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'''Master Chief Petty Officer John-117''' was a [[SPARTAN-II]] of the [[UNSC]] [[UNSC Navy|Naval]] [[Naval Special Warfare|Special Warfare Group]]. With a little under 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the [[UNSC Navy]]. In [[2553]], John-117 went missing in action after the [[Battle of Installation 00]] when he and the [[Arbiter (character)|Arbiter]] eliminated the [[Flood]] threat <ref>''[[Halo 3]]'', level ''[[Halo (Halo 3 Level)|Epilogue]]''</ref>.
'''Master Chief Petty Officer John-117''' was a [[SPARTAN-II]] of the [[UNSC]] [[UNSC Navy|Naval]] [[Naval Special Warfare|Special Warfare Group]]. With a little under 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the [[UNSC Navy]]. In [[2553]], John-117 went missing in action after the [[Battle of Installation 00]] when he and the [[Arbiter (character)|Arbiter]] eliminated the [[Flood]] threat <ref>''[[Halo 3]]'', level ''[[Halo (Halo 3 Level)|Epilogue]]''</ref>.


He is also known as the "Demon" (Covenant nickname), "Master Chief", "Spartan-117", "Chief", "Reclaimer"(343 Guilty Spark), and John-117
He is also known as the "Demon", "Master Chief", "Spartan-117", "Chief" and "Reclaimer".


Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, commonly called Master Chief and John alternatively, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Halo universe, created by Bungie Studios, and is a player character in the trilogy of science fiction first-person shooter video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. Outside of video games, the Master Chief appears in the novels Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Uprising, and has cameos in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx and the Halo Graphic Novel. He is voiced by Chicago disc jockey Steve Downes in the video games in which he appears.
==Biography==
===Childhood and Spartan Training===
As a child, John-117 (otherwise known as [[Master Chief]]) lived in [[Elysium City]] on [[Eridanus II]]. [[John-117]] is said to have brown hair, freckles, and a small gap between his front teeth. At the age of six, he was identified by [[Dr. Catherine Halsey]] as one of 150 preliminary candidates for the SPARTAN-II program. John was an ideal physical candidate, standing a head taller than his schoolmates, having perfect physical proportions, and exhibiting quick reflexes. His genetic structure also stood up to [[Dr. Halsey]]'s rigorous requirements. When Dr. Hasley and [[Lieutenant]] [[Jacob Keyes]] visited Eridanus II to study him, they were impressed with his intellect and more importantly, his luck. In a final test of his viability as a candidate, he was asked to determine which side an old flipped coin would land on. He watched the coin as it flew in the air and caught it before it could land. Dr. Halsey believed that he either 1)Saw the coin and caught it to better his needs or 2)He saw what side it landed on and called out that side.<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' pages 21-26</ref> John and 74 other six-year-olds were "conscripted" -- covertly kidnapped from their homes without their consent -- and replaced with [[Flash Clones]] which later died of natural causes.<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', Page 270</ref>


The Master Chief is one of the most visible symbols of the Halo series and the video game universe. Originally designed by Marcus Lehto, Rob McLees, and Shi Kai Wang, the character is a towering and faceless cybernetically enhanced supersoldier; he is never seen without his armor or helmet. The character has been called an icon, a relative newcomer among more established franchise characters, such as Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Lara Croft.[1] Electronic Gaming Monthly named the Master Chief as the eighth greatest video game character ever.
John was renamed John-117 and began a new life that eliminated all aspects of civilian life. The Spartans trained under [[CPO Mendez]] for seven years, receiving tutelage in history and military strategy as well as weapons and physical fitness training. He bonded early with [[Kelly-087|SPARTAN-087]] and [[Samuel-034|Spartan-034]], who would be the only close friends he would ever have. Sam's untimely death in [[2525]] affected John profoundly.


==Character design==
When the Spartans reached the age of eight years old, they went on their first training mission. The Spartans were dropped over a wood located deep in some mountains and expected to get safely to their extraction [[Pelican]]. The children also had instructions to leave the last child arriving behind. When the group came upon the [[Pelican]], it was guarded by armed men. These armed men were actually [[Marines|UNSC]] soldiers, but were not in uniform and therefore mistaken for a hostile threat. John showed early acumen in critical thinking and tactics, not wishing to take it for granted that guards would be friendly toward the children. He came up with a plan to take the men down, capture the drop ship, and ensure the safe extraction of every team member, as he made sure he was the last person aboard. to do this he ended up hijacking a [[UNSC]] dropship with the help of Deja, and beat down the men with stones and many feet. This action caused him to be promoted to Squad Leader of the Spartans.
Shi Kai Wang's sketch which became the basis for the Master Chief The task of developing the Master Chief for the character's first appearance in Halo: Combat Evolved fell on Rob McLees and the project's Art Director, Marcus Lehto. Eventually, Shi Kai Wang was hired for conceptual art.[2] One of Wang's sketches was accepted and became the basis for the Master Chief; however, after Wang's version was converted to a 3-D model, it was decided the character looked too slender, "almost effeminate".[2] The Master Chief was subsequently bulked up to the version currently found in the games.[2] Similarly, the Chief's armor went through various changes, such as the addition of an antenna, which was removed later in development, and a green tint.[3]


In an interview on creating believable video game characters, Bungie's Joseph Staten noted that, "Master Chief is really what kicked off the creativity," he said, "in terms of how people react to him. He's a space Navy in really cool green armor."[4]
At the age of 14, John underwent the dangerous and painful process of [[SPARTAN-II Augmentation Procedures|augmentation]] that caused most of the Spartans to die. John-117 was one of 33 Spartans who made it through the process unscathed. When John was only 14 years old, he is also said to have a body of an 18 year old athlete.


Steve Downes, who voices the Master Chief, is a disc jockey and voice actor who had never played video games before Halo.[5] Martin O'Donnell, Bungie's music director, had worked with Downes on a previous video game, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, and recommended him for the part.[6] Downes has never appeared at Bungie or Microsoft events, and believes that the Master Chief is left masked because "[the character's identity] is really in the eye of the player".[5]
===Early Military Career===
Promoted to Squad Leader at the age of 14, John-117's first mission was against rebels in the asteroid belt of the [[Eridanus System]], where his home world was located. He was slightly wounded while leading his squad to capture rebel leader [[Colonel Robert Watts]]. He received a [[The Purple Heart|Purple Heart]] after this mission.<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', pages 75-94</ref>


The February 2008 issue of "Playboy Monthly featured an article detailing Master Chief's armor.[7]
Shortly after that, He and his [[Spartans]] would fight Watts for the next 27 years, employing the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. John's first battle against the [[Covenant]] was just after they received the Mark IV armor. All Spartans launched with thrusters from a Pelican. Each Spartan carried an Anvil missile with them to destroy a Covenant ship. Only three Spartans survived and entered through a hole in the hull of the ship, which was put there by a MAC round. These Spartans were [[Samuel-034]] and [[Kelly-087]]. They succeeded the mission and blew up the Covenant ship, but lost Sam in the process due to a breech in his suit so he could not go back into vacuum. This first UNSC victory against the Covenant showed John that the Covenant could be beaten, but at a high cost.


==Attributes==
John served in over 200 missions against the Covenant, including the [[Battle of Jericho VII]] and the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV]], in which he detonated a nuclear bomb to clear all forces from the planet. This was one of only a few UNSC victories. A data crystal was discovered during this mission which contained coordinates of [[Installation 04]] and led up to the events in [[Halo: Combat Evolved]] and [[Halo: The Flood]].He also received every medal except for the POW(Prisoner of War)medal. He is also considered the luckiest and the bravest of the spartans.


===Personality===
The [[Battle of Reach]], though brief, was of great significance for John. The majority of the Spartans went to the planet's surface to protect MAC generators. John, with [[Linda-058]] and [[James]], was sent to a docking station to protect an unsecured NAV database. If the [[Covenant]] obtained it they would find out the location of Earth, which was still a closely guarded secret. John was successful, but at a great cost. James tumbled into deep space and Linda was gravely wounded. John saved four other Marines including [[Sergeant Johnson]]. The team returned to the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} and was placed into cryo sleep as the ship fled Reach.
Steve Downes said that his voice acting was based entirely on Bungie's written character description provided, which specified a character similar to Clint Eastwood and of few words. In a podcast interview, the actor noted that, during the recording, he was given a fair amount of creative leeway to develop the Chief's personality.[5] In the games, the Master Chief never speaks during player-controlled gameplay, making him an almost silent protagonist. Even during cutscenes, the character generally speaks sparingly. Bungie Studios' Frank O'Connor has described the Chief as "so quiet and so invisible, literally, that the player gets to pretend they're the Chief. The player gets to inhabit those shoes [and] apply their own personality."[8] Bungie concept artist Eddie Smith described the Master Chief as "pretty much the consummate professional. He does his job, walks off, doesn't even get the girl, he's that cool he doesn't need her."[9] Although the Master Chief is usually depicted as calm, quiet, and wryly cynical, some reviewers stated that Eric Nylund's portrayal of the character in Halo: The Fall of Reach deviates significantly from the treatment found in the games and other media.[10][11]


