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Catherine Halsey: Difference between revisions
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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"/> | 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"/> | ||
During the augmentation process [[Soren-066]] was returned to the Spartan compound on Reach, where he then woke during the procedures and violently attacked medical staff.<ref name="HEP"/> The young teen was stopped in a hall beyond the operating room he'd escaped from by CPO Mendez and a line of five or six marines. Out of breath from running, Catherine arrived on the scene just after Soren was hit numerous times with tranquilizer darts, pleading for him not to be hurt. Soren's last words before collapsing were used to ask Doctor Halsey what she had done to him.<ref name="HEP"/> When Project: ASTER's procedures were completed, only thirty-three of the teenagers had ostensibly been augmented successfully.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> As far as these thirty-three were made aware, twelve others had been injured during the operations so severely that they would be unfit to be Spartans and the remaining thirty had died.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> The truth, conversely, was that those pronounced dead were in fact cryogenically preserved in the hopes that they could be revived later, and some of those that were crippled would go on to be rehabilitated and join the ranks of [[Spartan-II]]s in the future.<ref name="HJ4125">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''April 1, 2525''</ref><ref name="HW2PLA130">''[[Halo Wars 2]]'', [[Phoenix Logs|phoenix logs]], [[Phoenix Logs#Alice-130|Alice-130]] | During the augmentation process [[Soren-066]] was returned to the Spartan compound on Reach, where he then woke during the procedures and violently attacked medical staff.<ref name="HEP"/> The young teen was stopped in a hall beyond the operating room he'd escaped from by CPO Mendez and a line of five or six marines. Out of breath from running, Catherine arrived on the scene just after Soren was hit numerous times with tranquilizer darts, pleading for him not to be hurt. Soren's last words before collapsing were used to ask Doctor Halsey what she had done to him.<ref name="HEP"/> When Project: ASTER's procedures were completed, only thirty-three of the teenagers had ostensibly been augmented successfully.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> As far as these thirty-three were made aware, twelve others had been injured during the operations so severely that they would be unfit to be Spartans and the remaining thirty had died.<ref name="HTFOR6"/> The truth, conversely, was that those pronounced dead were in fact cryogenically preserved in the hopes that they could be revived later, and some of those that were crippled would go on to be rehabilitated and join the ranks of [[Spartan-II]]s in the future.<ref name="HJ4125">''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]'', ''April 1, 2525''</ref><ref name="HW2PLA130">''[[Halo Wars 2]]'', [[Phoenix Logs|phoenix logs]], [[Phoenix Logs#Alice-130|Alice-130]]</ref> | ||
===The first test=== | ===The first test=== | ||
By [[2525#March|March 30]] Halsey had joined the forty-five who had unambiguously survived aboard the {{UNSCShip|Atlas}}, an {{Class|Epoch|heavy carrier}} heading for the [[Lambda Serpentis system]].<ref name="HFORTAS"/><ref name="HTFOR6"/><ref name="CF100">[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/sweet-centennial '''Halo Waypoint''' - ''Canon Fodder #100: Sweet Centennial'']</ref> She had told John that some of the side effects he was experiencing which were causing him to be clumsy were actually good, since they were evidence of stronger muscles and faster reflexes.<ref name="HTFOR7">''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', ''Chapter 7''</ref> The next day she reflected in her journal on how her training as a scientist had conditioned her to view failure, struggling to reconcile the scientist's duty to regard all data as useful with the malformations and excruciating deaths visited on her Spartans.<ref name="HJ4125"/> She allowed herself to question whether the need to push forward with ASTER had been commensurate with the threat the [[Insurrection]] posed. Halsey guessed that Stanforth's trauma experts would be reporting she was having difficulty "letting go", but she committed to moving forward and finding solutions for those who might still be saved. To this end the doctor had ordered that no candidate autopsies be performed. Their bodies of washouts were cryogenically preserved, pending further study. Her hope was that some, if not all, of them could someday be revived. Closed casket funeral services at midnight the day before, she noted, would help the survivors attain psychological closure. She was uncertain how they might react in the future to the resurrection of their comrades but was certain ONI would find a use for them regardless. Those now afflicted by serious malformations, after all, had already been offered various "desk" duties within ONI. Catherine had assigned Déjà to investigate as-yet theoretical therapies for the washouts' resuscitation. She was particularly interested in the potential of the complete restructuring of bones and attendant nanografts, something she thought could prove especially useful for [[Kirk-018]] and [[René-081]]. Even so, she decided she would allow the washouts to adjust to their new jobs for several months before suggesting some of these experimental procedures. By then, she figured, they would be willing to try anything to recover, as she couldn't imagine them to survive the vigorous indoctrination and training they had to only become passive spectators.<ref name="HJ4125"/> | |||
The Atlas was patrolling the Lambda Serpentis system by April 22 and it was shortly after 0430 hours on this date that ONI engineered a hostile encounter between John and four [[ODST|orbital drop shock trooper]]s in order to test his capability.<ref name="HTFOR7"/><ref name="HTF5">''[[Halo: The Flood]]'', Chapter 5</ref> Halsey observed the encounter in the ship's gym remotely, cooly remarking upon the boy's steady heart rate and pulse.<ref name="HFORTAS"/> John had broken the nose of one ODST when their sergeant intervened to propose that they settle their dispute in a nearby boxing ring.<ref name="HTFOR7"/> Mendez, watching along with Halsey, questioned the wisdom of what was happening but his hesitation was rebuffed by her.<ref name="HFORTAS"/> She pointed out that John was only doing what they'd built him to do. As the chief left her to make his way to the gym she simply renewed her interest, wondering what effect the augmentations might have had on his adrenaline.<ref name="HFORTAS"/> | |||
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After [[First Battle of Harvest|first contact]] with the [[Covenant]], Dr. Halsey accessed [[Lieutenant Commander|LCDR]] [[Jilan al-Cygni|al-Cygni]]'s ONI [[sloop]] {{UNSCShip|Walk of Shame}}'s data archive. During Dr. Halsey's investigation, she began researching the last conversations of the AI [[Mack]], and his choice of misspelled Shakespeare during his last days of rampancy.<ref>'''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]''', ''page 391''</ref> | After [[First Battle of Harvest|first contact]] with the [[Covenant]], Dr. Halsey accessed [[Lieutenant Commander|LCDR]] [[Jilan al-Cygni|al-Cygni]]'s ONI [[sloop]] {{UNSCShip|Walk of Shame}}'s data archive. During Dr. Halsey's investigation, she began researching the last conversations of the AI [[Mack]], and his choice of misspelled Shakespeare during his last days of rampancy.<ref>'''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]''', ''page 391''</ref> | ||
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