Game Universe

SPARTAN-II Augmentation Procedures

2009-04-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

Procedures

Admiral Ysionris Jeromi documented the following experimental procedures on Bonobo Chimpanzees. These operations were later performed on the Spartans.

Carbide ceramic ossification: Advanced material: special metal and ceramic layers, grafting onto skeletal structure to make bones virtually unbreakable. Recommended coverage not to exceed 3 percent total bone mass because of significant white blood cell necrosis. Specific risk for pre- and near-post pubescent adolescents: skeletal growth spurts may cause irreparable bone pulverization.
Muscular enhancement injections: Protein complex is injected intramuscular, to increase tissue density and decrease lactate recovery time. Risk: 5 percent of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.
Catalytic thyroid implant: Platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Risk: rare instances of elephantiasis. Suppressed sexual drive.
Occipital capillary reversal: Submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of subject’s retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: retinal rejection and detachment. Permanent blindness.
Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites: Alteration of bio-electrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three hundred percent increase in subject’s reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Risk: significant instances of Parkinson’s disease and Fletcher’s syndrome.

Spartan-III Roster

2009-04-10T03:04:00.000-07:00

Alpha Company

Team Wolf Pack

Jane-A??? - KIA
Shane-A??? - KIA
Robert-A???- KIA

Beta Company

Team Echo - KIA (MIA/WIA)
Team Foxtrot

Lucy-B091 - Active in Dyson sphere Shield World
Min-B174 - KIA
Tom-B292 - Active in Dyson sphere Shield World
Adam-B004 - KIA

Team India - KIA
Team Lima - KIA
Team X-ray - KIA
Team Romeo – KIA

Gamma Company

Team Gladius – KIA - Found deceased after several days of fleeing from Sentinels.
Team Katana - Inside of Slipspace Field Pods, the shield world Onyx. Currently traveling with the surviving Spartan IIIs/IIs
Team Saber

Holly-G003 - KIA
Ash-G099 - Active in Shield World
Dante-G188 - KIA (MIA/WIA)
Mark-G??? - Active in Shield World
Olivia-G??? - Active in Shield World

Other 315 Gamma Company S-IIIs - Unknown

Augmentation Procedures of Spartan III

2009-04-09T02:31:00.000-07:00

The S-IIIs underwent enhancement procedures similar to those of the Spartan-IIs, but with higher success rates due to the advances in technology. The rate of survival went up from 44% for the Spartan-IIs to 100% for the S-IIIs. The augmentation procedures were referred to as Project CHRYSANTHEMUM. The S-III's were injected with the following drugs:

Drug 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
Drug 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
Drug 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
Drug 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural dis-unification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.

In addition, the following drugs were injected into the Spartans of Gamma Company. They were illegal, but Kurt-051 felt that they were necessary for the Spartans to survive in battle.

Drug 009762-OO: a mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. It enhances aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury, which allowed fighting when they should be dead or in a coma. Negative effects include a loss in rational thinking and tactics. This is counter-balanced by the anti-psychotic and bipolar-integration drugs listed below.

Drug 009927-DG: Miso-olanzapine. An anti-psychotic. This drug counters the mutagen's properties.

Drug 009127-PX: Cyclodexione-4. A bipolar-integration drug. Counters the mutagen's properties.

Magnetic Accelerator Cannon

2008-07-29T01:57:00.000-07:00

"That MAC gun can put a round clean through a Covenant capital ship." —Sergeant Johnson, talking to Master Chief on board the Orbital Defense
Platform Cairo.

The Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, also known as Mass Accelerator Cannon or the MAC gun or MAC cannon, is a large coilgun that serves as the primary offensive weapon for UNSC warships.
A larger variant is in service aboard Orbital Defense Platforms. Within the UNSC arsenal, only nuclear ordnance exceeds the power of the MAC. The M68 Gauss Cannon used by UNSC ground forces mounted on some Warthogs may be regarded as a relative of the MAC, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Overview

Mounting
The size of a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is such that it is normally an integral component of a warship's structure. Some types of Defense Stations are literally built around the massive weapon for orbital defense. A good example of this is Cairo Station. The MAC gun can be clearly seen protruding from the rest of the platform.

Ammunition
A MAC typically fires slugs of either ferric tungsten or depleted uranium slugs at 40% of the speed of light. The high muzzle speed gives the 600 ton slug the kinetic energy and momentum necessary to damage a target and partially mitigates the unguided nature of the slug and its lack of maneuverability.
The Super MAC Slug can be seen on the level Cairo Station; Go out of the elevator to the bomb and immediately turn left, then go into the hollow rail in the middle of the room, you will see the 3000 ton slug being placed into the firing chamber. In other words, stare down the moving thing in the middle of the room. Consequently, walking into the firing chamber will result in the Master Chief being fired out of the MAC gun to his death.

Aiming
The integration of the MAC to its hull means the entire warship or station must maneuver to aim the weapon. Even with an AI aiming the gun, the required precision and the 'dumb' nature of the ordnance fired means that hitting an evading target at 100,000 kilometers is extremely unlikely.

Firing
The firing process of a super MAC gun can be seen in the level Cairo Station.The process uses electromagnetism to fire a ferric-tungsten slug at high velocity. A huge amount of current is put through the first solenoid (coil of conducting wire) which creates a strong magnetic field which attracts the metal slug. As the slug passes into the solenoid, the solenoid is quickly turned off and the second solenoid, which is further up, turns on, which attracts the now high velocity metal slug just like the first solenoid, and the process is carried on. By the time the slug is fired out the end of the barrel it has been accelerated to a speed 40% of the speed of light. At the same time a pair of thrusters on the bottom side of the station fire for a couple of seconds to counteract the acceleration imparted to the station. The process then repeats. It normally takes five seconds to reload, which is why boarding craft have to be deployed to take the stations out.

Types

Standard Magnetic Accelerator Cannon
The standard ship-mounted MAC fires a 600-ton ferric-tungsten projectile with a depleted uranium core at 30,000 m/s (this is circa 2525 - MAC technology might have improved since). The large amount of energy needed to fire the weapon (the muzzle energy is 245 terajoules, to be precise) is particularly onerous on a warship, and the extended recharge time is a significant factor in combat against Covenant warships as multiple MAC rounds are required to penetrate Covenant shields. The standard MAC is sufficient to destroy any human vessel or severely damage an unshielded Covenant vessel. Even so, standard MAC rounds seem useless against the Forerunner Dreadnought.
The UNSC Spirit of Fire has been seen using its MAC cannon as a kind of orbital bombardment, firing 6 rounds within 9 seconds at a Scarab tank from orbit as well as armies and regiments of enemy infantry. However judging by the fast rate of fire, and the fact that two direct hits were required to down the Scarab, the Spirit of Fire's cannon may either be a variant that sacrifices power for a fast fire rate, uses smaller slugs, is a special version for orbital bombardments or is an earlier, weaker version of MAC.
An experimental version of the MAC was developed to fire three successive rounds on a single capacitor charge. A prototype was mounted on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn.

"Super" Magnetic Accelerator Cannon

A UNSC Defense Platform typically mounts a much larger and more powerful version of the standard MAC, nicknamed "Super MAC" or "the Big Stick."
These cannons fire a 3000-ton ferric-tungsten round at forty percent of the speed of light, impacting with a massive energy of almost forty-eight gigatons; powerful enough to penetrate and destroy most fully shielded Covenant warships. By receiving power from ground-based powerplants, orbital platforms could achieve recharge and reload times as short as five seconds. Due to prohibitively large power and sizing requirements, no UNSC ships are thought to be equipped with Super MAC guns.

M68 Gauss Cannon

The gauss-cannon is a UNSC weapon mounted on the Gauss Warthog. It uses MAC technology, but on a much smaller scale. It is used as an anti-armor weapon.

Speculation
Other MAC Sizes

Although never explicitly elaborated upon, there may be many more different sizes of MAC based on the sizes of possible mounts. For example, one might extrapolate that a frigate would mount a smaller, less powerful cannon than a supercarrier or a Marathon-class Cruiser, if only for power management issues.

Conceivably, a 'large' ship could mount many 'small' MACs. However, the lack of such occurrences might suggest that the power of a MAC, once the mass and volume of all attendant components (ex. capacitors) are accounted for, does not scale linearly. There is one known exception (destroyers), which are outfitted with two MAC cannons. The Pillar of Autumn had one large MAC cannon which could fire 3 600 ton rounds in sucsesion on a single charge.

