The only thing you got that I didn't is the automatic title/description for Flickr. That's pretty cool. Strep throat? What's the Flood's relation to a human illness?

This was meta data embedded into the file. Flickr's good a reading meta data.

It MAY mean something. Then again, it appears the image is from "Getty Images". Perhaps the meta data was left in there by accident?

Here's some trivia: the filename and ref# don't match up:

So you didn't get any metadata from StarImage1.jpg?

I watched the video, but it appears that one longer entry of text appeared that isn't listed hear. It flashed by really quickly. I don't know if it was real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Also, the text file appears to document the activation, syncronization, and firing of the Halo rings. I noticed that the firing countdown was in base 7. so the forerunners use base 7... hmmm...

Why does the old countdown website (transmission log) say Server 5 open, and the Halo 3 website say server 1 open?

There are two hidden messages in the video! I found that out on a different forum. Also, There seems to be a picture of Master Cheif right before one of the texts. Whoever wrote it seems to talk about killing death at the end. I believe he means the flood. After all, the flood was death personified to the forerunners am I right. So I believe the plan that was the forerunners last hope was the halo rings.

I've always had this sneaking suspicion that the flood were the result of the forerunners trying to genetically engineer themselves some immortality. I dunno, but maybe the killing death thing at the end has something to do with the Flood being the result of their efforts?

In the star picture the symbol is different than usual for some reason. Also is there a pattern to the stars? They are different colors and their positioning looks kinda deliberate maybe.

notice on the backside of the object on server5 that there is that forerunner symbol lit up. Beneath that symbol are others similar to it but the position of the gap changes each time. I'm pretty sure that the other symbols are the other servers (as there are 5 of each) and that the symbol is a countdown in itself because of the rotation of the gap in the symbols

its midnight and nothing has happened.....

There is a message which flashes in the video, too fast to read:

"Millions of brave and honored souls died trying to avert this desparate solution"

It appears to me most of the brighter stars seem to be clustered around the symbol, and these seem to have a slight opening near the top, as if some sort of corral. Something to mentally munch on my fellow researchers.

Hello! The two unknown messeges in the video say:
#5

If you are that witness
And it seems that we pinned
All of our hopes on this
Single suicidal plan

and after "Know that a thousand other plans..."

Millions of brave and honored souls
Died trying to avert this desperate,
Terrible situation

Hmm...
BTW, this site is awesome. You guys rule.

Oh, and "Pyrrhic" as in the Array_Recorder_Data text it says "pyrrhic solution" means an ending to a conflict that involves massive casualties to the victor. Everyone could probably gather that from information from the Halo Universe.

Sorry about all these posts, but I'm in Hawai'i and it's only around 12 a.m. over here. Okay, if you look up Streptococcus pyrogenes on Wikipedia, it explains how the bacteria "..attaches to host tissues, evades the immune response, and spread by penetrating host tissue layers." Really, that sounds A LOT like the Flood, don't you think?

Each of the "locked" server images seems to be a position of the rotating object in the new flash site. The images seem to indicate the position at which a button is visible. Given that the one that now shows "unlocked" is the front, and clicking on the visible symbol plays the flash movie, we can assume that as further images switch to "unlocked" we will get more movies.

Anyone who has PhotoShop can view all the details. For those of you who don't have PhotoShop:

The stars image:

*Notice the difference in date.

May be more about the Forerunner, but it might help:

In Halo 1, when Cheif finds out what the Halos do, 343 says "You knew this already" and "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?" and "Last time you asked me 'If it were you, would you do it?'" There's more from H:CE like he calls "our lost time" human history. The Forerunners had to be Humans or like us. Plus, only humans could active the fail safe, and 343 calls them "Reclaimers". Gahh, I hope I'm not to off topic.

damn thats a hellova alot of information discovered since midnight

In Greek mythos, Iris is the messenger from the gods, to the people. She had a son named Pothos who was trying to reach an unattainable goal, may be a reference to Master Chief trying to stop the Halos. She also has an Urn filled with the water of Styx to deluge the world, possibly like activating the Halos. She kept the Urn, had Golden wings and kept a caduceus, which is a winged staff and is Hera's messenger. She is also represented as a rainbow that stretches from the heavens to earth.

