Luther Mann
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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Doctor |
- "Doctor Mann is one of the foremost experts of Forerunner culture and language in the field. There's very little we've learned about their way of life that he's not familiar with."
- — Olympia Vale[2]
Doctor Luther Mann is a human xenoanthropologist and xenoarchaeologist contracted by the UNSC Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence to aid with the research of various Forerunner artifacts and structures.[1] Regarded as an expert in Forerunner and Sangheili languages and culture, Mann was responsible for the discovery of Installation 07. In 2555, he participated in a successful operation to stop the firing of the Halo Array on Installation 00.[3] As of March 2560, Mann works as a researcher as part of the Anvil Initiative, based out of Anvil Station.[4]
Biography[edit]
Early life and academic career[edit]
Luther Mann was born on the human Outer Colony of Verent in 2525.[1] His mother was a doctor and his father was a scientist. When he was four years old, Mann was forced to flee his homeworld alongside his parents when the Covenant arrived at Verent and attacked the planet. His father managed to convince a pilot to allow the Mann family aboard a ship that was fleeing the world. As the ship prepared to leave the system, Luther noted that the Covenant's glassing of Verent was "pretty," much to his mother's chagrin.
The family relocated to the city of London on Earth, where Mann enrolled in school. He became fascinated with the Covenant and frequently studied the empire. In school, Mann got into arguments and fights with other children and was known as the "alien lover" for believing peace could be maintained with the Covenant. The school administration attempted to have his parents convince him to stop voicing his opinions about the Covenant, though Mann's parents sided with their son and eventually pulled him out of school.[1]
Homeschooled, Mann's mother taught him personally, although she refused to talk about the Covenant. However, on his fifteenth birthday, his mother committed suicide. Mann reluctantly returned to his school, though he ensured to no longer mention the Covenant.[1] As a teenager, Mann's father often brought him to a local shooting range, where he learned basic gun training and instruction in marksmanship, much to his displeasure. After his father's death, Mann vowed to never use a gun again.[5] Mann later resided in an apartment in Seattle, URNA, on Earth.[6]
Sometime between 2545 and 2546, during his time in college, Mann would become the father of Theresa as the result of an intense six-week relationship with his classmate, Ramona. Unfortunately, he was unable to be a part of her life due to his work. During his academic career, Mann became a xenoanthropologist and xenoarchaeologist, having gained significant knowledge on Sangheili and Forerunner culture and language. Becoming a well-regarded scientist within his field, Mann served as a researcher on both Installations 03 and 05.[6]
Zeta Halo Project[edit]
- "First, allow me to say that I have utter confidence in Luther Mann. He lectured on his findings on Trevelyan over a year ago at Oxford. He's dedicated to his studies and knows what he's talking about, and there is simply no one who is more educated on the subject of the Forerunner culture or language than he is."
- — Doctor William Iqbal[3]
On November 28, 2553,[7] Luther was exploring the shield world Trevelyan when he found records stored deep within the world's vast information pathways. After a year, Mann finally deciphered the records and discovered the location of Installation 07. Although Mann had always been a respected scientist and one of the top minds in his field, his discovery of Installation 07 launched his academic career as he became known to many scientific publications and organizations. He had been invited to lecture at numerous universities—including the University of Oxford—and even summoned to HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6 by the United Nations Space Command to present a detailed report on the methods he had used to locate the Halo. In 2555, he was contracted by high-ranking individuals within the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence for Doctor Bob Casper's Zeta Halo Project to research the installation with the help of Henry Lamb, a scientist of ONI's Xeno-Materials Exploitation Group.[6]
On March 8, 2555, while exploring what they believed to be the ring's environment and atmosphere control room, Mann and Lamb discovered a console counting down from approximately three million—a process that would take approximately five standard weeks. After examining the countdown, the two scientists speculated that the installation was counting down to the activation of the entire Halo Array.[6] Afterwards, Mann and Lamb reported their findings directly to Casper, who in turn reported the situation to ONI. After verifying that a countdown had appeared on the other Halo installations, Lamb traced the countdown's origins to Installation 07's control room and concluded that the countdown would indeed lead to the Halo Array's firing. Several days later, Casper met with a council of scientists and high-ranking UNSC officers—including Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood and Admiral Serin Osman. The council agreed that sending a team to Installation 00 to cancel the Array's firing was the best course of action, and Hood contacted the Swords of Sanghelios for assistance. Mann, Lamb, and numerous other scientists were sent to the slipspace portal at Voi, Kenya on Earth in an attempt to reactivate the portal that led to the Ark.[3]
Operation: FAR STORM[edit]
- Luther Mann: "It is an incredible thing, this place. To explore everything around here. It's the stuff dreams are made of. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the UNSC's going to need to have some presence out here to safeguard this place. A research colony of some sort."
- Olympia Vale: "You volunteering, Doctor Mann?"
- Luther Mann: "I don't know about you, but I think it'll be a good little while before I come back to this place."
- — Luther Mann and Olympia Vale, following the mission[8]
Mann and Lamb arrived at Research Center Alpha to aid in the reactivation of Voi's portal, with the efforts led by Captain Annabelle Richards. The Swords of Sanghelios soon arrived aboard corvette Mayhem, led by Commander N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham. With Olympia Vale serving as a liaison between the two factions, the Swords of Sanghelios and UNSC spent several days attempting to reactivate the portal, with their efforts now accelerated by the aid of Huragok Drifts Randomly.[9] After several days of little success, Richards met with Mann and Lamb in her office and questioned them about the lack of progress. Just as Mann was in the middle of informing Richards of his devotion to the project, Vale informed them that Drifts Randomly had managed to activate the portal.[10] Just as the portal opened, a Forerunner Retriever exited and began mining the Kenyan soil. The Retriever was destroyed by UNSC forces, and Mann later met with the other members of the expedition aboard Mayhem to discuss the next best course of action.[11] When Richards insisted that the team needed ONI's permission before entering the portal, 'Sraom nonetheless moved the corvette towards the portal as he felt that they could not waste time waiting for administrative consent. Before they entered, Mayhem was attacked by another Retriever, though the corvette managed to destroy the Sentinel.[11] Mayhem entered the portal and, ultimately, the trip only took several hours rather than weeks;[11] this was due to an increase in the portal's power by 000 Tragic Solitude, the monitor of Installation 00 who sought to repair the damaged Ark by extracting Earth's resources.[12]
Upon exiting slipspace, Mayhem was attacked by dozens of heavily armed Retrievers. As the corvette's artificial gravity systems began to falter, Mann was tossed around the ship's bridge and knocked unconscious when a piece of the bridge's ceiling fell on his head, gaining a minor concussion.[11][13] Mayhem was heavily damaged in the battle and crash-landed on the surface o