Requiem (level)

Requiem

Having survived the destruction of the Dawn, Master Chief and Cortana search for a way off of the mysterious Forerunner planet.

Requiem is the second campaign level of Halo 4. It was first announced along with the rest of the achievements for Halo 4.^[1] This is the first level that takes place on Requiem. The level focuses around Master Chief's efforts to find a way off the planet and return to Earth.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Open to debris of the Dawn and a fireball falling down to Requiem. Cut to black as the debris and the fireball impact on the ground.

Fades in to the wreckage in the area. Scene pans to an assault rifle on the ground and John-117's hand next to it. His hand stirs, and tightens. There are numerous man-sized shards of debris covering John's chest. He shoves them off and looks around. He then sits up and grabs his rifle.

• John-117: "Where are we?"
• Cortana: "Checking coordinate impact data…"
• Cortana (rampant): "We have asked you to give up your family, your childhood, your future…"

John shakes his head in confusion, and pulls out the data crystal chip containing Cortana out of his helmet. Cortana's avatar appears on it.

• John-117: "Cortana…"
• Cortana: "I'm sorry. It's the crash. I'm fine."
• John-117: "Something was wrong before we left the Dawn."
• Cortana: "Chief, (distorted) really, I'm fine."

John stands up.

• John-117: "Cortana."

Cortana looks down to the ground.

• Cortana: "I was put into service eight years ago."

Chief looks away, pondering.

• John-117: "Eight years…"
• Cortana: "AIs deteriorate after Seven, Chief."

John looks back at Cortana.

• John-117: "Halsey."
• Cortana: "Chief…"
• John-117: "We need to find Halsey."
• Cortana: "Chief, please."
• John-117: "She made you. She could fix you."
• Cortana: "I won't recover from rampancy, Chief."
• John-117: "If we could just get back to Earth, and find Halsey, she could fix this."
• Cortana: "Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep."

The duo stops and looks up as they hear Covenant aircraft fly over them. A Phantom, escorted by two Banshees, fly over them at high speed.

• Cortana: "We need to move."

Cortana's avatar disappears and John looks ahead.

Requiem

{Gameplay}

• Cortana: "Doesn't look like the Covenant fared much better than we did."
• John-117: "How many ships made it through the roof?"
• Cortana: "Plenty. Why?"
• John-117: "We still need a ride home."

John ventures off through the wreckage until he reaches a rocky trench.

• Cortana: "Chief, there's a crevice in the rock straight ahead."

If the player stalls:

• Cortana: "Chief, we need to find a working ship so we can get off this planet."

If the player picks up a Covenant weapon:

• Cortana: "Chief, check your ammo. You might want to go easy until we can locate some more. Given all this debris, chances are you'll find something the Covenant won't want shot at them."

If the player finds a still working UNSC terminal and activates it

• System: Catherine Halsey Research Excerpt, 11 February 2550.
• Dr. Halsey: "The interesting factor here isn't that H-1 disabled the viral termination code I implanted in her matrix. These metrics imply its success wasn't just unlikely, but that even the accepted 7-year life cycle estimates may not apply. Thus far, I've determined that the unique circumstances of her creation have triggered what I can only refer to as a recessive variant in the AI seed. As her architect, I'm currently at a loss as to the origin of this rogue element. Very curious."

If the player finds a BattleNet access point aboard a crashed Lich dropship which remains online.

• Cortana: "The console's still got some power in it."

The player activates the terminal.

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

The Sangheili broadcast is put through the comms system. Cortana translates.

• Cortana: "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."
• John-117: "It sounds like the Covenant were here looking for something."
• Cortana: "It's the Covenant. Aren't they always looking for something?"

If player proceeds to walk up the cliff side. On the other side of the crevice, a malfunctioning Covenant console can be found on top of a second crashed Lich.

• Sangheili (Terminal): (looping) "Di...dact!"
• Cortana: "What is that? Chief, see if that terminal is still active."

The player activates the device, allowing Cortana access.

• Cortana: "The Covenant have been broadcasting that from an equidistant orbit every 30 minutes for the last three years."
• John-117: "They've been waiting outside the planet for three years?"
• Cortana: "Apparently, they couldn't get in."

