The image in the email.
The Forerunner email was an email sent to all recipients of the Xbox Flash newsletter service on June 14, 2007. It is linked to AdjutantReflex, a Forerunner AI which began posting messages at the Bungie.net forums from June 6 through 19.
The email consists of a single image depicting a cryptic poem. Serving as background is a wall with a Forerunner symbol, the same one observed by tribesman N'chala at the end of the graphic novel Halo 3: The Cradle of Life.
The poem[]
- HISTORY CIRCLING
- BACK UPON US.
The gears of the Universe spin further
and further apart.
Ever greater grows the gulf between souls,
And distance gives false hope of safety
But for the grim tidings this messenger bears:
- The enemy is almost upon us
Closing in from all sides,
Moving faster than the light
it snuffs with its passage,
Time echoes with the news of destruction.
History winding back upon itself.
Waves of an army march this way in unison,
Suffering and corruption are its battle cries.
For I have known this darkness
and felt its embrace once before-
Horror best laid to rest
- Yet a Journey must commence
Look for the signs, the keepers of the flame.
They will lead you to war, and perhaps, to victory.