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Catherine Halsey: Difference between revisions
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As the day for the Spartans' surgeries drew near, Catherine eventually summoned Soren to speak with her in her office.<ref name="HEP"/> The fourteen-year-old boy could tell that she was overworked and not getting enough sleep and even after she instructed him to sit she continued to scan through electronic files while whispering silently to herself. When she was finally ready to talk she asked Soren if he could remember the day they'd met on [[Dwarka]] and inquired as to his thoughts on the choice he'd made to join the Spartan program. He confirmed he was glad he chose the way he did, but Halsey shared that she had wondered whether it was right to lay such a burden on him at that age. Brushing the issue aside, she then let him now she'd asked for him then because she wished to give him another choice. She went on to explain the next step she had planned for he and the others: their physical augmentation. Halsey did not shy away from telling Soren the risks the necessary operations and therapies posed. When he asked why she had singled out him alone to give the choice of moving forward in this way to, she claimed that he was essentially to function as the [[Wikipedia:Control group|control group]] of the experiment but still could not say why he specifically had been chosen for this. After she had secured his consent the boy left and Halsey asked Déjà if she'd been listening and what her thoughts were on the matter. The A.I. pointed out that Halsey had misrepresented what a control group actually is and that she hadn't quite told him everything about the upcoming ordeal. In addition, she said she could tell that Halsey's purported justification for the reveal was spurious and it seemed to her more likely that the doctor was only trying to ease her conscience. Halsey could not disagree, dismissing Déjà to be alone with her thoughts.<ref name="HEP"/> | As the day for the Spartans' surgeries drew near, Catherine eventually summoned Soren to speak with her in her office.<ref name="HEP"/> The fourteen-year-old boy could tell that she was overworked and not getting enough sleep and even after she instructed him to sit she continued to scan through electronic files while whispering silently to herself. When she was finally ready to talk she asked Soren if he could remember the day they'd met on [[Dwarka]] and inquired as to his thoughts on the choice he'd made to join the Spartan program. He confirmed he was glad he chose the way he did, but Halsey shared that she had wondered whether it was right to lay such a burden on him at that age. Brushing the issue aside, she then let him now she'd asked for him then because she wished to give him another choice. She went on to explain the next step she had planned for he and the others: their physical augmentation. Halsey did not shy away from telling Soren the risks the necessary operations and therapies posed. When he asked why she had singled out him alone to give the choice of moving forward in this way to, she claimed that he was essentially to function as the [[Wikipedia:Control group|control group]] of the experiment but still could not say why he specifically had been chosen for this. After she had secured his consent the boy left and Halsey asked Déjà if she'd been listening and what her thoughts were on the matter. The A.I. pointed out that Halsey had misrepresented what a control group actually is and that she hadn't quite told him everything about the upcoming ordeal. In addition, she said she could tell that Halsey's purported justification for the reveal was spurious and it seemed to her more likely that the doctor was only trying to ease her conscience. Halsey could not disagree, dismissing Déjà to be alone with her thoughts.<ref name="HEP"/> | ||
On March 9, the day before [[Project ASTER|Project: ASTER]] was to be initiated, Halsey and the seventy-five teens could be found aboard [[Medical Facility Endurance]] in orbit over Reach.<ref name="HTFOR6">''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', ''Chapter 6''</ref> At 1130 hours the doctor was pacing in the observation room while she waited for for Déjà to decrypt [[UNSC Priority Transmission 09872H-98|a transmission]] from Vice Admiral [[Ysionris Jeromi]]. Catherine had previously proposed a hypothetical series of experiments involving [[Wikipedia:Bonobo|bonobo]]s to he and his team in order to obfuscate her true intentions for the protocols. To her dismay, the latest from Jeromi informed her that further analysis had failed to yield viable alternatives that might mitigate any of the risks inherent to her "hypothetical" experimentation. As soon as she was finished with the file he'd sent Halsey erased all traces of it and even sent Déjà to track its pathways all the way back to the {{UNSCShip|Hopeful}} to destroy his related notes and files. Given the news, Halsey seriously considered delaying the procedures and only put such thoughts aside due to Déjà pointing out that ONI would only find someone else to move the project forward if she started dragging her feet. Chief Mendez met the doctor in the hall outside the observation room and at her insistence followed her up the stairs to the hospital's pre-op wing. Upon seeing John in Room 117 she forced a smile and asked how he was feeling. John, thinking of the procedures as just another exercise, asked her if she could just this once tell him how to win. To that, she could only lean in close and tell him he needed to survive.