Catherine Halsey: Difference between revisions

'''Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, MD, PhD''', (Civilian Consultant 409871, phonetically identified as "'''Charlie Hotel'''"),<ref>[[Halo Graphic Novel, Page 122|'''Halo Graphic Novel''', ''page 122'']]</ref> is a key scientific adviser of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]], best known for her work with the [[SPARTAN-II Program]], developing and creating [[smart AI]]s, and for overseeing the development of the [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor]]. She served as a scientific adviser for ONI from [[2515]] to [[2522]], when she was made chief scientist,<ref name="alph"/> a position she held until the end of the [[Human-Covenant War]].<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 286''</ref> She held considerable authority within ONI, despite being a [[civilian]], and commanded respect from important military figures.<ref name="fs123">'''''Halo: First Strike''''', ''page 123''</ref> Though generally well-regarded among her peers, she endured intense personal guilt for condemning the Spartans to the life of a super soldier. After the Covenant War, she was stripped of her position, incarcerated, and treated as a war criminal by the UNSC at large, which led to her apparent defection to the [[Covenant remnant|reunified Covenant]].<ref>'''Spartan Ops''', episodes ''[[S1/Catherine|Catherine]]'' through ''[[S1/Exodus|Exodus]]''</ref><ref name="defection" group="note"/>

In August [[2510]], Halsey purchased a small, hardback [[Dr. Halsey's personal journal|journal]] in a shop on [[Reach]], near the base she was stationed in. She would record her thoughts and research notes in it for the next 42 years. During her service with ONI, Halsey was stationed primarily on the planet [[Reach]]. By [[2551]], she lived in the community of [[Csongrád]].<ref name="haba"/>

===Further work at ONI===

Aside from her work on the SPARTAN-II and MJOLNIR projects, Halsey made huge contributions to many ONI Section III projects, including the creation and deployment of AI constructs. She supervised the creation of the template for third-generation [[smart AI]]s,<ref name="FS"/> the first ones of which became operational in [[2521]].<ref name="journal"/> For these AIs, she created a new series of intrusion routines known as the [[Illegal Entry Protocols]] and [[Counter-Illegal Entry Protocols]], later nicknamed "PIEs" and "C-PIEs", respectively, after misspellings of their acronyms. These protocols were created in response to the UNSC's standardization of their computer systems which had left them vulnerable to attack by the conversely diverse insurgent software. As an unplanned side effect, the protocols also enabled the AIs to defend UNSC operating systems from attack. Later, during the Human-Covenant War, the protocols were used to reverse-engineer Covenant technology, namely the [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|Jackal shield gauntlet]]. These all proved to be important developments for the UNSC, and to the continued survival of mankind.<ref name="journal"/>

 

====Capture and rescue====

In [[2544]], Halsey was captured by the Covenant's ''[[Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence]]'' during the [[Battle of Miridem]], while she was [[cryonics|cryonically frozen]].<ref>'''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach|Halo: The Fall of Reach (2010)]]''', ''Adjunct''</ref> A team of SPARTAN-IIs, consisting of [[John-117]], [[Kelly-087]], [[Frederic-104]], [[Solomon-069]], and [[Arthur-079]] were sent to rescue her with [[Open Frame 92/Extra-Vehicular Activity|OFA92/EVA "Booster Frame"]] vehicles. Knowing Halsey's value to both the UNSC and the Covenant, [[Fleet Master]] [[Luro 'Taralumee]] planted decoys in several of the fleet's [[CCS-class battlecruiser|battlecruisers]].

Solomon was killed by one of these decoys, which was actually an [[antimatter charge]] giving off a false signal. Arthur was also killed, crushed between two cruisers while covering Kelly-087 from multiple pursuing [[Type-31 Exoatmospheric Multi-role Fighter|Seraph fighters]]. After finding the ship Halsey was on, John, Kelly and Fred fought through large numbers of Covenant forces, though Fred and Kelly were separated during the fight. John soon reached Halsey and rescued her from a cryo pod, but the two were immediately stopped by [[Sangheili Major|Major]] [[Thel 'Lodamee]]. Halsey watched as John engaged the Elite in an [[Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword|energy sword]] duel. However, Fleet Master 'Taralumee [[Modular Dispersal Technology|detached]] the section of the ship they were in, retrieving Thel mid-fight via [[gravity lift]], and jumped into Slipspace.

