Template:New Content Template:ArticleName Template:Battle Infobox The War on Requiem is an ongoing conflict that began approximately on July 20th, 2557 on the Forerunner shield world called "Requiem." The Covenant remnant, led by Shipmaster Jul 'Mdama, first engaged UNSC forces during the boarding of the derelict wreckage of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. UNSC reinforcements would subsequently arrive to fight a Covenant effort now aligned with the Didact and Requiem's native inhabitants, the Prometheans.
Seeking both a new spiritual voice for their people and a chance for revenge against the victorious UNSC, the Storm faction of the recently dissolved Covenant sought the Forerunner world of Requiem to unlock its secrets. Unexpectedly in orbit around the shield world, the Sangheili and their allies found the wreckage of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, adrift since the Battle of Installation 00. In the first skirmish of the war, Storm warriors boarded the vessel only to discover Spartan John-117 and the AI Cortana. Reacting quickly, John and Cortana defeated the advanced scouting teams and reactivated the Dawn's weapon systems manually, destroying a CCS-class cruiser in the process.
After scanning the vessel and detecting a Reclaimer, Requiem's automated systems pulled both the Dawn and the Covenant force surrounding it through the world's outer shell and down to the planet's surface. Recovering a Warthog, Master Chief and Cortana vowed to make their way back to Earth in order to find a cure for Cortan's escalating Rampancy. They set out to find a way to contact the UNSC, circumventing the powerful jamming field surrounding the world.
Fighting through numerous Covenant hunting parties, Master Chief was attacked by advanced Forerunner defense drones which Cortana identified as Prometheans. Evading or destroying pursuit, John attempted to warn the approaching UNSC Infinity of the dangerous energy field that had disabled the Forward Unto Dawn.
After disabling two control nodes, it became clear that a great threat had been imprisoned within Requiem. The Didact, the Forerunner's greatest warrior and the individual responsible for firing the Halo array 100,000 years ago, remained in suspended animation within a Cryptum. Easily disabling John with his powerful abilities, he declared the return of the Forerunners as the galaxy's rulers and saviors. Humanity remained weak and unworthy in his eyes of inheriting the Mantle, a view rejected by his lover, the Librarian. Having always revered the Forerunners as gods, the Storm quickly swore alliance to the Didact and his armies. The Diact viewed the Covenant as mere primitives, but permitted them to serve his cause, to prevent the ascension of the human race to galactic prominence.
Narrowly escaping the collapsing command center, the Chief and Cortana returned to the planet's surface only to find their warning to the Infinity came too late. The massive warship crashed more than 70 kilometers away, with a massive force of Covenant and Prometheans closing on their position.
Evading capture, John was successful in regrouping with a group of SPARTAN-IVs led by Commander Thomas Lasky. Recognizing the Chief immediately, Lasky asked John and Cortana to clear a landing zone so that Infinity's ground forces could fall back to the ship which had fallen under siege. Commandeering a Scorpion tank, John led the attack to the crippled vessel alongside Commander Sarah Palmer's Spartans. Using the UNSC's latest weapon, the Mantis exoskeleton, John rallied a force of nearby Marines and regained control of the ship's interior. After reinitializing the ship's secondary MAC guns and missile batteries, the tide turned in the UNSC's favor. Two CCS-class cruisers and dozens of dropships were destroyed in the artillery barrage, while the Didact's Cryptum was forced to retreat.
With a momentary lull in the fighting, John was called to a strategy meeting with Andrew Del Rio, Captain of the Infinity. Skeptical of the threat of the Prometheans, Rio ordered an immediate attack on a Forerunner gravity well preventing the ship from leaving. A strike force of Spartans led by John was deployed with a Mammoth-class ultra heavy ground vehicle supporting the attack. Facing daunting odds, the UNSC was able to defeat a large armored strike force of Covenant and Promethean and disabled the gravity beam. Upon reaching his objective, John was confronted with a vision from the Librarian, who warned him of the Diact's true plans.
In ancient times, the human race was once a great interstellar empire. Fleeing from the Flood, they came into contact with the Forerunner Ecumene. Ignoring their warnings about the dangers posed by the parasite, the Forerunners led by the Didact defeated and imprisoned humanity upon their homeworld. Weakened by the struggle, the Forerunners were easy prey to the resurgent Flood. Despite this, the Didact planned to use the Composer, a device capable of transferring organic consciousness to software format to escape the Flood's infection. But the process was flawed, and the humans who underwent the process were corrupted, becoming fit only to function as the AIs of Promethean war-frames. The Librarian gives John a gift, a medical treatment to counteract the Forerunner's devolution of the human genome, and a means to resist the Diact's plan to enslave the human race once again.
Regrouping aboard the Infinity, Captain Del Rio dismissed the threat of the Prometheans and prepared the ship to depart the system. Defying direct orders, John took the increasingly unstable Cortana and departed the Infinity. Armed with a Pelican gunship provided by Commander Lasky, John launched several attacks on support pillars providing the Didact's Cryptum with shield and power, with the goal of preventing him from leaving the planet and attacking Earth and other colonies.
List of appearances
- The Commissioning (First appearance)
- Halo 4