Preston Cole

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"Is that the best you can do? Watch what one unworthy human can do!"

- Preston Cole's last known words

Admiral Preston J. Cole was a UNSC Naval officer during the Human-Covenant War. He is best known for his role in creating the Cole Protocol, a central UNSC law of the Human-Covenant War.

Early Life
Preston Jeremiah Cole was born to Jennifer Francine Cole and Troy Henry Cole. He was born in the rural reconstituted township of Mark Twain, Missouri. He was the third child of seven (three sisters and three brothers). Growing up he was described as a precocious child who obeyed his parents. He has wild black hair, dark brown eyes. His father was a dairy farmer with no criminal record, no military background, and followed the Quaker faith with no particular zeal. His mother was arrested once at the age of twenty-one for protesting taxes (released on one year parole), and both her grandfathers served in the Rain Forest Wars (one suriving, reveived the Bronze star).

Early Career
Not much is known of Preston Cole's early military career, save that he retired as a Vice Admiral. By 2525, he was living alone in his apartment. He had gone through three divorces, and his health was worse for the wear: he had two heart attacks and had a cloned liver implanted.

Battles Against The Covenant
Despite his poor health, Cole returned to the military in 2525. After the returned to Reach, badly damaged from first contact with the Covenant, the Office of Naval Intelligence requested that Cole return to service to lead the largest battle group in human history (including at least three Frigates and ten Cruisers) to Harvest in hopes of defeating the extraterrestrial threat. He reluctantly accepted their request, and his old rank of Vice Admiral was restored.

Cole fought the Second Battle of Harvest in 2526, due to Cole's use of intelligence gathered during the Battle of Chi Ceti. Although his fleet defeated the vessel, thirteen UNSC ships were destroyed during the fight.

The news of his promotion to full Admiral was announced on UNSC-controlled television. However, ONI had removed information of the Covenant and replaced the battle information with that of a communications satellite captured by insurgents, in which Cole was "ordered" to destroy. The worlds of Second Base and Green Hills were initially reported as attacked by Insurgents, but were in fact glassed, and their combined population of two million killed. The abandoning of Chi Ceti IV was kept secret.

Due to the impossibility of keeping the war a secret, ONI's Section II went public and gave Cole command of the majority of their warships. Cole continued the fight throughout the Outer Colonies for five more years.

The Battle of Alpha Aurigae in the Origami Asteroid Field in October 2526 had a total of 107 UNSC vessels defeated the Covenant's 12 (at least three were Assault Carriers), thirty-seven UNSC ships were lost.

Xi Boötis A in 2528 saw the loss of thirty out of the UNSC's seventy to the Covenant. The Battle of the Great Bear at Groombridge-1830 in 2530 saw eleven destroyers out of the fleet of seventeen destroyed by three enemy ships.

Upon the recovering of a Sangheili survivor, Admiral Cole began writing the Cole Protocol. Knowing now that the Covenant had little knowledge of Humanity, he realized that secrecy would be advantageous against the Covenant.

Cole would return to Harvest in 2531, removing the Covenant forces that had again encroached on the Epsilon Indi System.

The Cole Protocol


United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1, better known as the Cole Protocol, was a law to prevent the Covenant from finding the location of Earth. Essentially, it is an order forbidding the Covenant to gain any opportunity to retrieve data regarding the location of Earth, and forbids retreating vessels from setting a direct course to Earth, as the Covenant are able to track Slipspace vectors and use them to locate the destination.

The policy also states that to prevent capture, any UNSC or Human vessel is to self destruct, after wiping all data matrices, to prevent the advance of the Covenant, and make sure they can not find Earth.

The first use of the Cole Protocol occurred during the Battle of the Rubble in 2534, where Lieutenant Jacob Keyes used it to escort 1 million people to Falaknuma using Section 4. Though some other officers were anxious regarding Keyes' evacuation (most of the refugees were Insurrectionists), Cole stated that men like Keyes would win the war and promoted him to Commander.

Later Career
At some point after 2531, Admiral Cole was either demoted or his rank expired from full Admiral to Vice Admiral. Admiral Cole was supposedly killed on April 18, 2543 at the Battle of Psi Serpentis. There existed a painting in the HIGHCOM Security Committee Headquarters entitled Admiral Cole's Last Stand in referenence to this. After his apparent death, there was speculation that Admiral Cole, after destroying two whole Covenant fleets, might have made a last minute jump into Slipspace. It has also been speculated that he may have found a planet to colonize on, as he always wanted to retire to be a farmer.

Trivia

 * The Cole Protocol was an effective law of the United Nations Space Command up until October 20th, 2552, when the Covenant found Earth during the Battle of Earth, thereby rendering the Protocol useless. . It presumably continued to apply for other undiscovered UNSC colonies, though.
 * At some point in his career, Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck fought under the command of Admiral Preston Cole.
 * Cole was featured in one of the short stories in the the Halo collection, Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe.