John-117

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"No soldier should be honored for doing what is expected."

- John-117 to First Lieutenant Shah, Second Battle of Mombasa

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, often referred to as the Master Chief or Chief by other humans, Demon by Covenant warriors, and Coffin or Iron casket by the Flood. He is a United Nations Space Command SPARTAN-II supersoldier.

Background
In his early life, John lived in Elysium City, on the planet of Eridanus II. He was large for his age at the time, approximately a foot above his school peers. John had all the genetic markers set in Dr. Halsey's original study- he was as close to a perfect subject for the SPARTAN-II program as science could determine. He was a specimen of perfect physical proportion and stunning intellect. Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes went to his colony world to study him, and were quite amazed by his reflexes, and more importantly, his luck. To determine if he would be one of the ones chosen for the program, he was asked to determine which side a flipped coin would land on. He watched the coin as it flew in the air...and caught it before it could land. John and the other 72 children unwillingly participating in the program were covertly kidnapped from their homes, and replaced with Flash Clones which later died of natural causes.

The Eridanus Rebellion
MCPO John-117's first mission was against Rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his homeworld was located. He was slightly wounded while leading his squad to capture the traitor Colonel Robert Watts, leader of the rebels. He received a Purple Heart after the mission.

The Covenant War
Later on, he was briefed on the Covenant threat; he and his Spartans would fight at least the next 27 years against this new threat while employing the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor.

Installation 04
After many battles in the Human-Covenant War and surviving the Fall of Reach, he embarked with the Pillar of Autumn. The Pillar of Autumn was later attacked by the Covenant and was forced to crash land on Halo, Alpha Installation 04. In the midst of fighting the Covenant, Cortana discovered the secret of Halo while inserted into the computer in the Control Room of Halo; that it was a ring-shaped construct created by the Forerunners as a last line of defense against a new species of parasitic organisms called The Flood, which was released at some point by either the Forerunners or the constructs of the installations (343 Guilty Spark, 2401 Penitent Tangent, etc.); a majority of the Covenant Elites and UNSC Naval Personnel and Marines who landed on Halo were infected by The Flood. Captain Jacob Keyes and a small group of Marines were the first humans to encounter the Covenant-released Flood; Captain Keyes was later captured by the Flood, soon after which he died. The Master Chief was then responsible for retrieving the Index for 343 Guilty Spark, a device which would activate Halo and destroy all Flood forms within a large radius. Later, Cortana informed him of the truth about the purpose of the installation (that it was a superweapon) that would destroy all sentient life forms, in other words, anything the flood could use as food. This led him to keep the Index from 343 Guilty Spark as long as possible. While being attacked by many Covenant, Flood and Forerunner Sentinels, he later made his way back to the Pillar of Autumn and initiated the destruction of Halo. Very few other members of the UNSC forces survived, notably Sergeant Major Johnson.

OPERATION: First Strike
After the destruction of Alpha Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana floated in space in the Longsword he used to escape. He discovered three cyro tubes floating nearby, one of them containing Linda, and pulled them into the fighter. Soon after, the Covenant Flagship Ascendant Justice came into the system along with a few cruisers. A nearby Pelican dropship made its presence known and fired at the cruiser to distract it. John then linked the two vessels and brought its passengers aboard to the Longsword. There were seven others that helped in capturing a Covenant ship, rendezvousing with the Eridanus Rebels, and destroying the Covenant space station, Unyielding Hierophant. Linda-058 was another Spartan on the Pillar of Autumn, stored in a cryogenic state because of the body damage she sustained when she and Master Chief destroyed the data base containing the info needed by the Covenant to find Earth. Anton and Li were Spartans that died in an explosion after repairing the engine on the captured Covenant ship, the Ascendant Justice.