Many believe that the MAC barrel is located near the underside of the ship, where there are three large plates. However, it is more likely that the barrel is located along the entire length of the ship. Logically, the multiple powerful magnets needed to accelerate a 600 ton slug to 0.1c requires an exceptionally long barrel, allowing for many magnets to affect the projectile. The huge 1.17 km length of the Pillar of Autumn would facilitate this, making the most likely muzzle location of the MAC barrel to be located at the protrusion at the ship's bow. This is also supported by the fact that if you look closly at the protrusion, you can see what looks like an openning.

Space Stations MAC Location

Further supporting the hypoe cargo elevator, the player can look up and visibly observe the Super MAC platform in action. The slug travels through the entire length of the tower, and exits at the "top" of the further nozzle. Later in the level, the player can notice the loading zone of the slugs at the base of the firing chamber.

Appearances

The following unit types mounted some form of MAC weaponry.
Halcyon-class Cruisers
Marathon-class Cruisers
Phoenix-class Colony Ships (wartime refit)
Orbital Defense Platforms
UNSC Destroyers
UNSC Frigates

Forerunner Dreadnought

2008-06-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

"I've remotely destroyed our Keyships. A security measure. Without them I
cannot reach the Ark. But
neither then can the thing."
—Librarian to the Didact

The Forerunner Dreadnought, also known as the Keyship and colloquially known as the Forerunner Ship, was a Forerunner warship classification used in the Forerunner-Flood War.
They were also large part of the Forerunner strategy against the Flood, as they were the only vessels capable of activating the Portal to reach the Ark. One of these dreadnoughts would miraculously survive the Forerunner-Flood War and would become an integral part of the Covenant religion.

Specifications

The Forerunner Dreadnought is a geometric and angular warship, sharing many aesthetic features with other Forerunner constructs. Generally, it has a tetrahedral shape, with a forward, triangular prow, and, attached to it at equidistant points, are three similarly shaped struts to help ground the ship. Visually, its hull is grey or silver in color, and is estimated to be about 14 kilometers (8.699 miles) tall, 37,654 tons in weight, far heavier than leisure craft, but outweighed by a variety of transport and military vessels. The Dreadnoughts were an integral part of the Forerunner-Flood War, and were used as warships in confrontations such as the Battle of the Maginot Sphere, and were also used to travel through Portals to the Ark. Although their weapons systems were unknown, one Dreadnought was found and used by the San 'Shyuum during the Sangheili-San 'Shyuum War, and was far superior to Sangheili vessels of the time. During the Human-Covenant War, the same Dreadnought was resistant to even the heaviest of UNSC ship borne armaments, specifically the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon systems. The Forerunner Dreadnought has been known to carry over 1,000 beings, which is believed to be only a fraction of its full carrying capacity.

History
The history of the Forerunner Dreadnought is quite extensive, going back about 100,000 years.
Forerunner-Flood War
The Dreadnought was used extensively by the Forerunners in their war against the Flood. A number of Dreadnoughts were given to the Librarian, and combined with her ability to build Portals, the Librarian was able to transport herself back to the Ark with her Dreadnoughts if the situation required. The Librarian, however, bravely destroyed her Dreadnoughts to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Flood, who with them, would be able to instantaneously travel to the Ark, rendering the Halo Array useless. Near the end of the war, the Dreadnoughts were part of an unknown strategy to hold off the Flood for nearly 79 years, although this advantage would be foiled by the massive computing power of the Flood. At the Battle of the Maginot Sphere, Didact was in command of multiple Dreadnoughts, although near the end, when the Forerunners began generating Slipspace ruptures to destabilize the battlefield and destroy Flood craft, Dreadnoughts were recklessly piloted near the rifts, destroying them. However, at least one Dreadnought would survive the war and be rediscovered later by the Covenant.

Rediscovery
Early in the history of the San 'Shyuum, they found and worshiped the Forerunner Dreadnought. These early worshipers were split over the usage of the ship, as the Stoics refused to enter the vessel, while the radical Reformists wished to explore it. The Reformists then barricaded themselves within the Dreadnought, and left the San ‘Shyuumn home world, taking a gigantic piece of the planet with them.

Sangheili - San 'Shyuum War
After leaving their home world, the San 'Shyuum encountered the Sangheili, who also had familiarity with Forerunner technology. The San 'Shyuum believed that incorporating Forerunner technology was allowed by their religion. To the Sangheili, such a thing would have been unthinkable.
During the combat, the Sangheili had an early advantage, with each warrior comparable in skill to several San 'Shyuum in battle. However, the San 'Shyuum's technological superiority, and possession of the Forerunner Dreadnought, meant that they had the advantage in space, using the Dreadnought to great effect in devastating hit-and-run strikes against the Sangheilian Fleets. Eventually, the Sangheili were forced to amend their position of the treatment of Forerunner technologies and began incorporating elements into their own designs.
Eventually, in order to ensure the survival of both races, the two races merged to form the early Covenant with the San 'Shyuum as the head religious leaders and the Sangheili as their protectors and head of the military.

Writ of Union
The two races then penned the Writ of Union, which formally began the Covenant, and decommissioned the Forerunner warship, removing all known weapons, and placing it within the partially completed High Charity. It was then used to power the city, with its engines at partial power.

The Great War
Before the start of the Human-Covenant War, the Forerunner Dreadnought, the founding of the Prophet’s religion, would soon become the place where their religion was proven false. During the 23rd Age of Doubt, the Minister of Fortitude, and the Vice Minister of Tranquility went to the Forerunner Dreadnought for confirmation of two symbols found on the missionary vessel Minor Transgression. These two symbols were “Reclamation” and “Oracle”, which were found on what was known to Humanity as Harvest. After activating the "Oracle" inside of the Dreadnought, it began a series of cryptic messages, listed below:

LISTENED TO YOU MISINTERPRET
THIS IS NOT
RECLAMATION
THIS IS
RECLAIMER
AND THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS
I WILL REJECT MY BIAS
AND MAKE AMENDS
MY MAKERS ARE MY MASTERS
I
WILL BRING THEM SAFELY TO
THE ARK
FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED

During this series of messages, the Oracle began a launch sequence, which would rip the Dreadnought from High Charity and destroy the artificial planet with it. The Oracle was disconnected, but this caused a spiritual crisis for Fortitude, Tranquility and the Philologist. Through the Oracle’s messages, the Forerunners (or their descendants), were still alive, which would shake the foundations of the Covenant itself to the core. In an attempt to keep the religion itself intact, they covered up the encounter, and would try and eradicate these Reclaimers.
For most of the Human-Covenant War, the Dreadnought remained a purely religious artifact, not a weapon, until the Battle of High Charity.

The Battle of High Charity

When the Flood attacked High Charity, SPARTAN-117 was on his way to stop the Prophet of Truth from escaping and at the end of the Battle of Installation 05. He was able to board the ship as Truth uncoupled it from the city's power grid by narrowly making it through a conduit and into the opening it connected to. The Forerunner Dreadnought lifted off, and slipspace jumped in the midst of a large three way battle between Covenant Loyalists, Covenant Separatists and the Flood.

Second Battle of Earth

Soon after it arrived in orbit around Earth, Lord Terrence Hood was about to give the order to destroy it. He only stopped because he found out that the Master Chief was aboard. The Forerunner Ship itself would soon become a battle ground as Master Chief tries to assassinate Truth.
Onboard the ship, Master Chief was contacted by a station on Io, but after going into radio silence, he killed four grunts, a pair of Jackals and then another group of four grunts. It is unknown what happened immediately afterward, but soon, Master Chief was found unconscious by a group of Brutes. The Brutes interrogate him, asking him where the Key of Osanalan is, when S-117 replies: “It means… always strip your enemy of weapons before you interrogate him”. The Brute looks down to see a plasma grenade, which soon detonates, killing him, a few other brutes and scattering the confused Unngoy. After making his way to the Prophet of Truth’s position, he reports to the UNSC that one Prophet Hierarch is on board and will transmit more information later. Then, Spartan-117 takes aim at Truth with a Covenant Carbine and fires.
Sometime afterward, Spartan-117 jumped from the Forerunner Dreadnought as it continued descending to Earth's atmosphere, falling two kilometers into the African jungle. The Forerunner Dreadnought continued its descent and landed on the portal to the Ark.
Though it is never explicitly stated, the Forerunner Ship is most likely a Key Ship, which would activate the Ark portal. This is evidenced by its apparent activation of the Ark portal on Earth while it was landing in the middle and Truth stating that the Ark portal on Earth is in its "true resting place" during game play.
The remaining UNSC forces on Africa planned to launch a surprise strike on the Dreadnought to eliminate Truth and stop it from activating the structure they thought to be The Ark. The Master Chief led a Marine assault on a Covenant loyalist anti-air battery sector in the town of Voi and successfully disabled the battery, giving the UNSC a clear shot at the Dreadnought. Lord Hood then attacked the ship with a squadron of Longsword fighters and three UNSC Frigates. The Dreadnought's advanced Forerunner armor allowed it to survive three MAC rounds and several missiles, and the UNSC attack was halted when the Portal was activated by the Key Ship.
After activating the portal, the Dreadnought entered it and landed on The Ark. It did not take part in the battle. The ship was possibly damaged beyond use from the combined effect of slipspace transition and the attack, and was most likely destroyed when the Halo destroyed itself. However, the fate of the Dreadnought is not known for sure.

