Editing Catherine Halsey

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===ASTER===

{{Quote|no=four|q1=I have doubts, Déjà. I thought the reasons so compelling when we first started Project: SPARTAN. Now? I... I just don’t know.|Catherine Halsey|q2=I have been over the ONI projections of Outer Colony stability three times, Doctor. Their conclusion is correct: massive rebellion within twenty years unless drastic military action is taken. And you know the ‘drastic military action’ the brass would like. The Spartans are our only option to avoid overwhelming civilian losses. They will be the perfect pinpoint strike force. They can prevent a civil war.|Déjà|q3=Only if they survive to fulfill that mission. We should delay the procedures. More research needs to be done. We could use the time to work on [[MJOLNIR]]. We need time to—|Catherine Halsey|q4=There is another reason to proceed expeditiously. Although I am loath to bring this to your attention, I must. If the Office of Naval Intelligence detects a delay in their prize project, you will likely be replaced by someone who harbors... fewer doubts. And regrettably for the children, most likely someone less qualified.|Déjà|Halsey shares her concerns with Déjà.}}{{Ref/Reuse|HTFOR6}}

On [[2525#February|February 23, 2525]] Halsey got a chance to have a long chat with [[John-117|John]] during which, to her surprise, she learned he was convinced the Spartans were to enter a new, more severe phase of training.<ref name="HJF2325">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''February 23, 2525''</ref> Writing in her journal, she expressed her desire to share everything she could concerning the upcoming [[Project ASTER|augmentations]] and wondered if any of them would refuse were she to offer them the choice of whether or not to proceed. Déjà had continued to update and run Catherine's revision of [[Elias Carver]]'s model weekly by this point, and the results were only growing worse. This data made Halsey more resolute in her conviction that nobody involved had any choice but to forge the Spartans.{{Ref/Reuse|HJF2325}} Five days later, she gave birth to her daughter, [[Miranda Keyes|Miranda]].<ref name="WaypointMirandaKeyes">[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/miranda-keyes '''Halo Waypoint''' - ''Miranda Keyes'']</ref> Near the end of February Halsey and the rest of her team sent their prototype suit of [[Mjolnir]] armor to [[UNSC Special Forces|Naval Special Weapons]] for evaluation.<ref name="HJ63025">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''June 30, 2525''</ref>

By [[2535#November|November 22, 2535]] Halsey had received what were being referred to as the top secret "Hencheck Findings", named for a Lieutenant [[Hencheck]] who had procured a cache of Covenant weapons and miscellaneous artifacts during a skirmish in the [[Indra Asteroid Cluster|Indra asteroid cluster]]. Much about the enemy's weaponry astonished her and made her ask questions about their construction. No traces of production designs could be found within the weapons' architecture, and much of the technology seemed heavily polarized yet uniformly purposed, leading Halsey to think it might have originally been developed for some other purpose or purposes. Regardless, the immediate conclusion she drew from the findings was that humanity still lacked the ability to replicate the Covenant's technology.<ref name="HJ112235">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''November 22, 2535''</ref> By [[2536#January|January 10, 2536]] Catherine had gotten [[Leonard Gillespie]], a student of Doctor [[Forester]]'s, transferred to Reach so she could watch him closely.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ11036}} This was due to his recent discovery that a portion of the inner apparatus of a particular [[Kig-Yar]] [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|point defense gauntlet]] in the UNSC's possession had not been sealed. In addition to the gauntlet already being clearly much older than any others encountered, initial testing confirmed that with a massive power input its capacity for creating and sustaining [[energy shield]]ing over a very small surface area could be replicated. The implications such a technological leap could have for MJOLNIR made Halsey determined to get her hands on the artifact.<ref name="HJ11036">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''January 10, 2536''</ref> By [[2537#May|May 25, 2537]] Halsey and [[Kalmiya]] had deciphered what they thought could be a root [[wikipedia:Diction|diction]] to a meta-[[Sangheili (language)|Covenant language]] system.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ52537}} Elements of this system had been observed manifesting in the (potentially misnamed) "operating system" the aliens used. Curiously, employing their symbolic logic appeared to counter the accelerated cross-linkage effects in A.I.s. Though her progress in understanding this was moving slowly, it was advancing steadily nonetheless, as she wrote in her journal. She also made a note reminding herself to investigate the possibility that what she was working with might represent dimensional slices of a more complex topology.<ref name="HJ52537">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''May 25, 2537''</ref>

