Jason opened his eyes and was greeted by Trepid and Helen standing several feet away, each with confused looks on their faces. Jason looked around and found they weren't in the clearing anymore. Somehow they made it inside some large metallic structure similar to that on Abian IV. The only difference being this structure's room was enormous, with a circular large catwalk surrounding a giant hologram of Taxyra floating precariously over a very deep pit. Sitting just bellow the hologram of Taxyra was a large holographic console like the one in the map room.

All of their heads turned as a humming sound filled the air. The small green machine was floating towards them from across the pit, its repulsors making the humming noise they were hearing. When the machine got closer, Jason was able to see its glowing green eye better. It took up almost the entire front of the machine, and had an odd symbol etched into its surface. The symbol looked like a small circle with six prongs sticking out to reach another circle beyond it.

"I believe this location should be suitable" said the machine gleefully, "after all, the Flood have yet to breach this level of the installation."

Helen stepped toward the machine, "I'm probably speaking for everyone here, but who are you and where are we?"

The machine took several seconds before responding, "My name is 252 Glorious Fire, and I am the monitor of Destroyer Installation 02. This room is the installation's control center located ten standard kilometres to the north of this installation's main energy weapon."

"Alright" Helen said, scratching her head with confusion, "do you mind if we ask you some questions?"

The machine nodded enthusiastically, "of course Reclaimer, I will try to answer to the best of my abilities."

Helen nodded, "why don't you tell us everything about your makers, this "installation" and what this flood thing is?"

"Of course Reclaimer" said the Monitor cheerfully, "My makers, the Forerunners, existed a hundred thousand standard years ago. They were a peaceful race, until they came into contact with an intelligent parasitic race they called the Flood, which had come from an unknown galaxy and threatened to consume all sentient life in the galaxy. My makers boldly combated the parasite and as the war went on, they developed several weapons to exterminate the parasite, this installation being one of them. The Destroyer installations were developed to annihilate any planets completely infected by the Flood. But after several years, my makers found this method too destructive and morally unjust, and ceased using these installations. My makers then resorted to the use of the Halo array. These weapons of last resort cleansed the galaxy of Flood and all sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, ending the war."

Jason was shocked, this was too much too fast, but for some reason he believed it. It seemed the Celestials and the Forerunners were the same beings. He thought the Covenant had made up the Forerunners and the story about their war with the Flood. But it seemed everything except what they knew about the Halos were true. They believed the Halos took you on some Great Journey when activated, but instead just wiped the galaxy clean of sentient life. There was one thing about that, that didn't make sense to him.

"How come we're here when the Halo arrays were activated only a hundred thousand years ago?" Jason asked Fire, "Wouldn't the Halos have destroyed our ancestors as well?"

"Oh yes, of course" the monitor agreed, "but before the activation of the Halo array, my makers cataloged population samples from every sentient species in the galaxy. So when they activated the Halos, they could repopulate the galaxy and restore it to the way it once was."

Helen was listening to each word, a puzzling look on her face. "But there were intelligent civilizations living a hundred thousand years ago, like the Rakata. Wouldn't they have documented and recorded what the Forerunners did to them to keep them safe from the Halos?"

"My makers were true geniuses" the machine said happily to itself, "yes, you are correct Reclaimer. But before the activation of the halo array, my masters used a mental capacitor aboard Halo installation 01 to cause a galactic wide mental stasis of all non Forerunner species. This allowed my makers to collect samples from the more advanced civilizations without their recollection. The more primitive species on the other hand wouldn't remember the ordeal and were collected before the more advanced species."

"How come there is two different species of humans?" Jason asked curiously, "I've heard that there is another separate species of human living in a distant location of the galaxy."

The monitor was silent as it thought about this, "I do not have much knowledge on this affair. But when my makers came across your species, they found the similarities between you and them quite startling. I hypothesize they spread your species across the stars so if something were to happen to one group, then the entire species wouldn't be wiped out."

Jason raised his eyebrows, understanding the reasoning behind this. After all there have been hundreds of species wiped out in wars and natural disasters. But the human race always seemed like the one that never became less common in the galaxy.

