Jacob Keyes

Looking for Keyes' daughter or the level Keyes?

Captain Jacob Keyes was one of the more brilliant tacticians in the UNSC Navy. He commanded great respect as a highly skilled strategist and inspirational leader to those under his command. His many decorations, thirty-five years of combat experience against the Covenant and ability to keep a secret made him an almost natural choice to command the UNSC Pillar of Autumn and its secret cargo. He could often be seen chewing the tip of his grandfather's pipe. His service number was 01928-19912-JK.

Biography

Early Career

Keyes was born on Earth and spent some time around the Pacific Ocean during his childhood. It is likely that he attended an Officer Candidate School, During his second year of training an incident occurred where fourteen ensigns were killed due to an instructor's error during a poorly planned test. Keyes suffered plasma burns during the test and had to be rehabilitated in a hospital for two months. Keyes refused to testify against the instructor and was nearly demoted for it. Keyes' refusal to testify is what brought him to the attention of Dr. Halsey.

In 2517, seven weeks out of the OCS, Lieutenant (Jr Grade) Keyes was assigned to the UNSC Magellan when those orders were rescinded and he was chosen to assist Dr. Catherine Halsey with her task of searching for usable subjects for her SPARTAN-II project. In order to fool anybody who were suspicious, they told them that they were looking for a school for their daughter, and the both of them began observing the chosen subjects for the program. The first child they chose was SPARTAN subject number 117: John. Keyes never forgot this assignment or the names of each and every one of those children.

As Keyes slowly started learning of the true nature of the SPARTAN-II project, Dr. Halsey immediately sent him back to normal duty with a full Lieutenant commission and he became an excellent strategist, when dealing with Covenant. He became a foremost hero early in his career when he led a small group of security troops against a Covenant ambush of the frigate UNSC Meriwether Lewis and held the Covenant off long enough for the ship to escape. He sustained a deed gauging plasma burn to his thigh and had his hand shattered, which was later rebuilt. He later toured on the Frigate UNSC Midsummer Night. He garnered many citations and years of combat experience against the Covenant during these tours. During one of these tours, Keyes went to Charybdis IX. There, he killed his first human being with a modified plasma rifle, during a riot.

He later taught at the OCS Academy. Some of the top brass at HIGHCOM disapproved of him and he got the nickname "Schoolmaster" from those detractors, who thought he didn't belong in command of anything, but a classroom, if that.

2552

However due to the shortage of good officers, Keyes was promoted to Commander in 2552 and assumed command of the UNSC Iroquois. Shortly thereafter, he foresaw a Covenant attack on Sigma Octanus IV thanks to a paper by SPARTAN-084. His actions resulted in the destruction of a Covenant Destroyer, two Frigates and the retreat of a Covenant Carrier with a daring maneuver dubbed the "Keyes Loop", all without a Ship AI to help him. This unprecedented victory against a Covenant force earned him a promotion to UNSC Captain and aided him to become recognized by the entire UNSC. Keyes and the Iroquois remained in the Sigma Octanus system to fight in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. He later returned to Reach (inadvertently disclosing the location of Reach to the Covenant via a homing beacon attached to the Iroquois) and was debriefed by an ONI council. Here he met SPARTAN-117 once again.

At Reach, Keyes was given an important mission by Admiral Stanforth: to transport the Spartan super soldiers deep into Covenant space in order to capture a Prophet, who would then be used as ransom to end the Human-Covenant war. As part of this command, Keyes was given control over the Pillar of Autumn. Seconds before the Autumn left Reach for slipspace, the Covenant attacked Reach. His mission scrubbed, Keyes offloaded most of the Spartans to the surface of the planet and to Reach Station Gamma. He then tried to aid in the defense of Reach and even destroyed the Supercruiser Flagship of the Fleet, but ultimately, his efforts were in vain. He could only pick up SPARTAN-117 (along with the body of SPARTAN-058) and a handful of Marines from the station just in time to flee the pursuing Covenant.

Keyes holding Cortana.

Halo

"Whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the Universe."

— Captain Keyes

The Pillar of Autumn's AI Cortana, ended up navigating the vessel, to Installation 04. They were once again assailed by Covenant forces and Captain Keyes told Cortana, to lock in a selection of landing zones on the ring and to upload them to his neural lace. Keyes locked in the codes and the Pillar of Autumn crashed on the ring. Keyes and the command crew of the Autumn managed to escape in a Bumblebee life pod, Kilo Tango Victor 17. During the descent, the Ossoona, Isna 'Nosolee was spotted aboard by Keyes, and subsequently killed by the Captain. Unfortunately, they were still spotted in the descent by two Elites on Ghosts. Thanks to the traitor Ensign Ellen Dowski, the Covenant were able to find out where Keyes and the Command Crew were. When they got there they incapacitated the Captain and killed the rest of the Command crew, including Ensign Ellen Dowski even though she helped the Covenant find them. Despite being an inspirational leader to many under his command, the Captain also has a great deal amount of respect for each and everyone of his crew and he dearly cares about them.

