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The Master Chief (voiced by Chicago DJ Steve Downes) is a Spartan-II Super Soldier, a genetically and cybernetically augmented warrior designed to put down rebels and insurgents within the United Nations Space Command. When the powerful alien empire known as the Covenant attacked, the Master Chief and the other Spartan-II's had a priority shift. Extensive surgical alteration coupled with a ruthless lifelong training regimen has resulted in Master Chief being significantly stronger than even the strongest natural human, and his strength and fighting ability are further augmented by the advanced MJOLNIR power armor he wears.
Biography
In his early life, John lived in Elysium City, on the planet of Eridanus II. He was large for his age at the time, approximately a foot above his school peers - a sign of a "perfect genetic match" for a project codenamed "SPARTAN II".
Training
At the age of six, John and quite a few other children his age were covertly kidnapped from their homes, and replaced with Flash Clones. Early on he seemed to be a leader among the Spartan children, and it was not long until he became the Spartans' squad leader.
Six years into Spartan training, John and his fellow Spartans were biologically modified and enhanced. The following procedures were done:
- Carbide Ceramic Ossification: advanced material grafted onto the skeleton for virtually unbreakable bones and increase in white blood cells. Recommended dosage not exceeding three percent. Risks: White blood cell necrosis, skeletal growth may cause irreparable bone pulverization.
- Muscular Enhancement Injection: protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Risk: 5% of test subjects experiences fatal cardiac volume increase.
- Catalytic Thyroid Implant: platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to increase skeletal growth and muscle tissues. Risks: Rare instances of elephantiasis. Suppressed sexual drive.
- Occipital Capillary Reversal: submergence and boosted blood flow beneath the rods and cones of subject’s retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: Retinal rejection and detachment. Permanent blindness.
- Superconducting neural dendrites: altercation of bioelectrical nerve to shield nerves from electronic shocks. Three hundred percent increase in subject reflexes. Marked increase in intelligence and creativity. Risk: significant increase instances of Parkinson’s disease and Fletcher’s syndrome.
These procedures had substantial risks, and only 32 Spartans survived to functional status. 12 others suffered major problems, and were delegated to non-combat duties. The rest died. John, during his time with the Spartans, was deemed the "luckiest" and was the first to test the MJOLNIR armor.
Before The Battle of Reach, he had fought in 207 ground engagements against the Covenant, and garnered every major service medal except The Prisoner of War Medallion. It is also during this time that he is deemed the best Spartan candidate by Dr. Halsey to work with and protect Cortana. She explains that although he is neither the smartest, strongest, nor fastest of the Spartans, he is the most well-balanced, having each of those qualites in equal measure; he is also the bravest of all the Spartans and quite possibly the "luckiest" as well.
Technically, when the events on Halo occurred, he is about 41 years old in "real time". However during the 27 years of war against the Covenant, UNSC ships had to make Slipspace jumps to get from system to system (ie. battle to battle). It is stated in the official website that "Faster-than-light travel is not instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more." It is also known from the novels that UNSC personnel go into deep-sleep in cryochambers during FTL jumps. Therefore, since it is known that the Master Chief and/or his Spartans were present at hundreds of battles in Inner and Outer colonies, the Master Chief's actual biological age should be much younger, as he would have been in cryo-stasis while in transit from system to system and aged almost nothing in the process. This would also explain why Dr Halsey is not as old as she should be in the novels. However, these anomalies may be due to the Spartans' augmentations. Perhaps the human lifespan in that time period is possibly significantly longer and the onset of aging is delayed due to improved medical care in the 26th century. The reason for these anomalies may be caused by none, some, or all of the before mentioned factors.
The Eridanus Rebellion
MCPO John-117's first mission was against Rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his homeworld was located. He was slightly wounded while leading his squad to capture the traitor Colonel Robert Watts, leader of the rebels. He received a Purple Heart after the mission.
The Covenant War
Later on, he was briefed on the Covenant threat; he and his Spartans would fight at least the next 27 years against this new threat while employing the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor.
Alpha Halo
After many battles in the Human-Covenant War and surviving the Fall of Reach, he embarked with the Pillar of Autumn. The Pillar of Autumn was later attacked by the Covenant and was forced to to crash land on Halo, Alpha Installation 04. In the midst of fighting the Covenant, Cortana discovered the secret of Halo while inserted into the computer in the Control Room of Halo; that it was a ring-shaped construct created by the Forerunners as a last line of defense against a new species of parasitic organisms called The Flood, which was released at some point by either the Forerunners or the constructs of the installations (343 Guilty Spark, 2401 Penatent Tangent, etc.); a majority of the Covenant and UNSC troops who landed on Halo were infected by The Flood. Captain Jacob Keyes and a small group of Marines were the first humans to encounter the Covenant-released Flood;
Captain Keyes was later captured by the Flood, soon after which he died. The Master Chief was then responsible for retrieving the Index for 343 Guilty Spark, a device which would activate Halo and destroy all life within a large radius. Later, Cortana informed him of the truth about the purpose of the installation (that it was a superweapon), which led him to keep the Index from 343 Guilty Spark as long as possible. While being attacked by many Covenant, Flood and Forerunner Sentinels, he later made his way back to the Pillar of Autumn and initiated the destruction of Halo. Very few other members of the UNSC forces survived, notably Sergeant Major Johnson.
