Ray Kurzig

"Ray was one of the most selfless human beings I had ever had the pleasure to know. He went way out of his comfort zone time and again. Bravely sacrificing over and over. I don't think I can ever truly make him understand how much that meant to me."

- Benjamin Giraud

Raymond "Ray" Kurzig is a human analyst circa 2558. He is a friend of both Benjamin Giraud and Petra Janecek.

John-117 conspiracy
Ray Kurzig was called in by Benjamin Giraud during the latter's investigation of John-117 to debunk conflicting information found on both the Master Chief's parents and his death. In the area on business, Kurzig met with Giraud to show him financial records indicating that the Master Chief's parents were still alive after 2524 and further conflicting with all of the other information Giraud had been given previously. Later to ensure that he did not lose any of his information on the investigation, Giraud sent all of it to Kurzig before entering the Office of Naval Intelligence's Boston headquarters. After learning of the cover-ups made in his investigation and going against ONI, Giraud called on Kurzig to help him find evidence of the lies fabricated in the interviews with Jakob Walker, Gabriella Dvørak, and Deon Govender. Kurzig arrived at Giraud's home and after listening to Giraud's theories onto how ONI created the cover-ups, he told Giraud that Walker and Dvørak's information checked out and he was unable to discredit their identities. Giraud disagreed, considering how odd Walker acted during his last encounter. Before they could keep conversing on the issue, Petra Janecek broke into Giraud's apartment, annoyed that he released a recording of his last conversation with her and threatened to kill him. Soon after, Mshak Moradi revealed that he was listening to the whole conversation through Giraud's COM pad and was the cause of his encounter with Walker on the plane. He also revealed that he was contacted by someone named "FERO" who he had never really spoken to. Kurzig and Janecek began to leave, wanting nothing to do with Giraud's investigation anymore. Just before Kurzig left, he stated that the real Govender died seven years ago. Later, Kurzig contacted Giraud to arrange a meeting at a local bar. At the bar, Kurzig revealed that he managed to uncover an ONI record on Walker and found that the former soldier was neither retired nor in active duty. Kurzig also managed to analyze the voice from the recording of Giraud's interview with Walker, and matched it with the voice of Walker in a commercial for a car dealership revealing that Walker was an actor.

Kurzig later met with Giraud at an undisclosed hideout. After assuring Giraud that he took the precautions necessary to get to the hideout without being followed, he informed Giraud that he had news about the incident at Biko. Kurzig showed Giraud a message from the Sangheili delegation at Biko saying that both they and the Master Chief had nothing to do with the massacre and questioned the Unified Earth Government for doing nothing while the population of Biko called for unjust blood. Kurzig then told Giraud that the footage showing Biko's population as peaceful is a loop of old footage, and that he managed to track down a fact-gatherer named Ravi, who captured video evidence of protests, riots, and martial law happening on the planet. He told Giraud that Richard Sekibo's men want to clear the Sangheili but have been silenced by the UEG, and that the real perpetrators of the massacre are a group of rebel extremists called Sapien Sunrise. In return for this information, Kurzig asked Giraud if he could call Janecek and see what they were saying on Earth as he was unable to make contact with his parents on Earth. Giraud called her, but before he could say anything, Janecek interrupted him and told him she has a lead he might be interested in. Giraud agreed to it and Petra sent him the details: an anomaly on the glassed planet, Bliss, with a 72-hour time window.

After finding all the evidence he needed, Giraud planned to expose ONI on ECB News and sent Kurzig files, asking him to forward them on to a select people. Kurzig agreed, primarily because ONI had his entire home gutted and he was forced to send his wife and daughter off-world to escape ONI. When Giraud successfully arranged to break his story to the public on Charles Kesler's talk show on ECB News, it soon became apparent that ONI had used Giraud as a pawn to discredit the prevailing rumors concerning the SPARTAN-II program. The authenticity of all of his sources was supposedly disproved. This, coupled with heavy skepticism from Kesler, cast his story as little more than the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist. Giraud, concerned for Kurzig, demanded for proof of Kurzig and his family's well being. Kesler told Giraud that Kurzig is alive and well and that he gave them detailed information on how Giraud fabricated his evidence. Kesler went on to condemn Giraud as a traitor and Giraud was taken away against his will into federal custody. Kurzig's current whereabouts are unknown.

Personality and traits
According to Giraud, Ray was emotionless, treating astonishing discoveries with surprising calm. While he frequently met with Giraud in person, he was not the kind to suggest a friendly hangout unless he were unusually happy. Partly due to this, though, Ray was an extremely efficient analyst skilled at tediously challenging work like combing through "the slush", the enormous dump of unprotected data from interplanetary network. He was connected to various data scavengers in the colonies, whose findings put together that ONI's claims about the Master Chief were false. Ray could be meek and have a low temper, which sometimes let Giraud walk over him when he was in an emotional high. Fortunately, Ray was also patient with him and thus was soon to forgive him when Giraud apologized. The only time he asked Giraud for a favor was when it concerned his family, when he feared they might be in danger due to the recent chaos in the Outer Colonies.

Production note
Ray is portrayed by American actor Phil LaMarr in Hunt the Truth.

List of appearances

 * Hunt the Truth