Also, two other Spartans, Issac and Vinh, survived the initial attack on Reach with Fred, Linda, Kelly, Anton, Li, Grace, Will and Dr. Catherine Halsey but sacrificed themselves by running into the middle of an entire battalion of Covenant troops and detonating an explosive. This selfless act destroyed the Covenant troops by more than half. Only Grace, Kelly, Will, Fred (Fredric), Linda and John were left. Dr. Halsey, head of the Spartan-II project sedates Kelly-087 and takes her on a mission that John and the others do not understand. John never knew of the others' fate. Prior to Halsey's disappearance, John faces a dilemma regarding the combat data on the Flood. Either he can give the regular data on the Flood, or give the complete data of the Flood encounter, which would condemn Johnson to death from ONI's subsequent experimentations. After the First Strike operation, John made the decision to hand over the regular data and omit the explanation for Johnson's survival. After this, the Spartans that are still alive search for a way to stop the Covenant from reaching Earth, which has been discovered. John finds a way to do so, by using his remaining squad to destroy the Covenant Battleship known as the Unyielding Hierophant. Linda, John, Grace, Will, and Fred infiltrate the ship and quickly move forward to their positions. They cross the ship over a period of eleven hours and reach a temple, where a copy of Cortana warns them of a new guard known as "brutes". Linda leaves for a sniping position, and the other four Spartans slip into the temple. They are ambushed by Brutes, and John is nearly killed. He manages to kill the single Brute attacking him(in hand-to-hand combat), and kills the other Brutes his team is defending against. Grace however, is killed by the Brute Shot that some Brutes used. John activates the failsafe on her Mjolnir armor and they proceed to sabotage the generator in the Hierophant. As the Spartans escape out a side door, the failsafe on Grace's armor activates, disintegrating several elites and many grunts. John, Fred, and Will are quickly spotted by three Banshees. As they flee, Linda snipes all three of the elites out of their cockpits, allowing the others to take the Banshees. John doubles back to retrieve Linda, who manages to snipe four more elites out of their Banshees while the Elites try to kill John. Linda is ordered to let John find her, and sends Oly Oly Oxen Free over her COM channel and places a nav marker on the HUD. John finds her hanging upside-down off a catwalk, with a rope tied to her boot and another tied to the railing several meters above. She was hidden behind a brilliant light and in the depths of a deep shadow. She drops and lands on top of John, and they fly towards the place where Will and Fred are. They quickly escape, and arrive back at the Gettysburg. They see the Ascendant Justice being piloted by Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Lietenant Haverson straight towards the Unyielding Hierophant. Whitcomb discusses the Alamo and Thermopylae with John, then prepares to fight the Covenant off while the Unyielding Hierophant's fusion reactor detonates. Every one of the five hundred covenant ships maneuvers in right next to the Ascendant Justice, and the Admiral draws an SMG. The Admiral and the Lieutenant die, just as the fusion reactor explodes. The explosion annihilates four-hundred and eighty-eight ships of the fleet, leaving only a dozen badly damaged ships to invade Earth. John then leaves after witnessing Whitcomb's sacrifice, and arrives back at Earth with the last members of his team, Linda, Will, and Fred.

Return to Earth
Chief's Mark V MJOLNIR armor was switched by technicians aboard the orbiting defense station Cairo to a Mark VI model. He attended a brief awards ceremony aboard the station. The ceremony was interrupted by Covenant boarders, which he repulsed. The Master Chief then briefly participated with defense in the First Battle of Earth. After confiscating a Covenant bomb (called the "pickle" by Bungie developers in the Halo 2 commentary) that was intended to destroy the Cairo, he requests permission from Lord Hood to leave the ship to "give the Covenant back their bomb". Master Chief then drags the bomb into a Longsword hanger bay to launch it. The resulting depressurization of the hanger, causes him and the bomb to be flung into hard vacuum, where he manages to gain entrance into a Covenant Capital Ship's fusion chamber and detonate the bomb. The Master Chief then hitches a ride on the and lands in New Mombasa, East African Protectorate to combat Covenant landing troops. During the descent on board Pelicans, his dropship is shot down by the Scarab's main cannon. The Master Chief is briefly knocked unconscious and has to fight his way to the other Pelicans, with the aid of surviving Marines from his ship. After a rendezvous with Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker in the Zanzibar Hotel, in Old Mombasa, the Master Chief destroys Covenant units along the shore of the city as he chases the tracks of the Scarab. Once he arrives at the edge of Old Mombasa, he encounters a small group of Marines, whose platoon has been destroyed by the Scarab. The Master Chief receives a Scorpion Tank from Sergeant Johnson. After fighting through numerous highway tunnels, he arrives in various parks outside the main city, and after fighting through those, the Master Chief finally arrives in the city center, where a group of Marines, under the command of Staff Sergeant Banks were pinned down. With the assistance of the Marines and a large stockpile of weapons, the Master Chief manages to board and destroy the Scarab. The Master Chief is then transported to the In Amber Clad to intercept The Prophet of Regret's flagship. When the flagship starts to enter Slipspace, Commander Miranda Keyes is granted permission to follow it. The Master Chief and all on board the In Amber Clad are then brought to Installation 05.