Entirely encased in heavy armor and standing seven feet tall, the Chief inspires awe and terror in friends and foes alike.[12] Despite his cold exterior, Master Chief cares about his fellow soldiers, especially the Spartan-IIs with whom he has trained.[12] At one point, the Master Chief risks injury in a massive explosion to save a fellow Spartan,[13] and withholds some combat information on the threat of the Flood, an alien parasite, after realizing that the full disclosure of the combat data would mean the death of Sergeant Avery Johnson.[13]
===Defense of Earth and Humanity===
====Installation 04====
[[Image:180px-Masterchief-and-company.png|left|thumb|Master Chief being briefed.]]
Once arrived at [[Installation 04]] the ''Pillar of Autumn'' came under attack by Covenant forces. Captain [[Jacob Keyes]] ordered John to be woken and tasked with ensuring the escape of the ship's [[AI]], [[Cortana]], while Keyes crash-landed the ship onto the ring. Initially fighting on Halo was between UNSC and Covenant forces, but after Captain Keyes' unwitting release of dormant [[Flood]] parasites, the majority of both forces were infected by the Flood and fighting shifted to eliminating the new enemy.
John soon came to the scene where he is responsible for retrieving an artifact called the Index for [[343 Guilty Spark]], a device which is said would activate and destroy all Flood Forms within large radius. The explanation was soon proven wrong by the revelation of Cortana that the installation's true purpose is to destroy all sentient life forms in the galaxy large enough to starve the flood to death.
John soon commenced the three-side combat where the Covenant, the Flood, Sentinels battle around the Control Room.
Soon he returned and attempted to save Keyes, but it was too late, the Flood was destined to get off the ring.
With this, John retrieve Keyes neural implant that could activate the Pillar of Autumn's Fusion Reactor which would subsequently blow up the ship to destroy the ring.
Successfully destroying the Fusion Reactors, John reached the extraction bay in a 5 minute Warthog Run and escaped the Ring before it destroys itself.
Very few other members of the UNSC forces survived, notably [[Avery Junior Johnson|Sergeant Major Johnson]].<ref>''[[Halo: The Flood]]''</ref>


During his training, the Master Chief is taught by Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez to sacrifice lives only when necessary and to understand the difference between "wasting lives and spending lives."[14] While in the Chi Ceti system, one of the Master Chief's fellow Spartans and best friend, Samuel-034, suffers an irreparable breach in his armor.[14] Sam stays behind to detonate explosives, while the Master Chief and Kelly evacuate the ship. Although the Chief would have preferred to die with his friend, he tells himself that he needs to "live and fight another day".[14] In Halo: First Strike, Dr. Catherine Halsey tries to teach him to save every single life possible.[14]
====OPERATION: First Strike====
[[Image:First Strike.jpg|right|thumb|150px]]
After the destruction of Alpha Halo, Cortana and the Master Chief fled in space in the [[Longsword]] they escaped in. He discovered three cyrotubes floating nearby, one containing [[Linda]], and retrieved them. Soon after, the Covenant Flagship ''[[Ascendant Justice]]'' came into the system along with a few cruisers. A nearby Pelican drop ship fired at the cruiser to distract it. John linked the two vessels and brought its passengers aboard to the Longsword. Seven others helped John in capturing a Covenant ship, eventually rendezvousing with the [[Eridanus Rebels]] and destroying the Covenant space station ''[[Unyielding Hierophant]]''.  


Despite the Master Chief's excellent combat record, many in the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), the military unit to which he belongs, distrust him. Antonio Silva, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, exemplifies this attitude,[13] and considers the Master Chief a freak product of an experiment that should never be repeated. Although the Chief resents Silva's dishonor to his fallen comrades' memory, he is also loyal to the chain of command, and remains quiet.[12] Despite these explorations of the character's personality, O'Connor said in an interview that revealing the face of the Chief is not as important as revealing the events going on around the character.[8]
John faced a dilemma regarding the combat data on the Flood. Providing regular data, and not complete data, would protect Sgt. Johnson from possible experimentation by ONI, as he survived Flood infection due to complications from Boren's Syndrome.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]''</ref>


John and the few remaining Spartans, Linda, Grace, Will, and Fred, focused on finding a way to stop the Covenant from reaching Earth, the location of which has been discovered. They decide to destroy the Covenant Station '''Unyielding Hierophant''. The Spartans infiltrated the ship, and after eleven hours on board reach a temple, where a copy of Cortana warns them of a new type of guard known as "[[Brutes]]". Linda took a sniper post and the other four entered the temple. They are ambushed by Brutes, and John is nearly killed, but manages to kill their attackers. Grace is killed by a [[Brute Shot]] that Brutes  Chieftains used and John activated the fail-safe on her armor.


===Outward appearance===
The team sabotaged the generator in the ''Hierophant'' and as they escaped out a side door, the fail-safe on Grace's armor activated, disintegrating several Elites and many Grunts. John, Fred, and Will were quickly spotted by three Banshees, but their Elite pilots were hit by Linda's sniper fire. The Banshees were then captured by the Spartans. John doubled back to retrieve Linda, who took down four more Elites attempting to kill John. They quickly escape, and arrive back at the ''[[Gettysburg]]''.
In the video games, the Master Chief is never seen without his armor. In the final cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief removes his helmet, but camera movement hides his face. Bungie did this to help the player bond with the Chief.[15] The only physical description of the Master Chief comes from the novels. During a briefing scene in Halo: The Flood, the Chief is described as tall with short hair, serious eyes, and strong features. His skin is "too white", a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor.[12] The Master Chief stands about seven feet (2.13 m) tall and weighs 1,000 pounds (450 kg) in armor;[16] without it, he stands six feet, six inches (1.98 m) tall and weighs 287 pounds (130 kg).[14]


Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson piloted the ''Ascendant Justice'' straight towards the ''Unyielding Hierophant''. Whitcomb discusses the Alamo and Thermopylae with John, then prepares to fight the Covenant off while the ''Unyielding Hierophant'''s fusion reactor detonates. Every one of the five hundred covenant ships maneuvers in right next to the ''Ascendant Justice'', and the Admiral draws an [[SMG]]. The Admiral and the Lieutenant die when the fusion reactor explodes. The explosion annihilates four-hundred and eighty-eight ships of the Covenant fleet, leaving only a dozen badly damaged ships to invade Earth. John leaves after witnessing Whitcomb's sacrifice, and arrives back at Earth with the last members of his team, Linda, Will, and Fred.


===Age===
====First Battle of Earth====
John's age is affected by the same ambiguities as all beings that leave their home worlds. By technical human Earth years, John is approximately 41 years old at the time he crash-landed on [[Installation 04]]. However, during the 27 Earth years that he has spent fighting the Covenant, considerable time was spent in [[Slipspace]]. Short Slipspace jumps can take several weeks in Earth time, and long jumps can take months or years, meaning that Slipspace travelers have not aged as much as those who did not travel with them. This phenomenon, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation Time Dilation], is an aspect of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Special Relativity], in which clocks in a moving frame of reference appear to move more slowly than clocks in a non-moving frame of reference. The aging process can be further slowed in Slipspace by deep sleep in cryochambers, in which all cellular aging can be halted completely.


So, although 41 Earth years had passed between John's birth and his arrival on Installation 04, his relative biological age would be much younger. It is presumed that in the 26th century, human longevity would be extended somewhere near its theorized maximum limit of 150 years, which would make 41 years of age the equivalent of being 21 years old in early 21st century aging. Considering that John has undergone physical augmentation, spent time in Slipspace (and in cryo while in Slipspace), his physical condition should be that of a young man at full maturity and the peak of physical health, with a numeric age in Earth years irrelevant to determining age.
[[Image:Covenant bomb and core.jpg|thumb|right|Master Chief with the Covenant bomb]]
{{Quote|Something's not right. The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size.|Lord Hood}}




==Appearances==
===Halo: The Fall of Reach===
See also: Halo: The Fall of Reach
The Master Chief's back-story is never explained in the games. A prequel of Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 novel The Fall of Reach, reveals much of the character's history and was released as a companion to the game. The Master Chief, originally named John, was born in 2511 and first lived with his family on the human colony planet Eridanus 2. Large for his six years of age, and approximately a foot above his school peers, he is described as a typical boy with brown hair, freckles and a gap between his two front teeth.[14] In 2517, John and seventy-four other children his age are covertly taken from their homes and replaced with flash clones to hide the kidnapping. The original children are brought to planet Reach, one of the UNSC's headquarters, to begin intense physical and psychological training to become SPARTAN-II supersoldiers.[14] They are assigned new identification numbers instead of last names; John becomes known as John-117. Approximately eight years later, John and the other children are biologically and cybernetically augmented and enhanced. These procedures had substantial risks;[14] only John and thirty-two other Spartans survive.[14].


After the Spartans' first successful operation which involved capturing a rogue UNSC officer, John-117 is briefed on the threat posed by the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of alien races, and witnesses the utter devastation wrought by a single ship.[14] The Spartans are first sent to the Damascus Materials Testing Facility on the planet Chi Ceti 4 to retrieve the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. In the process, they board a Covenant vessel and plant a bomb; John is forced to leave one of his fellow Spartans, his best friend, to die.[14]
Aboard ''[[Cairo Station]]'', John received Mark VI [[MJOLNIR]] armor and attended an awards ceremony. The ceremony was interrupted by the [[First Battle of Earth]]. John successfully repulsed Covenant boarders from the station. Then after fighting through several waves of Elites which allowed Cortana to  access and deactivate the boarder's demolition device. He "gave the Covenant back their bomb" by launching himself and the device, via explosive decompression from one of the station's launch bays, toward a Covenant warship. A timely strike by Longsword interceptors opened a breach in the warship's hull allowing John to direct the bomb into the ship's power plant.


In 2552, the Covenant invades the human world of Sigma Octanus and occupies one of its cities, Cote D'Azure.[14] Following a failed Marine assault, John-117 and three teams of Spartans are sent to destroy the Covenant force with a nuclear warhead. After detonating the weapon, the Spartans return to Reach, where the UNSC High Command has developed a last-ditch plan to capture a Covenant High Prophet, who they hope could be used in order to barter a truce.[14] The Master Chief's armor is upgraded, and he first encounters the artificial intelligence (AI) Cortana during a training mission.[14] A massive Covenant armada of 314 ships[17][18] arrives and begins to destroy the planet, despite the best efforts of the Spartans and other UNSC forces. Aboard the spaceship Pillar of Autumn, Cortana plots a random course of escape.[18] Seemingly the last Spartan alive, the Master Chief enters cryogenic sleep along with the Pillar of Autumn's crew.
John was then deployed to [[New Mombasa, East African Protectorate]] aboard the {{UNSCShip|In Amber Clad}} against Covenant ground forces. His Pelican drop ship was shot down by a [[Scarab]]'s main cannon. John and other surviving Marines fought their way to the other surviving Pelicans. After a rendezvous with [[Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker]] in the Zanzibar Hotel, in [[Old Mombasa]], the Master Chief destroyed Covenant units along the shore of the city as he chases the tracks of the Scarab. Arriving at the edge of Old Mombasa, John received a [[Scorpion Tank]] from [[Sergeant Johnson]]. (Quote Cortana: "Thanks for the Tank... He (Referring to John-117) never gets me anything."


