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

Spartan Olympia Vale (service number 44482-91201-OV) is a Spartan-IV supersoldier of Fireteam Osiris. Vale is an anthropologist and xenoanthropologist, particularly adept in Sangheili and Forerunner culture, and 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 as she was accepted into the program after excelling in training exercises despite minimal field experience.

Early life and naval career
"I first learned your language when I was very young. Since then, much of my life has been focused on increasing my knowledge of your kind."

- Olympia Vale, to Usze 'Taham

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 UNSC High Command in Sydney, Australia on Earth. Along with two other people, Vale and her mother left for the planet aboard a diplomatic shuttle for what was intended to be a six-day trip. While en route to the Sol system, 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 or correcting the inaccurate translations. After her arrival to Earth, Vale proceeded to spend the remainder of her childhood on the relative safety of the planet. Vale attended Sydney University on Earth and, upon graduating, Vale followed in her mother's footsteps and enlisted in the UNSC Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence, specializing in signals intelligence. Following the end of the Human-Covenant War in 2552, 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 and many of the planet's inhabitants were both tired of war and curious to see the human.

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, as well as the wife of Doctor Bob Casper. Diggs often sought to keep Vale informed with the research and examinations her husband conducted 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. Vale was primarily selected for the mission 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 attempting 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 nonetheless 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 medical laboratory 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 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 soon encountered a pack of voracious 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 in 2552. 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
"You fought well. It was impressive. Perhaps you may want to consider exploring the concept of enlisting with a higher authority."

- Spartan Frank Kodiak to Olympia Vale, after Operation: FAR STORM

The communication skills and combat prowess displayed by Vale throughout Operation: FAR STORM 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, often bureaucratic, routine. Seeking new challenges, she entered the UNSC's War Games, an inter-service event for UNSC Armed Forces personnel 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 Spartan Operations seeking to cultivate warriors highly attuned to the complexities of a post-war threat environment.

Undergoing the augmentations program, Vale became a Spartan-IV. By August of 2558, Vale had participated in seven military operations and two full campaigns. During Operation: SENTRY, Vale served as an advisor to Region One of the UNSC's Central Command during negotiations in the Epsilon Eridani system with Covenant fleet remnants at Tribute. She participated in Operation: ATLAS VIGILANCE, an aborted ONI mission that involved securing Shipmaster Ori 'Sumai at Salia III in the Salia system. Vale also briefly commanded Fireteam Stingray, an ad hoc intelligence enabling group that participated in Operation: OCEAN RAPTOR at a location "redacted" by ONI. By October of 2558, Vale had become a member of Fireteam Osiris, led by Spartan Jameson Locke and also consisting of Spartans Edward Buck and Holly Tanaka. Fireteam Osiris was charged with carrying out a variety of complex missions for the UNSC Security Council and High Command.

Battle of Kamchatka
"We know so little about Forerunner civilization. Halsey's obsession with them almost makes sense to me."

- Spartan Vale about Dr. Halsey's line of interests

After several human colonies were unexpectedly attacked by mysterious Forerunner entities, Doctor Catherine Halsey contacted with information about the attacks. In response, Vale and the rest of Fireteam Osiris were tasked with undertaking a mission to recover Dr. Halsey from the custody of Covenant Supreme Commander Jul 'Mdama on the Forerunner world of Kamchatka.

After being briefed by Captain Thomas Lasky of UNSC Infinity, the Spartans were delivered to Kamchatka via D79-TC Pelican, where they discovered the Covenant engaging their former Promethean allies. Osiris exited the dropship to free fall past battling Covenant and Promethean ships, and the Spartans used their armors' thrusters to control their landing. Osiris landed on a mountainside, where the Covenant and Prometheans were currently engaged in combat and the Spartans fought their way through the terrain. While the rest of Osiris engaged the hostiles on the ground, Vale boarded a Covenant Type-57 Phantom and engaged its passengers before crashing it into a Promethean Phaeton and abandoning the dropship to join her team. As one of the Covenant blockade runners crashed into a nearby mountain peak, Osiris was forced to outrun the ensuring avalanche. The Spartans leaped off a cliff and slide down the mountainside, where they regrouped and engaged Covenant forces in a valley. With 'Mdama and Halsey located in a nearby Forerunner structure, Fireteam Osiris fought their way past Covenant and Promethean forces to reach their targets' location. Translating 'Mdama's orders from the Covenant battle network, Vale determined that the Covenant was deploying a Kraken to fend off the Promethean forces assaulting the structure. However, the Prometheans managed to make the walker fall into retreat.

