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Manuel Mendoza

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Manuel Mendoza
Manuel Mendoza in the Installation 04 Flood containment facility, as seen in Wallace Jenkins' helmet recording. Screenshot taken from Halo: Campaign Evolved campaign level 343 Guilty Spark.
Manuel Mendoza (right) in Wallace Jenkins' helmet recording.
Biographical information

Died:

September 20, 2552[1]

Cause of death:

Killed in combat against the Flood[1]

Personal details

Species:

Human

Gender:

Male

Hair color:

Black

Eye color:

Brown

Political and military information

Affiliation:

UNSC Marine Corps[1]

Rank:

Private[1]

 

Manuel Mendoza: "Why do we always have to listen to this old stuff, Sarge?"
Avery Johnson: "Watch your mouth, son. This "stuff" is your history. It should remind you grunts what we're fightin' to protect."
Manuel Mendoza: "Hey... if the Covenant wanna wipe out this particular part of my history, that's fine by me."
— Mendoza and Johnson in regards to flip music.[2]

Private Manuel Mendoza was an enlisted serviceman in the UNSC Marine Corps.[3] Serving as a rifleman on Fireteam Charlie,[4] he was attached to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn in September 2552 and participated in the Battle of Installation 04.[5]

Biography[edit]

Battle over Installation 04[edit]

Manuel Mendoza: "We can't stop them!"
Avery Johnson: "Stay cool, Mendoza! What do you expect, rifleman? You think this pleasure cruise is going to last forever?"
— Mendoza and Johnson fighting the Covenant aboard the Autumn.[4]

Manuel Mendoza was one of the Marines stationed on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn when the ship escaped from the Fall of Reach on August 30, 2552.[6] On September 19, he was listed as a member of Marine Security Detail B on Bravo Shift on Pillar of Autumn's duty roster alongside Chips Dubbo and O'Brien.[7] When the ship arrived at Installation 04 on September 19, it was attacked by the Covenant, marking the beginning of the Battle of Installation 04.[6] Led by Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Mendoza and the rest of his fireteam repelled Covenant boarders.[4] After escaping aboard an SKT-9 Bumblebee, Mendoza and several members of his fireteam survived the crash landing on Installation 04 and found refuge at a nearby beacon tower. The survivors soon came under attack from Covenant forces; they were rescued by John-117, and then evacuated by Echo 419.[5]

Encounter with the Flood[edit]

UNSC Marine Manuel Mendoza runs away while Jacob Keyes is attacked by Flood pod infectors in the Installation 04 Flood containment facility, as seen in Wallace Jenkins' helmet recording. Screenshot taken from Halo: Campaign Evolved campaign level 343 Guilty Spark.
Mendoza flees from a battle against the Flood, leaving Captain Keyes behind.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."
— Private Mendoza shortly before the Flood outbreak.[1][2]

Later on, Mendoza was part of the UNSC team led by Captain Jacob Keyes and Sergeant Johnson, to secure a supposed Covenant weapons cache that a captured Sangheili, 'Qualomee, had disclosed to them during an interrogation.[1] Unbeknownst to them, the "cache" was in fact a Flood containment facility. Inside the facility, the marines and Captain Keyes were ambushed by Flood pod infectors. Though Mendoza held off the Flood for a while, unlike his comrades, he attempted to flee the chamber against Keyes' orders. Mendoza was killed, and his body was left lying against the chamber's locked door.[2][8][Note 1]

John-117 later found a Flood-infected Mendoza in the facility. Since John-117 had not seen a human Flood attacker form until then, he attempted to communicate with the creature, unaware that the marine's consciousness had already been taken over by the Flood. The infected Mendoza attacked the Spartan and took three shells from the Spartan's M90 shotgun before falling to the ground. As the corpse-like horror came apart, the Spartan saw that one of the pod infectors had taken up residence inside Mendoza's chest cavity and seemed to have extended its tentacles into other parts of what used to be Mendoza's body.[3]

Personality and traits[edit]

Mendoza disliked flip music, a genre of music which Sergeant Johnson greatly enjoyed, much to the chagrin of his squad.[2]

Production notes[edit]

Mendoza's face in Halo: Combat Evolved.
Mendoza's face in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Mendoza's face model during gameplay in Halo: Combat Evolved (left) and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (right).
  • In all his game appearances, Manuel Mendoza was voiced by Mark Dias.[9][10][11] Three out-takes from Mark Dias' recording sessions were featured on Bungie.net.[12]
  • In the campaign level 343 Guilty Spark, there is a glitch that allows the player to remain on board the Pelican by repeatedly throwing grenades out of the Pelican. Once the Pelican lands, the player may run around the perimeter of the level, where Private Mendoza stands alone. If stuck with a plasma grenade, his body is thrown surprisingly high and far (almost comparable to when the Sputnik Skull is activated in Halo 2). Joseph Staten explained that he wanted Mendoza's model to load before the cutscene that he later appears in; Staten thus coded Mendoza to load early in the level, and simply used the area outside of the level as a storage area. Mendoza, unarmed, can be shot and killed, just like any other Marine.[