Hunt the Truth
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- "What seems like the end, is only the beginning."
- — Tagline[1]
Hunt the Truth, stylized as HUNT the TRUTH or the hashtag #HUNTtheTRUTH, is an ongoing marketing campaign for the upcoming release of Halo 5: Guardians[1], hosted on the popular microblogging and social networking site Tumblr. After a countdown ending on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 1:00am UTC, the site displayed the "Halo 5 Bullet" trailer, as well as acting as the front page of journalist Benjamin Giraud's hunt for the truth about the story of Master Chief. Giraud states that the site will be updated weekly with his "part docu-diary, part audio archive" until E3 2015 in June 2015.[2]
Episode transcripts
Benjamin(Blog): What began as a high-profile hero story quickly turns into a full-blown investigation. Sources claim they know the “real Master Chief”: The boy, the soldier, the hero…the traitor? But who’s telling the truth?
Episode 00: PRIMER
Benjamin Giraud: When you're a war journalist, you see a lot of horrible stuff. All the stories I've done—I've seen the absolute worst of humanity. But I've also gotten to seen the best. Six years ago, I saw him. The greatest, most mysterious hero of our time, up-close in action. I witnessed, first hand, what he did that day, and it changed everything for me. Anyone listening to this knows exactly who I'm talking about. The guy who saved us, saved Earth, saved mankind: Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117, whom we now know as simply "the Master Chief".
A few months ago I was hired to do an in-depth profile on the Chief—exclusive access, the whole thing—since then, I've gotten to talk to a lot of people who claim they know the real Master Chief; the boy, the soldier, the hero... the traitor? See, I've always known where the story was going before it started. I'd known exactly the story I wanted to tell for years, the story of all of us wanted to hear—glossy, inspiring, the blockbuster hero biography. That's all this was supposed to be. But the truth isn't always that clean.
When I pulled that first loose thread, something broke. Now everything is caving in and I find myself stuck with all these ugly questions, questions I never intended to ask. Fabricated histories? People who aren't who they say they are? Cover-ups of cover-ups? That steady drumbeat of theories that used to sound insane, now they don't seem so '"out there".
And these disturbing rumors, reports of anomalies. Something big is happening in deep space, and I can't even corroborate a single fact about one man's life. It's clear to me now. I can't fix the pretty story, but maybe I can break the ugly one.
For the first time in my career I can honestly say I don't know the shape of where this is going. And in fact, the possibilities have me lying awake at night. But I believe we all deserve to know the real story. We need to know where this leads. I know I do.
So I find myself back at the beginning. Who is the Master Chief? Where does he come from? And is he keeping us safe?
Join me as I hunt the truth about the Master Chief.
Benjamin(Blog): Master Chief was born in the metropolis of Elysium City. Then known as John, he grew up like any kid in the Outer Colonies. Childhood playmates and school teachers share charming stories. But what happens when a single document throws everything into question? Episode 01: A HAIRLINE FRACTURE
Benjamin Giraud (voiceover): There's a story you tell yourself when the world blows up in your face. There's no way you could have seen it coming. No one could have, so there was no way to stop it. This is what lets you sleep at night. But go back in your mind to before it all happened. Replay it in your head, except this time, maybe you'll see it: something small, out of place. Maybe it's just a single thread, but it's the truth. Nobody saw it coming when they arrived, an alien race known as the Covenant. Before 2552, there was no way anything like that could ever happen on Earth. On one of those distant planets in the Outer Colonies, maybe. But an attack on Earth? Couldn't happen, until it did. It's called glassing. Covenant warships rain plasma down on a planet until everything and everyone on the surface melts. Usually it's complete world destruction. Earth only got a taste. The prolonged orbital bombardment destroyed East Africa, killing millions before it ended. None of us were safe anymore. But something else happened that day, too. Or someone. You've heard the eyewitness accounts, every skeptic has seen the footage, I was there, and yet still to this day it's unbelievable. A massive man in green armor appeared, seemingly out of nowhere in New Mombasa, performed superhuman feats to singlehandedly repel a global invasion, and then disappeared. This was the Master Chief. The Unified Earth Government's military body, the UNSC, eventually released a statement: who he is, where he came from, and that he's continuing to keep us safe. And that was that. But, who is the Master Chief? Where did he come from? Is he continuing to keep us safe? I'm Benjamin Giraud, and this is Hunt the Truth. For all us cosmopolitan Earth types who don't venture into the far reaches of space, there's a planet way out in the Outer Colonies called Eridanus II. If you're thinking of visiting, don't bother. It was catastrophically glassed in a Covenant attack in 2530. But 19 years before it got wiped out, our hero, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, then known as John, was born in a metropolis called Elysium City. That's where I started.
Deon Govender (in call): Do I remember him? Oh yeah, you don't forget a kid like that!
Giraud (voiceover): That's Deon Govender. He chatted with me from his home in the Outer Colonies. Deon's retired now, but years ago he taught John at Elysium City Primary Education Facility Number 119. Apparently, schools in the Outer Colonies don't have the catchiest names.
Govender (in call): John was something else. He was sharp and quick, always evaluating the situation. The other kids just gravitated to him, you know?
Giraud (voiceover): Deon seemed most excited to talk about John's athletic ability. The kids used to play King of the Hill after school. Ya' know, the game where you wrestle and push each other to try and be the last man standing.
Govender (in call): I would-- I would walk by sometimes, see 'em playing after school, ya' know, and w-- w-- w-- without fail, I swear, it was always John standing alone at the top of that hill. (laughs)
Giraud: Right. Right. (chuckles)
Govender (in call): Every single day. As a matter of fact, I think the other kids ended up fighting for who got to be king of halfway up the hill 'cause nobody was messin' with John.
Ellie Bloom (in call): I definitely remember John. You're going way back.
Giraud (voiceover): That's Ellie Bloom, another lifelong resident of the Outer Colonies. When she was young, she and John lived on the same street, just a few houses down.
Bloom (in call): Well, he was a little younger than me, but, let me tell you, that boy did not look like a kindergartner. He was a big kid. My friend Katrina and I used to meet him in this vacant lot in the neighborhood. The three of us would build these obstacle courses out of random junk and then race. Ya' know, just kid stuff.
Giraud (voiceover): As Ellie talked about her early years in Elysium, it wasn't long before she was getting nostalgic.
Bloom (in call): On warm nights, sometimes our parents would let us go out to the green space and lie in the grass. And we'd just lie there, stare up at the stars. It was a nice place to go out.
Giraud (voiceover): Finding Ellie was a huge win for me. When a planet's been glassed tracking down former residents can be damn near impossible. Any records kept locally; paper, hardened data storage, even human memories; after a full-scale glassing, they're just gone. Thankfully, though, the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, had furnished me with a list of interviewees. That's how I'd gotten Deon. But I wanted to go the extra mile with this story, so I'd hit up some of my old connections in the Outer Colonies looking for more sources. Ellie was my only hit so far.
