Human-Promethean war: Difference between revisions

This attempt ultimately proved unsucessful, as the Didact left Requiem aboard his vessel escorted by a flotilla of Covenant ships. Stowing away aboard a Covenant ship, Master Chief pursued the Forerunner to a UNSC research base orbiting Halo Installation 03 where the Composer was kept. Sandra Tillson, a lead researcher aboard the base, helped guide John to the artifact amidst a swarm of Covenant attackers. Despite reaching the artifact first, the Didact was successful in obtaining the Composer tearing it out of the station's hull with a gravity beam. Testing the weapon, the Composer burned the crew of the station to ash, assimilating their knowledge to power additional war machines. The Master Chief's genetic enhancements rendered him immune to the device's effects.  

{{Main|1=Battle of Earth (2557)}}

With the Composer in the Didact's possession, the Forerunner was poised to deal a deathblow to the UNSC, and by extension humanity. Racing back to Earth aboard a Broadsword fighter, the Master Chief was surprised to find the Infinity and a UNSC fleet waiting for him. Flying below the Forerunner vessel's shields, John was able to destroy the ship's point defense guns, giving Infinity the chance to bombard the Didact. Entering through a breach in the armor, John fought his way to the Forerunner's location.

Despite their best efforts, the Didact began to fire on Earth with the Composer, annihilating a major population center within North America. Armed with a portable nuclear device, John confronted the Didact again. While John was unable to hurt the Forerunner with conventional attacks, Cortana, nearing the end of her life, disabled the Didact's armor and immobilized him with hard light shackles. With the last of his strength, John used a Promethean grenade to destroy the Forerunner's armor and detonated the nuclear bomb manually.

Using the last of her power, Cortana was able to create an impenetrable hardlight barrier to shield John from the blast. Left adrift in space, he later was recovered by the UNSC. Back on Earth, John rejoined Palmer and the other Spartans, preparing for their next inevitable battle.

While their defeat at Earth proved a set back for the Promethean/Covenant alliance, it did not result in their defeat. Six months later, the Infinity battlegroup returned to Requiem with a fresh compliment of Spartans, determined to reclaim the planet at any cost. The Covenant ships in orbit around the planet were swiftly defeated and scattered, demonstrating the technological advancement of the UNSC since the end of the last war. Arriving on the planet's surface, Majestic and other SPARTAN-IV squads began to disrupt Covenant operations across Requiem and recover Forerunner artifacts for study.