This isn't base 7. There are plenty of 9's, 8's, and 7's. Also, 1 minute = 6-0 (six-zero) seconds, which in base 10 = sixty and in base 7 = 6*7 = 42.

One minute didn't equal 42 seconds in the timer, so this is base 10. Which calls to mind that perhaps it is not a forerunner activating the halo array, and even moreso, AR may not have been a forerunner technology.

So we've all heard of Streptococcus pyrogens: it's a fever-inducing (pyrogenic) specie of the Streptococcus genus of bacteria, strep-throat (as said above).

Here's a strange thing though.

The "autoname" given by photoshop doesn't match the "autodescription" or the "flood containment" at the top of the pic. You see, BC3779-001, or BC3779, rather, is a protein from the bacterium Bacillus cereus. Why two different bacteria?

Here's the creepy part. BC3779 is a recombination protein that naturally exists in the food-poisoning-inducing B. cereus. What does that mean? Well, basically the enzyme causes DNA to recombine (albeit within itself) so that it can perform asexual reproduction and still cause gene diversity (evolve itself). The thought of an enzyme that can alter DNA though is frightening. It is also said that the enzyme induces the "SOS response", which means that when DNA is damaged, it can still reproduce unaffected (or hopefully unaffected) copies of itself. If you want to read up a bit on BC3779, it's called a recA recombination protein.

My $0.02 worth.

The warning doesn't say killing DEATH, it talks about killing the "antithesis of life" that is "just as powerful".

An antithesis is a direct contrast to show meaning. What is the opposite of an "energetic and tenacious" life? A lethargic, chaotic non-life. Possession and corruption.

The antithesis of life is not death, but a gruesome perversion of life. Death is an absense of life, the Flood is its opposite.

Actually, now that I look at it, the picture says Streptococcus pyrogens, but strep throat is Streptococcus pyogenes. That's no r and an e added.

A pyrogen is a fever causing chemical, but Streptococcus pyrogens bacteria makes no sense unless you were implying they were a new specie. But the only way a Streptococcus bacterium would have a protein in it from Bacillus cereus would be genetic modification, if you know what I mean.

Actually, if one searches gettyimages.com for "bc3779 lowry" the only return is a picture (notably in the "creative" section) completely different from this one. THIS picture at getty images is a true Scanning Electron Microscope photograph (hence the SEM at the beginning of the tag). It has all the proper meta-info: BC3779-001 SEM blah blah streptococcus pyrogens. Maybe gettyimages.com has the next clue. I'm on it.

That S. Lowry guy has a bunch or other pictures on getty, but I didn't see anything relevent, but I could be wrong. After reviewing July 1st (070107), it turns out that was the day Charles Darwin and Wallace's papers on evolution were acknowledged in 1858, also in 1957 there was a summit called the International Geophysical Year where every nation got together to collaborate in their advances in science, then there was an International Polar Year in 1882 where great minds went to Antarctica to research it and there is another one coming up, probably in July(070107)! Maybe the Forerunners found the Flood this way and Is trying to warn us! Now, I sleep...

I found this "non-life" comment very interesting and informative. It makes more sense, but still leads to the same conclusion I came to. The flood is this "non-life" and the forerunner's "last hope" is the activation of the rings to starve out the flood. I believe the flood survived by going into a catatonic state for all the years untill the rings were found again. This may refer to the gravemind's "slumber".

On a sidenote, the second hidden message seems to refer to a forerunner civil war between those who supported the halo ring idea and those who wanted to live on and try to wipe out the flood without killing all life in the galaxy.

It need not refer to a civil war. Just that many died trying to eradicate the Flood using more conventional warfare. Surely they would have wanted to exhaust every other option before hitting their galactic reset button.

I looked over the page but didn't find anything, so I hope this isn't a repost...

