him messages to tell 'Berty.
       "Sound the battle alarm and tell all of the soldiers that we will be attempting to repel all borders. Order at least fifteen squads to gather at the gravity lift and prepare to be sent down onto the surface," replied 'Rofle.
       'Berty complied with the Prophet's commands and then asked "How could the humans have come this far without us detecting them, your Excellency?"
       'Rofle, with a look of fear in his eyes said, "It isn't the humans. His Excellency believes that the Flood may be here, under this very ship. What is their position now?"

       The Flood, who had known the gravity lift would take them to the buffet inside the ship, stayed on top of the gravity lift. Through their hosts' memories, the Flood had expected ascend into the ship straight away. Obviously this wasn't the case. Still hopeful that they would be granted access into the ship, the Flood stood there, absolutely still, waiting.

       "The Flood? Here?! This can't be, why…how are they here?" Realizing the urgency, 'Berty turned on the motion censors but saw absolutely nothing. As far as it seemed, the Flood, or whatever had been there, had since disappeared. "Nothing…nothing at all. They seem to have vanished," replied 'Berty who turned the motion censors off again.
       "Just the same, his Excellency wants to be sure nothing is there. Turn on the gravity lift and turn it off again the moment the squads touch down.," 'Rofle ordered.
       Just as 'Berty turned on the gravity lift, the Flood that had been stationed there, motionless, were instantly brought up, into the ship at the precise moment that the groups of Covenant landed on the surface. Not all of the Flood had entered the ship, however. Those that were around, but not actually on top of the gravity lift, failed to reach it in time and so were left there.
       At the moment, however, the Flood still on the surface weren't too occupied in wanting to get into the ship. A new food source had come, and they were eager to get more hosts.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Harboring Mist (Part 2)
Date: 9 July 2003, 12:45 AM

       A large battle ensued around the gravity lift. The Covenant, who were greatly outnumbered and caught by surprise, quickly fell to infection.
       "What's the status with the ground team?" asked 'Rofle.
       "Team Leader 'Herfus, this is the Ship Master, what do you see?" 'Berty asked over the comm. channel. After a few moments of silence, he repeated "'Herfus, can you here me?" There was no reply.
       'Berty had just raised his hand to try again when he saw the Prophet telling 'Rofle something. "Is there anything on the motion censors now?" asked 'Rofle.
       The Ship Master turned them on and just caught the end of the battle around the gravity lift. "Yes, I detect movement…but not from any of our forces."
       'Rofle translated and with a look of grave fear, the Prophet gave 'Rofle more orders.
       "His Excellency requests that the special forces team be sent out now onto the gravity lift. A team of at least fifty Covenant should be waiting to be deployed to defend the gravity lift. He also wants you to send a message to all of the ships in the fleet. Tell them to abandon Halo as soon as they can."

       'Berty ordered the special forces teams and sent the message to all of the ships. A message that would come too late however. Though some Ship Masters began to ready their ships for departure very quickly, others didn't realize the urgency. By the time the first ship would be ready to leave Halo, it would come under attack by the Flood. None of the Covenant on Halo would ever return home again, at least not without being infected by the Flood first.

