SPARTAN-347's board-to-board with Forerunner

I have examined the three appearences of the red light. Both of 343's appearences in it involve him eliminating an enemy. The first occurance was him protecting a reclaimer from the flood, and so can assumed as a 'combat mode'. The second occurance was when he betrayed John and Johnson. Take note that, by preparing to activate the ring despite being unstable, they were endangering it. Being tasked with the protection of Installation 04, he assumed control over the replacement; he was following protocol. 2401 was also calling for the elimination of the flood. If we assume that 2401 was unable to fire (eg. Damaged weapons system), we can rule out the 'red light' as being entirely a defencive setting indicating the activation of it's weapons system.