Suddenly a thought crossed Jason's mind and he whipped out his data pad. He found the co-ordinates of Vespae and held the device where Fire could see it, "several years ago I went to a monastery on top of a mountain at these co-ordinates. The monastery seemed similar to all the structures you makers designed; do you know what it was used for?"

Fire floated closer to examine the numbers. It seemed to be processing this information since it was silent for what felt like a while. "Ah yes that was the location where my makers agreed the activation of the Halo array was the only way to win the war against the flood. It was secluded enough that the Flood would have a hard time finding them, and gave them the time needed to discus the matter of the Halo array in detail."

"Hold on" Trepid said, "If you said the Flood were wiped out by the Halos, then why did you also say there has been an outbreak of the stuff?"

"After this installation was put out of commission, my makers began capturing Flood specimens and took them to M-type Installations for study. All of the remaining Destroyer installations, including this one, were repurposed as M-type installations after their retirement and were utilized to find a weakness in the Flood my makers could exploit. The holding cells they were stored inside protected them from the Halo effect and survived for the last hundred thousand years. Unfortunately, several years ago one of the holding cells malfunctioned and released a dangerous amount of Flood, which infected all of the biomass on the installation's surface."

Jason perked up at this, "wait, how big is this installation?"

The monitor turned its back on them and floated up to the hologram of Taxyra, "why, it's the entire planet" it said. Fire's green eye brightened and the hologram begun to change. The brown surface of the hologram peeled away like a fruit to show a shiny metal surface underneath. The planet was completely artificial. Jason took in every amazing detail. Along the equator was a single long rectangular trench that stretched all the way around the planet, and the massive crater they had seen from orbit looked like a massive satellite dish had been implanted in the northern region of the planet.

"Helen, this could be what the Covenant are looking for" said Jason, "they weren't coming after something on the planet surface. They were coming after the planet. This must have been what my Master saw in her vision. If they get control of this thing, we would be done for."

Helen nodded, "you're probably right Jason." She looked up to where Fire was floating beside the hologram, "so, all of that brown stuff on the planet surface." she said to the monitor, "Those big creatures and those smaller things were Flood?"

The monitor floated back down towards them, "yes, those bigger creatures were combat forms the Flood use to stall it's prey while the smaller infection forms you faced would bury under your skin and take control of your central nervous system. Making you a puppet of the Flood parasite."

Jason shivered at the thought of one of those little creatures digging their needle like tentacles into him. They had been so close to being overrun by them, and had in not been for Glorious Fire they would have been done for. He just hoped Cris got out without any issue, he had been aboard the Saurora when Fire had teleported them, leaving Cris behind.

"Those things may be dangerous but they didn't seem all too smart" Trepid stated, "how could they wage a war when they're nothing but stupid animals controlling other stupid animals?"

The monitor chuckled, "The Flood isn't what you think Reclaimer. The Parasite has a collective mind. So as it takes control over more sentient life forms, it becomes smarter. If the parasite were to take control of any of you Reclaimers, the collective mind would be able to access your knowledge and memories and all of the Flood on this installation would know what you know."

"How come the Flood's hosts were all deformed?" Helen asked Fire, "most of the parasites I've ever learned about just live off the host, not change it."

"When the Flood takes control of a new host, it buries itself in the torso of the animal and begins to mutate the body. These mutations allow the flood to turn its host into anything it desires. Such as a form to construct new Flood spores, or a form utilized for combat.

They were all worried now. If this parasite escaped the planet, then nothing short of a galactic wipe out could stop it. After all, if the most highly advanced alien race in the galaxy's history couldn't stop it, then what chance did the Republic or Jedi have?

"How do we stop it?" Jason asked bravely.

"This installation has basic security protocols which are enabled when Reclaimers, such as you, arrive on the installation at the time that a Flood out break has occurred" said the monitor, "these basic protocols will protect you and will do what it can to begin exterminating the parasite by the use of sentinel drones. This will not be enough to prevent the spread of the Flood. We need to bring this installation's systems completely online to activate the heavy support units, which will exterminate any Flood on or inside the Installation."