First Strike
There were seven others that helped in capturing a Covenant ship, rendezvousing with the Eridanus Rebels, and destroying the Covenant space station, Unyielding Hierophant. Linda-058 was another Spartan on the Pillar of Autumn, stored in a cyrogenic state because of the body damage she sustained when she and Master Chief destroyed the data base containing the info needed by the Covenant to find Earth. Anton and Li were Spartans that died in an explosion after repairing the slipspace drive on the captured Covenant ship, the Ascendant Justice. Also, two other Spartans, Issac and Vinh, survived the initial attack on Reach with Fred, Linda, Kelly, Anton, Li, Grace, Will and Dr. Catherine Hasley but sacrificed themselves by running into the middle of an entire battalion of Covenant troops and detonating an explosive. This selfless act decimated the Covenant troops by more than half. Only Grace, Kelly, Will, Fred (Fredric), Linda and John were left. Grace dies on the Unyielding Hieophant, leaving four other Spartans with John-117 who returned to Earth. Dr. Halsey, head of the Spartan-II project sedates Kelly-087 and takes her on a mission that John and the others do not understand. John never knew of the others' fate. Prior to Halsey's disappearance, John faces a dilemma regarding the combat data on the Flood. Either he can give the regular data on the Flood, or give the complete data of the Flood encounter, which would condemn Johnson to death from ONI's subsequent experimentations. After the First Strike operation, John made the decision to hand over the regular data and omit the explanation for Johnson's survival.
Return to Earth
Chief's Mark V MJOLNIR armor was switched by technicians aboard the orbiting defense station Cairo to a Mark VI model. He attended a brief awards ceremony aboard the station, which was interrupted by Covenant boarders, which he repulsed. He destroyed one of their ships with their own bomb intended to destroy the Cairo, and landed in New Mombasa, East African Protectorate to combat Covenant landing troops. He boarded and destroyed a Scarab with the nominal assistance of a small squad of Marines and followed the main Covenant invasion force aboard the In Amber Clad to Delta Halo.
Delta Halo
In Amber Clad exited slipspace in front of a new, blue planet, and a new ring. He killed one of the High Prophets, the Prophet of Regret, the commander of the Covenant fleet that invaded Earth.
He was captured by the Gravemind after barely escaping from the High Prophet's main temple and met his Covenant Elite counterpart, the Arbiter and the two set off to stop the Covenant from activating Delta Halo, John-117 infilitrating High Charity to stop the High Prophet of Truth while the Arbiter went to stop Tartarus from activating the ring's weapon and wiping out all sentient life as we know it.
In the end Cortana decided to stay behind aboard High Charity in order to ensure the destruction of Delta Halo by initiating the ship's self-destruct if necessary. Meanwhile the Master Chief followed the last High Prophet to a Forerunner-powered ship which launches and embarks for The Ark which is hinted to be on Earth. Upon arriving in the Sol System, Spartan-117 informed UNSC superiors and comrades who were still defending Earth that he intended "to finish this fight."
The Ark
John walked through the desolate ruins of New Mombasa to the edge of a sheer cliff. He stopped and observed the large fleet of Covenant capital ships and Banshees cruising around the massive facility known as the Ark. As he watched, he had to step back as part of the cliff collapsed due to the shockwave generated by the opening of the Ark.
The Demon
The Demon is the name for the Master Chief given to him by the Covenant. Their beliefs most likely show a Demon (the Master Chief) helping the holy enemy (Humanity) to destroy the great sanctuary (Halo), but this is speculation. There is no actual information on why the Covenant refer to him as the Demon.
But The Covenant fear the Master Chief because of his ability to destroy hundreds of Covenant soldiers, as well as the destruction of Halo. When Covenant warriors encounters the Demon, they usually engage him with extreme caution. Grunts and Jackals however have the tendency to retreat upon the Demon killing their Elite commander, or if they are the only one remaining. The Prophets and Brutes also refer to the Master Chief as the Demon (Gravemind (Level)|Uprising (Level))
If any Covenant soldier actually kills the Demon, it may be assumed they are given a very high reward for their success against this potent soldier. This can be noted in game play during Halo 2: when the Chief dies, the nearby Elites may say something along the lines of "The Demon is dead, I killed it!", "The Prophets shall reward me well for that!", or more rarely, "Ha! And I'm not even The Arbiter!"
The other Spartans are also referred to as demons in the novel Ghosts Of Onyx.
Biblical Reference
"John-117" is believed by many fans to be a reference to New Testament of the Christian Bible.
Bungie Studios is known to have placed many biblical references in their earlier Marathon video game series, and many other such references have been found in the Halo series.
Here are passages from the Book of Revelation (more formally known as The Revelation of St. John the Divine). Revelation in Greek is called "The Apocalypse", a title possibly shortened from "The Apocalypse of John."
- When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last."
- I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
- Book of Revelation, NIV. Chapter 1 - verses 17 and 18.
- And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
- Revelation. 11:7
There are also references in one other book of the Bible. 1 John houses these:
- But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
- 1 John 1:7 (1 John 1: 7)
- And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
- - 1 John 2: 1 7
And here are passages from the Gospel of John. These are thought less likely to be references:
- Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
- Gospel of John, 11:7
- For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
- Gospel of John, 1:17
Altnernatively, others believe the number to be a reference to "site 117", an archeology site containing the first evidence of human battle. The site is near Jebel Sahaba, Nubia and dates from between 12,000-10,000 BC. The site contains 59 human remains of men, women and children who were clearly killed with primitive hunting implements. [1]
Quotes
- "Relax, I'd rather not piss this thing off" To Arbiter while being held by Gravemind
- "You told me there wouldn't be any cameras." To Sergeant Johnson on Cairo Station
- "How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine's shields?" To Cortana in the level The Maw.
- "Here we go." To Cortana during the last cutscene of Halo.