Oh no I didn't say that John wasn't allowed, he literally does not have the ability to love someone. None of the Spartans did, especially Spartan IIs. They were bred for two purposes, war and moral.

And I don't follow any of the new Halo lore, they ****** it up by saying that Ancient Humans rivaled the Forerunners in technology and were at war with them when the first Flood outbreak occurred. And it would be impossible for Cortana to come back either way because she was a Smart AI, they turn rampant after several years and destroy themselves from within, essentially eating all their data.

Sorry, didn't mean that you said he wasn't allowed, i meant that through the augmentations and whatnot he wasn't allowed. But, to me, it definitely appeared that John loved Cortana, despite the augs. Also, Chief (very certainly sure) wasn't bred for the Spartan II program, he was chosen like the rest. I think it was Contact Harvest that Keys and Halsey went to where he was and found him playing King of the Hill with the rest of the kids there, winning obviously.

And as for the Ancient Humans part goes, why is that so had to believe? One species had the best technology in the galaxy, another species at the time can use it, why can't they (my theory) reverse engineer it? That would mean they're close, but the Forerunners are still more advanced because the Humans aren't creating their own.

Also, the cause of the Human/Forerunner war was the Flood outbreak (not sure exactly what you were saying with it). The humans were running from the Flood, and because of that it seemed like they were trying to expand over the galaxy for greedy purposes (point of view of the Forerunners) and so they (Fore's) attacked the humans, causing the Flood to gain the advantage in the galaxy.

When I said "Bred for" I meant with the augments and training. Literally breeding something for a certain aspect takes generations. But It was a fairly poor choice of words I suppose. The book was also Fall of Reach by the way.

And my thing about the Ancient Humans part is that where's the evidence on Earth? Where's the previous ship wreckage? Destroyed buildings? So on and so forth. They were just as technologicaly advanced as the Forerunners at the time, why isn't it there now?

And as I said, I don't follow it, only new book I picked up was Glasslands and it seemed too dry for me to read through, sadly given it follows Kurt and the Spartan 3s more on Onyx, which was my favorite book by far.

Yeah, you've got a point with the no remains part. Though, the Ark Portal was burried, could be the same with everything else. Honestly it's kind of a hole, but it can kinda be filled, circle is big enough for the square to fit kind of thing.

Also, I don't follow the books all that much either, I just periodically google it to stay somewhat informed.

The Arc portal makes sense with Origin though, with the Flood infestation in the universe the Forerunners took samples from all the planets and made 'saves' to speak to pick up from for each species. Could've been a simple portal from back then.

This is from the anime movies, Origin pt1 and pt2 where it's Cavemen and not super advanced humans.