Just a reminder: since way back in Book 1, access to TSAB-style subspace for her quantum matrices to inhabit and grow in means Cortana will essentially never have to worry about Rampancy. This will have an impact on this storyline in comparison to canon.

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

-CHAPTER START-

Realm H4-L0 – Unidentified Forerunner Shield World

The Kodiak shuttle flew unsteadily downward, having leveled off and now looking for a place to land. She wouldn't stay in the air much longer, so Cortana – having shut off the forward viewscreen when the light became too bright for her organic charges – guided the stricken craft down into a small canyon, which was already littered with wreckage from a couple Covenant ships. The shuttle hovered in, its engines sputtering and seizing, and then dropped the final meter to the ground, landing with an unceremonious thud as its engines died. Soon the hatch was shoved open from inside, and the Chief – with Cortana now in his helmet –, Shepard, and Teana exited with weapons ready.

"Okay," Cortana said, "I'm pretty sure she'll never get off the ground again. Which means that we're kinda… stuck here."

"Where are we?" Shepard asked.

"Not sure" she replied.

"Well," Teana remarked as she looked up, "not many planets can say they have a ceiling. Or a 'sunroof'."

"It doesn't look like the Covenant fared much better than we did" Shepard said, looking around at the wreckage with a few dead Covenant soldiers mixed in.

"…Cortana, how many ships made it through the roof?" the Chief asked.

"Plenty" the AI replied. "Why?"

"We need a ride home."

The trio began to traverse through the small canyon, passing the wreckage from crashed Covenant vessels. Rounding a 5-meter chunk of metal, they found a Sangheili, a member of Mdama's faction, still alive but with a broken arm and a busted shield generator; the Elite tried to raise his plasma rifle with his good arm, but a quick burst of fire from the Chief's assault rifle put him down. Moving on, they passed a comm. terminal from a Covvie ship, its lights flickering but on. The Master Chief walked up to it, activating a message in the Sangheili native tongue.

"This communication's being broadcast to all Covenant in the area" Cortana said. "Let me put it through translation: '…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'."

"It sounds like the Covenant were here looking for something" the Spartan remarked.

"It's the Covenant. Aren't they always looking for something?"

"Prometheans…" Shepard said. "Wasn't that the name of those Forerunner battle droids? Maybe there are some here?"

"Let's hope not" the Chief replied.

"I wasn't there with you guys," Teana said, "but I remember the footage. Those things looked like bad news…"

Eventually, they reached a crevice in the rocks, making their way through. As they did so, a faint transmission was heard – incomprehensibly garbled and fouled by static beyond any hope of recognition.

"I'm picking up a faint transmission on the high-band" Cortana said.

"Covenant?" Teana asked.

"I don't think so… The pattern's different. I'll try to triangulate its position."

Making their way through the crevice, the team soon came out the other side near the edge of a plateau… and were greeted by a beautiful, breathtaking view. Huge kilometers-tall spires floated off in the distance, slowly ascending and descending over massive circular bases; beautiful mountains towered further beyond those; a forest stretched out, and a majestic waterfall was visible; birds of unknown new species flew about; and looking up, through the clouds, they could see the 'ceiling' of this level of the Shield World, silver with shimmering blue lines.

Moving left, going down a slope, they found the wreckage of part of a Covenant Corvette. In a stroke of luck, amongst the debris was an intact Type-45 'Spectre' Infantry Support Vehicle; the Chief got it upright and checked that it was in good working order (it was), and everyone piled in, with the Master Chief taking the pilot's seat, Shepard manning the plasma turret, and Teana taking the right-side passenger mount. The Spectre drove down along the ledge, and then hung a left, entering a pathway made partially of debris. They drove on for the next minute or so, passing by and through more wreckage, making turns here & there, and soon entering a part of the path with less debris and more rocks and plants.

"Chief," Cortana spoke up, "I'm hearing that strange signal again. It's stronger this time."

"Do you think there's something to it?" the Spartan asked.

"I'm curious, more than anything. Its behavior is… odd."

Making one last turn, the vehicle entered a small valley, one that was occupied by a decent-sized force of Mdama's Covenant – Grunts and Jackals, with a few Elites. The Chief took the Spectre to the right, up a rock 'ramp' and out of the enemies' view, and Shepard & Teana dismounted, readying his N7 Valiant and her Device's particle-beam sniper mode. Teana made the first kill, a shot from Mirage Sniper burning a hole through a red-armored Elite's skull. Shepard fired next, killing the area's lone Jackal Sniper atop a floating platform. As the Covenant realized they were under attack, Shepard and Teana kept at it, picking off the few other Elites and then about two-thirds of the valley's total Jackal population.