===Capture and rescue===

{{Quote|Incredible. [10141-026-SRB4695], with minimal influence from this [[The Assembly|Assembly]], has attempted to build an abstract fractal structure within Shaw-Fujikawa Space. Although her first attempt was a failure, success could finally remove our dependence on biological systems altogether! If our Minds could somehow achieve freedom of expansion within eleven-dimensional space, immortality might be within reach.|An [[artificial intelligence]] of the [[Assembly Minority]] theorizes on what Doctor Halsey's experiment could mean for the future of A.I.s.}}<ref name="HRTPDP">''[[Halo: Reach]]'', ''[[The Package]]'' [[data pads]]</ref>

[[File:Halsey'sJournal Math.PNG|300px|thumb|Equations]]

Once she secured access to the drive, she first needed to breach the external, internal, and vacuum coupling shields to the singularity, for which she bemoaned that the UNSC couldn't make a proper pan-[[Wikipedia:Torque|torque]] screwdriver.<ref name="CF74">[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-noble-intentions '''Halo Waypoint''' - ''Canon Fodder: Noble Intentions'']</ref> She would have preferred to use hardened remotes for the breaching, but they would have been detected by networks which would also record their activities. As a result, a peculiar [[Wikipedia:Synesthesia|synesthetic]] effect moved along her left arm up to her neck when she removed the shields. She also experienced a kind of "hiccup" in her awareness which she surmised was due to the [[Wikipedia:Delta timing|delta time]] which could occur with abrupt transitions into slipspace. Next, she had to check the probe's telemetry systems after compensating for how close the experiment was to Reach's [[Gravity well (physics)|gravity well]], and found they were within tolerable variances. Halsey then verified the data of the [[Smart AI|A.I.]] seed "H-7" to seven [[Wikipedia:Significant figures|significant figures]] and initiated its transfer to the matrix strata within the probe. After starting the slipspace drive and verifying the data received, as well as activating the AI seed, she confirmed an initial growth state. Upon checking and triple verifying the probe's telemetry uplinks she then finally launched it on an aligned trajectory. Recording her observations in her journal, the doctor noticed again that time seemed to have mysteriously elapsed, as there was a step anomaly in the chronometer. This had not affected her or her wristwatch as far as she could tell, and she guessed that the anomaly might be a technical artifact or a subdimensional leakage from the probe as it was inserted. It was only then that she realized she had already made a note of this "hiccup" closer to the time it had occurred but could not recall doing so. Telemetry confirmed that A.I. growth was beyond exponential—appearing instantaneous. Halsey wondered variously if this might be explained by the temporal discrepancy, some hitherto undiscovered multidimensional effect on the A.I. cross-linkages, or even alternate physical laws harnessed by the unshielded slipstream. Much of the incoming data and consciousness cross-checks soon became garbled and voice communication from the A.I. was attenuated. Logic/mathematics [[Scriber test]]s confirmed full functionality, but Halsey was disturbed by the conclusions, insights, and even what she considered nonsense being generated. The A.I.'s comments on [[humanity]] and the [[Covenant]] defied reason from her perspective, but she made sure they were all recorded, including those concerning [[The Assembly|other intellects]] in the "mist". Halsey wondered in her journal whether the "mist" referred to [[slipspace]] and also commented on another four-hour "step" in time that might also be explained by lost consciousness. She additionally noted that the data-transfer buffer had been blown—capable of one hundred and forty-eight hours at its maximum rate. As soon as she made this observation Halsey set about replacing it. After the telemetry became fully operational she noticed glaring gaps throughout the record. And although the voice communications continued to grow increasingly nonsensical, all [[rampancy]] indicators were negative.{{Ref/Reuse|CF74}}

{{Quote|I'm delighted with Cortana. She has assumed a rather simple human appearance (much to my relief; so many of the ONI A.I.s adopt such theatrical personas). Her face resembles mine when I was fresh out of college—so wonderful and naïve, and eager to learn. It's almost like looking in a mirror.|Doctor Halsey's written thoughts on Cortana's chosen avatar.}}

[[File:H5G Cortanabirthcropped.PNG|thumb|350px|Cortana's face resembles the way Doctor Halsey's appeared when she was fresh out of college.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ11749}} Part of her also resembles Halsey's daughter [[Miranda Keyes|Miranda]] and yet another part is purely Cortana's invention.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ11749}}]]

