Murtag Nelson

Commander Murtag Nelson was a human officer of the UNSC Navy and a field analyst of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Discovery and investigations
By April 14, 2553, Commander Murtag Nelson was a field analyst at a listening post of the Office of Naval Intelligence. On that day, Kig-Yar pirate Sav Fel glassed Forerunner ruins on Shaps III with Pious Inquisitor. Line Installation 444-447 on the planet responded to the destruction by sending an automated distress signal to Covert Support Base 4276 on the human Outer Colony of Gao. When the support facility received the signal, Intrepid Eye was released from stasis. She attempted to reach the Forerunner ecumene by sending out a distress signal herself. However, the signal was only detected by Nelson. Nelson hypothesized that the signals emanating from Gao was caused by the glassing of the ruins on Shaps III and correctly guessed that there was a Forerunner ancilla on Gao. Nelson managed to persuade his superiors into trusting his theory, leading to the Commander-in-Chief of ONI—Admiral Margaret Parangosky—giving Nelson command of the 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion. She attached Blue Team to the battalion and sent the unit to Gao to locate and capture the ancilla.

Upon arriving at Gao in May 2553, Nelson and most of his staff took up residence at the Montero Vitality Center. Realizing that the UNSC was searching for her, Intrepid Eye began murdering Gao citizens in the Montero Cave System hoping that the planet's residents would blame the murders on the UNSC and force them to leave the planet. However, Nelson organized for elements of the battalion to work together with the Gao Ministry of Protection to investigate the murders in the cave, while also searching for the ancilla. On July 2, 2553, while helping Special Inspector Veta Lopis and her team set up their new place of operations with Fred-104 in the Vitality Center, he learned that Major Ira Halal of the UNSC Judge Advocate General's Corps traveled to a newly discovered murder victim to document it without informing Nelson or Lopis.

Personality and traits
Murtag Nelson was a brash, young commander of the UNSC Navy. Somewhat socially awkward, he was given to bouts of anxiety and was sometimes absorbed into a state of intense concentration, becoming entirely ignorant of his surroundings. During his mission to Gao to capture ancilla Intrepid Eye, Nelson felt pressured into succeeding as he realized that the operation could either make or break his career. A tired-looking man, Nelson was noted to look more like a junior software engineer than a commander of the United Nations Space Command.

Despite the tensions between the UNSC and the Gao Ministry of Protection during his mission on Gao, Nelson genuinely sought to work fairly with the GMoP and treated the Gaos with respect. Nelson desired to both ease tensions between Gao and the Unified Earth Government, while also avoiding escalation the tensions to another rebellion on the planet. After learning that Major Ira Halal had gone off to investigate a recently discovered murder victim without informing the GMoP, Nelson was furious and sent Blue Team to locate him.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Last Light