Margaret Parangosky

"In his opinion, she was the most dangerous person in the UNSC. She was the real power in ONI. To his knowledge, only one person had ever crossed her and lived."

- Colonel James Ackerson's opinion of Admiral Parangosky.

Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky (service number 00230-00923-MP; UNSCMID 03669271) is the former Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence. In office by 2511, she coordinated ONI's activities during the Insurrection, throughout the Human-Covenant War, and in the years that followed. By 2555, she had been succeeded by her protegé, Admiral Serin Osman.

Parangosky was slight of build and appeared much older than her actual age, but her withered appearance belied her sharp intellect and ice-cold ruthlessness. She was known to be very powerful and deadly; Doctor Catherine Halsey was the only person who had ever crossed her and lived. Colonel James Ackerson considered her to be the most dangerous person in the UNSC.

Early years
"Parangosky"

- Ackerson

Margaret Parangosky was born in 2461 or 2462, being seventy years of age by October 24, 2531. She joined the United Nations Space Command Armed Forces when she was around twenty-two years old, eventually becoming a captain in the Navy. The first warship she served aboard was the. As a captain Margaret frequently punched well above her weight, so to speak, and brought down a number of senior officers. On January 2, 2511 Parangosky, now a rear admiral, issued an order reclassifying all materials concerning the planet Onyx as Top Secret, Eyes Only. This order affected anything mentioning, referencing, or containing reports, surveys, personal notes and logs, images, or any other data pertaining to the planet. It also was accompanied by an ONI-authorized system-wide network purge under the direction of a military artificial intelligence. On March 6, 2525 the admiral announced through another order that after almost fifteen years of continuous and ruinously expensive research without the discovery of a single new useful technology, the Onyx initiative's budget had been reprioritized. Though the alien artifacts and hieroglyphics there continued to be of interest, she said that recent rebel activities in the Outer Colonies demanded that A.I. and military personnel were reallocated. Parangosky emphasized that Onyx was to remain classified and shared that all its materials and files had been re-designated under new nomenclature. Any breaches of confidentiality, she added, would be punishable by death in accordance with various legal articles. A skeleton crew and one A.I. would continue to probe the mysteries of the site known as Zone 67 on the planet, she noted. She closed by saying that in the meantime, the rest of them had a war to fight.

In May of 2531, Vice Admiral Preston Cole told Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth his assistance would be needed in order to get Parangosky to allow Cole to use her assets to manipulate energy in slipspace in what he was sure she would consider an "extreme risk" operation. Cole was proposing that Section Two of ONI begin broadcasting prerecorded carrier signals from antiquity in order to attenuate and obfuscate the radio signatures already in slipspace, hoping that doing so would prevent the Covenant from triangulating Earth's location. Later that year, on October 24, Margaret met with Rear Admiral Ned Rich, Colonel James Ackerson, and Captain Aaron Gibson aboard the. Now a vice admiral, the ship had come to serve as her base of operations.

During this meeting, Colonel Ackerson proposed the SPARTAN-III project, which would produce large numbers of expendable supersoldiers. Parangosky approved the creation of Alpha Company and authorized a plan in which Lieutenant, Junior Grade Kurt-051 would be abducted and put in charge of training the SPARTAN-IIIs.

In 2537, Parangosky went aboard the Point of No Return to review the progress of the SPARTAN-III program and to authorize the formation of Beta Company, following the recent destruction of Alpha Company in Operation: PROMETHEUS. She considered Alpha Company's destruction "regrettable", but considered them heroes, and promoted Kurt from Lieutenant, Junior Grade to full Lieutenant for it.

Sometime prior to 2551, Kurt appealed to Parangosky to save Tom-B292 (who Colonel Ackerson wanted for his "special projects") and Lucy-B091 (who, because she had become mute due to posttraumatic vocal disarticulation, was almost classified as "unfit for duty," and would have been reassigned to ONI's psych branch for "psychological evaluation") from reassignment, saying he needed Spartans to train Spartans. Parangosky allowed him to do this so they could help him train Gamma Company.

Later career
By 2552, Parangosky had risen to rank of four-star admiral. She continued working aboard the Point of No Return, green-lighting some of humanity's most controversial projects. After the SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures, she adopted the "washed-out" SPARTAN-II candidate Serin Osman as her protégé, grooming her to be her successor. It was noted that Osman was a "granddaughter figure" to Parangosky, and one of the few people she cared about.

Prior to and during the battle for Reach in 2552, Admiral Parangosky conspired with Admiral Michael Stanforth to use Reach as bait to seize major Covenant vessels as part of the oncoming Operation: RED FLAG, intentionally hindering the UNSC's military response to the Covenant attack and even concealing the invasion from a significant portion of key military personnel and civilians on the planet.

Post-war
Following the end of the war, Parangosky found herself at odds with members of the UEG and UNSC High Command over the Sangheili. While Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood and others believed that a peace treaty with Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and the Swords of Sanghelios was desirable, Parangosky believed that keeping the Sangheili mired in internal dissent would leave them unable to threaten the weakened UNSC. In 2553, Parangosky assigned Osman to lead an intelligence team on a covert mission to sow dissent among the Sangheili, disguised as a diplomatic mission. These activities included having Kilo-Five secretly assist Avu Med 'Telcam and the Servants of the Abiding Truth in their war against 'Vadam and his followers, going so far as to destroy several of 'Vadam's ships in order to allow 'Telcam's forces to escape during the rebels' failed assault on 'Vadam's keep. She was also planning to wipe out the entire species and colonize Sanghelios itself, in the event that ONI's efforts to create civil war amongst the Sangheili failed.