As Osiris battled their way to the structure, they arrived at 'Mdama's and Halsey's position on a balcony. The Spartans engaged 'Mdama's Zealot guards, with Locke engaging the Supreme Commander in close-quarters combat. While Locke assassinated 'Mdama, Vale, Buck, and Tanaka eliminated the rest of the Sangheili on the platform. With Halsey recovered, Osiris and the doctor returned to UNSC Infinity.

Mission to Meridian
"Olympia Vale"

Upon their return to Infinity, Fireteam Osiris learned that Spartan-IIs John-117, Kelly-087, Linda-058, and Fred-104 of Blue Team traveled to the Outer Colony of Meridian—absent without leave—to investigate smart AI Cortana's location. Osiris was tasked with embarking to the recently resettled and now independent Meridian to track down Blue Team and take them back to the UNSC. Fireteam Osiris arrived at the Meridian space elevator via Pelican, where they descended to the moon's surface. Osiris quickly discovered that Meridian was also under attack from Promethean constructs and the moon's settlers were desperately attempting to fend off the invaders. In exchange for Governor Sloan's cooperation, Osiris agreed to help the settlers fight off the Prometheans. After destroying the Prometheans that were assaulting the outpost at the space elevator, the Spartans traveled to Meridian Station, the lead settlement on the moon which the Prometheans were attempting to invade. However, Sloan was unwilling to allow the Spartans access to the road leading to the settlement, fearing that the Prometheans would follow. After Osiris defeated the Prometheans, Sloan gave the Spartans access to the road, where they aided the settlers under attack at a nearby service garage. In exchange for their help, Sloan gifted the Spartans one of the Liang-Dortmund Corporation's M820 Scorpions to use against the Prometheans.

After using the Scorpion to clear out the rest of the nearby Prometheans, Vale and the rest of Osiris proceeded to Meridian Station, where they discovered that Sloan was a smart AI suffering from onset rampancy. Sloan allowed the Spartans to search the settlement for clues about Blue Team's location, leading to Osiris splitting up to see if they could learn anything from the local settlers. After learning that Blue Team's prowler was seen traveling to the nearby Apogee Station, Fireteam Osiris boarded a transport Pelican and departed for the settlement. Upon arriving at Apogee, they found the settlement under attack. Working with Meridian soldiers, Vale and the rest of the Spartans cleared out the Prometheans and discovered Blue Team's abandoned prowler. Accessing the prowler's data banks, Osiris discovered that Blue Team had traveled to the mines under the settlement. After eliminating more Prometheans throughout the mines, Osiris discovered that the Meridian settlers had found a massive Forerunner structure underneath the moon's surface. As they investigated the structure, they eventually came across the Warden Eternal, an ancilla that served as the protector of the Domain and claimed his loyalty belonged to Cortana. After refusing to allow the Spartans to pursue Blue Team, Fireteam Osiris engaged the Warden and eventually destroyed him. Advancing forward, Osiris came across a Guardian in a large, cavernous chamber. While exploring the area, Vale discovered a local slipspace translocation network throughout the cavern and noticed Blue Team using it on above platforms. Calling over the rest of her team, Vale and Osiris pursued Blue Team as they advanced from platform to platform utilizing the translocation network. During the chase, Locke got ahead of the rest of his fireteam and was teleported to the same platform that Blue Team was on.

