Olympia Vale

"She's a professional diplomat and extremely fluent in their language and culture. If there's anything to know about the Sangheili, she's the one."

- Doctor Bob Casper, referring to Olympia Vale

Olympia Vale (service number 44482-91201-OV) is a Spartan-IV supersoldier of Fireteam Osiris. Vale is an expert in alien culture, particularly the culture of the Sangheili and Forerunners, and is fluent in Sangheili. Following the Human-Covenant War, Vale served as a professional diplomat for the United Nations Space Command, specializing in interspecies relations. While most Spartan-IVs are recruited from active field duty, Vale is an exception. Vale's enlistment in the SPARTAN-IV program comes after receiving stellar combat scores in training exercises despite minimal field experience.

Early life and career
Olympia Vale was born on the human colony of Luyten on January 20, 2536. Vale was a child prodigy who had an innate skill in languages. When Vale was eleven, her parents divorced. Her mother, a recently promoted captain in UNSC Navy signal intelligence, was reassigned to Earth. Along with two other people, Vale and her mother left for the planet. While en route, their ship's slipspace drive failed and the trip ultimately took six months to return to inhabited space, dodging Covenant activity along the way. After annoying the others aboard the ship with her endless questions, she was shunted aside and ignored. To pass the time, Vale listened to recordings of the Sangheili's language and compared them to translations performed by artificial intelligences. She eventually taught herself the language and even proved several of the AI translations incorrect. Vale attended Sydney University in Australia on Earth and, upon graduating, Vale followed in her mother's footsteps and enlisted in the Office of Naval Intelligence, specializing in signals intelligence. After the Human-Covenant War, Vale found the opportunity to travel to the Sangheili frontier colony of Khael'mothka, where she wandered the planet for months. The world was embroiled in the Sangheili's ongoing civil war, though Vale's well-being was rarely endangered as she learned who to stay away from.

By 2555, Vale served as a professional diplomat and a Sangheili culture and language expert for the Office of Naval Intelligence. Vale was required to study martial arts at the Green Cloud institution, as a prerequisite for serving as a frontline diplomat for ONI with the Sangheili. Serving as an ONI Special Liaison for the Unified Earth Government, Vale aided with negotiations with the emerging Swords of Sanghelios led by Arbiter Thel 'Vadam. Her fluency in the Sangheili language and knowledge of their society was highly valued by her superiors, though Vale was often busied by endless meetings with Sangheili diplomats. Vale was friends with Cynthia Diggs, a scientist and post-war political liaison. Diggs wished to keep Vale informed with the research and examinations being performed at Installation 07, as she was concerned that the participation of the Sangheili may be required, in which Vale could be used as a UNSC translator for the Sangheili.

Operation: FAR STORM
"If you really believe that destroying my people is the right course of action, then do it! End it—starting with me! I have no desire to wind up being a prisoner here on the Ark—because that's what I'll be. And you will be my jailer. I am a human being, not one of the animals currently running around on your installation's surface, If you don't release me and recall the Retrievers, then we have nothing else to talk about. You should know that no matter what happens to me, you will be hunted down and expunged from the Ark's system permanently. The Huragok managed to force you out, and it is only a short matter of time before it terminates your operability and your control of the Retrievers. And I'll be damned if I am going to listen to any more nonsense from your mouth. So, if you are inclined, kill me."

- Olympia Vale, defying 000 Tragic Solitude

In March 2555, at Doctor Bob Casper's suggestion, Vale was selected as a member of the joint UNSC–Sangheili force sent to Installation 00 on a covert operation to stop the Halo Array's activation sequence discovered on Installation 07. The primary reason Vale was selected for the mission was due to her expertise in Sangheili culture, which would allow her to serve as a buffer between UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios members of the team. Vale was dispatched to the Kenyan city of Voi, where the UNSC was attempted to reactivate the slipspace portal leading to Installation 00. After two days, Huragok Drifts Randomly managed to reactivate the portal with Vale and Usze 'Taham present. The three quickly returned to the surface and witnessed the portal's activation. However, a Retriever immediately exited the portal and begun mining the ground nearby. Usze picked up Vale and escaped the Retriever's path of destruction, with the Huragok following right behind them. The three later met with the other members of the expedition aboard the Sangheili's corvette Mayhem, after the Retriever's destruction. When Captain Annabelle Richards insisted that the team needed ONI's permission before entering the portal, N'tho 'Sraom regardless moved the corvette towards the portal as he felt that they could not waste time waiting for administrative consent. Before they entered, Mayhem was attacked by another Retriever, though the corvette managed to destroyed the Sentinel. Mayhem entered the portal and, ultimately, the trip only took several hours rather than weeks —due to an increase in the portal's power by 000 Tragic Solitude.