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> Later that day Halsey divided the various augmentations into two groups according to their risks of failure or long-term side effects not adequately studied.<ref name=" | On March 9, the day before [[Project ASTER|Project: ASTER]] was to be initiated, Halsey and the seventy-five teens could be found aboard [[Medical Facility Endurance]] in orbit over Reach.<ref name="HTFOR6">''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', ''Chapter 6''</ref> At 1130 hours the doctor was pacing in the observation room while she waited for for Déjà to decrypt [[UNSC Priority Transmission 09872H-98|a transmission]] from Vice Admiral [[Ysionris Jeromi]]. Catherine had previously proposed a hypothetical series of experiments involving [[Wikipedia:Bonobo|bonobo]]s to he and his team in order to obfuscate her true intentions for the protocols. To her dismay, the latest from Jeromi informed her that further analysis had failed to yield viable alternatives that might mitigate any of the risks inherent to her "hypothetical" experimentation. As soon as she was finished with the file he'd sent Halsey erased all traces of it and even sent Déjà to track its pathways all the way back to the {{UNSCShip|Hopeful}} to destroy his related notes and files. Given the news, Halsey seriously considered delaying the procedures and only put such thoughts aside due to Déjà pointing out that ONI would only find someone else to move the project forward if she started dragging her feet. Chief Mendez met the doctor in the hall outside the observation room and at her insistence followed her up the stairs to the hospital's pre-op wing. Upon seeing John in Room 117 she forced a smile and asked how he was feeling. John, thinking of the procedures as just another exercise, asked her if she could just this once tell him how to win. To that, she could only lean in close and tell him he needed to survive.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> Later that day Halsey divided the various augmentations into two groups according to their risks of failure or long-term side effects not adequately studied.<ref name="HJ3925">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''March 9, 2525''</ref> Those that she considered to have unacceptable fail rates were to be tabled for then in order that further research could be done. Already she had begun to quietly arrange [[Operation: TENDRIL|long-term studies]] on the gradual application of cyclo-synthetic neural transmission gene sequences during subjects' early lives and noted in her journal that research on the injection of [[Wikipedia:Virus|viral]] [[Wikipedia:Neutrophil|microphage]]s at neuron surfaces was pending. Halsey closed that day's journal wishing there was a god to pray to.<ref name="HJ3925"/> | ||
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Dr. Halsey carried extraordinary guilt because of the [[SPARTAN-II program|SPARTAN-II project]], in the feeling that she had exploited the children and destroyed their lives. Although she continued to support the Spartans and gained monumental prestige for her efforts, she also felt responsible for each one who died. She could never bring herself to justify the Spartans' exploitation as a necessary sacrifice.<ref name="fs129"/><ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 243-245''</ref> | Dr. Halsey carried extraordinary guilt because of the [[SPARTAN-II program|SPARTAN-II project]], in the feeling that she had exploited the children and destroyed their lives. Although she continued to support the Spartans and gained monumental prestige for her efforts, she also felt responsible for each one who died. She could never bring herself to justify the Spartans' exploitation as a necessary sacrifice.<ref name="fs129"/><ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 243-245''</ref> | ||
Her involvement with the SPARTAN-II program, then codenamed "ORION Project Generation II", was born out of her own initiative, although ONI had long intended to recruit her for the task. Improving upon [[Elias Carver|Dr. Elias Carver]]'s projections for predicted colonial aggression, she privately ran over 1,400 simulations with varied parameters, always coming to the conclusion that the Outer Colonies would go into all-out war against the Inner Colonies and Earth within a short span of time. If the UNSC did not act, this would mean a minimum of thirty years of open war and billions of casualties, while the worst-case scenario was indefinite conflict and the potential collapse of human civilization. Viewing it as her personal responsibility to prevent this scenario from coming to pass, she presented her results to [[Michael Stanforth|Vice Admiral Stanforth]], then-head of ONI Section III, only to find that the UNSC had already come to the same conclusions with their own projections. As it turned out, ONI had been monitoring her for years, but they had waited for her to come up with the numbers on her own, knowing that she could not be convinced to work for them otherwise. Although she was distrustful of ONI, she agreed to work for them on the program out of her personal commitment to humanity's cause.