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Benjamin Giraud: Difference between revisions
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{{Main|Battle of Mombasa}} | {{Main|Battle of Mombasa}} | ||
{{Quote|They think ''this'' is the attack, that we can fight back, defend the city. But I've seen how the Covenant troops operate... The city was already lost; we're all dead. Because the Covenant come not to dominate or to colonize, but to destroy.|Benjamin Giraud, as civilians attempt to defend New Mombasa.<ref name="SSoNM"/>}} | {{Quote|They think ''this'' is the attack, that we can fight back, defend the city. But I've seen how the Covenant troops operate... The city was already lost; we're all dead. Because the Covenant come not to dominate or to colonize, but to destroy.|Benjamin Giraud, as civilians attempt to defend New Mombasa.<ref name="SSoNM"/>}} | ||
On [[2552#October|October 20, 2552]], Giraud was injured during the [[Prophet of Regret]]'s invasion of [[New Mombasa]]. He fell in league with a small civilian resistance group trying to hold the [[Covenant]] back until [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marine]] reinforcements arrived. He recorded and translated an order from a [[Sangheili]] to clear the area before the Covenant could access something called "[[Portal at Voi|the Ark]]". A Marine sergeant ordered Giraud to get the recording out of the city to the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was about to board an evacuation boat but stopped when he saw a lone young girl crying. Giraud calmed her down and handed her his [[laptop]] with the recording in it. He presumably asked her to give it to the authorities when she got to the mainland. He remained in the city where he observed the Covenant invasion in a room full of displays.<ref name="SSoNM"/> During the invasion he saw [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan]] [[John-117]].<ref name="htt"/> | On [[2552#October|October 20, 2552]], Giraud was injured during the [[Prophet of Regret]]'s invasion of [[New Mombasa]]. He fell in league with a small civilian resistance group trying to hold the [[Covenant]] back until [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marine]] reinforcements arrived. He recorded and translated an order from a [[Sangheili]] to clear the area before the Covenant could access something called "[[Portal at Voi|the Ark]]". A Marine sergeant ordered Giraud to get the recording out of the city to the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was about to board an evacuation boat but stopped when he saw a lone young girl crying. Giraud calmed her down and handed her his [[laptop]] with the recording in it. He presumably asked her to give it to the authorities when she got to the mainland. He remained in the city where he observed the Covenant invasion in a room full of displays.<ref name="SSoNM"/> During the invasion he saw [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan]] [[John-117]]. Giraud was eventually able to find a way out of New Mombasa before the city was [[Glassing|glassed]].<ref name="htt"/> | ||
===Post-war investigation=== | ===Post-war investigation=== | ||
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{{Quote|When I pulled that first loose thread, something broke. Now everything is caving in and I find myself stuck with all these ugly questions, questions I never intended to ask. Fabricated histories? People who aren't who they say they are? Cover-ups of cover-ups? That steady drumbeat of theories that used to sound insane, now they don't seem so '"out there". And these disturbing rumors, reports of anomalies. Something big is happening in deep space, and I can't even corroborate a single fact about one man's life. It's clear to me now. I can't fix the pretty story, but maybe I can break the ugly one.|Benjamin Giraud on his investigation of [[John-117]].}} | {{Quote|When I pulled that first loose thread, something broke. Now everything is caving in and I find myself stuck with all these ugly questions, questions I never intended to ask. Fabricated histories? People who aren't who they say they are? Cover-ups of cover-ups? That steady drumbeat of theories that used to sound insane, now they don't seem so '"out there". And these disturbing rumors, reports of anomalies. Something big is happening in deep space, and I can't even corroborate a single fact about one man's life. It's clear to me now. I can't fix the pretty story, but maybe I can break the ugly one.|Benjamin Giraud on his investigation of [[John-117]].}} | ||
By [[2558]] Giraud was hired by ONI's Senior Communications Director [[Michael Sullivan]] to write an in-depth profile on the Master Chief. Giraud eagerly accepted the offer, and spoke with several people who claimed to know the soldier. As he accumulated the information, though, Giraud started to sense something was off and began finding hints of coverups. The data he received was leading him to a story not as inspiring nor heroic as the "blockbuster hero biography" he'd been intending to write. Giraud, uncertain about the veracity of his data, resolved to establish the truth and perhaps discredit the dark rumors associated with John-117.<ref name="htt"/> | |||
Giraud was provided with a list of people to interview by ONI, including John's purported childhood teacher, [[Deon Govender]]. Govender described his experiences with the future Master Chief up until age thirteen when, according to him, [[Elysium City]] was occupied by Insurrectionists who rounded up the citizens in prison camps. Giraud did find one interviewee outside of the list ONI had given him; [[Ellie Bloom]], one of John's childhood friends. After he discovered a document supposedly proving John's death at age six in 2517, Giraud contacted Sullivan about the discrepancy. Sullivan insisted that this was due to a record-keeping mistake and in order to convince Giraud about the veracity of ONI's story, he arranged Giraud to meet Vice Admiral [[Gabriella Dvorak]] aboard the {{UNSCShip|Unto the Breach}} for an interview; Giraud noted the unusual amount of hospitality he was treated to during the visit. Vice Admiral Dvorak corroborated ONI's forged background story for the Master Chief, recounting her supposed encounter with a thirteen-year-old John during the liberation of [[Elysium City]] from Insurrectionist occupiers. While initially convinced that the document listing John as deceased was due to a mistake, Benjamin was prompted to investigate the matter further upon Ellie Bloom's childhood friend [[Katrina]]'s insistence that John had indeed died at six years old.<ref name="htt"/> | |||
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