Giraud: Did you-- did you keep in touch with John?
Bloom (in call): No. I wasn't allowed to use Waypoint much when I was little. But I did keep in touch with Katrina. We still talk, actually. You know, she probably remembers John. I'm gonna tell her I talked to you. Wait-- uh, what was this for again? This a military thing?
Giraud: Oh. (laughs) No. No, John, uh, John is, uh, the Master Chief.
Bloom (in call): What? He's--
Giraud: Yeah, Jo- John became the Master Chief.
Bloom (in call): Like, the Master Chief?
Giraud: Yep.
Bloom (in call): Oh my God! No-- no way! Are you serious?!
Giraud: (laughs) I'm not kidding you, I'm telling--
Bloom (in call): Oh my God! That's crazy!
Giraud (voiceover): Ellie lost her mind for a few minutes. I guess it's not every day you find out that your childhood playmate saved the galaxy.
Ellie (in call): Oh my God, now I'm definitely telling Katrina! I mean, she is gonna freak out!
Giraud (voiceover): Alright, so maybe Ellie wasn't gonna be much help. I needed more of the 'young warrior' angle. Here's Deon again.
Govender (in call): Oh, did I tell you the boxing story?
Giraud: No. No, no, what's that? Not yet.
Govender (in call): Ok, ok, so-- I taught the primary kids, ya' know, right? But I also ran this-- this boxing league at the high school-- Now second week, the second week we're doing drills in the gym, John walks in.
Giraud: Yeah.
Govender (in call): Now, mind you, John is in sixth grade at the time. I say, "Hey, John, what's up?" He says, "I wanna sign up for boxing."
Giraud: (laughs)
Govender: And I say, "John, you're twelve," ya' know? (chuckles) "What are you talking about?"
Giraud (voiceover): But John was adamant.
Govender (in call): Well-- (laughs) But I-- I look at him and he-- he ain't leaving.
Giraud: Right.
Govender (in call): So I said, ok, what the hell, figure let it be a formative lesson for the kid. I don't know, but it's-- so I put him in the ring with one of the smaller guys. John pummeled this boy! Was over in about fifteen seconds, ok? So I, well-- well, I put him in with this bruiser, now a real good fighter.
Giraud: Yeah?
Govender (in call): Ok? Good fighter. Two punches! John laid him out. Twelve years old!
Giraud (voiceover): I liked talking to Deon. He was warm and funny in that grandfatherly, memory-lane kind of way. I realized I'd gotten lost in it all when the narrative took a dark turn.
Govender (in call): But then, one week... John just didn't show up.
Giraud (voiceover): It was 2524. John was 13. That's when the nightmare of the Insurrection that had been plaguing the Outer Colonies finally landed on John's community. Under pressure from UNSC troops, the rebels were on their last leg, desperately seizing territory in the region and launching paranoid inquisitions to find spies. Civilian abductions and interrogations became commonplace.
Thomas Wu (in call): Uh, they would just... (sighs) Ya' know, um, question you. Just these meaningless questions, for... hours, and hours.
Giraud (voiceover): Thomas Wu was living on a neighboring colony when the rebels showed up and hit hard, sweeping up Thomas and thousands of others in raids. What followed was months of horribly overcrowded detainment, neglect, and often constant questioning.
Wu (in call): Ya' know, "Did you know this guy? What are the encryption codes for this system? That system?" You know, and you have no idea... what they're even asking you.
Giraud (voiceover): In the final couple months, Thomas says his captors started coming unhinged. And then toward the end, they just disappeared, leaving Thomas and hundreds of others locked up, starving. I don't want to play this part of the interview, but I'll tell you it got bad. He talks about being packed in like sardines. Warm bodies, cold bodies, people dying in the dark, the smell. He doesn't know how long it lasted, maybe weeks, but Thomas and many others survived. They made it out.
Wu (in call): Well, you know, we-- we-- we helped each other, ya' know, we looked out for each other, ya' know, and I mean that's-- that's-- that was the only way. And we, and we made it through to the liberation. (sighs) And then we left. No, we-- we-- we-- we never looked back.
Giraud (voiceover): When I asked him where the survivors relocated to, Thomas began to list off which cities were safe for refugees at the time. Decades later, he can still recite them all from memory. I asked about John's hometown.
Giraud: What about Elysium City?
Wu (in call): No. Insurrectionist cesspool. Yeah-- no, they got it bad there.
Giraud (voiceover): Deon Govender confirms this.
Govender (in call): In Elysium City, people just disappeared back then. Just happened. Once Insurrectionists took over, whole neighborhoods just got scooped up.
Giraud (voiceover): This went on for months. He talks about watching his community get torn apart slowly, every day. I asked him about John.
Govender (in call): Yeah. Him and his parents. John missed the first practice... then the last one. Back then, seemed like everybody h... I'm sorry. (clears throat)
Giraud: No, no no, it's fine, take your time.
Giraud (voiceover): It was hard watching Deon break down like this. He just looked defeated. These kinds of interviews are brutal. I wanted to comfort him but it just felt condescending. Like I have any idea what it was like for him. So we were quiet for a bit. Before we ended, though, he said this:
Govender (in call): I think that if anything good can be said to have come for all of this, it's that... everyone who went through it can know that their struggle wasn't for nothing. When you have a young man who can rise up from something like this and do what John has done, he honors all of us.
Giraud (voiceover): Deon believed in John the way the rest of us believe in the Master Chief. He made it seem like this tragedy that shaped him was almost necessary. I certainly felt like I had the proper beginnings to a hero's origin story. The story made sense, it felt right. Sometimes, you have to go back though. Look again, because maybe you'll see something, something small... out of place. That single thread. Later that evening, after my interview with Deon, I was pretty drained, so I spent some time sifting through a bunch of file boxes. I'd paid this scavenger in the Outer Colonies to dig around and send over any Elysium City documents she could find. The only local government records left were hard copies but I took them anyway. I was sorting through a messy box of local census registries, when I stumbled across John's name. One line of basic information printed out in black and white. That's when I saw it. A single letter next to his name: D. I was staring at an official document that said quite plainly that in 2517, John died at six years old. Please join me for the next episode of Hunt the Truth.
Benjamin(Blog): An obscure record from the far reaches of the galaxy contradicts everything. Government officials and conspiracy theorists weigh in. Stories of a remarkable young man are once again torn down by conflicting accounts. Episode 02: BAD RECORDS
Benjamin (voiceover): I couldn't believe it. According to the document I was looking at, John, the boy who would go on to become the Master Chief, died forty-one years ago. My protagonist, the greatest hero of our time, was dead at six. It was a major discrepancy - and I needed to find a way to fix it.
I'm Benjamin Giraud, and this is Hunt the Truth.
[theme music]
Office of Naval Intelligence AI (in call): Continue to hold.
