A/N: Thank you for all the views I have been receiving, I didn't think many people would respond to the idea of HaloLock but I was proven wrong.
It has taken longer to complete this chapter, I haven't started Chapter Three yet, but I shall be soon. Writing Blocks occur more than I'd like.
I own nothing with 343 Industries / BBC Sherlock.
No Beta. Please R&R.
Mentions of Mycroft in this Chapter.
Calculations - REQUIEM
While falling through the air Sherlock transferred remanent energy to John-117's Mjolnor armor to create a partial lockdown to ease the impact after noticing the ingniting slab of metal covering his friend; atmosphere and collision inbound, a glitch shuddered through Sherlock's entire avatar "Not now!" He shouted at himself, sounding reverbed. "I can see why he's your favourite test subject, Mycroft" "Do you think he cares about you? Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock" "Shut up!" Sherlock quickly set a timer for armor lockdown to John's awakening as the duo thudded into the ground. Sherlock was relieved his plans worked, the debris had broken apart for John to be free enough to shift himself, Sherlock ended the timer and once again waited for John to wake up.
An assult rifle lay on the ground close to John's right hand as he twitched and stirred from his daze, clentching his fist he shoved the man-sized pieces of debris from his chest begining his search of the area, he sat up and grabbed for the rifle "Where are we now?" "Good, you're awake. Checking coordinate data now- We have asked you to give up your family, your childhood, your future" Sherlock's voice turned robotic, hear the sound of Sherlock's voice so distorted was just... Wrong. Shaking his head in confusion and slight annoyance pulled Sherlock's Data Crystal Chip from his helmet, his hidden eyes hungry for answers as Sherlock's avatar appears "Sherlock..." "My apologies. It was crash. I'm alright" "Something was wrong even before we left the Dawn" "John, please. I'm fine" John stood himself up not breaking eye-to-visor contact "Sherlock" John repeated seriously, sighing the AI gazed timidly at the ground knowing this conversation was the one he dreaded most "Eight years ago I was put into service. Given my first orders," The SPARTAN looked away pondering the time passed "Eight years..." "AI's deteriorate after seven, John" John didn't think twice "Mycroft" "John-" "We need to find Mycroft" "John, please" "He created you, designed you, he will fix you" "I won't recover from Rampancy, John" "If we can just get back to Earth and find Mycroft, he can- no, will fix you, fix this" Sighing and making sure he was looking straight at John while he made his vow "Don't make me a promise you can't keep" As silence dropped over them the duo heared the roar of a Convanent aircrafts; one Phantom and two Banshees at high speed "We need to get moving" Sherlock announced as his avatar disappeared back into his chip. John watched ahead re-inserting the chip back where it belonged, right where it was safe where he could protect his best friend.
While John explored the area Sherlock spoke up "Doesn't seem the Covenant faired much better than us" Sherlock didn't want to draw attention back to the elephant in the room just yet "Exactly how many ships made it through the door?" "Plenty of them. Why?" "We still need a ride to get us home" John ventured through the wreckage of their landing site, watching with a stoic heart dying Sangheili and Unggoy partake in unfortunate pathetic attempts to survive and crawl away from their ship while drawing their final breath limping to their eternal slumber. Avoiding them was a breeze while also discovering better weaponry and ammunition within the higher landings of the scrap metal. Eventually the two stumbled upon a voice recording from a familiar voice *Mycroft Holmes. Research Excerpt, 11 February 2550* "The interesting factor here isn't that H-1 disabled the viral termination code I implanted in his matrix. These metrics imply its success wasn't just unlikely, but that even the accepted seven year life cycle estimates may not apply. Thus far, I've determined that the unique circumstances of his creation have triggered what I can only refer to as a recessive variant in the AI seed. As his architect, I'm currently at a loss as to the origin of this rogue element. Very curious...*
Leaving Mycroft's voice and vague message behind in silence John and Sherlock passed a BattleNet access point with a transmission still being able to breach through, "John, that console over there still has some has power left over. The communication is or was being broadcasted all over any and all Covenant in the area, I'll bring up the translation for you; "Non-believers walk the sacred ground. Purge the heretics, so that they do not foul the air of Paradise. The time has come to enter the Great Light. The Promethean awakening is nigh... our reward is at hand." "Sounds like the Covenant were looking for something" "It's the Covenant, aren't they always doing that?" Sherlock countered his partner. Still searching the area the pair walked past a endless looped broadcast of *Di... dact!* being heard from a destroyed Lich "What was that? John go back and see if that terminal is still operational for me" John-117 did so and allowed his friend access "The Covenant had broadcasted that word from an adequete orbit every half hour for the past three years" "They were waiting outside a planet for three years. Had they nothing better to do?" "Nobody would open the door for them" John surpressed a chuckle and continued to mark his way through the crash site reaching a rocky trench "John, there's a crevice in that direction; straigh ahead. We should be able to find more information or any salvagable ships"