       Since all of the doors were locked when the Flood entered the ship, they had no where to go. They wouldn't have to wait long, however. The first group of special forces Grunts had barely walked into the bay when they came under attack and were soon infected. The sound of plasma fire got the Elite group's attention and they hurried in to see what was going on. Before all of them got infected, some managed to radio the Ship Master to tell him that the Flood were here, inside the ship.
       "The Flood, they're here!" exclaimed 'Berty. "They managed to get inside the ship. I'm locking all doors now. There. The Flood are contained within the docking bay. What are your orders now?"
       It took a few minutes for the Prophet to think before he finally told 'Rofle "Get every soldier down to the hallways just outside the docking bay. Tell them to wait for my signal and then kill every last Flood there."
       "Are you sure that's wise, Excellency?" 'Berty asked. "I mean, we risk getting the entire ship infected if we open those doors. Why not wait until we get into space and then vent the atmosphere?"
       'Rofle relayed the question to the Prophet who responded with "Absolutely not. We cannot lift off at the moment due to repairs and we certainly can't wait for them to finish. No, do as I say before you are stripped of command."
       Very angrily, 'Berty complied with the Prophet and ordered the teams of Covenant to gather around the docking bay.
       The Flood sensed that many Covenant were gathering around the area and planned accordingly. The infectious forms would hide just next to the doors and overwhelm the Covenant. The infected Grunts and Elite's would be brought to the center of the room and try to take down the shields of the Elites. Although time was needed to turn the Grunts into carrier forms and the Elites into combat forms, the Flood still had control over their bodies and could therefore still fire their weapons.
       The Prophet gave the signal and 'Berty opened the doors. All of the Covenant rushed into the bay only to meet a bombardment of plasma fire. Before the Covenant could realize what was happening, the infectious forms attacked. Elites, Jackals, and Grunts all fell from four or five infectious forms each. In a matter of minutes, all of the Covenant were either dead or infected.
       "I'm not getting any responses." 'Berty said. "I'm going to attempt to lock all the doors," but the words hadn't even left his mouth when they heard a bone rattling explosion. "I've lost power to half of the ship! They must've severed the connection to the reactors, but how?"

       Although the humans were primitive to Covenant standards, they were still ordered to capture all of their weapons and vehicles for study. The Flood had just emptied into a small room containing loads of human weapons, including rocket launchers. Having been faced with a locked door, the human combat forms sifted through their host's memories to learn how to operate the Rocket Launcher. They then spread this information to the others and they all attacked the door. What they didn't know however, was that cables from the reactor ran under the floor that they had just blown a 7 foot wide hole into.

       "I don't have any power, none of the sensors are working and I can't control this half of the ship." he turned to the Prophet and said "Look! Look what you've done. The great Forerunners have damned this vessel because of your ignorance."
       'Rofle refused to repeat those words to the Prophet, until 'Berty got out his plasma sword. 'Rofle quickly translated and replied with "His Excellency reminds you that he, like all of his kind, speak the word of the Forerunners. Furthermore…"
       Suddenly, the Flood burst into the room. The Prophet, along with 'Rofle, quickly ran out through the doors on the other side of the room. Cowards, 'Berty thought. It was dishonorable to turn your back to the enemy. He unleashed his plasma sword and began kill as many Flood as he could. Finally the assimilation form, having already infected Keyes, entered the room. The Elite quickly became overwhelmed until an infectious form finally injected its tentacle into the Elite and released a chemical that paralyzed him. The assimilation form approached the Elite and extended its long tentacle into the Elite, slowly assimilating it too. Having absorbed two forms, the assimilation form was towering. It made its way on top of the ramp and stationed itself in front of holographic panels that surrounded him.
       If all went to plan, he would learn how to fly the ship and learn the locations of all the Covenant planets by sifting through the Elite's memories. He would then also learn the locations of the human planets from Keyes. As soon as the Flood repaired the cruiser, they would set out for the closest planet and infect all of its inhabitants.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: Enter the Norah
Date: 26 July 2003, 12:35 AM

Author's Note: Me and Sterfrye36 have gotten together to combine our stories. To fully understand my story, you should read it from the beginning, starting with the Prologue. If you aren't familiar with Sterfrye36's story, Battle for the Norah, I suggest you read it. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed. Enjoy!

