Master Chief

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

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

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

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................

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.