John-117

 

Master Chief SPARTAN 117 (John) 

Spartan-117 (commonly known as, Master Chief; to the Covenant, as the Demon) is the protagonist of Halo

Although his official military designation is SPARTAN-117, he is most often referred to simply as the "Master Chief" or "Chief", short for his rank of Master Chief Petty Officer. The traditional rank of Master Chief is a purely administrative position, but the protagonist of Halo is more like an action hero.

The Master Chief is a Spartan II Super Soldier, a genetically and cybernetically augmented warrior designed to be part of humanity's ultimate fighting machine in their war against the powerful alien empire known as the Covenant. Extensive surgical alteration coupled with a ruthless lifelong training regimen has resulted in Master Chief being significantly stronger than even the strongest natural human, and his strength and fighting ability are further augmented by the advanced MJOLNIR Mark VI power armor he wears.

According to Bungie Studios, The Master Chief stands 7' tall and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds in full battle armor. He is approximately forty-one years old at the time of the events of Halo: Combat Evolved (2552). Between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, the Chief's armor is upgraded from MJOLNIR Mark V to Mark VI. Both iterations of the armor include a helmet with reflective visor so the face of the Chief is never seen.

His voice actor is Steve Downes.

Character history
The first part of Master Chief's childhood was spent at a human colony Elysium City, on the planet Eridanus II where he lived with his family. His name was John and he was large for his age at the time, approximately a foot above his school peers, a sign of a "perfect genetic match" for a project dubbed "SPARTAN II". He is described as having tousled brown hair, a gap between his front teeth, and freckles at this age. This is the only clear description of his face we see ever in the Halo universe.

At the age of six, John and seventy-four other children his age were covertly taken from their homes and replaced with flash clones. This specific form of clone was employed to ensure that none of the families knew that their children had been kidnapped. However, the cloning was rushed and unstable and all of the clones died shortly after of what seemed like natural causes. Dr. Halsey later commented that this side effect was unfortunate, but the timeframe requirements of the project left no alternative. The original children were brought to planet Reach, one of the UNSC's headquarters, to train to become SPARTAN-II supersoldiers. On Reach, the abducted children began intensive physical, mental and psychological training as part of the Spartan program, and were assigned new identification numbers instead of last names. John became known as John-117, the one hundred and seventeenth candidate chosen for the program.

On the first day John met his teammates Kelly-087 and Sam-034. They later become best friends. At the age of eight they were sent out into the wilderness in Pelican dropships to participate in a survival exercise. Their trainer, Chief Petty Officer Mendez, said the last trainee to complete the objective had to walk back to the base from the mountainous wilderness. The trainees quickly got involved in a fight with men who wore no uniforms or insignia (who were assigned by Mendez to protect a Pelican) that resulted in extensive injuries. John wanted to make sure everyone got back so he and his fellow trainees stole the Pelican and comandeered it back to the military complex. When they returned home Mendez deemed him squad leader as a result of both his ability to adapt and his leadership over the other SPARTANs.

The children were biologically, genetically and eventually cybernetically augmented and enhanced, undergoing the following procedures:
 * Advanced carbide ceramic material grafted onto bones to increase durability and strength
 * Protein complex injections to increase muscle density and lower recovery time after injury
 * Body growth hormone pellet injections to boost skeletal and muscle tissue growth
 * Occipital capillary reversal to increase blood flow to the eyes, resulting in enhanced vision and perceptiveness
 * Superconducting fibers added to nerve endings, resulting in 300% increase in reflexes and increases in intelligence, memory, and creativity.

These procedures had substantial risks, and only 33 SPARTANs of the original 75 survived to functional status after the augmentations. Of the others, 12 suffered 'significant impairment' and were relegated to tactical and administrative duties in the Reach complex. The rest died. John, during his time with the SPARTANs, was deemed the "luckiest" and was the first to test the MJOLNIR armor. He also took command of the trainees during free-form tactical exercises.

John-117's first real mission was against rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his homeworld was located. He was wounded but not incapacitated while leading his squad to capture Colonel Robert Watts, leader of the insurgent forces. He received a Purple Heart after the mission.

Later on, he was briefed on the Covenant threat; he and the other SPARTANs would fight for many years against this new enemy. They were first sent to Chi Ceti 4 to retrieve the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. After retrieving the armor they encountered a Covenant frigate above the planet: Sam, Kelly and John subsequently boarded it and planted a bomb. This resulted in the death of Sam; who stayed behind to ensure the detonation of the explosives.

Halo: Combat Evolved/The Flood
As Earth fought a losing war against the Covenant, the UNSC High Command developed a last-ditch plan to capture a Covenant High Prophet, who they hoped could be used in order to barter a truce. Before this mission could be put into action, the SPARTANs got their Mark IV armor replaced with a Mark V which was complete with energy shields from integrating Covenant technology into the armor. On top of this, Reach, the staging ground for the operation and the center of naval operations, was attacked. The majority of the SPARTANs were diverted to Reach's surface to defend groundside installations and the fusion reactors for the MAC guns in orbit. The Master Chief was sent along with two other SPARTANs, Linda and James, to destroy a small Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)stealth ship so that the vessel's navigation info, which could lead the Covenant to Earth and was not wiped per UNSC protocol, would not fall into enemy hands. As the UNSC fleet and the Marines and SPARTANs defending Reach were being destroyed, the Master Chief managed to complete his mission and return to the Pillar of Autumn. However, he had lost one of his SPARTANs in space, and the other, Linda, was hurt so badly she seemed to be dead. Knowing Reach was lost, the Pillar of Autumn plotted a random course as per the Cole Protocol. The Master Chief, seemingly the last SPARTAN alive, went into cryo sleep (something similar to hibernation, for long trips). As Reach's rivers turned to steam and the land became molten slag as a result of the Covenant's orbital bombardment, a few SPARTANs managed to escape and hide in the one area that was not being targeted.