Prophet of Mercy

2008-06-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

"Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are
worthy along the path to salvation."
—Prophet of Mercy

The High Prophet of Mercy is one of three Hierarchs that lead the Covenant High Council. He is by far the oldest. His birth name is Hod Rumnt.

Biography
He served as the Philologist on the Forerunner Dreadnought where he lead the priests prior to his ascension to Hierarch. He became the third Hierarch after the Oracle of the Dreadnought attempted to launch the Dreadnought during which time it referred to the humans as his creators. His tenure has been marked by several tense debates with Elite High Councilors over the proper dispensation of Forerunner artifacts. Mercy is considered one of the last of the old guard of the Prophets -- a hard-liner who publicly questioned the wisdom of the Prophets' demilitarization at the close of the Prophet-Elite War.
Being one of the eldest members of the Prophet triumvirate, Mercy is well-acquainted with the Covenant's governmental systems and its history. During a meeting with the Arbiter and the Prophet of Truth, he mentions a bit of Covenant history, referencing the Grunt Rebellion and the Taming of the Hunters.
He stayed by Truth's side after the death of Regret, and seemed to be more of a follower or supporter of Truth than an equal. As the Covenant Civil War began, Mercy still supported Truth's actions, even as it seemed that Truth was unraveling the very foundations of the Covenant through his extreme actions.
He and the High Prophet of Truth were attacked by the Flood on High Charity as they prepared to depart for Earth to begin the Great Journey. A single Infection Form made it past the Honor Guard Brutes, and latched onto his neck. Even as Tartarus attempted to save him, Truth intervened and let Mercy die, saying "The Great Journey waits for no one, brother. Not even you." Before his death, he was found by the Master Chief and questioned where Truth was going. He answered, "Earth, to finish what we started. And this time, none of you will be left behind." The Chief then killed the Infection Form, which had infected the prophet and with it, its host: Mercy.

Personality
Mercy can be seen as passionate and knowledgeable, as seen in the cutscene Sacred Icon where he shows his excitement about Halo expressing hope that the Great Journey should begin very soon. It's very possible that he has a sense of levity, seeing that he talked Truth out of condemning Regret as described on the level Regret, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know right from wrong. He is perceptible and a veteran of the Forerunners and their knowledge, he can be considered the Prophet of Truth's right-hand.

Harvest

2008-06-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

Harvest was the seventeenth UNSC colony world, and one of the most remote. Located in the Epsilon Indi System, the planet had the unfortunate distinction of being the first human planet discovered by the Covenant. After disastrous First Contact, the planet was subsequently destroyed by the Covenant during the Battle of Harvest, and most of its population was killed due to the battle.

Population

Harvest was one of the UNSC's more productive and more peaceful colonies, within two decades of its founding it had the highest per capita agricultural manufacture of any inner colony. Major crops, such as corn, wheat, watermelons, peaches, apples, grapes, and numerous other foodstuffs nourished the inhabitants of more than half a dozen other colonies. The population of Harvest was three million but was destroyed by the Covenant in 2525 by invasion and orbital bombardment. The capital city and largest population center was Utgard, also home to Harvest's seven space elevators connected to the Orbital Space Station, Tiara.

Topography

Harvest was a small planet, approximately one-third the size of Earth with only a 4,000 kilometer (2,484 mile) equatorial diameter, slightly smaller than the Sol planet Mercury. In terms of surface area, Harvest possessed ~50 million km², roughly one-tenth the surface area of Earth. Harvest orbited Epsilon Indi extremely quickly, much faster than most UNSC colonies, at roughly 150,000 km/h, or ~41km/sec (by comparison, Earth orbits Sol at roughly 30 km/sec). Harvest had no natural satellites. Out of a total of five planets in the Epsilon Indi System, Harvest was the only habitable planet. The super-continent Edda dominated the planet, taking up roughly 67% of its surface. Two low-salinity seas covered the remainder of the planet, Hugin to the north, and Munin to the south. Almost 86% of Edda is within 500 meters of sea level, the only major change in elevation is Bifrost, a escarpment that "cuts" Edda in half.
Harvest's surface was once beautiful, covered in grassland and forests, lush fields and rolling hills, and a thousand lakes swarming with fish. The orchards were filled with fruit trees that were able to grow several different fruit on it at once. At one point during his service on Harvest Sergeant Johnson noted both apples and pears growing on the same tree. At night, bats filled the skies. After being glassed, the surface was reduced to a layer of melted glass, the destruction visible from orbit. The environment suffered a catastrophic blow as a result, with most species quickly going extinct on the world due to the destroyed environment. Soon, all that remained of Harvest's original natural ecosystem were the scavengers, feeding off the rotting remains of the planet's once abundant wildlife, and even they too soon perished.

History

In 2502, Avery Junior Johnson was involved in the assassination of Jerald Mulkey Ander, the head of the People's Occupation Government on Harvest as part of the ORION Project's Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE. Harvest was the first colony to be attacked by the Covenant and the first human world to be glassed. It was also the first time humanity had officially made First Contact with the Covenant.
In 2524 Sergeant Johnson returned to Harvest along with Staff Sergeant Byrne and Captain Ponder, all survivors of Operation: TREBUCHET, to train a Colonial Militia, and unbeknownst to them, fend off what UNSC had believed to be Insurrectionist attacks on ships in the systems.
On February 3rd 2525 The Harvest Long range orbital platform made radar and spectroscopic contact with Minor Transgression. Contact with Harvest was lost thereafter.
By April 12th 2525 the Colonial Military Administration sent the scout ship Argo to investigate, other then confirming its arrival at Harvest no other transmissions were sent, and Argo was presumed MIA.
On October 7th 2525 Fleet Command assembled a battlegroup to investigate, due to the fact that the Harvest situation was deemed to have become serious. The battlegroup consisted of the destroyer Heracles, commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigates Arabia and Vostok. They enter the Harvest system only to find the planet glassed, The Vostok and Arabia were lost with all hands while the Heracles jumped out of the system, but took several weeks to return to Reach due to damage sustained in the battle.

Escape from Harvest

The citizens of Harvest soon found themselves in the middle of the first battle between the Covenant and humanity, using their newly trained Militia to herd hundreds of thousands of civilian survivors from Gladsheim, Vigrond, and other locations to the Utgard Space Elevators to escape the planet. During the first Covenant attack on Harvest about +250,000 humans managed to escape the planet by packing into 236 freight containers which were then loaded into seven elevator depots in Utgard. Every five to seven minutes, seven pairs of freight containers were loaded into the Space Elevator. Loaded ahead of these freight containers were seven "grease buckets", maintenance containers, two which were loaded with Johnson's men and Jilan al-Cygni. The other five were decoys rigged with claymore mines which were used to soften the Brutes, Grunts and Drones which had boarded and taken control of Tiara. While the other two "grease buckets" holding Johnson and Co. stopped and they were fighting off the Covenant, the number seven strand of the Space Elevator snapped a few thousand kilometers above its anchor due to the stress caused by the load becoming unbalanced. There were 11 pairs of freight containers on the strand when it snapped, killing around 20,000 people. The remaining freight containers carrying the survivors of Harvest continued up the elevator, out into space, where they met up with propulsion pods that Sif had placed previously. Once Johnson and Co. finished fighting the Covenant on the Tiara, they joined the survivors and used the propulsion pods to enter Slipspace. In these freight containers was at least one future member of the Spartan-III project.

The Battle of Harvest

Vice Admiral Preston Cole fought in and barely won the Battle of Harvest in 2531, six years later. This battle was the single most titanic battle ever fought by the two opposing forces before the Fall of Reach in 2552, and resulted in the creation and implementation of the Cole Protocol. The UNSC was able to retake the planet but with the massive loss of 2/3 of their fleet.

Prophet of Regret

2008-05-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into
the divine beyond!"
—Prophet of Regret

The High Prophet of Regret is the youngest of the three High Prophets that lead the Covenant High Council.

