Jacob Keyes

Summary
Twenty-six years into his military career, Captain Keyes commanded respect as a keen strategist and inspirational leader of his men. His many decorations and years of combat experience against the Covenant made him a natural choice to command the Pillar of Autumn and its secret cargo.

Early Career
Keyes was born on Earth and spent time around the Pacific Ocean during his childhood. He then attended the Luna OCS Academy on the Moon. During his training, an incident occurred where fourteen ensigns were killed due to an instructor's error during a poorly planned test. Keyes suffered plasma burns during the test and had to be rehabilitated in a hospital for two months. Keyes refused to testify against the instructor, and was noted for it.

In 2517, seven weeks out of OCS, Lieutenant (J.G.) Keyes was assigned to the UNSC Magellan, when those orders were rescinded and he was chosen to assist Dr. Catherine Halsey with her task of searching for able subjects for her SPARTAN-II project. The first child they chose was SPARTAN subject number 117; John. Keyes never forgot this assignment, or the names of each and every one of those children.

After this task was complete, he went back to normal duty and became an excellent strategist when dealing with Covenant. He became a minor hero early in his career, when he led a small group of security troops against a Covenant ambush of the frigate UNSC Meriwether Lewis and held the Covenant off long enough for the ship to escape. He later toured on the Frigate UNSC Midsummer Night. He garnered many citations and years of combat experience against the Covenant during these tours. During one of these tours, Keyes went to Charybdis IX. There, he killed his first human being with a Pistol during a riot.

He later taught at the OCS Academy. Some of the top brass at HIGHCOM disapproved of him, and he got the nickname "Schoolmaster" from those detractors who thought he didn't belong in command of anything but a classroom, if that.

2552
However, because of the shortange of good officers, Keyes was promoted to Commander in 2552 and assumed command of the UNSC Iroquois. Shortly thereafter, he foresaw a Covenant attack on Sigma Octanus IV thanks to a paper by SPARTAN-084, destroying a Covenant destroyer, two frigates, and chased off a Covenant carrier with a daring maneuver dubbed the "Keyes Loop" during The Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. This awarded him the rank of Captain and command of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. He later returned to Reach and was debriefed by an ONI council. He met SPARTAN-117 once again.

His new command carried an important mission: to carry the Spartan supersoldiers to Covenant space and capture a Prophet. Two days before his mission was to begin, he was aboard the Pillar of Autumn when The Battle of Reach began. Keyes offloaded most of the Spartans to the surface of the planet and to Reach Station Gamma. He then tried to aid in the defense of Reach, even destroying the Assault Carrier flagship of the fleet, ultimantely in vain. He could only pick up SPARTAN-117 (along with the body of SPARTAN-058) and Sergeant Johnson from the station and flee.

Halo
The Pillar of Autumn's AI, Cortana, ended up navagating the vessel to Installation 04. They were once again assailed by Covenant forces and the Autumn crashed. Keyes and the command crew of the Autumn tried to flee in a bumblebee lifepod, Kilo Tango Victor 17. During the descent, the Ossoona Isna 'Nosolee was spotted aboard by Keyes, and he killed the Elite. Unfortunately, they were still spotted in the descent. Thanks to the traitor Ensign Ellen Dowski, the Covenant were able to capture Keyes, and kill the rest of the Command Crew.

Keyes was taken aboard the Covenant CCS-class cruiser, the Truth and Reconciliation. There, he was interrogated, tourtured, and held prisoner until the Master Chief and the ODSTs were able to rescue him and a group of Marines. They were forced to comandeer a Covenant Dropship during their escape, and Keyes piloted it, even stopping to ram two Hunters.

Keyes then went to Alpha Base, taking command of the base from Major Antonio Silva briefly. He then took Sergeant Johnson and two fire teams of of Marines (Including PFC Jenkins) to a facility they thought held a Covenant weapons cache. It turned out that the place was one of the Halo's Flood Containment Facilities. Keyes and his Marines were ambushed by the Flood. During the ensuing firefight, an Infection Form latched onto his back and infected him.

