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Crackpot theory #1
Why are the Halo's designed to eliminate all sentient life in the galaxy save the Flood (Gravemind is a sentient being.) I don't think the Foreunner were very nice people. After all they built the biggest weapon ever. I think they used the Halo instillations to keep the galaxy they had conquered well under boot and that some rebel faction designed the Flood to fight them. Of course the Flood probably got out of control and before you know it, the Forunners and their former subjects would up fighting on the same side to combat the Flood. The rebels joined the Forerunner under the bargain that they would make a way for them to survive the Halos if they were activated. The War raged on and on, until it was clear that the Flood would win, perhaps because the Forerunners were all killed off. The last of the rebels (humanity/ recalimers) activated the Halo's killing everything everywhere except for tiny pocket of humanity on their backwoods home world called Earth that was well outside of the fray.
Crackpot theory #2
Another theory is that the Forunners were indeed very nice people. They just wanted to get to the next galaxy over for some reason. As advanced as they were, it is a looong way to the next galaxy. So maybe they came up with a plan. They could change themselves in to AI's (making themselves practically immortal {of course keeping in mind that they were able to get over that whole rampancy deal as proved by Guilty Spark} for the long trip) and they designed the Flood to change them back (hence Graveminds ability to communicate with Cortana as an AI would) once they arrived at their destination and found it was safe. The process probably led to the Floods (who are already practically immortal) death. Which the Flood were no to kindly to accept, of course. The Flood rebelled and started consuming all sentient life in the Galaxy. A small group of sentient life forms had joined with the Forerunners (including humanity.) When it became clear that not only would the Flood consume all life in this galaxy, but upon the Forerunners defeat, the Flood would have the technology to travel to and consume all life in the next galaxy and the next and the next and so on, the Foreunner built the Halo's. The Foreunner converted themselves to AI as a final act of self preservation and made the Ark to save the last of the other sentient life forms in the galaxy (humanity/reclaimers). They deliberately designed the Halo's so that only a human could activate them because they essentially left the choice of whether or not to activate them to us. They left the galaxy. We fought the Flood, long and hard and we lost. Perhaps we activated the Halo's because, we had the Ark or perhaps we wanted to make sure the scourge of the Flood to make it to another galaxy without at least slowing them down first.
Now both of these theories have the same big gigantic hole in them, however I haven't seen anyone else come up with a reason or a theory to counter this problem either. Why are there Flood on the Halo's? And why were the Flood being contained, even sheltered in these installations? For whatever reason, the Forerunners wanted to make certain that the Flood were safely contained after the installations fired. But if the Halo's were designed to combat the Flood by taking away there food source, then why contain them? These questions make me think again the Forerunner were not very nice people and they weren't fighting the Flood, but using them somehow.
Crackpot theory #3
No one ever said the Forerunners were good guys except for the Covenant. You know, the guys who are trying to wipe humanity clean out of existence? Plus, I don't care what kind of threat the Flood are, nobody is gonna activate the Halo's to fight the Flood. It would be like The US and Russia firing nuclear warheads at each other to combat terrorism. Yeah there's war and then there is WAR.
I think the Forerunners conquered and enslaved the galaxy's sentient creatures (including humanity or something like it) and used the Halo's to keep them under control. AI's rebelled against the Forerunners and helped humanity free themselves and set up some kind of resistance (i.e. the Ark was designed by AI's to help humanity withstand the Halo's). The Forerunners designed the Flood because the resistance started winning(the AI rebellion severely crippled the Forerunners) and freeing other sentient creatures from the Forerunners.
In the last battle, the Forerunners were preparing to release the Flood throughout the Galaxy. The resistance fighters set out to the Halo's (stretching themselves very thin) and with the help of AI's, they hijack the Halo's, reprogramming them to not only allow humans to fire them, but to also effect the Forerunners themselves, who were, of course, immune to Halo's effect until then. The Forerunner leadership convinced that they have lost and that because of their own brutality, no mercy would be shown by the resistance if they were to surrender, prepare to release the Flood anyway. Having the remnants of humanity (or perhaps at least some genetic material from all the resistance species) locked inside of the Ark, and facing annihilation at the hands of the Flood anyway, the last of the resistance fighters ignited the Halo's and cleanse the galaxy of the Forerunners, leaving the galaxy in the hands of they're children.
