An excerpt from the Conversation between the Didact and the Primordium/Captive in the book "Primordium"
Quite a few SPOILERS...just BT dubs.
I made the Didact speech in yellow, and the Primordium speech in red. Just so it's easier to follow without reading the entire thing.
Also, more important things are bold and most important is bold, italicized, and underlined...BAM!! haha
Anyways...
"The Didact gave a small quiver, whether of rage or fear I could not tell. “You told me you were the last Precursor.” The Primordial rearranged its limbs with a leathery shuffle. Powder sifted from torso and legs. “How can you be the last of anything?” the Didact asked. “I see now that you are nothing more than a mash-up of old victims infected by the Flood. A Gravemind. Were all the Precursors Graveminds?” Another sifting shuffle. “Or are you after all only an imitation of a Precursor, a puppet— a reanimated corpse? Are all the Precursors gone— or is it that the Flood will make new Precursors?” “Those[precursors] who created you were defied and hunted,” the Captive said. “Most were extinguished. A few fled beyond your reach. Creation continued.” “Defied! You were monsters set upon destroying all who would assume the Mantle.” “It was long ago decided. Forerunners will never bear the Mantle.” “Decided how?” “Through long study. The decision is final. Humans will replace you. Humans will be tested next.” Was the Primordial giving me a message of hope? Doom for our enemies … ascendancy and triumph for humanity? “Is that to be our punishment?” the Didact asked, his tone subdued— dangerous. “It is the way of those who seek out the truth of the Mantle. Humans will rise again in arrogance and defiance. The Flood will return when they are ripe— and bring them unity.” “But most humans are immune,” the Didact said. Then he seemed to understand, and lowered his great head between his shoulders like a bull about to charge. “Can the Flood choose to infect, or not to infect?” The wide, flat head canted to one side, as if savoring some demonic irony. “No immunity. Judgment. Timing.” “Then why turn Mendicant Bias against its creators, and encourage the Master Builder to torture humans? Why allow this cruelty? Are you the fount of all misery?” the Didact cried out. The Captive’s strange, ticking voice continued. “Misery is sweetness,” it said, as if confiding a secret. “Forerunners will fail as you have failed before. Humans will rise. Whether they will also fail has not been decided.” “How can you control any of this? You’re stuck here— the last of your kind!” “The last of this kind.” The head leaned forward, crimping the torso and front limbs until one leg actually separated and fell away, shooting out a cloud of fine dust. The Captive was decaying from within. What sort of cage was this? The misty blue light seemed to vibrate and a high, singing sound reverberated through the hemisphere, shaping razor-sharp nodes of dissonance. But the Captive still managed to speak. “We are the Flood. There is no difference. Until all space and time are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds … no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one thousand centuries … unity again, and wisdom. Until then— sweetness.” The Didact stepped forward with a sharp grunt. He lifted his hand and a panel appeared in the air, shaping controls. The Captive’s head squared on its torso, as if bracing for what it knew was about to come. “It is your task to kill this servant,” it said, “that another may be freed.”"
“Those who created you were defied and hunted....Most were extinguished. A few fled beyond your reach. Creation continued.”
^^^Here it sounds like he is describing the Flood after the first Halo array firing right? Most were destroyed, but some survived and kept their distance while humans and the races making up the covenant continued to gain power ("Creation continued"). This fits perfectly, the flood were almost defeated and fled, waiting to return. However he said "those who created you", but he couldn't possibly mean the Flood created the Forerunners could he? Is he speaking in riddles? Because it was actually the Precursors who were defied and hunted by the Forerunners...but if the flood and precursors were the same in any way, this could be possible evidence...or just simple coincidence and manipulation of the text.
Anyways, let's move on.
“The last of this kind.”
Not a clue what this might mean. When he says "this kind" is he referring to the last of the Precursors, which would mean the Flood and the Precursors are not exactly the same, but related in the same consciousness? i.e. the primordial may die, and with it the original physical Precursors, but the Precursors will still live on in the Flood....maybe.
“We are the Flood. There is no difference."
Kinda self explanatory. Although I'm confused as to why nobody else has brought up this quote. Again, I wonder if he is speaking in riddles, if he means the flood come from the precursors, if he is actually flood and not a precursor at all, or, something else...haha
Until all space and time are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds … no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one thousand centuries … unity again, and wisdom. Until then— sweetness.”
Throughout this entire conversation he keeps talking about this "unity" between all species. This sounds like Flood logic, consume all sentient life. Up until that point, destruction and turmoil for everyone...which doesn't sound fun in the least. However, the Flood are not mindlessly taking all species that exist and infecting them. As seen in the dialogue, the Flood can choose who to infect, they wait until a species has reached it's pinnacle and is preparing to take "The Mantle", then the flood strikes and consumes all, gaining wisdom and unity through this "testing" of a species which I see as futile. But if they continuously leave other species to continue on in their evolution every time, it seems this may be a never ending cycle, until somehow a species(hopefully humans) can figure out a way to ultimately defeat every last parasite known as the Flood. This kind of reminds me of the Reapers in Mass Effect.
Ummm....I think I got almost everything, not sure. i'd rather here all yall's say though