: Not just the predestination by Forerunner, but in reference to the Carver
: Findings above, we cannot forget the exerted influence of The Assembly,
: which I always felt implied that there were motions that placed the
: Spartan Program in motion as a counter to future extra-human conflicts,
: treating them as an inevitability.

: Though it has been awhile since I read the data pads.

That's the way I remember it too, one of the data pads said pretty explicitly they manipulated the Carver Findings to hasten and bolster the creation of something like the Orion and Spartan programs. (I prefer this over the Librarian doing it, BTW.)