===Halo: Combat Evolved===
Fighting through numerous highway tunnels and suburbs, John reached the city center, where Marines under the command of [[Sergeant Banks|Staff Sergeant Banks]] were pinned down. With the assistance of the [[Marines]] and a large stockpile of weapons, John boarded and was able to destroy the Scarab. The Master Chief is then transported to ''In Amber Clad'' to intercept the [[Prophet of Regret]]'s flagship. When the flagship starts to enter Slipspace, [[Commander]] [[Miranda Keyes]] is granted permission to follow it. The Master Chief and all on board ''In Amber Clad'' were brought to [[Installation 05]].<ref>''[[Halo 2]]''</ref>
See also: Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: The Flood
The Master Chief (left), Cortana, and Captain Keyes aboard the Pillar of Autumn The Master Chief first appears in the games as the protagonist of Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo: The Flood, the 2003 novelization of the video game, the Chief is likewise the main character. During the opening cinematic of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief is awakened from cryogenic sleep. Upon exiting slipspace, the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and crash lands on Halo, a ring-shaped megastructure. Master Chief escapes the ship via escape pod. Upon landing on Halo, his first task is to find other survivors. While fighting the Covenant, the Master Chief and Cortana learn that Halo was created by an ancient race, the Forerunners, as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called the Flood.[19] The Covenant accidentally releases the Flood, which begins to spread across the ring.[20] At the request of the installation's resident AI 343 Guilty Spark, the Master Chief retrieves the Index, a device used to activate Halo's defenses and eliminate the Flood. However, Guilty Spark neglects to inform the Master Chief that Halo would accomplish this by destroying all sentient life in a vast radius, essentially starving the Flood to death.[19] Cortana intervenes to prevent the activation of Halo. She and the Master Chief destroy it[21] by detonating the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactor core. The Master Chief and Cortana escape in a Longsword , and believe that they are the only survivors.[12][22]


===Halo: First Strike===
====Installation 05====
See also: Halo: First Strike
{{Quote|Cortana... what exactly am I looking at?|Miranda Keyes}}{{Quote|That... is another Halo.|Cortana}}
Forced to act quickly once at Installation 05, John manned a [[Human Entry Vehicle|HEV]] with several [[Orbital Drop Shock Trooper|ODST]]s, tasked with locating and assassinating the Prophet of Regret. Cortana informed him of Regret's intent to fire Halo as soon as possible. He tracked the Prophet of Regret to a temple in the middle of a lake, but not before witnessing countless Covenant vehicles coming out of slipspace, followed by High Charity. He quickly dispatched the Prophet of Regret, and escaped the temple shortly before it is destroyed by an overhead cruiser which glassed the building as John just got out of the way by jumping off the edge of the construct and into the water.


Halo: First Strike, the 2003 novel by Eric Nylund, follows the Master Chief after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and bridges the events of Halo and Halo 2. Floating in Halo's debris field, Cortana and the Chief discover that there are in fact other human survivors.[13] The Master Chief and these soldiers capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice, and return to Reach to save any UNSC survivors on the planet. At Reach, the Master Chief discovers that the Covenant had not destroyed the planet's biosphere in the usual manner, and that a few other Spartans survive. The Chief retrieves Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creative genius behind the SPARTAN-II Project, and his fellow soldiers. The Spartans then attack a massive Covenant command station, the Unyielding Hierophant, thus delaying a Covenant assault on Earth.[13]
Losing consciousness and so unable to swim in the lake, he was captured by a long tentacle belonging to the Flood [[Gravemind]]. Shortly after, the [[Arbiter]] was also captured. The Gravemind appealed to the common interest that Flood and Humans share-- that of not wishing the Halos to be fired. John agreed. The Gravemind then tasked both captives with locating the Index, sending them to the two most likely locations. John was sent to High Charity, interrupting a sermon by the [[Prophet of Truth]]. In actual fact, this was the least of his worries; the conflict between the [[Elites]] and [[Brutes]] were at each others throats and leading the Covenant on the path to civil war. John was caught right in the middle.


===Halo 2===
John eventually caught up to the Prophets and their Brute escorts, though only a dying [[Prophet of Mercy]] (courtesy of a Flood [[Infection Form]]) was left to tell him where Truth was headed to Earth. In an instant, John was caught between a rock and a hard place; on one hand, the Covenant had the Index and could activate Halo. On the other, Earth's chances of withstanding the fleet Truth would lead were somewhere between slim and nil. In the end, he followed the latter, forced to leave Cortana behind so that if Halo was activated, she would detonate ''In Amber Clad'''s engines. John boarded the Forerunner ship, bound for Earth.
See also: Halo 2
The Master Chief lands on the surface of Delta Halo.The Master Chief returns as one of two playable characters in Halo 2, the 2004 sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Returning to Earth with heavily damaged armor, the Master Chief receives an upgrade. Aboard Cairo Station in space, he attends a brief awards ceremony, which is interrupted by a Covenant invasion. Master Chief is commanded to protect the station.[23] The Covenant is repelled, and the Master Chief joins the ship In Amber Clad to fight the Covenant on Earth's surface, in New Mombasa. As the Covenant departs via slipspace, the In Amber Clad follows them to Installation 05, another Halo. The Master Chief lands on this Halo and subsequently assassinates the Covenant High Prophet of Regret. Emerging from a structure, the Master Chief is attacked by orbiting Covenant forces, but is rescued by the Gravemind, an intelligence of Flood origin. The Gravemind sends him to High Charity to search for Delta Halo's Index.[24] Subsequently, the Master Chief boards a Forerunner ship bound for Earth, intending to "finish the fight".


===Halo: Uprising and Halo 3===
====Battle of Voi====
See also: Halo: Uprising and Halo 3
{{Quote|Radio for VTOL. Heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here.|Johnson, upon finding what seems to be John's corpse}}{{Quote|Yeah... you're not.|John-117, grabbing Johnson's arm}}
After a series of firefights, captures and escapes,<ref>''[[Halo: Uprising]]''</ref> John escaped Truth's ship and crash landed on Earth, where he was found by Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter, and the rest of their squad. Though the Master Chief seemed dead, he was awake and battle-ready only minutes later, showing that he could recover remarkably fast. He attempted to attack the Arbiter, thinking he was still an enemy. Johnson informed him that they were now allies, as the disillusioned Arbiter had defected from the Covenant.


The Master Chief appears as a main character in Marvel's limited series Halo: Uprising, in which he breaks into a Covenant-held Forerunner structure before being captured by the Covenant.[25] Like First Strike, the comic serves as a bridge between two video games, Halo 2 and Halo 3, in which Master Chief is again the main character.
John and the Marines traveled through the jungle, searching for evac to a nearby military base. Johnson and his team split up from John and the Arbiter, and they were later captured by loyalist Covenant Brutes and rescued by John and the Arbiter. After taking heavy fire from [[Phantom]]s a Pelican drop ship evacuated the team to a UNSC base.


Back on Earth, the Master Chief helps to repel hostile Covenant forces from Mombasa, Kenya and Voi. With the Arbiter (a Covenant Elite who has sided with humanity) and fellow allies, the Chief leads the assault on a Forerunner artifact that the Covenant Prophet of Truth is attempting to activate. Soon after Truth escapes Earth through the slipspace portal opened by the artifact, the Flood lands on Earth.[26] After helping to control the infestation, the Master Chief follows Truth to the Ark, an immense constructed world more than 262,144 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy and well beyond the range of any Halo.[27][28] There, all the Halos can be remotely activated, thus killing all sentient life that could be infested by the Flood.[19] It is discovered that a new Halo is being constructed to replace the one that the Master Chief destroyed in Halo: Combat Evolved. The Flood follow the Chief to the Ark, bringing High Charity through the slipspace portal to escape the range of the six original Halos. The allied Elites and humans decide to activate the new Halo in order to kill the Flood outside the galaxy, and thus preserve life there. 343 Guilty Spark opposes the premature activation of the incomplete installation and attempts to stop it. The Master Chief destroys him, activates the ring, and escapes with Cortana and the Arbiter on the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn. During the escape, the collapsing slipspace portal severs the Dawn in two, stranding Cortana and the Master Chief deep in space. While the Arbiter returns to Earth, Cortana activates a distress beacon, knowing that rescue could take years; the Master Chief enters cryogenic sleep, telling Cortana, "Wake me when you need me."[29]
At the base, Commander Miranda Keyes decided  to evacuate all forces, many of whom were injured. John, the Arbiter and UNSC fought and defended the base during evacuation, planting a massive bomb to destroy the base along with Covenant forces. Master Chief fought his way through many Brutes, escaping the explosion in an an elevator. He met up with several Marine survivors underground, and they escaped the base and headed for the city of [[Voi]].


[[Image:Chief & Arbiter looking good.gif|thumb|The Master Chief and Arbiter covering each other's backs.]]
At the Battle of Voi, John pushed through many loyalist forces as he made his way to what was believed to be the [[Ark]]. Rather, this turned out to be a device that opened up a portal to the Ark. John destroyed a Covenant Anti-Air gun, Anti-Air Wraiths and a Scarab, allowing Lord Hood's ships to fire upon Truth's defenses. Truth fled through the portal with his loyalists forces, while the UNSC remained behind to determine their next move.


