First, I intend to show that Ackerson and a few ONI officers new of Halo before the Pillar of Autumn did a “blind” jump to it. ONI charted the planet Threshold ( the gas giant Halo orbits ) long before the events of Halo (1). In an interview between HBO and Eric Nylund (the author of Halo: TFOR and FS), this question is asked to the author, [color=white]“Why, if Halo is in uncharted space, are the moon and planet know as Basis and Threshold?”[/color] Nylund responded with, [color=white]“I’ll throw out a clue here: “uncharted” from who’s perspective? “Surveyed” by whom?”[/color] I believe this is a hint pointing towards ONI because they are the ones who charter space ( Office of Navy Intel ). If Threshold was charted, then ONI discovered Halo before the Pillar of Autumn did the so called “blind” jump to it. In The Fall of Reach, on p. 336 to be exact, Cortana finds an 86.2 percent match between the Covenant transmission that Keys intercepted from Sigma Octanus IV ( which is also the same as the 512 alphanumerical string in Ackerson’s S-III file that I discuss in the next paragraph), and star charts of uncontrolled chartered UNSC space. Cortana, as curious as she is, follows the Cole Protocol and charts a route from Reach to this area of uncontrolled UNSC space to investigate it’s importance to Ackerson and the Covenant.Note: this area that Cortana “blindly” jumps to is chartered space ( she has charts of it in her data banks ). When the Pillar of Autumn comes out of slip space, it arrives at Halo... which is the beginning of Halo(1) the game. Also, at the top of page 130 ( FS ) Dr. Halsey is investigating Ackerson’s S-III file. She discovers a 512 alphanumeric string ( which is the also the same as the Covenant transmission intercepted by Keys from Sigma Octanus IV that I discussed before) that matches a star chart of uncontrolled UNSC space. [b][color=white]Again, note that the area the 512 alphanumerical string points to is UNSC chartered space because it matches a UNSC star chart...it’s just not UNSC CONTROLLED space.[/color][/b] Ackerson was involved with something in this area, which I’m am saying right now is Halo because that is where the Pillar of Autumn “blindly” jumped to. Oh, one other small bit of info to consider. To my recollection, it’s really never explained why ONI lieutenant Haverson is at Halo??? Taking these things into account, there seems to be some evidence pointing toward Ackerson’s, and possibly ONI's, involvement with Halo. [b][color=red]HERE IS THE THEROY:[/color][/b] I believe that Ackerson’s secret project involved using Halo, or more likely, the Flood as a weapon against the Covenant. There are several interesting points of intersection between info we already have that point me in this direction. For one, there is the ever so talkative 343 GS. He refers to the MC as the “Reclaimer”. There have been speculations that time travel may have something to do with that. Well, I have another possibility that I have yet heard discussed. On page 270 of TFOR, it is said that at some time in the past, Dr. Hasley gave permission for Ackerson to flash clone John 117 ( MC ) for a black ops mission. Now, why would a clone of the MC be needed for a black ops mission, when that is exactly his purpose and function... that is, to carry out black ops/secretive missions? If you accept that Ackerson was involved with Halo, then it’s quite likely that this, or any other secretive black ops mission of Ackerson, would involve Halo. Like I said before, if it was any other black ops/secret mission, the original MC or Spartans would have been used... that’s there porpose. Bringing all this back to 343 GS nick name for the MC, it is easy to see that the Master Chief is called the Reclaimer because 343 GS has already come in contact with a flash clone of him sent to Halo by Ackerson on a black ops mission.[b][color=yellow]UPDATED ON BOTTOM[/b][/color] Perhaps the most chilling evidence of this flash clone of the MC is this statement form 343 GS, [color=white]“Technically this installation’s pulse has a maximum effective radius of 25 thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the flood.[/color] [color=white][b]But you already new that. I mean, how couldn’t you?[/b][/color] The last part of that quote is the most intriguing. If in fact Ackerson made a flash clone of the MC whose mission most likely involved Halo, then it’s not only possible, but probable that the cloned MC came in contact with 343 GS ( Again, this is why he’s called the Reclaimer ). This means that the activation of Halo, the Flood, and the possible use of Halo as a weapon has already been explained to the clone of MC. [color=red][b]BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE:)[/b][/color] Why would 343 GS need to explain Halo’s defense systems against the Flood to the cloned MC. We know from this statement made by 343 GS during the Library level, [color=white]“I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation are responsible for releasing the Flood. They seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas”[/color] that the current outbreak of the Flood is because of the Covenant. But, this current outbreak is obviously a considerable amount of time after the clone of MC was at Halo. We can also tell from this statement made by 343 GS, [color=white]“Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocol may [b]AGAIN[/b] need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here [b]after the last catastrophic outbreak... for study.[/b] It seems... that decision may have been an error”[/color] that there was an outbreak of the flood in the past. This outbreak in the past would have been hundreds of thousands of years before the MC’s clone visited Halo, because if the cloned MC did activate Halo, then all the other Halos would have followed suit and all organic life that could possibly sustain the Flood ( Humans and Covenant ) would be erased from the galaxy. So, we are still left wondering... why would 343 GS explain Halo’s defense procedures to the MC’s clone? Here is what I think. If in fact there were samples of the Flood kept for study from the last outbreak, as 343 GS mentioned, then it may be likely that the MC’s clone ( Ackerson ) would have found these samples. These samples were not full grown Flood forms though. They couldn’t have been because the Flood would have died off because of Halo's defensive systems removing all potential host/food thousands of years before hand. These samples would more than likely have been in some sort of high tech “petri dish,” if you will. As controlling as Ackerson is, I think he would have found the Flood as a very useful weapon against the Covenant. He may have attempted to make Flood forms, and he probably would have succeeded. Now, he would [b]have[/b] to make the Flood forms inside Halo’s secure facilities. Why? Because 343 GS would have informed MC’s clone of the consequences of the Flood escaping from Halo secure facilities, not to mention that 343 would have made sure that the Flood samples would never leave Halo. So, the answer to the question of why was MC’s clone was told about the protocols of activating Halo’s defense system is, because Ackerson’s secret project involved remaking the Flood, and using them as a weapon against the Covenant. 343 GS made sure that Ackerson new the consequences of the Flood being released, and as a result of this, Ackerson had to conduct the Flood experiments inside Halo’s containment facilities. More proof of these accusations that I’ve made against Ackerson trying to reconstitute the Flood on Halo would be the fact that there are so many Human forms of the Flood. There are many Covenant Flood forms because there are ample amounts of Covenant on Halo trying to activate it. We know from Cortana that “only a hand full” of survivors made it off the Pillar of Autumn. So, why are there hundreds of Human Flood forms? I believe the reason there is a such large amount of amount of Human Flood forms is because Ackerson used the Spartan’s DNA files (remember the S-III file found by Dr. Hasley), made clones of them, and used those clones in experiments with the Flood DNA. This may be why there are so many Human forms of the Flood. And this my friends, may be what Ackerson’s secret project is. Not Spartan III’s, but clones of the original Spartans made into Flood forms:) [b][color=gold]UPDATE[/color][/b] First off, thanks for all the replies. There is no possible way I will be able to reply to all of them, so I'm going to post this thought. After re-reading my theory, I would have to agree that the black ops mission that is mentioned in the book is indeed the one to replace John 117 as a child. [b]However[/b], I still believe it's quite possible that Ackerson used a clone of the MC, and possibly the other Spartan II's, for a mission to Halo. [url=http://bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=624575][b]HERE[/b][/url] is why. (Click) -Eagle 117 [Edited on 12/2/2004 9:52:03 PM]