On [[2549#September|September 9]] Halsey reflected on the recent [[Second Fall of Arcadia|loss]] of [[Arcadia]], as she had come into possession of a near-complete record of the attack taken from an orbiting weather satellite.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ72949}} In her journal she expressed the agony viewing the destruction caused her, noting that she knew some would smirk at the thought of her shrinking from it. As the entire world's surface was mercilessly [[Glassing|glassed]] rather than only portions, she wondered variously whether the planet posed a threat to them, had religious or political value, or was simply designated for sending a message to humanity.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ72949}} By September 14 Halsey had hacked into the redacted portions of other Arcadia reports.<ref name="HJ91449">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''July 14, 2549''</ref> At some point in September the annex in [[CASTLE Base]]'s Omega Wing where Halsey was working was quarantined.{{Ref/Reuse|HRO}} On [[2549#November|November 7, 2549]], she transferred and authenticated the H-1 specimen's neural pattern to A.I. matrix strata, completing the initiation sequence within normal quantum flux tolerances.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ11749}}<ref name="WaypointCortana">[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/cortana '''Halo Waypoint''' - ''Cortana'']</ref><ref name="HRO">''[[Halo: Reach]]'', ''[[Outpost]]''</ref> The newly made intelligence called herself "[[Cortana]]" and represented a generational leap in volitional A.I. technology.{{Ref/Reuse|HRO}} Halsey placed a viral termination code in her kernel but then could not tell whether she remained unaware of it or had already isolated and bypassed it.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ11749}} Halsey also programmed her with ONI's best insurgency software and every ONI computer insurgency routine, as well as the determination to use those code-cracking skills.{{Ref/Reuse|HTFOR25}}{{Ref/Reuse|HTFOR27}} She first designed and tested these routines on [[Kalmiya]].{{Ref/Reuse|HFS13}} Only once the process had been debugged and streamlined did she incorporate them into Cortana. Afterward, the brass in [[ONI Section Three|Section Three]] instructed Halsey to destroy any prototype routines—an order which she promptly ignored.{{Ref/Reuse|HFS13}}  

[[File:HReach - Carter and Halsey.png|375px|thumb|Doctor Halsey's first suspicion upon coming face-to-face with [[Spartan-III]]s was that they were substandard versions of [[Spartan-II]]s, perhaps from a parallel program like [[Project JAVELIN|Project: JAVELIN]] or some next-generation venture piggybacking on her work.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ72652}}]]

{{Quote|All the pieces are almost in place for [[Operation: RED FLAG]]. My [[NOBLE Team|curiosity]], for once, must wait. If one small team of Covenant have infiltrated Reach, more will certainly follow. I must prepare for the worst-case scenario with [[Operation: WHITE GLOVE|WHITE GLOVE]].|Catherine, writing in her journal, puts aside her confusion concerning the Spartans of NOBLE Team in order to focus on more pressing matters.}}<ref name="HJ72652">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''July 26, 2552''</ref>

[[File:Jorge Deployment Details.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Halsey's attempt to access restricted information concerning Jorge-052 prompted a personal message being sent to her from [[Colonel]] [[Urban Holland]], who had operational control of NOBLE Team.<ref name="HJextras">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', additional materials</ref><ref name="HRNobleA">''[[Halo: Reach]]'', ''[[Noble Actual]]''</ref>]]

By 1126 hours on July 26 [[SWORD Base]] had come under attack by an {{Pattern|Ceudar|heavy corvette}} and Covenant ground forces from the [[Fleet of Valiant Prudence]].<ref name="HROSB">''[[Halo: Reach]]'', ''[[ONI: Sword Base]]''</ref> Following the attack's repulsion Halsey requested permission to debrief with NOBLE Team, the six members of which met her within the base's science wing thereafter. Upon seeing them her suspicions were confirmed: they were [[SPARTAN-III program|Spartan]]s, as incomprehensible as that was to her at the time. Only one of them, [[Jorge-052]], was one of hers. She had already begun conversing with the team's leader, [[Carter-A259]], when Jorge and [[SPARTAN-B312|sixth member]] of the team finally joined them. She was in the midst of telling Carter to dispense with telling her about the recent engagement outside so she could hear about what happened in [[Visegrád]] when Jorge's entrance made her stop mid-sentence to greet him. She couldn't help but ask after the obvious modifications made to his armor before returning to the matter of the [[Visegrád Relay|Visegrád relay]], and Doctor Sorvad's death in particular. From Carter, Jorge, and [[Spartan-B312]] she learned that [[Devoted Sentries|a group of three]] [[Sangheili]] [[Sangheili Zealot|Zealot]]s were likely responsible. The same had ambushed NOBLE Team when they'd arrived at the relay and the one which appeared to be their leader had gotten away from the Spartans. Halsey dismissed mention of Sorvad's daughter [[Sára Sorvad|Sára]] in the interest in maintaining focus on the Elites and what their leader might have escaped with. She bristled at Carter's defense of his order not to pursue the last zealot, worried that it might have stolen valuable ONI excavation data. She let them know about the supposed latchkey discovery Sorvad had made and emphasized its importance, stressing that they should hope a [[data module]] found on his corpse contained what was so important. At this [[Catherine-B320]] handed the module over to the doctor through a transaction drawer, as a wall of glass separated her from NOBLE. She let the lieutenant commander know she'd been alerted when she'd tried to access its contents, threatening her with imprisonment for attempting to interfere with her work. This prompted Carter to rush to Kat's defense, citing the [[WINTER CONTINGENCY (protocol)|WINTER CONTINGENCY]] directive and the provision against civilian interference with a Spartan deployment to make the same threat to Halsey. Jorge lingered when the rest of the team began to leave, but Halsey told him they'd talked enough, allowing him to move on as well.{{Ref/Reuse|HROSB}}