==Appearances in other media==
Just as the Second Battle of Earth seemed finished, a flood-infested Covenant warship crash landed in Voi. John fought to contain the Flood infection, learning that the only way to contain the Flood was to explode the warship. During the battle, [[Ship Master]] [[Rtas 'Vadum]] came to aid the UNSC. He fought off the Flood as the Master Chief was sent to retrieve Cortana from the warship, as it was believed she was on board. Aided by [[343 Guilty Spark]], John retrieved a damaged data device and returned to ''[[Shadow of Intent]]''. This data turned out to be a message, rather than Cortana herself. The Elites were able to stop the Flood infestation by [[glassing]] half of Africa, much to Lord Hood's displeasure.
The Master Chief has appeared or has been referenced several times in non-canon media. Team Ninja approached Bungie Studios and asked to use the Master Chief in their 2006 video game Dead or Alive 4. Although the Chief could not be used due to storyline restrictions, Bungie's interest in the idea resulted in the development of Nicole (Spartan-458).[30]


The Master Chief is mentioned several times in Rooster Teeth Productions' Halo-based machinima parody series Red vs. Blue. In the first episode of the series, Grif, talking to teammate Simmons, says: "I signed up to fight some aliens. Next thing I know, Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant Armada, and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, fighting a bunch of blue guys."[31] In the Halo Zune exclusive video titled "Turn On, Tune In, Zune Out", Doc has a segment on his radio broadcast called "You're not Master Chief, and that's okay".[32][33]
The Elites and the UNSC watched Cortana's recording, which contained a warning that High Charity, now overwhelmed and controlled by the Flood [[Gravemind]], was headed for Earth. However, she offered hope, with information of a way to stop the Halos from firing and neutralize the Flood threat. Convinced of the reliability of Cortana's message, John resolved to journey to the Ark while Hood mobilized remaining UNSC forces on Earth. John accompanied a joint UNSC-Elite task force through the portal aboard the {{UNSCShip|Forward Unto Dawn}} to the Ark.


The Master Chief is referenced as a hero by a then-retired soldier in the live-action short, "The Museum",[34] and appears in the subsequent video as part of a special advertisement series for Halo 3 entitled "Believe in a Hero".[35]
====Battle of The Ark====
{{Quote|Brute ships! Staggered line. Shipmaster! They outnumber us, three-to-one!|Elite Crewmember}}{{Quote|Then it is an even fight. All Cruisers, fire at will! Burn their mongrel hides!|[[Rtas 'Vadumee|Rtas "Half-Jaw" 'Vadum]]}}
The Elites carried UNSC forces through the slipspace portal which to the Ark. The team was determined to stop Truth from activating the seven Halos. They descended in Pelicans to the surface of the Ark to find the [[Silent Cartographer]], eliminating Covenant loyalists and securing a landing zone for ''Forward Unto Dawn''. Traveling in [[Scorpion|Scorpions]], John and other Marines located the Silent Cartographer and learned that Truth was in a [[Citadel]]. John, the Arbiter, and joint troops successfully assaulted the fortress.


John fought through loyalist forces and reached the top of the tower, where he deactivated part of the shield to Truth's location. Sergeant Johnson was captured in the battle but not killed, being spared to serve as a [[Reclaimer]]. John, the Arbiter, and the Elites deactivated the last tower of the citadel as [[High Charity]] came out of slipspace, bringing the Flood into the battle and damaging the Elite carrier ''Shadow of Intent''.


==Impact and reception==
Entering the Citadel, John and the Arbiter pushed toward Truth's location, where [[Miranda Keyes]] had forced her way in, breaking through the window with her Pelican. She managed to kill a Brute, but was soon surrounded. Truth shot and killed Keyes with a [[Spiker]] as she hesitated before killing Johnson and herself. Johnson was then forced by Truth to activate the Halos. In an odd turn of events, John and the Arbiter made a temporary alliance with the Flood to stop the activation of the Halos. The final Brute defenses were defeated by the Flood as John and the Arbiter reached Truth. Truth was infected by the Flood and was killed by the Arbiter while the Master Chief deactivated the rings.
In an article in Time, Lev Grossman stated that the Master Chief represents a "new kind of celebrity for a new and profoundly weird millennium" and is a symbol of the increasing legitimacy of video games as an art form.[15] The Sydney Morning Herald simply described the Chief as "iconic".[36] Electronic Gaming Monthly noted that the Master Chief, in half a decade had become the de facto symbol for the Xbox and for a new generation of gamers.[37] The recognition of the Master Chief has spread to mainstream culture; Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas has developed a wax sculpture of the Chief. At the ceremony, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy said that the "Master Chief is as much of a hero today as characters like Spider-Man, Frodo, and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations."[38]


An actor dressed as the Master Chief stands with Bill Gates at the Halo 3 launch at Best Buy in Seattle, Washington.[39]BusinessWeek listed the Master Chief among several video game characters who have been branded beyond their respective video games, "helping them transcend the very medium in the process".[1] The Master Chief has been used in marketing on a variety of products, from 7-Eleven Slurpees to T-shirts, Xbox 360 controllers, and Mountain Dew.[40][41] In Australia, around September 2007, Hoyts Cinemas popcorn buckets were branded with high-detail images of Halo 3 and the Master Chief along with a prize advertising offer. Several action figures of the character have been created to market of the Halo series; the most recent were manufactured by McFarlane.[42] These actions have been called necessary to the game franchise; Ed Ventura, director of Xbox's worldwide marketing, said, "We want to be in the hearts and minds of our fans as much as we can."[43]
The [[Gravemind]] revealed himself, laughing as he succeeded in preventing his own destruction before turning on John and the Arbiter. The two escaped. As they were leaving the citadel, John saw a vision of Cortana that led him to the exit. He learned that a replacement for [[Installation 04 (II)|Installation 04]] had been built by the Ark. He decided to return to High Charity to retrieve Cortana.


Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at the University of Connecticut, compared the Master Chief to the epic hero Aeneas, in that both superhuman characters save a civilization by defeating strong enemies in a martial setting. The audience is intended to become immersed and to identify with the protagonist similarly in both stories.[44] Matthew Stover compared Halo to the Iliad, saying that both stories share the meta-theme that "war is the crucible of character". As military science fiction, Halo further raises the issue of being human.[45] Stover argued that, since players are to imagine themselves as the Master Chief, the character is correctly presented as a cyborg, neither a flawless machine nor fully human. Players would be unable to empathize with the former, and the latter would be too specifically developed.[45]
On High Charity, John battled his way through hordes of Flood forces to reach Cortana, who still had the activation Index from the first Halo ring. John made his way back through High Charity and forced the Covenant City to explode. On his way out, Cortana detected a friendly unit which turned out to be the Arbiter. As High Charity was destroyed, the Flood was believed to be defeated but not destroyed.


IGN saw in the Master Chief elements of Jon 6725416, a character in Christopher Rowley's novel Starhammer.[46] Reviewers have suggested that the name John-117 could be a Biblical reference.[10][46]
====Firing Replacement Installation 04====
[[Image:DeathofAveryJohnson.jpg|right|thumb|The Master Chief watches as Guilty Spark severely injures Sgt. Johnson in an attempt of "treachery".]]{{Quote|Halo. It's so new... unfinished. I'm not exactly sure what will happen when we fire it...|Cortana to the Chief, evaluating their plan to activate Halo}}{{Quote|We'll head for the Portal. And we'll all go home|Chief to Cortana}}
The final task for John, the Arbiter, and Cortana was to destroy the Flood by activating the [[Installation 04 (II)|replacement Installation 04]]. The three landed on the Halo, finding that the Flood was not defeated, but instead trying to rebuild itself on the Halo. Flood dispersal pods released [[Combat Forms]] into battle against John and the Arbiter, forcing them to fight their way up to the tower where the ring could be destroyed. During the battle, Sergeant Johnson arrived on the Halo aboard ''[[Forward Unto Dawn]]''.
[[Image:Chief and Arbiter Escape Halo.jpg|thumb|right|The Master Chief and the Arbiter jump into [[Forward Unto Dawn]] in order to escape Halo.]]
[[Johnson]] helped the Master Chief and the Arbiter fight using a [[Spartan Laser]]. [[343 Guilty Spark]] opened the door to the control room and locked the Flood out. However, once inside, Guilty Spark realized that the team intended to fire the Halo before it could be completed, and that they did not intend to activate all the Halos as intended by the [[Forerunners]]. His "protocol" forced him to stop Johnson from activating Installation 04. He knew that a premature firing would destroy the Ark and so he shot Johnson, locked out the Arbiter from the room, and attempted to kill John. John stood his ground, even after being hit by several blasts, and fought. Just as the Monitor seemed invulnerable, Johnson shot the Monitor, temporarily distracting him. He then handed off the laser, and John finished off Guilty Spark. Johnson's injury was fatal, and he requested that John send him out "with a bang" after handing over Cortana's data chip and imploring him "Don't ever let her go."


Reaction to the Master Chief as a character is generally mixed. Some reviewers see the character's silent nature as a strength;[10] others say that this quality leaves him insufficiently developed and believable.[47][48] Similarly, some critics see the Chief as a stock action hero, with little added dimension.[49] Neil Blomkamp, director of the stalled Halo film, said the movie would have depicted the character as "the most important supporting cast member" because of his faceless nature. Instead, "other characters around him [...] did most of the emotional heavy lifting", with their story exploring their perception of the Chief.[50]
Cortana activated Installation 04 and they fled the Halo fighting Flood the whole way. Both Cortana and the Arbiter gave their condolences for the loss of Johnson. The team boarded ''Forward Unto Dawn'' and escaped the explosion of Installation 04. However, the Slipspace portal opened for them could not sustain itself during the explosion, and its closure severed the ship in half, sending the Arbiter on to Earth and leaving John and Cortana drifting towards a nebula and an unknown planet.