They got back on the Spectre, Teana switching her Device to Rifle Mode, and the Master Chief drove it down into the valley. Shepard used the vehicle's plasma turret to begin cutting down Grunts and surviving Jackals, with Teana firing Mirage Rifle on full-auto to take out any that the Commander missed. Reaching the far end of the little valley, a barricade blocked the Spectre from advancing. Shepard used the turret to gun down an Elite guarding the exit path, and the trio hopped out and made their way. Traversing though the crevice, they encountered a pack of hostile Grunts; the Chief's and Teana's assault rifles made short work of them.

"If we're going to hijack a ship from these Covenant," Cortana said, "we're going to have to find where they're landing first."

"I don't suppose you have a plan for that?" the Chief asked.

"We could always ask nicely…"

"Asking's not my strong suit."

The group came out into a rocky area at the base of a Forerunner structure crawling with Covenant. A pack of Grunts and a Jackal led by an Elite came down through the rocks, firing at the trio. Shepard hit the Elite with an Overload, stripping its shields, as the Chief drew his BR85 rifle and took the Sangheili terrorist out with a quick 3-shot burst to the skull. Teana started picking off Grunts, while Shepard hit the Jackal with a Biotic Pull that hoisted it into the air for his SMG to take out. One Grunt came running at them with two active plasma grenades, but the Chief shot the suicide-bomber mid-stride, and the active grenades – thrown forward by momentum – were sent flying away by a well-timed Biotic Shockwave from Shepard.

Moving forward through the rocks, they almost ran right into another Grunt pack led by an Elite. The Master Chief and Teana focused fire to gun down the Elite, while Shepard tossed out a Singularity that snatched up the Grunts, followed by a light Warp to destabilize it, the resulting Biotic detonation tearing the little aliens apart. They went right, heading for a ramp leading up to the structure's lower level, and the Chief threw a frag grenade to take out the two Jackals and three Grunts in their way. They ascended the ramp, Shepard using a Biotic Slam to take out two Jackals waiting for them, and then moved up another ramp to the top of the structure. The Chief's battle rifle and Shepard's N7 Eagle made short work of the Jackals and Grunts up here. Teana suddenly scooped up a plasma grenade, primed and threw it, sticking it to a cloaked Elite with a sword; the resulting explosion that vaporized the Sangheili's upper torso somehow spared the weapon, which the Master Chief took for himself. Everyone grabbed a few more of the blue grenades from the Covenant corpses, and moved through the door up ahead.

"There's that phantom signal again…" Cortana said, playing the garbled transmission as the doors behind and ahead of them cycled.

"I heard something that time" Shepard remarked. "Sounded like a man's voice, almost."

The door opened, allowing the trio inside. The chamber within was designed in the Forerunners' usual artistic flair, and was partially built into the cliffside, with sunlight pouring in from above. As they walked up a raised platform straight ahead, a squadron of familiar droids emerged from below, registering as yellow on the team's motion trackers.

"Sentinels" Teana observed, keeping her weapon handy.

"I was wondering when they'd show up…" Cortana remarked.

As they moved further inside, multiple platforms and columns slowly emerged from the floor, adding to the chamber's aesthetics. The bodies of several Covenant soldiers lay about, bearing the burn marks from Sentinel laser weaponry. The Sentinels themselves took position on the far side of the room, hovering in place around something while 'looking' at the human trio. Approaching it, they found it to be a console. The Master Chief lead the group up to it, hitting the button, and it projected a blue holographic sphere divided into grids – a map of the Shield World.

"It's a localized site cartographer" Cortana said as she observed the data. "Hmm… 'In service of Forerunner Shield-World, designate 'Requiem'."

"Requiem…" the Chief repeated. "At least we know where we are now."

"Let's see if it can tell us what the Covenant are so interested in…"

Suddenly, the hologram flickered off, having changed for a split-second into a bright red Forerunner glyph just before vanishing.

"…Huh."

"What happened?" Shepard asked the AI.

"I don't know; it locked up. I'm detecting power fluctuations in several locations. I'll put them up for you."