Benjamin (voiceover): If you ever happen to obtain sufficient clearance to call the Office of Naval Intelligence, you'll be on hold for at least an hour. If you ever happen to get a call from them, you will also ... wait an hour. And in the end, they never unblock the video, so you just end up talking to a really crisp insignia.
Benjamin (in call): I am waiting to talk to Michael Sullivan, hoping he can help me with my little ... records problem.
ONI AI (in call): Continue to hold.
Benjamin: And it's been ... eighty-five minutes.
Benjamin (voiceover): Michael Sullivan, also known as Sully, works for the ONI in public relations. If it seems odd to you that the most secretive agency in our government has a PR department, you're not alone, but that's not something I'd mention to them. Besides, Sully had hooked me up with the assignment in the first place. I was grateful for the opportunity.
ONI AI (in call): Office of Naval Intelligence. Public relations.
Sullivan (in call): Ben!
Benjamin (in call): H- Hi! Sully, hey! Ah yeah, thanks for taking my call.
Sullivan: Absolutely. How are the sources?
Benjamin (voiceover): Up until this point, I'd had no problems with the story. All my facts had been lining up nicely, but now ... I had an obscure document from the far reaches of the galaxy that listed John as deceased. This contradicted everything. I needed Sully to make it make sense, and thankfully, he did just that.
Sullivan (in call): Welcome to the Outer Colonies! Nothing makes sense out there.
Benjamin (in call): No, I know, I know, it's just, uh- I just wanted to make sure that I buttoned up all the details.
Sullivan: And that's what you're doing! Look, Ben - it's the far reaches of space out there, and the planet you're talkin' about was glassed to hell. You know just as well as anybody that if there are any local records, they're a mess.
Benjamin (voiceover): OK, so - I felt a little stupid. Sully was right - it's a real problem in the Outer Colonies: planets destroyed by glassing have bad records. Every researcher knows this, and every researcher knows that questioning that fact is standard fodder for conspiracy theories.
Mshak (in call): It's a coverup! That's Government Secrecy 101!
Benjamin (voiceover): That's a message I received last week from a man named Mshak Moradi. He's one of many truthers out there who've come out of the woodwork since I started doing this story. Apparently, he heard I was investigating the Master Chief. Mshak seems less ridiculous than most of the characters who've been filling up my inbox, but he's definitely been the most persistent. He's left me a message every day for the past two months. I never respond, but I did find the timing of his last message pretty funny.
Mshak (in call): Let me guess - the government is telling you that the records don't make sense because the planet was glassed. Right? That's what they tell you!
Benjamin (voiceover): Technically, Mshak was right. That was what the government was telling me. But unfortunately for Mshak's theory, it was true - glassed planets have bad records. John's childhood friend Ellie Bloom has dealt with this reality her whole life.
Ellie (in call): ... you have no idea ...
Benjamin (voiceover): I recalled what she'd said in her interview.
Ellie (in call): I mean, it can be hard enough out here trying to do business between planets that haven't been glassed. There's so much upheaval. Keeping track of personal records, financial documents, medical records - it's a total crapshoot.
Benjamin (voiceover): In retrospect, I'd probably been asking for this kind of hiccup. Getting cute with the research, opening up a rat's nest of old paper records - and for what? All I'd dug up from slogging on my own was a few hazy kindergarten stories from Ellie and a nonsensical death record.
But - things were looking up. Sully had arranged a face-to-face interview with ONI Vice Admiral Gabriella Dvorak. That not only got me offworld, but it was onboard the newest Autumn-class heavy cruiser, the UNSC Unto The Breach. Got a private shuttle up, full luxury - they had me riding in style. When I came aboard, Dvorak even greeted me personally.
Now, civilians aren't normally allowed onboard an active duty ship, let alone given this sort of attention.
Benjamin (in recording): Ah, I-
Dvorak (in recording): Please. Call me Gabriella.
Benjamin (in recording): Okay ...
Benjamin (voiceover): This was not the kind of hospitality I was used to.
Benjamin (in recording): Um, what- what, uh, brings you way out here?
Dvorak (in recording): [brief laugh] Work.
Benjamin (voiceover): She told me she was on a detachment and in the neighbourhood. I guess I lucked out. The white-glove treatment continued too - captain's mess, officer's quarters, the whole thing. By the time we finally got to her office for the interview, Dvorak could have said anything and I'd have been thrilled. But she's the real deal, and she jumped right into it.
Dvorak (in recording): It was that 'finally' moment. After all the fighting was done, I was helping lead all the prisoners out of the containers. (fade)
Benjamin (voiceover): As lieutenant in the UNSC, Gabriella not only took part in the grand operations that freed John and countless others from the rebel labour camps in Elysium City, but she remembered the 13-year-old as well. She described the liberation.
Dvorak (in recording): When you saw them, what had been done to them, you realized who you'd been fighting to save. The aftermath of it, ah ... it was ugly. Everyone was streaming out into the daylight squinting, limping, just - grey and fragile and sickly. Their ... backs were hunched, all their eyes just staring at the ground, and - they looked ... they looked dead.
Benjamin (voiceover): That's when she saw John.
Dvorak (in recording): He was sticking out like a sore thumb. In the middle of all this - just - beaten humanity, there's this ... tall, young kid walking toward me, towering over the others, his shoulders back, his eyes forward, and when he passed me, he looked right at me. Looked in my eyes. Ah, I mean, that doesn't sound like much, but that eye contact coming from someone in that moment, who'd been in that circumstances ... was shocking. He looked malnourished and dehydrated like everybody else, but he was so young, and whatever had broken all these people - it hadn't broken him.
Benjamin (voiceover): In the aftermath, Dvorak remained stationed in Elysium City, working in the refugee camps. From the first day, John stepped up to help Gabriella with her duties. She came to know him well over the next several months.
Dvorak (in recording): There was a point when he told me about his parents. That they'd been abducted along with him. He didn't say much, but, um ... they didn't make it.
Benjamin (voiceover): Her understanding was that it had gotten ugly in there. They died a couple days apart, a few weeks before the Liberation - and John was there when it happened. On the rare occasion when John opened up about this, Dvorak says it was memorable.
Dvorak (in recording): He would get this look on his face when he talked about - eh - it's hard to describe. I'd see it on him other times too - he seemed to feel the weight of all that had happened, but still ... he was calm. Not angry, not desperate, just ... resolute. He was a remarkable young man.
Benjamin (voiceover): Like so many people at the time in Elysium City, and throughout this region of the galaxy, John had lost his home, his family, everything. People packed up whatever they had left, got out of town, and most never looked back. But Deon Govender - John's boxing coach - said many of them found a way to get some measure of closure.
Deon (in call): (fade in) Yeah, yeah, definitely. We all got separated and spread out across the planet and all the Colonies, but - some of us were able to cobble together a list of names. An, uh - kind of a memorial, that grew longer as we got more information. Yeah ... I remember seeing John's parents' names on the list early on, but ... but not John. After he missed that last practice ... never saw him again, but ... I remember thinking, "That's OK, you know, as long as I never see his name on this list, that's OK." And I never did.