Second Battle of Earth
"Radio for VTOL. Heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here."

- Johnson, upon finding what seemed to be John's corpse

"Yeah... you're not."

- John-117, grabbing Johnson's arm



John eventually escaped and crash landed on Earth. He was found by Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter, and the rest of their team. At first, Johnson thought the Chief had died, though he awoke and was ready for battle again. Upon awakening, John charged the camouflaged Arbiter, thinking he was an enemy, until Johnson told him that they were allies. John and the rest of the team then travelled through the jungles on Earth, searching for evac to a nearby military base. Johnson and his team split up from John and the Arbiter, in order to prevent capture. Johnson however was captured, and the Chief was determined to rescue him. He found Johnson at a Brute encampment, where he and the Arbiter battled loyalist Covenant forces until Johnson's team was freed. They were then under heavy fire by Phantoms; however, a Pelican dropship saved them from the Phantoms and evacuated the team to a UNSC base.

At the base, John met up with Commander Miranda Keyes. During a transmission from Lord Hood, the Prophet of Truth interfered with the signal and assured the UNSC they'd be defeated. Master Chief, the Arbiter and the rest of the UNSC were forced to fight and defend the base. When it was lost, they planted a bomb to destroy the base, along with members of the loyalist Covenant forces. Master Chief fought his way through many Brutes, eventually reaching an elevator to escape the explosion. He met up with several Marine survivors underground, and they escaped the base and headed for the city of Voi.

Battle of Voi
"On Halo, you tried to kill Cortana. You tried to kill me!"

- Master Chief to 343 Guilty Spark

At the Battle of Voi, Master Chief pushed through many loyalist forces as he made his way to what he believed was the Ark. In actuality, it was a only a device that would open up a portal to The Ark. Master Chief was able to destroy an anti-aircraft gun and allow Lord Hood's ships to fire upon Truth's defenses. Truth fled through the portal with his loyalists forces in a hurry, while the UNSC remained behind to determine their next move. Just as the Second Battle of Earth seemed to finish, a flood-infested Covenant warship crash landed in Voi. Master Chief was forced to, once again, battle the Flood and stop them from spreading. He learned that the only way to contain the Flood was to force the crashed Flood infested warship to explode.

During the battle, Ship Master Rtas 'Vadum came to aid the UNSC. He was able to fight off the Flood, as the Master Chief was sent on another task. The Elites informed the UNSC that the Flood had Cortana on that warship. Master Chief went to recover her, though it turned out to be a recorded message from Cortana. The Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, took the message to the Shadow of Intent, where the Elites and the UNSC watched Cortana's recording. The Elites were able to stop the infestation by glassing half the continent of Africa, much to Lord Hood's displeasure.

Convinced of the reliability of Cortana's message, John-117 resolved to journey to the Ark while Hood tied down the remaining loyalist forces on Earth. John-117 accompanied a joint UNSC-Elite task force through the portal aboard the Forward Unto Dawn. Not knowing what dangers lie ahead, the Master Chief and his men journey into the Ark...