John headed through the crevice reaching a cliffed pathway. Various gigantic alien Forerunner Pillar floated gracefully above the pressumed decolent valley beneath their higher ground. Turning left John strode towards remains of the Dawn's vehicle bay with (conveinently) still intact Warthogs in thinning numbers "Warthogs. Surprising still in one piece. You luck must still preveil as always" Sherlock commented. John let the remark slide while climbing into the driver's seat and began driving through the debris and layed out tracking "John, I didn't want to mention this before seeing how it a complete long shot getting back to Earth, getting home may potentially find a solution to my oncoming Rampancy" "How so?" "As far as I am aware I am the only AI ever created from living brain tissue of a human being, a clone of Mycroft to be precise with the exception of my body design and voice box. It could be possible to restart and replicate my Neural Net by undergoing these same conditions of life. However this relies on getting back, soon" While continuing with the Warthog passing through a narrow gully of traction Sherlock picked up a transmission with static pushing through *-* "I'm capturing something on the highband. I can't make it out. The connection is far too weak. Typical" "More Covenant?" "Doubtful this pattern is exceedingly different" "Well keep scanning the area in case it comes back" John ordered while slowing down to enter a grass bay. Covenant Outposts were already created in the short space of time since landing. "Hostiles inbound. Setting up tags now" John elimated his enemies with kind ease, the tracks became unaccessable for their transport so setting out on foot was the only option. "You know, if we're going to hijack on of these Covenant ships we're going to have to find their landing zone" "Don't suppose you have a plan for that?" "Ask them?" "Asking isn't exactly our strongest suit, Sherlock"
John entered a canyon with a suspicious Citadel structure at its back wall. John graced his way through all Covenant forces with the aid of Sherlock and managed to kill a cloaked Sangheili Zealot with pure ease and skill. "That last Elite dropped a camouflage module. Take a look at it" Picking up the unit and attaching it to his suit for a quick experimental test a new icon appeared inside John's HUD. "I'll run and connect patches in your suit's firmware, Never know if it will become useful later on" John entered through another elevator system Sherlock caught wind of the previous static, this time more coherent "I've got that Phantom signal again; *Come- UNSC-* "Yeah. I definitely heard something that time" John proceeded into a larger room, pillars rose from the ground ans shifted to the far sides of the room, Sentinals began to dispurse "Sentinals" John pointed out the obvious "Wondered when they would make their annoying appearance" Finding a smaller aclove beneath the main pathway a hovering sculpture lay inside a carved ubiquitous alien Forerunner symbol covered in an ancient glyphs "What does that say?" "The Guardianship for all living things lies with those whom evolve is most complete. The 'Mantle of Responsibility' shelters all. Very interesting..." "Maybe. But it won't get us home will it?" "There's a console in the back of the room. Go explore if you like. It may give us an idea about where we are" Approaching the Cartographer John inserted Sherlock's data chip in the console.
John watched as the hologram of their planet appeared over the Cartographer "It's a localized site Cartographer. Hmm... Okay. It is in service of a Forerunner Sheild World - this planet is designated as 'Requiem'" "Requiem. At least we know where we are now" John replied "Let's see why all the Covenant are so interested in this place" The hologram glitched for a moment followed by immediately shutting down "Wha-" Sherlock stuttered "What happened?" "I don't know. It locked me out. Hang on, I'm detecting faint power fluctuations in several location. Putting them up now. Hopefully we find a way to get the Cartographer back online for us" John activated a found light bridge following one of Sherlock's guidance points. Activating a light core his shields immediately depleted his energy shields, John was startled "What's it doing to me?" "Calm down. It's quite alright. The energy taken is actually a Forrelectric Data Field. Your shields are reacting, well cycling, in response to the chambers changing" "Will this bring the Cartographer back online?" "In theory, yes. This processing system usually works in parallels. We'll need to repeat this with it's twin. Pinpointing it now" The Covenant decided to appear from thin air. John killed the troops quickly and proceeded to activate the parallel system. While returning to the main hall inside an elevator the transmission came through again *Infinity- Eight Three Three -* "Is that the same signal from before?" "Yes it is. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. This is UNSC AI Sherlock to Infinity, please respond!" Nothing came back. The doors opened revealing another corridor towards the main hall "No response, but judging from the strength from that signal this time, Infinity has to be close in proximity to the planet. Also the Cartographer should be back online. We should be able to use a tracking system for the ship's location and us" More Covenant troops began to appear, Sherlock groaned in annoyance "We obviously can't give our enemy access, clear them out!" John swiftly defeated them one-by-one "That's it. Well done. Back to the Cartographer" Yet again John allowed Sherlock to access the system.