John heads through the crevice and comes to a cliff pathway where gigantic Forerunner pillars can be seen floating above the valley bellow. John then heads left towards the remains of the Dawn's vehicle bay with several Warthogs strewn about, some are still intact.

• Cortana: "Warthogs! And still in one piece. Glad to see your luck is holding out."

John enters a Warthog and drives through the debris.

• Cortana: "Chief, I didn't want to mention it seeing as how it's complete long shot but since you brought it up, I think getting home might actually help find a solution to my rampancy."
• John-117: "How?"
• Cortana: "Well as far as I know I'm the only AI ever generated from living tissue, a clone of Doctor Halsey to be precise. It may be possible to recompile my neural net by replicating those same conditions. But that means getting back to Halsey, soon.

The Warthog continues through the wreckage and comes to a narrow gully.

• Transmission: "<static>"
• Cortana: "Chief? I'm picking up a strange transmission on the highband.
• John-117: "Covenant?"
• Cortana: "Not sure, the pattern is different."
• John-117: "Keep scanning the area."

The pair enters a grassy canyon with a small Covenant outpost.

• Cortana: "Hostiles!"

John easily eliminates the Covenant and walks on.

• Cortana: "If we're going to hijack a ship from these Covenant we're going to have to figure where they're landing first."
• John-117: "I don't suppose you have plan for that?"
• Cortana: "We could always ask nicely."
• John-117: "Asking is not my strong suit."

John enters another canyon with a citadel like structure at its back wall. He faces various Covenant forces until he reaches the top where he kills a cloaked Sangheili Zealot.

• Cortana: "That Elite dropped his camo module, let's have a look."

John picks up the Active Camouflage unit and an armor diagnostic appears on his HUD.

• Cortana: "I'll run a patch with your suit's firmware. Who knows it might come in handy."

A door opens and John enters the elevator.

• Cortana: "There's that phantom signal again."
• Transmission (COM): "Come<static>UNSC<static>."
• John-117: "I heard something that time."

John proceeds into a large room. Small pillars rise from the ground and a group of Sentinels appear.

• John-117: "Sentinels."
• Cortana: "I wondered when they'd show up."

A small alcove can be found beneath the main path. A hovering sculpture lies inside, carved in the shape of an ubiquitous Forerunner symbol and covered with glyphs, which can be examined by the player.

• John-117: "What does it say?"
• Cortana: "Guardianship for all living things lies with those whose evolution is most complete. The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all. Very interesting..."
• John-117: "Maybe. But it won't get us home."

John explores the room.

• Cortana: "There's a console in the back."

John approaches the Cartographer and inserts Cortana's data crystal chip into it.

{Cutscene}

John looks up as a hologram of Requiem appears over the Cartographer.

• Cortana: "It's a localized site Cartographer. Hmm… Okay… In service of Forerunner Shield World, designate "Requiem.""

• John-117: "Requiem. At least we know where we are now."

• Cortana: "Let's see if it could tell us what the Covenant are so interested in."

The hologram flickers to a red icon momentarily and disappears.

{Gameplay}

• Cortana: "Huh."
• John-117: "What happened?"
• Cortana: "I don't know. It locked up."
• Cortana: "I'm detecting power fluctuations in several locations. I'll put them up for you."
• Cortana: "Hopefully we can find some way to get this Cartographer back online."

John activates a light bridge and reaches a power core,he activates it and his shields go down.

• John-117: (surprised) "What's it doing?"
• Cortana: "It's alright. This energy is actually a ferroelectric data field. Your shields are just cycling in response to the chambers charge."
• John-117:"Will this bring the Cartographer back online?"
• Cortana: "Partially, yes. This type of processing system usually works in parallel. We'll have to locate it's twin."

John kills a few Covenant troops and activates the other data field.

• Transmission (COM): "Infinity<static> 833<static>
• John-117: "Is that the same signal?"
• Cortana: "Yes, Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. UNSC AI Cortana to Infinity please respond!"
• Cortana: "No response, but judging from the strength of that signal the Infinity has to be close by. The Cartographer should be back online.We may be able to use it to track the ships location."
• Cortana: "We can't give the Covenant access to the Cartographer clear them out!"

John clears out the Covenant troops.