Two NavPoints formed on the trio's HUDs, across from each other. The Chief headed for the one on the right, finding a floating hard-light activation terminal looking out at a small chamber with a hovering platform in the middle; a golden beam of light passed through the platform vertically, extending from the chamber's floor to the ceiling. The Chief hit the button, activating a light-bridge that led to the platform. They walked across the light bridge, and hit the button hovering in front of the beam. The beam pulsed, and all three of them heard low warning alarms in their ears as their shields were drained.

"What's it doing?" the Chief asked as the platform slowly lowered.

"It's all right" Cortana assured them. "This energy is actually a ferroelectric data field. Your shields are just cycling in response to the chamber's charge."

"Will this bring the Cartographer back online?" Teana asked as their shields recharged.

"Partially" Cortana replied as the platform stopped, extending a light bridge to an opening directly below the initial one. "This type of processing system usually works in parallel. We'll have to locate its twin."

The trio moved across the light bridge, through a short hallway back into the chamber. However, upon returning they were met with an unpleasant surprise: the Covenant had gotten in and were setting up shop. A trio of Covenant Grunts spotted and fired at the emerging trio, and Shepard took them down with three perfectly-placed pistol headshots. The group moved across the room, following another NavPoint, and as they toward the ramp that would take them up to the level that the NavPoint was on, a pair of Jackals and an Elite stood in their way. Shepard zapped the hostile Sangheili with an Overload, de-shielding it and allowing the Chief to gun the alien down, while Teana took out the Jackals with lethal-set Crossfire Shot bolts that curved around their shields to strike their heads and chests.

At the top of the ramp, another hostile Elite waited, but was quickly dealt with by the fire from three automatic weapons at close range at the same time. Moving on, the team found another small chamber containing the other beam of golden light and platform. Upon activating it, the beam pulsed again, draining their shields to zero and triggering the platform to slowly lower. The mysterious radio signal came in again, but this time it was clearer, to the point that a man's voice could be recognized.

"That's Captain Andrew del-Rio from the UNSC" Cortana said. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is UNSC AI Cortana to Infinity! Please respond!"

The static-filled transmission continued for a few more seconds, hardly any of Capt. del-Rio's words discernible.

"No response, but from the strength of that signal, the Infinity has to be close by!"

"What's it even doing way out here?" Shepard asked.

"From what I've heard," Cortana replied, "after the Reaper War ended, the ship was meant to head out and investigate coordinates gleamed from the UNSC's studies of Halo Installation 03. Those must've been Requiem's coordinates. The Cartographer should be back online now; we may be able to use it to track the ship's location."

Emerging back into the main chamber, they found another force of Covenant between them and the Cartographer. The Master Chief threw a frag grenade, killing three Grunts, while Teana switched her Device to Marksman-Rifle Mode and picked off a Jackal Sniper and two standards along the edge of the room. The trio moved up and forward, carving through several more Grunts and a couple Jackals, and encountered two more Elites guarding the Cartographer: a standard red-armored one and one in slightly fancy gold armor with green highlights – a Field Commander, one step below the gold-&-red-armored Zealots. Shepard hit the red-armored Elite with an Overload, draining its energy shields and allowing Teana to gun it down, but the higher-ranking Elite dodged the blast and the Chief's opening rounds. Shepard made a Biotic-boosted rush in, shoulder-checking the Elite and knocking it off balance, and then primed a plasma grenade and jammed it into the alien's mouth. He kicked the Elite away and raised a Biotic Barrrier as the grenade went off, vaporizing the Elite's head and part of its upper torso.

With the area clear, the Master Chief walked up to the Cartographer and inserted Cortana's chip. Her hologram appeared atop the pedestal, and she created an interface scaled to her size for the Cartographer. The spherical hologram appeared again, with a few bluish rings around it, and after a bit of work Cortana got it to unlock and respond. Unfortunately, the hologram showed multiple concentric oscillating red rings all over the hologram of the Shield World.

"The Cartographer keeps acting like the transmission is coming from everywhere on the planet at once" she said. "It doesn't want to triangulate Infinity's signal." The hologram flashed red, and then there was only a single red point… in the center of the sphere. "Oh, wait. I got it."

"…That can't be right" the Master Chief said.

"We've already passed through one layer of the planet's 'surface'. It's not crazy to think that someone else made it deeper inside than we did."

"You mean this planet's hollow?" Shepard asked.

"Lemme see if I can figure out a way for us to reach these coordinates that doesn't involve digging a really big hole…" She called up a map of the local area. "There's a terminus on the far side of the complex" she said as she turned to the group. "We can take a portal to the planet's core from there."

