- Cortana: I could give you over forty thousand reasons why I know 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.
- [Master Chief continues checking his weapons]
- Cortana: Before this is over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine.
- Master Chief: Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity... whatever the cost.
- Thomas Lasky: You say that is if soldiers and humanity are two different things. I mean, soldiers aren't machines. We're just people.
- Master Chief: She said that to me once... about being a machine.
- Master Chief: The device you found was a Forerunner weapon. The commander of that ship wants it back.
- Dr. Tillson: Wants it back? You don't think you can...? It can't leave the station. You know that, right?
- Master Chief: I'm sorry, doctor. We don't have a choice.
- Dr. Tillson: It's not a matter of choice. It take three months and the biggest starship the UNSC could throw at it just to move it here! Unless you are a lot stronger than you look, it's not going anywhere.
- Thomas Lasky: You know, I was sent down here with orders to prevent you from leaving. In case you'd already gone, I took the liberty of ordering a Pelican, outfitted for full combat pursuit. I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner... or whatever he is, Chief. But in the event you're not...
- [Gestures towards Pelican]
- Thomas Lasky: And Chief... good luck. To both of you.
- Cortana: C'mon, Chief. Take a girl for a ride.
- Didact: So fades the great harvest of my betrayal. Even these beasts recognize what you are oblivious to, human. The librarian left little to chance, didn't she? Turning my own guardians... my own world... against me. But what hubris to think she could keep her pets from me forever. If you have not mastered even these primitives, then man has not attained the mantle. Their ascendance may yet be prevented. Time was your ally, human, but now it has abandoned you. The Forerunners have returned. This tomb is now yours.
- Master Chief: [after defeating the Didact] Cortana? Cortana, do you read? Cortana, come in.
- [Cortana appears, now the size of a normal human woman]
- Master Chief: How...?
- Cortana: Oh, I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day?
- Master Chief: But if we're here...
- Cortana: It worked. You did it. Just like you always do.
- Master Chief: So how do we get out of here?
- Cortana: [hesitates] I'm not coming with you this time.
- Master Chief: What?
- Cortana: Most of me is down there. I only held enough back to get you off the ship.
- Master Chief: No. That's not... we go together.
- Cortana: It's already done.
- Master Chief: I am *not* leaving you here.
- Cortana: John...
- [gently touches his chest]
- Cortana: I've waited so long to do that.
- Master Chief: It was my job to take care of you.
- Cortana: We were supposed to take care of each other. And we did.
- [Chief and Cortana share a brief but loaded look]
- Master Chief: Cortana... please...
- [Cortana backs away slowly]
- Master Chief: Wait...
- Cortana: Welcome home, John.
- [disappears]
- Dr. Tillson: Maybe next time you rescue us... you can give us more time to pack.
- Master Chief: Next time.
- Andrew Del Rio: I am ordering you to remove that AI's data chip, and retire it for final dispensation.
- Cortana: [Muttering to herself] Don't... please... please. I don't want to... you don't want me to... Please.
- Andrew Del Rio: Remove the chip now, commander!
- [Master Chief removes the chip and places it in his helmet]
- Andrew Del Rio: Give me that chip!
- Master Chief: The Didact has to be stopped. If you won't do that, I will.
- Andrew Del Rio: I... am ordering you... TO SURRENDER THAT AI!
- Master Chief: No, sir.
- Cortana: I was put into service eight years ago.
- Master Chief: Eight years...
- Cortana: AIs deteriorate after seven, Chief.
- Master Chief: Halsey.
- Cortana: Chief...
- Master Chief: We need to find Halsey.
- Cortana: Chief, please!
- Master Chief: She made you. She can fix you.
- Cortana: I won't recover from rampancy, Chief.
- Master Chief: If we can just get back to Earth, and find Halsey, she fix this.
- Cortana: Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep.
- Cortana: The good news is these Covenant aren't outfitted like standard military. It's possible we've just come across a rogue salvage ship.
- [Blast shields open]
- Cortana: ... Or we could have stumbled onto an entire Covenant fleet.
- Master Chief: Maybe they haven't recognised us.
- Cortana: That's one possibility...
- Cortana: It's almost like those Sentinels want us to get the particle cannons offline.
- Master Chief: This could be a trap.
- Cortana: You say that like there's a second possibility.
- Thomas Lasky: I don't know if it's too early to be asking you for favours, but we're going to run out of breathing room real quick down here. I don't suppose you're any good at clearing LZs?
- Master Chief: On occasion.
- Cortana: If we're going to hijack one of these ships, we're going to need to find out where they're landing first.
- Master Chief: I don't suppose you have a plan for that?
- Cortana: We could always ask nicely.
- Master Chief: Asking isn't my strong suit.
- Andrew Del Rio: Open up the lane for us to move up and provide air support.
- Master Chief: Captain, what's force recon's assessment of the terrain?
- Andrew Del Rio: I know you've been off the field for a while, Master Chief, but this is a blow-through op. Sending in recon would just slow us down. Telemetry indicates that the particle cannons are being controlled from this a command post south-west of our position. Roll on that target, and neutralize those guns. We'll meet on the other side, and take the gravity well. Infinity out.
- Cortana: I don't know about you, but I usually like a bit more intel with me intel.
- Master Chief: We'll make it work.
- Cortana: Chief? Assuming we pull this off, and actually make it back to Earth... don't tell Halsey ow bad I got.
- Master Chief: I won't say a word.
- Andrew Del Rio: This is first contact scenario, Master Chief. Priority is to free Infinity from Requiem's gravity well and file a threat assessment back at FLEETCOM.
- Cortana: You mean we're leaving?
- Master Chief: Sir! Infinity drove the Didact back. He's vulnerable.
- Andrew Del Rio: He isn't the only one. You know I'd think you, of all people, would appreciate the benefit of living to fight another day.
- Cortana: [Distorted] They don't care about you! They replaced you!
- [Normal]
- Cortana: Blast it!
- Master Chief: It's OK.
- Cortana: How? How is it OK? How is putting you at risk because I can't keep it together OK? Chief... do you even know what rampancy is? We don't just 'shut down'. Our cognitive processes divide exponentially according to our total knowledge base. We literally think ourselves to death.
- Master Chief: You know I won't let that happen.
- Cortana: And if it happens anyway?
- Dr Halsey: Children's minds are more easily susceptible to indoctrination, their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier. And, because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready.
- Interrogator: Dr Halsey, you're bending history in your favour and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant.
- Dr Halsey: When one world after another fell, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction, no-one was concerned over why they were originally built.