Biography
Twenty Third Age of Doubt
During the Age of Doubt, 2524 by the UNSC calender, the Prophet of Regret was known as the Vice Minister of Tranquility. He was unique amongst his Prophet fellows in his confrontational attitude and combative demeanor, a trait he had gained from spending a good deal of time working with Elites. He was the first to inform the future Prophet of Truth about the existence of Harvest and what they believed to be a vast reliquary of Forerunner artifacts (In reality, these "artifacts" were nothing less than the humans on the planet, or "Reclaimers"). After persuading the future High Prophet to join him in a conspiracy to gain these artifacts for their own private usage, he helped Truth in his plans by pretending to sympathize for those blacklisted from reproducing due to inborn genes, which included the then Hierarch Prophet of Restraint. After pretending to be the father of an unlawful child the Prophet of Restraint had fathered, Regret forced Restraint out of power by threatening to reveal the scandal if he did not leave his position as High Prophet.
Before their coup, the Prophets visited an "Oracle" within the Forerunner Dreadnought, an ancient AI known as Mendicant Bias that had stored itself in the ship and had not spoken to anyone for several hundred years. When the Luminations of Harvest were entered into its matrix, it suddenly came to light and revealed the symbols had been misinterpreted-that humans stood as equals to the Forerunner, and the Covenant had been mistaken in their beliefs. As it tried to launch the Dreadnought from High Charity, the Prophets along with the Philologist, leader of the ascetic priests and later the Prophet of Mercy, disconnected the Oracle from the ship and decided that the humans must be eradicated once and for all, before any of the Covenant could learn of this and shatter their entire existence.
He served during the destruction of Halo Installation 04 and was one of those who publicly condemned the Sangheili Commander who was responsible for the loss of the ring. While he appeared for the trial, it was by way of hologram, as Regret was en route to Earth, searching for a method to initiate the Great Journey.

On the Path to the Great Journey
Earth
"The message just repeats, "Regret, Regret, Regret.""
—Cortana
Despite being chided by his two compatriots, The Prophet of Regret led the first attack on Earth. His fleet was small for an assault, totaling only two Assault Carriers and thirteen CCS-class Battlecruisers. It is thought that he was directed to Earth by a Forerunner artifact, perhaps the one on Coral to search for the Ark, but he apparently had no knowledge of a human presence on Earth and that it was his enemy's home world. Nevertheless, he sent Ranger Elites and Boarding Craft to destroy the Orbital Defense Platforms Malta, Athens, and Cairo, so he could push through into the heart of Africa. Despite the Master Chief's actions, his ship made it to the ground and deployed the first full-scale invasion force of Covenant on Earth.
After landing in New Mombasa to search for the Forerunner artifact located on Earth, Regrets forces deployed numerous ground units to further search the city, including at least two Scarabs and many Phantom dropships. As Spartan-117 approached his Carrier, Regret's ship initiated a Slipspace jump right in the middle of New Mombasa to escape his pursuers and regroup his attack force. The move was so surprising that only the UNSC In Amber Clad and four Prowlers were able to follow the Carrier as it jumped and destroyed the city.

Delta Halo
"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!"
—Prophet of Regret
Regrets Carrier landed ground and infantry forces onto the surface of Installation 05, and the Covenant, under Regret's say so set up a presence around a "temple" in the middle of a lake, from which Regret began his religious sermons. He also transmitted an apology to the Prophet of Truth, indicating that he couldn't have known that the humans would be there or in such force. Truth responded by saying that only Mercy had spared him from "public" condemnation. Nevertheless, High Charity and the Second Fleet of Homogeneous Clarity rushed to the new Halo, and a flight of Phantoms was deployed to rescue the Hierarch.
The In Amber Clad arrived in system soon after and deployed ODST forces onto the surface of Installation 05 along with the Master Chief to locate and kill Regret. The operation was a success, but soon afterward High Charity made a jump to the ring and ordered one of the nearby ships to use its Gravity Lift to destroy the temple, nearly killing the Spartan and negating any chance of rescue for the Prophet.

It isn't known how Regrets body escaped the destruction of the temple, but it was later assimilated by the newly formed Gravemind, reanimated and incorporated into the creature itself. He made a final appearance at the beginning of the next level, where he expressed annoyance with another captive of the Gravemind's, 2401 Penitent Tangent, and reacted to the presence of the Arbiter, warning the Arbiter to forgo any heretical suggestions made by the Monitors and the humans and to pursue the Great Journey.

The Ark
Throughout the events of Halo 3, Regret likely remained a part of Gravemind. If this is true, then Regret was finished for good on the Ark, where the Gravemind was killed due to the activation of the replacement of Installation 04.

Personality
Based on a letter written from Truth to Mercy relating to his untimely attack of Earth without realizing the significant human presence and defensive measures, Regret is considered a very rash and ambitious Prophet, immature and naive compared to the other ladder members. He developed a habit of ingesting excess alcoholic beverages, and his work as Vice Minister of Tranquility meant that his duties brought him into regular contact with the Sangheili, and had adopted some of their personal traits, such as a preoccupation with honor and personal arms. During their visit to the Oracle upon the Forerunner Dreadnought, Regret, then still a Vice Minister, first tried to threaten a Lekgolo pair with a Plasma Pistol and then almost shot the Philologist, later to become Mercy, for "tampering" with the Oracle.

Combat
The only weapon Regret has is his Gravity Throne. It is only seen being used as a weapon in Regret. Regret's gravity throne is equipped with two Gravity Cannons that glow bright red and are a modified version of a Hunters Fuel rod gun. It is also equipped with a teleportation device that allows him to teleport a short distance away. The only way to defeat him is to board his throne and melee attack him. However, rockets will lock onto the throne as if it were a vehicle. Though this will not kill the Prophet, enough rockets can hurt him, reducing the number of hits he can take once you board his throne. Also a lunge with the energy sword will weaken him, though not as much as a rocket.
After a few hits, he will throw you off and teleport away, and his throne must be re-boarded to resume the assault. This pattern will repeat until either he or the Master Chief dies.
Regret is not alone, however. Throughout the battle with him, Grunts and Honor Guard Elites will attempt to aid him against the Chief.
Due to a glitch, Regret can be knocked out of his throne and shoot you with a plasma pistol that has a faster rate of fire for a few seconds. Regret will then teleport back to his chair as if nothing had happened.

UNSC In Amber Clad

2008-05-27T23:49:00.000-07:00

The UNSC In Amber Clad (FFG-142) was a United Nations Space Command Frigate.

History

First Battle of Earth

As of October 2552, the In Amber Clad was commanded by Commander Miranda Keyes. It was docked with Orbital Defense Platform Cairo during an award ceremony. In the middle of the ceremony, however, a Covenant Fleet appeared around Earth and so the First Battle of Earth began. Home Fleet ships then began to open fire on the Covenant Ships. Though the In Amber Clad did not engage in direct combat over Earth, they did descend to catch John-117 after his daring destruction of one of the Covenant's Assault Carriers using their own bomb.

First Battle of Mombasa

Afterwards, the vessel descended to Mombasa, Kenya, where it dispatched numerous units from the 17th and 77th Marine Regiments. During the battle, the In Amber Clad was the headquarters for all UNSC forces in the area. The ship also reinforced and resupplied the Marines with armor, ground support, and more troops. The IAC also began to evac and treat injured and wounded Marines.
As the High Prophet of Regret suddenly initiated a Slipspace jump inside the city, the In Amber Clad was one of the only vessels close enough to follow it. Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood allowed Keyes to follow the Assault Carrier through the Slipspace rupture, even though she did not know where it was headed.
The UNSC Coral Sea, UNSC Dusk, UNSC Paris, and the UNSC Redoubtable were sent to follow and assist the In Amber Clad with the heavy Assault Carrier.

Battle of Installation 05

The In Amber Clad ended up at Installation 05. There, Keyes immediately sent John-117 and her contingent of Marine Shock Troopers to the surface in Human Entry Vehicles to track down the Prophet of Regret at the Temple, while she took herself, Johnson and the 77th Marines to the Library in order to retrieve the Index and prevent the Covenant from activating Halo.
As Keyes entered the Library, they were immediately attacked by the Flood and most of her Marines were taken by the flood and became Combat Forms and Carrier Forms, only a few eventually making it to the index. However, Keyes, Johnson, and what was left of the Marines were ambushed by the Arbiter only a few seconds after retrieving the index.
It is likely that the Flood commandeered a Pelican and infiltrated the In Amber Clad, as it was not seen again until it crashed into High Charity. At this point the Flood controlled the ship. It is speculated that Gravemind was aboard.