I think that the Array_Recorder_Data.txt file from http://206.16.223.61/E5h2JK/flash/web/index.html chronicles the forerunner's last moments. At the end, the
Rings online…_{Activate}

section makes me wonder if this is the Forerunner's last stand.

Also, the reference(s) to "the parasite". The Covenant say that, don't they?

Pondering

If you notice, those stars look different. Very different. The large stars (And only the large stars) are colored purple and orange, and some of them overlap. And you're right, they seem to bunch near the symbol. If this is Halo (Or any other sought-after planetoid/construct... Earth perhaps?) then, maybe, that is some kind of space battle.

Maybe?

The covenant do refer to the flood as "the parasite", but they stole all that they know from the forerunners, so maybe they stole the term "parasite" from the forerunners as well.

BTW, Wouldn't it be ironic if the forerunners were humanoid. That would mean that we were the sacred ancient race they worshipped, So they would be trying to destroy their essential "Gods". Just thought that was a funny idea.

At the end of Halo 2, the Master Chief and Commander Miranda Keyes were both referred to by 343 Guilty Spark as "Reclaimer(s)" that reference does give validity (at least to me) that humans are forerunners...

Food for thought.

If the Forerunners were humanoid, then why would the N'Chala guy be gawking over them in the comics?

Look at the picture in Photoshop or GIMP and open a histogram view (Levels window, etc show you one). You can see that only 11 levels are used, but there is some variance about them, noise basically. I tried to separate out the noise (posterize into 11 levels then substract with the original) and enhance the contrast but nothing pops out.

I'm not sure if these are JPEG artifacts or if it was on purpose. Anyone know much about steganography?

Interestingly, there is an steganography program at http://camouflage.unfiction.com/ but it would require a password to unpack any messages. Can someone else download it and try. I can't think of more passwords.

Think more Stargate...

Those things looked more like Sentinals. If you read "Ghosts of Onyx", there are giant Sentinals used for digging.

This seems unrelated so far, but something is bugging me. What happened to Gray Team. For people who don't know, the books refer to 3 Spartans, maybe more, who aren't around for the fall of Reach, the attack on Earth, or the Sentinals on Onyx. "Fall of Reach" refers to three Spartans who aren't at a meeting on Reach that happened hours before the attack, and "Ghosts of Onyx" has Fred, one of the Spartan IIs, wondering where a squad known as Grey Team is (They apparantly haven't been heard from for a while). The books have cleared up the remaining Spartans (they're trapped in a shield world that was supposed to save some of the Forerunners), and Master Chief is at Earth, but the missing Grey Team bothers me due to lack of information, and the way they have seemingly been blown off. I may be paranoid, and it's way too early to tell, but I thought I might as well throw this out there just to see what people think.

Guys, there is interesting image work going on here:

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19721&start=60

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19723

Do you mean, "Forerunner genetic experimentation"?

It almost looks like ursa minor is to the above and right of the icon. I've got several thoughts on this. The first is that the symbol in the image matches one of the images in the base of the artifact on server 1/5. I don't know for certain that they are the same, however. It's plausible that the image in the starfield represents the next server, not the current one. There are two possible points of reference in the image, where the circle is out on the arm of the symbol/glyph, and where the center of the glyph lies. If there are numerical references that would match those points (like interstellar GPS), then maybe we can find the IP of the next server.

Then the flood infection image... I wonder if the access key to unlock it might be in that image.

Simple reasoning, and it's probably wrong, but I'll futz with it.

ok i have thought about this i may just be makeing a ass out of myself but iam going to put it out there ok so maybe the ark was like noahs ark from the bible how god told noah to put 2 of every animal on the boat to save them from the flood and re populate the earth maybe the ark was a way for them to survive the halo s fireing i may just be talking out my ass

I find it interesting that if you look up Stephen Lowry for the university of Ulster under his bio it has

Career History
1974 - present: Research Fellow, University of Ulster

Teaching & Learning Activities
Microscopy; scientific photography; digital image manipulation

the digital image manipulation leads me to believe theres more to the picture.