As the Spartan-IIs prepared to travel through one last teleporter to reach the Guardian, Locke ordered them to stand down. The rest of Osiris was teleported to a higher platform, but John-117 ordered his own teammates to go through the portal ahead of him. When John refused to stand down and moved to follow his team, Locke attempted to detain him, leading to a hand-to-hand combat fight between the two while the rest of Osiris watched nearby. John eventually gained the upper hand and used Locke's own armor-locking device against him. As John escaped through the portal and entered the Guardian, the massive construct began to activate and the floating platforms around Osiris began falling out of place and into the lava below. Freeing Locke, the four Spartans rushed back the way Blue Team came by traveling back to each platform via teleporter. Fireteam Osiris was just able to enter the last teleporter as its platform plummeted into the lava seconds later, and the Spartans were teleported back to Meridian's surface. Upon their return, Meridian was already well into its evacuation as settlers rushed into the moon's space elevator. As Osiris raced to the elevator to escape the ensuring damages that would be caused by the Guardian's activation, the construct rose out of the surface nearby. While en route to the elevator, the Spartans and the evacuating settlers were once again attacked by Prometheans. After eliminating the Prometheans near the base of the elevator, Sloan allowed Osiris to enter. Vale managed to have Sloan reveal that he was warned of the Guardian's activation by Cortana, and that he intended to be a part of the future Cortana was creating for humans and AI. Osiris destroyed the remaining Prometheans nearby and, after activating it, the fireteam began ascending the elevator. On the way to the elevator terminal, while engaging more Prometheans, the Guardian sent out a shockwave that heavy damaged the elevator. The Spartans were forced to climb the elevator as the structure slowly began to fall. Just as Osiris arrived at the platform their Pelican was on, the Guardian continued to send out more frequent shockwaves that slowed the Spartans down and caused the platform they were on to collapse. Osiris barely managed to enter the dropship, with Vale taking control of the Pelican and departing Meridian's atmosphere. As the Spartans left, the Guardian entered slipspace and left the moon.

Aiding the Swords of Sanghelios
"I'm impressed. Arbiter has females in his ranks. War has traditionally been a male's job on Sanghelios."

- Vale noting the variety in Arbiter's ranks

After Fireteam Osiris returned to Infinity, Lasky ordered for the fireteam—along with Commander Sarah Palmer and Halsey—to travel to the Sangheili homeworld of Sanghelios to utilize the planet's inactivate Guardian to pursue Blue Team. Vale and the rest of Osiris were taken to the planet's surface via a Type-56 Lich, where they were tasked with finding Arbiter Thel 'Vadam while he was leading the Swords of Sanghelios against the invading remnants of 'Mdama's Covenant at the Elder Council Chamber in Nuusra. As Osiris engaged Covenant forces, Palmer had Mahkee 'Chava deploy two Mantises for the Spartans to utilize in clearing out the Covenant warriors at the Elder Council Chamber. Upon arriving at the chamber, Osiris battled the Covenant forces assaulting the building and fought their way inside, where they meet up with 'Vadam. With Osiris' help, the Swords of Sanghelios eliminated the Covenant forces at the Council Chamber. Moments later, 'Chava arrived in a Phantom and extracted the Arbiter and Spartans. Traveling to the Swords of Sanghelios' encampment at Nuusra, Osiris worked together with Halsey, Palmer, and 'Vadam to formulate a plan to utilize the Guardian. Osiris was tasked with locating a Forerunner Constructor at one of the Guardian's nearby support stations to allow Halsey to input commands into the construct to force it to activate the Guardian. Palmer flew Fireteam Osiris to the support station, but was forced to drop them off just south of the facility due to the presence of a Covenant Kraken nearby. While the Spartans provided ground support, the Swords of Sanghelios assaulted the walker from the air. While the Arbiter's flight squadrons forced the Kraken into retreat, Osiris fought their way to an ancient Sangheili temple located near the support facility. After defeating several Prometheans at the temple, the Kraken arrived at the temple, threatening Osiris' mission. As the walker neared, the Spartans boarded the Kraken and destroyed its power generator from within. Osiris fled that doomed walker and traveled into the support facility via stolen Type-54 Banshees. Once inside the station, Osiris retrieved a Constructor, but were attacked by Promethean forces. After battling their way back to an extraction point with the Constructor, a Phantom transported them back to the Swords of Sanghelios' encampment.