===Missing in Action===
{{Quote|Hard to believe he's dead.|Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood}}
{{Quote|Were it so easy...|The Arbiter}}
John and Cortana were presumed dead when they did not make it back to Earth. The cockpit portion of ''Forward Unto Dawn'', bearing the Arbiter, crash landed on Earth and was left as a monument to those who died in [[Human-Covenant War|defense of Humanity]]. The Chief's Spartan ID number, 117, was carved into the memorial by an unknown party, and taped beside his number was the UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy insignia patch.
[[Image:1804157725 61aa1692ab b.jpg|thumb|The Master Chief during the collapse of the portal.]]


==Notes and references==
===Survival===
^ a b Snow, Blake (2007-08-03). Game Icons We Love. businessweek.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-08. “Microsoft's Master Chief, perhaps the newest franchise character on the block, is no different.”
^ a b c Trautmann, Eric (2004). The Art of Halo. New York: Del Ray Publishing. ISBN 0-345-47586-0. 
^ One Million Years B.X.. bungie.net. Bungie Studios (2006-02-10). Archived from the original on 2006-02-10.
^ Cifaldi, Frank (2005-05-26). E3 Report: Developing Better Characters, Better Stories. gamasutra.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
^ a b c XerxdeeJ (2005-08-23). A Visit from the Master Chief Himself. tiedtheleader.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
^ KLind (2006-07-26). Interview with the Master Chief. buttonbasher.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
^ Mark MacDonald, "Spartan Specs: Under the Chief's hood," Electronic Gaming Monthly 225 (February 2008): 26-27.
^ a b Kolan, Patrick (2006-09-02). IGN interview with Frankie O'connor. ign.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
^ Bungie Studios. (2004). Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition Bonus DVD.
^ a b c Park, Gene (2003-09-03). Halo: The Fall Of Reach - Book Review. gamecritics.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
^ Pezzano, Kevin. Halo: The Fall of Reach. revolutionsf.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
^ a b c d e Dietz, William (2003). Halo: The Flood. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45921-0. 
^ a b c d e Nylund, Eric (2003). Halo: First Strike. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-46781-7. 
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Nylund, Eric (2001). Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45132-5. 
^ a b Grossman, Lev (2007-08-30). The Man in the Mask. time.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
^ Bungie Studios (2004). Halo 2 Instruction Manual (in English). Microsoft Game Studios, 8. 
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Cairo Station (in English). (2004) “Cortana: Fifteen Covenant capital ships, holding position just outside the killzone. / Lord Hood: Something's not right. The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size.”
^ a b Bungie Studios (2001). Halo: Combat Evolved Instruction Manual (in English). Microsoft Game Studios. 
^ a b c Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Two Betrayals (in English). (2001) “Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him. / Master Chief: Is this true? / 343 Guilty Spark: More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: 343 Guilty Spark (in English). (2001) “343 Guilty Spark: Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Two Betrayals (in English). (2001) “Cortana: We can't let the monitor activate Halo. We have to stop him. We have to destroy Halo.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: The Maw (in English). (2001) “Master Chief: Did anyone else make it? / Cortana: Scanning. (Pause) Just... dust and echoes. We are all that's left.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Cairo Station (in English). (2004) “Lord Hood: They're going to try to take our MAC guns offline, give their capital ships a straight shot at Earth. Master Chief... defend this station.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Gravemind (in English). (2004) “Gravemind: If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot... and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us brothers.”
^ Bendis, Brian Michael (2007). Halo: Uprising, Book 1. New York: Marvel Comics. 
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: Floodgate (in English). (2007) “Arbiter: What is it? More Brutes? / Master Chief: Worse. / Miranda Keyes: The Flood. It's spreading all over the city.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: The Ark (in English). (2007) “Master Chief: That's our galaxy, we're beyond the rim. / 343 Guilty Spark: Two to the eighteenth lightyears from galactic center, to be precise.”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: The Covenant (in English). (2007) “343 Guilty Spark: The Ark is out of range of all the active installations!”
^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: Halo (in English). (2007) “Cortana: I'll miss you. / Master Chief: Wake me. When you need me.”
^ Dead or Alive 4 Q&A. gamespot.com (2006-03-20). Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
^ Rooster Teeth Productions (2003-04-01). Red vs Blue episode 1: "Why Are We Here?".
^ Rooster Teeth Productions (2007). Red vs Blue Special: "Turn On, Tune In, Zune Out".
^ Kelly, Kevin (2007-06-17). Watch the Exclusive RvB Content Without a Zune. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
^ McElroy, Justin (2007-09-12). Watch the New Halo 3 Ad: Museum. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
^ Swilinski, Alex (2007-09-12). Brankweek Talks Anatomy of Halo 3 Marketing Onslaught. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
^ Moses, Asher (2007-08-30). Prepare for an All-Out War. smh.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
^ Electronic Gaming Monthly staff (2005-11-28). Top Ten Video Game Characters. 1up.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
^ Master Chief Invades Madame Tussauds. Microsoft (2007-09-10). Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ Microsoft Games Global Marketing (gamerscoreblog) (2007-09-25). Halo 3 Midnight Madness Bellevue Best Buy 274 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Flickr: Photos from gamerscoreblog. Flickr. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. “Taken on September 25, 2007”
^ Brudvig, Erik (2007-07-31). Halo 3 Box Arrives at IGN Offices. ign.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
^ Reserve Halo 3 at 7-11 TODAY!. xbox360rally.com (2007-08-06). Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
^ Plunkett, Luke (2007-09-12). McFarlane Halo 3 figures. kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
^ High, Kamau (2004-12-09). Play the game, buy the licensed consumer goods. ft.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
^ Travis, Roger (October 10, 2006). Bungie's Epic Achievement: Halo and the Aeneid. The Escapist. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
^ a b Stover, Matthew Woodring (2006). "You Are the Master Chief", in Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.): Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books, 1–10. 
^ a b Perry, Douglass (May 17, 2006). The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames. IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
^ Bear, Erik (2004-12-16). Halo 2 vs Half Life 2. sfhomeworld.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
^ Crecente, Brian (2007-09-24). Feature: Halo 3 Review. kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
^ Team Freemont (2004). Team Freemont: Halo 2 review. teamfremont.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
^ Croal, N'Gai. "Exclusive: And The Winner For Best Supporting Actor Is...As Master Chief? Bungie Writing Director Joseph Staten Gives Level Up Some Insight Into The Stalled Halo Movie", Newsweek, 2008-01-15. Retrieved on 2008-01-21. 


==External links==
John and [[Cortana]] did in fact survive the explosion of Installation 04(II) in the remaining cargo portion of the ''Dawn'', but it was nearly powerless and, without airlocks or a bridge, could not be properly navigated. Cortana, relieved that John survived, explained this to the Chief, and that it could take years before anyone could discover their distress signal. John stowed himself in a cryotube, at which point Cortana said "I'll miss you." John replied with, "Wake me...when you need me."
The Master Chief's profile at Bungie.org.
John-117 article at Halopedia, a Halo wiki.
[show]v • d • eHalo series
Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3
Other games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles
Novelizations and other media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · Sixth Halo Novel · Halo Graphic Novel · Halo: Uprising
Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack
Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters
Promotion I Love Bees · Marketing for Halo 3
[show]v • d • eCharacters of Halo
Master Chief • Cortana • Arbiter • Gravemind
UNSC Characters • Covenant Characters • Forerunner Characters


After an unknown amount of time, the remainder of the ''Dawn'' drifted toward an unknown object, with planet wide city lights that formed the [[Marathon (video game series)|''Marathon'' logo]]. Master Chief's fate is currently unknown.


==Age==
John's age is affected by the same ambiguities as all beings that leave their home worlds. By technical human Earth years, John is approximately 41 years old at the time he crash-landed on [[Installation 04]]. However, during the 27 Earth years that he has spent fighting the Covenant, considerable time was spent in [[Slipspace]]. Short Slipspace jumps can take several weeks in Earth time, and long jumps can take months or years, meaning that Slipspace travelers have not aged as much as those who did not travel with them. This phenomenon, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation Time Dilation], is an aspect of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Special Relativity], in which clocks in a moving frame of reference appear to move more slowly than clocks in a non-moving frame of reference. The aging process can be further slowed in Slipspace by deep sleep in cryochambers, in which all cellular aging can be halted completely.


So, although 41 Earth years had passed between John's birth and his arrival on Installation 04, his relative biological age would be much younger. It is presumed that in the 26th century, human longevity would be extended somewhere near its theorized maximum limit of 150 years, which would make 41 years of age the equivalent of being 21 years old in early 21st century aging. Considering that John has undergone physical augmentation, spent time in Slipspace (and in cryo while in Slipspace), his physical condition should be that of a young man at full maturity and the peak of physical health, with a numeric age in Earth years irrelevant to determining age.