       The Flood were now spreading all over Halo. No one could ever hope to contain them now. They had just become too powerful. The Covenants' and humans' only hopes to survive were to escape Halo. The Covenant had been long ago issued orders to abandon Halo and maybe if they had all listened then, some would have made it out.
       Unfortunately, most of the Covenant only hurried along the repairs to their ships after multiple ships had come under attack. The humans, however, after finding out about the Flood, quickly made plans to leave Halo on the cruiser, the Truth and Reconciliation. The ship was one of the few who were space ready.
       Although the Flood had attacked this cruiser and were inside of it, their numbers were quickly fading due to the Covenant's quick response and relatively small number of hostiles. After the Master Chief's removal of a prisoner on the ship, security around the gravity lift had been tripled, which also helped to prevent Flood from entering the ship.
       Another ship, The Law of the Forerunner, wasn't so lucky. After a very fierce battle that lasted for hours, the ship had finally come under complete Flood rule. The ship wasn't too badly damaged either. The Flood quickly shut off the gravity lift, closed all the bay doors and locked all exterior doors, leaving the ship virtually impenetrable to anything less than an explosion big enough to blow a hole in the ship's hull. The assimilation form, which contained the Ship Master, stood in the ship's control center. It quickly learned what was wrong with the ship and how to fix it and so, the assimilation form began to give orders to the entire Flood.
       With that, the infected Covenant were all brought to the engines to begin repairs. With nothing to challenge them, the Flood completely finished the repairs. The Flood were then all recalled to the docking bays. With nothing left to do, they were ordered, by the assimilation form, to finish the infection process on their hosts.
       During the battle for the ship and during the repairs, the Flood hadn't completely infected the Covenant because there hadn't been enough time and all they needed was the host's motor functions. Now, with nothing left to do but wait to enter space, the Flood could take the time and energy required to completely infect their host. That meant turning Elites into combat forms and Grunts and Jackals into carrier forms. Once that process was complete, the ship would attack the closest planet, which was Covenant inhabited.

       Not all of the surviving Marines, however, were gathered inside Alpha Base, ready to attack the Truth and Reconciliation. When all of the Helljumpers had landed and made plans to take over a Forerunner complex for a base, most of the Marines who escaped the Pillar of Autumn via escape pods landed within the same area.
       During the last few moments before the Pillar of Autumn tried to land on Halo, a few Marines had just made it to the escape pods. They had been busy preparing supply boats to launch from the ship. If the Pillar of Autumn began to go into Halo's atmosphere, the escape pods wouldn't be able to launch. Because of this, all five of the fully loaded escape pods couldn't make the correct adjustments in their trajectory to land near Alpha Base. They launched, hoping that they would land near enough to reach Alpha Base by foot. Shortly after they launched, the supply boats did the same on a matching trajectory.

       Since the escape pods flew like ungainly rocks with wings, it was extremely hard to maneuver them, especially with the Pillar of Autumn creating a large amount of heat as it entered halo's atmosphere. Although everyone alive had escaped the Pillar of Autumn, the Covenant were still attacking it with plasma fire because they didn't want it to land on the Forerunner's holy relic. One such plasma bolt ripped a hole in the hull where some Scorpion Tanks and Warthogs were being stored. The Marine had little choice but to leave most of these valuable vehicles in the Pillar of Autumn's belly for the only way to bring them to the surface was by supply boats. These supply boats took a long time to properly secure and launch. The Marines had taken a very large risk in preparing those lifeboats. A risk that they hoped would pay off.

       The escape pods quickly descended onto Halo and managed land within short range of each other. The Pillar of Autumn wasn't too far behind as it too began to descend onto Halo's surface. The turbulence caused by the entry into the atmosphere caused some pieces of the hull to fall down and also wriggled loose some tanks and Warthogs. They fell like bricks down to Halo's surface with increasing speed. All of the Warthogs and tanks that fell from the Autumn's hull had been crushed when they dropped onto Halo's surface. One tank had fallen directly on top of an escape pod. When the 66 tons of metal hit the escape pod, it crushed it and instantly killed all of its occupants.
       The supply boats stayed close to the escape pods and made crash landings. Most of the vehicles had been attached in a makeshift fashion. During the crash landing, they had been thrown loose and completely disabled. Two tanks and two Warthogs managed to stay firmly onto the supply boat and only sustained minor damages. Although some work would have to be done to them, they would run again.
       One supply boat carrying shotguns and assault rifles was completely destroyed by the Covenant. Thinking it was full of humans; the Covenant attacked the supply boat. This would prove to be a very large loss to the Marines indeed. Although they didn't know it, they would be fighting the Flood on Halo much more so than the Covenant. The shotguns and assault rifles worked very well against the Flood. Since that was the only supply boat to carry such weapons in large quantities, the Marines would be stuck with mostly long range weapons. Long range weapons, such as the sniper rifle, were very ineffective against the Flood and would make the Marine's battle that much more difficult.

