It was a clever theory, and would certainly explain why the Forerunner didn't go behind the shield or hide from the Halos somehow, but this topic has gotten off topic...please keep it on topic or the Locksmith will go to work.

Even I have trouble with my own theory, lol. From the first game it seemed obvious where all the forerunner went - they were just obliterated from the firing of the rings. However, after GoO this problem became much more mysterious after finding out about the Shield Worlds. It just seems odd that after creating a way to survive the Flood and the firing of the rings, no Forerunner survived - 'Death Day' came earlier than expected.

It seems to me that Forerunners definitely foresaw AI rampancy and therefore protocol allows only the Reclaimer to reunite the index with the Core, therefore a Reclaimer is needed. I think it is given that a Reclaimer was there at the firing of the Halo's 100,000 years ago.

The human forerunner connection is still difficult to explain. On the one hand we could be reclaimers. However there are three problems which arise thanks to the comic found on halo3.com/comic:

1) Humans are not straight forerunner! These 'Gods' only visited earth to build the ARK. However, from the Bible it says God created Humans in his own image. Therefore, this could mean that the forerunner created a race that was a clone of themselves and would survive after they had gone and would know nothing about the Flood.

2) In GoO when Ash meets a sentinal, it classifys him as an 'aboriginal sub species' - therefore humans are a form of forerunner but NOT Reclaimers, even though GS mistakes humans to be Reclaimers. This links in with point (1).

3)It just seems odd to me that the Forerunner would give such a prestigious title to a relatively lower race than they were at the time.

Its late at night so it may sound as if im going on abit - but another thought I just had - what if the Forerunners thought what I said the AI's thought. What if they couldnt risk themselves surviving because they knew they would have an urge to study the Flood and risk another outbreak.

When AR said "This time no one will be ready" he almost made it sound like there were survivors from the last incident, whether that be flood, humans, forerunner, covenant, i have no idea.

Funny you should ask.. In Two Betrayals, 343 floats away from the Chief as it approaches Halo's Core Center. And whispers (to himself?), oh, that's a good idea. As he has done many times before.. But maybe Guilty Spark was plot scheming? But not with Cortana.

Also, if it were my choice, would I do it? My answer has not changed.

I wonder "when" 343 was asked that question? Lunch break? Was he really asked that question right before the rings were activated? Or was it during some other random conversation?

And who or what wears a halo?

Perhaps it's possible that the Forerunner were totally overrun by the Flood because they waited till the last minute to activate the rings... so most all of those "brave and honored souls" had already passed by the time "{D-Com}" made the decision to flip the switch.

Also, what if the Flood was the creation of the Forerunner. Perhaps they attempted to create a new lifeform and found they were unable to kill "their offspring" even when it had proven itself evil?

An experiment gone terribly wrong —like grey goo.

Well for the Human/forerunner relation:
Perhaps when the forerunner came to earth to build the ARK, they saw potential from our race and decided that we would be the ones to "reclaim" the place in galaxy that they had. Now as for the Covenent hating us, didn't the prophets claim to be decendents from the forerunner or at least evolve on the same planet? If I were a decendent and the forerunners gave the role of 'reclaimers' to humans, I'd be pretty pissed off too, lol.

Going on a wild limb here, what if N'Chala was tricked by the monitor of the ARK into firing the Halo's the first time? From the Comic it appears as though N'Chala has only ever laid eyes on the machines of the forerunner, and if he met up with a monitor it may seem like a god to him (you know, floating there with the knowledge it would posses), and since he was a somewhat primitive human, the monitor tricks him into firing the Halo's before they were meeant to. End result: Forerunners die...?

Interesting theory though I don't know if I believe it. It seems as if the Forerunners saw their downfall coming and A) took steps to escape it or B) accepted their fate and left behind tools for the humans to escape the Flood or that same fate.

What if some of the Forerunner survived, but didn't reclaim their technology on purpose? Just thinking about them and their situation with the Flood and the Halos reminded me of the Rakata from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. For those of you who have never played the game, heres a quick rundown:

The Rakata were a race that dominated the galaxy through their technology. In time, however, they were consumed by the dark side (became evil) and ended up having their empire destroyed in a civil war. Most of them fled underground and lost all knowledge of the past, becoming primitive tribal creatures. A few, however, survived and remained aboveground, remembering their past. They were so horrified with their technology that they sought to destroy it, so they wouldn't make the mistakes of the past. However, they no longer possessed the ability to destroy it, so they simply abandoned it.

Which brings me to my point: what if the surviving Forerunners were so disgusted by what they had done (with the firing of the Halos and, if they did, the creation of the Flood) that they abandoned their technology and started over. If they thought that the Flood were suitably contained within the Halos, it would seem logical that they would never arise again without outside interference (which was true . . .). Assuming that Earth is the Ark or houses the Ark, it would seem logical that there would be more Forerunner survivors there than anywhere else, since it would likely have better protection from the Halos.

If the humans were similar to or clones of the Forerunner, it would be possible for them to interbreed. This would leave traces of Forerunner DNA in humans, which could explain why Master Chief recognizes the Covenant controls and why humans are seen as reclaimers by the monitors. Just a thought.

Spartan Seraph... you just put into words what I have been formulating for a very long time. It explains everything... but I wonder about N'Chala and the aboriginal subspecies. An alien race finds earth and decides humans should take over their legacy once they are gone... but humans aren't gone so obviously any forrunner on earth would also have survived. Interbreeding with aliens seems... odd seeing as the other races we have seen, grunts brutes etc just don't seem all that "compatable". So if the other idea is true, that we are the forrunners who have gone primitive and forgotten technology, then why didn't N'Chala know what the sentinels were. Had it already been that long. Seems like it would be hard to forget your past if you have giant floting bits of tech flying around building a less that super secret base...


Thoughts?

RDH