Editing Quarantine zone (location)

{{Status|Canon}}

A quarantine zone surrounded the [[Library]] of [[Installation 05]]. The zone was surrounded by an enormous structure known as the [[Sentinel wall]].{{Ref/Reuse|qz}} The Sentinel wall, along with the [[containment shield]] it projected, had kept much of the [[Flood]] from spreading during the eons-long outbreak on Delta Halo, allowing [[Sentinel]]s to contain the violent parasitic force. The shield's deactivation by [[Arbiter]] [[Thel 'Vadamee]] during his search for the [[Activation Index]] in [[2552]] ultimately allowed the Flood to overwhelm the Sentinels' defenses and thus move freely about the ring.<ref>''Halo 2'', campaign level [[Sacred Icon]]</ref>

As Covenant and UNSC forces deployed mechanized forces from their ships, the Flood were able to overwhelm their occupants, infect them, then operate these machines in order to turn them on their foes. Their forces would grow to accumulate [[Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicle|Ghosts]] and [[M12 Force Application Vehicle|Warthog]] reconnaissance vehicles, and even [[M808B Scorpion|Scorpion]] and [[Zurdo-pattern Wraith|Wraith]] tanks. The Flood's access to highly-mobile, and heavily armed and protected vehicles greatly multiplied their combat effectiveness on Installation 05.{{Ref/Reuse|qz}}

[[File:PL - PandorasBox1.jpg|thumb|[[G. Peterson]] and his squad perform reconnaissance on the High Charity quarantine zone.]]

Following the crash-landing of [[High Charity]] on [[Installation 00]] during the [[Battle of Installation 00|final battle]] of the Human-Covenant War, the Flood were able to begin spreading their influence across the installation, with the Gravemind even managing to extend its tentacles into the installation's [[Installation 00 Citadel|Citadel]].<ref>''[[Halo 3]]'', campaign level [[The Covenant]]</ref> However, under the guidance of the Installation's Monitor, [[000 Tragic Solitude]], the Flood were contained within a quarantine zone around the wreckage of the city, with the surrounding Refugia modified to prevent and inhibit the development of any life form to ensure the Flood would not be able to survive.<ref name="IdleHands">''Halo Wars 2'', [[Phoenix Logs]] - ''Idle Hands II''</ref><ref>''Halo Wars 2'', [[Phoenix Logs]] - ''An Uncomfortable Truth I''</ref> Approximately three hundred meters around the quarantine site, all plant life stopped growing - blackened, charred and chopped down - and all animal life stopped living, with no sound audible from birds or insects.<ref name="PandorasBoxI">''Halo Wars 2'', [[Phoenix Logs]] - Pandora's Box I</ref> A battalion of Sentinels was additionally kept on a permanent patrol of the area around the quarantine zone to both prevent the flood escaping and intruders breaching the site and potentially letting the Flood loose.{{Ref/Reuse|IdleHands}}<ref name="atn">''[[Halo Wars 2]]: [[Awakening the Nightmare]]''</ref> Unlike Installation 05's quarantine zone, the zone established on Installation 00 seemed to rely more on energy shields for containment than physical structures like the Sentinel Wall.

[[File:HW2-HighCharityshield.png|thumb|The quarantine shield surrounding High Charity, as seen from orbit.]]

Following Tragic Solitude's destruction in [[Operation: FAR STORM]],<ref>'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]'''</ref> the Sentinel defenses on the Ark - like those of Installation 05 - were only able to enforce the quarantine measures already in place. This would allow the Flood within the city's ruins to fester over the course of several years, producing a variety of hitherto-unseen Flood forms created specifically for the purpose of escaping the quarantine and infecting the Ark.<ref>''Halo Wars 2'', [[Phoenix Logs]] - High Charity</ref>

Several months into the protracted Second Ark Conflict, High Charity's quarantine zone would become the target of reconnaissance and - in the case of the latter group - salvage operations by UNSC forces of the {{UNSCShip|Spirit of Fire}} and [[Banished]]. Due to a [[Operation: SPEARBREAKER|close encounter]] with a [[Despair-class fighter|Forerunner ship]], [[James Cutter]] deployed teams to watch over several potential hotspots of activity throughout the Ark including the wreck of High Charity{{Ref/Reuse|PandorasBoxI}} while Jiralhanae brothers [[Pavium]] and [[Voridus]] were tasked by [[Atriox]] to salvage the area around the quarantine zone for potentially salvageable Covenant equipment. These orders were followed with an explicit instruction to, under no circumstances, enter or breach the quarantine zone. However, many soldiers of the Banished, including Voridus, believed the tales of High Charity's fall and the end of the war to be mere Covenant [[propaganda]], and thus ignored these instructions. Voridus was able to use his [[Infusion gel|Infused]] [[Barukaza Workshop Scarab|Scarab]] to burn a hole through the quarantine shield. A small squad of Jiralhanae were sent into High Charity to scout out the entrance way, but re-emerged as infected combat forms. These combat forms were soon followed by a swarm of Pod infectors, [[Abomination]]s, [[Flood spawner form|Spawner forms]] and many other new Flood forms to quickly spread across the Ark. However, this threat was ultimately contained thanks to Pavium and Voridus' timely reactivation of the Ark's defense grid, with Sentinels proceeding to swarm the area and presumably completely sterilize it.

{{Ref/Sources}}