Benjamin (voiceover): His will to survive left an impression on then-Lieutenant Gabriella Dvorak as well.
Dvorak (in recording): I think ... John just didn't wanna be a victim any more. I remember him telling me he was gonna enlist. He said he was gonna make a difference. I've never been more sure of another person than I was of him when he said that.
Benjamin (voiceover): Out of the chaos of war, from the rubble, a young John was able to forge a purpose for himself. A purpose that would drive him to become the hero the galaxy would one day need him to be. This is the kind of turn in a story that gives me patriotic goosebumps. I was feeling genuinely moved on my trip back home. When I got there, though, Ellie Bloom was gonna ruin all that for me.
Ellie (in call): Hey, I just wanted to follow up with you about your story. I'm - really confused.
Benjamin (in call): OK, uh, what's-
Ellie: Remember how I said I was gonna tell my friend Katrina about it?
Benjamin (voiceover): Katrina was that other girl in John's neighbourhood - the third wheel in Ellie's childhood stories of playing with John. Ellie had moved offplanet in 2517, but Katrina had stayed.
Ellie (in call): Sh- she said that John was dead. He died when he was six.
Benjamin (in call): Wai- wait a minute, wait, what?
Ellie: John was perfectly healthy, but then he just started wasting away. At first I thought maybe it was some autoimmune thing and then they thought it was something else, and then something else, and then meanwhile he's getting all these tests but the doctors couldn't figure it out at all, and his parents were panicking, I ... it sounded horrible.
Benjamin (voiceover): Then - John died. Just like that. I had no idea what to make of this. Ellie seemed convinced, though, so I got her to put me in touch with her friend Katrina. Katrina wouldn't let me record the interview, but this woman was adamant. I wanted to discount what she was saying, but she seemed to remember it so vividly, providing extensive detail - I couldn't ignore it. As far as this person was concerned, John - was - dead. Before I could even begin to wrap my head around that claim, though, here was the kicker from Katrina: John's parents were alive and well in Elysium City, all the way up until Katrina left the planet in 2528 - four years after their supposed death. She was wrong. She had to be thinking of someone else, or - she was lying? Why would she lie, though? I had to admit, she seemed pretty convincing, but - it didn't make sense otherwise. I still thought I could fix the story, though - make the pieces fit. Make it make sense. But what I didn't realize was that this crack was only the beginning - and the whole ugly mess was about to split open.
Please join me for the next episode of Hunt the Truth.
[theme music]
Benjamin(Blog): Conversations with retired military paint very different pictures of John. More questions arise about John's home planet and his involvement in a violent training incident. The cracks in the official account widen, and Benjamin is drawn in. Episode 03: CRITICAL CONDITION
Benjamin: Ray, you've- tell me you got something.
Ray: U-Um, yeah-- I do.
Benjamin (voiceover): Ray Kersig is a good friend of mine, and a completely emotionless robot. I mean that in the best way. As an independent analyst, he's the most efficient and resourceful researcher I know. That's why I'd sicced him on this story a few days earlier. I needed to debunk the claims of Ellie's friend Katrina. He was in the area on business, so he took the time to come down and meet with me in my home office.
Benjamin (on recording): So Katrina told me that John died at six years old.
Ray: Right.
Benjamin: And his parents, who supposedly died in a rebel prison, were still alive years later.
Ray: Right.
Benjamin: Now, this woman's ruining my story, Ray. They- Tell me, te- te-te- tell me why she's lying.
Ray: Well - she's not.
Benjamin (voiceover): Ray had found copious financial records indicating that John's parents were not just alive past 2524, but working and paying their bills.
Benjamin (on recording): They died in 2524! Come on, man!
Ray: Well, sorry! Their employers, and a preponderance of local merchants, disagree with you. I mean ... the central repositories were really thin, but you dig through enough mirrored archives, it all pops up. ... The records are there!
[BG: Ray and Ben talking on record, Benjamin laughing]
Benjamin (voiceover): Ray swiped through document after document corroborating this. He even showed me medical insurance claims for a pediatric autoimmune specialist in 2517 - exactly when Katrina said John got sick. I was laughing, but I didn't find any of it funny. I'm Benjamin Giraud, and this is Hunt the Truth.
[theme music]
Office of Naval Intelligence AI (in call): [chime] Continue to hold.
Benjamin (in call): Oh, jeez ... come on, come on, come on, come on ...
Office of Naval Intelligence AI: Office of Naval Intelligence. [chime] Public relations.
Benjamin: Finally. Hey! Sully!
Sullivan (in call): Tell me good things, Ben.
Benjamin (voiceover): It was disconcerting to be talking to the ONI insignia again, but I started positive. The story was going really well - but that little data problem. The death record - it was back. I was hoping Sully would smooth it out for me.
Sullivan (in call): Ben ... ugh, I thought we talked about this. Glassed planets have bad records.
Benjamin (in call): No, I- I know, I know, I just, um--
Sullivan (speaking over Benjamin): Glassed planets have bad records, Ben, this is Colonial journalism 101. A- Are you serious with this? (louder) Glassed planets have bad records--
Benjamin (continuing to talk): --it's not just the records, actually, no, no- listen, Sully, if you could- pe- people are saying- people are saying- (louder, silencing Sullivan) Listen, do Co- Hey-- Do glassed people have bad records?
Sullivan: ... Ben, are you recording right now?
Benjamin: Yes. [chime]
Benjamin (voiceover): That was my cue to stop recording. The off-the-record conversation was brief. Sully asked me if I wanted to do the next interview, What he meant was, "do you want to keep this job?" I said yes.
Office of Naval Intelligence AI (in call): Your call is over. [termination sound, into:]
Jacob Walker (in call): Well, as you can see, I've pretty much permanently stationed myself on this beach.
Benjamin (voiceover): That was my next interview. Jacob Walker, retired navy. He lives in a beach community way out on Castellaneta. The first thing I noticed about Walker when he answered my call was that he wasn't wearing a shirt, which made us both laugh. He explained that after twenty-eight years of service, as far as he was concerned, it was all R&R, all the time. I couldn't argue with that philosophy. He slipped on a T-shirt and I asked him about the Master Chief.
Walker (in call): Oh, hell yeah, John - you bet your ass I remember him. (fades, continues)
Benjamin (voiceover): Walker's career began three decades ago with Naval Force Reconnaissance School at Black Sea. Little did he know boot camp would turn out to be something he'd never forget. Walker was there alongside the young man who would become the Master Chief. The gravity of that was not lost on him.
Walker (in call): I mean, they pushed us real hard, but John - well, he pushed us even harder, without even trying. You screwed up, you didn't know whether to be more scared of the CO or John.
Benjamin (voiceover): I first thought Walker was unimpressed.
