Shutdown

This article is about the Halo 4 level. For the Halo 4 achievement, see Shutdown (achievement).

Shutdown is the sixth campaign level of Halo 4. Completing the level on any difficulty unlocks the Shutdown achievement. The Explore the Floor achievement is awarded exclusively in this level for tricking or forcing a Hunter to fall to its death.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Open on Cortana looking out Infinity's window, watching Requiem's sun.

• Cortana: "I can give you over forty thousand reasons why that sun isn't real. I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never actually know if it looks real... if it feels real."

There's is the sound of a rifle being cocked. Cortana turns to see John-117 adjusting it.

• Cortana: "Before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine."

John looks at her. Thomas Lasky walks on deck.

• Lasky: "So what's your plan?"

• John-117: Infinity's tracked the Didact's vessel to a docking structure southeast of here. We'll jump ship as Infinity exits the roof."

• Lasky: "You know, I was sent down here with orders to prevent you from leaving. ...In case you had already gone, I took the precaution of ordering a Pelican, outfitted for full combat pursuit."

John turns to hear the Pelican rising up on a platform behind him.

• Lasky: "I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner, or whatever he is, Chief. But in the event you're not..."

Lasky nods toward the Pelican, then begins to walk away.

• Lasky: "And Chief? Good luck. ...Both of you."

Cortana watches him walk away and smiles at John.

• Cortana: "C'mon, Chief. Take a girl for a ride."

John lowers his rifle and retrieves her from the Terminal.

{Gameplay}

Aboard the Infinity's hangar, John's HUD tints slightly purple and flickers while Cortana speaks. Her voice is mildly distorted.

• Cortana: "The Didact used this Composer to create the Prometheans from ancient humans. If he wants to finish the job, he'll have to find it first. Out best bet to stop him is to keep him firmly on Requiem. Let's hope Lasky didn't skimp on that Pelican."

John heads toward the Pelican and armors up.

• System: "Attention! All hands. Final call. Secure all hulls and prepare for immediate departure. Final call."

John climbs into the Pelican.

• Cortana: "Initiating pre-flight diagnostics. Forward Autocannon. Check."

The platform carrying the Pelican begins to lower into a dark tunnel.

• Cortana: "Lateral Rail Turrets. Check. Main Thrusters. Check. Auxiliary Boosters. Check. All right, keying engines... now."

Once More Into The Breach

• Cortana: "It may be a while before we find another ride home. You know that, right?"

• John-117: "It'll be OK."

The tunnel lights up and the Pelican boosts forward. It shoots out of the Infinity into the open air. Ahead is the Forerunner launching dock, which mad of huge floating towers. The Didact's Cryptum can be seen in the center, surrounding by an orange field.

• Cortana: "Contact. Didact. Dead ahead. "

• John-117: "How do we get inside those shields?"

• Cortana: "Marking two of the larger facilities on your HUD. They're acting as traffic control for resources moving to and from the satellite. If we disrupt their communications, I can forge an override code and convince it lower those defenses."

If John flies to the right tower, his Pelican fights a group of Phantoms. John shoots them down and lands.

• Cortana: "Slight complication. There are millions of transmissions passing through this structure, not simply ones controlling movement through the structure's shield."

• John-117: "Can you isolate the satellite communications?"

• Cortana: "Not quickly, and shutting them all down's not an option, but destroying the system's attenuators should flood the network."

John's HUD begins to strongly flicker as Cortana's tone turns angrier.

• Cortana: "Of course, if Infinity wasn't on their way back to Earth, they could overload the attenuators remotely."

• John-117: "We'll handle it."

• Cortana: "That's hardly the point. (John's HUD returns to normal.) The attenuators are housed in Faraday enclosures. I bet there's a release around here somewhere."

John fights off several Watchers and reaches a platform with a central terminal, which he activates.

• Cortana: "Okay, the structure contains three central attenuators. Sever those connections and we should be good."

John fights off Crawlers to reaches the first attenuator, which is a glowing orb.

• Cortana: "Knight!"

John defeats the Knight and punches the orb. A shutting down drone is heard.

• Cortana: "Second attenuator... up ahead."

john reaches and punches out the second attenuator.

• Cortana: "Great, the increased signal traffic is almost entirely blocking out the satellite communications. Only one more target left."

John heads to the last orb.

• Cortana: "More Knights!"

John defeats the Knights guarding the last orb and destroys it.

• Cortana: "That's it. Transmission buffers are overflowing. Get us to the second tower."

• Didact: "The others scatter like embers over sand. And yet the Librarian's champion is unmoved."

• John-117: "Cortana, where's this coming from?"

• Cortana: "Where's what coming from?

• Didact: "The mantle of responsibility for the galaxy shelters all, human. But only the Forerunners are its masters."

• John-117: "The Didact's voice."

• Cortana: "I'm not picking up anything, Chief."

• John-117: "He's there. Keep trying."

John battles enemies through the hallway leading out of the tower.

• Cortana: "Covenant air traffic's increasing. If we don't disable the other tower quickly, reaching the Didact could become exponentially more difficult."

John reaches his Pelican and takes off. CCS-class battlecruiser can be seen by the towers. He flies to the other tower, where more Phantoms defend its entrance.

John lands, arms up, and heads inside.

• Cortana: "This node's different than the previous tower. The source of the tower communications is a carrier wave generator located somewhere inside. It looks like the carrier wave generator is located on the far end of this chamber. Find us a way across."

John heads across a light bridge to a anti-gravity gondola.

• Cortana: "This gondola should do the trick. Look for its activation switch."

The switch is at the top of the gondola. John presses it, and a beam forms from the other side of the room, pulling the gondola toward it.

• Cortana: "To take a page out of our old playbook, I'm going to tune your shields to emit an EMP at the same frequency as the communication network. All you'll need to do to trigger it is to make physical contact with the carrier wave generator."

As the gondola heads forward, Kig-Yar Snipers and other Covenant start firing at John from the sides of the room. A light bridge also appears to hold the gondola in place.

• Cortana: "Covenant! The Didact's given them control of the system overrides. You're going to have to wrestle for it. The controls are up there."

John's HUD flickers and blurs.

• John-117: "Where?"

• Cortana: "Right, sorry. Waypoint!"

Cortana marks the spot. John fights through Grunts and Jackals, Elites appearing on the top of the structure. He presses the button then runs down to land back on the gondola.

• Cortana: "We're in business. Back to the gondola."

Prometheans are now all over the gondola. John fights them off.