Rookie

"Not exactly green; no ODST is. But if I didn't think he could do the job I wouldn't have him on my six. He doesn't say much, but I don't care. I just need him to listen."

- Edward Buck, 2552

Lance Corporal J.D., nicknamed the Rookie, (SN: 11282-31220-JD) is a human junior enlistedman who served with the UNSC Marine Corps during the Human-Covenant War. He was trained as a member of the elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers early in his career, serving with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force at New Jerusalem. Later, he was picked by GySgt Edward Buck for a team to aid the Office of Naval Intelligence in New Mombasa, Kenya during the Battle of Earth.

Biography
Little is known of this Marine other than his initials ("J.D.") and his birthplace: Crisium City, Naniwa, Luna. He enlisted on July 7th, 2547.

Battle of New Jerusalem
"Sir, I can't just leave you..."

- The Rookie to an injured Gage Yevgenny

By September 2552, the Rookie, then a Private First Class, was stationed aboard the with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force, part of a Rapid Offensive Picket. The Rookie participated during the Battle of New Jerusalem; he was sent down with reinforcements that had been requested by Gage Yevgenny, a veteran ODST who had gone against orders to save a crowd of civilian children. Gage's Pelican had been shot down by rogue ODSTs near the mountains outside the city of Mount Haven, and was found mortally wounded by the Rookie, who had just arrived with Gage's reinforcements.

Gage, who knew he was dying, told the Rookie his life story, right up until he crashed the Pelican. The Rookie, who had listened intently, promised to remember Gage and do whatever he could against the Covenant. Gage then told the Rookie that Covenant forces and the rogue ODSTs were on their way to the crash site, and warned the Rookie to get as far away as possible, as Gage was going to detonate a Shiva-class nuclear missile he had stolen, killing them all.

The Rookie ditched most of his gear and ran until he reached the other side of the mountain, at which point Gage detonated the Shiva, killing himself, his renegade teammates, and thousands of Covenant troops. The Rookie, being the only survivor, hailed a Pelican and was informed that Reach had been glassed, and that the survivors were retreating to Earth. They escaped as the planet was glassed, but the Rookie would not forget Gage Yevgenny, and his long and tragic life. After this, he was promoted to Lance Corporal and transferred to a squad, then led by GySgt Edward Buck.

Battle of Mombasa
During the Battle of Earth on October 20, 2552, the Rookie and his squad, along with a large element of the 105th Shock Troops Division, were stationed aboard the as part of a mission to attack the Solemn Penance above the city of New Mombasa. At the last moment before the drop, ONI operative Veronica Dare took control of the squad, with the intent to use them in a yet-undisclosed mission. The Rookie himself, however, was largely unaware of this as he was asleep at the time. He was awakened by Kojo Agu in a rather rude manner right before the drop.

As the squad dropped toward the groud using SOEIVs, Dare changed the squad's course towards the ONI Alpha Site in New Mombasa. Unfortunately, moments before they were meant to hit the ground, Regret's Carrier jumped into slipspace, generating a massive shockwave and an EMP that scattered the squad's drop pods all around the city. The Rookie's pod was slammed into by Michael Crespo's pod, cracking the window of the Rookie's pod and sending it into free-fall. Despite this, the Rookie had survived, although he was knocked unconscious.

Six hours later, the Rookie woke up in his pod, which had been lodged into a building in the occupied city center of New Mombasa. The Superintendent had been monitoring him and waiting for him to wake up. As the Rookie dropped to the streets below and started to move on, the Superintendent provided him with valuable help, activating signs to guide him to safety and uploading a map of the city to his VISR database. As the Rookie explored the city, he tried to piece together clues to find out what happened to his squadmates while avoiding the numerous Covenant patrols in the city. During his exploration of the city, Rookie had also discovered audio logs that narrated Sadie Endesha's story, which detailed the account of a civilian teenager who attempted to find her father, Dr. Endesha, while the city was under Covenant attack. Through these audio logs, the Rookie learned that a creature had entered the city's data center and, in order to repair the Superintendent, combined itself with Vergil, a subroutine built into the Superintendent.