Suddenly, her head snapped back to the hologram, looking almost startled.

"What?" the Chief asked.

"I don't know… I 'felt' something…" She shook her head. "Let's get moving."

The Chief pulled Cortana's data-chip out of the console and back into his helmet. As the trio walked away, they did not notice as the hologram behind them briefly flashed to a bright red Forerunner glyph…

The team passed through two more doors, coming out on a higher level overlooking a bridge that ran down the length of a large, open-air cavern. The whole bridge was littered with Covenant soldiers and material, and there looked to be a few Banshees patrolling the air further ahead near the distant other side. As the trio rode a lift slowly down, Teana leaned over the edge with Mirage Marksman-Rifle and took out the four Grunts waiting down below. At the bottom, the Chief used his assault rifle to take out a pair of Jackals, and the trio started making their way down (or rather up, considering the current incline) the bridge.

A Phantom up ahead fired its side anti-infantry plasma turret at them, and they moved up using various Covenant barricades as cover. Once the Phantom left, they hurried forward, nearing the apex of this section of the bridge. An Elite and two Jackals were there waiting for them, but a grenade from the Chief killed the avian aliens and de-shielded & wounded the Elite, leaving it open to a killing shot from Shepard. Further on, they reached a point where the bridge split into two levels, the lower level exposed by a sizable gap between the upper portions. A Jackal Marksman was across the gap, but Teana took it out before it could fire. More Jackals and an Elite down below fired up at the trio, and Shepard tossed out a Biotic Shockwave Chain that sent them flying in various directions, a few of them over the edge. Shots from the Chief put down the survivors.

They crossed to the second portion of the bridge, Shepard using his SMG to cut down a small pack of Grunts. The two Banshees patrolling the area both took notice of the three humans, flying in and firing bursts from their forward plasma cannons that chipped at their shields and forced them into cover. Teana summoned her rifle-form Device's underslung grenade launcher, and fired two at the closest Banshee's right wing, blowing the thruster off. The aircraft banked sharply, the pilot struggling to keep it under control, and as it flew overhead the Master Chief threw a plasma grenade up that stuck to the Banshee's underside, the resulting detonation sending the slagged vehicle plummeting into the canyon below. The second Banshee tried to attack them from the side, but Shepard blocked the shots with a Biotic Barrier and then hit the craft with a heavy Incinerate blast, blasting and burning through its armor. As the Banshee wobbled in flight, beginning to trail smoke, Shepard hit the damaged portion with a Warp blast, and the now-uncontrollable craft slammed head-on into the cavern wall.

The trio moved down the second half of the bridge, the Chief and Shepard using BR85 and N7 Eagle rounds to take out a handful of Grunts while Teana focused Mirage Marksman-Rifle fire on a blue-armored Elite to bring it down. At the end of the pathway, an Elite Field-Commander guarded the exit door, firing a Type-50 'Concussion Rifle'. After forming a Barrier to block the shots, Shepard took out its shields with an Overload, and the Chief gunned the Elite down with his assault rifle. With the way clear, they passed through the door and started down a metal hallway, coming out into a small, enclosed valley with a large Forerunner complex. A massive spire was dead ahead, sporadically firing golden pulses up into the atmosphere.

"Guys," Cortana said, "the Covenant net's going crazy. They're ordering all units to converge on the tower."

"I guess we got their attention" Teana remarked.

Straight ahead was a quartet of Grunts, oblivious to the threat behind them. Shepard tossed out a Singularity that snatched the squat aliens up, allowing the Chief's assault rifle to take them out in record time. Soon, a Shade turret up ahead on a raised platform on the left began firing at them, while a Grunt-driven Ghost drove up and opened fire as well. Shepard pulled out his N7 Valiant and sniped the turret-gunner, while Teana threw a frag grenade that flipped the Ghost over, tossing the Grunt driver out to be taken down by a burst of AR fire from the Chief.

Further on, they passed beneath a long, narrow raised platform area, finding a group of Grunts and Jackals led by a blue-armored Elite. Shepard sent out his Combat Drone, zapping at the Jackals to knock them off-balance and leave them open to killing shots from Shepard's pistol. Teana focused fire on the Grunts, picking them off one by one, while seven 3-round bursts from the Chief's BR85 rifle brought the Elite down. Up the next slope, closer to the entrance to the structure, another pack of Grunts led by a red-armored Elite stood in their way. Teana threw a plasma grenade that stuck to the Elite and blew the alien apart, and the Grunts panicked and ran in every direction, enabling the trio to move on and enter the structure.

