The forerunners build the halos to wipe everything out.
Thats fine.
But then they also build the shiled world(s?) and The Ark.
Each is visited by humans eventually, and what do we learn? I paraphrase:

From what I remember, by the time they were ready to use them things were moving too quickly and they couldn't get there in time. Best laid plans . . .

It's hard to say exactly what got used or not used, but the fact that life on Earth and various Covenant homeworlds survived, suggests the Forerunners had enough time to enact their plan. One of the terminals says this about the Librarian sending life/records of life to the Ark:



And another terminal says this of the shield worlds:



Of course, that same terminal is where Mendicant Bias announces he's sided with the Flood, so perhaps there was no time to make actual use of the shield worlds. Still, it sounds like these were intended to be temporary storage for indigenous populations of planets that the Flood were about to reach--hideyholes for when the Flood show up, so the population of that planet wouldn't be food for its growing army. It doesn't seem to me like the Forerunners themselves planned to hide there, or even on the Ark; they instead went on their own "Great Journey." From the Bestarium we know the Forerunners believe the Precursors became beings of pure energy/mind/whatever. Possibly the Forerunners figured out how to achieve this as well. If they still needed bodies, though...

Halopedia's down at the moment, so I don't have exact transcript of the last Terminal, but it says roughly that every sentient species has been indexed at the Ark, that it has been a worthwhile ad successful endeavor, etc.

thanks
Also, Halopedia's up again at http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Terminals

But if they put all the sentient species there, why not put themselves too? Don't you dare say "not enough room," the Ark is massive (big enough to build Halo rings at least).

perhaps they did. Perhaps they felt this was their fitting 'end', their atonement would be to fade away, and let a new galaxy populate in their wake. Most likely, they left the galaxy, and left their systems intact in order to repopulate the galaxy post-firing. Thus the theory that MC and Cortana are floating to a Forerunner civilization at the end. (oops. spoiler? meh. It's everywhere already)

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/hal ... ead=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 read the last couple paragraphs at the link bove.

I'd say its a general consensus that