Jacob Keyes

''Looking for Keyes' daughter or the level Keyes?

"Coming here was reckless! You two know better than this... Thanks."

- Jacob Keyes

After thirty-five years in the UNSC Navy, Captain Jacob Keyes commanded respect as a keen strategist and inspirational leader to those under his command. His many decorations, years of combat experience against the Covenant, and ability to keep a secret made him a natural choice to command the and its secret cargo. He could often be seen chewing the tip of his grandfather's pipe

Early Career
Keyes was born on Earth and spent time around the Pacific Ocean during his childhood. It is likely that he attended an Officer Candidate School. During his second year of 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 nearly demoted for it. Keyes refusal to testify is what brought him to the attention of Dr. Catherine Halsey.

In 2517, seven weeks out of the OCS, Lieutenant (Jr Grade) Keyes was assigned to the when those orders were rescinded and he was chosen to assist Dr. Catherine Halsey with her task of searching for usable subjects for her SPARTAN-II project. In order to fool any who were suspicious, they told them that they were looking for a school for their daughter, and they began observing the chosen subjects for the program. 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.

As Keyes slowly started learning of the true nature of the SPARTAN-II project, Dr. Halsey immediately sent him back to normal duty with a full Lieutenant commission and he 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 and held the Covenant off long enough for the ship to escape. He later toured on the Frigate. 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, due to the shortage of good officers, Keyes was promoted to Commander in 2552 and assumed command of the. Shortly thereafter, he foresaw a Covenant attack on Sigma Octanus IV thanks to a paper by SPARTAN-084. His actions resulted in the destruction of a Covenant destroyer, two frigates, and chasing 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 (inadvertently bringing an entire Covenant Fleet with him due to a homing beacon) and was debriefed by an ONI council. Here he met SPARTAN-117 once again.

His new command carried an important mission: to transport the Spartan supersoldiers deep into 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, ultimately in vain. He could only pick up SPARTAN-117 (along with the body of SPARTAN-058) and a handful of Marines from the station just in time to flee.

Halo
The Pillar of Autumn's AI, Cortana, ended up navigating 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 managed to escape in a Bumblebee lifepod, Kilo Tango Victor 17. During the descent, the Ossoona Isna 'Nosolee was spotted aboard by Keyes and subsequently killed by the Captain. 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, the Truth and Reconciliation. There, he was interrogated, tortured, and held prisoner until the Master Chief and the ODSTs were able to rescue him and a group of Marines. They were forced to commandeer a Spirit during their escape and Keyes piloted it, even going so far as to ram two Hunters on the flight out for "a little payback."

Keyes then went to Alpha Base, taking command of the base from Major Antonio Silva briefly. He then took Staff 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 structure 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 other Combat Forms into a Brain Form. One of the tortures Keyes endured as a Flood was having his memories ripped away one by one as the Flood tried to learn anything that would help attain new sources of food. The Flood hoped that his intelligence would help them to operate the crashed Truth and Reconciliation and escape the ring, but Keyes was able to fend it off by constantly accessing data that was permanently stored in his Command Neural Interface. However, before Keyes succumbed to the overwhelming pressure, 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(The Master Chief was meant to burn out his skull but was said to be too gruesome to be put into the game). 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.

The Keyes family lived on in his daughter, Miranda Keyes, who was a ship's Commander. She accepted a posthumous Colonial Cross awarded to her father for his bravery during the events on Installation 04 by Lord Hood. Unfortunately, she died near the end of the Human-Covenant War.

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 Ribbons 1 through 9, in this order.

These Ribbons coincide 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.

Rank
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). A Naval Captain is equal to a Marine Colonel. According to his military record, Keyes graduated from Luna OCS Academy, a Naval Academy. Also, in Halo: The Fall of Reach, Admiral Michael Stanforth promotes Jacob Keyes from Commander, a Naval rank, to Captain. This implies that Bungie may have made a mistake when making the Keyes model. Whether it was intended for Keyes to have Marine Captain's Bars or if they intended to have him wear the Navy Captain's Eagle but made 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 slowly destroys his mind, although some descriptions are vague enough that one of them may refer to her.
 * Keyes is the only NPC so far in the Halo universe that can be killed besides Sergeant Johnson. However, if he dies, the mission you are in is an immediate failure. Doing this will also have Cortana ask you, "What the hell are you doing?", and then she gives the order for the remaining Marines to kill you on sight.
 * In the cutscene of the level, Keyes, where the Master Chief retrieves Captain Keyes' neural implants, the Master Chief was meant to burn Keyes' skull out of the Brain Form and retrieve the implants. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the flamethrower was removed from the game. However, the burnt skull was said to be too gruesome and too realistic to be put into the game, anyway. It was later repurposed as the "Ball" in the Oddball game type.
 * Captain Keyes' service number is 01928-19912-JK

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
 * Halo (Mentioned Only)
 * The Truth and Reconciliation
 * The Silent Cartographer (Radio transmission)
 * 343 Guilty Spark (Cutscene)
 * Keyes (On the radio before mutated Brain form)
 * Halo: First Strike (Mentioned Only)
 * Halo 2 (Mentioned Only)