Master Chief (Halo)/Synopsis

The Story of the Master Chief from the Halo franchise.
==Beginnings==
John was an unknowing child who excelled at always being at the top. He never lost and this was one of the qualities that Dr. Halsey adhered for in the SPARTAN project. Even at a young age, he was exceptionally strong and fast compared to other children of his age group and fortunately, it made him stick out long enough for him to be noticed. When Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Keyes first observed John in action on his home planet of Eridanus II in the small city of Elysium. He qualified beyond their expectations having extraordinary reflexes, physical proportions and and extremely aggressive drive for success. He was chosen out of 150 possible candidates and was given one last task by Dr. Halsey to determine whether was suitable or not. He was asked to watch an old coin and choose which side it would land on. As it flew through the air, John snatched it before it even landed and chose correctly, the Eagle. Even at the young age of 6, John was referred to by Dr. Halsey of having amazing eye-sight.
Alongside 74 other children, John was conscripted and covertly kidnapped from his parents to initiate his SPARTAN training. In their absence, flash clones of the children were left behind to avoid any suspicion or cause any concern. John and the other candidates were taken to the planet Reach where Dr. Halsey informed them of the SPARTAN- II program they were to be initiated into and how they would become humanity's greatest protectors. The following morning, John awoke in his quarters and looked upon his new name: John-117.
== Fall of Reach ==
The date is July 24, 2552. Reach, a major military and civilian colony of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), second only to the Earth itself in the Sol System, finds itself under attack by the Covenant Empire after the loss of the colony Harvest in 2525, before the Covenant then assaulted and glassed every Outer Colony under the UNSC before moving in on the Inner Colonies, believing Humanity to be a scourge of their religious beliefs that must be purged from the universe. That was what first alerted the UNSC of the Covenant as they conquered and glassed colony after colony of the UNSC before arriving in the Epsilon Eridani System to attack Reach. If Reach is lost, the UNSC loses a valuable part of their Inner Colonies, an important military and civilian hub world, and leaves Earth as the sole main hub world left under their control, and if the Covenant find Earth, it could mean Armageddon for Humanity. Despite the UNSC rallying to try and slow, if not stop, the Covenant advance, the efforts are too little too late to protect Reach.
Despite heroic attempts to fight the Covenant once it was discovered they were on Reach, especially from Noble Team, several of Master Chief's experienced veteran Spartans, including rookie member SPARTAN-B312, AKA Noble Six, in just over a month of combat, Reach is overwhelmed by the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice under Thel 'Vadam, and glassed. However, Master Chief escapes aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn in cryogenic stasis, alongside the vital A.I. Cortana, delivered personally by Noble Six, and under Captain Jacob Keyes, following the Cole Protocol to protect Earth from being found by the Covenant, the Autumn makes a blind slipspace jump to lure 'Vadam's fleet away from Reach, and from Earth.
== Installation 04 ==
When the Autumn emerges from its jump on September 19th, approximately three weeks after leaving Reach as it fell to the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice and was glassed, it arrives over the planet Threshold, home to one of the Forerunners' doomsday weapons, the aptly-dubbed "Halo". Unfortunately, the Autumn soon finds itself under attack from 'Vadam's fleet that had jumped ahead of it and were waiting in ambush. With little option left, Keyes has Cortana authorize the waking of Master Chief from his cryogenic sleep in Cryo Bay 2 of the Autumn. When Chief awakens, he's quickly given his training regiment with his targeting and armor shields before Keyes called over the intercom to order Chief to the bridge immediately.Making his way through the ship as crewman and UNSC Marines fight off the Covenant as blast doors seal to prevent the Covenant from getting too far through the ship, just as one group of Covenant are almost to the bridge, they are locked out by the blast doors, ensuring Master Chief makes it safely to the bridge to meet with Keyes and Cortana.Entrusted with Cortana's well-being and protection by Keyes, Master Chief begins working his way through the ship to the lifeboat launch bays to abandon ship, aiding Marines along the way in fighting the Covenant, and discovering the Covenant attaching their boarding craft where the ship's airlocks are to get aboard as the crew escapes. Chief finally reaches one launch bay that still has one last lifeboat still docked awaiting launch, and after helping a terrified Marine that feared he was about to die aboard by tossing him in, Chief climbs aboard himself and seals the hatch for a safe launch.After the lifeboat crashes on Halo, leaving Chief the only survivor as the Marines and pilot