<ref name="HJ12410"/> The nuclear bombing of the [[Haven arcology]] by the [[Freedom and Liberation Party]] further reinforced her determination.<ref name=" | Her involvement with the SPARTAN-II program, then codenamed "ORION Project Generation II", was born out of her own initiative, although ONI had long intended to recruit her for the task. Improving upon [[Elias Carver|Dr. Elias Carver]]'s projections for predicted colonial aggression, she privately ran over 1,400 simulations with varied parameters, always coming to the conclusion that the Outer Colonies would go into all-out war against the Inner Colonies and Earth within a short span of time. If the UNSC did not act, this would mean a minimum of thirty years of open war and billions of casualties, while the worst-case scenario was indefinite conflict and the potential collapse of human civilization. Viewing it as her personal responsibility to prevent this scenario from coming to pass, she presented her results to [[Michael Stanforth|Vice Admiral Stanforth]], then-head of ONI Section III, only to find that the UNSC had already come to the same conclusions with their own projections. As it turned out, ONI had been monitoring her for years, but they had waited for her to come up with the numbers on her own, knowing that she could not be convinced to work for them otherwise. Although she was distrustful of ONI, she agreed to work for them on the program out of her personal commitment to humanity's cause.<ref name="HJ12410"/> The nuclear bombing of the [[Haven arcology]] by the [[Freedom and Liberation Party]] further reinforced her determination.<ref name="HJ22311"> | ||
At the conceptual phase of the SPARTAN-II project, Halsey evidently failed to fully understand its moral implications; she was constantly revolted upon seeing her work in practice, and the notion of "sacrificing the few to save the many" rarely worked to soothe her conscience. | At the conceptual phase of the SPARTAN-II project, Halsey evidently failed to fully understand its moral implications; she was constantly revolted upon seeing her work in practice, and the notion of "sacrificing the few to save the many" rarely worked to soothe her conscience.<ref>'''Dr. Halsey's personal journal''', ''December 24, 2517''</ref> While she attempted to maintain a professional distance to the SPARTAN-II candidates, she could never bring herself to view them as mere test subjects and always addressed them by their first names.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 26, 54''</ref> She held considerable respect for the Spartans and easily recognized them through subtle habits in their postures even with their armor on, which seemed to greatly annoy them.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 120-121''</ref> In turn, the Spartans greatly respected Dr. Halsey, (with [[Jorge-052|one]] stating that he had been ''"All hers half [his] life"''),<ref>'''Halo: Reach''', campaign level ''[[ONI: Sword Base]]''</ref> and would follow her orders and suggestions in the absence of those from a superior officer.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 123-124''</ref> The doctor is also privy to many of the recruits' secrets, having taught several to them as children, such as the ''[[Oly Oly Oxen Free]]'' security tune.<ref name="thunk">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 119''</ref> Despite her admiration of the Spartans, Halsey always kept these feelings to herself so as to not make them feel excluded due to the special treatment they get from most other humans.<ref name="fs123"/> | ||
Despite ONI's intentions to continue with the SPARTAN-II program, Dr. Halsey began having difficulty finding a suitably large number of candidates that fit her genetic and age profiles. Additionally, most of her budget was now being used to maintain the MJOLNIR armor in service. Eventually, ONI discontinued the SPARTAN-II program, reassigned most of its personnel to other projects (such as the [[SPARTAN-III program]], held secret from Halsey), relocated Halsey from her former workplace at [[Camp Hathcock]] to [[CASTLE Base]],<ref name="journal"/> and cut off her access to classified material. ONI's reticence vanished, her budget mushroomed overnight, and she was offered a corner office in [[Olympic Tower]] in [[New Alexandria]]. However, Halsey decided to remain in CASTLE as a means of revenge against ONI, which would now have to spend half the day going through security checks.<ref name="tfor castle">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', '''2010''', ''pages 261-262''</ref> Halsey was stationed primarily on the planet [[Reach]] throughout her decades of work for ONI. By [[2551]], she lived in the community of [[Csongrád]], near CASTLE Base.