==Trivia==  
==Trivia==
*John's apparent favorite weapon is the [[Assault Rifle]] since it's the default weapon during the game in [[Halo Combat Evolved]] and [[Halo 3]]  .  
*John's apparent favorite weapon is the [[Assault Rifle]] since it's the default weapon during the game in [[Halo Combat Evolved]] and [[Halo 3]]  .  
*Fans have many theories as to the significance of his number, 117. Inside the [[Halo Universe]] the number was randomly assigned, but Bungie's choice has been theorized upon in many ways. For more, see: [[List of Biblical References in Halo]].
*Fans have many theories as to the significance of his number, 117. Inside the [[Halo Universe]] the number was randomly assigned, but Bungie's choice has been theorized upon in many ways. For more, see: [[List of Biblical References in Halo]].
**Bible verses that end with 1:17 or 11:7 relate to [[Halo]] in an odd way. Revelation 1:17 says, "When I saw him, I fell at him as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and last.'" Revelation 11:7 says, "And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the pit will make war upon them, conquer and kill them." Revelation 11:8 says, "And their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city where their Lord was crucified." When it says, "I am the first and last," in [[Halo]] it could mean [[John-117]]. The beast is the [[Gravemind]]/[[Flood]]. The great city is [[New Mombasa]].
**Bible verses that end with 1:17 or 11:7 relate to [[Halo]] in an odd way. Revelation 1:17 says, "When I saw him, I fell at him as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and last.'" Revelation 11:7 says, "And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the pit will make war upon them, conquer and kill them." Revelation 11:8 says, "And their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city where their Lord was crucified." When it says, "I am the first and last," in [[Halo]] it could mean [[John-117]]. The beast is the [[Gravemind]]/[[Flood]]. The great city is [[New Mombasa]].
*In the Bible, John I became 7th Bishop of Jerusalem in 117 A.D.
**In the Bible, John I became 7th Bishop of Jerusalem in 117 A.D.
*In Halo 2 Multiplayer or Campaign, pressing "down" on the D-pad causes characters to put his gun down to cease fire. Throwing all grenades and holding down the left trigger will also produce the same effect. This technique has been used in many machinima like "[[Red_vs_Blue|Red vs Blue]]" or "The Codex" to make the characters appear to be in conversational, rather than combat-ready, mode. However, only the latter method works on Xbox Live. This was disabled in [[Halo 3]] but changed to holding down LB, RB, A, crouch, down on the D-pad for 3 seconds.
*In Halo 2 Multiplayer or Campaign, pressing "down" on the D-pad causes characters to put his gun down to cease fire. Throwing all grenades and holding down the left trigger will also produce the same effect. This technique has been used in many machinima like "[[Red_vs_Blue|Red vs Blue]]" or "The Codex" to make the characters appear to be in conversational, rather than combat-ready, mode. However, only the latter method works on Xbox Live. This was disabled in [[Halo 3]] but changed to holding down LB, RB, A, crouch, down on the D-pad for 3 seconds.
*In both [[Halo: Uprising Issue 1]] and [[Halo 3]], John is referred to as [[Sierra 117]]. This is a military-appropriate identifier using the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet Phonetic Alphabet].
*In both [[Halo: Uprising Issue 1]] and [[Halo 3]], John is referred to as [[Sierra 117]]. This is a military-appropriate identifier using the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet Phonetic Alphabet].
*At the end of Halo 3, shown on the memorial to fallen heroes, the Master Chief Petty Officer insignia next to the 117 carving has three stars, with the third being covered up by tape. This is the rank insignia for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (highest position for an enlisted sailor). Rank insignia may have changed over the centuries or it may have been a posthumous promotion. It is also interesting to note that this is the good behavior variant of the rank insignia.
*At the end of Halo 3, shown on the memorial to fallen heroes, the Master Chief Petty Officer insignia next to the 117 carving has three stars, with the third being covered up by tape. This is the rank insignia for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (highest position for an enlisted sailor). Rank insignia may have changed over the centuries or it may have been a posthumous promotion. It is also interesting to note that this is the good behavior variant of the rank insignia.
*John's name was never mentioned in any Halo game until the final cutscene in Halo 3.
*John's name was never mentioned in any Halo game until the final cutscene in Halo 3.
*A model was never made for John's face in the game. Although Bungie has consistently stated that John's face would never be revealed to help players imagine themselves as Master Chief, numerous claims have been made that John's face was visible at some point. During the [[Halo 3 Beta]] several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face.<ref>http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/12217</ref> This face was an easter egg left by Bungie, and is a model of one of their employees. Bungie's refusal to show John's face has been parodied several times in popular culture.
*A model was never made for John's face in the game. Although Bungie has consistently stated that John's face would never be revealed to help players imagine themselves as Master Chief, numerous claims have been made that John's face was visible at some point. During the [[Halo 3 Beta]] several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face.<ref>[http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/12217 GameVideos.com - Halo 3 'Spartan Face' video]</ref> This face was an easter egg left by Bungie, and is a model of one of their employees. Bungie's refusal to show John's face has been parodied several times in popular culture.
*If the player is playing on the [[Legendary]] difficulty setting on the last part of the last mission of the campaign called [[Halo]] with the IWHBYD skull turned on, on the side of Johnson's Warthog there will be the numbers 117 scratched, small but, nonetheless there.
*If the player is playing on the Legendary difficulty setting on the last part of the last mission of the campaign called HALO with the IWHBYD skull turned on then on the side of the warthog there will be the numbers 117 scratched, small but, nonetheless there.
*A stealth fighter jet recently retired from the U.S.A Air Force is called the F117
 


==References==  
==References==  

Revision as of 20:36, April 25, 2008

Template:Ratings

John-117
Promotional image for Halo 3 featuring John-117 with an MA5C assault rifle on the campaign level Sierra 117.
Biographical information

Birthplace:

Eridanus II

Date of birth:

2511

Gender:

Male

Height:

2.08 m / 6ft 10in (7ft in armor)

Hair color:

Brown

Eye color:

Brown

Political and military information

Spartan tag:

SPARTAN-117

Rank:

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy

 
Looking for the rank also called Master Chief?

"No soldier should be honored for doing what is expected."
— John-117 to First Lieutenant Shah, Second Battle of Mombasa

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was a SPARTAN-II of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Group. With a little under 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the UNSC Navy. In 2553, John-117 went missing in action after the Battle of Installation 00 when he and the Arbiter eliminated the Flood threat [1].

He is also known as the "Demon", "Master Chief", "Spartan-117", "Chief" and "Reclaimer".

Biography

Childhood and Spartan Training

As a child, John-117 (otherwise known as Master Chief) lived in Elysium City on Eridanus II. John-117 is said to have brown hair, freckles, and a small gap between his front teeth. At the age of six, he was identified by Dr. Catherine Halsey as one of 150 preliminary candidates for the SPARTAN-II program. John was an ideal physical candidate, standing a head taller than his schoolmates, having perfect physical proportions, and exhibiting quick reflexes. His genetic structure also stood up to Dr. Halsey's rigorous requirements. When Dr. Hasley and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes visited Eridanus II to study him, they were impressed with his intellect and more importantly, his luck. In a final test of his viability as a candidate, he was asked to determine which side an old flipped coin would land on. He watched the coin as it flew in the air and caught it before it could land. Dr. Halsey believed that he either 1)Saw the coin and caught it to better his needs or 2)He saw what side it landed on and called out that side.[2] John and 74 other six-year-olds were "conscripted" -- covertly kidnapped from their homes without their consent -- and replaced with Flash Clones which later died of natural causes.[3]

John was renamed John-117 and began a new life that eliminated all aspects of civilian life. The Spartans trained under CPO Mendez for seven years, receiving tutelage in history and military strategy as well as weapons and physical fitness training. He bonded early with SPARTAN-087 and Spartan-034, who would be the only close friends he would ever have. Sam's untimely death in 2525 affected John profoundly.

When the Spartans reached the age of eight years old, they went on their first training mission. The Spartans were dropped over a wood located deep in some mountains and expected to get safely to their extraction Pelican. The children also had instructions to leave the last child arriving behind. When the group came upon the Pelican, it was guarded by armed men. These armed men were actually UNSC soldiers, but were not in uniform and therefore mistaken for a hostile threat. John showed early acumen in critical thinking and tactics, not wishing to take it for granted that guards would be friendly toward the children. He came up with a plan to take the men down, capture the drop ship, and ensure the safe extraction of every team member, as he made sure he was the last person aboard. to do this he ended up hijacking a UNSC dropship with the help of Deja, and beat down the men with stones and many feet. This action caused him to be promoted to Squad Leader of the Spartans.

At the age of 14, John underwent the dangerous and painful process of augmentation that caused most of the Spartans to die. John-117 was one of 33 Spartans who made it through the process unscathed. When John was only 14 years old, he is also said to have a body of an 18 year old athlete.

Early Military Career

Promoted to Squad Leader at the age of 14, John-117's first mission was against rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his home world was located. He was slightly wounded while leading his squad to capture rebel leader Colonel Robert Watts. He received a Purple Heart after this mission.[4]

Shortly after that, He and his Spartans would fight Watts for the next 27 years, employing the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. John's first battle against the Covenant was just after they received the Mark IV armor. All Spartans launched with thrusters from a Pelican. Each Spartan carried an Anvil missile with them to destroy a Covenant ship. Only three Spartans survived and entered through a hole in the hull of the ship, which was put there by a MAC round. These Spartans were Samuel-034 and Kelly-087. They succeeded the mission and blew up the Covenant ship, but lost Sam in the process due to a breech in his suit so he could not go back into vacuum. This first UNSC victory against the Covenant showed John that the Covenant could be beaten, but at a high cost.

John served in over 200 missions against the Covenant, including the Battle of Jericho VII and the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, in which he detonated a nuclear bomb to clear all forces from the planet. This was one of only a few UNSC victories. A data crystal was discovered during this mission which contained coordinates of Installation 04 and led up to the events in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: The Flood.He also received every medal except for the POW(Prisoner of War)medal. He is also considered the luckiest and the bravest of the spartans.

The Battle of Reach, though brief, was of great significance for John. The majority of the Spartans went to the planet's surface to protect MAC generators. John, with Linda-058 and James, was sent to a docking station to protect an unsecured NAV database. If the Covenant obtained it they would find out the location of Earth, which was still a closely guarded secret. John was successful, but at a great cost. James tumbled into deep space and Linda was gravely wounded. John saved four other Marines including Sergeant Johnson. The team returned to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn and was placed into cryo sleep as the ship fled Reach.

Defense of Earth and Humanity

Installation 04

File:180px-Masterchief-and-company.png
Master Chief being briefed.