First Battle of High Charity

The ship crashed into a tower near the Council Chamber and immediately the Flood used most of the ship's remaining Pelicans to spread out over High Charity, often crashing the ships to inflict maximum damage on the city. The Flood quickly assimilated most of High Charity's population. At this point, the ship was out of commission, designating it as destroyed.
Cortana intended to use the In Amber Clad's engines to destroy High Charity, but it was never done. It is unclear whether she still could do it because during the Battle of Installation 00, Cortana was unable to stop the Gravemind from using High Charity to travel through the galaxy. It is assumed to be completely destroyed when John-117 blasted the station's reactors causing them to go critical.

Installation 04

2008-05-24T00:11:00.000-07:00

Installation 04 was one of a series of gigantic ring worlds (the Halos from which the series gets the name) apparently left behind by the enigmatic, technologically-advanced, and apparently extinct Forerunners. The Covenant reverentially described Installation 04 as either the First Holy Ring, or the First Sacred Ring. 04 is also known colloquially among Halo fans as Alpha Halo. It is the main setting of the first Halo game, Halo: Combat Evolved. After its destruction at the end of the Battle of Installation 04, The Ark started to make another Installation 04 after the first Installation 04 was destroyed.

Background

The purpose of Installation 04, along with its sister installations, was to preclude and thwart the parasitic lifeforms known as the Flood from consuming the galaxy's sentient life. In the event of a Flood outbreak, one of the seven installations could be triggered to annihilate all sentient life. Once a ring is set off all remaining rings would activate.
Installation 04, until its destruction by the Master Chief, was controlled by the Forerunner artificial intelligence construct (Monitor), 343 Guilty Spark.

Climate

The climate of Installation 04 is very similar to Earth's climate. There have been hurricanes over the oceans on the ring. The weather is, however, extremely unpredictable - rain and snowfall can occur at random, leading some to wonder if the weather is intentionally irregular, or whether there is some indiscernible pattern.

Ancient History

Installation 04 was built by the Forerunners at approximately 98,665 BCE (It was about 101,217 years old in 2552 CE).

Part of the wreckage of Installation 04
The Installation was activated sometime thereafter, and all Forerunner and Flood were killed. Installation 04 lay dormant for millenia, with 343 Guilty Spark and his Sentinels ready to keep the Flood confined in the Flood Containment Facilities and keeping the infrastructure of the Halo in perfect working order.

Destruction

"Halo... It's finished...""No. I think we're just getting started."
— Cortana talking
to the Master Chief after the
destruction of Installation 04.

The Covenant discovered the location of Installation 04, after the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice followed the single UNSC cruiser, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, which was fleeing from the Battle of Reach through slipspace. It is assumed that the Covenant knew about the Ring as the Prophets all have a holographic representation of them on their headdresses and Cortana saying previously that she used the coordinates received by the beam in The Fall of Reach. Due to the Covenant's faster Slipspace capabilities they arrived before the Autumn.
The Pillar of Autumn arrived around September 19, 2552 and was promptly shot down by warding Covenant space forces. At around the same time, the Covenant ground forces on 04 accidentally unleashed the Flood from captivity. The ensuing four-day melee that took place all over the ring was called the Battle of Installation 04. Humans, Flood, and Covenant fought massive battles against one another as the Forerunner Constructs tried to control the outbreak by activating the Halo. In the end a single human, SPARTAN-117, detonated the Autumn's fusion reactors which destroyed the Halo.
Only a handful of humans and Covenant survived the battle. 343 Guilty Spark floated through space until he met a group of Covenant on Threshold. Inspired by his words, they began a Heretic rebellion against the greater Covenant. Installation 04's destruction is seen as the first step in the chain of events that led to the Covenant Civil War. The Installation 04 was the first Halo destroyed.
There is now a large field of debris where Installation 04 was, though a few large chunks of the ring remain. Some smaller pieces of the Installation 04 have landed on Basis and others have burnt up in Threshold's atmosphere on entry.

Replacement

Shortly after the destruction of the Halo, the Ark began to automatically construct a new Halo to replace Installation 04. This exact copy of the first Halo ring was nearing completion only a few months after the first ring was destroyed, but was subsequently also destroyed when it was fired before it was ready by the Master Chief and Cortana.

Astronomy

The "Ringworld" of Halo is much smaller than Larry Niven's Ringworld, by a magnitude of 3,000. While the diameter of Niven's ringworld is close to the diameter of Earth's orbital of 300,000,000 km, the 10,000 km diameter of Halo is much closer to the diameter of Earth itself, which is 12,756 km. Ringworld has a star similar to our sun in its center, and Halo is orbiting a planet, but does not encircle it.
Circumstantial evidence from Bungie indicates that Alpha Halo may be located in the Iota Horologii System, only 50 Lightyears from Earth.

Speculation

It is unclear why the gas giant Threshold was specifically chosen to be the planet which Installation 04 orbited, but it is supposed that the large number of Forerunner machines already operational in Threshold (explicitly the network of Gas Mines), may have played a role in their decision. It could also be because it was the only planet in the system that had enough gravity to hold Halo in place.
Another common theory is that it was placed there mathematically in order to cover the whole of the galaxy with the spread of the Halos' main weapon. It is probable that the Forerunner had chosen Threshold as the staging point for constructing Installation 04 in a failsafe to attempt to isolate any major Flood outbreak. It may have been as simple as its proximity to the Gas Mine stations on Threshold, which the Forerunner may have used for power.

United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1

2008-05-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

The Cole Protocol, otherwise known as United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 is a command enacted by Vice Admiral Preston Cole to prevent the Covenant from finding the location of Earth. Essentially, it is an order preventing Covenant retrival of data that contains the location of Earth, and forbids retreating vessels from setting Slipspace course to Earth, as the Covenant are able to track Slipspace travel and find Earth's location. The policy also states that to prevent capture, any UNSC or Human vessel is to self destruct, after wiping all data matrices, to prevent the advance of the Covenant.
All UNSC personnel were commanded to read the Cole Protocol under NAVCOM UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1.

The Protocol

Article 1
United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 Encryption Code: Red Public Key: file/ rst light/ From: UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet H.T. Ward To: ALL UNSC PERSONNEL Subject: General Order 098831A-1 ("The Cole Protocol ) Classification: RESTRICTED (BGX Directive) The Cole Protocol To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intact navigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers. If any Covenant forces are detected:

Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks.
Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized.
Execute viral data scavengers (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW:COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091)
If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectors NOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.
In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC vessels MUST self-destruct.

Violation of this directive will be considered TREASON and pursuant to UNSC Military law articles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution.
*It should be noted that Lieutenant Wagner broke Article 1 but was later pardoned.

Article 2
This article is never directly stated, though Captain Keyes uses it while his ship is crashing on Installation 04. Captain Keyes says "I'm initiating the Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you, too, Cortana." Later saying, "Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable."
This implies that Article 2 directs personnel, or at least those with sensitive information, to avoid capture. Whilst it is not apparent to what lengths UNSC personnel are to go to ensure this, apparently in the case of AI's the worst case scenario only allows them to be hidden rather than terminated. Strangely, in First Strike there does not seem to be any attempt to recover any potentially surviving AI's.

Subsection 7
No [captured] Covenant craft may be taken to human controlled space without an exhaustive search for tracking systems that could lead the Covenant to Human bases.
Few had even heard of subsection seven because it was little more than a technicality, before the Ascendant Justice was captured. Because the humans could not completely search the ship, they instead planned to take it to Reach and try to return with a more prepared team.
*Note the number 7 in the subsection title.

Pillar of Autumn

2008-05-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

Mothballed and due to be scrapped like the remainder of the Halcyon-class, the Autumn was reactivated during the Human-Covenant War. Under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes, she was to serve as an inconspicuous launch pad for a covert offensive involving locating the Covenant homeworld and capture of Covenant leadership by SPARTAN-II supersoldiers and received a refit to prepare her for the upcoming operation. The refit rectified a number of deficiencies in the original design and made her a competitive re-addition to the sorely pressed UNSC Navy. At the time of her destruction in 2552 she was 43 years old. A vessel, identified to be the Pillar of Autumn, pushes through the Covenant blockade and escapes Reach.
The Pillar of Autumn was ultimately unable to embark on the aforementioned operation due to action at the Battle of Reach and was one of the few ships to escape the disaster, albeit with moderate damage and the loss of a third of its tech staff. Although the Cole Protocol demanded a random Slipstream jump, the AI Cortana, without the knowledge of the crew, purposely guided the ship to the planet Threshold based on map coordinates extracted from a Forerunner artifact. The result was the discovery of Installation 04, or "Halo".

