Halo: The Flood

Halo: The Flood was the second halo novel ever to be released and was released shortly after Halo: The Fall of Reach. It based straight after the events of the previous novel and is based on the game, Halo: Combat Evolved. It was, like Fall of Reach and First Strike rereleased with content repairs.

Halo: The Flood
Author:	William C. Dietz
Publisher:	Del Rey Books
Date Released:	April 1,2003 and September 28,2010 (remastered)
Length:	352 pages
Availability:	Paperback
Price:	The following prices apply
US:	$7.99
Canada:	$10.99
UK:	£5.99

Halo: The Flood is the second book in the Halo Main Book Series. It is, however not written by Eric Nylund but by William C. Dietz.

Plot

Halo: The Flood takes place from September 19, 2552 to September 23, 2552. It is based on the game Halo: Combat Evolved. It begins as the Halcyon-class Cruiser, UNSC Pillar of Autumn, is exiting slipspace around Installation 04, or as it is known to the Covenant, Alpha Halo. They have just escaped the carnage at Reach where a Covenant Assault Fleet of 700 ships against the UNSC's 100 easily overpowered the fleet and destroyed Reach. The Ring-world of Alpha Halo is in orbit around the gas giant known as Threshold.

However, the Pillar of Autumn is being pursued by the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice, commanded by the Sangheili Supreme Commander Thel'Vadamee. They took part in Reach's destruction. The Flagship of this fleet is the Ascendant Justice, A ship of unknown classification. The fleet exit slipspace surrounding the lone UNSC vessel and are furious that they found their relic and attempt to stop UNSC forces from landing on it. A Minor Prophet, who commands the fleet alongside Thel, orders the fleet to not destroy the ship, in the fear of debris damaging the ring. Instead, the Covenant send boarding craft to commandeer the vessel while their ships fire Plasma Torpedoes at the ship to slow it's progress. As a result of this, Cortana takes the Autumn's defenses and manages to destroy four covenant warships, but not before all remaining Archer missile pods run out and all turrets are destroyed by the Covenant Assault. She manages to lightly damage a CCS-Class Battlecruiser, the Truth and Reconciliation but is finally overwhelmed making the ship defenseless. To repel the Covenant boarding parties, technicians awaken John and Keyes calls him to the bridge. His escorts are killed but Chief makes it. Armed with a pistol, Chief makes his way through the ship.

Deprived of defenses, Keyes initiates the Cole Protocol and set's a collision course with the Ring. He orders all the crew to abandon ship including John. John is entrusted to look after Cortana and too escort her safely off the ship. The chief battles the Covenant boarders, and escapes in a bumblebee class escape pod. Foehammer takes her Pelican and escapes just as the Autumn enters Halo's atmosphere. The Escape pod Chief is in makes a rough landing on the Ring-world. All the crew are killed except him and Cortana who make a quick escape before a Spirit Dropship and 2 banshee escorts arrive. At the same time, a group of ODST's escape the Autumn via Orbital insertion vehicles and also land on the ring world. On the ground, ODST Commander, Major Antonio Silva and his second in command, Melissa McKay prepare to establish a base of operations for the battle on halo. Silva is aided by a Class C Military Dumb AI named Wellsley after the duke of wellington, who advises them to capture one of the high buttes and use it as a base.

Meanwhile, A Covenant grunt named Yayap leads his squad into the Pillar of Autumn's crashing bulk. Extremely cautious and cowardly by nature, Yayap and his team decide to rescue a covenant Special Operations Elite wounded by John rather than fight the humans. The five small aliens drag the black-armored elite back to their craft and escape the Pillar of Autumn as it continues it's plunge through the Atmosphere.

An Ossoona by the name of Isna 'Nosaolee manages to survive using Active Camo to board Keyes's escape pod after tracking him down in an attempt to take him hostage. However, the captain sees him and shoots him with a Coporal's M6D Pistol. Isna's dead body later allows the Covenant to make Keyes a high priorty capture. Keyes and his crew are forced to evade covenant forces once they land on the ring-world. Finally, they are betrayed by Ensign Ellen Dowski. By consquence, everyone is executed by the elites, including Dowski. However, Keyes is left alive and captured. He is then taken aboard the docked Truth and Reconciliation.

After Cortana and Chief land on halo, they help other marines who have crashed, including Sergeant Johnson. The ODST's meanwhile secure Alpha Base after their confrontation with Covenant Forces. Yayap is awarded after rescuing the SpecOps Elite, Zuka 'Zamamee with a extremely dangerous assignment, which most grunts don't participate in. Even better, Zuka must work as a partner with him.