Once arrived at Installation 04 the Pillar of Autumn came under attack by Covenant forces. Captain Jacob Keyes ordered John to be woken and tasked with ensuring the escape of the ship's AI, Cortana, while Keyes crash-landed the ship onto the ring. Initially fighting on Halo was between UNSC and Covenant forces, but after Captain Keyes' unwitting release of dormant Flood parasites, the majority of both forces were infected by the Flood and fighting shifted to eliminating the new enemy. John soon came to the scene where he is responsible for retrieving an artifact called the Index for 343 Guilty Spark, a device which is said would activate and destroy all Flood Forms within large radius. The explanation was soon proven wrong by the revelation of Cortana that the installation's true purpose is to destroy all sentient life forms in the galaxy large enough to starve the flood to death. John soon commenced the three-side combat where the Covenant, the Flood, Sentinels battle around the Control Room. Soon he returned and attempted to save Keyes, but it was too late, the Flood was destined to get off the ring. With this, John retrieve Keyes neural implant that could activate the Pillar of Autumn's Fusion Reactor which would subsequently blow up the ship to destroy the ring. Successfully destroying the Fusion Reactors, John reached the extraction bay in a 5 minute Warthog Run and escaped the Ring before it destroys itself. Very few other members of the UNSC forces survived, notably Sergeant Major Johnson.[5]

OPERATION: First Strike

Cover art of Halo: First Strike

After the destruction of Alpha Halo, Cortana and the Master Chief fled in space in the Longsword they escaped in. He discovered three cyrotubes floating nearby, one containing Linda, and retrieved them. Soon after, the Covenant Flagship Ascendant Justice came into the system along with a few cruisers. A nearby Pelican drop ship fired at the cruiser to distract it. John linked the two vessels and brought its passengers aboard to the Longsword. Seven others helped John in capturing a Covenant ship, eventually rendezvousing with the Eridanus Rebels and destroying the Covenant space station Unyielding Hierophant.

John faced a dilemma regarding the combat data on the Flood. Providing regular data, and not complete data, would protect Sgt. Johnson from possible experimentation by ONI, as he survived Flood infection due to complications from Boren's Syndrome.[6]

John and the few remaining Spartans, Linda, Grace, Will, and Fred, focused on finding a way to stop the Covenant from reaching Earth, the location of which has been discovered. They decide to destroy the Covenant Station 'Unyielding Hierophant. The Spartans infiltrated the ship, and after eleven hours on board reach a temple, where a copy of Cortana warns them of a new type of guard known as "Brutes". Linda took a sniper post and the other four entered the temple. They are ambushed by Brutes, and John is nearly killed, but manages to kill their attackers. Grace is killed by a Brute Shot that Brutes Chieftains used and John activated the fail-safe on her armor.

The team sabotaged the generator in the Hierophant and as they escaped out a side door, the fail-safe on Grace's armor activated, disintegrating several Elites and many Grunts. John, Fred, and Will were quickly spotted by three Banshees, but their Elite pilots were hit by Linda's sniper fire. The Banshees were then captured by the Spartans. John doubled back to retrieve Linda, who took down four more Elites attempting to kill John. They quickly escape, and arrive back at the Gettysburg.

Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson piloted the Ascendant Justice straight towards the Unyielding Hierophant. Whitcomb discusses the Alamo and Thermopylae with John, then prepares to fight the Covenant off while the Unyielding Hierophant's fusion reactor detonates. Every one of the five hundred covenant ships maneuvers in right next to the Ascendant Justice, and the Admiral draws an SMG. The Admiral and the Lieutenant die when the fusion reactor explodes. The explosion annihilates four-hundred and eighty-eight ships of the Covenant fleet, leaving only a dozen badly damaged ships to invade Earth. John leaves after witnessing Whitcomb's sacrifice, and arrives back at Earth with the last members of his team, Linda, Will, and Fred.

First Battle of Earth

Master Chief with the Covenant bomb

"Something's not right. The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size."
— Lord Hood


Aboard Cairo Station, John received Mark VI MJOLNIR armor and attended an awards ceremony. The ceremony was interrupted by the First Battle of Earth. John successfully repulsed Covenant boarders from the station. Then after fighting through several waves of Elites which allowed Cortana to access and deactivate the boarder's demolition device. He "gave the Covenant back their bomb" by launching himself and the device, via explosive decompression from one of the station's launch bays, toward a Covenant warship. A timely strike by Longsword interceptors opened a breach in the warship's hull allowing John to direct the bomb into the ship's power plant.

John was then deployed to New Mombasa, East African Protectorate aboard the UNSC In Amber Clad against Covenant ground forces. His Pelican drop ship was shot down by a Scarab's main cannon. John and other surviving Marines fought their way to the other surviving Pelicans. After a rendezvous with Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker in the Zanzibar Hotel, in Old Mombasa, the Master Chief destroyed Covenant units along the shore of the city as he chases the tracks of the Scarab. Arriving at the edge of Old Mombasa, John received a Scorpion Tank from Sergeant Johnson. (Quote Cortana: "Thanks for the Tank... He (Referring to John-117) never gets me anything."

Fighting through numerous highway tunnels and suburbs, John reached the city center, where Marines under the command of Staff Sergeant Banks were pinned down. With the assistance of the Marines and a large stockpile of weapons, John boarded and was able to destroy the Scarab. The Master Chief is then transported to In Amber Clad to intercept the Prophet of Regret's flagship. When the flagship starts to enter Slipspace, Commander Miranda Keyes is granted permission to follow it. The Master Chief and all on board In Amber Clad were brought to Installation 05.[7]

Installation 05

"Cortana... what exactly am I looking at?"
— Miranda Keyes
"That... is another Halo."
— Cortana

Forced to act quickly once at Installation 05, John manned a HEV with several ODSTs, tasked with locating and assassinating the Prophet of Regret. Cortana informed him of Regret's intent to fire Halo as soon as possible. He tracked the Prophet of Regret to a temple in the middle of a lake, but not before witnessing countless Covenant vehicles coming out of slipspace, followed by High Charity. He quickly dispatched the Prophet of Regret, and escaped the temple shortly before it is destroyed by an overhead cruiser which glassed the building as John just got out of the way by jumping off the edge of the construct and into the water.

Losing consciousness and so unable to swim in the lake, he was captured by a long tentacle belonging to the Flood Gravemind. Shortly after, the Arbiter was also captured. The Gravemind appealed to the common interest that Flood and Humans share-- that of not wishing the Halos to be fired. John agreed. The Gravemind then tasked both captives with locating the Index, sending them to the two most likely locations. John was sent to High Charity, interrupting a sermon by the Prophet of Truth. In actual fact, this was the least of his worries; the conflict between the Elites and Brutes were at each others throats and leading the Covenant on the path to civil war. John was caught right in the middle.

John eventually caught up to the Prophets and their Brute escorts, though only a dying Prophet of Mercy (courtesy of a Flood Infection Form) was left to tell him where Truth was headed to Earth. In an instant, John was caught between a rock and a hard place; on one hand, the Covenant had the Index and could activate Halo. On the other, Earth's chances of withstanding the fleet Truth would lead were somewhere between slim and nil. In the end, he followed the latter, forced to leave Cortana behind so that if Halo was activated, she would detonate In Amber Clad's engines. John boarded the Forerunner ship, bound for Earth.

Battle of Voi

"Radio for VTOL. Heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here."
— Johnson, upon finding what seems to be John's corpse
"Yeah... you're not."
— John-117, grabbing Johnson's arm

After a series of firefights, captures and escapes,[8] John escaped Truth's ship and crash landed on Earth, where he was found by Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter, and the rest of their squad. Though the Master Chief seemed dead, he was awake and battle-ready only minutes later, showing that he could recover remarkably fast. He attempted to attack the Arbiter, thinking he was still an enemy. Johnson informed him that they were now allies, as the disillusioned Arbiter had defected from the Covenant.

John and the Marines traveled through the jungle, searching for evac to a nearby military base. Johnson and his team split up from John and the Arbiter, and they were later captured by loyalist Covenant Brutes and rescued by John and the Arbiter. After taking heavy fire from Phantoms a Pelican drop ship evacuated the team to a UNSC base.

At the base, Commander Miranda Keyes decided to evacuate all forces, many of whom were injured. John, the Arbiter and UNSC fought and defended the base during evacuation, planting a massive bomb to destroy the base along with Covenant forces. Master Chief fought his way through many Brutes, escaping the explosion in an an elevator. He met up with several Marine survivors underground, and they escaped the base and headed for the city of Voi.

File:Chief & Arbiter looking good.gif
The Master Chief and Arbiter covering each other's backs.

At the Battle of Voi, John pushed through many loyalist forces as he made his way to what was believed to be the Ark. Rather, this turned out to be a device that opened up a portal to the Ark. John destroyed a Covenant Anti-Air gun, Anti-Air Wraiths and a Scarab, allowing Lord Hood's ships to fire upon Truth's defenses. Truth fled through the portal with his loyalists forces, while the UNSC remained behind to determine their next move.

Just as the Second Battle of Earth seemed finished, a flood-infested Covenant warship crash landed in Voi. John fought to contain the Flood infection, learning that the only way to contain the Flood was to explode the warship. During the battle, Ship Master Rtas 'Vadum came to aid the UNSC. He fought off the Flood as the Master Chief was sent to retrieve Cortana from the warship, as it was believed she was on board. Aided by 343 Guilty Spark, John retrieved a damaged data device and returned to Shadow of Intent. This data turned out to be a message, rather than Cortana herself. The Elites were able to stop the Flood infestation by glassing half of Africa, much to Lord Hood's displeasure.