 

 

====Fall of Reach====

====Refuge under CASTLE Base====

====Escape from Reach====

Days later, a group of Spartans, including John-117, rescued Dr. Halsey and the remaining Spartans and evacuated them from the Forerunner complex on Reach to the captured ''[[Ascendant Justice]]''. After escaping Reach, the group fled to the [[Insurrectionist#Eridanus rebels|rebel]] base [[Eridanus Secundus]] in the [[Eridanus system]]'s asteroid belt, where the Spartan's [[Assault on Eridanus Secundus|first mission]] had been in.

Unbeknown to the rest of the group, Halsey had her own agenda in mind. Examining Ackerson's files in CASTLE Base, she had concluded that the colonel had been conducting his own Spartan project which had been kept secret from her. Overcome by her guilt over the SPARTAN-II Program and believing the war could not be won, she was determined to prevent any more Spartans from dying by taking all of them to safety. Using coordinates from Ackerson's files, she planned to go to the classified planet [[Onyx]] and divert the remaining SPARTAN-IIs there under the guise of recovering Forerunner technology. She sedated [[Kelly-087]] and brought her aboard the [[Jacob Jiles|rebel governor]]'s spacecraft ''[[Beatrice]]'', which she then stole and took into Slipspace. When asked by [[Danforth Whitcomb|Admiral Whitcomb]] as to the reasons for her actions, she gave a simple UNSC code Three-Nine-Two, which meant that she was on a high priority mission.

Before leaving, Dr. Halsey saw the necessity of destroying the Forerunner artifact, as it would emit a radiation flare alerting the Covenant to their presence each time they jumped into [[Slipstream space|Slipspace]] and thus prevent the rest of the group from making it to Earth. She entrusted the Forerunner crystal to [[Corporal]] [[Locklear]], telling him to keep it safe, hidden, and to do whatever it took to keep it from falling into enemy hands. Soon after, the Corporal destroyed the crystal (just as Halsey had intended), although he died in the ensuing explosion. The Covenant later recovered a few fragments.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 339-340''</ref>

====Onyx====

====Arrested====

In March 2553, she was released from Ivanoff Station and was stationed aboard the {{UNSCShip|Infinity}}, working on incorporating the newly discovered Forerunner technology to the ship.<ref>'''Halo: The Thursday War'''</ref> After the ''Infinity'' participated in the [[Sangheili civil war]], Dr. Halsey was approached by [[Black-Box]], who requested her assistance in reintegrating a damaged fragment of himself into his core matrix. However, Halsey stated that she was unable to help him.<ref>'''Halo: The Thursday War''', ''page 358''</ref> Halsey was returned to Ivanoff at the first opportunity by order of Admiral Parangosky. She was working on the station on [[2554|December 15, 2554]], when the ONI scientists, whom she considered unqualified for their job, recovered the Forerunner device known as the [[Composer]] on Installation 03. Dr. Halsey was fascinated by the similarities between the artifact and the AI matrix compiler used by the UNSC to create smart AIs, particularly because the compiler was of her own design.<ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''[[Composer (level)|Composer]]'', [[Halo 4 audio logs|Audio log]]''</ref>

====Return to ''Infinity''====

[[File:Halsey Infinity.png|right|thumb|250px|Halsey examines the recovered Forerunner artifact.]]Halsey was later returned aboard the ''Infinity'' during the ship's [[Second Battle of Requiem|second expedition]] to the Forerunner shield world [[Requiem]] in [[2558]] as her unique expertise was required to study a [[Requiem slipspace artifacts|mysterious Forerunner artifact]]. Many of the crew had mixed feelings about bringing her aboard, [[Sarah Palmer]] suspicious of her and feeling she might try to sabotage the ship, [[Thomas Lasky]] sharing her worries but feeling there was no choice. Halsey was unimpressed by the SPARTAN-IVs assigned to guard her, wryly questioning their competence and general attitude. Upon arriving on the ''Infinity'' aboard the [[UNSC prowler|prowler]] {{UNSCShip|Aladdin}}, she demanded she be uncuffed before examining the artifact. With a few gestures from her, the artifact began reacting to her, she translating its actions as signs that she should examine the ship's engines. Upon doing so, her conclusion was that the artifact was "communicating" with multiple parts of the ship and transmitting to Requiem. Some time later, she analyzed a Forerunner [[beam emitter|beam tower]] encountered by [[Fireteam Crimson]] in the location codenamed [[Two Giants]].<ref>'''Spartan Ops''', [[S1/Catherine|S1E3 ''Catherine'']]</ref>