Back at Alpha Base, Silva initiate's his plan to rescue Captain Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Master Chief and Cortana partake on this dangerous raid and rescue mission. After rescuing the Captain, the captain tells them of the ring-world's purpose as a weapon of unimaginable power. Escaping from the Covenant Cruiser via a Spirit Dropship, they return to Alpha Base. Returning with information on a covenant weapons cache, Silva receives word of the Captain's rescue. Keyes, along with Johnson and his squad and Corporal Lovik and his squad go to steal this weapons cache, while John and the other ODST's and marines are given the job of storming the Silent Cartographer so they can locate Halo's Control Center before the Covenant can. Meanwhile, Zuka and Yayap are given permission to hunt down and elimnate the Master Chief or "Demon." However, their attempt and launching a trap to kill the demon, with Yayap's squad, Zuka and a pair of hunters fails. It leaves all of Yayap's squad and both hunters dead. Zuka and Yayap surrender their attempts. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Melissa McKay and her company assault the now Covenant-controlled Pillar of Autumn crash site for reinforcements and supplies.

Keyes and his platoon of marines land in a swamp to find and capture the Covenant Weapons cache. The Marines and previously captured a deillusioned elite named 'Quolomee who had claimed to have transported a Covenant cache of powerful weaponry to the swamp area. Pushing into the structure, the platoon are suprised to find little covenant resistance. They then find a terrifying sight, dead covenant soldiers who's chests have been freakishly ripped open and their guts scattered all over the place. In a locked room, Johnson's squad, accompanied by Keyes find out that Lovik's squad is under attack by the cause of the problem, The Flood. With Lovik's squad all infected, Johnson's squad are next. The little bulbous creatures are fragile but their sheer numbers overwhelm them. Johnson and unnamed marine are the only ones to escape as Keyes, Bisenti, Riley, Kappus, Jenkins and the rest of the squad are infected by the Flood. Keyes is taken to an undisclosed location. However, Jenkins awakens half infected, he can still control himself at times and is painfully aware of his actions due to the Infection Form's weakened state due to long hibernation.

Meanwhile, Master Chief and Cortana, thanks to the cartographer, locate the control room. They are not the only ones however, the Covenant got there first. Foehammer takes them within safe range of the Control Room and Chief battles his way, with help from Fire Team Zulu towards the Control Room. Elimnating all Covenant Forces in the ficinity, John inserts Cortana into Halo's computer network. However, Cortana discovers halo isn't the type of weapon they expected it to be. Before she can be battered with questions, cortana tells Chief to stop Keyes unaware they are too late. With Foehammer's aid, Chief drops alone into the swamp where Keyes disappeared. Searching the structure, he discovers the horrible fate of the platoon through the recorder of Jenkins. Realizing the Flood's presence, Chief makes a dash to escape. He escapes to the surface and links up with Corporal Lovik and the surviving squad members. They make a dash for the LZ as the Flood pursue them. Suddenly, they are aided by mysterious robotic units called Sentinels. They easily handle the Flood situation, but corporal lovik and his squad are eventually infected. He is teleported away by halo's AI, 343 Guilty Spark. Spark tells John of the Flood and it's capabilities. He asks the "reclaimer" to aid him in the retrieving the "Index" to the installation he can activate it's defenses and destroy the Flood. After fighting never ending waves of Flood, Chief recovers the index and they teleport to the Control Room where Cortana is waiting.

Meanwhile, the UNSC Forces of Alpha Base are forced into the defensive when a suprise attack by the Covenant hits them. They are indeed trying to kill Master Chief, unaware of his absence. After the failed assault, UNSC forces attempted to ambush a Covenant recovery team, but were interrupted by a Flood attack. Jenkins joins the assault. The Covenant and UNSC unite for that one moment to fight off the Flood. Jenkins tries to commit suicide by jumping in the line of fire, but is eventually captured by the UNSC. The UNSC then, after destroying the Flood assault, then kill off the Covenant Recovery Team.