Parangosky's plan backfired when Jul 'Mdama, a Sangheili prisoner in ONI custody, escaped from the ONI facility at Trevelyan. 'Mdama, who had learned of ONI's plot to turn his people against each other, would eventually forge a new Covenant from the old client races. When Parangosky learned of 'Mdama's escape, she was furious and had Dr. Irena Magnusson, the director of Trevelyan, detained for her failure.

Parangosky also planned to obtain the Pious Inquisitor with the intention of reverse-engineering its ventral beam for use against Sangheili colony worlds. Kilo-Five was tasked with capturing the battlecruiser; however, they were ultimately unsuccessful and the ship was destroyed.

By 2555, Serin Osman had replaced her as Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence. When a Forerunner artifact onboard threatened the ship during its second tour on Requiem, Parangosky sent Dr. Halsey a note requesting her aid in the matter. While she admitted that ONI held Halsey in less than ideal conditions and that she was not in a position to ask her personal favors, she appealed to the doctor's commitment to humanity's survival to help the crew of Infinity.

Personality and traits
"Strength through Paranoia."

- Parangosky's personal motto

Parangosky's reputation within the UNSC stems not only from her powerful position as the head of ONI, but also from her intimidating force of will. She is shrewd and highly intelligent, and combined with her cold demeanor these qualities make her an imposing figure despite her age; Dr. Halsey regarded her as one of the few people that she was genuinely afraid of. Her usual persona was that of a curt, professional leader. However, the reputation surrounding her ruthlessness streak were well founded. As head of ONI, Parangosky held almost unlimited power within the UNSC to conduct espionage, order assassinations and coordinate high risk, top secret projects and operations. She was responsible, among other things, for authorizing Colonel James Ackerson's SPARTAN-III project, the SPARTAN-IV project, and was aware of the construction of the UNSC Infinity. Many viewed her as the true power operating behind the UNSC's military government. This could most clearly be seen by her initiative to destabilize Elite society on Sanghelios. This project was carried out despite the fact that Lord Admiral Hood, the de facto head of the UNSC during the final days of the war, was conducting high-level peace negotiations with the Arbiter. Parangosky doubted that a single Elite, no matter how noble, could fully restrain Covenant splinter factions from waging war against humanity. Her world view was explained by her protege Serin Osman as, "It doesn't matter what your enemy's intentions are, only their capabilities."

While her position has allowed her to authorize numerous programs that may be seen as ethically questionable, Parangosky has been shown to nonetheless possess a moral code. In her own view, she willingly played the part of devil's advocate, sacrificing the needs of the few for the many. The Admiral held no illusions that she held any sort of moral high ground. She viewed the SPARTAN-III project as a tragic necessity, sacrificing hundreds for potentially billions. Although Parangosky originally resented the compassion Catherine Halsey showed for her Spartans and saw Halsey's feelings as a liability, her attitude changed with old age as she began to reexamine the decisions she had made over her career. Part of her self-reflection may have been the result of Dr. Graham Alban, a friend of hers who worked on the SPARTAN-II program, committing suicide over his guilt for being involved with the project, and likely fed Parangosky's existing antipathy for Halsey.

Parangosky saw Halsey's use of flash clones in the SPARTAN-II project as particularly unethical and demanded that the doctor answer for her use of the illegal technology. Although the Admiral had allowed the SPARTAN-II project to proceed, Parangosky believed that the use of flash clones, and the following trauma inflicted upon the families who watched their "children" sicken and die, was merely an attempt of Halsey to soothe her own conscience. Kidnapping in her mind was justified, lying to the public about the 'death' of the original Spartan candidates merely made matters worse. Parangosky bitterly remarked that as declassified information was slowly made public, many surviving families would come to know their dead children had in fact survived - only to have died fighting against the Covenant. In her own version of Contrapasso or poetic justice, she declared Dr. Halsey, at that time an unofficial fugitive of the UNSC for misappropriating Spartan assets, as KIA. Just as her Spartan candidates had been stripped of everything they knew and declared dead, forced into a life of perpetual service, so too would Halsey.

Parangosky viewed Serin Osman as both an heir and perhaps family. Serin was someone she could mentor, advise, and be supported by in the harsh and brutal world of military intelligence.

Production note
Parangosky is listed on an ONI memorial plaque inside the ONI Alpha Site in Halo 3: ODST. However, the Halo Encyclopedia states that she was still alive and onboard the Point of No Return by 2553, and she is a major character in the Kilo-Five Trilogy. This is presumably an Easter egg, given that all ONI personnel who had appeared in canon as of the game's development are listed on the memorial wall.

List of appearances

 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
 * Halo: Glasslands
 * Halo: The Thursday War
 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops
 * Infinity Briefing Packet
 * Halo: Mortal Dictata
 * Hunt the Truth
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark
 * Halo: Last Light
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: The Television Series