- Traxus 04
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- Honorable Member
So...
Chakas became a monitor which was 343 Guilty Spark, but he also alluded to having lots of clones about the place that humanity may have bumped into and had trouble with.
Humans were called reclaimers because mendicant bias set them up on a Halo to get revenge on the Forerunners (and fulfil his own plan at the same time)
The captive told humanity that the flood had strategically retreated from its war against them, rather than actually be defeated. This had the effect of crushing human moral during their ongoing second war against the Forerunner. Finding out that your bitterly faught victory at the cost of 1/3rd of your species was meaningless and hollow would be quite depressing. On the other hand, the truth of the claim is dubious as we get the sense that the captive is evil and manipulative and corrupts the psyche of others to further his own goals. His claim to be the last precursor also seem dubious.
Imprints of Forerunner era humans have been spread widely throughout the human population. Therefore there could be some twist like John 117 = Forthenco Lord of Admirals (in fact.... Master Chief... Lord of Admirals...) and the spirit inside Riser = Halsey/Cortana. This would be kind of lame though. But at least it would explain that line from Cortana to 117 - 'You had something the others lacked: luck.' What does a chick mean when she says you're about to get lucky? There was an implied romance between those two ancient humans.
The human population may not have actually sacrificed itself to the flood so much as take part in an immunisation program that had the side effect of making them go sterile. This would explain the staggering 1/3rd decrease in population (i highly doubt humans would literally just make themselves walking bioweapons on that scale) and the eventual loss to the forerunners - we simply didn't have enough people left to man all the necessary defences.
Precursor also means this:
A substance from which another is formed, esp. by metabolic reaction.
Which does sound a bit like the Flood, doesn't it? (also makes me think about the name, 'LifeShaper'. maybe Librarian is a Precursor? She's certainly old enough)
On the other hand at some point i'm sure the book alluded to the idea that the Flood was only one kind of Precursor, or maybe it just meant one kind of Flood. The latter would fit in with the idea that the Flood is the inevitable culmination of evolution and it would always return at some point in the future, maybe just somewhat different, as long as things continue to evolve.
But maybe the Captive meant he was the last Precursor only in behaviour, not in genus. There were other great species like those who built the ruins of Harrum Chakkor, who possessed the ability to shape life, create species - but they have all been killed except for the Captive. So in a sense he is the last Precursor.
Maybe the Precursors are all the ancient, magnificent civilisations who have fallen to the Flood, and who thus 'are' the Flood, controlled by the Captive, aka a Gravemind, aka The Last Precursor.
Oh and then finally we learn that 343 has commandeered a human ship and will be taking it to the location of Cortana (who would have accessed the same information and reached the same conclusions and set her path accordingly) where he expects to find the LifeShaper. Who will probably be still alive because of the time lock technology described by Chakas when he gained access to Halo 7's systems and capabilities (the Halo could turn itself into a massive time lock, though it would give out such a strong energy signature that people would be able to find it).
Then when we get inside we'll learn that Precursors = the LifeShaper = Riser's ghost = Halsey = Cortana; and Precorsors also = Didact = Forthenco = John 117. And the Flood are just a nuisance.