The man who wrote the other Halo books is supposed to write a 5th book on the story of Grey team.

And as for this "ark" I believe they are refering to the shield world.

This has been bugging me for a while now, If the forerunners made more than one "sword" aka. halo, wouldn't they make more than one "shield"? In the origonal Halo 3 trailer the huge thing opening up appears very similar to the way the "shield" portal is described in Ghosts of Onyx.

j2g is right. Some people at unfiction.com found underlying paths in the image that
a) Have no significance whatsoever (which is a possibility for almost every lead)
or
b) Match certain areas of the image and could possibly lead to the next clue

I'm not sure about it being right or wrong, though. It seems to take a lot of manipulation, but a couple of people seemed to have make it work.

The Sword is the Halo system (all rings) and the Shield are the Shield World(s) and the Ark. Since the Ark allows for firing the Halo System remotely, it would make sense that it would either also be a safe haven for those firing it or provide means to travel to a shield world where one would be safe.

Now, if the Forerunner are indeed the predecessors of Humans, then it would make sense that they fired the Halo system, sought safe haven in the Ark until safe and then arose to repopulate. Earth would have been an ideal place to begin life over again, since in the comic we clearly see that life existed at the building of the Ark.

Everything that is coming out works toward a split theory I had. Either the Covenant stumbled upon the Forerunner legacy OR Gravemind led them to it so they could discover Halo and inadventedly release the Flood. "I have defied Gods (Forerunner) and Demons (Spartans/Humans)" The Covenant also refer to the Forerunner as Gods and the Spartans/Humans as Demons. Maybe they got that interpretation from Gravemind.

Perhaps the "Ark" is the alternate dimension the shield world(s) lead to. All these things seem to refer to old testament stories. Plus the number 7. I'm really beginning to think that the bungie developers are Catholic. Does anyone know if they are or not?

I've been searching around to confirm what you said, but so far all I've seen is a bunch of speculative stuff. There is some speculation about one of the books being about Grey Team, and Eric Nylund, the author of most of the Halo books, has said he was interested in getting into their story, but so far it's unconfirmed (as far as I can find).

Multiple "shields" is probably likely. If there are multiple Halos there are probably multiple safehouses. Also, I don't remember if they discovered the official name of the shield-world. It's only a theory, but the "Ark" described in Halo 2 is most likely a shield-world. Also, Earth might be a shield world. And if Forerunners are somehow related to humans, there's a possibility that Earth protected the Forerunners from Halo, and that Humans descended from Forerunners.

.... I'm not exactly sure, but if someone looked at the Marathon storyline, I think it might give away the Forerunners secret. I'm pretty sure the Marathon series had a very simkilar storyline.

The Marathon series bares remarkable similarity to the Halo trilogy. The ship " Marathon" is found in both the Marathon trilogy and the Halo novel series. There are also similarities between the forerunners and an ancient race called "Jjaro". Another parallel is the existance of AI and "Rampancy". Gyilty spark appears to have gone rampant due to millinia of unmonitered operation, and Cortana mentions the three stages of rampancy in the "Cortana Letters".

ok iam glad at least sum one understands what i was saying about the ark i just find it odd that the Covenant refer to the arc on earth the birth place of humans and that the sentinals give humans acess to the halo rings to fire them but not the Covenantits just odd maybe it was the sentinals that were left with the duty to bring back the species of the halo universe u know kind of like that lumberjackish movie titan a.e.

those seem like dates. 07/01/07 and 07/05/07

Ok - here is one for you...
We know it fired and life was wiped out, but, what if the halo system itself plants the new seeds of existence after it has fired?
It clenses the known universe, then reintroduces new "clean" life, so that everything can start over again
Thats what i think the halo system is. The forerunners were a very advanced race. perhaps they had genome problems or something, or regretted creating the flood... perhaps they thought it was best to start over fom scratch... erase the mistakes that their younger selves made...
If that is the case... then we are all forerunners, just less evolved.
Even saying that - perhaps, they were not physically evolved, but augmented...
If thats the case... Master Chief is the Only Forerunner Left.
Maybe thats the reason why the AR talks about when he asked him stuff in the past.