Captain Jacob Keyes in combat on the Truth and Reconciliation, wielding a Needler.

Keyes was taken aboard the Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser, the Truth and Reconciliation. There, he was interrogated, tortured, and held prisoner until the Master Chief, the ODSTs, and a group of Marines were able to rescue him. They were forced to commandeer a Spirit drop ship, during their escape and Keyes piloted it out himself, even going, so far as to ram two Hunters on the flight out for "a little payback."

Keyes then went to Alpha Base, taking command of the base from Major Antonio Silva briefly. He then took Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, Fire Team Charlie and Second Squad to a facility they thought held a Covenant weapons cache. It turned out that the structure was one of the Halo's Flood Containment Facilities. Keyes and his Marines were ambushed by the Flood. During the ensuing firefight, an Infection Form latched onto his back and infected him.

File:Keyes Johnsoncasual2.JPG

Keyes and Sergeant Johnson listen to a mysterious hissing noise emitting from the Flood Containment Chamber's walls.

Jacob Keyes, now a Proto-Gravemind Form

Keyes observed helplessly as the form took over his body and attacked his mind. Originally, Keyes' body was a Combat Form, but the Flood, apparently realizing his importance, merged him and several other Combat Forms into a Proto-Gravemind. One of the tortures Keyes endured was having his memories ripped away one by one as the Flood tried to learn anything that would help attain new sources of food. The Flood hoped that his intelligence would help them to operate the crashed Truth and Reconciliation and escape the ring, but Keyes was able to fend it off by constantly accessing data that was permanently stored in his Command Neural Interface, whilst feeding it memories that were not vital to the survival of humanity, such as his name, age and service number (though definitely not anything that could lead to the thought of the location of Earth).

However, before Keyes succumbed to the overwhelming pressure, the Master Chief boarded the ship once again looking for Keyes and found only the Proto-Gravemind form. The Captain was able to contact the Chief three times before the Proto-Gravemind fully overwhelmed him. Keyes' life officially ended when the Chief punched through his skull to receive his Command Neural Interface after his mind had been absorbed by the Flood infection, with Cortana stating that "she knew that this was what he wanted". His Command Neural Interface enabled Master Chief and Cortana to start up the Pillar of Autumn's engines so they could destroy the Halo ring by overloading and exploding.

Legacy

Admiral Cole gave Keyes his Commander Status for his protection of 1 million people in the book Halo: The Cole Protocol and he also states that the Navy need more like Keyes, he will save us. The Keyes family lived on in his daughter, Miranda Keyes. She accepted a posthumous Colonial Cross awarded to her father for his bravery during the events on Installation 04 by Lord Hood. After presenting it, Lord Hood said "your father's actions were in keeping were in the highest traditions of military service, his bravery in face of imposible odds, reflects great credit upon himself and the UNSC, the Navy has lost one of it's best". His courage and skill were never forgot, making him one of the most important and remembered Navy officers ever in history.

Decorations

The various and numerous ribbons of Keyes.

There are nine ribbons on Keyes' uniform. US Armed Forces ribbons are worn by order of precedence, from left to right, top to bottom. For the sake of this article, they will be numbered Ribbons 1 through 9, in this order.

These Ribbons coincide with the following Modern US Air Force Decorations:

• Ribbon 1: The Medal of Honor
• Ribbon 2: Distinguished Service Cross
• Ribbon 3: The Purple Heart
• Ribbon 4: Air Force Commendation Medal
• Ribbon 5: Combat Readiness Medal
• Ribbon 6: Armed Force Expeditionary Medal
• Ribbon 7: Outstanding Airman of the Year Ribbon
• Ribbon 8: NCO Professional Military Education Graduation Ribbon
• Ribbon 9: Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon
• The Colonial Cross (Posthumous)

Note: Ribbon 7 is out of order. In the Modern US Military, it would be worn before Ribbon 6 (however, this can be the common occurrence in works of fiction of portraying military personnel as slightly off regulations). Then again, it is also unlikely that Keyes, a naval captain, won an award for being an enlisted member of the Air Force. We can only assume that the meaning of these ribbons has changed.

Rank

Along with the Medal Decorations, Keyes is depicted with Captain's Bars Insignia (Above name tag), a Marine rank of Captain which is much different than a Naval rank of Captain. A Marine ranking Captain (0-3) is a Company Grade or Junior Officer which is ranked three steps lower than a naval Captain (0-6). A Naval Captain is equal to a Marine Colonel, According to his military record, Keyes graduated from Luna OCS Academy, a Naval Academy. Also, in Halo: The Fall of Reach, Admiral Michael Stanforth promotes Jacob Keyes from Commander, a Naval rank, to Captain. This implies that Bungie may have made a mistake when making the Keyes model. Whether it was intended for Keyes to have Marine Captain's Bars or if they intended to have him wear the Navy Captain's Eagle but made a mistake is a question for the developers.

Personality

Keyes was often quite officious and put the safety of the UNSC before his own personal safety, even going as far as to almost self destruct the ship he was on so that the Covenant wouldn't find Earth. He was prepared and willing to give anything for his planet.

