Early life of John-117
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| This article may be too long and overly detailed. You can help by summarizing the material. |
|
Concurrent: |
SPARTAN-II training, Project: ASTER, Operation: TALON, Battle of Chi Ceti IV[1][2][3][4] |
|
Next: |
|
| John-117/Early life | |
|---|---|
2517
 2518
 2519
 2525
 | |
|
Involved conflicts: |
|
|
Dates: |
|
|
Locations: |
|
|
| |
- Catherine Halsey: "What's your name?"
- John: "I'm John."
- Catherine Halsey: "It's very nice to meet you. I wanted to ask you what you were doing."
- John: "Winning."
- — John's first interaction with Catherine Halsey demonstrates his competitive drive.[1]
The childhood and early adolesence of John-117 were marked by formative years which saw the young boy mature far beyond his age as he was stolen away from his home and family and forced through a grueling regimen of training and indoctrination in order to make him one of the United Nations Space Command's deadliest assets.[1][9] Born on the Outer Colony of Eridanus II, when he was just six years old John was abducted by the Office of Naval Intelligence and taken to Reach for conscription into the Spartan-II program.[1] There, he and seventy-five other children were shaped into the ultimate fighting force for waging war on the UNSC's enemies. Their bodies and minds alike were trained for almost a decade before this process culminated in drastic alterations made to their physicality via inasive surgical procedures.[2] John was one of the few to come through these augmentions relatively unharmed.[10] As the leader of the Spartan-IIs, John was one of five to embark on their first true deployment against the Insurrection; he and his team infiltrated the secret United Rebel Front base Eridanus Secundus and captured Colonel Robert Watts.[3] Upon returning to Reach John and the thirty-two other Spartans were briefed on the emergence of a deadly new threat to humanity: the Covenant.[11] This alien superpower had already annhilated the colony of Harvest and was openly making clear it intended further genocide. As such, the Spartans' training was accelerated to its final phase—that which would see them outfitted with the most advanced form of powered exoskeleton ever created by modern humans.[11] John and the rest departed shorty for Chi Ceti IV, where the suits awaited them.[7] On the way to the Chi Ceti system they undertook additional operations against the Insurrection. John's first true introduction to the Covenant did not come until the UNSC Commonwealth, the frigate ferrying the Spartans, came under attack just before reaching its destination.[7] The Spartans still managed to acquire their Mjolnir armor on the surface but while returning to the Commonwealth John decided the time had come to take the fight directly to the enemy vessel which had engaged it.[4][5] This began a struggle for John against the alien aggressors which would last decades and which would laregly define his life and legacy.[6]
Biography[edit]
Early childhood[edit]
- "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. 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."
- — Ellie Bloom recalls her childhood with John to journalist Benjamin Giraud in 2558.[12]
John was born on March 7, 2511 on the Outer Colony of Eridanus II.[6] He was raised by his mother and father and by the age of six he attended school at Elysium City's Primary Education Facility 119.[1] Decades after he last saw her, John could still remember his mother as being very kind and smelling of soap.[14] She sometimes took him down to the beach where he would play in the sand.[15] John's closest childhood friends were three girls: Katrina, Parisa, and Ellie Bloom.[12][16] John, Ellie, and Katrina would often compete against one an