Sherlock's avatar appeared on front of the console, flicking up his own holographic control panel. Pressing it resulted in a bugging sounds - like an error - flashing red on both the console and Requiem hologram. Trying again Sherlock succeeds numerous bright red circles appeared on Requiem's surface. "This Cartographer keeps acting like our transmission is coming from everywhere on the planet simultaneously. Not wanting to triangulate makes finding Infinity's signal even more annoying" Once more the hologram glitched red the circles disappeared, showing a red dotted point in the centre of the hologram sphere "Oh... I have it" "That can't be right. Scan again" Peering over his shoulder Sherlock stated "We've already passed through the first layer of this planet, it's perfectly logical for someone else to have made it further" "So it's a hollow planet?" "Just let me see if there's a way to these coordinates without needed to dig ourselves a large downwards hole" A map appeared seconds later "Here. A Terminus at the far side of this complex. We can portal our way to the planet's core reaching the communicators from there" Sherlock pieced together randomly, John took a second glance at the Cartographer then Sherlock "Sorry, what?" "I'm not sure..." "If this is our shot for getting to Infinity then to Earth, we're taking it" Anxiously Sherlock replies looking back and forth "Alright..." John retrieved Sherlock's data chip back, walking away from the Cartographer. While their backs were turned the hologram glitched in the error again, Requiem flickered red. Sherlock couldn't help but think that his state mirrored the Cartographer, it scared him but he kept quiet.
John marched his way through to a small room with four Hardlight Shield Modules on raised platforms on the sides of the room, John grabbed one switching it for the Camouflage device, "Do hurry John. Let's find our Terminus and find the Infinity" "Sherlock, what do you know about Infinity?" "Not enough to be fully updated. The ship herself was supposed to be massive and installed with an ex-military AI for the best battle tactics and suggestions but it was only in the prototype stages when we left" Exiting the room a huge underground cavern with a light bridge below was spanning it. True to the Covenant's form a Phantom ship hovered above with several Unggoy and Kig-Yar patrolling. "Scouts. Stay sharp"John decided to play dangerous and jump down without the assistance of the elevator "Would it kill you to act with stealth. It would you know, I can tell you my exact calculations of your survival if you continually act recklessky" Ignoring the comment John engaged the Covenant troops reaching and heading through a new doorway "Chief, the Covenant Network is going crazy. Orders are being projected for all to converge to the Tower, that's where our communicators are waiting for us. You didn't think your actions through" "I guess we got their attention" John replied snarky. Sherlock bit back and aggrivated sigh.
At the Gateway John passed another door the leaded outside. The Covenant defenders impressively as the fleet included two Ghosts and a Shade Turret. The SPARTAN entered a colossal tower-like structure. "We're about to have our hands full. Elites have sent out a general order, all ground teams have been trying to secure to tower entrance above us. Wait, there are others are around... more Sentinels. It looks like they are trying to push the Covenant back out" Sherlock explained while John moved up flights of stairs indoor and out. A tower entrance allowed a view of Mgalekgolo Hunters in combat with the Sentinels. John aided in killing both Hunters taking up valuable time. "While you were busy with them I'd manage to clear up another transmission from Infinity" *-Artifact-* "That sounded like 'Artifact'" "Curious, it's possible that it is related to whatever the Covenant are after" "Where is our Terminus?" "The map I searched placed it on the top of the tower, I'll set up a viewpoint on your HUD" John entered the large room, following the orange lights across the room, John decided to pick up a some strange weapons, one designated at a Lightrifle, he kept his trusty Assult Rifle. Stepping on to the elevator it began it ascend through the long shaft.
As the elevator reached the top John left the platform across the long bride, while searching the area he noted there was countless pillars floating around the room. Reaching the end John inserted Sherlock's chip into the Terminus, activating the device, the Forerunner pillars began to reconstruct and adjust themselves to a different position. "Accoring to the Cathedral, this Terminue is just one node of a larger transit grid that spans across the entire planet..." Sherlock paused to learn more, "What?" John asked "When I tried accessing any outlet the lay closest to Infinity's transmissions, it responded with this," Sherlock uploaded a holographic display of the Forerunner symbol for Reclaimer. "What is that?" "A kicker, it is the literal Forerunner symbol for 'Reclaimer' sound familiar?" "Humanity... That has to be Infinity. Can you get us to those coordinates?" "I'll try by opening a portal" While Sherlock accessed the control pannel, an ominous sound errupted through the room, John turned in a defensive mode watching the pillars rising to different heights "Sherlock" "I'm picking up random energy signatures" "Where?" "No, this- This can't be right" Several large Forerunner humaniod figures teleported themselves on top of the pillars, completely lit in luminous blue with the exception of their orange-lit right arms, the creatures began to growl at them. John raised his Assult Rifle in alarm but kept his voice calm "Sherlock set us a waypoint out of this tower" Sherlock was silent still rummaging through the control pannel "Sherlock?" A portal had arrived. Sherlock spun around confused "Wait, how did...? Quick. Get into the portal!" Taking Sherlock's chip back, one creature standing above screeched at them, aiming quickly John stared in awe and dumbfounded as it instantly teleported away "John, move!" Shaking himself clear John did as instructed.