Upon exiting slipspace, Mayhem was attacked by dozens of heavily armed Retrievers. As the corvette's artificial gravity systems began to falter, Vale was thrown to the ground hard and Spartan Elias Holt moved to protect her. As both became knocked unconscious, Drifts Randomly grabbed both humans and held them safely in place. The Retrievers heavily damaged Mayhem and forced the vessel to crash land on the surface of the Ark. Though Holt soon recovered, N'tho ordered the Huragok to take Vale to the ship's medlab and heal her injuries. Drifts Randomly healed Vale's concussion and she recovered shortly after. The mission's team—Vale, Richards, Holt, Spartan Frank Kodiak, Luther Mann, Henry Lamb, ten UNSC Marines, N'tho, Usze, Kola 'Baoth, Zon 'Vadum, and Drifts—left the Mayhem and began venturing towards the Ark's Citadel to stop the Halo Array's activation. After encountering a pod of peaceful olfmeri, the group was attacked by a pack of blind wolves. At Vale's insistence, the group remained silent and still. Unable to hear them, the blind wolves moved on. However, they were promptly attacked by chaefka. When one of the animals attacked Holt, Vale managed to kill the chaefka as it switched targets and bounded towards her. The dead animal crashed into Vale and knocked her down; she was again rendered unconscious when her head hit something hard. Tragic Solitude communicated with her through her earpiece and manipulated a psychotropic effect generated by an agent released by the chaefka to make her walk away from a battle and towards the Citadel, alongside a now-friendly chaefka. When the rest of the team realized Vale was gone, Holt, Usze, and Lamb were tasked with finding her. After some time of travel, the chaefka had Vale climb onto its back. When Vale regained full control over her own body, she only had a vague recollection of the mission's events. After she climbed off the animal, she soon remembered the mission. The floor beneath her suddenly opened up and she fell into an elevator that delivered her to a hallway. Vale encountered a large, open hatch in the hallway and she was knocked into the hole by an unknown force. She slid down a tube that brought her to another room. Tragic Solitude arrived at her location and transformed himself into a golden replication of Vale, as he believed that this form would make her more comfortable.

The monitor revealed that he had initiated Halos' activation not only to rid the Milky Way of humans and other "destructive" species, but to lure humanity into reopening the Voi portal so he could send Retrievers to Earth to mine the planet for resources that would be used to rebuild the Ark after it sustained heavy damaged during the Battle of Installation 00. Vale argued with Tragic Solitude in an attempt to convince him to stop the Halo Array's activation and mine other worlds to rebuild the Ark, rather than Earth. Tragic Solitude remained unmoved by Vale's arguments and induced her to sleep. When she awoke, she was placed inside an energy barrier and elevated to the center of the room. While she continued to argue with Tragic Solitude, she was found by Holt, Kodiak, N'tho, and Zon. As the rest of the team deactivated the Halos' activation sequence, the monitor revealed to Vale that he was now released an army of Retrievers to mine Earth's surface. Meanwhile, Drifts and Mann managed to infiltrate the Ark's systems and take full control of the installation. Tragic Solitude compromised to extract the Retrievers if Vale told the Huragok to return control of the Ark's systems to him. The monitor allowed Mann and Drifts to hear her, but Vale instead insisted for Drifts to purge Tragic Solitude out of the Ark's systems once he had the chance. Vale asked to be killed, but the monitor brought the now-cyborg Bobby Kodiak—the brother of Frank Kodiak—before her and decided that the two would fight to the death; the "victor" would be used by Tragic Solitude to restart the Halos' activation. While the cyborg attacked Vale and proved to be superior, Holt, Kodiak, N'tho, and Zon discovered and fired upon the monitor's data stores. To get them to stop, Tragic Solitude recalled the Retrievers and the cyborg collapsed to the ground. Suddenly, the monitor attacked the Spartans, but Bobby Kodiak charged Tragic Solitude and plunged one of his bladed forearms into the monitor's interior housing, destroying both of them. Afterwards, the survivors of the expedition returned to Mayhem. Vale's injuries were treated aboard the corvette, and arrived at the Ark shortly after and evacuated the crew of Mayhem.

