Ghost (Marine)

"I need you to be strong - strong enough to do what you've never done in your life. Can you be strong enough to allow yourself to be... can you just be human?"

— A dying Marine under Ghost's command

Sergeant "Ghost" was in the Hades Corps of the UNSC Corps of Engineers. He was known for being cold, showing little to no emotion towards anything.

Biography

He was known among local Marines after an engagement with Covenant forces that left his entire platoon decimated. During that incident, a dying Marine asked Ghost to be human for once, as he came across as a cold-hearted, soulless individual. The Marine died in his arms, and Ghost "died inside", crying out into the sky and vowing to avenge his fallen platoon.

Battle of Algolis

"And for one last instance, I'm human again."

— Ghost's last words

Ghost was deployed with the Hades Corps to destroy navigation material and prototype weapons during the Battle of Algolis, as per the Cole Protocol. At first it appeared that he had disobeyed orders to destroy a set of prototype powered armor by joining the battle in it. However, he insisted that he was performing his duty by using the time left until self-destruct initiation to provide cover for the Marines' and civilians' extraction.

Ghost held off the Covenant forces long enough for a group of evacuation shuttles to escape, and was overwhelmed shortly thereafter. Seeing that the evacuation shuttles had escaped safely, Ghost commented on his newfound humanity before uttering the code to activate the armor's nuclear self-destruct feature: "Be human." The resulting blast annihilated Ghost and the surrounding Covenant infantry.

A Marine commanding officer in orbit above Algolis edited a log of the events, redacting requests for Ghost to be court-martialed, marking him as Missing In Action, and stating that he had demonstrated great conduct as a Marine and as a human being.

List of appearances

• Halo Legends
  • Prototype (First appearance)
• Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
  • Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian (Mentioned only)