       Captain Keyes was being very stubborn indeed. The assimilation form that was sitting inside The Harboring Mist's control center was having a hard time getting to the navigation data that he had in his memory. The Ship Master 'Berty wasn't a challenge at all since the assimilation form quickly found the location to all of the Covenant worlds. In time, thought the assimilation form. If it had to go through every single memory Captain Keyes had, it would do so. As it turned out, that's exactly what it did have to do because Keyes was resisting very strongly.
       Keyes, Jacob. Captain. Service number 01928-19912-JK. What?! the assimilation form thought. Not only was Captain Keyes resisting, but he also managed to remember his own name, rank and serial number. Very impressive. While all the other hosts readily gave the information that the Flood wanted, this one seemed very persistent in doing his duty to protect 'Earth.' Where, the assimilation form persisted, where is Earth. But Captain Keyes only held on stronger to the information he had.
       Very slowly, the assimilation form was narrowing in on what it sought. There was nothing left to show it now. It had discarded almost all of the Captain's memories. All that remained now were cold hard statistics and navigation information. Then, just as it was about to receive the location of Earth...

       WHAM! The Master Chief punched his fist right through the Captain's skull, reached for his neural implants and removed them. The assimilation form had been so preoccupied in searching Keyes's mind that he was unaware of anything that was going around him. A great sense of anger filled the assimilation form and it called out to all nearby Flood to come and get the intruder. Unable to fight itself, all the assimilation form could do was watch as the Master Chief killed every single Flood form that came after him. Unwilling to run the risk of the Master Chief killing all of the Flood warriors he had, the assimilation form decided not to call in more Flood.
       Just as the Master Chief was about to leave, some special forces Covenant burst through the door. Although the Flood inhabited half of the ship, the other half was filled with Covenant. Covenant that weren't going down without a fight. If they reached the assimilation form, they would surely destroy it. It was grateful that the same person who had killed his warriors also managed to kill all of the Covenant. After the Master Chief left, it locked the doors leading to the control center so no more surprises would come.

       Meanwhile, the Flood located yet another Covenant ship, the Norah. It was in fine working condition. In fact, it was one of the few Covenant ships that were untouched by the Pillar of Autumn. The ship had currently been docked at that location for research on Halo's environmental systems and other various technological marvels that the Forerunners used to build Halo. In fact, Halo's equivalent to a brain, lungs and heart were all contained within a 7-kilometer radius of each other on that piece of Halo.
       Determined to learn all that the Forerunners had left for them, the Prophet on the Norah ordered different squads to examine different things. Although aware of the Flood threat, the Prophet was determined to retrieve as much information as possible before they left Halo, maybe for good. One squad would examine Halo's life support hub in hopes of shutting it down where the humans were in order to kill them all quickly. A second squad would look at what appeared to be Halo's teleportation grid. Although all attempts to tap into the grid had failed, the Covenant were hopeful that they might be able to use it with a little more research. Finally, a third squad was sent to the teleportation grid's power plant. The Covenant believed that they needed to extract power from this structure in order to use the teleportation grid.
       There was a much bigger reason to go to those structures however. Although it was important to learn as much Forerunner technology as possible, it was more important to stop the Flood. The Flood had gone to these structures to (the Covenant hypothesized) spread their infection. The Covenant have had many encounters with the Flood. They had also learned much about them from ancient scriptures. They knew the Flood released spores to paralyze their victims but in such a large area as Halo, they would have to release trillions upon trillions of spores to have any effect on the humans or Covenant. If the Flood managed to gain access to the environmental systems, however, they could send large concentrations of spores to different parts of Halo. If the Flood could accomplish that, they would own all of Halo in a very short amount of time. Therefore, the Covenant's main goal was to stop the Flood.
       With a sizeable portion of the Norah's crew out looking at the Forerunner complexes, it was severely out manned when the Flood attacked. Just as with other ships, the Flood first went up into the ship via the gravity lift. They slowly made their way further and further into the ship until they reached a locked door. Ship Master Faly 'Hunderstood realized what was happening to his ship just in time to lock all the doors before the Flood reached the ship's control center. Without heavy firepower, all the Flood could do was unsuccessfully attempt to force their way through the doors.
       The lesser Prophet who accompanied the Ship Master in the control room wasn't higher in the caste structure than the Elite. Therefore, the Prophet couldn't order him to do anything.
       "Might I suggest venting the atmosphere in the chambers that contain the Flood," the Prophet said.
       The Ship Master gave a short chuckle at the Prophet's inexperience. "Vent the atmosphere you say?" asked the Elite. "We aren't in space, venting the atmosphere won't do anything." Any respect the Elite had for this prophet was quickly fading.
       Embarrassed, the Prophet just hovered there, silent until finally he said "Why not suck the air out of the rooms then?" asked the Prophet who wanted to redeem himself.
       The Elite considered it, "I suppose we could give it a try." The Elite sealed all doors with an airtight lock. He then began to suck the air out of the Flood inhabited rooms. The ship wasn't exactly designed to suck the air out, however. The best the Elite could do was transfer air from those rooms into other portions of the ship through vents.
       The Ship Master slowly watched the progress. Air remaining in the rooms went from 100% to 80% then to 77% at which point it almost stopped completely. Damn the Elite thought, they must be gathering around the vents and blocking the air. Then a horrible thought came to the Elite's mind. If the Flood somehow managed to enter those vents, they would be brought directly into other parts of the ship. Impossible, the Elite reassured himself, they have nothing to force themselves into the vent with.
       No matter how much they blocked the vents, the air would soon empty completely. The Elite felt a sense of triumph that he had outsmarted such a dangerous enemy. He was the one being outsmarted however. Sure, the Flood had gathered around the vents to slow down the airflow but they had other reasons as well. They were releasing spores directly into the vents, which they hoped led to other places in the ship. Soon, the spores would take their effect on the Covenant and paralyze them. Then, with a little luck, the Flood could break into the vents and easily infect every Covenant soldier they found.

