James Ackerson
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| James Ackerson | |
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Beheaded by Lepidus |
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Ruwan Ackerson (Brother) |
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Male |
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Brown |
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Brown |
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- "I do get the feeling that Ackerson would gladly assign members of his own family to a suicide mission if he could find an appropriately high value target to send them against."
- — Kurt Ambrose in a communique to CPO Franklin Mendez.[2]
James Ackerson was a colonel in the UNSC Army employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence during the Human-Covenant War. Known for his ruthless and ambitious persona, he was the mastermind of the SPARTAN-III program and the most formidable rival of Dr. Catherine Halsey. His Career Service Vitae was impressive, as he had survived at least three battles against the Covenant. Early in the war, he received a promotion and volunteered for a dozen black operations. Ackerson was employed by ONI as a liaison officer, likely maintaining the relationship between ONI and the Army.[3]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
As children, Ackerson and his brother Ruwan were avid fans of classic fantasy literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. They often imagined that they were fighting a dragon. Together, they created the imaginary Key of Osanalan, which they pretended to quest for when fighting the dragon.[4]
During his time at boot camp, Ackerson trained on Cyrus VII alongside Twyker. Twyker would later maintain that Ackerson owed him money.[1]
SPARTAN-III program[edit]
- Vice Admiral Parangosky: "You want to trade lives for time..."
- Colonel Ackerson: "Yes, ma'am. Isn't that the job of a soldier?"
- — Conversation between Ackerson and Parangosky about the SPARTAN-III program.
Shortly after Dr. Catherine Halsey's SPARTAN-II program went active, Ackerson began to plan on a supersoldier project of his own, dubbed the SPARTAN-III program. He conducted extensive research on Halsey's work with the SPARTAN-II program, obtaining the DNA profiles of the candidates and covertly observing the flash clones used to replace the SPARTAN-II children; he even had the clones' bodies retrieved and autopsies performed on them after they died of congenital diseases.[5] However, he would abandon the use of flash clone replacements in his own program, citing the dubious ethics of flash-cloning as one of the failures of Halsey's program when presenting his own project to ONI.[6]
In 2531, Ackerson proposed the SPARTAN-III program to the Office of Naval Intelligence senior brass, including Captain Aaron Gibson, Rear Admiral Ned Rich, and Vice Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky in a meeting aboard UNSC Point of No Return. They approved the program and Ackerson went from serving as a field officer to working a desk job. At first he was upset by this, but grew to prefer it as opposed to his dangerous but more exciting job as a field officer.[6] Ackerson chose SPARTAN Kurt-051 to serve as the commanding officer of the SPARTAN-IIIs, providing him with an officer rank as well as a new identity.[3]
After the destruction of SPARTAN-III Beta Company, Ackerson attempted to have Tom-B292 reassigned under his personal command. Kurt had to appeal to Admiral Parangosky to have Tom reassigned to Camp Currahee to train Gamma Company along with his fellow survivor Lucy-B091.[7]
Rivalries[edit]
With the concurrent project underway, Ackerson focused all of his efforts on political maneuvers rather than battlefield tactics, eventually granting him a seat on the UNSC Security Council and the Special Weapons Development program within UNSC High Command. He headed several high-profile projects within the Office of Naval Intelligence. Among many other programs, he was evidently involved in the development of the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL exoskeleton series.[8] Because his projects often competed with Dr. Catherine Halsey's projects for funds, he had a long-standing rivalry with Halsey and her SPARTAN-IIs. He had a private AI construct named Araqiel, whom he tasked with spying on Dr. Halsey and her confidential SPARTAN-II project.[5]
Prior to Operation: METEORITE in 2551, Ackerson would pit John-117 against several operators known as the Hungry Buzzards in bulky powered suits in a facility on Reach. When Halsey and Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb arrived with news of the mission, Ackerson pushed for the Hungry Buzzards to be the rest of the team. However, John-117 quickly demonstrated the inefficiency of their armor and instead requested Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and the Covenant dropship the Hungry Buzzards had captured.[9]
On August 29, 2552, during a field test involving the pairing of John-117's Mark V MJOLNIR armor with Cortana, Ackerson tried to kill the Spartan: he authorized the use of Lotus anti-tank mines, a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, three 30mm chain guns, and even an air strike by a SkyHawk fighter against the Spartan. Ackerson's intent was to either disgrace the SPARTAN-IIs and Dr. Halsey, and, if possible, to kill the most well-known Spartan alive.[10] Nevertheless, John succeeded and Cortana sought revenge by wreaking havoc in Ackerson's private files; she hacked into Ackerson's personal computer and sent a note requesting reassignment to front line service, as well as sending a large amount of money from his account to a brothel on Gilgamesh and then sending the bill to his home, where his wife would find it.[11] However, he managed to exonerate himself.
During the Fall of Reach on August 30, 2552, Dr. Halsey accessed Ackerson's computer in ONI CASTLE Base, where she found extensive records of the SPARTAN-IIs in a folder called "S-III". Another file, labeled "CPOMZ", contained star charts. This suggested to Halsey that Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez was involved in a new SPARTAN project with Ackerson. The S-III file contained a folder titled "KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN". It contained records of CASTLE Base and a complete survey of Menachite Mountain, into which CASTLE Base had been built. Halsey later used this information to locate the SPARTAN-IIIs on Onyx. Halsey had actuall