Trivia

• It is mentioned in Halo: The Cole Protocol that Keyes [forcibly] receives the ODST tattoo on his right arm, due to the fact that he saved a group of ODSTs aboard an Insurrectionist cargo ship. It is never revealed in the game for obvious reasons.

The Marathon logo at the end of Keyes pipe.

• Captain Keyes is part of the only known Proto-Gravemind that exists in Campaign.
• Keyes is the only known Human Brain Form.
• Keyes enjoyed smoking Sweet William Cigars along with many other officers in the UNSC such as CPO Mendez and Sergeant Johnson, but was only ever seen using his pipe.
• Keyes hated Sergeant Johnson's flip music because it had an "incessant slam-bam beat".
• Captain Keyes is known among Bungie employees as the "Captain of Exposition".
• On the level Pillar of Autumn after Keyes takes the pipe out of his mouth, from that point on his mouth is permanently turned down in the lower right corner from where he pulled the pipe.
• On Captain Keyes' tunic is the Marathon logo (it is represented as The Pillar of Autumn logo on his name tag.) It has also been noted that the text on the tunic states "Hello My Name Keyes". The missing "is" probably did not fit onto the texture for his in-game physics/collision model.
• The Marathon logo on his tunic may be because that was the 'picture logo' for The Pillar of Autumn.
• In the level Truth and Reconciliation it is possible to kill Keyes when you open the cells. However, he comes back to life for the cutscene and for the rest of the mission. The only sign of him dying is a patch of blood on his cell floor and if you kill him after that you will fail the mission.
• In the level Keyes when you find the Brain Form, his pipe is dangling from a tentacle behind the blob. If you zoom in with a Pistol or a Sniper Rifle, you can see the Marathon logo on the end of his pipe.
• Keyes never mentions his daughter, Miranda, to anyone. He does not even think of her when the Flood slowly destroys his mind, although some descriptions are vague enough that one of them may refer to her. This may be to protect her from the Flood.
• Keyes is the only NPC so far in the Halo universe that can be killed besides Sergeant Johnson. However, if he dies, the mission you are in is an immediate failure. Doing this will also have Cortana ask you, "What the hell are you doing?", and then she gives the order for the remaining Marines to kill you on sight. However if he dies in the Truth and Reconciliation (by you or Covenant hands) the mission will end.
• In the cut scene of the level Keyes, where the Master Chief retrieves Captain Keyes' neural implants, the Master Chief was meant to burn Keyes' skull out of the Brain Form and retrieve the implants, but the burnt skull was said to be too gruesome to be put into the game and with time restrictions that forced Bungie to leave the Flamethrower out of the Xbox version of the game caused the burnt skull not to be featured. Bungie recycled Keyes' skull and it became the "Ball" in the Oddball game type.
  File:28293610-Full.jpg

  The Oddball with Command Neural Interface.
• On the Halo 3 Legendary Edition bonus disc, Marty O'Donnell described Captain Keyes of having at least 12 polygons.
• Captain Keyes' service number is 01928-19912-JK. When you add up all those numbers, you get 42, which when divided by 6 equals 7. If you compare Keyes' initials to numbers, they equal 10 and 11. When added altogether, they equal 21, another multiple of 7.
• During the level 'Keyes', if you look closely at Keyes' body outline, you can see he has been mixed with other victims inside the Brain Form.
• Keyes's pipe was given to him by his father.
• Keyes thought that chewing on his pipe was a sign of nervousness and tried to refrain from doing it during battle.
• During the last part of Halo: The Fall of Reach, it is stated that he is smoking his pipe. This is confusing as in the beginning, it states that he only chews his pipe onboard ships to prevent being court martialed. However, due to the fact that he is a Captain during the last part, that might explain why he was allowed to smoke it. This is evident as in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV he is allowed.
• Keyes is the first person to initiate the Cole Protocol in the Halo Trilogy.
• When Jacob Keyes was a Lieutenant, he had to spend time teaching Navigators how to fly.
• His Skull is used in Halo 2 in campaign as an Easter Egg.

Production Notes

Captain Keyes was voiced by Pete Stacker on Halo: Combat Evolved.

The Captain Keyes model for Halo: Combat Evolved was created by Marcus R. Lehto.

Appearances

Jacob Keyes appears or is mentioned in the following Halo levels and books:

• Halo: The Fall of Reach
• Halo: Combat Evolved/Halo: The Flood
  • The Pillar of Autumn
  • Halo (Mentioned Only)
  • The Truth and Reconciliation
  • The Silent Cartographer (Radio transmission)
  • Assault on the Control Room (Mentioned only)
  • 343 Guilty Spark (Cutscene)
  • Keyes (Radio Transmissions throughout the level)
  • The Maw (Mentioned Only)
• Halo: First Strike (Mentioned Only)
• Halo 2 (Mentioned Only)
  • Cairo Station (Mentioned Only)
  • Quarantine Zone (Mentioned Only)
• Halo: Ghost of Onyx (Mentioned Only)
• Halo: The Cole Protocol