Halo from the Flood's Point of View: The Attack
Date: 1 August 2003, 1:05 AM

       The Ship Master on the Norah was starting to feel a little strange. His limbs were starting to feel numb and he was suddenly very tired. He looked over to the Prophet who was apparently feeling the same way, given how he was swaying left and right atop his anti-grav belt. The Elite pushed the feeling aside, thinking it was just battle fatigue and focused on watching the ship status.
       Air was continuously draining from the Flood infected compartments, but too slowly. The Elite pushed the system as far as it could go to speed the process. His eyes began to flutter and he was struggling to stay awake. He started to take long, deep breathes but that only seemed to make it worse. He then looked at the air coming through the vents, it wasn't clear but rather had a green hue to it.
       The Elite put two and two together and turned to the Prophet. Although the Elite had some knowledge as to the habits of the Flood, only the Prophets knew everything about them. Since the Elite couldn't remember reading anything in the databases about the Flood releasing anything in the air, he thought maybe the Prophet did.
       "The Flood," the Ship Master said, "can they be doing this? Do they release anything in the air?"
       "Knowledge about the Flood has been given to us by the Forerunners themselves, only those who know the holy language and can read the scriptures are allowed to know everything." the Prophet responded. The truth was, as only being a minor Prophet, he didn't know much more about the Flood than the Elite did. The Prophet wasn't about to tell the Elite this, however.
       The Elite quickly cut the air flow to the control room completely off. He then took his plasma sword from his belt and lit it. What he was about to do went against every religious rule in the book, but he didn't care. He took a swipe at the Prophet and purposely missed by a few inches above his head.
       "Tell me if the Flood can do this," the Elite started, "or I swear I will make you die a very very painful death."
       The Prophet began to tremble. Being the religious leader, he had no weapons of his own and therefore had no way of defending himself. He tried desperately to remember all he knew about the Flood. He reviewed how they infected hosts, what they did to them...then he remembered. The Flood sometimes released spores into the air to paralyze their victims, which made for an easy infection. "Yes," the Prophet slowly said, "the Flood may have released spores into the air."
       "And when the hell were you going to tell me this!" the Elite exclaimed. "You mean to tell me that you suggested we pump the air out of those compartments when you knew the Flood could just release spores?! What do the spores do?"
       "We believe that they paralyze whomever breathes them in."
       The Elite just stood there, looking at the Prophet with unbelieving eyes. He realized he was gripping his plasma sword very tightly. He turned it off and placed it back on his belt, then turned to the control panel. He shut off the pumps sucking the air. Shit, the Elite thought, there's still 50% of the air left. That was plenty for the Flood to survive in.