Walker (in call): Oh, no, man - I remember ... think it was the first week, there was a lot of talk. We were outside the mess tent, me and these other two jackasses gettin' into it, chests all puffed up and talkin' about bein' cold-blooded killers, and steppin' on necks, all that. Not wantin' to be in leadership one day. And, o' course, I was 19 and jacked as hell, so - well, I figured I only had so much competition. Meanwhile, here's this quiet nobody from nowhere, standing on the fringes, looking at the horizon ... John. Heh. Him. First I thought he was 20, 21 - he was a big dude. Turns out he was only 16. Heh. I mean, that kid wasn't even on the radar. (fades, continues)
Benjamin (voiceover): Soon, though, Walker says all that machismo fell to the wayside, and a real leader emerged in John.
Walker (in call): ... training exercises, whoever finished last got the brunt. I mean, last one in on the 20-mile? You're walking back while we catch a Pelican dropship. And that there's some downright lethal terrain, too. Reach is ... well, it was a tough planet. But John - man, he- he took lead every time. Lot of risk and responsibility. Didn't have to, but- hell, he did it. And then, halfway in, he started to hang back, you know, and- help the stragglers. You're injured, whatever - he'd be right there helping you out.
Benjamin (voiceover): And then without fail, Walker says, John always made sure he came in last - and took the punishment.
Walker (in call): It was the way he did it all - he made us all wanna follow his lead. Try harder, help each other - I mean, we're supposed to do that, but nobody ever really wanted to, until then. Anyway, we did it. But takin' the hit for the group, now that was John's thing. I only challenged him for the honour once. I never made that mistake again.
Benjamin (voiceover): Walker's in his early fifties now, but he seemed lit up with the energy of a much younger man. It seems the will that he and the other recruits had, in a sense, borrowed from John so many years ago, was still inspiring Walker. It was remarkable - he knew John, lived with him for months, yet to him, John still seemed to be an almost mythical character.
Walker (in call): What he was able to do, gettin' back on his own like that in the pitch black, no nav equipment. Man, hah- he- he was inhuman.
Petrovsky (in call): That kid was a monster, like they all were.
Benjamin (voiceover): Anthony Petrovsky, retired Orbital Drop Shock Trooper I found through Mshak Moradi. Yes, that Mshak Moradi - the truther who's been messaging me for months. And yes, I was pretty desperate for leads. We'll leave it at that. But Petrovsky was definitely not on Sully's list of approved sources, so I went off-grid and contacted him through Chatternet. Here he is, talking about his only encounter with John.
Petrovsky (in call): That kid was a freak.
Benjamin (in call): [sigh] Can you be more specific?
Petrovsky: Yeah, I'd be happy to. You know - me and a bunch of guys were sparring in the gym one day, and there was this ...
Benjamin: Mmhm.
Petrovsky: ... young kid there, I mean - I guess you could call him a kid, he was- he was pretty jacked, you know, but his face looked twelve, maybe thirteen.
Benjamin (voiceover): Twelve or thirteen? After enlisting, John didn't even finish boot camp until at least seventeen. Petrovsky had to be wrong about his age, but I let it go.
Petrovsky (in call): Anyway, I guess he was actin' tough. When one of the guys, uh, asked his name, he told him, but he kind of, you know, gave him attitude, right? So - people start mouthing off, next thing I know, CPO orders the kid and four other guys into the ring. 'Cause it was supposed to, uh-
Benjamin (in call): W- h-hold on, Anthony, wait - you're - you're telling me that the CPO ordered four soldiers to fight a high school kid?
Petrovsky: No, a twelve- or thirteen-year-old, like I said.
Benjamin: Yeah, fine, either way - the CPO ordered four ODSTs to fight a kid?
Petrovsky (under): Yeah, man - (alone) you got it all wrong, okay, because those four ODSTs ... were like lambs to the slaughter.
Benjamin: What, John outfought them?
Petrovsky: No. No, no, no. It was way worse.
Benjamin (voiceover): As he tells it, the ODSTs did as they were ordered. They surrounded John, and one of them swung. What happened next, Petrovsky says, defied explanation.
Petrovsky (in call): 'Cause the sound this kid's fists made ... it sounded awful. 'Cause they weren't, like, punches, they were like - rapid-fire explosions. OK? I was across the gym, but I heard it. It was sick. Like meaty cracks in a drumroll. Just, [imitating the sound] BA-da-da-BA-da-da-BA-da-da-BA-da-da-BA.
Benjamin (voiceover): One of the ODSTs sustained a single body blow that instantly stopped his heart, killing him. Another trooper only took one shot from John as well - a punch that caved in the man's face. Two fatalities, one ODST with a cracked pelvis, and one with a shattered spine - that guy never walked again. No one had to break up the fight. It was over in less than five seconds.
Benjamin (in call): Wait, he ki- he killed them?
Petrovsky (in call): He did, it was impossible.
Benjamin: What do you mean impossible? Like, how-
Petrovsky: Like, like not human, alright? Like he was genetically augmented.
Benjamin: So you're, you're telling me that someone ... had augmented John, someone had genetically augmented a child?
Petrovsky: [draws breath] OK. Right.
Benjamin: No?
Petrovsky: You think I'm lyin'.
Benjamin (overlapping): I- I believe that's what you honestly think you saw, but-
Petrovsky (at the same time): Alright. No, sure, right, hey - it- (alone) loo-, look, here's the thing, Ben - I don't care if you believe me or not, this makes no difference in my world. I was there and you were somewhere else. So - y- y- you're gonna go write your little military cheerleader article, and - I'm gonna sit here and drink beer. So, good luck.
Benjamin (voiceover): Petrovsky left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Now it's no shocker that Spartans go through a few augmentations and upgrades, but those are fully developed adults. Could a seventeen-year-old - probably still growing - even survive that kind of procedure? It seemed horribly risky, and what if what Petrovsky was saying was true, and John was only thirteen? Well, that was one hell of an accusation to make, the ethical implications of which were nauseating. I was still thinking about it the next day when Ellie Bloom's name popped up in my call list. I'd let her listen to a rough version of my first episode and she had feedback for me. I didn't want to risk anyone listening in, so I let the call go, then hit her back on Chatternet.
Ellie (in call): Well, two things.
Benjamin (in call): OK.
Ellie: Two major things.
Benjamin: OK. Yeah.
Ellie: That boxing coach?
Benjamin: Deon Govender, yeah?
Ellie: He's lying.
Benjamin: W- ah, OK, how is ... he lying?
Ellie: There wasn't any boxing at the high school.
Benjamin: How do you know for sure?
Ellie: Because there wasn't any boxing on the entire planet.
Benjamin (voiceover): She said they'd outlawed it forever ago, after a kid got injured. Afterwards, there was a long-standing controversy over how youth boxing was illegal, but no one seemed to care about all the gravball concussions kids were getting. Regardless, by the turn of the century, she tells me nobody really boxed on Eridanus II anymore. She even gut-checks me, telling me to go ahead, ask anybody from the colony, they'd tell me the same thing.