Battle of The Ark
"Chief, how close are you?""Not close enough…"

- Commander Keyes and Master Chief

The Elites carried the Master Chief and UNSC forces through the portal, which led the team to the Ark. There, the team was determined to stop Truth from activating the seven Halos but first they needed to know how to find him. The UNSC sent down Pelicans to the surface of the Ark with intent to find the Ark's Silent Cartographer. Once they touched down on the Ark they encountered Covenent Loyalists establishing camps and AA batteries on the desert surface. The strike forces quickly disposed of these camps and successfully located a landing zone for the UNSC Frigate, Forward unto Dawn. Once landed the Chief took a squad of Scorpian tanks and marines to the entrance of the superstructure where the cartographer was kept. Once there the strike team encountered Covenant Wraiths and a Scarab. After destroying these the squad soon found the cartographer and with it the location of Truth. He was housed within a Citadel protected by a barrier powered by a series of towers. After the marines evac. 5 pelicans and 3 Elite phantoms headed towards three of these towers which would lower a small portion of the shield allowing them access to the citadel. The Master Chief led a squad to one tower, The Arbiter to the second, and Johnson to the third, as Keyes and 'Vadum held off the loyalist starships in space.

Master Chief fought through many loyalist forces and eventually made his way to the top of the tower, where he deactivated part of the shield to Truth's location. The Arbiter soon followed, however Johnson was not responsive. He was overrun and captured by Truth. They needed Johnson to activate the rings, and so Master Chief and the Arbiter were sent to rescue Johnson and stop Truth. On the way there, the two fought Brute forces once more. After powering down the tower High Charity made a slipspace jump to the Ark, which brought the Flood into the battle as well, damaging the elite carrier 'Shadow of Intent' in the process. The UNSC forces battled their way to the citadel where they had to destroy two scarabs to progress further. Once they destroyed Truth's outer defensive forces the Arbiter, Master Chief and 343 Guilty Spark entered the citadel.

When Master Chief and the Arbiter arrived at Truth's location, they realized they weren't close enough to stop him, since the elevator had been lifted. Miranda Keyes then forced her way into the edifice, breaking through the window with her Pelican. She managed to kill a Brute, but was soon surrounded. Truth killed Keyes with a Spiker when she hesitated to kill Johnson. Johnson, losing the will to fight, was then forced by Truth to activate the Halos. Master Chief and the Arbiter were finally able to make it to the top, and went after Truth. The Flood stopped them and the two made a temporary alliance with the parasite to stop the activation of the Halos. And so, the final Brute defenses were defeated by the Flood as Master Chief and the Arbiter reached Truth. Truth was infected by the Flood, and was soon killed by the Arbiter while the Master Chief deactivated the rings.

After the deactivation of the rings, the Gravemind revealed himself, laughing as he succeeded in preventing his own destruction. The Flood then attacked the Chief and the Arbiter. The attack failed and the two managed to escape. As they were leaving the citadel, Chief saw what seemed like a vision of Cortana. He was led to the exit by her, and it was revealed that a replacement for Installation 04 had been built, apparently by the Ark. Chief was set to once more detonate the Halo, but first, he took a detour to High Charity to retrieve Cortana.

Finding Cortana
"You... found me..."

- Cortana to the Chief

On High Charity, the Chief battled his way through hordes of Flood forces, and eventually found his way over to Cortana's location, his visions stopped when he found Cortana and retrieved her. The purpose for finding Cortana was that she had the activation Index from the first Halo ring. The Master Chief needed the index to activate the new halo ring that was going to replace the one that Master Chief had destroyed in the first halo game. Once they were united, the Chief made his way back through High Charity and forced the Covenant City to explode. On his way out, Cortana detected a friendly unit which turned out to be the Arbiter. As High Charity was destroyed, the Flood was believed to be defeated.

Installation 04 replacement


"Halo. It's so new... unfinished. I'm not exactly sure what will happen when we fire it..."