The Forerunners had to be conquerors. Otherwise how'd all their stuff get splayed all over the galaxy? If I said I was going build a research facility dedicated to the study of the Ebola virus in your front yard would you let me? Your darned right you would once you caught sight of the tank I had parked out front.
Remember what the head heretic said on the mining station to the Arbitor? "Where are the Weapons?!" If the Flood were such a problem for the Forerunners, how come they didn't have anything on their artificial worlds to put the Flood down with? Also they seemed to be able to house those little buggers rather handily for them being such and uncontainable scourge on the galaxy. You don't find them anywhere else in the galaxy, but at Forerunner sites.
As far as humanities connections to Forerunner tech, there are two possibilities: either humanity were at once partnered or favored by the Forerunners (allowing them access to forerunner tech), or (begrudgingly he admits counter to all evolutionary evidence to the contrary) humanity are the direct ancestors of Forerunners (a civil war perhaps). Either way my theory still holds up, except instead of heroic humanity is villainous (hate to say it, but that ain't much of a stretch either.)
As far as the term 'Reclaimer', that could be the title the AI's bestowed upon anyone related to the resistance. Reclaiming the galaxy from the Forerunners.
Crackpot theory #4
Okay here's one more theory. Time travel (audible groans can be heard from the crowd). Yeah, yeah I know, but bear with me. Lets say the Halo's were activated by.......wait for it....the Chief!
In a nutshell, he makes it inside of the Ark, it sends him back in time to before the last time the Halo's were fired, he encounters a full fledged interstellar war between the Forerunners, who want to hold the galaxy under their brutal imperialistic boots, and the Flood, who want to devour it, and some other group whose cause is noble, but is hopeless, and activates the Halo's so that his history still happens, because if any side in this war wins, his history vanishes.
Some of you have seen this stuff in posts dispersed thoughout the forum. I got a request to gather all my thoughts into one post. Here's the new stuff:
Crackpot Theory # 5
Cortana stayed behind to barter assistance from Gravemind. It is my opinion that the Flood are either just like humanity, just trying to survive, which in that case, they would gladly assist us so long as they have plenty of Covenant to munch on, or have an ulterior motive that has nothing to do with consuming all Sentient life (I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Flood seem to be more like gaurds dogs than mortal enemies) . In other words, I think maybe even to a greater extent than Humanity, the Flood just might be the good guys in this whole fracus. Graveminds actions seem to be all about not activating the Halos by any means necessary. And, apparently, the does't necessarily NEED to consume to sustain its self (as evidenced by surviving millenia of captivity), only to reproduce.
Perhaps, with the assistance of the Flood, humanity will be able to drive the Covenant back. Back far enough to activate all the Halos that remain. I think intallation 04 that was destroyed, would have been the one that would have taken out Earth. Otherwise why would the covenant be working to hard to conquer and occupy Earth instead of just glassing all of it, but the part that they are interested in(The Ark) like on Reach.
Here, finally, is where the Arbitor fits in. He's got to take care of the ring that will destroy the Elites homeworld before the Chief activates the Ark which, as stated in the game can remotely activate all the rings. I can only imagine that this action by the Arbitor would aslo save the worlds of the Grunts, the Hunters, and perhaps the Engineers (because these are the oldest covenant members, it makes since that their wolrds are in very close proximity to one another). So the Elites and humanity aren't exactly buddies( cause there is a lot of bad blood there) but they will have at least synergistic objectives. I can't see them on the the same side of the same battle field for very long without starting in on eachother. Anyways, even the combined strength of what remains of humanity, the Flood, and the seperatist Covenant, has no chance against the Covenant. The only way to win is to do like what my man Iceman Assassain said and ignite the Halo's.
This was very long. Cortana is hot.
[Edited on 7/21/2006]