The Elites and the UNSC watched Cortana's recording, which contained a warning that High Charity, now overwhelmed and controlled by the Flood Gravemind, was headed for Earth. However, she offered hope, with information of a way to stop the Halos from firing and neutralize the Flood threat. Convinced of the reliability of Cortana's message, John resolved to journey to the Ark while Hood mobilized remaining UNSC forces on Earth. John accompanied a joint UNSC-Elite task force through the portal aboard the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn to the Ark.

Battle of The Ark

"Brute ships! Staggered line. Shipmaster! They outnumber us, three-to-one!"
— Elite Crewmember
"Then it is an even fight. All Cruisers, fire at will! Burn their mongrel hides!"
— Rtas "Half-Jaw" 'Vadum

The Elites carried UNSC forces through the slipspace portal which to the Ark. The team was determined to stop Truth from activating the seven Halos. They descended in Pelicans to the surface of the Ark to find the Silent Cartographer, eliminating Covenant loyalists and securing a landing zone for Forward Unto Dawn. Traveling in Scorpions, John and other Marines located the Silent Cartographer and learned that Truth was in a Citadel. John, the Arbiter, and joint troops successfully assaulted the fortress.

John fought through loyalist forces and reached the top of the tower, where he deactivated part of the shield to Truth's location. Sergeant Johnson was captured in the battle but not killed, being spared to serve as a Reclaimer. John, the Arbiter, and the Elites deactivated the last tower of the citadel as High Charity came out of slipspace, bringing the Flood into the battle and damaging the Elite carrier Shadow of Intent.

Entering the Citadel, John and the Arbiter pushed toward Truth's location, where Miranda Keyes had forced her way in, breaking through the window with her Pelican. She managed to kill a Brute, but was soon surrounded. Truth shot and killed Keyes with a Spiker as she hesitated before killing Johnson and herself. Johnson was then forced by Truth to activate the Halos. In an odd turn of events, John and the Arbiter made a temporary alliance with the Flood to stop the activation of the Halos. The final Brute defenses were defeated by the Flood as John and the Arbiter reached Truth. Truth was infected by the Flood and was killed by the Arbiter while the Master Chief deactivated the rings.

The Gravemind revealed himself, laughing as he succeeded in preventing his own destruction before turning on John and the Arbiter. The two escaped. As they were leaving the citadel, John saw a vision of Cortana that led him to the exit. He learned that a replacement for Installation 04 had been built by the Ark. He decided to return to High Charity to retrieve Cortana.

On High Charity, John battled his way through hordes of Flood forces to reach Cortana, who still had the activation Index from the first Halo ring. John made his way back through High Charity and forced the Covenant City to explode. On his way out, Cortana detected a friendly unit which turned out to be the Arbiter. As High Charity was destroyed, the Flood was believed to be defeated but not destroyed.

Firing Replacement Installation 04

The Master Chief watches as Guilty Spark severely injures Sgt. Johnson in an attempt of "treachery".
"Halo. It's so new... unfinished. I'm not exactly sure what will happen when we fire it..."
— Cortana to the Chief, evaluating their plan to activate Halo
"We'll head for the Portal. And we'll all go home"
— Chief to Cortana

The final task for John, the Arbiter, and Cortana was to destroy the Flood by activating the replacement Installation 04. The three landed on the Halo, finding that the Flood was not defeated, but instead trying to rebuild itself on the Halo. Flood dispersal pods released Combat Forms into battle against John and the Arbiter, forcing them to fight their way up to the tower where the ring could be destroyed. During the battle, Sergeant Johnson arrived on the Halo aboard Forward Unto Dawn.

File:Chief and Arbiter Escape Halo.jpg
The Master Chief and the Arbiter jump into Forward Unto Dawn in order to escape Halo.

Johnson helped the Master Chief and the Arbiter fight using a Spartan Laser. 343 Guilty Spark opened the door to the control room and locked the Flood out. However, once inside, Guilty Spark realized that the team intended to fire the Halo before it could be completed, and that they did not intend to activate all the Halos as intended by the Forerunners. His "protocol" forced him to stop Johnson from activating Installation 04. He knew that a premature firing would destroy the Ark and so he shot Johnson, locked out the Arbiter from the room, and attempted to kill John. John stood his ground, even after being hit by several blasts, and fought. Just as the Monitor seemed invulnerable, Johnson shot the Monitor, temporarily distracting him. He then handed off the laser, and John finished off Guilty Spark. Johnson's injury was fatal, and he requested that John send him out "with a bang" after handing over Cortana's data chip and imploring him "Don't ever let her go."

Cortana activated Installation 04 and they fled the Halo fighting Flood the whole way. Both Cortana and the Arbiter gave their condolences for the loss of Johnson. The team boarded Forward Unto Dawn and escaped the explosion of Installation 04. However, the Slipspace portal opened for them could not sustain itself during the explosion, and its closure severed the ship in half, sending the Arbiter on to Earth and leaving John and Cortana drifting towards a nebula and an unknown planet.

Missing in Action

"Hard to believe he's dead."
— Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood

"Were it so easy..."
— The Arbiter

John and Cortana were presumed dead when they did not make it back to Earth. The cockpit portion of Forward Unto Dawn, bearing the Arbiter, crash landed on Earth and was left as a monument to those who died in defense of Humanity. The Chief's Spartan ID number, 117, was carved into the memorial by an unknown party, and taped beside his number was the UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy insignia patch.

File:1804157725 61aa1692ab b.jpg
The Master Chief during the collapse of the portal.

Survival

John and Cortana did in fact survive the explosion of Installation 04(II) in the remaining cargo portion of the Dawn, but it was nearly powerless and, without airlocks or a bridge, could not be properly navigated. Cortana, relieved that John survived, explained this to the Chief, and that it could take years before anyone could discover their distress signal. John stowed himself in a cryotube, at which point Cortana said "I'll miss you." John replied with, "Wake me...when you need me."

After an unknown amount of time, the remainder of the Dawn drifted toward an unknown object, with planet wide city lights that formed the Marathon logo. Master Chief's fate is currently unknown.

Age

John's age is affected by the same ambiguities as all beings that leave their home worlds. By technical human Earth years, John is approximately 41 years old at the time he crash-landed on Installation 04. However, during the 27 Earth years that he has spent fighting the Covenant, considerable time was spent in Slipspace. Short Slipspace jumps can take several weeks in Earth time, and long jumps can take months or years, meaning that Slipspace travelers have not aged as much as those who did not travel with them. This phenomenon, Time Dilation, is an aspect of Special Relativity, in which clocks in a moving frame of reference appear to move more slowly than clocks in a non-moving frame of reference. The aging process can be further slowed in Slipspace by deep sleep in cryochambers, in which all cellular aging can be halted completely.

So, although 41 Earth years had passed between John's birth and his arrival on Installation 04, his relative biological age would be much younger. It is presumed that in the 26th century, human longevity would be extended somewhere near its theorized maximum limit of 150 years, which would make 41 years of age the equivalent of being 21 years old in early 21st century aging. Considering that John has undergone physical augmentation, spent time in Slipspace (and in cryo while in Slipspace), his physical condition should be that of a young man at full maturity and the peak of physical health, with a numeric age in Earth years irrelevant to determining age.

Trivia

  • John's apparent favorite weapon is the Assault Rifle since it's the default weapon during the game in Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 3 .
  • Fans have many theories as to the significance of his number, 117. Inside the Halo Universe the number was randomly assigned, but Bungie's choice has been theorized upon in many ways. For more, see: List of Biblical References in Halo.
    • Bible verses that end with 1:17 or 11:7 relate to Halo in an odd way. Revelation 1:17 says, "When I saw him, I fell at him as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and last.'" Revelation 11:7 says, "And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the pit will make war upon them, conquer and kill them." Revelation 11:8 says, "And their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city where their Lord was crucified." When it says, "I am the first and last," in Halo it could mean John-117. The beast is the Gravemind/Flood. The great city is New Mombasa.
    • In the Bible, John I became 7th Bishop of Jerusalem in 117 A.D.
  • In Halo 2 Multiplayer or Campaign, pressing "down" on the D-pad causes characters to put his gun down to cease fire. Throwing all grenades and holding down the left trigger will also produce the same effect. This technique has been used in many machinima like "Red vs Blue" or "The Codex" to make the characters appear to be in conversational, rather than combat-ready, mode. However, only the latter method works on Xbox Live. This was disabled in Halo 3 but changed to holding down LB, RB, A, crouch, down on the D-pad for 3 seconds.
  • In both Halo: Uprising Issue 1 and Halo 3, John is referred to as Sierra 117. This is a military-appropriate identifier using the Phonetic Alphabet.
  • At the end of Halo 3, shown on the memorial to fallen heroes, the Master Chief Petty Officer insignia next to the 117 carving has three stars, with the third being covered up by tape. This is the rank insignia for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (highest position for an enlisted sailor). Rank insignia may have changed over the centuries or it may have been a posthumous promotion. It is also interesting to note that this is the good behavior variant of the rank insignia.
  • John's name was never mentioned in any Halo game until the final cutscene in Halo 3.
  • A model was never made for John's face in the game. Although Bungie has consistently stated that John's face would never be revealed to help players imagine themselves as Master Chief, numerous claims have been made that John's face was visible at some point. During the Halo 3 Beta several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face.[9] This face was an easter egg left by Bungie, and is a model of one of their employees. Bungie's refusal to show John's face has been parodied several times in popular culture.
  • If the player is playing on the Legendary difficulty setting on the last part of the last mission of the campaign called HALO with the IWHBYD skull turned on then on the side of the warthog there will be the numbers 117 scratched, small but, nonetheless there.

References

  1. ^ Halo 3, level Epilogue
  2. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach pages 21-26
  3. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, Page 270
  4. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, pages 75-94
  5. ^ Halo: The Flood
  6. ^ Halo: First Strike
  7. ^ Halo 2
  8. ^ Halo: Uprising
  9. ^ GameVideos.com - Halo 3 'Spartan Face' video

Template:Spartan

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