Master Chief

Origin

Master Chief was only six years of age when The UNSC government took him and 70 other children for life long training. In his place they left a flash clone to be a placeholder for his parents without them knowing. His first name was John but, was assigned number 117 for the duration of his training. He was determined to be as near to a perfect human being as it is possible to be and so fit to undertake the physical and mental training necessary to become a Spartan II super soldier. Like the other candidates John was strong and swift and brave, but innate luck was what set him out from the other Spartans. This quality was noted by Dr Catherine Hallesy at the outset of the selection process and it was because of it that John was chosen to test the new Mjolnir armor that the Spartans were to be issued with.

The Spartans were trained under CPO Mendez for a total of eight years. In the first two years they undertook physical, intellectual and weapons training. When the Spartans where eight years old, they were sent on a training exercise. The Spartans dropped from a pelican dropship over an area of wilderness. Each had one piece of the map leading to their extraction zone. The twist to the exercise was that the last Spartan to make it onto the extraction Pelican would be left behind. John quickly realized that teamwork was the key to the exercise and rallied the other Spartans worked together to complete their mission. This showed that he had learn from an earlier failure where he had abandoned his team in order to complete the objective. When the Spartans arrived at the vehicle they discovered that it was guarded by men under orders to prevent the Spartans from escaping. Once again John showed his leadership potential and organized the young Spartans to take down the guards and escape. He then ensured that all the others got on the Pelican before him, meaning that he would be left behind rather than any of them. However Hallesy was so impressed by his leadership qualities and willingness to sacrifice all for his team mates that he was not only allowed to come with them but was promoted to squad leader. At the age of 14, Master Chief underwent both physical and cybernetic augmentation (including Carbide ceramic ossification, Muscular enhancement injections, Catalytic thyroid implant, Occipital Capillary reversal, Superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites, and Neural implants). Only 32 of the 70 children in the Spartan program survived the augmentation process

The Covenant War: The SPARTAN Project, Master Chief, and the Covenant

Subsequently Master Chief was assigned to a team of Spartans. He grew close to them and they had many successful missions. When the alien race known as the Covenant attacked the Earth homestead of Reach and took massive casualties, Master Chief and his squad became the humanity's last hope. In the first few fights, Master Chief and his fellow Spartans were slowly separated by death. Most notably was John's friend Sam, who was forced to stay behind on a Covenant ship to ensure that a bomb detonated after he took a plasma round for the chief and breached his suit. On Reach the Spartans were assembled to undergo a suicidal mission to capture the Covenant Prophets and end the war. Here John was selected by Cortana, a UNSC smart AI. Her design was copied after doctor Halsey who originally took interest in Master Chief as a boy. She was supposedly killed fleeing from a battle aboard a space ship. However she was in fact going underground to escape persecution by ONI (Office of Naval Inteligance), the UNSC's special operations branch. Reach was attacked before the mission could get underway and the Chief escaped on board the Pillar of Autumn with Cortana.

Halo: The Ringworld, the Moniter and the Flood

When the ship was crippled during a battle with a superior Covenant fleet the Captain, a decorated war hero by the name of Keyes, crashed the ship on a strange ring world. After several skirmishes with Covenant forces Cortana discovered that the ring world was called Halo and was of religious significance to the Covenant. After the release of the Flood, the Chief was recruited by a robotic entity know as 343 Guilty Spark to activate Halo and destroy the parasitic life form. Guilty Spark also told the Master Chief that he was the Reclaimer, son of the Forerunners. He was prophesed to activate the ring. The Chief quickly discarded his remarks. What he failed to mention was that activating the ring would wipe out all sentient life in the universe in order to prevent the flood from spreading. Fortunately Cortana managed to stop John and together they decided to stop Guilty Spark. After tearing the command codes out of a Flood infected Captain Keyes they flew to the Pillar of Autumn's crash site and overloaded its engines. Destroying the ring and the Covenant ground forces.

