Cole Protocol: Difference between revisions

{{Status|Canon}}

{{Center|''Are you looking for [[Halo: The Cole Protocol]], the sixth Halo novel?''}}

{{Quote|It would take ''years'' to ram this down the throats of the politicians, but as far as my battle group was concerned, it was ''law''.|Admiral Cole on his first draft of the Cole Protocol.<ref name="HWG">''[[Halo Wars: Genesis]]'', p. 8</ref>}}

'''Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1''', also called '''General Order 098831A-1''' and known commonly as the '''Cole Protocol''', was a [[United Nations Space Command]] directive enacted by [[Admiral]] [[Preston Cole]] to prevent the [[Covenant]] from discovering the [[human]] homeworld and [[Unified Earth Government|colonial]] capital, [[Earth]], or any other [[Inner Colonies|inner colony]] world. In practice, it was intended to prevent Covenant's retrieval of data that contained the location of Earth; it forbade retreating vessels from setting a direct [[Slipstream space|slipspace]] course toward any human population center, as the Covenant were able to track slipspace travel vectors and calculate the evacuating ship's destination. The policy also stated that to prevent capture, any military or civilian vessel, in the event of an emergency evacuation, was to self-destruct, after wiping all data matrices, to prevent the advance of the Covenant.

All UNSC personnel were commanded to read the Cole Protocol each day "by the letter" under an [[UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 (transmission)|emergency transmission]] issued by the [[UNSC Naval Command|Naval Command]]. The Cole Protocol ensured that in nearly twenty-seven years of interstellar warfare, the Covenant never discovered the human presence on Earth, and only found other population centers either by accident, by tracking devices left aboard ships,<ref>'''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]''', Chapter 23, ''page 216'' (2001 paperback); ''page 247'' (2010 paperback)</ref> or by the presence of [[Forerunner]] artifacts via [[Luminary]].<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB5yso8d3gA ''Youtube'' - Halo 2: Anniversary Prologue Terminal 1 - Beholden]</ref> Unfortunately, the Cole Protocol ceased to be effective when, on [[2552#October|October 20, 2552]], Covenant forces invaded Earth; however, the protocol presumably remained in effect for the other remaining Inner Colonies.

[[File:HGenesis-Colespear.png|thumb|250px|Preston Cole writing Hypodermic-FXT-J.]]

 

Hypodermic-FXT-J contained the basic instructions set in the final draft of the first articles of the Cole Protocol.{{Ref/Reuse|HWG}} The report's contents are as follows:

 

[[Admiral]] [[Margaret Parangosky|Parangosky]]/Office of Naval Intelligence/Routing Sequence: Hypodermic-FXT-J<br />

'''CODE NAME CLASSIFIED: Pied Piper'''<br />

(Continued from previous page)...

 

==The protocol==

:'''[[Encryption code|Encryption Code]]:''' Red

:'''From:''' UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet [[H. T. Ward]]

:'''[[Transmission classification|Classification]]:''' RESTRICTED ([[BGX Directive]])

:3. Execute [[viral data scavengers]] (Download from [[UNSCTTP://EPWW:COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091]])

:4. If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectors NOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.{{Ref/Note|Following the [[Fall of Reach]], [[Wagner|Lieutenant Wagner]] defied Article 4, initiating a slipspace jump straight to Earth in order to warn HIGHCOM of Reach's fate as quickly as possible. No punitive action was taken against him.}}

:5. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces and boarders, all UNSC ships '''MUST''' self-destruct.{{Ref/Note|During the [[Battle of Installation 04]], Captain Keyes and the ''Pillar of Autumn'' were captured by the Covenant and Monitor 343 Guilty Spark was able to obtain information about human history and the location of Earth from the ship's records.}}

:Violation of this directive will be considered an act of [[Treason|TREASON]] and pursuant to UNSC Military law articles [[JAG 845-P]] and [[JAG 7556-L]], such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or [[Capital punishment|execution]].

Article 2 mandates the procedure for erasing a ship's data, primarily navigation data, as well as all backups, in case of potential compromise by the Covenant. In such situations, a ship-board [[artificial intelligence]] must be secured; if extraction is not possible, the AI must be purged. It is possible that Article 2 also governs protocol in terms of abandoning a vessel giving the terms that someone need to extract the AI out of the ship for safety if possible.<ref name="ReferenceA">''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'', campaign level [[The Pillar of Autumn (Halo: Combat Evolved level)|The Pillar of Autumn]]</ref><ref>''[[Halo: The Flood]]'', Chapter 1</ref>

Subsection 7 dictates that captured Covenant matériel and ships may not be taken back to human-controlled space due to concerns that they might contain tracking devices; as such, it is likely part of Article 4. Bringing a Covenant weapon back to any UNSC installation or Inner Colony is considered an act of treason.<ref>''[[Halo: The Cole Protocol]]'', Chapter 10</ref> [[SPARTAN-III program|SPARTAN-III]] [[Emile-A239]] possessed a large [[keepsake|collection]] of contraband Covenant equipment which he acquired in the field. While possessing this matériel was a gross violation of Subsection 7, his superior, [[UNSC Army]] [[Colonel]] [[Urban Holland]], refused to report the Spartan; Holland claimed that the Army does not need to follow Navy protocol. The SPARTAN-IIs had standing orders from the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] to seize Covenant weapons and technology whenever possible.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 20</ref>

Few have even heard of Subsection 7; it was little more than a technicality before ''[[Ascendant Justice]]'' was captured by SPARTAN [[John-117]] and his team soon after the [[Battle of Installation 04]]. This was due to the chances of capturing even a severely crippled Covenant ship being minuscule, as the ship's crew would usually activate their self-destruct function before the completion of such attempts. Because ''Ascendant Justice'' could not be thoroughly searched, John-117 and ONI [[Lieutenant]] [[Elias Haverson]] instead planned to take the ship to Reach, which had already been compromised by the Covenant, and then try to return with a better prepared team.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', Chapter 9</ref>

{{Ref/Notes}}

File:HGenesis-ColesInterrogationAtGreatBear.png|The interrogation that inspired the Cole Protocol.

File:HWG ColeWritingProtocol.png|Preston Cole writing Hypodermic-FXT-J, the progenitor of the Cole Protocol.

{{Ref/Sources}}

[[Category:UNSC protocols]]