<ref name="DD3">[[Data Drop]] [[Data Drop/Three|Three]]</ref> Aside from her continued work on the SPARTAN-II and MJOLNIR projects, Halsey made huge contributions to many other ONI Section III projects, including the creation and deployment of AI constructs. She supervised the creation of the template for third-generation [[smart AI]]s,<ref name="HFS13"/> the first ones of which became operational in [[2521]].<ref name="journal"/> | Despite ONI's intentions to continue with the SPARTAN-II program, Dr. Halsey began having difficulty finding a suitably large number of candidates that fit her genetic and age profiles. Additionally, most of her budget was now being used to maintain the MJOLNIR armor in service. Eventually, ONI discontinued the SPARTAN-II program, reassigned most of its personnel to other projects (such as the [[SPARTAN-III program]], held secret from Halsey), relocated Halsey from her former workplace at [[Camp Hathcock]] to [[CASTLE Base]],<ref name="journal"/> and cut off her access to classified material. ONI's reticence vanished, her budget mushroomed overnight, and she was offered a corner office in [[Olympic Tower]] in [[New Alexandria]]. However, Halsey decided to remain in CASTLE as a means of revenge against ONI, which would now have to spend half the day going through security checks.<ref name="tfor castle">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', '''2010''', ''pages 261-262''</ref> Halsey was stationed primarily on the planet [[Reach]] throughout her decades of work for ONI. By [[2551]], she lived in the community of [[Csongrád]], near CASTLE Base.<ref name="DD3">[[Data Drop]] [[Data Drop/Three|Three]]</ref> Aside from her continued work on the SPARTAN-II and MJOLNIR projects, Halsey made huge contributions to many other ONI Section III projects, including the creation and deployment of AI constructs. She supervised the creation of the template for third-generation [[smart AI]]s,<ref name="HFS13"/> the first ones of which became operational in [[2521]].<ref name="journal"/> | ||
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Halsey's projects and the results they yielded gained her widespread acclaim and sympathies among many high-ranking members of the UNSC military, such as [[Admiral]] [[Michael Stanforth|Stanforth]], her most powerful ally within ONI, and [[Fleet Admiral]] [[Terrence Hood|Hood]], who deeply respected Halsey and her Spartans who had saved his own life twice, to the extent that he verbally rebuked Colonel Ackerson for detracting the Spartan-IIs.<ref name="hood">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 104'' (2003)</ref> However, she also garnered a number of competitors and opponents over the decades. The most notable of her rivals was [[Colonel]] [[James Ackerson|Ackerson]], who constantly tried to spy on her and co-opted her work while attempting to sabotage the SPARTAN-II program. Her former student [[Ellen Anders]] also resented Halsey, saying "She hated me and I hated her."<ref>'''[[Halo Wars]]''' ''manual, character profiles''</ref> ONI Commander-in-Chief, [[Admiral]] [[Margaret Parangosky]], was resentful of Halsey, perceiving the doctor's aversion for control and her general lack of loyalty to ONI as a threat. The Admiral only tolerated Halsey because she was so crucial to the war effort,<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 48''</ref> but had her detained immediately after the end of the war. Parangosky's antipathy for Halsey was passed on to [[Serin Osman]], a Spartan-II washout whom the Admiral specifically indoctrinated and groomed to become her successor to secure her personal legacy within ONI, and ultimately culminated in Osman ordering Halsey's assassination after the Covenant abducted the doctor during the [[Second Battle of Requiem]]. Parangosky's, and later Osman's, AI attaché [[Black-Box]] also had an intense dislike of Halsey. This was, at least partly, passed on from his brain donor, [[Graham Alban|Dr. Graham Alban]], who worked with Halsey on the SPARTAN-II program and eventually committed suicide over his guilt. Both Alban and BB doubted the sincerity of Halsey's doubts about the ethics of her work and viewed her as genuinely amoral.<ref>'''Halo: Mortal Dictata''', ''pages 490-492''</ref> | Halsey's projects and the results they yielded gained her widespread acclaim and sympathies among many high-ranking members of the UNSC military, such as [[Admiral]] [[Michael Stanforth|Stanforth]], her most powerful ally within ONI, and [[Fleet Admiral]] [[Terrence Hood|Hood]], who deeply respected Halsey and her Spartans who had saved his own life twice, to the extent that he verbally rebuked Colonel Ackerson for detracting the Spartan-IIs.<ref name="hood">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 104'' (2003)</ref> However, she also garnered a number of competitors and opponents over the decades. The most notable of her rivals was [[Colonel]] [[James Ackerson|Ackerson]], who constantly tried to spy on her and co-opted her work while attempting to sabotage the SPARTAN-II program. Her former student [[Ellen Anders]] also resented Halsey, saying "She hated me and I hated her."