"What if we bring these support units online and they can't stop the Flood?" Helen asked rhetorically.

"Then we will have no choice but to overload this installation's main energy weapon and put it in a mode of self destruct. The resulting explosion should destroy the Flood and any chances of it spreading. The containment of the parasite is our top priority, and we must take every precaution that it doesn't escape the installation, no matter what the cost."

The three of them looked at each other, their heads still swimming with the knowledge they had just been given. It was almost too much to bear, but they had to do something. This parasite was far worse a threat than the Covenant ever was. The Covenant threatened the existence of the human race, while the Flood threatened the existence of all of the sentient beings in the galaxy. They could handle the Covenant, but the Flood was a completely different challenge.

Jason and Helen exchanged a nervous look before turning back to face the monitor. "Okay," Jason said with a tired breath, "Where do we start?"

"Well, like most of the Installations my makers designed, we require this Installation's activation Index, which can only be retrieved by Reclaimers such as yourselves. The location of the Index is in the Library overlooking the equatorial trench."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Helen asked, "Let's go get the thing."

The monitor nodded and the bright yellow light began to envelop the four of them. They all shut their eyes and just like before they disappeared in a flash, instantly teleported across the Destroyer's Flood infested surface.

Kalleem stood aboard the bridge of the Covenant cruiser A Forgotten Sight, and watched through the luminary as the ship exited the pitch black of Slipspace. The Hierarchs had agreed that they should send a small force to the location of the Destroyer before bringing in the main fleet. After all it would be a major waste of resources if it was discovered that the humans hadn't made a presence of themselves in this system.

But unfortunately, it seemed that they had. Orbiting the second planet in the system was three of the advanced human ships that he had seen when he fled with the location of the Destroyer. At the moment it seemed they were oblivious to their presence, but that would soon change.

Kalleem was about to turn away from the luminary when another sight caught his eye. On the planet surface were four Reclamation glyphs. One sitting on its own while the other three were bunched together in the far north of the planet. It seemed the humans already knew about the Destroyer and had begun their own search for it.

The Shipmaster of A forgotten Sight marched across the Bridge to where Kalleem stood and eager look on his face. "Shipmaster Kalleem" he stated, "It would be recommended that you take a dozen of our Spirit and Phantom and head to the location of the Destroyer before the humans take notice of us."

Kalleem nodded, "Thank you Shipmaster Shavil for allowing me to take your troops."

Shipmaster Shavil smiled, "I do what I can for the glory of the Covenant Shipmaster Kalleem. We will contact High Charity and have them send the rest of our forces."

"Good. No doubt these humans will send for assistance, and we will need everything we can get."

At that last word Kalleem turned his back on the Sangheili and headed for the hangars, excited to get onto the planet surface and search for the Forerunner weapon. When he entered, the hangar was bustling with activity as Huragok and the bug like Yam'ne equipped the twelve drop ships for the battle. Over all there would be a hundred troops comprising almost every species in the Covenant from the common Unggoy to the flight capable Yam'ne to the monstrous Mega-Lekgolo. Not to mention the Huragok had equipped the Drop ships with three Wraiths, four Ghosts and two Revenants which would provide them with some much needed firepower if they came up against any fierce opposition.

Kalleem marched toward the lead Phantom and climbed aboard. For the time being, the drop ship was empty except for the pilot seated in the cockpit. He keyed open the door and the Sangheili turned in his chair.

"Are we almost ready for take off?" Kalleem asked the pilot.

The Sangheili looked unsure, "yes Shipmaster, but we have an entire planet to cover, how will we be able to even find the Destroyer?"

The pilot had a point. The humans had a head start on them, but with the help of a luminary they could track the humans and beat them to the Destroyer. They had no leads to go on, so it was possible that the humans already knew where the weapon was and were currently seeking it out.

"Activate the drop ship's luminary and locate the humans on the surface" Kalleem said, "we must prevent them from finding the Destroyer, and we might even find some clues to its whereabouts in the process."