       The Flood stopped releasing spores. The air was no longer being sucked out of the vents. They began thinking of a way to break through those vents when the ship suddenly tilted up and accelerated.

       No choice then, the Elite thought, there's only one way to really get rid of them now.
       "What are you doing?" asked the Prophet.
       The Elite turned around so fast that it made the Prophet jump. "I'm going to do what you originally suggested." the Elite growled. "I'm going to take this ship out of Halo's atmosphere and vent the atmosphere on the ship."
       "But we have our forces on the ground," the Prophet began, "we can't just abandon them."
       "I'm not 'abandoning them'." the Elite replied. "About an hour ago, we received a transmission from the Truth and Reconciliation. It said that we could call our forces back from guarding the teleportation grid, the life support hub and the power plant. I haven't been able to contact them recently, but I think they're just preparing to leave as well.
       "Our ground forces are on their way now. They'll wait for the ship to return from space where we'll pick them up and leave Halo for good."

       This was it, the final fusion cell needed to make the Pillar of Autumn's engines go critical. The Master Chief tossed a fragmentation grenade into the opening and BOOM, it went off.
       "That did it! The engines will go critical. We have fifteen minutes to get off the ship! We should move outside and go to the third deck elevator. It will take us to a Class Seven service corridor that runs along the length of the ship. Hurry!" exclaimed Cortana.

       The Law of the Forerunner was ready to go. All of the Flood had finished converting their hosts into full-fledged Flood forms (say that 3 times fast). The assimilation form that stood in the ship's control room was motionless. Suddenly, it ejected the Elite's former arms and touched a series of buttons on the holographic control panel in front of it. The engines came to life, and the ship slowly lifted from Halo's surface. It tilted at a 45 degree angle and sped off.
       In a matter of minutes, the ship had completely cleared halo's gravity and it just floated there while the assimilation form gathered the necessary data. It then turned on the ship's slipspace engines and headed for a Covenant planet called Decesso. In the blink of an eye, the Law of the Forerunner had vanished and sentenced that planet to hell.

       The Norah was still rising towards space went the Autumn blew on the other side of Halo. The initial blast from its engines was least felt on the other side of the ring, but it was a very large explosion. The blast, accompanied by its shockwaves, was enough to knock out the systems of the Norah. Still not half as far as the ship needed to be from Halo, it began to plummet back to Halo's surface.

       There was this whistling sound that kept getting louder and louder but where was it coming from? All the Covenant that had been recalled from the life support hub, teleportation grid and power generator were wondering the same thing. They were all gathered close by, waiting for the Norah to return when an Elite looked up. It opened its mouth to scream but it was too late. The Norah landed on top of the Covenant, killing every single one of them.

       The blast from the Autumn was too much to handle for Halo as it began to break apart into hundreds of pieces, which collided with one another and ceased to exist. The piece of Halo that the Norah was on broke apart from the rest of Halo as well. It began spinning uncontrollably towards the gas giant.
       It was moving at such a velocity that it passed directly through Threshold but got caught in its gravity when it came out the other side. Halo, still rotating on several axes, began revolving around Threshold. 343 Guilty Spark had taken Sergeant Johnson, as well as an Elite, with him to Halo's life support hub just as the Pillar of Autumn blew.

       343 Guilty Spark had done some calculations. Whichever piece of Halo contained the life support hub would also contain life. Once disconnected from the rest of Halo, all the other pieces would vent atmosphere and any humans, Covenant or Flood that survived the blast would die. Since Guilty Spark had known that the Flood tried to attack the life support systems, he knew that they would be close enough to it to remain alive.
       There was also a Covenant ship on that piece of Halo, which gave the Flood a way to escape. His function was to prevent the Flood from leaving the installation at all costs which is why he took the Sergeant and Elite with him. He had watched Sergeant Johnson fight before and knew he was a hard core son of a bitch.
       First thing was first though, Halo was still spinning uncontrollably. Guilty Spark teleported to Halo's systems and sealed off the areas that had been broken off. Then, after no more atmosphere was venting, started firing jets located on the underside of Halo. Slowly, Guilty Spark managed to get Halo level.