<ref>'''[[Halo Wars]]''' ''manual, character profiles''</ref> ONI Commander-in-Chief, [[Admiral]] [[Margaret Parangosky]], was resentful of Halsey, perceiving the doctor's aversion for control and her general lack of loyalty to ONI as a threat. The Admiral only tolerated Halsey because she was so crucial to the war effort,<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 48''</ref> but had her detained immediately after the end of the war. Parangosky's antipathy for Halsey was passed on to [[Serin Osman]], a Spartan-II washout whom the Admiral specifically indoctrinated and groomed to become her successor to secure her personal legacy within ONI, and ultimately culminated in Osman ordering Halsey's assassination after the Covenant abducted the doctor during the [[Second Battle of Requiem]]. Parangosky's, and later Osman's, AI attaché [[Black-Box]] also had an intense dislike of Halsey. This was, at least partly, passed on from his brain donor, [[Graham Alban|Dr. Graham Alban]], who worked with Halsey on the SPARTAN-II program and eventually committed suicide over his guilt. Both Alban and BB doubted the sincerity of Halsey's doubts about the ethics of her work and viewed her as genuinely amoral.<ref>'''Halo: Mortal Dictata''', ''pages 490-492''</ref> | ||
Many of those unfamiliar with the internal dynamics of ONI and the SPARTAN-II program have come to interpret Halsey and her work in a highly negative light. Despite the predominant role of ONI and the UNSC Naval leadership in the conception and execution of the SPARTAN-II program, Dr. Halsey is often perceived as the sole individual responsible, due to her conspicuous position as the project head.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 178''</ref> Taking advantage of this, ONI prefers to attribute some of the more controversial aspects of the project to their alleged lack of sufficient oversight.<ref>[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96218485&postcount=40 '''NeoGaf:''' ''Was Dr. Halsey justified, ultimately, in creating the Spartan-II program in Halo? — View Single Post''] ([[Frank O'Connor]]: ''"Other even less savory characters are trying to harm her legacy to boost their own careers. And they're doing it by illuminating her prior actions in an ugly way."'')</ref> [[Black-Box]] even privately acknowledges to Serin Osman that the main reason for Halsey's fall from grace is to conceal or minimize the responsibility of the many others who participated in the project.<ref>'''Halo: Mortal Dictata'''</ref> Although she was responsible for much of the program's scientific basis and harbored no illusions otherwise, Halsey was under ONI's constant supervision and was even repeatedly pressured by Section III to use more inhumane means for faster results.<ref name="for29"/> Many have also interpreted her primary motivation as a supposed perverse scientific curiosity, ignoring—or unaware of—her sincere determination to prevent further excessive bloodshed in the Insurrection and her initial naiveté in failing to grasp the full moral ramifications of her work until witnessing it in practice.<ref name="HJ12410 | Many of those unfamiliar with the internal dynamics of ONI and the SPARTAN-II program have come to interpret Halsey and her work in a highly negative light. Despite the predominant role of ONI and the UNSC Naval leadership in the conception and execution of the SPARTAN-II program, Dr. Halsey is often perceived as the sole individual responsible, due to her conspicuous position as the project head.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 178''</ref> Taking advantage of this, ONI prefers to attribute some of the more controversial aspects of the project to their alleged lack of sufficient oversight.<ref>[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96218485&postcount=40 '''NeoGaf:''' ''Was Dr. Halsey justified, ultimately, in creating the Spartan-II program in Halo? — View Single Post''] ([[Frank O'Connor]]: ''"Other even less savory characters are trying to harm her legacy to boost their own careers. And they're doing it by illuminating her prior actions in an ugly way."'')</ref> [[Black-Box]] even privately acknowledges to Serin Osman that the main reason for Halsey's fall from grace is to conceal or minimize the responsibility of the many others who participated in the project.<ref>'''Halo: Mortal Dictata'''</ref> Although she was responsible for much of the program's scientific basis and harbored no illusions otherwise, Halsey was under ONI's constant supervision and was even repeatedly pressured by Section III to use more inhumane means for faster results.<ref name="for29"/> Many have also interpreted her primary motivation as a supposed perverse scientific curiosity, ignoring—or unaware of—her sincere determination to prevent further excessive bloodshed in the Insurrection and her initial naiveté in failing to grasp the full moral ramifications of her work until witnessing it in practice.<ref name="HJ12410"/> | ||
[[File:Spops_HalseyMarines.jpg|thumb|left|275px|Two Marines escort a handcuffed Halsey aboard UNSC ''Infinity''.]] | [[File:Spops_HalseyMarines.jpg|thumb|left|275px|Two Marines escort a handcuffed Halsey aboard UNSC ''Infinity''.]] | ||