With the Constructor, Halsey inputted her commands into it and the construct took off to activate the Guardian. However, the Guardian was located in the Csurdon Sea next to the city of Sunaion, the last bastion of the Covenant on Sanghelios. The Arbiter's forces regrouped and prepared to attack the city to eliminate the Covenant and give Osiris a chance to board the Guardian. Traveling to Sunaion with a group of air vehicles, the Spartans, the Arbiter, and several Swords of Sanghelios forces deployed on the ground and engaged Covenant soldiers. While the Arbiter led his forces against the Covenant directly, Osiris eliminated Covenant Shrike anti-air emplacements to allow the Arbiter's fleet to move in closer to the city. Unable to receive air support for transport to the Guardian, Osiris accessed Sunaion's undercity to travel towards the construct's location. As the Constructor activated the Guardian, more Promethean forces arrived at the battle and began engaging the Arbiter and his forces. When the Guardian began rising out of the water nearby and started to activate its shockwaves, the buildings around the Spartans began to fall apart. As the Spartans moved to safety, they encountered the Arbiter engaging Promethean forces. The five battled the onslaught of Prometheans, which were soon led by the Warden Eternal, now utilizing another physical body. After a lengthy engagement, the five succeeded in defeating the Warden and the nearby Prometheans just as the Guardian prepared to leave. While the Arbiter remained behind to finish eliminating Covenant and Promethean forces, Palmer and Halsey picked up Osiris in the Pelican and flew towards the Guardian. A pursuing Banshee damaged the dropship, but Palmer was able to drop Osiris off on the Guardian's surface just as it entered slipspace and left Sanghelios.

Cortana and Genesis
"Cortana"

Upon exiting slipspace, the Guardian arrived at the Forerunner world of Genesis, where all the other Guardians had traveled to upon Cortana's instructions. While the Spartans observed their new surroundings, the Guardian attempted to shake the Spartans off, forcing Vale and her team to quickly descend down the construct until they were close enough to the ground to safely jump off the Guardian. Osiris soon encountered monitor 031 Exuberant Witness, who served as caretaker of the installation. The ancilla revealed that Cortana was intending to use the Guardians to force peace across the galaxy and to wipe out those that refused, apparently trying to instill the Forerunners' Mantle of Responsibility on all species with herself and other AI—now calling themselves the Created—as its holders. Osiris resolved to aiding Blue Team and stopping Cortana and the Warden, with the help of Exuberant Witness. As the Spartans traveled to Blue Team's position at Genesis' Gateway, they encountered numerous Covenant forces that were inadvertently brought to Genesis with the Guardians, as well as hostile Promethean forces. Osiris fought their way towards the Gateway, where they were attacked by the Warden Eternal but once again managed to defeat him. Upon arriving just outside the Gateway, Osiris came under attack from more Prometheans and several of the Warden's bodies, as the ancillas attempted to buy time for Cortana to finish her plans. After a long engagement, Osiris proved victorious and Exuberant Witness was able to give the Spartans access to the interior of the Gateway.

Upon entering, Osiris and Exuberant Witness encountered Blue Team. While the eight Spartans agreed to work together to defeat Cortana, the AI suddenly teleported Blue Team to near her position. Cortana placed Blue Team in a Cryptum with the intention of keeping them in stasis for ten thousand years while she enacted her plans. Osiris moved to free Blue Team and, upon exiting the Gateway, noticed that the Guardians were entering into slipspace to begin enforcing Cortana's new order. As the Spartans engaged Covenant and Promethean forces on their way to the Cryptum, Cortana revealed that hundreds of AIs had pledged their allegiance to her, including Sloan. Reaching the Cryptum, Osiris destroyed several gravitational cores keeping the Cryptum in place. As Osiris came close to freeing Blue Team, Cortana began to taunt the Spartans in hopes of demoralizing them, but to no avail. After destroying the gravitational cores, Osiris activated a terminal to lower the Cryptum. However, Cortana suddenly pulled the Cryptum to the Guardian she was preparing to leave on.