Halo 2: The Battle of New Mombassa, the Second Ring and High Charity

Master Chief and Cortana captured a Covenant ship and rescued the survivors of the Spartan project on Reach before heading back to Earth. Here they were attacked by the Covenant Prophet of Regret, who had followed the instructions of a sacred prophecy and came to Earth looking for Forerunner artifacts, unaware that it was the human home world. After a short but bloody battle, in orbit and on the surface, the Prophet performed a slip space jump in the megacity of New Mombassa, and disappeared, closely followed by the In Amber Clad with the Chief on board. When the ship dropped out of slip space it quickly became clear that the Prophet had discovered another Halo. The Master Chief went into action on the ring worlds surface to find and kill the Prophet while Miranda Keyes, Captain Keyes' daughter, tried to prevent its activation by getting to the Index before the Covenant.

The Chief was successful in his mission but was knocked unconscious when a Covenant ship glassed the area in an attempt to kill him. Miranda on the other hand was captured when the Arbiter, a Covenant holy warrior, arrived to claim the index. The Chief was sent to find the Index at the Covenant city of High Charity by Gravemind, the hive controlling mind of the Floo. Meanwhile, the Covenant were under the misconception that activating the Ring would ascend them to the next plane of existence. The Prophet escaped on a Forerunner ship, heading for Earth and the Chief followed, stowed away on the massive vessel known as the Dreadnaught, a sacrid relic to the Covenant that powered High Charity. Unfortunately he was forced to leave Cortana behind as a safe guard against the Flood taking control of ships capable of slip space travel. He promised to return for her but she remained skeptical. Right before he went Cortana said to him, "Don't make a girl a promise when you know you can't keep it." When he is asked what he is doing on a Forerunner ship, Master Chief replies that his is going to "Finish the fight."

Halo 3: The Battle of Voi, the Ark Portal and the Replacement Ring

After being captured on board the Prophet of Truth's ship and subsequently escaping. The Chief escaped by jumping off the ship and crashed landed somewhere within a forest near the ruins of New Mombassa. He then is found by Sergent Johnson and his men. They are then followed by the cloaked Arbiter when the Chief is about to shoot him the Johnson stopped him. The Chief fought in the Battle of Voi, clearing the way for an aerial assault on the Prophets fleet. Which had been busy excavating something under the African desert. As the human ships attacked a massive portal opened above the ground, through which the diminished Covenant fleet fled. After the arrival of a flood infected ship containing a message from Cortana landed in the area, the Master Chief was forced to once again ally himself with 343 Guilty Spark. In her message Cortana said that the portal lead to another Forerunner installation called the Ark, which would allow Truth to activate all seven of the Halo rings dotted throughout the universe. Now working with the Arbiter who's race had seceded from the Covenant, the Chief and his allies followed Truth through the portal and engaged his troops. Victorious in all engagements, the Chief was able to stop Truth from activating the rings, allowing the Arbiter to kill him. Unfortunately they arrived too late to save Miranda Keyes, who was shot in the back by Truth while she tried to kill herself and Sergeant Johnson. Since only a human could activate the Ark, they had both been captured to do so. The Gravemind chose this moment to make its play and betrayed the Chief, trying to infect him and the Arbiter. After fighting his way into High Charity, which had now become a Flood colony, the Master Chief rescued Cortana and started to implement a plan to stop the Flood. Using the index from the first Halo ring, the Chief activated an incomplete ring, that would destroy the Ark and the Flood with it. However Guilty Spark went rampant, killing Johnson, when he realized that the plan would destroy the under construction Halo. The Master Chief destroyed him and tried to help Johnson, but it was too late. The old sergeant told John,

"Send me out, with a bang."

Before passing him Cortana's micro chip. The two activated halo and escaped in the ship that had brought them to the Ark. Unfortunately the portal collapsed while they were going through it and left them stranded, beyond the blast radius of Halo but in the gulf of empty space beyond the galaxy. Cortana predicted that it would be several years before they were found and so the Master Chief froze himself, telling her that she should wake him if he was needed.

