Chapter 34: Requiem
AN's: If you've played H4, then you know that shit's gonna go down. If you haven't: go buy an Xbox 360 and H4 and play it, will ya?! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! On a sidebar: you know what bugs me a lot? When people call John Master Chief, or Chief during a narrative, like "Chief jumped over the barricade". It just sounds wrong. Just thought I'd get that out in the open.
I know that I said that my Halo-Mass Effect crossover would be going up at the same time as chapter 36, but I'm getting very impatient, so I'm posting it ASAP. Look for the prologue, like, now! Or maybe tomorrow. (That is, as soon as you finish reading this chapter!)
That being said: is anyone here a good drawer? I want an original cover, but I can't draw for shit. If anyone is interested, give me a PM. (Please do so. I don't want to have to find a pic on the interwebs. That just sucks.
As you know, summer vacation is coming up. Does anybody know of any good books that I can read?
I keep forgetting to publically thank my Betareader: Winter's Sentinel. As I said before, really appreciate it.
Unknown Forerunner Planet surface. 2557.
When the Dawn, and most of the Covenant fleet, had entered the planet, the three Spartans: John, James, and Emile, had been separated. Now the Chief was lying in a pile of debris trying to get his personal bearings. He hauled himself out of the debris and inspected his armor. Finding nothing physically wrong, he had Cortana scan the suit's software for any damage.
"We have asked you to give up your family, your children, your future."
He pulled her chip from his helmet and held it in front of him.
"Cortana? What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. It's the crash- I'm fine."
"Cortana?"
"I'm fine, Chief. Really."
"No, you're not."
Cortana 'sighed'.
"I was put into service 8 years ago."
"8 years?"
"AI's deteriorate after 7, Chief."
The legendary Spartan-II was rendered silent for a few moments.
"Halsey."
"Chief…"
"We need to get you back to Halsey."
"Chief, please."
"She made you. She can fix you."
"I won't recover from rampancy, Chief."
"We need to get back to Earth."
"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep."
The Chief silently slid the chip back into his helmet and left the crash site.
"Can you find the others?"
"Searching… Nothi- wait, got one. It's Emile. I'll mark his location for you."
"Keep searching for James."
"I will. And Chief?"
"What?"
"Can you keep my rampancy a secret from them?"
"Of course. Why?"
"I don't need all of you thinking I'm a liability."
A blue diamond appeared on John's HUD, marking Emile's location. As he neared, he opened a comm channel to the III.
"Emile, it's the Chief. Do you read?"
"Yeah. Got a huge piece of debris on top of me, though. Can you see it?"
He looked at the diamond, and saw a piece of metal on top of the Spartan, topped off by none other than a Warthog, still conveniently on four wheels. The Chief and Cortana chuckled a bit.
"There's a Warthog on top of the debris."
"You're shitting me, right?"
"No. I'll drive it off."
He did just that: he jumped in the 'Hog, adding his own ½ ton heft to the weight on Emile, and drove it off of the metal. As he did, the metal was thrown clear by the III, who promptly jumped in the side seat.
"Don't do that again. Next time, just push the damn thing off."
"Fine." The Chief said as he floored the gas, speeding off towards a new diamond on his HUD.
As they traveled, a comm line opened, but was filled with static.
"Cortana?" John asked.
"Faint transmission on the high-band."
"Covenant?" Emile asked.
"I don't think so: the pattern's different. I'll try to pin it down."
The pair kept driving, nearing the marker and their comrade.
"James, can you hear me? It's Emile."
"Yeah." There was a noise on the other end that sounded like plasma fire. "I'm pinned down by Covenant, though. Where are you?"
The Warthog pulled up behind James, and Emile jumped on the gun, firing on the aliens before they knew what was going on.
"Right here."
"Could've been here 5 minutes ago, guys."
"5 minutes ago this Warthog was sitting on top of Emile." John said.
"No shit? That's priceless. You should have gotten a picture."
"Shut up and man the gun." Emile said, retaking the side seat as James hopped up on the gun.
"Drive, Chief."
The Warthog took off in what the Chief thought was the direction of a Covenant ship that they could steal for a ride back to Earth. The 'Hog was wrecked before they got too much farther, and so the trio found their way to a citadel-like structure on foot.
"Mysterious. We should investigate." James said.
They fought their way to the top, killing quite a few Grunts, a few Jackals, and only 4 Elites.
"Hah. That was too- FUCK!" Emile shouted as a plasma sword literally came out of nowhere and almost took his head off.
The Elite Zealot decloaked and roared a challenge at the three Demons as it charged them. James accepted its challenge and ran at it, unsheathing his combat knife as he did so. The Spartan slid between the Zealot's legs, coming up behind the Covenant warrior and burying his knife in its neck.
