- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
1) Gravemind is a collection of fallen Flood forms and dead bodies that have gathered together to create a "control" form for the Flood that collects information and tells the other Flood forms what to do (try to think of him like the "brain bug" in "Starship Troopers). He is not good in any way. The reason that he helped Master Chief and the Arbiter stop Halo Installation 5 from being activated was so that his food source wouldn't be wiped out. He, like all the Flood, is driven only by the savage instinct to find food and survive.
2) Gravemind was on Halo Installation 5 but somehow he took over In Amber Clad (Miranda Keyes' ship) and used its slipspace engines to enter inside High Charity (which is the Covenant's massive capital city that appeared over Halo Installation 5, along with the Covenant armada). He has now taken complete control over High Charity and has Cortana as his prisoner.
3) Miranda Keyes and Sgt. Johnson are currently on Halo Installation 5 inside the control chamber with the Arbiter and 343 Guilty Spark. Since Gravemind has taken over Miranda Keyes' ship In Amber Clad, she and Sgt. Johnson do not have a ship to escape from the ring they are on. (Unless they and the Arbiter team up to take over a one of the Covenant ships and use that to escape, most likely in Halo 3 or in the next novel).
4) The Flood were not created by the Forerunners, they were discovered by the Forerunners on a planet called Threshold and were studied by them, until they grew out of control and the Forerunners were forced to build and use the Halo Installations.
5) The quote by Cortana in the trailer "I am your shield, I am your sword." was a reference of how Cortana is Master Chief's greatest defensive and offensive resource. This message, IF it was sent under the partial manipulation of Gravemind, was probably meant as a threat or a taunt directed towards Master Chief, telling him that Cortana can no longer help him anymore and that he is powerless without her, most likely in order to tell Master Chief not to interfere with Gravemind's plan.
[Edited on 7/12/2006]