As Cortana prepared to depart, she began disconnecting herself from Genesis' systems, allowing Exuberant Witness to begin taking full control of the planet once again. Upon the monitor's request, Osiris activated two auxiliary power stations to help her regain control of Genesis. The monitor then provided the Spartans a passage to Cortana's Guardian and the Cryptum, and Osiris rushed to stop their departure, pushing past the Guardian's shockwaves. Locke managed to reach the relay terminal that gave Cortana control and destroyed it, reinstating control of Genesis to Exuberant Witness. While Vale aided the injured Locke, Cortana prepared to leave the planet aboard her Guardian with the Cryptum, but Exuberant Witness sent a fleet of Constructors to take the Cryptum from the Guardian just as it fled into slipspace. Once Blue Team was freed from the Cryptum, the group traveled back to Sanghelios to rendezvous with the Arbiter, Palmer, and Halsey to discuss their next move now that Cortana and other AIs were commanding numerous Guardians throughout the galaxy to enforce the Mantle.

Personality and traits
"Some things do not feel right, even when they are. We have a saying in my clan: Those who always look to the sky never see what is right before them. 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 Olympia Vale aboard UNSC Witness

Olympia Vale is personable and has a professional demeanor. Curious and composed, Vale is known to be very crisp and to the point. She does not care for far-fetched hopes and speculation when dealing with serious matters, instead preferring to deal with situations with logic and realism. However, Vale also values imagination and creativity, believing it to be important to her career as both a scientist and a soldier. She is very observant and quick to analyze situations; during Operation: FAR STORM, Vale was able to quickly determine that the morolaath hunted their prey by their sense of sound rather than sight and she was able to convince her allies to remain silent to avoid conflict with the animals as they passed by. Vale believes that humans, while occasionally inclined to war, always learned from their experiences and deserved the opportunity to amend the mistakes that were made. 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.

Being a xenoanthropologist, Vale 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. During her time on Sanghelios in 2558, Vale was amazed by the ancient ruins found in the Nuusra territory and how the Swords of Sanghelios allowed females into their ranks. As a diplomat, Vale made it her goal to repair decades of mistrust between humanity and the Sangheili. 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. 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 destroy 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. Vale is quite modest and often downplays her achievements, including her knowledge of Sangheili and her combat skills. Though she was willing to admit that she was personally proud of her diplomatic skills.

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. 'Taham even comforted her after she was disappointed in her inability to stop Tragic Solitude through her diplomatic skills. 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. Vale was also quick to form friendships with her teammates on Fireteam Osiris, often conversing with them about their past outside of combat or joking with them amidst a battle. Upon encountering the corpses of Swords of Sanghelios soldiers killed at the hands of the Covenant, Vale lamented their deaths with a burial prayer in Sangheili. As a child, Vale sought her father's attention. Though the matter did not bother her as an adult, it was a detail noted in her UNSC psychological evaluation.

Skills and abilities
"When I was a kid, I was stuck on a diplomatic shuttle adrift in deep space for six months. My options were be real bored or spend the time getting smart."

- Olympia Vale explains how she learned Sangheili to Holly Tanaka

Olympia Vale is very intelligent and an unusually gifted Sangheili linguist, having a strong fluency in the language. Vale was a child prodigy growing up, and she succeeded in graduating from Sydney University by the time she was nineteen. During her time stranded in space at the age of eleven, she learned to translate thousands upon thousands of Sangheili words, granting her a strong understanding of the language. Vale is able to effectively communicate with Sangheili without requiring translation software. At the age of eleven, her knowledge of the Sangheili language was superior to that of the artificial intelligences the United Nations Space Command tasked with translating the language, as she corrected and improved the AIs' existing translations.

Despite minimal training and experience in the field, Vale has proven to be an exemplary combatant. As she was often engaged in frontline diplomacy with the Sangheili during her career as a Special Liaison, the Office of Naval Intelligence required Vale to have some combat skills. She studied martial arts for several years and attended the Green Cloud institute. Although she did not consider herself good at combat, Vale used her martial arts experience to nearly throw the unarmored Spartan-IV Elias Holt to the ground after he had inadvertently surprised her. During Operation: FAR STORM, Vale was able to briefly hold her own against the cyborg Bobby Kodiak, though she was eventually outmatched. Despite receiving minimal combat training in comparison to most competitors, Vale succeeded in placing within the top five percent in UNSC War Games events through a combination of innate physical talent and quick-thinking. Vale's demonstrated talent for combat, as well as her fluency of Sangheili and knowledge in the species' society, led to her recruitment into the Spartan branch. As a Spartan-IV, Vale has proven to be very skilled in combat. She often uses speed and agility to her advantage, such as during her mission to Kamchatka, in which she boarded a Covenant Phantom and single-handedly battled the dropship's Sangheili and Kig-Yar complement in the confined space by effortlessly maneuvering around the warriors as she fought them.

