This is not my own theory, but I've pulled pieces together to make a more coherent version, updated with Halo 2 information. **SPOILERS** FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH A. On Halo 04, 343 Guilty Spark calls the Master Chief a "Reclaimer" (and Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of Installation 05, says the same) -- Why do you think Guilty Spark is so friendly to the MC on Halo 04? He EXPECTS him to be there. He EXPECTS him to know protocol. He EXPECTS the MC to be there in order to set off the Halos... "Perfect timing" with when the Flood were released. QUOTE: "ah, a reclaimer is here. What perfect timing..." In other words -- 343GS EXPECTED a HUMAN to come initiate the Halos. 343GS also hints he is of a lower class than MC when he insists that only MC can insert the index into Halo. (the same thing happens on Halo 05 when Tartarus forces a human Sargeant to insert the Index into Halo). Over and over on Halo 04, 343GS keeps making comments about how the MC SHOULD know all the required protocol for Halo and the Flood. QUOTE: "After all, how couldn't [he]?" COVIES B. The Covenant are a 'copying' culture. Covie Engineers can duplicate and manipulate, but not invent. They got their technology from the superior Forerunners who the Covies now revere at near-godlike status. It's also interesting to note that the Prophets didn't even give humans a CHANCE to assimilate into the Covenant. Didn't even ask. But that's what the Covenant IS -- they combine other races to their whole in order to give all species passage to the 'divine beyond' through the Halos... but the Prophets gave humans no such opportunity. Could they be hiding something from EVERYONE, even the other Covies?? LANGUAGE BARRIER C. Strangely enough, Covenant script (in the Halo 2 dialouges book) is very similar to Arabic symbols used in the English language today... a phonetic diversion, but perhaps it is our lettering system evolved several millenia? Just a thought. SACRIFICE FOR THE GREATER GOOD D. The 7 Halos went off as planned several millenia ago as a last ditch effort to destory the Flood and killed off the Forerunner race. Penitent Tangent says this clearly in Halo 2 when talking to Tartarus and the Arbiter in the Control Room. BUT -- HERE'S WHERE YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION -- How is Penitent Tangent supposed to know that ALL the Forerunners died? He's isolated on Halo 05, lightyears from earth. What if a remainder of the Forerunners survived when the Halo's went off? On the Ark perhaps? (Whether the Ark is the Earth of whether the Ark is the Forerunner ship that Truth left High Charity on, I don't care, that's not the issue right now) What I'm saying is that it is COMPLETELY possible that a few humans survived, and RE-POPULATED (or simply populated for the first time) THE EARTH, creating human history as WE know it. The ARK that carried humans through the FLOOD. It's an obvious Biblical allusion. Here's the original story-- everything on earth is goin great, but humans really !blam! it up. God decides that his creation is being ruined, so he picks the remaining humans that haven't been *infected* yet (by a sinful life) to get on the Ark and survive his oncoming FLOOD. When the waters subsided, they were left with a deserted Earth to re-populate and begin again. WEIRD CONNECTION? F. The symbols and star maps found on Forerunner artifacts are strangely familar to John (the Master Chief, Spartan 117) and his fellow Spartans on Plantet Reach and Sigma Octanus IV. TIME WARP? G. There's some weird time-travel crap going on with Cortana and the "Keeper of the Luminous Key"... a Covenant AI with her base coding structure at the core. All the info I have is taken from dialogue found in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and the three Halo books. It's pretty obvious to me... Humans are the Forerunners. And just think about it. It makes sense. Why else would the monitors keep calling humans "Reclaimers" and expecting them to have better technology and a full understanding of Halo protocol?? [Edited on 11/14/2004 4:47:26 PM]