[quote][quote]But if even a single flood infected ship survived it would have all been for not, especially seeing as the receded the galaxy right after.[/quote] Not necessarily. While Halo's pulse certainly does kill Flood, it has always been described as being meant to starve them to death. [i]"The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him." -Cortana, Two Betrayals, Halo CE[/i] Also, according to Silentium's epilogue, Rebirth, the Forerunners waited several years before reseeding the galaxy to ensure that their plan had actually worked. The flood could have waited a lot longer [quote]I will have to look into the burns.[/quote]Should be page 77 of Silentium. I don't have the book :( [quote]Also with Forerunner technology they simply could've slowed down time so that mere minutes to them could've been centuries to the people outside (as my early let quote shows they could manipulate time within the fractal dimensions) and just take over the Galaxy then.[/quote]While hypothetically true, in practice it's a bit different. For one, we don't know how easy it is for Forerunners to alter the flow of time in slipspace bubbles. Secondly, do not forget that nearly all Forerunner tech is based off of access keys, and specific markers to ensure that only the intended individuals can access certain things. The Flood can subvert all forerunner technology through the logic plague. The forerunners tech seem to be easily able to manipulate's time seeing as it was being done in installation 006, and the primordial's physical form was destroyed when they Iso Didact accelerated time quintillions of times over, which had no known after effect. For something like a Halo shelter, that would be very well hidden and locked down. For how powerful the Flood are, the Forerunners still kept secrets from them. IE: The Flood only learned of the Lesser Ark at the very very end of the war. So late in the war, that the Flood's battle to access it was cut short by Halo's pulse.[/quote] But they learned of it before they fired so they could have simply kept a few flood in Slipspace for safety.