The Flood

The Flood is the second Halo book, a novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved, by William Dietz. It goes into detail about not just John's escapades during Halo 1, but the ODST, Marines, and the Covenant during the events of the game.

Not to be confused with The Great Flood, although the allusion is intentional.

Tropes used in The Flood include:

• A Father to His Men: Major Silva, Commander Keyes, and surprisingly, the Prophet residing the operation on Halo (except when they fail him).
• A Glass of Chianti: Major Silva jokes about the ODST not getting the wine in the officers' drop pods. Turns out, they actually have wine in them (Keyes is about to get some before noticing a cloaked Elite trying to kill him).
• All There in the Manual: Ever wonder what the Marines were up to during the game? Now you know. Most of their time is spent getting vehicles back from the Pillar of Autumn and trying to find another way offworld.
  • The Elite (or one of the Elites) who ambushes you during The Maw was obsessed with killing you the entire time.
  • Now you know how Keyes got captured by the Covenant.
• And I Must Scream: If you thought Jenkins' and Keyes' fates were bad, wait until they're given detail here. Jenkins' Infection pod was starved too long and didn't completely consume Jenkins' mind, leaving him free to witness him killing and mutating and feeling the pain he takes from the mutations and gunfire, and Keyes has his memories - eventually his very personality - torn from him as the Gravemind tries to find Earth.
• Butt Monkey: Yayap. A Grunt who had the misfortune of encountering and surviving John, gets shackled with an overzealous idiot Elite, is beaten up and taken prisoner, and gets front-row seats to Halo exploding. And, of course, the Grunts as a whole.
• Fantastic Racism: Jackals hate Grunts, and abuse them at every opportunity.
• Heroic Albino: Not exactly, but a Marine accompanying John to Major Silva notes how pale he is from all the time spent in the suit.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Zuka 'Zamamee. Even more so than other elites (and this is from the Elites, a race full of them). Even his superiors tell him to knock it off at times.
  • The ODSTs, especially Major Silva, who hates John for killing four of his best men a few years back.
  • Tellingly, this status gets them both killed. 'Zamamee is fragged by John without much of a fight, and Major Silva nearly dooms the entire human race by bringing a captured Covenant ship directly back to base in breach of the Cole Protocol (a Covenant ship had never been captured before, and he believed it'd bring him and the survivors (but especially the ODST) fame) with Flood still on it.
• Quintessential British Gentleman: Wellsey, a "dumb" AI and the only other AI survivor of Reach. Actually pretends to be the Duke of Wellington, down to his appearance.
• Retcon: One of the Elites makes an exception to the Covenants' refusal to absolutely use human weapons by snapping up a pistol and executing Hikowa.
  • Zuka 'Zamamee only took himself and a turret to kill John, but in the actual game, there's two Elites.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Yayap, after failing to talk Zuka out of his suicidal quest to kill "the demon" (John), finally gives up and steals a Ghost to find a way off Halo. Unfortunately, he gets first-row seats to the Pillar of Autumn detonating Halo.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Keyes' handpicked bridge crew from The Fall of Reach are unceremoniously shot in the face when a Covenant dropship gets the drop on their crashed lifepod.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Zuka 'Zamamee, a Special Ops Elite who survive an encounter with John, tries his damndest to get approval to pursue and kill "the Demon". Not that John knows.
• Unknown Rival: Zuka 'Zamamee to John, who is the nameless elite (or one of them) you kill during The Maw.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The Flood.