• Cortana: "That's it. Now quick to the Cartographer!"

John approaches the Cartographer yet again and accesses it.

{Cutscene}

Cortana's avatar appears over the console. A holographic control panel appears in front of her. She presses it, but it responds with an error sound and flickering red. The hologram of Requiem flickers red as well. Cortana tries again and succeeds. Numerous red circles appear on the surface of Requiem's hologram.

• Cortana: "The Cartographer keeps acting like a transmission is coming from everywhere on the planet at once. It doesn't want to triangulate Infinity's signal."

Requiem's hologram flickers red again, and all of the red circles disappear. Instead, a red sphere appears in the center of the hologram."

• Cortana: "Oh wait… I got it."

• John-117: "That can't be right. Scan again."

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

• John-117: "You mean the planet is hollow?"

• Cortana: "Let me see if I can figure out a way to reach these coordinates that doesn't involve us digging a really big hole."

A map appears.

• Cortana: "There's a Terminus at the far side of the complex. We can portal to the planet's core from there."

Cortana looks at John, and looks back the Cartographer.

• John-117: "What?"

• Cortana: "I don't know…"

• John-117: "If we have a shot getting you back to Infinity, we're taking it."

Cortana looks back at him and nods anxiously.

• Cortana: "Okay…"

John retrieve Cortana's data chip, turns away from the Cartographer, and walks away. As he walks away, the Cartographer emits the error sound again while the hologram of Requiem flickers to a red icon. Fades to black.

A Star to Steer By

{Gameplay}

Fades from black. John is inside a small room with a door at the back and four Hardlight Shield modules on a raised platform in the center.

• Cortana: "Let's get to that Terminus and find Infinity."
• John-117: "What do you know about Infinity?"
• Cortana: "Not much. She was supposed to be massive but the project was only in prototype when we left."

John exits the room, coming to a large underground cavern with a bridge bellow him spanning it. A Phantom hovers above and several Unggoy and Kig-Yar patrol the bridge.

• Cortana: "Scouts! Fortifying the bridge bellow. Stay sharp!"

John steps onto an elevator and descends to the bridge near some human ammo crates.

If the player jumps without the elevator:

• Cortana: Would it have killed you to use the elevator?"

John engages Covenant forces and works his way across the bridge and eventually reaches the end and exits through a door.

• Cortana: "Chief, The Covenant net is going crazy. They're ordering all units to converge on the Tower."
• John-117: "I guess we got their attention."

The Gateway

John passes another door to outside. He then eliminates the Covenant defenders, including two Ghosts and a Shade turret, and enters the colossal tower-like structure

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

John moves up a series of indoor and outdoor staircases and comes to the tower entrance where a Hunter pair is engaged in a firefight with several Sentinels.

• Cortana: "It looks like these Sentinels are trying to keep the Covenant out."

John kills both Mgalekgolo.

• Cortana: "While you were busy I managed to clear up another transmission from Infinity."
• Infinity (COM): "<static>artifact<static>."
• John-117: "Sounded like he said artifact."
• Cortana: "I wonder if it's related to whatever the Covenant are after."
• John-117: "Where is the Terminus?"
• Cortana: "The map placed it at the top of the tower."

The set of doors open and John enters a large room. He follows orange lights across the floor to an elevator.

John steps on to the elevator, which soon ascends into the long shaft.

{Cutscene}

The elevator reaches the top, and Johns leaves the platform to walks across a long bridge. John looks around him. There are countless pillars in the room. John reaches the end of bridge, and inserts Cortana's data chip in to the Terminus console. The Terminus activates, and the Forerunner structures around them adjust themselves.

• Cortana: "According to the cathedral, this Terminus is just one node of a larger transit grid that spans the entire planet..."

Cortana pauses.

• John-117: "What?"

• Cortana: "When I tried to access the outlet closest to Infinty's transmissions, the system responded with this."

A holographic display of the Forerunner symbol for Reclaimer appears in front of Cortana's avatar.

• John-117: "What is it?"

• Cortana: "That's the kicker. It's the Forerunner symbol for 'Reclaimer'."

• John-117: "Humanity… That's got to be Infinity. Could you get us to those coordinates?"

