i know u said brief but here i got with the lore as i know it. the forerunners were awsome and had tons of sweet tech. they made/discovered the flood, it was bad. they made the Halo rings to "starve" the Flood out when they realized they couldn't beat them/it. Some of the first members of the Covies find an old Forerunner battle ship and turn it into High Charity. slowly they pick up more and more races to join the covenant. after a bit of human something is brought to the center of high charity the "oracle" there flips out realizes that humans are the decedents of the forerunners and calls all the covies bad. they get very mad when they realize there is no great journey and that it would just kill them all, so the 3 leaders in the Halo 2 and 3 games kill everyone withing ear shoot and assume lead of the covenant. and set out to kill every last human so that no one will ever learn the truth. that they are lies. first contact with the covies doesn't go all to well, war starts, the Spartans are already in the oven baking up to a golden brown crust of death dealing awesomeness. after hauling it from a large battle the Pillar of Autumn is traveling on a jump course that the chief and the last remaining Spartans found in a crystal form the forerunners. then halo 1 starts ^_^ um....fighting on the ring, the flood get released and eat almost everyone, Sgt Johnson is immune to the flood, no one knows why really. the chief blows up the downed pillar of autumn to destroy the ring. and ill stop there cause I've been typing for awhile. this is up 2 halo 2 opening