- Cortana to the Chief, evaluating their plan to activate Halo

"We'll head for the Portal. And we'll all go home"

- Chief to Cortana

The next task of the Master Chief and the Arbiter was to destroy the Flood by activating the replacement Installation 04. The two landed on the Halo with their Pelican they escaped with from High Charity. Master Chief and the Arbiter were surprised when the Flood was not defeated, but instead trying to rebuild itself on the Halo. Flood dispersal pods released many of the Flood into battle against Master Chief and The Arbiter, forcing them to fight their way up to the tower where the ring would be destroyed. During the battle, Sergeant Johnson arrived on the Halo aboard the Forward Unto Dawn.

Johnson helped the Chief and the Arbiter fight their way on the new replacement Halo using a Spartan Laser. They had the Monitor open the door to the control room and lock the Flood out. However, once inside, Guilty Spark's "protocol" forced him to stop Johnson from activating Installation 04. He shot Johnson and gravely injured him, locked out the Arbiter from the room, and attempted to kill Master Chief. However, Chief resisted and continued to stand and fight. Just as the Monitor seemed invulnerable, Johnson was able to charge his Spartan Laser and shoot the Monitor, temporarily distracting him. He then told the Chief to "kick his ass" and gave him the Spartan Laser, which Chief used to kill the Monitor for good. Master Chief was determined to save Johnson, but Johnson's injury was fatal. At the end, Johnson said "Send me out. With a bang."

"Don't ever let her go."

- Johnson to the Chief

He gave Chief the chip containing Cortana and the Chief activated Installation 04 as he headed out. Both Cortana and the Arbiter gave their condolences for the loss of Johnson to the Chief. The team fought the Flood as they escaped the Halo. Cortana remembered Johnson had come aboard the Dawn to get to the new Halo ring, and told the Chief to use Johnson's warthog to escape quickly. After evading death once more, John and the Arbiter made it onto Forward Unto Dawn and escaped the explosion of Installation 04.

A half ship then went through the portal, back to Earth. The other half didn't make it.

Distress
"I'll miss you.""Wake me... when you need me."

- Cortana and Master Chief

Unfortunately for Master Chief and Cortana, the rear half of the ship did not make it back to Earth. The portal wasn't able to sustain itself from the damage sustained to The Ark from the destruction of the Halo and closed as the ship was half way through. Only the front half, with The Arbiter, was able to make it back to Earth while the rear compartment of the ship ended up in the unknown. Cortana, relieved that John survived, explained this to the Chief, and that it could take years before anyone could discover their distress signal. Chief, whose armor's life support reserves were slowly draining, then put himself in a cryogenic chamber, to preserve himself as the ship drifted aimlessly in space.

Assumed death
"We'll make it.""It's been an honor serving with you, John."

- Cortana and Master Chief

Back on Earth, it was assumed that both the Master Chief and Cortana were lost, presumably in The Ark's explosion, since half the ship did not make it to Earth. A memorial was held in Forward Unto Dawn's crash site, for all those lost in the Human-Covenant War. The Chief's Spartan ID number, 117, was carved into the memorial by an unknown person or persons, and taped beside his number was the UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer insignia patch.

Into the Unknown
After an unknown amount of time, the remainder of the Dawn, containing Cortana and the cryonically frozen Master Chief, drifted toward an unknown object, with planet wide city lights that formed the Marathon logo. Master Chief's fate is currently unknown. It appears that the wreckage of the Dawn was deposited in or near the Iris Nebula.

Age
Technically, when the events on Halo occurred, he is about 41 years old in "real time". However during the 27 years of war against the Covenant, UNSC ships had to make Slipspace jumps to get from system to system and from battle to battle. It is stated in the official website that "faster-than-light travel is not instantaneous; 'short' jumps routinely take up to two months, and 'long' jumps can last six months or more." It is also known from the novels that UNSC personnel go into deep-sleep in cryochambers during FTL jumps. Therefore, since it is known that the Master Chief and his Spartans were present at dozens of battles in Inner and Outer colonies, the Master Chief's actual biological age should be much younger, as he would have been in cryo-stasis while in transit from system to system and aged almost nothing in the process. This would also explain why Dr Halsey does not seem as old as she should be. Another explanation is that perhaps the human lifespan in that time period is possibly significantly longer and the onset of aging is delayed due to improved medical care in the 26th century, and that the Spartans, including John-117, have been biologically enhanced as well besides the cybernetic augmentation.