Ellie (in call): And there sure as hell wasn't a league for kids to do it at the high school! That's like saying there was a gun range at the toy store. It just didn't happen. And the other thing - those kidnappings by rebels in Elysium? Also didn't happen.
Benjamin (in call): Hold on. I- I know that's not true. Y- you're wrong. OK? The Insurrection had a well-documented presence in Elysium.
Ellie (in call): Yeah, they did politically - they worked to influence local policy. It got tense, there was occasional violence, but nobody was "abducted". We lucked out. It was peaceful. That's why Elysium was refugee central. So, boxing coach? Total liar.
Benjamin (voiceover): I needed to verify what she was saying, but I had the gnawing sense she was telling the truth again. But what did this mean? If she was right and none of that happened, the whole story was wrong, and terrifyingly - that would mean someone had fabricated all of it. I needed explanations from my previous sources, and I needed them now. I tried to reach Deon, the boxing coach - no response. Gabriella Dvorak, the lieutenant who liberated John - in the field, unreachable. So I tried detainment survivor Thomas Wu. He answered.
Thomas (in call): [chime] Hello.
Benjamin (in call): Hi. Thomas?
Thomas: Who is this?
Benjamin: Yeah, I'm- I'm sorry to, uh, call so late - is it- is it late there? I ju- I just need to ask you something really quickly.
Thomas: Okay.
Benjamin (voiceover): I had no idea what I was gonna ask.
Benjamin (in call): OK, OK, do you ... know for absolute certain that Elysium suffered the same fate as your town?
Thomas (in call): Um, yeah. I told you that.
Benjamin: I, I, I know, but Thomas, I spoke to people who were in Elysium, and they said that wasn't true. Now, I- now look, I- I know you went through a lot, but I just- I wanna know the truth.
Thomas: ... OK.
Benjamin: Do you know, for absolute certain, that Elysium City was under the violent control of Insurrectionists?
Thomas: [sighs] Look, what I told you before - that is the best I can remember.
Benjamin: No, I'm sorry, ah, I'm sorry, but I don't believe that. You remembered it all perfectly. You rattled off the name of every single safe haven city in that region and you only hesitated once.
Benjamin (voiceover): I was completely making this part up. I was going for broke.
Benjamin (in call): You only hesitated where you would have said 'Elysium City', right?
Thomas (in call): I mean, I, I, look, I-I-I-I don't know for sure--
Benjamin: Bu- bu- but Ely- Elysium wasn't captured by the Insurrectionists, was it?
Thomas: ... Hey, what are you, defending them?
Benjamin: No. I'm, I'm definitely not defe--
Thomas: You know, after what they did, you can defend them? They left us locked up for weeks. They let all those people j- jus- jus- just die. And they did that all over the Outer Colonies. I mean, what does it matter if it was Elysium or somewhere else? After everything that they did, that-
Benjamin: Thomas, Thomas -- Thomas - look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I have to bring it up, I just-
Thomas: I just want peace of mind for my family, that's all I want is just ...
Benjamin: Wait. W- I, uh, I don't understand. [hesitantly] How does lying about Insurrectionists in Elysium buy you peace of mind for your family?
Benjamin (voiceover): At that moment, Thomas suddenly seemed to become entirely lucid, and his tone changed completely.
Thomas (in call): I shouldn't be talking to you.
Benjamin (in call): W- wait, Thomas, hold on-
Thomas: I can't. Leave us alone. [termination sound]
Benjamin (voiceover): I suddenly became lucid myself, with a single, awful realisation: that entire conversation had just taken place over Waypoint. Anyone could have been listening.
[theme music]
Benjamin: Please join me for the next episode of Hunt the Truth.
Benjamin(Blog): Rumors of discontent across the military and rumblings in the Outer Colonies are detected. A mandatory meeting at ONI branch headquarters takes an unexpected turn. Episode 04: CROSSING THE BLACK
Thomas Wu (in call): I shouldn't be talking to you.
Benjamin (in call): W- wait, Thomas, hold on-
Thomas: I can't. Leave us alone. [termination sound]
(Call ends)
Giraud: Oh God. O- no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Go down! No way! No way! No way that- you did not just-
Giraud (voiceover): If you want privacy online, ChatterNet is a pretty good bet: not foolproof, but relatively difficult for the government to monitor. Waypoint, on the other hand, is wide open. Supposedly, the Office of Naval Intelligence has software on the network capable of listening to every single conversation galaxy wide, and if you say the wrong thing... the conversation gets flagged.
Giraud: (continuing) Oh God! What did I just do?!
Giraud (voiceover): What I had just done was conduct an unsanctioned followup interview with a survivor of a war camp, accused him of lying about it, basically got him to admit that lie, and then ended by possibly indicating my employer, the most powerful military agency in history, in either bribery or coercion. I'd done all of that on Waypoint. I thought I was going to throw up.
Giraud: (continuing) Wait a min- wait a minute- wait a minute- wait a minute-
Giraud (voiceover): Maybe it wasn't that bad. I went and listened back. Would they flag that word? What about that one? That phrase sounds bad by itself but not in context. The factor in tone of voice, right? I was sitting there emotionally guessing how an insanely sophisticated algorithm is weighted. Basically, I was trying to outsmart a legion of robots.
Giraud: (continuing) Damn it, Ben!
Giraud (voiceover): It was too late. Those words were gone. That data had been processed. And I had either been flagged, or I hadn't. I had no idea what would happen next. I'm Benjamin Giraud and this is Hunt the Truth.
Mshak Moradi: Benjamin!
Giraud (voiceover): I've never been so happy to hear from Mshak Moradi. I made him triple check the security of our call.
Moradi: (continuing) Relax! We are under the tin foil hat of secrecy. (laughs) Seriously though, we are fully secure.
Giraud (voiceover): Mshak could probably tell I was desperate when after months of his unsolicited theories, I actually solicited one.
Giraud: (continuing) What's going on out there right now?
Moradi: I'm glad you asked. Strong patterns: a lot of chatter in the military bars, soldiers drunk and unhappy. Local graffiti corroborates these complaints. The helmet overfloweth!
Giraud (voiceover): This is how Mshak talks. For a while I thought maybe there was an actual group of people somewhere that used these terms, but there's not. It's just Mshak.
Moradi: (continuing) My prognosis? Ripples in the ranks. Army, Orbital Shock Troopers, Marines. Across the board; men at arms, up in arms.
Giraud (voiceover): When soldiers get frustrated, they get sloppy with their communication. The more frustration, the more unsecured chatter. Right now, there was a lot of both.
Moradi: (continuing) And there's a sizable leak of, booyah, worthy transmissions distilling the slush.
Giraud (voiceover): Ah, the slush. That immense soup of data siphoned off of insecure networks. The preferred source for nutjobs everywhere. The data's all legit, there's just such an ungodly huge amount of it that it's practically useless. To Mshak's credit though, he somehow managed to draw somewhat sound conclusions from it on occasion. It was kind of amazing. I asked why there was so much discontent across the military.