Also - My takes on the end of halo three:

Things will go down like this... The world will indeed end, in a sense that the earth will be blown up, destroyed whatever... but we (humans) will do it.
Why?
The main control systems for halo are located on earth.
Remove the Earth, The halo system becomes inoperatable
Master Chief is going to destroy the planet

The image capture #7 matches starimage1.jpg. If you look at the main bit of stars in the capture, you'll see the exact same configuration in the brightest stars of starimage1.jpg just around the glyph.

THe Ark is not Earth itself. The Earth is just a means to get to the Ark. The forerunners created or found an alternate or parrallel dimension and created "shield world's" that use some kind of slipspace teleportation device to dump you off in this other dimension aka. "The Ark". From the Ark a person can remote fire the Halo rings, or the rings can be "kamekazi" fired from directly on the surface of one of the Halos. The rings have a failsafe in that they can be deactivated before the end of the firing sequence in case of an accidental triggering. The Ark also appears to have an altered or discontinued timeline in that the forerunners would need to be alive after the flood died out to repopulate the Galaxy.

On a sidenote, who says the forerunners have to be one race? Wouldn't it make for a much cooler and peaceful ending if everyone found out the forerunners were actually a "pre-covenant" of humans and aleans living side by side in peace.

My take on the end of Halo 3 is this, John (Master Cheif) and the Arbitor use the Earth to get to the Ark, use the "key" to initiate the failsafe and abort the firing sequence, and in the process find the the forerunners were actually a confederation of human and Alean races. After the forerunners returned to their respective homes the prophets, hungry for power, used their strong minds to persuade the covenant that the humans were somehow responsible for everything, and eventually the millinia of separation makes the two forget that their respective other ever existed. The Gravemind somehow contacted the prophets who, after so long listening to their own made up religion they've began to believe it themselves, think that he is their "God" and that he is leading them on a "Holy Crusade" that will end with the "Great Journey" so they can be with their "God" in their "Heaven" forever. John and the Arbitor "Return" and tell everyone what they've found, Cortana uses the gravemind to somehow destroy the flood, and the two governments begin on the road to galactic peace and enlightenment. John and the Arbitor (the new superhero dream-team!) go off to find some new evil to pump full of lead and/or plasma.

______
Wouldn't it make for a much cooler and peaceful ending if everyone found out the forerunners were actually a "pre-covenant" of humans and aleans living side by side in peace.
______

Noooooooooo!! Resistance is futile! Must.. Have.. War..

____
Cortana uses the gravemind to somehow destroy the flood
____

I don't see that, gravemind is the flood, only in in an collectively-intelligent form. I rather see MC&Arb getting their Co-Op groove on and going after gravemind. Can you say Boss?

an interesting thought i had last night about 343 guilty spark calling master chief a reclaimer and the whole convo about him having activated the halo array previously, could it be possible that once the galactic reset button was hit and wiped out all sentient life in the universe that everything evolved almost exactly like it did previously and that when the halo's were fired last time it was literally master chief who fired it?

and if that is true could the A.I that took over Adjutant reflex be a previous incarnation of cortana? because she wouldn't have been taken out by the halo array as she is artificial and IF the halo was fired before they discovered gravemind she wouldn't have had a chance to meet it and could have possibly survived by inhabiting the monitors for the halo's

or do i just have too much time on my hands to think of stuff?

If the Ark is really some alternate dimension, then the forerunners could still be alive, and hiding in one of the shield worlds, yes?

Possibly, but I think that the forerunners came back from the Ark after the rings fired and repopulated the galaxy. Along with two of each kind of animal.(lol)

Also, they wouldn't be in one of the shield worlds. Essentially, they wouldn't be in any of them, because a dimension is infinitely large, and totally separate from our own dimension. There are most likely portals in the ark that lead to ALL of the shield worlds.