John's Face


There have been numerous times when people have claimed to see John's face. During the Halo 3 Beta several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face. However it was recently revealed that the face seen in the beta was an easter egg inserted into the beta by Bungie, and that it is in fact actually a model of one of the employees.

Prior to this news people disputed the fact that the face was John 117's. First of all, if the armor permutations (for example, the EVA Armor and the CQB Armor) in multiplayer have the face inside the helmet too, it wouldn't be the Chief's (John 117 is still in Mark VI armor in the campaign, and he does not change to any of the armor permutations in the campaign either) Second, it could be there for style. If your camera happens to go through the biped's visor, it wouldn't just go through the biped right away, you would see a face.


 * It has been confirmed on the (need citation -- Bungie Podcast?) that this is not John's true face, but is in fact a Photoshopped visage of one of the Bungie developers.

Using special modding tools, one can observe that during the final cutscene of Halo: CE, Chief takes off his helmet to reveal another helmet underneath. Apparently a model was never made for Chief's face in the game. The fact that John's face is never seen is said by Bungie to give the player a sense of really being the Master Chief.

117
The significance of his tag number 117 remains unclear to many fans, though attempts have been made to figure it out. The theories range from biblical, to Marathon, to pure seven references. Inside the Halo Universe the number was simply randomly assigned, but why Bungie chose the number is still being debated. One possible explanation involves raising the number "7" to different powers. 7 to the third power is 343 (as in 343 guilty spark), 7 to the fourth power is 2401 (as in 2401 penitent tangent). 7 raised to the sixth power equals 117,649, shortened for practical purposes to 117.

The code 117 refers to the seventh chapter of the first book of the Old Testament. The name of this chapter is 'The Flood'. (Genesis 7)

Appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Starry Night (promotional material)
 * Halo: Landfall, though very briefly. (promotion material)
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

Trivia

 * Master Chief is the first gaming character to become a Madame Tussauds waxwork.
 * At the age of six John had brown hair, freckles, and a small gap between his front teeth. It is unknown if he still has these features.
 * In Halo 2 Multiplayer or Campaign, if someone presses "down" on the D-pad, the Master Chief biped will put his gun down as if he was ceasing fire. Throwing all your grenades and holding down the left trigger will also produce the same effect. It has been used in many machinima like "Red vs Blue" or "The Codex". Elites can do it too. However, only the latter method works on Xbox Live. This was disabled in Halo 3 but changed to holding down LB,RB,A,crouch,down on the D-pad for 3 seconds your gun should disappear and your player will hold their gun in the cease fire position. If done correctly, you should hear a little noise.
 * If you melee an enemy while your gun is lowered in Halo 3, the Master Chief will only raise his gun through his eyes, but he will also hurt the enemy.


 * In both Halo: Uprising Issue 1 and Halo 3, John is referred to as Sierra 117, which is also the first mission name in Halo 3. This refers to the Phonetic Alphabet, as the word for 'S' is Sierra, standing for Spartan.
 * At the end of Halo 3, shown on the memorial to fallen heroes, the Master Chief Petty Officer insignia next to the 117 carving has three stars, with the third being being covered up by tape. This is the rank insignia for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (highest position for an enlisted soldier). Rank insignia may have changed over the centuries or it may have been a posthumous promotion. It is also interesting to note that this is the good behavior variant of the rank insignia.
 * John's name was never mentioned in any Halo game until the Final cutscene in Halo 3.
 * In the Bible, John I became 7th Bishop of Jerusalem in 117AD