Oh, well ok then

Anyway, I just thought I'd take a sec and ask whether we know for certain it was really the entire Ark and Ringworld system that was constructed near the end of the outbreak war, or just the firing mechanisms...
Maybe I'm just not quite as up on my reading, but I've always thought it to be a bit more practical of the Forerunner to adapt existing hardware/installations for such an emergency situation rather than take the length of time it probably must have taken to build an entire ringworld from scratch, complete with balanced ecosystems...

Or....well, at least the Ark. Since in Halo 3 we see a replacement Installation 04 at approximately 60% completion in a very short amount of time after the destruction of the original.

But still, I always thought that it was extremely extravagant to build an entire livable ecosystem onto an artificial construct without any intention to live on it.
Thus, I always theorized that the ringworlds were originally intended as artificial population centers. Shield worlds could have been simply the last phase of Forerunner military deconstruction right? And a godsend that they were still around as it turned out it seems. Am I alone in this thinking?

Also, come to think of it, just because the Ark could complete a Ringworld in a very short amount of time, it doesn't necessarily mean that they were all originally constructed for the purpose of containment. Except perhaps to contain an expanding population?

Then there's something else that I don't personally know for certain. Which came first, the Ark or the Ringworlds? Maybe this has already been covered, but could it be possible that the Ringworlds had been constructed first(perhaps for habitation purposes), at a comparatively early time with technological improvements being added as time passed(e.g. the ruin-like structure on Installation 05)? By this line of thinking, the Ark could've simply been a late, long-term technological development for the primary purpose of constructing the (venerable?) ringworld habitats much faster...
Take a successful idea that ordinarily takes a long time to construct and then invent a method by which it can be mass produced?

And perhaps it's location in the far reaches of (this?) galaxy could be seen as evidence of a planned extragalactic expansion?
That said, it could be possible that a scouting expedition to another neighboring galaxy for such expansion project was consumed by a certain all-consuming parasite, which then had a means to propogate itself...
It could've even been the construction of the Ark itself that discovered the parasite for all I know...

Am I wrong?

Well, the original purpose of the rings in unknown. Whether they were built specifically as "Swords" is unknown. Its not all that important of a detail anyway, in my opinion.

And we do know from the Terminals that the Flood Super Cell was discovered on the planet G617g in our galaxy. How the Flood arrived there from out of the galaxy (as the Forerunner had determined the Flood's origin was extra-galactic) is unknown.

I'm happy we're getting some story related stuff from Bungie. Even if it does end up being related to a multiplayer map which is something I don't reallt indulge in.

Well maybe we just never went to parts of the ring that had population centers. Remember how, from above, the Ark looked like it had streets or something? But we never saw that in the game. Maybe they kept Halo cities away from the Flood for obvious reasons. But I would look at it like a scientists who also sleeps in his lab. He's there everyday. Why commute back and forth everyday when all you're going home for is sleep?

Especially with the price of gas. Have you noticed that there aren't many oil reserves in the vacuum of space?

If I may speculate:
We have already seen that the Forerunner had a whole plethora of installations designed to study as well as combat the flood (possibly including the halo rings, why else would they keep specimens there?) and these locations are all carefully regulated by both sentinel security and big walls (see halo 2 level sacred icon).
What if then, the facility in question, did the literal meaning of what they say. I've heard it mentioned here that LF.Xx.3273 is either the Gravemind or a 'Flood super cell.'
The quote reads "LF.Xx.3273 research and containment facility;"
Is it possible then that the Forerunners built the said site to study a gravemind-class flood form? I'd imagine that such a structure would have some of the structures mentioned in the description of this "Smuggler" map.
Again, pure speculation.

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 of countermeasures. However, it would seem that 2401 violated protocol in some way, resulting in a release of the flood and an ensuing infection.

-Elpolloguapo

Well, IMO, each theory is as valid as the next.
Bottom line for me though: the Ringworld installations could have either been originally constructed strictly as either population centers, research facilities, or rather hazardously, a combination of the two.
True, 343GS mentioned something about Installation 04 being designed to study and contain the flood, and that may be the end of the discussion.
But still...it just sounds really rather excessive to build something that massive and complex for that one purpose right? or no?
"Halo is a weapon" & "...built to study and contain the Flood."
True the flood was a massive threat demanding a massive response, but just how long did they spend planning and putting together such massively complex constructs for the sole purpose of studying and containing something that apparently caught them so off-guard?
How long did it take them to perceive the Flood as a threat anyway?
I know I'm missing something here, perhaps someone else here can fill in the gaps.
Has there been established any sort of timetable between the initial outbreaks and the activation of the Rings?
If it was long enough, they may well have had enough time to build a research/containment network as massive as that...
but still...
If the danger was realized mightn't they have spent their time just as well bolstering their reduced military?
Phew...that's enough for me for now.