Upon coming out of slipspace, the Pillar of Autumn, commanded by Captain Jacob Keyes, aided by Cortana, the ship's A.I., was attacked by the Covenant and crash landed on Installation 04, called 'Halo' by the Covenant. In the midst of fighting the Covenant, it was discovered that Halo was a ring-shaped construct created by the Forerunners as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called The Flood. The Flood was accidentally unleashed by exploratory Covenant teams; as a direct result, a majority of the Covenant and UNSC troops who landed on Halo were infected and became Flood themselves. On behalf of the installation's Monitor, a millennia-old A.I. called 343 Guilty Spark, the Master Chief retrieved the Index, a device which would activate Halo and supposedly wipe out the Flood. However, Guilty Spark neglected to inform Master Chief that Halo would accomplish this by destroying all sentient life in a vast radius, essentially starving The Flood to death. Halo 04's activation would also trigger the other six Installations, which would wipe the entire galaxy clean of sentient life. Cortana's timely intervention prevented Halo's activation, and the two decided to destroy Halo itself. Fighting off immeasurable numbers of Covenant, Flood, and Guilty Spark's Forerunner Sentinels, the Chief made his way back to the Pillar of Autumn and used the ship's fusion reactor core to trigger an explosion, destroying Halo and crippling the Covenant invasion/occupation forces led by the future Arbiter that had destroyed Reach and pursued the Pillar of Autumn.

First Strike
The Master Chief, along with the few UNSC personnel who survived Halo, managed to capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice, and return to Reach to contact Earth's High Command. At Reach, the Master Chief discovered that the Covenant had not eradicated the planet's biosphere the way they normally did, and that a few other SPARTANs were still alive. He retrieved them, as well as Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creative genius behind the SPARTAN-II project. The SPARTANs then attacked a Covenant command station, the Unyielding Hierophant, which was being used as a staging area for an attack on Earth - or, at least, Earth's coordinates.

By the end of the novel, the only other remaining Halo survivor is Sergeant Avery Johnson, whose life was in his hands. Before Halsey's departure, Halsey gives John the reason behind Johnson's survival on Halo about Johnson being diagnosed with Boren Syndrome and that it was a lucky survival. From that point, Halsey gives him a final lesson about sacrificing a life for the greater good or saving every single life possible in the form of giving the complete battle data on the Flood, including Johnson's medical report, or the regular combat data. Before Operation: First Strike, John gave Lieutenant Haverson the complete data, only for it to be handed back by Sergeant Johnson after the mission, with John changing his mind by giving ONI the regular data upon the return trip to Earth. It is then inferred from that point on that John swears Johnson to secrecy. Furthermore, only five of the original SPARTANs are in active service: Linda (SPARTAN-058), who 'died' during the Reach space op but was later revived by Dr. Halsey, Will (SPARTAN-043), Fred (SPARTAN-104), and John himself. Kelly, SPARTAN-087, is still alive but has been kidnapped by Dr. Halsey for purposes unknown. All other SPARTANs are either MIA or confirmed KIA (though they are still designated as MIA or WIA to promote the lie that SPARTANs don't die, an effort to give the human race hope and boost in morale).

In addition to the five named SPARTANs above, there are in fact three other SPARTANs who were out of range when the SPARTANs were gathered on the Pillar of Autumn, prior to the Fall of Reach and the events on Installation 04. They may have since fallen to Covenant forces, or are currently en route to Earth.

Halo 2
Upon arriving back on Earth, the Chief's heavily damaged Mark V MJOLNIR armor was replaced by the newer Mark VI model. He attended a brief awards ceremony aboard Cairo Station defense platform, which was rudely interrupted by a Covenant invasion force, comprising an unusually small fleet of ships. The Covenant boarded Cairo Station, but were repelled by the Master Chief and the UNSC troops. He destroyed one of their ships with their own bomb intended to destroy the station, and reached the In Amber Clad (Miranda Keyes' ship) which descended to New Mombasa to combat Covenant ground forces. He boarded and destroyed a massive Scarab walker with the assistance of a small squad of Marines. As the Covenant departed using a slipspace jump within the city, the In Amber Clad followed them to Installation 05 - another Halo. On Delta Halo, as it was quickly named by the UNSC, the Master Chief fought and killed the Covenant High Prophets of Regret.

The Chief was then captured by the Flood Gravemind after barely escaping from the High Prophet's main temple and met his Covenant Elite counterpart, the Arbiter. The Gravemind had a secret agenda and sent the two soldiers to stop the Prophet Hierarchs from activating Delta Halo. (Even without Installation 04, the devastation caused by the remaining six rings would still be apocalyptic, destroying both races and much of the Flood's food sources) Gravemind sent the Chief to infiltrate High Charity, the Covenant capital city-ship, while the Arbiter went to try and stop Tartarus, on the surface of Delta Halo itself. As the Chief and the Arbiter distracted the Covenant, the Gravemind hijacked the abandoned In Amber Clad, filled it with Flood combat forms, and crashed the unlucky ship into High Charity. Out of the wreckage spilled a Flood invasion force.

The Master Chief followed the Prophet of Truth to a Forerunner ship through waves of Flood Combat Forms and managed to board it before it embarked for Earth. Cortana remained on High Charity to detonate the In Amber Clad in case Delta Halo was activated. Upon arriving in Sol, SPARTAN-117 was asked by Admiral Hood what he was doing aboard the Forerunner ship approaching Earth, to which he responded, "Sir, finishing this fight."