all died in the crash, he makes his way to regroup with another lifeboat, finding several Marines and crewmen under Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson holding the line where their lifeboat landed against multiple Covenant Spirit dropships. After killing all the Covenant, a friendly UNSC Pelican dropship piloted by Foehammer, callsign Echo-419, arrives to pick up the survivors and provide a Warthog for the Chief to track down several more lifeboats and rescue their survivors before the Covenant get to them first.With the support of those Marines that stayed behind to ride shotgun and man the .50-cal turret on the back of the Warthog, the Chief makes his way through the Forerunners' underground tunnels to reach the area where the other lifeboats landed after seeing them coming in hot earlier. Fighting off more Covenant reinforcements brought in by Spirit dropships, Chief keeps the Marines and crewmen alive until Foehammer arrives to pick them up. Once the last of the survivors are rescued, Chief boards Foehammer himself to return to the command shuttle for their next assignment, which was rescuing Captain Keyes as he had been captured by the Covenant and was being held prisoner on their cruiser Truth and Reconciliation. Joined by Marines to help board the Covenant vessel to rescue Keyes, they make their way to the gravity lift the ship uses to ferry troops and supplies from the ship to the surface and vice versa. Despite heavy resistance from the Covenant, including a pair of Hunters sent down to protect the lift, Master Chief and the Marines clear it out and are lifted up into the ship to begin the search for the brig where Keyes was being held.Fighting through the ship and up the shuttle bay's three levels, Chief and his fire team soon reach the bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation, taking out the Zealot Elite serving as the shipmaster of the vessel along with the bridge crew. While the fire team stays behind to secure the bridge and wait for the Chief to return with the captain, Chief makes his way to the brig, soon reaching the room where Keyes and several Marines are being held in holding cells. Taking out the Zealot Elite and his two Stealth Elites acting as guards along with the Grunts, Chief then opens the cells and frees the captain and the Marines. Arming themselves with Covenant weapons, Keyes explains what he overheard from the guards about Halo, and with Cortana verifying the captain's concerns with checking the Covenant Battle Network, Keyes fears the Covenant will use Halo to wipe out Humanity, and assigns Chief and Cortana to find Halo's Control Room before the Covenant do. Making their way back to the bridge, they find the fire team all KIA from Energy Sword equipped Stealth Elites. After killing them, Cortana calls Foehammer to come pick them up, but Foehammer replies she is unable to as she's been engaged by Covenant Banshee air patrols and can't reach the shuttle bay to retrieve them. Luckily, Keyes remembers that the shuttle bay may still have a Spirit dropship docked, and Cortana verifies it. Fighting back to the shuttle bay, Chief releases the Spirit from its docking clamps, but as everyone boards it and Keyes decides to pilot it himself, two Hunters appear to engage the dropship. Keyes rams the Spirit into the Hunters, squashing them against the wall, before then flying the Spirit out of the shuttle bay and back to the command shuttle to regroup with the rest of the crew from the Autumn.
With their mission clear, Chief and a large team of Marines are sent to find the Silent Cartographer, the Map Room that will direct them to Halo's Control Room. Despite heavy resistance from the Covenant, especially after they lock the door to the Silent Cartographer, forcing the Chief to detour to find the security override to reopen it, Chief reaches the Cartographer and learns of the location of the Control Room. Calling in Foehammer to pick them up, Cortana directs her to where a passageway into Halo's interior areas opens up to allow them a shortcut up the ring to the Control Room's location. After they arrive and Foehammer drops off the Chief, Master Chief makes his way to regroup with Fire Team Zulu and get their support to fight past the Covenant to get closer to the Control Room, aided by a Scorpion Tank that the Marines had access to for support against the Covenant and their own vehicles in Ghosts, Banshees, and Wraiths. Once reaching a point where Cortana drops a distress beacon for the Marines so Foehammer can pick them up, she and the Chief continue onwards and finally take out the last of the Covenant defending the Control Room, entering it, and having Chief install Cortana into the Control Room's panel, where it appears Cortana is having a euphoric revelation at gaining access to Halo's vast information storage, even going so far as telling off Chief when he tries to remind her of why they came there in the first place. However, as she accesses Halo's databases and learns of how the Forerunners build Halo as a "fortress world", something she comes across causes her to admonish the Covenant for their ignorance before telling Master Chief to find Keyes and stop him from accessing the so-called "weapons cache" the Covenant were looking for before it is too late.