One other thing, a covenant/human forerunner society would also explain why the covenant and human(Catholic) religions are so closely parralleled.

Er, just wanted to say... You guys are calling them Catholic stories... that isn't true. Noah, the Ark, and all of that are all also part of Judaism, and are written in the Torra (the old testament to the Jews). Christianity, when it branched off, of course kept all of the old books, which are still the Word of God... Catholicism is a branch off of Christianity, not vice versa.

Anyone else look up the word adjutant?

1. A very large stork that feeds on carrion, offal (intestines) and sometimes snakes

2. An officer who assists a more senior officer. Sometimes appointed as a officer-in-charge. In the British Army, an Adjutant is in charge of organisation, administration, and discipline for the battalion or regiment. In the U.S. army, he performs hails and farewells, ceremonial functions, evaluation reports, management of correspondence and other secretarial functions. At Brigade-level, he would be a captain or major.

Why does this bring me to think AR was/is Sargeant A.J. Johnson? He survives everything...
Just a hunch.

This is where you lost my attention.

i took and hour to read what was going on here and i dont believe im able to compete with you guys search/tech/halo/wiki/general savvy all this ending stuff is great but how dose it go to the puzzle

lets think

you know now that i think about it more...whos to say that the halo systems as a whole aren't just some sort of galactic reset button?

"That the waves of the past would roll through once again
But a chance remains to change the Universe anew
Learn of our past
Take these keys and dip from the wells of history
Perhaps through others of us you may find how to save us all

especially the "roll through once again" and "learn of our past."
perhaps the ark isnt necessarily an alternate physical dimension or is perhaps and alternate time dimensions. perhaps going into the ark is a place to wait till someone comes along and finally figures out the way to either destroy the flood or prevent it from evolving.

honestly this all sounds to me that this has been tried before
"KNOW THAT A THOUSAND OTHER PLANS WERE TRIED AND FAILED"

why cant the halos instead of obliterating all life just reset it back to the very basic cell structure. only to wait to see what life evolves and see if something comes along to destroy the flood? mayhaps thats why we get the picture of the flood as a bacteria. perhaps we humans are the host that cause the flood to evolve in the first place that we are the reset version of the forerunners trying to figure out how to fix us causing the flood to evolve to the point it had.

perhaps earth is the forerunner home world and when the galaxy is reset we start from scratch again. but will evolve similarly due to a somewhat consistent evironment.

or this is me talking out of my ass.

All of this is true, and when I said Catholic I meant Christian as well. I am Catholic myself and see all Christians as belonging to the same religion with extremely slight permutations (aka. we all believe that Jesus is our Messiah). I am extremely open minded and tolerant towards all religions and believe that anyone who lives a good life (aka. not a serial killer or rapist) will go to heaven. However, the number seven is a completely CHRISTIAN ( see, I can listen) CHRISTIAN tradition. Seven is God's number in Christianity, and because the bungie staff uses this number I assumed they were of some branch of Christianity. Once again, I AM DEEPLY SORRY IF I HAVE OFFENDED ANYONE WITH MY POSTS!!!! SORRY!!! I AM SORRY!!!! SOOOORRRRRYYYYY!!!!

the warnings seem to have been made and recorded by someone who KNEW what the halos were, as in like reseting the universe or evolution, or whatever, they knew it would happen again and are trying to warn us it would happen again,

idk its a random thought and im proly wrong, anyone got any clues about the next clue

This is still just a game right? It seems the halo universe has ties to many faith followed mysteries of the real world, I wonder if Bungie planned all this from the very start. If so, halo 1 will have references as some of you have mentioned. The 'reclaimer' seems to be any life form with human genome (How would the monitor know MC is human). Do the rings eliminate all life or just alot of it?

Right, this is my interpretation of the whole Forerunner / Halos / Shield thing:

Firstly, let's look at the Halos - they produce the STORM - the wave that wipes out sentient life. HALOS : STORM

Now, according to the story of Noah's ark, Noah built the Ark to ride out the STORM and the FLOOD. I won't patronise you by making the obvious link!