       The Master Chief and Cortana were within the Longsword accelerating away from Halo.
       "Did anyone else make it?" asked the Chief.
       "Scanning," after a moments pause, Cortana said "Just dust and echoes. We're all that's left. We did what we had to do...for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated and the Flood...we had no choice. Halo, it's finished."
       "No," replied the Master Chief, "I think we're just getting started."
       There was a problem with Cortana's scans. She had been expecting to see the Truth and Reconciliation waiting for them in space, full of the surviving Marines. When she couldn't see them, she scanned for the ship itself. Since the Longsword's scanners weren't very powerful, she then searched for any transmissions, but found none. That was why she came to the conclusion that no one had survived the blast.

       Half of the Covenant remaining on the Norah had been knocked out and another 20 percent had been killed, including the Prophet, when the ship crashed. The Ship Master stood in the Control Center, already weakened from the spores and shaken up from the crash. He looked over, saw the Prophet's lifeless body still floating and thought to himself, Serves him right.
       It was pitch black within the ship. The holographic control panels that used to surround the command deck were no longer activated. The Elite turned on his plasma sword to benefit from the blue light it produced. He tried opening the doors but nothing was working. He keyed the Covenant equivalent to a microphone on his helmet, in hopes that some of his men were still alive.
       "This is the Ship Master, can anyone hear me?"
       He was replied with a bunch of "Yes Excellency. What happened?"
       He left his reply on all frequencies and said "I don't know but unless we can get this ship back up, we're done for. Is anyone there in the engines?"
       "Yes, Excellency, 'Kanamee is here."
       "What's the status of the engine, are they badly damaged?"
       "I don't see any damage whatsoever but they're all offline. I would try to repair them but I can't seem to find my equipment. Is there any chance the doors work?"
       "Negative, the ship has no power whatsoever. Unless we can open the doors, I'm afraid we're stuck here. If anyone is equipped with plasma swords, I want you to begin cutting through the doors. Avoid sections 7 through 14 of the ship, we believe that they are Flood infested."
       The Ship Master heard a series of acknowledgements and began cutting through his own door. The problem was that even though the plasma sword cut through the door, it would re-melt as soon as he moved the plasma sword away. Because of this, it was necessary for the Ship Master to start at the top of the door and work his way down, letting the metal drip down. It was going to take longer than anticipated.

       The Flood were very resilient. Not even a hundredth of their numbers died during the crash. Now, in utter silence and darkness, the Flood started to think. The air wasn't being pumped, they were sure of that. Since they used their tentacles as sensors, being in pitch black didn't hinder their sights much. They knew the doors were locked and the only way to open them was by force. Rather than use up all of their weaponry in trying to open the door, they looked for another way through the ship.
       The only other way that presented itself was the vents, plain and simple. Although the opening to the vents wasn't easily undone, with less than half of the required energy to open the doors, they could force themselves into the vents.
       The Covenant believed that the Flood possessed little to no organizational skills. They were dead wrong. The Flood were just using what little advantage they had, their numbers. They lacked any shielding that other organisms had and they weren't very accurate with weapons. What they did have was very large numbers, from which they got their name. They would simply overwhelm organisms with sheer numbers.
       To do that, they needed to organize attacks where all the Flood went in at once. Although Covenant and humans alike couldn't hear Flood speech, they do communicate with each other verbally, but on a high frequency. Too high of a frequency for most other organisms to hear.
       The Flood spread the word, "Through the vents, make your way through the vents." All at once, Flood combat forms began to use their plasma weapons to burn through the grating blocking their way into the vents. Fully infected combat forms then used their strength to knock out the grating, leaving the vent fully accessible. Soon, there were no more Flood within the various rooms in the ship, but instead, inside the vents.
       The Flood slowly watched and waited for the signal to attack. All the Flood wanted to attack at once and catch the Covenant by surprise. They had gone for areas around the ship that would come most useful like the control center, the engine room, and the area with the most Covenant, the docking bay. Then they heard the signal. "ATTACK!"

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