After deducing the events of the previous six hours, the Rookie picked up a message from Dare, requesting assistance in the New Mombasa Data Center. Upon reaching the Underground, the Rookie learned she was on Sublevel 09. After reaching a Data Stack, he ran into an NMPD officer attempting to check on his men; however, the Superintendent wouldn't let the officer onto the next level until the Rookie arrived at his location. The two fought their way through Covenant forces and reached Sublevel 09 together. However, the officer suddenly stopped their progress, and entered a nearby room for a "personnel issue". Even though the officer told him to stay outside, the Rookie entered the room and discovered the corpse of Dr. Endesha. The officer, infuriated, revealed that he was working for Kinsler, NMPD's corrupt commissioner who was an enemy of Sadie Endesha as Rookie had learned through the audio logs. The officer attacked the Rookie to tie up loose ends, but the more heavily armed and better-armored Rookie killed the police officer in self-defense.

After fighting through more Covenant, the Rookie finally arrived at Dare's location, much to her surprise. She finally told him of her mission: to retrieve the data the Superintendent recorded during the Prophet of Regret's attack on the city. Dare and the Rookie were forced to fight their way through an entire Drone hive, as well as other assorted Covenant. They found a defected Huragok holding the Superintendent's data. While Dare was initially hostile towards the creature, Rookie, as he learned through the audio logs that the creature helped Endesha, was in fact friendly. He befriended it with just a single whistle. Dare learned that the Engineer was willing to reveal information about the Covenant.

The Rookie then reunited with Buck and proceeded to assist Dare and Vergil in their escape from the Data Center. After fighting past a Covenant outpost and up another elevator, the four arrived at the Waterfront Highway. Here, the Rookie and Buck used various Warthogs and a Scorpion to protect an Olifant containing Dare and Vergil. While driving down the highway, they witnessed the Prophet of Truth's fleet arriving in force, and starting to glass the city. After encountering a Scarab, Buck decided to find a new location and hold position until Crespo arrived with a stolen Phantom. Once he did, the squad evacuated the city and watched as the Covenant glassed New Mombasa.

A month later, the Rookie was with his squad in an ONI orbital facility, sleeping while everyone else watched Sergeant Major Avery Johnson's interrogation of Vergil.

Production note
Like John-117 and SPARTAN-B312, the Rookie is meant to be a largely undefined character with whom the player can easily identify. As such, his face is never seen and he never speaks. He is thus a true silent protagonist, in contrast to all other playable characters in the Halo series, who have dialogue at least in cutscenes. Even the Rookie’s initials, "JD", reflect this narrative approach: they likely stand for “John Doe”, a typical placeholder name given to a male when their true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons.

Trivia

 * His blood type is O+, as seen in his MEDREF.
 * The Rookie's enlistment date is July 7th, 2547. This is because of Bungie's love of the number seven and is an obvious reference to Bungie Day, which is held on July 7th.
 * The Rookie is often seen asleep. Minutes before he was dropped into New Mombasa, he napped by his pod while the rest of the squad conversed. Upon crashing within the city, he remained unconscious for six hours. One month after his mission in New Mombasa, while the rest of the squad and Sergeant Major Johnson interrogated Vergil, he slept beneath a staircase.
 * When viewing objectives with VISR, the Rookie's picture shows his rank to be "Recruit", but his actual rank is Lance Corporal. It is possible that this represents seniority within the unit, as opposed to actual rank. It may just be a similar tradition to the British SAS, who demote new members to Trooper upon enlistment.
 * An action figure was modeled after him by McFarlane Toys, the creators and manufacturers of the popular Halo action figures. It was released alongside the other figures in the sixth series. They released another version of this figure with glow in the dark paint making it look like someone was looking at him in VISR mode in April 2010.
 * In the Rookie's SOEIV, on Legendary, there is a picture of a person who appears to be a girl. According to Joseph Staten, this is the Rookie's "beautiful girlfriend", but is actually an edited image of Bungie engineer Chris Butcher.

List of appearances

 * ONI Candidate Assessment Program V5.02A
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Dirt