Noah took on board the Ark two of every animal ie what he needed, under current technology to re-populate the sentient species (ie animals and us) as plant life, being much simpler would be able to survive the flood THIS IS TRUE FOR BOTH MEANINGS OF THE FLOOD - we know that they only feed off sentient life.

Now a SHIELD - ie what Onyx is, is a defence against something, ie you hide behind it. This fits - they went through into a little bubble of slipspace - not a totally alternate dimension just a micro-dimension. This protected them from the storm

However the ARK is used to ride out the STORM and FLOOD, ie you go on it, not hide behind it. This implies a larger sense. Look at the comparison between Onyx and Earth. On Onyx we see a small slipspace bubble generator/portal thing, UNDERGROUND. On Earth however there is a gigantic structure (we assume based on anecdotal comparison that they are of the same/similar function) ON THE SURFACE. So, what if instead of hiding behind the shield, on Onyx, on Earth they use the Ark to ride out the storm and flood, ie generate a bubble AROUND THE PLANET to protect it.

We also know that on each of the halos there is a library - a store of genetic material of all the species in the galaxy - all that the Forerunners would need to repopulate sentient life. It is safe to presume there is also such a store on the Ark, fitting with the biblical story.

Also we know that John, a Spartan III on Onyx (can't remmeber his name) Johnson and Miranda have all been called reclaimers. Also Sgt Chen (although he failed to reach the index in "The Flood" book). Now we know that the Spartans were selected on basis of their posessing certain genetic markers. We also know that Sgt Johnson was linked to Spartan I, and it would not be a jump, given his stamina in getting so far through the library in "the Flood" that Chen could be in the same boat. As for Miranda, well her father was a legend, and it could be possible that he is Spartan material - possibly not picked because of either his age or because of his disgrace early on in his career (failing to testify against his CO). We could make two conclusions from this: either the Forerunners were similar to humans and interbred, or Forerunners WERE human and settled on earth. Given the lack of our technology, the former seems more likely. There is further evidence of this in the Sentinel's use of latin in "Ghosts of Onyx"

Well that sums it up pretty much.

Let's think about this:

Learn of our past
Take these keys and dip from the wells of history
Perhaps through others of us you may find how to save us all

LEARN OF OUR PAST
pretty obvious, find out what happened ie halos, flood, what they are and what we did

TAKE THESE KEYS AND DIP FROM THE WELLS OF HISTORY
Well linking back to libraries, they contain genetic and probably other info - literally a library of everything the forerunners knew: info on the flood, etc. Now in each library is an INDEX - used as a KEY as we know to activate Halo. But think - what if it were not only a key but an index as it's name implies ie a key not only in the sense of to start up halo, but a key as in a guide, a legend, TO THE LIBRARIES. Use the indexes to look through the libraries and into our history, using bits that could help you

PERHAPS THROUGH OTHERS OF US YOU MAY FIND HOW TO SAVE US ALL
Going back to my previous comment about Johnsson and Spartans being Forerunner descended - OTHERS OF US. Johnsson is immune to the Flood. Perhaps there were similar cases in the Forerunner days, but either they tried and couldn't use this immunity, or by the time they noticed it was too late (this is more likely - forerunners were pretty advanced technologically). So they are telling us to look at this as a possible cure for the flood, as Dr Halsey suggests. This will save the galaxy from having to use the Halos again

Just wondering if anyone found some of the comments in the Array data kind of odd.
At first when i read the line: "Let us hope the final measure is not too late." - I was a little confused. We are fairly certain that the "final measure" is the firing of the Halo's. How would that ever be too late? you are destroying all sentient life, wheter it's now or later, it doesn't matter, as long as it's done, then it's not too late".

But then I see in the beginning "Sphere secure to .1889 of passing fleet." - is this a Dyson Sphere like we see in Ghosts of Onyx? If so, perhaps that is how some sentient life (Human,Covenant etc) survived. Maybe the flood also made it into the sphere and that is why it may have been too late.

