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


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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.





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