Wait, I don't get it. (Spoilers.)

[Phobic Dementia]

Over the course of the campaign, we learn that long ago, Humanity and the Forerunners went to war. Ultimately, it was learned that the Humans weren't making war with the Forerunners, but, in fact, running from the Flood.

 

Okay, wait...

 

If Humanity was already engaged in a galactic battle with the Flood, WHY would they EVER start a war with the Forerunners? Aren't they threatened enough?

 

Well, I've heard it put, "If you're running from a serial killer and have to cut through someone else's property, you're not going to care about the person that owns the property, you're running from a freaking serial killer."

 

Okay, that makes sense. But wait...how did the Forerunners not learn that Humanity was fighting the Flood? I mean, it should have been very, very obvious.

 

Well, maybe it all happened so fast that by the time the Forerunners realized humanity was fighting the Flood, it was too late for either side. Okay, that makes sense...only no, it doesn't. At all.

 

Because the Forerunners and Humanity were at war for ONE THOUSAND YEARS. Yes, the Librarian herself states this fact, that they were at war for a millennium before they realized that the Flood was a thing.

 

This doesn't even APPROACH making sense. We've all seen how fast the Flood spreads. How fast they work. Even if somehow, someway, the Forerunner battled Humanity on a galactic scale for a thousand years and SOMEHOW never ran into the Flood...don't you think Humanity would try to communicate the fact that they were facing a race of parasitic, unstoppable killers that would gleefully not only wipe out Humanity, but the Forerunners, too, if given the opportunity? Wouldn't it make FAR more sense for Humanity to try, desperately, to form a pact with the Forerunners?

 

And I can't believe it's a breakdown of communications. The Forerunners built the Halos, they built the Ark, they are apparently able to enact a plan that takes literally one hundred thousand years to come to fruition. There's no way something like a lanague barrier would stop them.

 

So, am I missing something here? How could 343i drop the ball so thoroughly on this little fact?

[Azaxx]

Humans didn't start a war, they were destroying all infected planets. These planets coincidently had Forerunners on them. They saw this as a sign of war and attacked. There was no room for communications. The reason the flood were unnoticed is because the grave mind at the time was the smartest ever known to exist. It waited for both empires to weaken, since they were the most powerful ones in the galaxy. It was also this Gravemind who turned out to be the last Precursor. Precursors being the highest 'tier' of civilisation ever to exist creating ALL life in the galaxy, and others. This Gravemind also converted a Forerunner AI designed to kill him against its creators and that's why the rings were fired. If the Gravemind never did it, the Halo's wouldn't have been fired.

[Phobic Dementia]

Wait, wait, wait.... "

 

"These planets coincidently had Forerunners on them."

 

So, Humanity was destroying Forerunner-inhabited worlds infested with The Flood...AND THE FORERUNNER STILL DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE FLOOD?

 

Also, "There was no room for communications." Why?

[Azaxx]

Those infested planets were kinda infested, the forerunners couldn't tell anyone because they were either being hunted and hiding, or being consumed.

Let's look at our previous wars, WWI and WWII from my knowledge were full in bloodshed. There was no moment when you could go "Hey, mate, stop shooting, I wanna chat to you about this war". No, it was impossible, in real life, and so with the Forerunner/Human/kinda flood war.

[Phobic Dementia]

WWI and WWII were both fought during times were communication in the field was often difficult, if not downright impossible given the level of technology at the time.

 

But both the Forerunners and Humanity were at a space-faring level of technology. And that logic doesn't hold up. If Humanity was fighting the Flood, they would go VERY far out of the way to make sure that the Forerunners were at LEAST not an enemy.

 

As for the Forerunner infested worlds. Again, no logic there. I don't believe that literally EVERYONE ON THE PLANET was either incapable or uncaring enough to try to communicte that their ENTIRE WORLD was being overrun by aliens. Furthermore, why did the Forerunners come running when Humanity attacked one of their worlds...but NOT when the Flood had attacked that very same world? And, okay, even assuming the Forerunners couldn't communicate the fact that the Flood was attacking their world, wouldn't the rest of the Forerunners learn IMMEDIATELY upon coming to defend the worlds that Humanity was attacking? It's not like the Flood are a subtle race.

[Azaxx]

The humans were not attacking 'one' of their words. They attack entire parts of the galaxy. Destroying all traces of the flood and the planets. Glassing them, but much worse than the covenant glassing capability. And no, it took time for the forerunners to find out that their planets and systems had been destroyed, but once they found out, they attacked humanity pretty darn quickly. And when I mean forerunners, I mean their main empire lead by the Didact.

[Jasper]

I've heard mention from a reasonably reliable source that humans actually had devised a way of containing the flood, but the flood were still putting up a good fight, infecting worlds and such. The humans were losing land because they had to totally destroy that which was infected. And i'm sure you know how overpopulation works. I'm sure it's not as simple as overpopulation, but you get the idea, logistics. Humans required more land and eventually were a bit rude to the Forerunner's lands and so war ensued. A hypothesis as to why it took so long could be that both the humans and Forerunners saw the other side as non-negotiable and since the humans technically had the Flood under relative control, their wasn't much to be informed about to the Forerunners. Once the humans were outlasted in a war against two species, the Forerunners lacked a device to impede the Flood, thus forming the Halo legacy.

[Azaxx]

I've heard mention from a reasonably reliable source that humans actually had devised a way of containing the flood, but the flood were still putting up a good fight, infecting worlds and such. The humans were losing land because they had to totally destroy that which was infected. And i'm sure you know how overpopulation works. I'm sure it's not as simple as overpopulation, but you get the idea, logistics. Humans required more land and eventually were a bit rude to the Forerunner's lands and so war ensued. A hypothesis as to why it took so long could be that both the humans and Forerunners saw the other side as non-negotiable and since the humans technically had the Flood under relative control, their wasn't much to be informed about to the Forerunners. Once the humans were outlasted in a war against two species, the Forerunners lacked a device to impede the Flood, thus forming the Halo legacy.

 

Yes humanity had the cure against the flood. But after being almost wiped out, humanity destroyed all traces of the cure in a sort of revenge for the Forerunners destroying them.

Which was all in the Precursor master plan of revenge against the Forerunners.