Keyes watched helplessly as the form took over his body and attacked his mind. Originally, Keyes' body was a Combat Form, but the Flood, apparently realizing his importance, merged him and several Elites into a Brain Form. The Flood hoped that his intelligence would help them to operate the crashed Truth and Reconciliation and escape the ring, but before they could do so, The Master Chief boarded the ship once again looking for Keyes, and found only the Brain form. Keyes life officially ended when the Chief destroyed his brain after his mind had been absorbed by the Flood infection. His Command Neural Interface enabled Master Chief and Cortana to start up the Pillar of Autumn's engines so they could destroy the Halo by overloading them.

Keyes is survived by his daughter, Miranda Keyes, also a ship Commander. She accepted a posthumous Colonial Cross awarded to him for his bravery during the events on Installation 04 by Lord Hood.

Ribbons
There are nine ribbons on Keyes' uniform. US Armed Forces ribbons are worn by order of precedence, from left to right, top to bottom. For the sake of this article, they will be numbered Ribons 1 through 9, in this order.

These Ribbons coencide with the following Modern US Air Force Decorations:


 * Ribbon 1: The Medal of Honor
 * Ribbon 2: Distinguished Service Cross
 * Ribbon 3: The Purple Heart
 * Ribbon 4: Air Force Commendation Medal
 * Ribbon 5: Combat Readiness Medal
 * Ribbon 6: Armed Force Expeditionary Medal
 * Ribbon 7: Outstanding Airman of the Year Ribbon
 * Ribbon 8: NCO Professional Military Education Graduation Ribbon
 * Ribbon 9: Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon
 * The Colonial Cross (Posthumous)

Note: Ribbon 7 is out of order. In the Modern US military, it would be worn before Ribbon 6. Then again, It is also unlikely that Keyes, a naval captain, won an award for being an enlisted member of the Air Force. We can only assume that the meaning of these ribbons has changed.

Medals
Along with the Medal Decorations, Keyes is depicted with (Above name tag), a Marine rank of Captain which is much different than a Naval rank of Captain. A Marine ranking Captain (0-3) is a Company Grade or Junior Officer which is ranked three steps lower than a naval Captain (0-6), and has no special authority with respect to a ship and is just another passenger or crew member whilst on board. While a naval Captain is a Senior Officer Postion usually in charge of the vessel he is stationed on. According to his military record, Keyes graduated from Luna OCS Academy, a Naval Academy. Also his daughter, Commander Miranda Keyes is designated as a Commander, which is only a naval rank and two steps higher than a Marine Captain but one step below a Naval Captain. A naval Captain wears the which is equivilent to a Marine Colonel. Whether it was intended for Keyes to have Marine Captain's Bars or if it was just a mistake is a question for the developers.

Trivia

 * Keyes enjoyed smoking Sweet William Cigars.
 * Keyes hated Sergeant Johnson's Flip Music, because it had an "incessant slam-bam beat."
 * On Captain Keyes' tunic is the Marathon logo. It has also been noted that the text on the tunic states "Hello My Name Keyes". The missing "is" probably did not fit.
 * In the level Truth and Reconciliation it is possible to kill Keyes when you open the brigs. However, he comes back to life for the cutscene and for the rest of the mission. The only sign of him dying is a patch of blood on his cell floor and if you kill him after that you will fail the mission.
 * In the level Keyes when you find the Brain Form his pipe is dangling from a tentacle behind the blob. If you zoom in with a Pistol or a Sniper Rifle, you can see the Marathon logo on the end of his pipe.
 * Keyes never mentions his daughter, Miranda to anyone. He does not even think of her when the Flood are slowly destroying his mind.

Production Notes
Captain Keyes was voiced by Pete Stacker on Halo: Combat Evolved.

The Captain Keyes model for Halo: Combat Evolved was created by Marcus R. Lehto.

Jacob Keyes appears or is mentioned in the following Halo levels and books:
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: Combat Evolved/Halo: The Flood
 * The Pillar of Autumn
 * The Truth and Reconciliation
 * The Silent Cartographer (Radio transmission)
 * 343 Guilty Spark (Cutscene)
 * Keyes
 * Halo: First Strike (Mentioned Only)
 * Halo 2 (Mentioned Only)