Iris, Awakening, Countdown, Symbols.

[HardwareHeretic404]

Here's my take on this whole thing:

AdjutantReflex is a non-human (probably Forerunner) AI that exists NOW and does not have anything to do with the 2552 storyline. I say it is Forerunner because
a) It speaks like the Sentinels from GoO
b) It labels "forceful entry" as "inelegant but necessary." This means that AdjutantReflex has better ways to gain access to special roles in a forum, and that it is unfamiliar with human hacking methods.
c) It refers to important points in the Halo storyline that normal people wouldn't care about, and he uses a new Forerunner glyph as its icon (the old icon was a map of Halo, as seen in the first game)

AdjutantReflex responded to a poster on Bungie.net who asked it what the current date was, with an estimate of the time since that last "event." Urk has simplified the number of hours stated by AdjutantReflex into around 99455 years ago. He also calculated that the event was exactly 100000 years before the events in 2552. 343 Guilty Spark and Bungie's Joe Staten refer to the last Halo firing as happening 100,000 years prior to the events of Halo. Which means that AdjutantReflex must be referring to the last firing of the Halo array, or any significant Forerunner events related to that firing.

The Cradle of Life comic on http://www.halo3.com/comic takes place 100,000 years ago (no date is given, so I assume that this means 100,000 years before 2007). Forerunner machines are digging into the Earth, and an African native sees "Gods building their machines." Now the Forerunner machines digging into the ground aren't exactly building any machines. It's possible that N'chala was witnessing the Forerunners themselves building the machines (Sentinels?) to dig into the Earth and build some sort of structure (Probably the Ark).

Now this means that the Forerunners were on Earth, building their machines and their structures, 545 years before the Halos fired. (100,000 - 2552 - 100,000 - 2007 = 545) They did not communicate directly with the humans (N'Chala watches but does not interact, and does not get invited to interact). If the Forerunners were building the Ark, this means that the galaxy was in a dire situation at least 545 years before the Halos activated. The Forerunners could have been creating their own refuge on Earth and/or Onyx, which would probably be because those were the only suitable planets left which were not infested with Flood.

Meanwhile, humanity continued to evolve and poured out of Africa at around the same time the Halos fired, protected by the Forerunner's shields and oblivious to the mass death happening in the Galaxy. I believe that the human growth was spurred on by the arrival of the Forerunners and the firing of the Halos, perhaps indirectly in the form of radiation, or even direct contact with Forerunners. With this evidence, however, I can safely say that humans aren't directly descended from Forerunners, despite the popular theory, but they are related somehow because of the events that happened 100,000 years ago. (Or maybe N'Chala and his fellow humans are in fact Forerunners, either seeded there or from the crash of a vessel, with no memory whatsoever of their Forerunner origins, only able to watch as their vaguely familiar machines do all their work. But that's a different theory). The SOTA site insists that humans were nudged forward in the right direction by intelligent aliens several times in history. Perhaps the Forerunners awakened from their deep slumber a few times, found that the current situations had not evolved to the right point, decided to point their neighbours in the right direction, and went back to sleep, hoping that the next time they woke up, the time would be right. This particular "event" (awakening) and the one happening in 2552 seem to be closer to the right point.

Back to our current situation, I'm more concerned with the countdown on 206.16.223.65. The message displayed changes everyday, and it concerns a Realignment, Iris, message, and awakening. AdjutantReflex's latest posts on Bungie.net also point to a tipping point, journey (on Iris's golden wings), the awakening of something once malevolent, and an assault on its own defenses. This all points to something significant happening on June 21 (when the countdown runs out). My interpretation of the countdown messages and AdjutantReflex's words are:
An entity in control of the countdown realigned itself and sent a message by way of Iris (a messenger) to a higher being. This countdown entity will awaken on the 21st, and presumably the recipient of the Iris message will respond on the 21st. AdjutantReflex is referring to the countdown entity as the "something that was once malevolent" that is now stirring/awakening. Notice that as the countdown entity gets closer to full awareness, AdjutantReflex complains more about being attacked. So obviously there is a clash between AdjutantReflex and the countdown entity. The only question now is, why and where is this clash happening?

Side notes: The countdown entity sounds suspiciously like the SPDR from the ilovebees campaign, and the countdown to full awareness seems similar to the "Countdown to Wide Awake and Phyiscal" on http://www.ilovebees.com. Is there a chance that the countdown entity and some other character (SPDR or Melissa) from the ilovebees universe are related?

Hardware Heretic 404

[Mikezoom]

Nice.

Quite a good read. I also thought that when the narrator of the comic said "And he watches the Gods as they build their machines" he was referring to actual beings building the machines/sentinels or whatever you may call them and not the machines themselves but still not 100% sure.

Time will tell.