Back at the Control Room, Master Chief is given the index so he can activate the halo ring. However, the phissed off cortana knocks out Spark and steals the index. Cortana explains that Halo is a weapon that doesn't destroy the Flood, it destroys it's food, meaning every sentient being in the galaxy. It would be a galactic holocaust if halo was activated. Instead, Chief turns against his new found ally, while destroying Sentinels, Flood and Covenant, John proceeds to destroy 3 Phase Pulse Generators to slow Spark's progress. To destroy halo, they must self-destruct the autumn's engines, to do that, they need Keyes's neural implants. They then proceed to the Flood-overrun Truth and Reconciliation which is so damaged, it's Reactor is leaking plasma coolant. Find Keyes infected into a Proto-Gravemind, they kill him and take his neural implant. They hijack a banshee from the hangar and proceed to the Autumn's crash site.

Meanwhile, Silva has the Flood specimens destroyed, all except Jenkins are destroyed. McKay establishes a bond with Jenkins that could help them fight the Flood. Silva takes all the survivors and attempts to hijack the Truth and Reconciliation and take it back to Earth for study. McKay realizes that doing this would bring the Flood to Earth and realizes Jenkins realization of this too. To stop Silva, McKay destroys the ships starboard engine, the explosion sends the ship crashing into the surface of halo, destroying the ship and killing everyone including Jenkins, McKay, Silva and all surviving UNSC Forces. At the Autumn's crash site, Chief and Cortana's Banshee runs out of fuel and crashes into the ship's hull. But Chief manages to survive and reach's the ship's bridge. They find Spark in the Engine Room who has disabled the Self-Destruct system. Chief proceeds to the Engine Room to detonate the engine core. This destablizes the engines, making it go into critical state. Chief dashes for a access junction in a Warthog where Foehammer is scehuled to pick him up so they can escape halo. However, Foehammer is pursued by a Banshee pair and shot down. She crashes into the hull and is killed. Chief dashes for his last hope of escape, a docked Longsword-class interceptor. The Chief boards the fightercraft and escapes halo just before the Autumn explodes, destroying Alpha Halo. A Flood infection escapes and infects the last covenant ship, but Ascendant Justice's boarding crews send it hurtling towards the system's sun. With all the Flood destroyed, the Covenant Armada annilhated and Spark's rampant actions silenced, Chief turns off the engines and they are left drifting. Cortana scans for survivors but only picks up "Dust and Echoes." Zuka and Yayap are also killed in the resulting explosion. Cortana states the fight is over but chief replies "No, the Covenant is still out there, and Earth is at risk. We're just getting started." The Book then ends.

Characters

• Major Antonio Silva
• First Lieutenant Melissa McKay
• Second Lieutenant Dalu
• Lieutenant Oros
• Master Chief Petty Officer John-117
• Captain Jacob Keyes
• Ensign William Lovell
• Master Sergeant Lister
• First Sergeant Tink Carter
• Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker
• Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson
• Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto
• Sergeant Corly
• Sergeant Parker
• Sergeant Waller
• Corporal Lovik
• Corporal Wilkins
• Corporal Yutrzenika
• Lance Corporal "Snaky" Jones
• Private First Class Chips Dubbo
• Private First Class Hosky
• Private First Class M.Fitzgerald
• Private First Class Wallace A.Jenkins
• Private Bisenti
• Private Kappus
• Private Manuel Mendoza
• Private Marie Postly
• Private McKenzie
• Private Riley
• Private Satha
• Al-Thani
• Carol "Foehammer" Rawley
• Cortana
• Wellsley
• Special Operations Officer Zuka 'Zamamee
• Special Operations Officer Yayap
• Soha 'Rolamee
• Truth and Reconciliation's Minor Prophet
• Ogada Nosa Fasu
• Igido Nasa Hurru
• 343 Guilty Spark

Trivia

• Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker is not present in the novel, he is replaced by Sergeant Waller but they both have the same dialogue.
• Originally, on the front cover, Master Chief was going to be holding a Assault Rifle. It was changed to a Shotgun due it's effectiveness against the Flood.
• Despite being based on Halo: Combat Evolved, it was released two years after the game did.
• The finialized cover is similiar to "Doom." It has a reddish background and has a soldier gunning down hordes of enemies.
• The 2010 remastered cover depicts Chief being overwhelmed by Flood tentacles with a SMG. On the old cover, it shows him gunning down Infection Forms with a Shotgun. A flaw is that SMG's never appeared in Halo CE and Flood tentacles weren't present either. The Armor looks more Mk VI then it does Mk V too.
• Master Chief is dual-wielding SMG's on the front cover. Dual-Wielding is impossible to do in Halo CE and SMG's aren't present ingame anyway.

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