The Pillar of Autumn taking plasma impacts at the Battle of Installation 04.
A brief and uneven battle against a Covenant battle group of a dozen superior CCS-class Battlecruisers in near-Threshold space. Described by Cortana's and Captain Keyes' exchange: (Keyes:) "Damn. I don't see how we even stood a chance in the first place." (Cortana:) A dozen Covenant cruisers against a single Halcyon-II class ship- by those odds we still had three- (pauses, thinks.) make that four kills." Even so, the orbital battle resulted in critical damage being inflicted upon the Pillar of Autumn. Enemy boarding parties disabled the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon's fire control with a demolition charge, but not before she made a good account of herself by destroying four enemy warships and damaging several others. The Pillar of Autumn's survival against superior forces was due in part to a Prophet's directive to disable, rather than destroy her, out of fear that her destruction might harm "Halo", which had religious significance to the Covenant. The ship was then crash landed onto "Halo" by one of Cortana's subroutines. The vessel, damaged beyond repair, tore a deep gash in the ground for several hundred meters, bounced, then came to rest upright and balanced over a cliff on a barren peninsula. Prior to the crash much of her crew had taken to the escape pods, including Cortana who was being carried within the Master Chiefs suit. Others evacuated by Pelican dropship or even in drop pods, as was the case for a complement of ODSTs. Despite the confusion most of the crew survived to reach "Halo" and engage Covenant ground forces.
Later, Pelicans were employed to retrieve munitions from the crashed ship to sustain this effort. The human forces successfully neutralized the Covenant vehicles and some of the infantry stationed at the crash site and retrieved weaponry and vehicles to use in their guerrilla war against the Covenant.
Despite the abuse sustained during the space battle and the following crash the Pillar of Autumn remained intact, and was subsequently occupied by investigating Covenant forces and later by Flood. The threat posed by the latter was deemed sufficiently great for SPARTAN-117 and Cortana to detonate the ship's still-functioning fusion power cores in a bid to destroy "Halo", thus preventing the Flood from escaping.
Having manually triggered a destabilization of the power cores, SPARTAN-117 and Cortana commandeered a Longsword from one of the Pillar of Autumn's docking bays and achieved a safe minimum distance before the ship exploded, causing the ring-world to fragment. Its memory lives on for years to come as says doctor Halsey in ghosts of onyx.

The Pillar of Autumn was refitted with an improved nuclear fusion engine that featured two smaller reactors around a larger one, capable of boosting power out by 300%. An upgraded cooling system was also retrofitted, featuring "a laser-induced optical slurry of ions chilled to near-absolute zero" that removed the reliance on expendable chemical temperature-control agents. In essence, the new system provided increased waste heat removal as power output increased. This self-regulating and self-cooling system was critical in combat since it virtually eliminated a commander's concerns about overheating and slagging a ship's engines.
[edit] Armament
The upgraded Pillar of Autumn received several refits, including several to its weapons systems. Eventually, it was host to a very powerful armament.
One MAC Cannon which was capable of firing three consecutive shots on one charge each 600 tons.
300 Archer Missile Pods which were arranged in thirty columns and ten rows. Each pod contained 26 individual devices, equaling 7800 missiles[5].
Four Shiva Nuclear Warheads, one of which is loaded on a remote-controlled Longsword interceptor.
Forty 50mm Autocannons for point defense against single ships. These cannons were later scavenged by the surviving humans on Installation 04 for Alpha Base.
Three HAVOK Nuclear Warheads
[edit] Engine Room
The Pillar of Autumn's engine room, or just "Engineering", was a large, three-deck high chamber allowing access to the fusion engine core. Side passages allowed for movement from the bottom deck all the way up to the catwalks on the third. The manifolds into the cores were suspended above the second deck. Controls on the third retracted these manifolds, exposing a vent that led directly into the core. It was using this method to expose the core via the vents that the Master Chief ultimately destroyed the ship and "Halo". This room is the largest room in the Pillar of Autumn with the exception of the hanger bay.

The Pillar of Autumn

Cortana, the AI, found aboard the PoA

The crashed Autumn in the Desert of Halo

Crewmembers in the "Autumn"
[edit] Airlocks
Airlock 31: The Lifeboat of this airlock was destroyed by the Covenant to make way for a Boarding Craft.
Airlock 32: The Lifeboat of this airlock was destroyed by the Covenant to make way for a Boarding Craft.
Airlock 51: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel, but was destroyed by unseen Covenant artillery.
Airlock 52: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel.
Airlock 53: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel.
Airlock 61: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel with the Master Chief, Cortana and 9 other Marines onboard.
Airlock 62: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel.
Airlock 63: The Lifeboat of this airlock managed to make it out of the vessel.

[edit] Known Crew
[edit] Pillar of Autumn Command Crew
Captain Jacob Keyes -- Ship Captain
Cortana -- Former ship AI
Unknown backup AI, Most likely Wellsley
Lieutenant Dominique -- Communications Officer
Lieutenant Aki Hikowa -- Weapons Officer
Lieutenant Hall -- Operations Officer
Ensign William Michael Lovell -- Navigation Officer
Lieutenant Commander Gail Purdy -- Chief Engineer
Crewman Abiad
Crewman Wang
Crewman Singh
[edit] Other Naval Personnel
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117
Tech Chief Thom Shephard -- Cryogenics Technician
Tech Officer First Class Mary Murphy -- Air Traffic Technician
Tech Officer Sam Marcus -- Cryogenics Technician
Petty Officer Third Class Pauley -- Radio Technician
Petty Officer Third Class Cho -- Radio Technician
Flight Officer Captain Carol "Foehammer" Rawley -- Pelican Pilot-Echo 419
Lieutenant "Cookie" Peterson -- Pelican Pilot
Lieutenant Rick Hale -- Pelican Pilot
Flight Officer Mitchell -- Pelican Pilot
Warrant Officer Shiela Polaski -- Pelican Pilot
Lieutenant Frye -- Pelican Co-Pilot
Crew Chief Cullen -- Pelican Communications Officer
Lieutenant Haverson
[edit] Marines and ODSTs
[edit] Individuals
Major Antonio Silva
First Lieutenant Melissa McKay
Second Lieutenant Dalu
Second Lieutenant Oros
Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto
Master Sergeant Lister
Company Sergeant Tink Carter
Sergeant Corly
Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson
Sergeant Parker
Sergeant Pete Stacker
Gunnery Sergeant Waller
Private First Class M. Fitzgerald
Private Bisenti
Private First Class Hosky
Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins
Corporal Locklear
Corporal Lovik
Corporal Wilkins
Lance Corporal "Snaky" Jones
Medic "Doc" Valdez
Private Kappus
Private Chips Dubbo
Private Manuel Mendoza
Private O'Brien
Private Marie Postly
Private Riley
Private Satha
Al-Thani
Dawkins
Mary Murphy
Suzuki
Unnamed Corporal
[edit] Units
830 Marines-1 ODST Battalion, 1 Marine Battalion
Combat Team Alpha
Combat Team November
Combat Team Sierra
Combat Team Victor
Fire Team Charlie
Fire Team Zulu
Fourteenth Platoon
Twenty-Second Tactical
[edit] Others
SPARTAN-058 (Unconscious in Cryo Pod)
Jonesy (Crew member's cat)

MJOLNIR

2008-05-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

It was designed by Dr. Catherine Halsey a civilian scientist in the employment of the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence section three. The armor has undergone several incarnations during the many years of its development. The armor line is named for the mythical weapon Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor, weapon of the Norse god of lightning, thunder, wind, and rain. The origin for the word "Mjölnir" is unknown. The Icelandic verbs mölva (to crush) and mala (to grind) have been suggested as possible translations. Another theory suggests that Mjolnir might be related to the Russian word молния (molniya) and the Welsh word melt (both words being translated as "lightning"). This second theory parallels with the idea that Thor, being a god of thunder, therefore might have used lightning as his weapon.
Dr. Halsey's decision to name what most would consider a defensive item after an offensive weapon tells much about her design philosophy for the project, namely that the Spartan-IIs designed to wear the armor would be primarily an offensive force.

Flood(Halo)

2008-05-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

The Flood are fictional parasitic alien life forms in the Halo video game series. They are introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved as a secondary enemy to the game's protagonist, Master Chief, and return in Halo 2 and Halo 3 to fill the same role. The Flood are driven by a desire to infect sentient life they encounter, and are depicted as such a threat that the ancient Forerunner were forced to kill most of themselves and all other sentient life nearly 100,000 years before the beginning of Halo in an effort to starve the Flood to death.
The player's discovery of the Flood in Halo: Combat Evolved is a major plot twist that is kept suspenseful and tense, and was one of the surprises reviewers noted positively upon release. The Flood's return in Halo 2 and Halo 3 was less enthusiastically praised. Reaction to the faction varied; while some publications found the Flood too derivative and a clichéd element of science fiction, Wizard Magazine rated them among the greatest villains of all time.