Physical description
Prior to becoming a Spartan-IV, Olympia Vale was of average size and build for the most part, though she was well-toned due to an exercise regimen she engaged in each morning. Her skin was lightly tanned and she had thick, lengthy brown hair that she typically kept tied back in a ponytail with brown eyes. Doctor Luther Mann noted that she had a curiously curved, rounded face with a pointed chin, reminding him of a classic Valentine heart. Following her Spartan-IV augmentations, Vale stood at 205.7 centimeters (6 feet and 9 inches) with her armor and weighed 101.6 kilograms (224 pounds) without her armor.

Equipment
During the mission to Installation 00 in 2555, Olympia Vale armed herself with a M6 series magnum. Prior to the operation, she had not used the weapon for years, having only used it previously in a training exercise. After becoming a Spartan, she sported the Copperhead variant of the MJOLNIR [GEN2] armor. Vale's armor is specifically designed with a "militarized anthropology" decision support system that aids in her efforts to utilize the complex "terrain" of human and alien society to her advantage. Her armor, painted red with gold details, has a gold and blue visor. Vale's preferred loadout is the M20 SMG as her primary weapon, with the Type-54D plasma pistol as her sidearm. However, she also arms herself with a M6H magnum. As a member of Fireteam Osiris, Vale has also been granted use of the prototypical Artemis Tracking System, an advanced scanning system only given to Spartans with the permission of Spartan Commander Sarah Palmer.

Behind the scenes
"We were well into development on Halo 5: Guardians when Peter started work on Halo: Hunters in the Dark, so we were able to inform him quite a bit on who Vale was and how she thought, but we were really only talking about our own experiences working with her in the course of Halo 5, when she's already part of Fireteam Osiris. Peter took what we said and figured out how Vale behaved before she was a Spartan, which again fed back into our work on the game and has the effect of making Vale more rounded as a person and therefore more "real" in the long run."

- Brian Reed, on Olympia Vale's character development

Olympia Vale is voiced by Laura Bailey, who also provides the character's likeness and performance capture. Bailey 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 first appeared in a cameo appearance in additional, bookend cutscenes in Halo 2: Anniversary, alongside other members of Fireteam Osiris. She was later revealed to be one of the playable characters of Fireteam Osiris in Halo 5: Guardians in the July 2015 issue of Game Informer. Vale's backstory and character were expanded upon in the subsequently released novel Halo: Hunters in the Dark, written by Peter David. As Vale's character was already partially developed for Halo 5: Guardians, David was able to figure out how Vale behaved prior to becoming a Spartan-IV for the novel. Vale's personality in Hunters in the Dark was then incorporated into Halo 5 to make her a more rounded character. As a playable character in Halo 5: Guardians, her unique gameplay abilities are faster movement speed, faster thruster recharge and slower stabilizer descent.

During the initial story development of Halo 5: Guardians, Vale was first realized as "Spartan Jones" as Fireteam Osiris was being created. After a few weeks of development, Spartan Jones would become a Spartan fluent in alien languages and renamed "Spartan Vesper". As the character was further developed, she was proving to be too "kid genius", so the character was matured while still retaining enough of her innocence to contrast with her fellow squadmates. Eventually, Spartan Vesper was renamed Vale and her character design was largely completed. Vale's armor was specifically designed for her character, making the character appear sleek, lightweight, and acrobatic. User interface artist Eric Will noted that the armor's aggressive "V"-shaped visor proved to be challenging to design.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Halo: New Blood
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark
 * Hunt the Truth
 * The Hunt Begins
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Limited Edition
 * Halo Mythos