"Hey, the split-lip dropped his camo plug. Dibs." Emile said, attaching it to his back.
Inside the structure, they found only one room. It was massive, with metal pillars rising and falling with every step.
"There's a console in the back of the room." Cortana told them as a blue diamond appeared in their HUD's.
The Chief put Cortana's data chip into the console.
"What is it?" The Chief asked.
"It's a localized site cartographer. 'In service of Forerunner Shield World designate Requiem'."
"Requiem? At least we know where we are."
The display lit up with a red symbol and then shut down.
"Hm…"
"What was that?"
"The system kicked me out and reset itself. I'm detecting power fluctuations in several places. I'll put them up for you."
"I'll handle this. You two stay here and make sure the Covenant don't get to the Cartographer."
"Got it, Chief."
John set off for the first fluctuation, on the 'right' side of the room in respect to the Cartographer. He activated the light bridge to the core, and then reset the core. As he did so, his shields went down, and The Chief instantly had his MA5D up and scanning for targets.
"It's alright. That beam is actually a Ferro-electric data pulse. You're shields are just cycling in response to the chamber's charge." Cortana told him.
The Chief lowered his rifle and set off for the other core.
"Covenant. Coming through the entrance. Watch yourself, Chief."
He looked over and confirmed what Emile saw: A Covenant squad, trying to get access to the Cartographer.
"Find defensible positions, I'm almost done."
The Chief pulled out his Magnum and fired a few times, hitting three Grunts in the head. He found the core and activated it, and then returned to the Cartographer.
"Nice timing, Chief. Those Elites are still trying to get through us, but they keep retreating to regroup." Emile told him.
"Give me your shotgun."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No."
"Fine. Here."
Emile gave John his shotgun, and the Chief charged at the Elites, pumping the leader full of lead. The other two opened fire as the familiar adrenaline rush flooded John's body.
(Spartan Time)
The plasma bolts slowed to a crawl, and the Elite's roars became slurred and distorted. The Chief dodged to the side and fired a shot of his own, blowing the Elite's head off, and startling its companion. John swiveled, racked the shotgun, and fired again, blowing a fist-sized hole in its stomach. He tossed the shotgun into the air, caught the barrel, and used the stock as a blunt object with which to crush the alien's skull with a bone-shattering baseball-style smack.
As it fell over, dead, the Chief took a deep breath, and the adrenaline rush subsided. The Chief walked back to the cartographer, tossing Emile's shotgun back to him as he went, and stopped dead just as he reached it.
"Chief! Signal! Listen!" Cortana told him.
The transmission was filled with static, but he could make out a few words.
"~~~~ Infinity~~~~~ Planet~~~~~~~ Forward Unto Dawn."
"Is that the same signal as before?"
"Yes! Mayday, mayday, mayday! UNSC AI Cortana to Infinity, please respond. No response, but from the strength of that signal, the Infinity has to be close."
"We could use the Cartographer to pinpoint the ship's location, couldn't we?" James asked.
"It's possible. Put me in the system, let me try."
The Chief removed her data chip from his helmet and inserted it into the console. As she tried to find the source, markers on the planet's surface kept appearing and disappearing at a blinding rate.
"The signal doesn't want to triangulate."
The markers stopped… at Requiem's core.
"That can't be right. Scan again." John told the AI.
"We made it through one layer of the planet. It's not crazy to think that someone else made it further than us."
"Now here's the million dollar question: How the hell do we get there?" Emile asked.
"There's a transit node nearby that can link us to the planet's core."
"Let's not waste any time. We have to find Infinity and go home."
"Pull me, Chief."
John grabbed Cortana's chip and replaced it in his helmet, and the trio left the Cartographer, and found a small room with four armor plugs, all the same. James and John both grabbed one and activated them, and a blue shield appeared on their left arms.
"Hardlight shields. Nice." James commented.
"Cortana, what do you know about Infinity?" John asked.
"Not much. She was supposed to massive, but the project was only in prototype when we left."
They left the room after getting acquainted with the new abilities, and found themselves on a platform overlooking a bridge with lots of Covenant forces on it.
The trio took potshots at the Covenant nearest them, killing three Grunts and a Jackal before the rest fled the scene. Emile, always the tip of the spear, jumped down and engaged the rest, while the Chief and James took the elevator at the edge of the platform.
"Emile, would it have killed you to use the elevator?" Cortana asked Emile.
"Yes. It would have taken too long to get down here."
The Chief just shook his head and took point as they cleared the bridge.
