- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I am certain that in the Library on the original Halo, 343 told MC that his creators had left samples of the Flood for study. He also added that in retrospect, that may have been a mistake.
I've come up with my own theory to explain the Halo rings.
Th Forerunners were battling the Flood on a lot of fronts. Who knows where they came from - perhaps an alien planet, perhaps a product of their own creations. Regardless, Flood controlled ships were spreading throughout the galaxy and for the Forerunners, all seemed lost.
Using their technology, they created and placed seven Halo rings strategically thorughout the galaxy. Together, their blast radius should wipe all sentient, and ONLY sentient, life out of existence within the galaxy.
They kept some Flood aboard the Halo's in stasis for later study - what safer place to keep them than in the fortress world? They would allow for later study, perhaps millenia into the future, and perhaps allow the Forerunner descendants a chance to create an effective weapon against the them. It was a gamble, to be sure, but it might have worked.
The Forerunners retreated. They created 'shield worlds', such as Onyx. With a surface made entirely of Sentinels, with their very effective Flood controlling weapons, and themselves hiding in a slipspace bubble inside the planet core, the Forerunners would be safe from the Flood, and able to rebuild.
One Forerunner stayed behind on each Halo, preparing for the right time to activate it. Once the Forerunners were safely behind their 'shield' worlds, the rings were activated. All sentient life was destroyed, including those who fired it. I'm not sure how - my theory goes like this:
The Flood infection forms control a victim by tapping into it's spinal column and nervous system - we learn this from Dr. Halsey in First Strike. She also explains that it was due to Sgt. Johnson's fatal condition that the Flood form could not force a match and control him.
If higher brain functions cut out, I'm certain a Flood could still control a host. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who tried sniping the combat forms in the head to be met with no success.
This suggests the victims brain isn't needed, only the nervous system. And so, perhaps this is what the Halo rings attack. The nervous systems of Sentient life forms. It would kill any potential Flood host, as well as any current combat and carrier forms.
Only the infection forms would remain. They would be stranded, uncoordinated, and starving. Eventually they died out, and the only Flood remining in the galaxy would be the Flood infection forms left in stasis on the Halo rings.
This is where things get difficult: did the Forerunners make it to their shield worlds before the rings were activated? If not, they would have died. Do the Halo rings kill sentient beings in slipspace? I should imagine so - otherwise why would the Forerunners not simply transition to slipspace as the rings were fired?
If they did survive in their shield worlds, what happened to them and where did they go?
This is where the Ark comes in, and this part of my theory will prove unpopular with those who don't believe humanity descended from the Forerunners.
The Ark is quite possibly the vessel that the Forerunners descendants came to Earth on. Perhaps not. Either way, they came here from their Shield World aboard one of their vessels (I'm assuming it's the Ark, because so far that's the only known Forerunner relic on Earth). With their ship landed in the sands of Africa, they set out to explore this new world. Primate in nature, looking almost exactly as we do, they would have been the first true 'humans' on Earth, and they may have sown the seeds of humanity. The Ark was buried as the ages passed, and all knowledge of the struggles of before were lost.
However, my theory is not flawless.
The Halo rings were activated approximately 100,000 years ago. Humans have been here for approximately 10,000 years, at a push (and this is taking into account our evolution - recognisable human beings have been here less than half that). Why would the Forerunners wait so long before seeding a new planet?
These are my own ideas. It's taken me an awful long time to come up with them, and it was very hard writing them down here to be able to explain my views to other people. I'm no way saying I'm right, but these scenarios seem likely to me.
If you read all that, kudos to you for sticking with it. Thanks for your time.