===Onyx===

{{Main|Onyx Conflict}}

Dr. Halsey and Kelly eventually arrived at [[Onyx]], where they reunited with [[Senior Chief Petty Officer|SCPO]] Mendez and eventually the remaining Spartan-IIs and the [[Spartan-III]]s, under attack by [[Onyx Sentinel]]s. Contacting the ONI AI [[Endless Summer]], she utilized Onyx's [[slipspace COM launcher]] and Cortana's slipspace transmission from [[Installation 05]] as a carrier wave to send a message to Earth, in which she requested [[Terrence Hood|Lord Hood]] to send more Spartans to secure Forerunner technology on Onyx. Her relative expertise with Forerunner technology was vital to the survival of the UNSC forces on the planet, as she was able to interpret Forerunner glyphs when navigating the facility, guiding the Spartans to a [[Cartographer|map room]], where Onyx was revealed to be a wholly artificial construct. She also learned how to employ the local [[teleportation grid|translocation grid]], allowing the humans to move across the megastructure while evading the [[Joyous Exultation Covenant|Covenant]] forces that pursued them.

{{Quote|Life is too short. I will never learn all that exists in our own tiny galaxy, let alone the rest of the universe. And I so desperately want to know ''everything''. But the UNSC acts like children at play in a sandbox. Mistaking its edges for the limits of the world.|Catherine Halsey to Captain Thomas Lasky regarding her subterfuge.}}

[[File:Halsey Infinity.png|thumb|300px|Halsey examines the recovered Forerunner artifact.]]

{{Expand-section}}

[[File:H4-SO Halsey discover John' status.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Halsey discovering John-117 is alive.]]

Late in the attack, Halsey was kidnapped by a Promethean Knight and teleported to Requiem. When Admiral Serin Osman was informed of this abduction, she chose to finally enact Parangosky's wishes and ordered for Halsey's immediate termination. While Captain Lasky protested against this, instead sending Fireteam Majestic to rescue Halsey, Commander Palmer departed to carry out Osman's order.<ref name="Spops8">'''Spartan Ops''', [[S1/Expendable|S1E8 ''Expendable'']]</ref>

Halsey was then taken to the [[Librarian's Rest]], where Jul 'Mdama had her disable the shield previously erected during Doctor Glassman's attempts to access the shrine. As the shield deactivated, she quickly entered the beam of light being produced by the shrine, to 'Mdama's great anger.{{Ref/Reuse|Spops8}} There, she met the Librarian and was given the [[Janus Key]], which gave the location of every Forerunner artifact in the galaxy. After taking the key, Halsey was returned to the shrine, where 'Mdama acquired one half of the artifact. The intervention of Palmer and Fireteam Majestic forced 'Mdama to retreat from the site with Halsey, but not before she threw the key's other half to Thorne. During the firefight, however, Palmer managed to shoot Halsey in the shoulder.<ref name="s1key">''[[Spartan Ops]]'': [[S1/Key|S1E9 ''Key'']]</ref>