"I'll steal that Banshee and give you guys some cover." James said, indicating to a Banshee that some unfortunate Elite had died trying to get to.
The II hijacked the Banshee and rained absolute hell down on the Covenant on the end of the bridge. Plasma bolts and fuel rods slammed into the aliens, causing them to scatter and be easy targets for the Chief and Emile. When all was said and done, The Banshee had gone up in flames after James had fragged it, and the trio left the bridge behind them.
They entered a courtyard in front of a large tower that held the Terminus that they would use to warp to the planet's core. It was guarded by quite a few Covenant, including three Ghosts.
"Wait. Over there. Rocket Launchers!" Emile said, indicating to a pile of UNSC supply crates which, sure enough, had a pair of Rocket Launchers lying around it.
"Good eye. Grab one and kill those Ghosts. We'll cover you." John said.
Emile took off for the crates, and James and the Chief engaged the infantry in the courtyard. Emile had obtained the Launcher and used both rockets to destroy one of the Ghosts, while the other two spun around and fired at him as he ran to another spot to reload and fire again. He slammed the twin rockets into the launcher and fired again, taking out the other Ghosts with lethal precision.
"Haul ass to the Terminus! Go!" James yelled as he wrestled with the last Elite in hand-to-hand combat.
Emile ran at the Elite and pulled out his kukri, jumping onto the warrior's back and plunging his knife into its skull. James threw the corpse off of him as the III jumped off.
The pair followed John's trail of blood and body parts to the entrance. He was waiting for them inside the entrance to the tower.
"We're about to have our hands full. The Elites just issued a general order: they're moving all ground troops to secure the tower entrance above us."
"Shit…" Emile said.
"Come on." John said, raising his AR and taking point.
The three Spartans jogged up to the next level, where they quickly killed a squad of four Grunts and were blindsided by a Sword-wielding Elite (Cough Cough Maniac Cough Cough) The Elite took a swing at John, which he dodged, and was rewarded with an augmented punch in the split-jaw, which shattered it and allowed James to kill it with a swift stab in the neck with his knife.
They fought to an elevator that would take them to the top of the tower, only to find a Hunter pair in combat with a few Forerunner Sentinels.
"Wait. Let them kill the Hunters. Save some ammo." John said.
"Fine." Emile said, obviously itching to kill something.
The Sentinels killed one before the other got in a lucky shot and killed all four Sentinels.
"Go!" John said, stepping out of cover and raining bullets down on the Hunter's exposed back.
James and Emile followed suit, and they took down the Hunter with only minor problems.
"The Terminus is inside. Go!" Cortana told them.
They ran into the elevator and activated it.
"I've cleared up another transmission from Infinity."
"~~~~~~artifact~~~~~~"
"Sounded like he said 'artifact'." John commented.
"Maybe it's linked to whatever the Covenant are so interested in."
The elevator came to the top, and the three walked to the console in the center of the room.
"Put me in the system, Chief."
He did so, and the AI began to plot a course to the Infinity.
"According to the cathedral, this Terminus is just one node of a larger transit grid that spans the entire planet…" Cortana's voice trailed off.
"What?" Emile asked.
"When I tried to access the outlet closest to Infinity's transmissions, the system responded with this."
A Forerunner symbol appeared in front of the AI's avatar.
"Isn't that the symbol for 'Reclaimer'?" James asked.
"It… it is. How did you know?" Cortana asked.
"I didn't, it just seemed right."
"Reclaimers… Humanity. That's got to be Infinity." John concluded.
"Could you get us to those coordinates?" Emile asked.
"I'll try."
As she opened a portal, a large sound of activation of hardware resounded in the room. The three Spartans all raised their weapons and whipped around, seeing metal pillars rise up in the room.
"Chief… I'm picking up unknown energy signatures."
"Where?"
"Right here!"
As she said this, several robot-like figures, lit up in blue, warped into the room. They each growled at the Spartans, prompting Emile to tense up his grip on his shotgun.
"Uh… Cortana? Now would be a good time to open that portal." James told the AI.
Just then, a portal appeared behind them.
"What the… Spartans! Into the portal!"
John grabbed Cortana's data chip and returned it to his helmet as one of the creatures roared at the Spartans and teleported away. The three were transfixed in awe at this ability.
"Go! Into the portal! NOW!" Cortana practically screamed at them.
They all snapped out of it and jumped into the portal, leaving the robots behind them.
"They escaped. Find them, and destroy them before they awaken the Disgraced One." One of the creatures said as they warped away to find the humans.
Whew! That's done! Now on to the pylons, which will take a bit less time than you may think. So for now…
LATER, ALLIGATAH!