The Sangheili turned in his seat to follow out his orders. He activated the onboard luminary and a small hologram of the planet sprung to life. Kalleem moved closer, searching for the four Reclamation glyphs. Oddly there was only three now, the other one must have left the planet. But the other three were no where near where they were before. They had somehow made it from the northern region to the center region of the planet in the time it took Kalleem to get from the bridge to the hangar. He ignored this and refocused on the matter at hand.

"There" he said, pointing to the three glyphs, "We will go there and stop the humans before they can find the weapon."

"Yes Shipmaster."

Kalleem turned and left the cockpit, finding that the drop ship had filled with several Sangheili, two dozen Yam'ne and many Unggoy. They were ready, Kalleem knew that for sure, and no matter how skilled these humans may be they will stop at nothing until the Destroyer was theirs.

Cris opened up communications with the Righteous Justice as he flew the Saurora out of Taxyra's atmosphere, tears welling up in his eyes. They were there not even a minute before he went to prepare the ship for lift off, but when he came back they were gone. He had no idea what could have happened to them, he would have heard their screams had those little creatures got hold of them. If they hadn't been killed by those things, then where did they go? He had tried raising them on his comlink but all he had heard was static, which was never a good sign.

A voice cracked over the communications system, "Saurora, this is Commander Oroli, what's your situation?"

Cris gulped before responding into his headset, "sir when my team and I landed on the planet surface we were ambushed by a large group of creatures. There was too many of them so we planned to bug out. But after I prepped the ship for launch, I found that everyone else had disappeared. I fear that the creatures got them sir."

The comm. line was silent for a minute. "Alright son, take it easy. Have you tried contacting them on your comlink?"

"Yes sir, but all I got was static."

"Come back to the Justice and we will try raising them on the long range comlink" said Keth. "It could be possible that they're somewhere where low powered comm. units can't communicate to one another."

"I hope your right sir" said Cris, "I'll be there in a minute."

He reached over to deactivate the comlink but stopped in his tracks when a flash in the distance caught his attention. He activated the long range sensors and increased the magnification to its highest. He sighed with annoyance at the image of five Covenant cruisers shown on the main display.

"Commander Oroli, are you still there?" he asked into his headset.

"I'm here son, what's the problem?"

"Sir I just spotted five Covenant ships entering the system" Cris stated, "I think we should give Admiral Ordona a call, we might need her help if they bring in any more ships."

"Thanks for the heads up Cris" said Keth, "get up here soon, I don't want you caught in the crossfire when the battle starts."

"Yes sir." Cris gunned the throttle and the Saurora leapt forward, shortening the distance between it and the Righteous Justice in the blink of an eye. As Cris directed the Saurora towards the hangar, some movement at the top of the viewport caught his attention. Cris pulled the ship up just in time to see a dozen purple Covenant drop ships soaring far above the Justice, heading toward Taxyra at top speed.

Cris rushed the Saurora inside the hangar and landed quickly. The moment the landing gear touched the metal floor, Cris was out of his seat and running down the loading ramp. He booked it to the bridge, arriving exhausted and out of breath.

Keth came jogging over, a worried look on his face, "Cris what's the matter?"

Cris gulped down air, trying to slow the rapid pulse of his heart, "the Covenant just launched a wave of drop ships. If my sister and the others are still alive down there then we need to warn them."

Keth gripped Cris's shoulder firmly, "we'll warn them Cris. We were able to track your sister's comlink to the planet's equator. Don't ask how they got that far from your drop point so fast since she has yet to answer."

Cris nodded, slightly confused but relieved that they had located his sister. Keth directed Cris toward the comm. station where two ensigns worked frantically with its controls. All of a sudden there was a loud beep and Helen's face appeared in hologram form over the station.

"Cris, you can't believe what happened to us, we..."

"Are you all alright?" Cris interrupted.

Helen was taken aback, "uh ya, we're fine."

"Helen listen, the Covenant did make it off Abian IV with the location of this system" Cris said to her, "they're here, and I think they're sending a fleet of drop ships to your location. We're going to contact Admiral Ordona to see if she can get here any earlier, but for now you're going to be on your own."