Identified UNSC Vessels and Stations

2008-05-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

Carriers
UNSC All Under Heaven
UNSC Atlas
UNSC Magellan
UNSC Musashi - Destroyed
UNSC Stalingrad - Destroyed
UNSC Trafalgar - Supercarrier, Destroyed

Cruisers
UNSC Basra - Destroyed
UNSC Dawn Under Heaven - Halcyon-class , Unknown
UNSC Hannibal - Destroyed
UNSC Leviathan - Marathon-class - unknown, presumably in active service
UNSC Pillar of Autumn - Halcyon-class , Destroyed

Destroyers
UNSC Brasidas - Destroyed
UNSC Iroquois -Unknown, probably destroyed
UNSC Glasgow Kiss - Destroyed
UNSC Heracles - Destroyed
UNSC Herodotus - Destroyed
UNSC Iwo Jima - Destroyed
UNSC Lancelot - Destroyed
UNSC Minotaur - Destroyed
UNSC Pioneer
UNSC Resolute
UNSC Tharsis - Destroyed

Frigates
UNSC Adriatic - in active service
UNSC Aegis Fate - in active service
UNSC Alliance - Destroyed
UNSC Allegiance - Destroyed
UNSC Arabia - Destroyed
UNSC Commonwealth - Unknown
UNSC Euphrates - Unknown, possibly destroyed
UNSC Fair Weather - Destroyed
UNSC Forward Unto Dawn - Destroyed, rear section lost in space
UNSC Gettysburg - Unknown, flown back to Earth
UNSC Gorgon
UNSC In Amber Clad - Destroyed, or at least consumed by the Flood when they overtook High Charity.
UNSC Meriwether Lewis - Destroyed
UNSC Midsummer Night
UNSC Paris- Unknown, probably Destroyed
UNSC Redoubtable- Unknown, probably Destroyed
UNSC Tannenberg
UNSC Vostok - Destroyed

Prowlers
UNSC Apocalypso - Destroyed
UNSC Applebee
UNSC Athens
UNSC Circumference - Destroyed
UNSC Dusk
UNSC Lark
UNSC Point of No Return
UNSC Razor's Edge

Corvettes
UNSC Chalons
UNSC Coral Sea- Unknown
UNSC Pony Express
UNSC Two for Flinching
UNSC Bunker Hill
UNSC Bum Rush
Colony Ships
UNSC Spirit of Fire - Modified Phoenix-class Colony Ship
UNSC Skidbladnir - Phoenix-class Colony Ship, scrapped
Odyssey - Colony Ship
Other Ships
UNSC Agincourt - Supply ship, Destroyed
UNSC Argo - Scout Ship, Destroyed
UNSC Walk of Shame - ONI sloop
Beatrice - Chiroptera-class , Destroyed
Coda - Shuttle Pod, Destroyed
Han - Diplomatic Shuttle
Hermes II
UNSC Laden - Parabola-class
UNSC Onan - Cargo Freighter
UNSC Point of No Return - Stealth Destroyer, UNSC wartime command center
UNSC Witch Bucket
Stations

Orbital Defense Platforms
Cairo Station
Athens Station - Destroyed
Malta Station - Destroyed
Nassau Station (Fell through temporal anomaly, orbiting Earth in 2004)

Mobile Stations
UNSC Cradle - Refit/Repair Facility, Destroyed
Station Delphi - Shipyard, Decommissioned
UNSC Hopeful - Hospital Ship

Remote Scanning Outposts
Fermion - Destroyed
Democritus
Archimedes
Tripoli

Medical Stations
ONI Medical Facility
M25L Recovery Station

List of Known ODST

2008-05-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Major Antonio Silva: Killed In Action
First Lieutenant Melissa McKay: Killed In Action
Second Lieutenant Dalu: Killed In Action
Second Lieutenant Oros: Killed In Action
Master Sergeant Lister: Killed In Action
Company Sergeant Tink Carter: Killed In Action
Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker: Active
Gunnery Sergeant Waller: Killed In Action
Sergeant Corly: Killed In Action
Sergeant Parker: Killed In Action
Corporal Locklear: Killed In Action
Lance Corporal "Snaky" Jones: Missing In Action
Private First Class Hosky: Killed In Action
Private Butkis: Active
Private Jones: Active
Private O'Brian: Killed In Action
Private Marie Postly: Killed In Action
Private Satha: Killed In Action
Private Walpole: Active
Al-Thani: Killed In Action
Dawkins: Killed In Action
"Doc" Valdez : Killed In Action
Joe: Active
Murphy: Missing In Action
Suzuki: Killed In Action
Yutrzenika: Killed In Action
T. Rymann: Killed In Action
S. Hartley: Wounded In Action

Halo: The Flood

2008-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

The novel, like the video game it is based on, begins as the Pillar of Autumn exits slipspace. Surprisingly, when the Autumn drops out of slipspace it encounters a massive ringworld hidden by a moon in orbit around a gas giant. In the system are a host of Covenant, who notice the lone ship. A Prophet forbids the fleet to fire on the Autumn, for fear of damaging the ring.Instead, the Covenant are willing to sacrifice more lives in order to board and capture the ship. Meanwhile, technicians on the Autumn prepare for battle and awaken a single soldier from cryo sleep- a SPARTAN-II known as the Master Chief.
The Covenant board the Autumn; deprived of defensive options, the Autumn's captain, Jacob Keyes, tells the crew to abandon ship. The Master Chief is entrusted with the A.I. Cortana; given the wealth of tactical information the A.I. contains, Keyes cannot allow Cortana to fall into enemy hands. The Master Chief leaves for the surface of Halo in a lifeboat; other soldiers, including a squad of shock troops lead by Major Antonio Silva and his second-in-command, Melissa McKay, land by special drop pods, and take a strategic bluff from the Covenant to use as a base of operations. Captain Keyes is captured by the Covenant, and taken aboard the Covenant cruiser Truth and Reconciliation; the Master Chief and a squad of Marines board the Truth and Reconciliation, rescuing the captain. Keyes has learned that the ringworld they are on has vast significance to the Covenant- they believe that "Halo", as they call the ring, is a weapon of unimaginable power. Escaping from the Covenant cruiser, Keyes gives the Master Chief the mission of finding the Control Room of Halo before the Covenant. The Master Chief and Cortana discover the location of the Control Room, and with the help of some Marines, insert Cortana into Halo's computer network. However Cortana realizes that the ring is not a weapon as they understood at all- but before the Chief can press her with questions, Cortana tells the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes.
Dropped into the swamp where Keyes and his squad disappeared, the Master Chief discovers that the Captain has been captured and both human and Covenant soldiers have been turned into zombie-like creatures by bulbous aliens. One soldier, Private Wallace Jenkins, is left still semi-conscious and painfully aware of his predicament, unable to control his movement or actions as his former friends and he attack McKay's troops. Jenkins intends on ending his life, but is instead captured by McKay for study. The Chief is approached by Halo's resident A.I., 343 Guilty Spark, who informs the Chief that the creatures he has encountered are called the Flood, a virulent parasite that infects hosts and converts them into forms for combat. To activate Halo's defenses, Spark needs the Master Chief's help. In Halo's Control Room, Guilty Spark gives the Master Chief the key to activate Halo, but is stopped by a furious Cortana. Cortana explains that Halo is a weapon, but it doesn't kill the Flood- it kills their food, meaning humans, Covenant, and any other sentient life. Realizing that they have to stop Guilty Spark from activating Halo, Cortana and the Master Chief decide to destroy Halo by detonating the crash-landed Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors. In order to do this, they need Captain Keyes' neural implants. Cortana discovers the Captain is still alive, held prisoner once again aboard the Truth and Reconciliation, now in the hands of the Flood who are trying to escape Halo. The Chief fights Covenant and Flood to the Captain, but finds out he is too late- the Captain has been assimilated into the parasite. The Chief retrieves the implants and leaves the Truth for the Autumn.
While the Chief and Cortana head to the Autumn, Alpha Base is evacuated. Silva decides to retake the Truth and Reconciliation and pilot the ship away in order to avoid being on Halo when the Autumn blows. The ship is taken successfully, but McKay realizes that Silva is blinded by the thought of promotion and glory to the danger of the Flood; if even one Flood specimen escaped containment on Earth, the entire planet could fall. Jenkins draws McKay's attention to a vital energy line on the ship, and realizing that the destruction of the Flood is more important then Silva's promotion, cuts the cable, sending the Truth and Reconciliation crashing into Halo, killing all aboard.
At the Autumn, the Master Chief is forced to destabilize the fusion reactors manually as 343 Guilty Spark and his robotic Sentinels try to stop them. Once the countdown until detonation has begun, Cortana directs the Chief to a fighter still docked in the Pillar of Autumn hangar. Gunning the engines, the Chief and Cortana escape the ring just as the Autumn explodes, ending the threat of the Flood. Cortana scans for survivors and realizes that they are seemingly the only two who have survived. Cortana tells the Master Chief that the fight is finished, to which the Chief replies, "No. I think we're just getting started."