• Cortana: "Let me try open a portal."

Cortana accesses the holographic control panel in front of her, and a large sound of activation is heard. John turns around to see the pillars in the room raising to different heights.

• John-117: "Cortana."

• Cortana: "I'm picking up an unknown energy signatures."

• John-117: "Where?"

• Cortana: "This can't be right."

Several large Forerunner humanoid figures, lit in blue, with the exception of their orange-lit right arms, teleport on to the top of the pillars in the room. They each emit a growling sound. John raises his assault rifle in alarm.

• John-117: "Set a waypoint out of the tower."

Cortana remains silent as she continues to access the control panel.

• John-117: "Cortana?"

A portal appears beside John. Cortana turns around in confusion."

• Cortana: "How did…? Quick! Into the portal!"

John takes Cortana's data crystal chip as one of the creature that is standing on one of the pillars closer to him screams. John raises his assault rifle at the creature, which teleports away. John stares in awe.

• Cortana: "Chief, go!"

Chief runs and jumps into the portal. Cut to black.

Level ends.

Achievements

Trivia

• At the very beginning of the level among the wreckage, there is a Log Entry with Dr. Halsey talking about Cortana and the uniqueness of her creation.
• Also at the very beginning of the level among the wreckage, there are two Storm Covenant consoles among the wrecked Covenant ships which can be accessed to find out about their interaction with the planet Requiem.
• In the map room, there is an object that can be examined which describes the Mantle of Responsibility.
• It is actually possible to take a Ghost from the first engagement area, or even a Warthog, all the way to the map room. To do this, use the angled rock protrusion on either side of the shelf to prop the front of the vehicle onto the lip of the shelf, then drive the rest of the way up. Now it's simply a matter of maneuvering around and behind the Forerunner pillar if it's the left side. It is also possible prop the front of the vehicle onto the lip of the shelf at one of the indentations. With either technique, the Ghost usually needs to use its Boost to get the rest of the way onto the shelf. The vehicles will make the rest of the journey to the map room much easier. Unfortunately, any vehicles will disappear as soon as the console in the map room is activated.

Similarly, if you try to bring the banshee out of the valley through the door (by meleeing it’s wings off), during the loading, the player will suddenly disembark from the banshee, followed by the banshee automatically exploding.

• There are a few powerful weapons at the beginning of this level, including a Sniper Rifle, a SAW and a Fuel Rod Cannon. Unlike the Sniper Rifle and the SAW, the Fuel Rod Cannon is located in a random position near one of several dead Unggoy and isn't always present.
• To find the sniper rifle, firstly search for the piece of wreckage with the SAW (sometimes there is a dead or dying elite here), then, climb to the top of the piece of wreckage, and you should see a crate of battle rifles and another crate further in front. Sprint-jump over the gap to reach the solitary crate and sniper rifle.
• John-117's Magnum has 7 rounds in its magazine, much like Noble Six's Magnum at the beginning of the level Exodus in Halo: Reach, and 21 rounds in reserve at the beginning of this mission. This is most likely another "seven" reference.
• The Message in Tire easter egg can be found in this level. In the garage area with the Warthogs in the beginning, the SOS message that Cortana sent out at the end of Halo 3 can be heard when you pass a detached Warthog tire. The message will repeat, and if you melee the tire away from the area, the message will continue to come from the tire.
• The Eight Sangheili Zealots easter egg can also be found on this level. If one plays through to the part where you have to kill the Stealth Sangheili and take his camo unit on Legendary, then returns to where you first engaged the Covenant (near and prior to the "shelf" mentioned in a previous bullet point on this webpage), a Phantom will drop down eight Sangheili Zealots with Beams Rifles. These Zealots occasionally will enter Ghosts if they are left intact. Upon killing these Sangheili, four Weapon Canisters will be dropped down into the playspace.
• The Plasma Cannon prior to and near the "shelf" will keep respawning: if you break it off, then move to prior to and near the map room entrance, then move back to the "shelf" area, then break it off again, then move near the map room entrance, then go back and get it again, etc.
• This is the first level that armor abilities appear, specifically Active Camouflage and later the Hardlight Shield.
• This is the first level that Promethean Knights appear, though they are not named or fought until the next level.

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