Henry Glassman

"If you take engines built by aliens a hundred thousand years ago, and hire a war criminal to bolt them onto the ship, you can't expect predictable behavior!"

- Glassman commenting on a sudden power loss aboard the UNSC Infinity.

Dr. Henry Glassman was a civilian human scientist contracted by the UNSC Navy. He served aboard Infinity as her chief engineer.

Biography
Glassman was assigned in 2553 to the prototype ship Infinity. He had difficulty getting along with Dr. Catherine Halsey, who was installing the Forerunner engines on the ship. As well, Glassman worked with the Huragok who were assigned to working on and repairing the ship. In a meeting with Admirals Terrence Hood and Margaret Parangosky, Glassman was asked if the Infinity could be sent to Sanghelios to aid Thel 'Vadam in the Sangheili civil war, which he was losing. Glassman approved the Infinity ready to be 'put through her paces'. The Infinity was successful in defending Vadam Keep from the Servants of Abiding Truth.

Captured
In 2558, the Spartans of Fireteam Crimson recovered a Forerunner artifact from meddling Covenant archaeologists and brought it aboard Infinity. Just moments after unloading, the object began draining power from the ship, causing it to drift towards Requiem corridor. Commander Sarah Palmer was able to clamp herself to the deck and temporarily deactivate the artifact by kicking it, allowing further examination by Infinity Science. Glassman, by physical interaction, unintentionally reactivated the object and subsequently "pulled" the doctor in, almost taking Captain Lasky in the process.

The artifact translocated him deep within a Covenant-held site on Requiem where he was beaten and interrogated by Sangheili soldiers. Jul 'Mdama, a Shipmaster and leader in the opposing Covenant remnant faction, thought of him as a "gift" in order to activate further Forerunner systems in the planet. Glassman then began to work on an artifact in the Sangheili's hands, known to them as the "Shrine", under the careful watch of Gek. However, he couldn't do much due to the lack of proper equipment and communication (he was unable to speak the Sangheili tongue and most Elites didn't speak English, and those who did weren't too keen on using it). Glassman eventually activated their Shrine, which prompted all other Sangheili, including Gek, within the vicinity to bow before it. Glassman took the opportunity to escape, but was stopped by two Sangheili that also retained the Spartan Gabriel Thorne. Thorne killed his captors with a Storm Rifle, and when Gek remotely activated Glassman's plasma-charge-rigged-vest, Thorne quickly disposed of it and the two fled.

Production Notes

 * He is voiced by.
 * During production of the first five episodes of Spartan Ops, franchise writer and Spartan Ops author Brian Reed originally intended to kill off Glassman at the end of episode 2. However, as he continued writing subsequent episodes, Glassman "argued his way back into existence" and instead survived his encounter with the artifact.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Thursday War
 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops