Wallace Jenkins

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

— Private Jenkins, after entering a Flood containment room.

"Boy, you've always got a bad feeling about something!"

— Sergeant Johnson.

"Jenkins! Fire your weapon, goddamn it!"

— Sergeant Johnson, during the Flood's attack.

"There's too many, Sarge!"

— Private Jenkins.

Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins was a Marine who appeared in Halo: Contact Harvest, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and in the Halo Graphic Novel. He fought and was killed in the Battle of Installation 04, after being infected by the Flood.

Early Life and Career

Wallace Jenkins was born on the Outer Colony world of Harvest to a farming family. In 2524, he joined the Colonial Militia of Harvest in an effort to make use of himself.

Jenkins is a noted sharpshooter and was assigned one of the prototype BR55 Battle Rifles. During the fight against the Covenant on Harvest, Jenkins' entire family was killed when Gladsheim was attacked by the Covenant. He was deeply depressed after losing his family and used his emotions to fuel a hatred against the Covenant. After escaping from Harvest, Staff Sergeant Johnson offers Jenkins the chance to become a real Marine in Johnson's unit. It is unknown what Jenkins did when he became a Marine but he was most likely stationed on the space station above Reach.

The Battle of Reach

Through the series, he is presumed to have been at the Battle of Paris IV, and was at the Battle of Reach when his Friend Or Foe (FOF) tag is detected by SPARTAN-117 and SPARTAN-058 aboard Reach Station Gamma during the Battle of Reach. He is a member of Staff Sergeant Johnson's squad. The group is fighting a pack of Jackals and with the help of SPARTAN-117, they manage to destroy the database of the Circumference and escape the station aboard a Pelican. They then proceed to board the Pillar of Autumn, and travel to Installation 04.

The Battle of Installation 04

Once there, the ship is attacked by the Covenant, and it is assumed that Jenkins escapes the ship in the same lifeboat as Sergeant Johnson and his squad. After meeting up with the Chief, they take Pelican Echo 419 to where the ODST detachment of the vessel is encamped. He then goes to Alpha Base, with Sergeant Johnson and his squad.

The Flood

Later, Jenkins, along with the rest of Fire Team Charlie (excluding Chips Dubbo), are taken on a Pelican to what they think is a Covenant weapons cache, but turns out to be one of the Flood Containment Facilities. There, he, Captain Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Private Bisenti, and Private Manuel Mendoza encounter the Flood for the first time in Halo. In the fight, an elderly Infection Form latches on to him and takes over his body. He drops his video-recording helmet, which is later picked up by the Chief, who watches the horrifying attack via the Recorder Chip of Jenkins' Helmet Recorder. The video ends suddenly, right as the infection form hits Jenkins, and infects him.

He and his entire squad, except Johnson and Bisenti, are turned into Combat Forms. However, in Jenkins' case, his Infection Form is weakened from the centuries of containment, and it cannot control him fully. He watches in terror as he loses control of his mutated body and the Infection Form moves his body around and attacks his mind.

Survival and Death

Jenkins' combat form followed a group of Flood to the surface where they attacked a group of Marines under command of First Lieutenant Melissa McKay. Without complete control over his body, Jenkins, who was desperate to end his own life, attempted to get killed while assaulting the Lieutenant, but instead he was captured by the ODSTs, who took him prisoner. Major Antonio Silva tries to interrogate him. While being interrogated, the infection form inside of Jenkins attempts to attack its interrogators by extending a tentacle through Jenkins' hand, snapping the bones and veins. As Jenkins describes it, it was a "living hell". However, it is knocked unconscious by the pain. This gives Jenkins the chance to reveal the imminent threat of the Flood beneath the base.. Jenkins does this by motioning to the shoe of a marine. Lieutenant McKay correctly interprets this and orders a squad to exterminate them. He is later taken to the Truth and Reconciliation while the Marines assault the ship. Jenkins, knowing that Silva plans to take the ship home to Earth, overwhelms the Infection form inside him and tries to destroy the ship, because he knows that there are more Flood present aboard it and that they would inevitably escape and destroy Earth. He fails to do so, but Lieutenant McKay, seeing the truth as well, destroys the vessel for him. The destruction then takes his life, mercifully ending his suffering. Before he died, he mouthed the words 'Thank you' to the lieutenant.

Trivia

• He was the first person to use the BR55 Battle Rifle, which entered service in 2524.
• He was one of the two Sharpshooters in the Harvest Colonial Militia, the other being Private Forsell.
• Jenkins was trained as Harvest Colonial Militia, personally by Sergeant Avery Johnson, and when Harvest was lost to the Covenant and Jenkins' parents were killed in the attack, Johnson offered Jenkins the chance to become a UNSC Marine.
• Jenkins is voiced by voice actor Chris Wicklund.
• Jenkins is the only Marine mentioned to be infected by an Infection Form, weakened by the long hibernation the Flood had undergone. Because of this, he is able to control his body to a certain limit during times as the Flood Form retracts into a corner of their shared mind.
• Though he was appointed a Sharpshooter in his platoon by Byrne and Johnson in the events of Contact Harvest; in the Flood containment area in Halo: Combat Evolved he was seen wielding a relatively weak MA5B instead of his favorable BR55 Battle Rifle. This is most likely because the only weapons that survived the Battle of Reach, were "standard Marine weapons" and the Battle rifle was still not the main rifle used by marines so it would have been stored in special lockers which were all destroyed along with the Spartans weapon's lockers (Fall of Reach).
• You can see him on 343 Guilty Spark, by staying on the pelican.
• He may have some connection with L. Jenkins.