}}

Many of those unfamiliar with the internal dynamics of ONI and the SPARTAN-II program have come to interpret Halsey and her work in a highly negative light. Despite the predominant role of ONI and the UNSC Naval leadership in the conception and execution of the SPARTAN-II program, Dr. Halsey is often perceived as the sole individual responsible, due to her conspicuous position as the project head.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 178''</ref> Taking advantage of this, ONI prefers to attribute some of the more controversial aspects of the project to their alleged lack of sufficient oversight.<ref>[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96218485&postcount=40 '''NeoGaf:''' ''Was Dr. Halsey justified, ultimately, in creating the Spartan-II program in Halo? — View Single Post''] ([[Frank O'Connor]]: ''"Other even less savory characters are trying to harm her legacy to boost their own careers. And they're doing it by illuminating her prior actions in an ugly way."'')</ref> [[Black-Box]] even privately acknowledges to Serin Osman that the main reason for Halsey's fall from grace is to conceal or minimize the responsibility of the many others who participated in the project.<ref>'''Halo: Mortal Dictata'''</ref>  Although she was responsible for much of the program's scientific basis and harbored no illusions otherwise, Halsey was under ONI's constant supervision and was even repeatedly pressured by Section III to use more inhumane means for faster results.{{Ref/Reuse|for29}} Many have also interpreted her primary motivation as a supposed perverse scientific curiosity, ignoring—or unaware of—her sincere determination to prevent further excessive bloodshed in the Insurrection and her initial naiveté in failing to grasp the full moral ramifications of her work until witnessing it in practice.{{Ref/Reuse|HJ12410}}

Halsey kept [[Dr. Halsey's personal journal|a journal]] with her ever since she was eighteen, purchased from a shop on Reach. She used the journal as a medium through which to express her thoughts and concerns, draw sketches, and map out important research notes for approximately forty-two years. It was not Halsey's only journal, since she had a second one for note-taking and also had an encrypted audio journal on her computer, though she sometimes erased its entries soon after recording them.<ref>'''Halo: Fall of Reach''' - ''Bootcamp Issue 1''</ref> Halsey frequently left her first journal lying around buried under papers, and procrastinated on adding some security measures to it to prevent it from being stolen.<ref>'''Dr. Halsey's personal journal''', ''March 18, 2543''</ref> This absent-mindedness eventually backfired on her when she forgot the journal during her escape from [[SWORD Base]]. The journal was later recovered by ONI in [[2553]], and used as evidence to condemn her.

==Non-canon and dubious canon appearances==

===Silver Timeline===

{{Main|Catherine Halsey/Silver}}

==Production notes==

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*A number of Dr. Halsey's statements are echoed by similar statements by Cortana in the ''Halo'' games. In ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', when John-117 explains his plan to board the [[Unrelenting|Covenant ship]] near [[Chi Ceti IV]], Halsey states, ''"One slight error in your trajectory, and you could miss by kilometers"'', to which John replies, ''"I don't miss, ma'am."''<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', '' page 120'' (2001)</ref> A strikingly similar exchange occurs in ''[[Halo 2]]'', with Cortana asking, ''"What if you miss?"'' and John responding, ''"I won't"''. Many of Cortana's lines during the [[Cortana moments and Gravemind moments|Cortana moments]] in ''Halo 3'' are direct quotes or slight paraphrases of Halsey's statements to the Spartans in ''Halo: The Fall of Reach''. In ''[[The Package (animated short)|The Package]]'', Halsey tells John-117 that she slept well, ''"No thanks to their driving,"'' which is echoed in ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' when he tells Cortana he slept well ''"... no thanks to [her] driving"''. She also tells John, ''"Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it,"'' which Cortana would tell him in ''Halo 2''.

*In ''Halo Legends'', Halsey's appearance was portrayed with a great deal of artistic license. In ''The Package'', at which point she is aged fifty-two, she is depicted as a young woman with short, blonde hair and no glasses. Her appearance in ''Homecoming'' however, is closer to her description from the books, though that short also portrays her as blonde. In the developer commentary for ''Homecoming'' [[Frank O'Connor]] states, "''People tend to think of her as older than she's portrayed... and part of that was simply—you know—it's anime, and they want everyone to be attractive and young. I mean, that's one of the hallmarks anime... I think that IG took the safer of the two routes and sort of disguised her appearance and disguised her age by having it literally obscured by her hair and her glasses and to a certain extent her uniform.''" In ''The Package'' commentary he explains, "''She was definitely one of those back-and-forth conversations [with Casio Entertainment]; 'Can you make her older? Can you make her older?' And eventually we got to this compromise... I think if we were casting a real-life actress we'd cast someone a lot older, but in anime the context is fine and it works.'"''

*''[[Halo Infinite]]''

*''[[Halo: The Television Series]]''

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