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Don't look at it in such a monotonous way. Life is never that black and white, and I doubt the Forerunner's political manners were that black and white either.

Just because we don't know of it yet doesn't mean there isn't cause for it. In fact there might be cause which is staring us in the eyes.

I don't know, I'm just trying to keep the possibilities open in my mind. Doublethink can be good every once in a while.

After some more reading, it look like every forerunner died :

ARBITER (to the Monitor):

The sacred rings... what are they?

343 GUILTY SPARK:

Weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless.

ARBITER:

And those who made the rings? What happened to the Forerunners?

343 GUILTY SPARK:

After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center, died ...as planned.

The camera cuts to the Arbiter, a look of sadness on his face.

343 GUILTY SPARK (After a pause):

Would you like to see the relevant data?



//except if some managed to escape farther than three ''radii'' of the galactic center.

It's possible that there was a civil war before they fired the halos. I'm guessing that the forerunners had a fairly large population, even after being ravaged by flood, it's reasonable to think that there was a portion of the population that was not willing to lay down and die. The forerunners slaughtered an untold numbers to bring the flood under control. It's hard to believe they all went quietly.

Whether or not the Flood were created or discovered by the Forerunner has always been one of the things I wondered about. If there was a civil war between the Forerunner, it makes the creation of the flood more logical - it could've been a biological weapon program gone wrong. This also makes the Halos more logical - it would have had to take a long time to build the rings, the shield worlds, and the Ark. If the flood was simply discovered, there would have had to have been a long war before the Halos were even constructed, much less used. Perhaps they were constructed with the intention of creating the flood (like 343GS implies)and the weapon part of halo and the shield worlds added as a countermeasure against uncontrolled outbreak. This would also explain why there were flood forms stored on each halo already. If I discovered a super parasite that was so dangerous that it forced me to kill off all life in the galaxy, I sure wouldn't keep any of it, even for study.

AI23 wrote:It's possible that there was a civil war before they fired the halos. I'm guessing that the forerunners had a fairly large population, even after being ravaged by flood, it's reasonable to think that there was a portion of the population that was not willing to lay down and die. The forerunners slaughtered an untold numbers to bring the flood under control. It's hard to believe they all went quietly.

We don't know that ALL the Forerunners died though. I mean, with the abilities it seems they were in possession of, A large majority of the galaxy's population could have just...left.

The Forerunners likely either destroyed themselves using the Halos, or some of them escaped using "Shield Worlds" like the one found on Onyx while the rest of the Forerunners were destroyed. There may or may not be Forerunners in existence SOMEWHERE.

The first option is the most obvious and logical one, but a line from the file given by Server 05 makes me wonder about option 2: Something is said about an enemy fleet engaging hostile tactics. This could be a flood-infested Forerunner fleet, or actually a group of Forerunners who didn't like the idea of mass genocide across the galaxy. Contrary to popular belief, the Forerunner were probably not omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, only very technologically advanced. And like all life forms, vulnerable to illogical reasoning (such is the basis of why life exists)

monteczuma's quote intrigues me. It is unclear whether Guilty Spark is talking about the Flood's being dependent on their storage in the facility, or the Forerunner's dependency. Perhaps (taking a stab in the dark here) the Forerunners somehow depended on the Flood's presence to survive (food? telekinetic bonds? Flood fart being a major part of breathable Forerunner air) and had to keep them alive and under control to stay alive. If that's true, that means Guilty Spark was referring to the Forerunner when he said "reproduced" and that might also mean humans are descendants of Forerunner!

HH404

HH404 I have believed the "we are forerunner" theory since Halo 1, but the Halo3.com/comic makes me doubt some of it. I have also believed that the forerunner may have created the flood rather then discovered it due to Gravemind's quote of "I am a monument to all of your sins". It seems a common sci-fi theme that messing with nature eventually bites you in the butt. Perhaps the forerunner were so advanced they were playing with life itself. Trying to extend life ore reanimate. They created a virus like entity know as the flood which they could not stop. They create sword and shield worlds and try to protect as much life in the galaxy as possible including humans. They alter/ augment some human DNA giving as SOTA says a nudge in the right direction. Our civilization quickly advances and unlike the covenant we are really creative when we find tech. Look at the bubble shield!!! I'm starting to think the forerunner sent machines to save us and maybe changed us just enough that we could be their reclaimers... but I'm starting to think we aren't forerunners themselves. Also remember from GoO we are an "aboriginal subspecies" of reclaimer. Also spartans are those humans with the best genes (read: have the most forerunner genetic tampering) which would explain so much more from the books etc.

Just a thought.
RDH

Think of N'chala as a lost tribe of the Amazon. Maybe he just hasn't seen machines like that before and thus calls them "Gods"