And lastly, does anyone think that the person in the Data Array on the DCom is Gravemind(Pre Infection)? For reason, some of the stuff they say towards the end just struck me as fitting for the "prayer" on whisper in the storm.

So thats the end of my ramblings, and I'd just like to say that I just found hushedcasket.com and really like it. Much more intelligent ideas/conversation than some other sites.

I know you're new, but all of this is very old news. We've already established that the shield worlds were used to save some of the surviving forerunners, who later repopulated the galaxy after the cleansing. My theory was that the flood went into a catatonic state, similar to that of some viruses.

One other thing, I've seen some theories that forerunners interbred with humans. One little kink there, if the forerunners just wiped out all life in the universe, how would there be humans TO interbreed with? I think the forerunners are a mix of different races, both human and alien.

Yeh I know obviously that the shield thing was general knowledge, but just thought I'd put down the whole of my understanding to see what conflicts/agreements there were with other theories/established facts.

I was only really using the shield thing in comparison with the Ark (earth), like I said I think the earth had a bubble made AROUND it rather than a portal to the bubble ON it.

As far as interbreeding goes, like you said the Forerunners re-seeded life on the planets. This would presumably take years. At the end of it, what do the Forerunners do - there's nowhere near as many as before - do they reconstruct their society (which would take hundreds of years to get back to the point just before Halos were fired) or slip quietly away and live out the rest of their days on earth (There's a useful example with Stargate and the Ancients)

My post wasn't so much about the shield-worlds, As I know that is common knowledge to most halo fans. But rather asking about the line where someone wondered if it was "too late" and if so, are the flood in the shield (the only possible reason I can think of and was asking if anyone knew any other reason).
Please understand that this isn't so much of a rebuttle as it is an explanation, of my statement.

Second, if the Forerunner had studied the flood for presumably a long time, they had time to build the halos for them, wouldn't they have noticed any usage of this catatonic state when the flood were captive(unless the forerunner were sacrificing people to sustain the flood while in captivity)? And if they had noticed it, why activate the Halos when they know it won't stop the flood?

in the server 1 screen, put on headphones.
the ticking noise alternates between he left and the right ear.
random

I have two thoughts about the glyphs, one: what happens if you take these glyphs into something like Maya or 3D studio Max and overlay them so each additional glyph since the original is laid on one of the axis of the original glyph, producing a 3d series of glyphs.
If i'm not clear, think of it this way: to represent a sphere on a piece of paper you draw two ovals, one vertical and one horizontal. Now imagine drawing a third or fourth oval, giving you something resembling the paths of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Now imagine doing something like that with the glyphs.
My other thought was that in the books they mention glyphs on rocks and Cortana determines that they're constellations and plots a course. (I know this has been mentioned, just bear with me)
If the glyphs indicate different groups of starts around a central reference point, then perhaps these are being used to define a single point by intersecting imaginary lines between the central points of each group, similar to the navigation system employed in Stargate.
I haven't been able to read every piece of discussion on this, so if I'm rehashing theories that have been considered already, I appologize.

i was taking a closer look at that pic with the stars ad i realized that the symbol at the bottom surrounded by the stars appeard to kinda look like the earth and the moon. the earth is at the center and then there is that other object orbiting around it this looks alot like the moon orbiting the earth. Also if u watch the video in slow motion then u can see a flash of saturn and alot of the moon,its surface and the whole thing, there must be some osrt of link here.

Just a thought...
If the forerunners were so extremely advanced, dont you think they'd at least have a color tv instead of a fuzzy blue one?

i just read through all of this, and I also just went through all of the sound clips from I Live Bees again this week.

The Operator was blasted apart through time when the artifact was activated. What if there is some form of time loop, a "re-do" or "mulligan" if you will, where the process has been repeated thousands of times, repeating until it is done right?

Just my rant for the day...

In the message I beleive he says "Just in time to dance again on the NINTH edge of oblivion." hmm

Then again, the star picture COULD represent atoms or something. But space is the most likely.