Moradi: (continuing) M.C. One-one-scepter.
Giraud (voiceover): That's Mshak for the Chief.
Moradi: (continuing) He's off being creative. He could be off the grid. FLEETCOM's trying to smokescreen like they're on top of his posish, but their not. The trombones are playing the brown note on that one and the grunts are a-grumbling. The military is one pissed off polygon right now.
Giraud (voiceover): Apparently, some are even questioning Master Chief's motivations and allegiances. The word traitor has been used.
Giraud: (continuing) Seriously? If he's disobeying orders that's bad, but calling the Chief a traitor? The guy who legitimately saved humanity multiple times, that's just- come on.
Moradi: Either way, you haven't considered the underlined question. M.C. is the precedent for free reign in the military. He's responsible for protecting a galaxy. A job that big requires absolute mobility. But then, that's a lot of power to give one man, hence the dichotomy, Benjamin. Power and responsibility.
Giraud (voiceover): Mshak was getting philosophical, and making a lot of sense. When it comes to threats against us though, this issue of power and responsibility has always been shrouded in secrecy. As civilians we don't know what's happening, who's out there, what their doing. And according to Mshak, that ignorance could be about to blow up in our faces again.
Moradi: (continuing) There's something else afoot, Benjamin, out here in deep space. I hoped these events would turn out to be random, but now it's... it could be bad.
Giraud: (voiceover) Mshak was a lot of things, but never vague. I asked him what sort of bad he was talking about.
Moradi: (continuing) Electromagnetic fluctuations, slipspacious disruptions, epidemic data corruption. All of it, ya' know, what's happening? It's quiet, it's slight, but it's effecting... everything. Ripples on a gigantic scale. I'm talking whole star systems, it's just- I don't want to say I'm frightened, ya' know what I mean? (phone ring) But to be honest-
Giraud: I'm sorry, Mshak. Hold on a second. Just... hold on.
Giraud (voiceover): As Mshak's sketch of a horrifying reality started to emerge, the last thing I wanted to do was interrupt him but I'd just been reminded of a more immediate, horrifying reality. From Sully, an event on my calendar, no message.
Giraud: (continuing) Oh no.
Giraud: (voiceover) My stomach dropped. My flight to ONI's Boston headquarters left in three hours. They were calling me in. This had never happened to me before. I said goodbye to Mshak. It now seemed painfully clear that my Waypoint conversation with Thomas Wu had been flagged. By the time I landed on Earth I was one giant ulcer. I'd spent every sleepless night's hour running over everything in my head. The conflicting stories I'd heard, the gut twisting possibilities of what would happen in Boston. I looked and felt like death. All I was looking forward to at this point was Petra Janecek. I'd hit her up right before I left, asked if she'd meet me near the ONI campus. Thankfully, she said yes. Petra and I are in the same line of work. We make the government look good. The last time I saw her was six years ago in New Mombasa, the day it happened. We were both there. We both saw the Chief do what he did. But afterwards, while I retreated to a quiet little hamlet across the galaxy, Petra stuck around and made a name for herself. I was hoping she could throw me a lifeline, so I threw some cold water on my face, pulled myself together, and met up with her at a local pub.
Petra Janecek: Ya' know, for a guy just returning from a six year spirit-walk in deep space, I'm impressed. You actually showed up on time.
Giraud (voiceover): Same old Petra. She'd already knew I got the Master Chief assignment and she was not happy. Apparently she was still waiting for her face to face exclusive with the Chief. I refrained from laughing out loud at that little fantasy, but she continued with the ball busting anyway.
Janecek: (continuing) So why are you here? No wait, lemme guess, lemme guess the title of your story: "Heroism Untold".
Giraud: (laughs) Something like that.
Janecek: Yeah, I'm sure it's hard-hitting. What's a Sully commissioned exposé look like nowadays, anyway? An ONI one-sheet of approved sources?
Giraud: Yeah. (laughs)
Janecek: Whatever, you can do a fluff-piece over Waypoint from your rebel rock. So, again, why are you here?
Giraud (voiceover): If you haven't noticed yet, Petra cuts to the chase.
Giraud: (continuing) Sully called me in.
Janecek: Sully? He what? He called you here?
Giraud: Yeah, yeah, that's what I wanted to talk to you about.
Giraud (voiceover): I told her about confronting Thomas Wu. How I'd contradicted a statement of his that was probably supposed to be Sully's main deliverable for the interview. Not only did Petra not see the problem with that though, she seemed to think it was cute.
Janecek: (continuing) Whoa! Whoa! Old Ben G-raud! You're coming off the bench feisty.
Giraud: No, no, no, no- I, I, I-
Janecek: The guy's not gonna run on you. They'll just make him look as bad-
Giraud: I-I did the whole interview on Waypoint.
Giraud (voiceover): That got her attention.
Giraud: (continuing) I think it got flagged.
Janecek: You think it-
Giraud: I got the summons from Sully a few hours later.
Giraud (voiceover): Petra's face and voice hadn't changed, but her eyes were suddenly on fire.
Janecek: (continuing) Ben-
Giraud: I-I-I messed up, Petra.
Janecek: You messed up how? I-
Giraud: The story! The story! It was falling apart! And these inconsistencies between the sources-
Janecek: Inconsistencies, with ONI sources?
Giraud: No, with mine.
Janecek: You found sources in the Outer Colonies?
Giraud: Yeah, yeah I made friends in the past few years. I doubt Sully realized I'd have that resource in my arsenal.
Janecek: He definitely didn't. Ben, listen to me. You used to be a government lapdog at your peak. Then you deep-spaced yourself into obscurity. You have no juice now, and that's why they picked you. Sully gives you this bone, you're supposed to be extra eternally grateful. Just wag your little tail, and play fetch. So why the hell are you peeing on the rug instead? Have you forgotten the way everything works?
Giraud: No, I don't know, I just- This is bad, Petra!
Janecek: Ben, it's-
Giraud: And it's not ancient history, either! There are rumblings in the Outer Colonies right now, maybe something really bad! I was talking last week to this guy I know-
Janecek: Mshak Moradi, I know.
Giraud: What?! H-How do you know that?
Janecek: I've continued being an actual journalist for the past six years, but who cares, Ben? I hear what you're saying ok?
Giraud: We can blow this thing open, Petra!
Janecek: (sigh) Ok. Alright, cowboy.
Giraud: No, seriously! This is big! I can't even begin to reconcile the things I'm hearing with the story I'm supposed to tell! Multiple sources that Chief died at six! Complete fabrications! Genetically augmenting kids!
Janecek: I know! They are crazy charging that much for a shore trip.
Giraud (voiceover): Suddenly, Petra was ranting about the beach, loudly, and digging the tip of her fingertip hard into my forearm. I just sat there totally confused as she rambled nonsense. Intermittently glancing down at her COM pad. What was happening? Then I understood... and I froze. They were listening. I'd figured there were cameras on us, there were always everywhere here, but there was full audio surveillance now too? Is that even possible? She glanced down at her COM pad one last time.
