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Bad word usage by me, by installation I basically meant "facility," I wasn't speaking of a Halo ring

And Ibeechu, I think that there were a few centuries between initial contact and activation of the rings, and my guess is that the were built 250-ish years into the fight

-Elpolloguapo

I think it's more likely that the installation in question was built to study the cell makeup itself, like a more specialized version of the gas mine. It is perhaps on 05 (hence 2401), and was designed to contain ultra-lethal flood biomass (pureforms, perhaps?) for study and the possible development...

Given how one of the new MP maps is codenamed "smuggler," I suspect that this is for that map-viral marketing for the map, in a way. It's probably going to be a map on 05 (hence 2401) that has been floodicized (like HC or under Isolation). I doubt there'll be a ton in the way of plot here,...

if he says "the meddler" it's truth, unless context implies otherwise (arby dies on The Ark, Sparky says "oh dear, teh meddler is dead" etc.). IF he uses the plural, it's teh covenant.

Incidentally, I agree with both of you completely. But as I may havve said before (maybe it was on HBO), I try to think of theories and look for justification, since while they often go nowhere, they help to uncover new stuff or look at old stuff in a new ight, as this has.

That's always been one of the ideas about how the forerunner constructs recognize us
It's a way to potentially reconcile the two sides in the we are-we aren't debate

It's meddler-343GS refers to the Covenant as "meddlers," as they constantly interfere with the whole forerunner legacy, which they were not meant to be a part of. He says it in the closing cutscene of Oracle in H2, sometimes when the Arbiter gets killed in H3, and many other times.

Just a few strands of DNA drastically change an organism, we are genetically not very different from flies.

They weren't necesarily "monkey-fuckers," they may simply have taken humanity and gene-spliced some of their DNA into ours.

I think the LP has something to do with Mendicant Bias. I was looking over the Terminals again (see it all at http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=850197), and looking t what MB said on Legendary. I think he may guiding the MC somehow, leading him to the answer. Seriously, at least...