Joining the SPARTAN-IV program
The communication skills and combat prowess displayed by Vale throughout the mission did not go unnoticed by the upper echelons of ONI. After the mission, perhaps at Spartan Frank Kodiak's suggestion, Vale considered joining the SPARTAN-IV program.

After her experience at Installation 00, Vale found difficulty in returning to her former routine. Seeking new challenges, she entered the UNSC's War Games, an inter-service event for soldiers to practice on combat decks similar to those used for training by Spartans. Her combat training was minimal compared to most competitors, however, Vale managed to place in the top five percent through a combination of innate physical talent and quick thinking. As a result of this performance, as well as recommendations from the highest levels of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Vale was approached by the Spartan branch seeking to cultivate warriors highly attuned to the complexities of a post-war threat environment.

Hunting the Master Chief
In 2558, Vale had become a member of Fireteam Osiris, led by Jameson Locke. After several human colonies were unexpectedly attacked by mysterious Forerunner entities, Vale and the rest of Osiris undertook a mission to recover Dr. Catherine Halsey from the custody of Covenant supreme leader Jul 'Mdama on Kamchatka. Some time after the mission, Osiris was tasked with tracking down the AWOL MCPO John-117 and his Blue Team.

Personality and traits
"Do not spend your time looking at the sky, when our victory is right before us. You were sent only to keep the peace between our species, yet you achieved so much more. Do not miss that fact, Olympia Vale."

- Usze 'Taham, comforting Vale

Olympia Vale is personable and has a very professional demeanor. Curious and composed, Vale is known to be very crisp and to the point. She is deeply interested in anything relating to the Sangheili or the Forerunners, and is proud of her knowledge of both species. Vale is completely fluent in Sangheili. When she interacts with Sangheili, she often speaks in their own language as a gesture of respect. Vale is fascinated by the contradictions and complexities of Sangheili culture, believing their psychology and society to be a difficult puzzle that she can unlock through dedication and study. She is deeply interested in the Forerunners and would often wonder what the Forerunners were like. Although Vale considers the Forerunners to be an incredible race and is amazed by their creations, she does not believe that they were even remotely divine. She was impressed by the progress made between humanity and other sapient species, such as the Sangheili, in terms of peace after nearly thirty years of war. Although her purpose on the mission to Installation 00 was intended to only be diplomatic, she proved to be willing to sacrifice her life to save Earth and her species when monitor 000 Tragic Solitude threatened to activate the Halo Array and mine Earth with an army of Retrievers. Though she recognized the danger of the rampant Tragic Solitude, she felt some pangs of regret over the monitor's destruction. Vale was disappointed that she could not convince the monitor to avert the firing of the Halo Array, despite her diplomatic skills and knowledge on Forerunner culture.

During her time with them, Vale formed friendships with most of her teammates on the Ark expedition. Vale bonded with Luther Mann and Henry Lamb over their similar fields of knowledge, and she was deeply saddened when she learned of Lamb's death. She formed a companionship with Usze 'Taham; she was deeply interested in 'Taham's past and came to trust him, while he believed that Vale was one of the more interesting humans and respected her overall competence. She had also formed a friendship with Spartan Elias Holt, who admired her bravery and moderate combat skills despite only being a diplomat and alien specialist.

Equipment
During the mission to Installation 00, Olympia Vale armed herself with a M6 series pistol. Prior to 2555, she had not used the weapon for years, only using it previously in a training exercise. After becoming a Spartan, she sported the Copperhead variant of the MJOLNIR GEN2 armor. Her armor, painted red with gold details, has a gold-colored visor. Vale's preferred loadout is the M20 SMG as her primary weapon, with the Type-54 plasma pistol as her sidearm.

Production notes

 * Olympia Vale is voiced by Laura Bailey, who is married to Travis Willingham the voice actor for Fred-104 and Jul 'Mdama. Bailey also voiced Katrina in the Hunt the Truth audio logs.
 * Vale is a playable character in Halo 5: Guardians. Her unique abilities are faster movement speed and faster thruster recharge and slower stabilizer descent.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2 Anniversary
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark
 * Hunt the Truth
 * The Hunt Begins
 * Halo 5: Guardians