Janecek: (continuing) Ben?
Giraud: Are there ears on us?
Janecek: There were for the last forty-five seconds, but there are always eyes everywhere, so don't look so... dramatic. Talk about whatever you want, but look like you're talking about the weather and if I start actually talking about the weather, you play along, ok?
Giraud (voiceover): Apparently, the system didn't bother listening in until you gave it certain visual cues, facial expressions, body language, anything that looks intense like my little outburst, the video flags it and your conversation gets temporarily isolated. Petra's vacay babbling had just saved my ass.
Janecek: (continuing) Listen, I believe you that the truth about the story... is terrible, but what you're talking about doing, that's door-number-two stuff. You're a door-number-one guy.
Giraud: But I have-
Janecek: Oh, come on! Come on, what are you going to do, Ben? Get the real scoop? You're too sloppy, you can't do this, you're-you're out of touch. You haven't been-
Giraud: Maybe not by myself, but with your help, with other people's help-
Janecek: Honestly, I love the idea of cutting the strings and tearing it all down, but I'm sorry. It's not going to be today. And to be brutal, it's never going to be you.
Giraud: (voiceover) That was brutal. It stung. I got pissed. And then I immediately knew she was right.
Janecek: Ben, take the money. Do your job.
Giraud: God. Oh God. Oh God. I'm supposed to walk over there right now.
Janecek: Just- Hey, just tell Sully you were drunk, you were trying to get a rise out of the guy, something. Just play stupid. Besides you don't-you don't know you got flagged! This meeting could just be a coincidence.
Giraud: No, no, they called me in. This is so weird, I mean-
Janecek: You'll be fine. The worst thing they'll-
Giraud: They've never-
Janecek: Hey Ben, the worst thing they'll do is kill the story and cut you from rotation. That's probably it. I mean I can't imagine they would... no, you'll be fine. Just be a good dog. Knock 'em dead. I'll get the bill.
Giraud: Thanks, Petra.
Janecek: But Ben, if I were you, I'd upload whatever you got on the story before you go in, just send back ups to someone you trust, ya' know? Just-just in case.
Giraud (voiceover): That was the closest thing to concerned I'd ever heard from Petra. I immediately took her advice and was queuing up all my files to Ray as I crossed to Rainja Avenue toward ONI. The campus was integrated right into the city: a courtyard of dark buildings, mature oak trees, grass, walkways. It just looked like a campus. The only thing different about it was the side walk: twice as wide as it was across the street. In the inner half of the pavement was black stone. A thick, dark border several feet wide that surrounded the whole complex.
I walked right up to the obsidian half of the sidewalk and stopped. Something was off about the courtyard in front of me, like something was missing. I look both directions down the sidewalk. There were no fences or guards. Plenty of pedestrians, seemingly none of them paying attention to the complex as they passed, except for one tiny thing: none of them, not a single one of dozens of white-collar workers and shoppers and parents and kids walking up and down that sidewalk laid a foot anywhere near the black half of the pavement. On a twenty-five foot walkway, they were all moving single file, right up against the curb.
I turned and looked back at the campus, listening... no birds. That's what was missing. There were no birds in the trees. In fact, there was no sound in the air at all. Nothing moved. I stood at the edge of the obsidian. I had no choice. I swiped the transfer file over to Ray's hard drive, took a deep breath, crossed the black line...
Please join me for the next episode of Hunt the Truth.
Blog Posts
Benjamin(Blog): A few months ago I was hired to do an in-depth profile of the Master Chief. Join me each week for a new episode.
Benjamin(Blog): An investigation into the origins of modern-day superhero Master Chief, this digital log serves as part docu-diary, part audio archive. Join me each week for a new episode as we question everything and assume nothing.
Benjamin(Blog): For decades, I’ve served the galaxy as a journalist and war photographer. I’ve covered human-interest stories on Earth and in the Inner and Outer Colonies. I’ve also contracted for the government, covering military affairs. I was at New Mombasa when the Master Chief first appeared to combat the Covenant attack.
Benjamin(Blog): Here’s the offer letter from ONI, outlining the assignment. Sounded so easy when it all started. How could I say no?
Benjamin(Blog): Here it is. An old, tattered census record with one line of basic information and a single letter next to John’s name: D.
Benjamin(Blog): This is the infamous photo I took that fateful day at New Mombasa. Perfectly polished propaganda. But to give you the whole picture, here’s the original with UNSC and ONI notes. Never before seen.
Benjamin(Blog): These are just a few of the screens Katrina sent me after we spoke. Diary entries from when she was seven years old. Proving she knew John. Proving she was there when John died.
Benjamin(Blog): This is a photo I shot on a previous assignment. But it never saw the light of day because it didn’t pass UNSC standards. Very few got to see a planet firsthand after a Covenant glassing. To look out over all that death and destruction. The desolation is devastating. A petrified sea of what once was. This image has haunted me for years.
Benjamin(Blog): Here's a postcard Walker sent me from Castellaneta. The "sunny side" of Saturn looks nice. Not a bad place to retire.
Benjamin(Blog): Mshak sent me this picture of some UNSC recruitment posters featuring the Master Chief, all tagged to hell. The relationship between Spartans and ODST has always been a little shaky, but this seems like something else entirely.
Twitter Images
Deon Govender's boxing club ID.
Ben's video calls
Translation:NOTICE
All conversations and public actions are subject to monitoring and recording.
Any recording can be used as criminals research evidence in accordance with the UEG laws
19.224.124, 19.224.126, 25.12.2
Live action trailers
- Main articles: Halo 5: Guardians Spartan Locke Ad, Halo 5: Guardians Master Chief Ad
Two live action trailers were released on March 29th, 2015 as part of the marketing campaign.
Appearances
Characters
SpeciesOrganizations
Locations
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Events
WeaponsVehiclesEquipment and Technology
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Trivia
- With each successive turn, the bullet reads: SON, ABDUCTEE, VICTIM, ORPHAN, RECRUIT, SOLDIER, WARRIOR, ALLY, HERO, SAVIOR, TRAITOR. An image of this is shown below.
- Benjamin Giraud is voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, of the show Key & Peele.[2]
- Hunt the Truth establishes that Halo 2's cover art is actually an in-universe photograph captured and edited by Giraud.
- The circular symbols at the top of the Death Record are actually a modified form of Circular Gallifreyan from the British television show Doctor Who.
Gallery
A graphic showing the successive frames of the Halo 5 "Bullet" teaser
Halo 5 promotional art featuring Locke and John-117, displayed at the end of the "Bullet" teaser
The avatar used on the HUNT the TRUTH SoundCloud profile
The countdown to the HUNT the TRUTH reveal on March 23, 2015
Locke and John-117
A grid from the site
The subtle differences between the two live action trailers.
An ad for Hunt the Truth with John-117.
An ad for Hunt the Truth with Jameson Locke.
