Wallace Jenkins

"What about my family?!"

— Jenkins during the First Battle of Harvest.

Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins was an infantryman in the UNSC Marine Corps. PFC Jenkins was stationed aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn during the Battle of Installation 04 in September 2552.

Early Life and Career

Wallace Jenkins was born on the Outer Colony world of Harvest, to a farming family. In 2524, he joined the Colonial Militia of Harvest in an effort to make use of himself. His ambition was to join the UNSC Marine Corps as an officer. Though Staff Sergeant Johnson frequently criticized him, he proved to be an extremely quick thinker and a competent Marine. One major event was when he and Forsell were running a training exercise with all of the other recruits in the Colonial Militia, he and Forsell were able to quickly determine the situation and go around the mock attack staged by Johnson and Byrne. By doing so they were almost able to win the exercise, though a recruit named Osmo beat them to it. By proving that they were competent Marines who could think out-of-the-box, they earned the trust of Staff Sergeant Johnson, and developed a close relationship over the First Battle of Harvest.

Battle of Harvest

"Staff Sergeant...he's all I've got left."

— Jenkins, after the glassing of Harvest

Jenkins was a natural sharpshooter and was assigned one of the prototype Battle Rifles. During the fight against the Covenant on Harvest, Jenkins' entire family was killed when Gladsheim was attacked by the Covenant. He was deeply depressed after losing his family and used his anger to fuel his hatred of the Covenant. The only person close to him to survive was his fellow sharpshooter and friend Forsell, who had saved his life when Jenkins was blinded by rage and attempted to kill Tartarus. After escaping from Harvest, Staff Sergeant Johnson offered Jenkins, Forsell, and the remaining militiamen the chance to become real UNSC Marines in his unit. It remains unknown what Jenkins did when he became a Marine, but by 2552 he was stationed on Reach Station Gamma, a space station above Reach.

The Battle of Reach

During the war he presumably fought at the Siege of Paris IV. He was on board Reach Station Gamma during the Battle of Reach, still fighting alongside Sergeant Johnson. The other marines with him included Privates Bisenti and O'Brien. Their Friend Or Foe (FOF) tags were detected by SPARTAN-117 and SPARTAN-058. The group was fighting a pack of Jackal Rangers, defeated them with the help of the Spartans, and with the help of SPARTAN-117, they managed to destroy the database of the Circumference and escape the station aboard a Pelican. They then proceeded to board the Pillar of Autumn, and traveled to Installation 04.

The Battle of Installation 04

Once there, the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant, and Jenkins escaped the ship in the same lifeboat as Sergeant Johnson and his squad. After meeting up with the Chief and fighting off Covenant patrols, they took Pelican Echo 419 to Alpha Base.

The Flood

The Flood infected Jenkins.

Later, Jenkins, along with the rest of Fire Team Charlie (excluding Chips Dubbo), were taken on Pelican Victor 933 to what they believed to be a Covenant weapons cache, but it turned out to be one of the Flood Containment Facilities. There, he, Captain Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Privates Bisenti, Mendoza Kappus, and Riley encountered the Flood for the first time on Halo. In the fight, Jenkins panicked and an Infection Form, weakened by a millennia-long hibernation period, latched on to him and took over his body. He dropped his video-recording helmet, which was later found by the Master Chief, who watched the horrifying attack via the Recorder Chip of Jenkins' Helmet Recorder. The video ended suddenly, right as the infection form hit Jenkins, and infected him.

He and his entire squad, except Johnson and Bisenti, were turned into Combat Forms. However, in Jenkins' case, his Infection Form was weakened from the centuries of containment, and could not fully control him. Instead of killing him, he remained alive and terrified while the Flood mutated and took control of his body. However, given that he was still alive, he could control himself to a degree when the "other" was in pain. When it had total command, he could not do anything except see what he was doing.

Survival and Death

Jenkins' combat form followed a group of Flood to the surface where they attacked a group of ODSTs under command of First Lieutenant, Melissa McKay. Without complete control over his body, Jenkins, who was desperate to end his own life, attempted to get killed while assaulting the Lieutenant, but instead he was captured by the ODSTs. Major Antonio Silva tried to interrogate him. While being interrogated, the infection form inside of Jenkins attempted to attack its interrogators by extending a tentacle through Jenkins' hand, snapping the bones and veins. As Jenkins described it, it was a "living hell". However, the infection form was knocked unconscious by the pain. This gave Jenkins the chance to reveal the imminent threat of the Flood beneath the base.. Lieutenant McKay correctly interpreted this and ordered a squad to exterminate them. He was later taken to the Truth and Reconciliation while the Marines assaulted the ship. Jenkins, knowing that Silva planned to take the ship home to Earth, overwhelmed the Infection form inside him and tried to destroy the ship because he knew that there were more Flood present aboard it and that they would inevitably escape and destroy Earth. He failed to do so, but Lieutenant McKay, seeing the truth as well, destroyed the vessel for him. The destruction of the Truth and Reconciliation mercifully ended his suffering. Before he died, he managed to mouth the words "Thank you" to the Lieutenant.

Trivia

• He was one of the first people to use the Prototype Battle Rifle, which entered service in 2524.
• Jenkins is voiced by voice actor Chris Wicklund.
• Jenkins is the only being mentioned to be have been infected by an Infection Form that was weakened by the long hibernation the Flood form had undergone. Because of this, he survived infection, and was even able to control his body to a certain limit during times as the Flood Form retracts into a corner of their shared mind.
• Jenkins isn't wearing a helmet even though there is a helmet with his name on it. He's wearing a hat.
• Jenkins was 18 in the year 2524, which meant that he was older than the Master Chief.
• Though he was appointed a Sharpshooter in his platoon by Johnson in the events of Contact Harvest; in the Flood containment area in Halo: Combat Evolved he was seen wielding an MA5B instead of his favorable BR55 Battle Rifle. This is most likely because the only weapons that survived the Battle of Reach, were "standard Marine weapons" and the Battle Rifle was still not the main weapon used by Marines, so it would have been stored in special lockers, which were all destroyed along with the Spartans' weapons lockers during the Fall of Reach. It was also stated that they were prototypes in Contact Harvest.
• He may have some connection with L. Jenkins.
• An interesting fact is that in this picture he is wearing a Boonie hat, but in both the Graphic Novel and the cutscene where his squad is attacked by the Flood, he is wearing the standard issue helmet that other Marines wear.
• For having such a small appearance in Halo: CE, Jenkins has become a very popular character. This is most likely due to his appearances in Halo: The Flood and Halo: Contact Harvest.
• Even though Jenkins wears the same helmet as Riley, in the cutscene in 343 Guilty Spark, he has a standard marine helmet
• It is strange how he was the only Marine in Fire Team Charlie wearing armor and a helmet, as the others were wearing bandannas, Boonie caps, Sergeant caps, or no headgear, and not even Johnson was wearing armor.
• It seems strange that he was such a low rank for someone being in the UNSC Corps for so long and especially since he was one of the first people to fight the Covenant and survive the First Battle of Harvest. It is possible he is not the same character in Halo: Contact Harvest,
• Although his first name was never mentioned in Halo: Contact Harvest, we can safely assume this is the same Jenkins for the simple fact that at the end of the book Sergeant Johnson personnaly asked to have Jenkins in his squad so when Johnson's team became Fire Team Charlie Jenkins was dragged along with it.
• Jenkins dislikes flip music, which is, much to his dismay, the favourite genre of his commanding officer.