You're not thinking creatively enough. Surely in the war for the survival of mankind, and indeed most life in the galaxy, a man could pick up an alligator in each hand and, by squeezing their tails painfully, force them to open and close their jaws on demand. Or just swing them around like giant, living maces. It's Judgment Day, Professor. Your arbitrary labels separating animal from weapon have no meaning here.

Earth was "beyond the line," that is to say, beyond the Halo activation grid's reach. However, the Ark is supposed to activate all the Halos, so my guess is that if the Flood ever made it to Earth, the Forerunners assumed all was lost anyway, because if Earth was invaded, the human race would be lost either way.

The Ark was the fall-back, so that if the Flood started to repopulate the universe, humanity could fall back on Earth, save themselves, and cleanse the rest of the universe. It is also possible that the Earth contains a dyson sphere. Quite frankly, it could be a different combination of many things that saved Earth before and the things that could save it again.

Techincally, Ark speculation is not really IRIS related other than the "beyond the line" quote. Ark speculation has been around since the end of Halo 2. Dur.

Additionally, the only reason ILB had closure is that it was not directly related to H2. The whole point of this ARG was to give actually story connections to Halo 1, 2, and 3. Seeing as that is the case, Bungie can't exactly provide full closure to the game, as most of it is probably revealed throughout Halo 3's main story line.

Back to the basic biblical terms.

Yes all were wiped out.

The "we"/"I" references being the last forerunner left behind to "pull the trigger" ... and play "God". So they "seed" a few humans (Adam and Eve?) into the slipspace sheilded "Ark" 100,000 years ago (check theology on timelines) to re-procreate and repopulate on Earth and the rest of the universe in time.

And hopefully this time we will learn from the Forerunners mistake of them "accidently" creating the Flood by getting carried away with bio-engineering and time/space screwing around. Lesson learned and we all lived happily ever after, except that they didn't make it through to slipspace and thereby couldn't edumacate us to that end!

Now THAT makes perfect sense to me.

Maybe beyond the line refers to humans being on the other side of the galaxy? Especially considering that it was only near the end that they found us.

-Sheepe
There was more, but never may be