Foehammer drops Chief off near the last known position of Keyes and his team, and as he makes his way through the dark, rain-covered swamp to find him, Chief finds the crashed Pelican Victor-933, along with a crashed Covenant Spirit dropship. Proceeding further, he soon sees the Covenant under attack from something coming out of a Forerunner structure. Making his way in, he finds the Covenant apparently holding position facing a door, ready for something to come out so they can kill it immediately. He later finds a lone Marine freaking out and firing at him out of terror, thinking he's one of the things that attacked the rest of his squad. Following an UNSC MA5B Assault Rifle pointing like an arrow in the right direction, Chief reaches a door that appears to have been opened with a spoofer. Just as he's about to use it to unlock the door, something is heard that causes him to sweep the area, but finding nothing, he uses the spoofer to open the door, and is greeted with a dead Marine falling into his arms when it opens. Carefully carrying his dead comrade into the room before laying him down on the floor, Chief then notices several discarded UNSC weapons, blood stains, and a Marine's helmet before him. Recovering the helmet data recorder and plugging it into his helmet where Cortana had been, Chief sees things from the view of Private Wallace Jenkins as he and his fire team, led by SSgt. Johnson, make their way to the same structure Chief is in, coming across a Covenant Elite patrol that appears to have had their interiors brutally gutted when they are joined by Keyes and his fire team. Reaching the same door Chief just entered, they make their way inside, and soon get a distress call from the Second Squad that remained topside guarding the entrance. Before they have a chance to investigate, they are attacked by the Flood, who quickly outnumber them, with Jenkins soon being attacked himself, cutting off the video feed. Chief is soon attacked by the Flood himself, and as he fights his way out, he soon meets up with the surviving Second Squad. As Foehammer directs them to a rendezvous point where she can pick them up, the Marines and Chief are attacked by the Flood, soon reaching where they get help from a mysterious glowing blue cube and its Sentinel robots as they burn the Flood with their lasers. Chief is then teleported up to meet the cube, identifying itself as 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04, and quickly takes the Chief with him to stop the Flood, leaving the Marines behind to be picked up by Foehammer as she frantically calls Chief over the radio after losing his signal.
Transporting Chief with him to the Library, where the Activation Index for Halo is located, the Monitor leads Chief as he ascends to the upper floors of the Library until reaching the main elevator that leads back down to where he can safely retrieve the Index after being unable to earlier. The Library is crawling with Flood, but the Monitor occasionally calls in Sentinels to aid Chief as he fights past them to reach the top of the Library. Once Chief reaches the top and comes back down to get the Index, the Monitor claims it for safety reasons before teleporting himself and Chief back to the Control Room. Once there, Chief notices that Cortana doesn't seem to be there after leaving her behind to find Keyes alone. Only when the Monitor hands Chief the Index and he inserts it into the console, nothing seems to happen, much to the Monitor's puzzlement.With the truth now known to him, Chief and Cortana make their way out of the Control Room and use Covenant Banshees they commandeer to reach and take out the pulse generators that serve as Halo's primary firing mechanisms. Once all three are overloaded, their next step is to locate Captain Keyes and use his neural implants to activate the self-destruct on the Pillar of Autumn, figuring that the ship's fusion reactors going into meltdown will generate an explosion powerful enough to destroy Halo. Using the Monitor's teleportation ability to transfer the Chief back to the Truth and Reconciliation, they can hear Keyes on their communication frequency ordering them to withdraw and forget about him, but Cortana refuses to leave him. After being forced to jump out of the ship and work their way back to the gravity lift to get back in, they soon are reaching the bridge once more, only to hear Keyes screaming in agony on the radio as Cortana detects his vital signs flatlining and tells Chief to hurry, but they are too late. They arrive to find that Keyes has already been assimilated by the Flood, becoming a Proto-Gravemind. Knowing what the Captain would want them to do, Chief punches into Keyes' skull and retrieves his neural implants. After shaking off the Flood biomass on them, Chief sticks them in his helmet, and with nothing else left to do, he returns to the shuttle bay to commandeer a Banshee that just arrived from escorting a Spirit dropship in with Spec Ops Covenant aboard, and despite being under fire from the Covenant when they see him, Chief grabs a Banshee and flees the Truth and Reconciliation for the last time as the Covenant continue to fire on him until he's out of sight.
