Colum McGinnis

Colum McGinnis was a Marine, serving in the UNSC Armed Forces.

Human-Covenant War
By late 2552, McGinnis held the rank of Private, First Class in the Marine Corps. He was present during the Battle for Earth, and took part in the Battle of Voi late in the campaign on November 17. By this time in the war, McGinnis wanted to leave the Corps and was considering ways to be medically discharged, and considered options like falling out of a building to break a leg or shoot his own hand to leave himself unfit for service.

Following the crash-landing of the Flood-infested Indulgence of Conviction in the city, McGinnis came face-to-face with the Flood parasite itself. As the parasite attacked and began to reanimate his former friends as combat forms, McGinnis panicked and attempted to desert the battle - leaving his squadmates to be overrun. Colum found a Warthog and managed to use it to escape the carnage, though soon had to slow down to fit through a barricade when he was stopped in the road by John-117. The Spartan ordered McGinnis to turn around to give him a ride into the combat zone, though did not comment on McGinnis' attempted desertion until nearing the end of the drive - in which he relayed to McGinnis that he still had a chance to right his mistake. The words inspired McGinnis, who then fought alongside the Master Chief to clear out the area, before being ordered to find any surviving Marine unit to link up with.

McGinnis found himself under the command of Colonel Rochambeau, who was discussing using the Master Chief in a similar manner to a piece of equipment - causing McGinnis to fly into a blind rage and punch the officer to iterate that the Spartan is a human and should be treated as such.

Court martial
McGinnis was arrested for assaulting a superior officer and ultimately court-martialed. In his testimony, McGinnis freely admitted to the offence he had committed - despite pleading not-guilty. The testimony was ultimately recorded and later viewed in late 2558 by Parisa.

Production notes
McGinnis debuted in the audio series Halo Infinite: Memory Agent, and was voiced by Darren Jacobs in Chapter 5: Intruder Alert.

McGinnis' account of the Flood invasion of Voi corresponds with the events depicted in the Halo 3 campaign level Floodgate - however his account of events has several inconsistencies with the events featured in-game. McGinnis explains that when the Flood attacked, he made a beeline for a Warthog before being stopped by Master Chief and asked to give the Spartan a ride. No such Warthog appears in Floodgate, as the level predominantly involves backtracking the Traxus warehouses featured in the prior level The Storm on foot.

List of appearances

 * Halo Infinite: Memory Agent
 * Chapter 5: Intruder Alert