"We're about to have our hands full" Cortana announced. "The Elites just issued a general order; they're moving all ground teams to secure the tower entrance above us."

They moved to the back of the entrance hall and up the ramps to the next level directly above. A few Grunts were easily cut down, but then an Elite Zealot came charging in, brandishing a plasma sword. Focused fire from Mirage Assault-Rifle, the Chief's MA5D, and Shepard's N7 Hurricane SMG failed to completely drain the Elite's powerful shields before it got close, and Shepard had to duck and roll to avoid losing his head. A heavy punch from the Chief took the Zealot's weakened shields down and dented its back armor, and Teana jammed the muzzle of Mirage Rifle against the Elite's head and held down the trigger, 10 rounds tearing through its skull.

Heading out and right, they encountered another Elite-led Grunt pack. The Chief killed two Grunts, stole a plasma grenade from one, and tossed it at the blue-armored Elite, sticking it in the upper chest and killing the alien; Shepard and Teana gunned down the now-disorganized Grunts. They rounded the corner, and the ramp up ahead had three Jackals – one blue-shield, one gold-shield, and one marksman. However, they were all bunched up, so a 40mm grenade launched from Mirage Rifle took them all out at once.

Approaching the final ramps leading to the entrance level of the tower, they heard considerable weapons fire from up top. Two Elites were straight ahead, and Shepard picked them off with his Valiant rifle. Above, they could see a few Sentinels floating about, firing their beam weapons at something. A large, high-velocity blast of hot green energy soaring up at an angle, narrowly missing a Sentinel, told the human trio that a Hunter pair awaited them. Fortunately, there was a Covenant weapons crate nearby with two Type-33 'Fuel Rod Guns' and associated ammo; the Chief and Teana each grabbed one. Up top, they unloaded their weapons on the Hunters. The beasts, already distracted and wounded by the Sentinels' constant attacks, were quickly disposed of.

"While you three were busy," Cortana said, "I managed to clear up another transmission from Infinity."

The clip of Captain del-Rio's voice was still garbled, but this time there was a recognizable word at the end.

"It sounded like he said 'artifact'" the Master Chief said.

"I wonder if it's related to whatever the Covenant are after…" Cortana thought aloud as the trio entered the structure.

"Where's the terminus?"

"The map placed it at the top of the tower."

They passed through a hallway barren except for some wall decoration. At the far end was an elevator waiting for them. After a long, leisurely ascent, it arrived in a dark blue-lit chamber, with a long bridge leading to a control panel. Countless pillars were in the room on either side of the bridge, sticking up from the floor. They carefully moved to the end of the bridge, and the Chief stuck Cortana into the Terminus. The machinery around them sprang to life, metal emerging and forming into panels while the parts of the Terminus 'unfolded' and descended, and the room's pillars rose up.

"According to the Cathedral," Cortana said as she worked at a holographic control panel, "this Terminus is just one node of a larger transit grid that spans the entire… planet…"

"What is it?" Shepard asked.

"When I tried to access the outlet closest to Infinity's transmissions, the system responded with this."

A hologram appeared of a circular symbol, a sphere with a downward 'spur', surrounded by a partial ring of sorts.

"And this means…?" Teana started.

"It's the Forerunner symbol for 'Reclaimer'."

"Humanity" the Chief said. "That's got to be Infinity. Can you get us to those coordinates?"

"Lemme try to open a portal…"

As Cortana got to work, the pillars in the room suddenly rose up. Teana, Shepard, and the Chief spun around, weapons ready, and in multiple flashes of light a large bipedal entity appeared standing atop each pillars.

"That's a lot of Promethean Knights…" the Chief said warily.

"But their 'running lights' are blue," Shepard added, "not red like Eve's."

"I still don't think they're friendly…" Teana said as the Knights started hissing and growling at the humans.

"Cortana…?" the Chief asked.

Suddenly, a slipspace translocation portal appeared nearby, to Cortana's surprise.

"How did…?" she murmured. "Quick! Into the portal!"

Moving quickly, the Master Chief retrieved Cortana's data-chip and returned it to within his helmet, and he, Shepard, and Teana ran for and jumped through the portal, the blue-hued Promethean Knights snarling in their wake.

-CHAPTER END-

Next Time: The team heads for the heart of Requiem, and uncovers something quite unexpected.