====Capture====

====Eulogy for Noble Six====

Halsey tends to be professional and authoritative when speaking to people, which she rarely does outside of meeting and briefings. She has little patience for extraneous detail, wanting the important facts out of them and then concluding their meeting.<ref>'''Halo: Reach''', ''[[ONI: Sword Base]]''</ref> When it was her turn to explain, Halsey can be very verbose about describing the subject at hand, especially if it was a "game changer" in her eyes. She rarely voices her current emotions, and was often observing people at the same time that she spoke them to discern hidden details. It is not uncommon for her to have respect for someone and yet also dislike them, as shown in the cases of her student [[Ellen Anders]]<ref>'''Dr Halsey's journal''': (Halsey: "If that Anders girl was still around, she would have come in handy right about now. She was always so difficult, but this has, without a doubt, become a shared interest.")</ref> and the Spartan-III [[Kat-B320]].<ref>'''[[Halo: Reach ViDoc: A Spartan Will Rise]]''': (Halsey: "Kat, Noble Two. She is brilliant. There are no technical hurdles she can't overcome. But her curiosity borders on insubordination."</ref> Halsey is an atheist, lacking belief in the existence of any god.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 157''</ref>

Her involvement with the SPARTAN-II program, then codenamed "ORION Project Generation II", was born out of her own initiative, although ONI had long intended to recruit her for the task. Improving upon [[Elias Carver|Dr. Elias Carver]]'s projections for predicted colonial aggression, she ran over 1,400 simulations with varied parameters, always coming to the conclusion that the Outer Colonies would go into all-out war against the Inner Colonies and Earth within a short span of time. If the UNSC did not act, this would mean a minimum of thirty years of open war and billions of casualties, while the worst-case scenario was indefinite conflict and the potential collapse of human civilization. Viewing it as her personal responsibility to prevent this scenario from coming to pass, she presented her results to [[Michael Stanforth|Vice Admiral Stanforth]], then-head of ONI Section III, only to find that the UNSC had already come to the same conclusions with their own projections. As it turned out, ONI had been monitoring her for years, but they had waited for her to come up with the numbers on her own, knowing that she could not be convinced to work for them otherwise. Although she was distrustful of ONI, she agreed to work for them on the program out of her personal commitment to humanity's cause.<ref name="dec4"/> The nuclear bombing of the [[Haven arcology]] by the [[Freedom and Liberation Party]] further reinforced her determination.<ref name="feb23">'''Dr. Halsey's personal journal''', ''February 23, 2511''</ref>

Such views often have their basis on information provided by the Office of Naval Intelligence, which has frequently used highly selective or outright false information to shift the blame for some of ONI's more questionable decisions (that she could be reasonably connected to) on Halsey alone. While she was publicly declared to have died on Reach,<ref name="glass341"/> she would be branded as a dangerous war criminal in the eyes of any UNSC personnel she would come in contact with, such as the crew of the {{UNSCShip|Infinity}}. This campaign was headed by Admiral Parangosky, who sought to place the doctor under tighter control for decades; Parangosky's policies were carried on to her heir, Serin Osman, seemingly unchanged.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 82''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''pages 109-110''</ref> [[Musa-096]] and [[Naomi-010]] also demonstrated resentment towards Halsey, suggesting that other former SPARTAN-IIs assigned to ONI may also have been subjected to reeducation similar to Osman.<ref>'''[[Halo: Initiation]]''', Issue 1''</ref> Some of the [[SPARTAN-IV Program|SPARTAN-IVs]] have also accepted this perspective on Halsey, particularly [[Sarah Palmer]], who regards the doctor with a particular contempt (though this may be due to Halsey's own open disdain for the SPARTAN-IV program); [[Gabriel Thorne]], on the other hand, was less quick to judge Halsey, querying her about the reasons behind her decisions rather than condemning her based on the official story alone.<ref name="dhand"/>

Halsey is a fairly anti-social person, extremely devoted to her work and personal goals, and rarely partakes in any social activities apart from her occasional attendance in academic social gatherings. Though she had distanced herself from most of her friends from her youth, she would often browse through casualty lists within the [[UNSC subnet]], finding the majority of them dead by the final years of the war.<ref>'''Dr. Halsey's personal journal''', ''September 5, 2547''</ref> She remained rather indifferent to her parents' deaths when Endymion was glassed, as she had not seen them in years and had grown aloof from them.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 267''</ref> She prefers the company of AIs, appreciating their simplicity despite being angered at being mentally defeated by them.