Master Chief

2008-04-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, commonly called the 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.
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. Electronic Gaming Monthly named the Master Chief as the eighth greatest video game character ever.

SPARTAN PROJECT

2008-04-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

The SPARTAN Project is a fictional government project in the Halo series which produces supersoldiers. The protagonist of the video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 —the Master Chief— is a Spartan, and he and his compatriots also appear in the Halo novels and comics. The Spartan’s name comes from the elite warriors of ancient Sparta; these future counterparts were designed to be the ultimate tool to use against the United Nations Space Command’s enemies. Possessing superior strength, quick reflexes, battle training and powerful armor, the Spartans inspire equal parts awe and terror in friend and foe alike. With humanity facing extermination by the alien Covenant, the Spartans are seemingly humanity's last hope.
While Master Chief is the only Spartan seen in the video games, the supersoldiers have a much larger role in the expanded universe. Bungie and partners have produced several series of action figures and other promotional materials featuring the Spartans, whose armor (worn by the Master Chief) is the most visible symbol of the franchise. Some hobbyists have even constructed their own armor and helmets, with one inventor being inspired to create his own combat-ready battle armor.

United Nations Space Command

2008-04-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

The United Nations Space Command is the main government of future humanity, spanning multiple worlds besides Earth. Formed in the 2160s, during a period where remnants of old cultural ideologies clashed over supremacy in the Solar System, the UNSC primarily served as an overseer of United Nations military operations in space. After initiating massive militarization propaganda throughout its off-world colonies, the UN, through the UNSC, defeated Communist and Fascist forces in a conflict generally named as the "Interplanetary War", consisting of several side-battles that took place on Mars, the Jovian Moons and the South American Rain forests. Although the war brought a great deal of suffering to both the colonial population and the residents of Earth, it also united humanity's military forces into a common armed force by the end of the 22nd century: the UNSC.
Before the Covenant's attack on Harvest, humanity was in turmoil, with the more remote colonies fighting for independence from the UNSC. To help quell the revolts, the UNSC commissioned the SPARTAN Project, which created elite supersoldiers to stealthily eliminate insurrectionists. When the Covenant began decimating the outer colonies, these Spartans became humanity's best hope against the technological superiority of the aliens. By Halo: Combat Evolved, Earth-- whose location is kept secret from the Covenant-- is the last remaining Human bastion; it falls under attack during Halo 2. The end of the Human-Covenant war only comes after one of the Spartans, MCPO John-117, helps to eliminate the Covenant's leadership and destroy the Flood.
From the beginning of Halo: Combat Evolved's development, environmental artist Paul Russel pushed the concept of three "schools" of Halo architecture for each faction; for future humanity, the artists and developers settled on a functional, industrial look. Art Director Marcus Lehto said that the artists examined current technology trends and tried to extrapolate what future technology would look like. Designs were molded by the desire for building a realized and distinctive feel for the human ships and buildings, but also to make the areas fun to play in. For example, the design team wanted a cramped, claustrophobic feel for the human ship levels in Combat Evolved. Ron Cobb's work on Aliens informed some of the design for a "lived in" appearance. In comparison to the visions of dystopia common in many other science fiction works, the cities and buildings of Earth which were first shown in Halo 2 were clean and functional, with parks and attractive structures. Character design for the UNSC was more straightforward, with uniforms based on existing military outfits, ranks, and insignia.
Due to Halo being a first person shooter, significant emphasis was put into the design of human weaponry. The chief designer for human weapons was Robt McLees, who at the time of Combat Evolved's development was the only staff member at Bungie with knowledge of firearms; McLees wanted to make sure that the weapons looked "cool", but were also grounded by real-world physics and considerations. The game designers also wanted items that would be recognizable to players, yet futuristic-looking enough to plausibly exist in Halo's 2552. In an interview, McLees noted that after human weapons had been vetted and the rough design worked out, "I went ahead and built the highest-res LOD (level of detail) – and this is where I get "bogged down" with all of the stuff that "nobody cares about" like correct barrel diameter, placement of safeties, sights, magazine release buttons, and making sure that the magazines are actually large enough to hold all the bullets they're supposed to, that they would feed correctly and that the casings eject out of the correct side of the gun." Occasionally, technical restraints forced design changes; the submachine gun introduced in Halo 2 originally featured a transparent magazine which allowed players to see the caseless ammo feed into the gun, but it proved too ambitious given the time and hardware available.
Vehicles play an important role in the Halo games, and so vehicles were also given a long development stage. The UNSC's vehicles were designed by Marcus Lehto, Eric Arroyo, and Eddie Smith, and were designed to be functional and utilitarian. Their use of wheels also made them more fun to drive.

Halo: The Fall of Reach

2008-04-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

The novel opens with the civilian Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes traveling to meet John, a six-year-old boy. Dr. Halsey reveals to Keyes that John is one of 150 children who possess rare genetic markers making them suitable for conscription into the SPARTAN-II program, a secret experiment with the aim of creating super soldiers for the UNSC to quell rebellions.[5] Seventy-five of the children are kidnapped by operatives of the Office of Naval Intelligence and replaced by clones engineered to die of natural causes shortly after.[6] From this point on, the recruits are known only by their first name and a three digit number. John-117 and the rest of the children are drilled and trained by Franklin Mendez and John demonstrates leadership of his fellow Spartans leading to his promotion to squad leader. In 2525, the Spartans undergo a series of surgical enhancements which turn them into highly efficient super soldiers at the cost of crippling or killing more than half of the original seventy-five.[7] The Spartans are also equipped with powerful MJOLNIR battle armor, designed to respond as quickly as the soldier's thoughts. John-117 is given the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer.[8] The Spartans are highly successful, but they experience a priority shift after a collective of alien races known as the Covenant begin obliterating human colonies, declaring humanity's destruction the will of the Gods. Mendez leaves the group to train the next generation of Spartans as John and his team mates first face the Covenant.[9]
By 2552, the war against the Covenant is going poorly. The technological superiority of the Covenant means that space battles heavily favor the Covenant, and the UNSC only wins by tremendous losses. To prevent the discovery of Earth or other human colonies, Vice Admiral Cole creates the "Cole Protocol", which forbids direct slipspace jumps to Earth and the destruction of a ship before it can be captured by the Covenant. Jacob Keyes, now commander of the destroyer Iroquois, discovers four Covenant ships arriving at the Sigma Octanus System, and single-handedly destroys three of them; his heroics earn Keyes the rank of Captain. The Covenant proceed to overrun Sigma Octanus IV, searching for a mysterious ancient artifact. Despite a costly fight, the humans manage to repel the Covenant, and Keyes intercepts a coded Covenant transmission from the surface before the Covenant retreat.[10] The Iroqouis heads to Reach, unwittingly bringing a Covenant tracking device with it.[11]
Soon after, Keyes is given the command of the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn for a secret mission; the Spartans are to capture one of the Covenant's religious leaders, a Prophet, and barter a truce.[12] To assist the Spartans, Halsey also introduces John to the artificial intelligence Cortana, who would assist the Spartans by residing in their MJOLNIR armor.[13] Before the mission can begin, however, Reach is attacked by a massive Covenant fleet. John and Cortana reach the Pillar of Autumn, but most of the other Spartans are presumed killed as the Covenant vitrify the surface of Reach, turning the landmasses into glass.[14] Cortana initiates a slipspace course based on the ancient glyphs intercepted by the Covenant at Sigma Octanus,[15] the course takes them to a massive ringworld known as Halo, setting the stage for the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.[16]

REFERENCES:

^ Nylund, Eric (2001-10-30). Halo: The Fall of Reach. Del Rey Books, 26.
^ Dietz, William C. (2003-04-01). Halo: The Flood. Del Rey Books, 18.
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 64
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 116
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 100
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 199
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 216
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 243
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 255
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 330
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 331
^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 339

Halo: The Story So Far................

2008-04-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, has put its full weight behind the colonization effort--millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar system. A keystone of humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warship for the UNSC armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Reach is also a hub of scientific and military activity.