Master Chief's implants

The Master Chief is a Spartan II super soldier and so has been augmented in a number of ways designed to increase battlefield performance.

Carbide ceramic ossification: advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable

Muscular enhancement injections: protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time.

Catalytic thyroid implant: platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues

Occipital Capillary reversal: submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the subject's retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase.

Superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites: alteration of bioelectircal nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. three hundred percent increase in subjects reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity.

Equipment

The Spartan supersldier are equipped with finest armor and weapons available to the UNSC. Depending on the conmbat situation they are being deployed into the equipment carried by a Spartan changes. However thay have some all purpose weapons and euipment. The origional Spartans mainly used the MA5B, MA2B (a shortened version of the MA5B with an attachable silencer), M6D magnum and fiber optic cables. Every Spartan wears at leasy the MJOLNIR Mark V and several have the Mark VI model which have thermal optic and infrared vision modes. Cameras are also planted in the Spartan's helmet as it is standard procedure to record all missions for future review. Weapons are carried through the use of magnetic adhesive strips in specific locations such as the back and thighs, allowing Spartans to carry both human and covenant technology or even tactical HAVOK nukes for demolition work. Their armour also has the capability to carry an AI construct, such as Cortana. They are used to provide tactical guidance, provide objectives, hack into enemy communications channels and devices, analyze data, weapons, machines and identify specific threats. A flash light in the side of the helmet that runs off a recharging fusion power pack in the back of the armor is also included. Also, the visor of a Spartan provides a real time HUD (heads up display) and can provide weapon info, ammunition used and remaining, health and pulse monitors, energy shield status, active motion tracker and way points laid down by an AI. The MJOLNIR Mark VI has its own supply of biofoam and when a Spartan is wounded it is automatically administered. This foam stops blood loss and can temporarily replace muscle tissue, allowing the Spartan to continue to function even when wounded.

The most important piece of equipment for a Spartan is his or her MJOLNIR armor, a full-body suit with a reflective visor. The armor consists of green ceramic outer plates with metallic inner plating. The suit augments neural ability, with slight commands becoming big motions with big results. It also allows for an AI to interface with the suit, acting as a layer between the suit and the brain. An AI interfacing with the suit provides improved response time, among other things. The first version of this armor put into use was the MJOLNIR Mark IV, which Dr. Halsey tasked John's team to retrieve. This entry-level version was rather primitive compared to newer incarnations, and because of conditions on Reach, spare parts were not available. Just before the Master Chief was deployed to Halo Installation 04, all available Spartans on Reach upgraded to the Mark V, which added an automatically-recharging energy shield to protect the wearer from initial damage. On his return from the original Halo the Chief was equipped with a new permutation of the amour. This latest armor is even more powerful, with a slightly more resilient shield, off-hand coordination enhancements that allow the wearer to wield two small weapons accurately, ammunition and heat tracking for the second weapon, and enhanced zoom capabilities using the helmet's visor. The suit was originally designed for use by unaugmented humans. Tests of this suit showed that the neural interface that allows the suit to move at a thought was too fast for an average human soldier, which proved fatal for the personnel inside. When given to the Spartans it proved to be manageable. The suit's codename MJOLNIR attests to this fact; in Norse mythology, Thor's hammer Mjolnir was too heavy to be carried by any but the strongest of body and mind. The Spartans quickly adapted to the suit and it is now an important addition to their arsenal.

The Master Chief also has another weapon that only he has, Cortana, the A.I. Cortana can do various things from cracking lock codes to holding vast amounts of knowledge or just telling the Chief when targets are approaching. While not mandatory it gives John the upperhand against opponents.She can also perform many tasks that she was not intended to perform. Because of her high tech programing, she can also access the Covenant Battle-Net, pilot many ships made by alien hands, and fire the Halos using an index.

Physical Description