Before you answer that, answering this: Why was the Covenant in Africa of all places? I thought it was curious that in Halo 2, they were in New Mombasa. Of all the continents of the world, they chose the motherland. I didn't think too much of this until I remembered other Sci Fi properties like Star Gate, starting the visitation of alien species on the African continent. What caused me to post this is something that nagged at my mind about Sergeant Johnson. How the hell is he still alive? I saw him get attacked by The Flood in Halo 1. The Master Chief was the only one who survived Halo. What gives? Then I remembered that the Master Chief couldn't have been the only one because 343 Guilty Spark also survived. That also bugged me. You see these characters in Halo 2 and think, 'WTF at this inconsistant shyt?' Well I was wrong. After looking stuff up at wikipedia, remembering things that took place in Halo 2, finishing the first two halo books, and starting on the third, I realized that the story actually is cohesive and everything is joined together. To get the full story you have to do some research. That's pretty deep for a First Person Shooter. 343 Guilty Spark survived because the Heretic you fight in Halo 2, found him in the wreckage of Halo Installation 04 and took him to the old Forerunner base that you attack as the Arbiter. The old Forerunner base is in the atmosphere of Threshold, the gas giant(planet) who's orbit, Halo had previously ooccupied. That's why the sentinels there follow 343 guilty sparks commands because they were in his juridiction still. The Sentinels in the other Halos, like Delta Halo, cannot be controlled by 343 Guilty Spark. Anyway, enough of that. Now that I know how Sgt. Johnson survived, another question arose. Why? Why did The Flood ignore him? Does this in any way have something to do with the fact that Seargant Johnson is Black? So. The Prophet of Regret found Earth on accident when he was searching for the Ark. He decided to attack Earth anyway (The Covenant invasion in Halo 2 wasn't a full scale invasion. Finding Earth was a fluke which the Prophet of Regret relished in as Earth became a target of opportunity.) So if the Ark is in Africa, the Flood doesn't attack African's (to be debated), what does that say about the Forerunners? Were they black? I'm sitting here trying to tie it all in. I'm thinking hard. While I'm thinking, I'll show you the excerpt that caused me to think about all this. Excerpt from Halo: First Strike. The book that takes place between Halo 1 & 2. John is the Master Chief. Sgt. Johnson is the hard core black Marine you see in the cut scenes of Halo 1, 2, game trailers, and advertisements. This scene takes place as the Master Chief is searching the remnants of Halo: Installation 04 (The Halo that the first game Halo: Combat Evolved for the X-Box takes place). The Master Chief is in the plane that he lifted off from at the end of the game. Cortana alerts him to the presence of Covenant Cruisers searching and scanning the area. Cortana also finds the faint outline of a Pelican( the UNSC ship that always dropped you off in the game) hiding in the shadow of a floating rock of debris. He rushes against the clock to retrieve the occupants of the Pelican before the Covenant finds them. A hand reached from the other side. John pulled the person through. The shock only lasted a moment. John's reflexes kicked in - he grabbed a handful of the man's uniform, kicked the hatch shut, and propelled both of them against the hull. With a lightning- quick motion, he drew the newcomer's pistol and aimed it squarely at the man's forehead. "You were dead," the Chief said. "I [i]saw[/i] you die. On Jenkin's* mission record. The Flood got you." The black man smiled a set of perfect white teeth. " The Flood? Hell, Chief, it'll take more than a pack of walking alien horror-show freaks to take out Sergeant A.J. Johnson." [b]Chapter Six 1710 hours, September 22, 2552 (Military Calendar)\ Aboard Longsword fighter, uncharted system, Halo debris field.[/b] The Master Chief held on to the ship's frame with one hand so he wouldn't float away in zero gee. With the other hand he pressed the pistol deeper into Johnson's forehead. The Sergeant's smile faded, but there was not a trace of fear in his dark eyes. He snorted a laugh. "I get it: You think I'm in- fected. Well, I'm not. This"-he patted his chest-"is one hun- dred percent grade-A Marine...and nothin' else." The Chief eased his stance but didn't lower the gun. "Explain how that's possible." "They got us all right, those little mushroom-shaped infec- tious bastards," Johnson said. "They ambushed me, Jenkins, and Keyes." He paused as the Captain's name, then shook his head and went on. "They swarmed all over us. Jenkins and Keyes were taken...but I guess I didn't taste too good." "The Flood doesn't 'taste' anything," Cortana interjected. "The Infection Forms rewrite a victim's cellular structure and convert him into a Combat Form, then later a Carrier Form-an incubator for more Infection Forms. Based on what we've seen, they cer- tainly don't just decide to pass up a victim." The Sergeant shrugged. He fished into his pocket, found the remaining stub of a chewed cigar, and stuck it in the corner of his mouth. "Well, [i]I've[/i] seen different. They 'passed me up' like I was undercooked spinach at a turkey dinner." "Cortana," the Chief asked. "Is it possible?" "It's [i]possible[/i]," she carefully replied. "But it's also highly un- likely." She paused for two heartbeats, and then added, "Accord- ing to the readings from the Sergeant's biomonitors, his story checks out. I can't be one hundred percent positive until he's been cleared in a medical suite, but preliminary findings indi- cate that he is clean of any Flood parasitic infection. He's obvi0 ously not a mindless, half-naked alien killing machine." "All right." The Chief clicked the pistol's safety to "on" then flipped the pistol around and handed it back to the Sergeant, grip first. "But I'm having you checked inside and out the first chance we get. We can't risk letting the Flood infection spread." "I hear you, Master Chief. Looking forward to those Navy nurses. Now-" The Sergeant pushed off the hull and drifted toward the hatch. "-let's get the rest of the crew on board." He hesitated by the cryotubes. "I see you already picked up a few stragglers." End of Excerpt One of the cryotubes holds a surprise! ;) Anyway, I haven't thought long and hard enough about this enough but I will say that the author may have written that part about the Flood skipping over Sgt. Johnson just to join together the bad plotting by Jason Jones. I refuse to believe this however, given Bungie's record (Marathon). I haven't played that game but I have read about how deep it was in Wikipedia Marathon was first released for the Macintosh in 1994, [b]introducing[/b] many concepts now considered modern and novel in contemporary gaming. These features included [b]dual-weilded weapons, several multiplayer modes besides deathmatch, cooperative play, friendly non-player characters, and a deep and intricate plot[/b] Damn no wonder Halo is so good. Bungie is one of the most original developers out there [Edited on 3/16/2006]