Chief soon reaches the crash site of the Autumn, and its looks pitiful after the damage it suffered. Crashing the Banshee short of one of the lifeboat launch bays, but climbing up back into the ship through the port, Chief heads back to the bridge, despite the ship crawling with Covenant, Flood, and Sentinels, and plugs Cortana back into her pedestal by the main viewscreen. Once back home, Cortana activates the self-destruct, ensuring there's enough time for her and Chief to evacuate and put some distance between them and Halo, but their victory is short-lived, when they hear the Monitor over the ship communications system, and he disables the self-destruct while perusing through Cortana's databanks to learn all he can about the history of humanity, shocked they would destroy this massive database record just to stop him. Nevertheless, Cortana fears he's trying to shut down the fusion reactors and prevent the destruction of the Autumn and Halo as she detects him in the Engineering section, but Chief has an idea on how they might be able to still set the cores into meltdown without the self-destruct: Do it himself by cracking the engine shields to destabilize the engines, that would set off a chain reaction to cause the reactors to go into meltdown and destroy the Autumn. Grabbing Cortana from her pedestal while avoiding fire from several Sentinels that appear to stop him, Chief then heads to the engine room, stopping by the Armory to pick up a rocket launcher to help damage the engines. Once there, and despite constant attacks from Sentinels and Flood as the Monitor floats about randomly telling Chief to stop his madness, Chief manages to damage all four engines, sending them into critical meltdown. Quickly making his way to a Warthog vehicle bay, Chief grabs one and drives like mad to reach a rendezvous point where Foehammer can pick him up and evac out of there. Unfortunately, as Foehammer appears, she's being pursued by two Banshees, and soon takes a critical hit to her starboard wings and starts losing control, shouting "Mayday!" into her radio as she struggles to control her badly-wounded bird before it falls out of sight. With Foehammer lost, the only option left is to head for the hangar and board a Longsword fighter still docked there. Chief makes it with barely any time left to spare, and as Flood try to chase him down and stop him, he gets aboard, closes the hatch, starts the engine, and flies the Longsword out of the hangar and into the sky as the Autumn continues to blow up behind him. He escapes Halo's atmosphere and gets as much distance as he can from the ringworld before the Autumn finally cataclysmically explodes, ripping Halo apart. When Chief asks if there were any other survivors, Cortana sadly reports no. They're the only ones.
== After Installation 04 ==
Chief and Cortana later regroup with several other survivors from Halo, including SSgt. Johnson and several Spartans. After commandeering the Covenant ship Ascendant Justice and meeting up with the UNSC Gettysburg, they headed to the Covenant repair-and-refit station Unyielding Hierophant, only to find a massive 500-ship strong Covenant fleet poised to attack Earth. Thanks to some clever sabotage, they are able to destroy the Unyielding Hierophant, while Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson sacrifice themselves to blow up the Ascendant Justice to wipe out the Covenant fleet, leaving only 14 of the original 500 ships left. Using the UNSC Gettysburg, Chief, Cortana, Johnson, and the other survivors, return safely home to the Sol System and Planet Earth.
== Battle of Earth ==
Having made it safely home to Earth, Chief reports to the Orbital Defense Platform Cairo Station, where on October 20th, a month after the events on Installation 04 and two months after the Fall of Reach, he receives his new MJOLNIR Mark VI armor from the Master Gunnery Sergeant before joining Johnson, now promoted to Sergeant Major, with heading to the bridge for an awards ceremony overseen by Fleet Admiral Lord Hood, which included Captain Keyes' daughter, Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes, accepting a Colonial Cross posthumously for her father. Unfortunately, the ceremony is interrupted when the alarm sounds as the Covenant Fleet of Sacred Consecration has just dropped out of slipspace outside the ODP battle cluster's firing range. Fleet Admiral Harper, commanding the UNSC Home Fleet assigned to protect Earth at all costs, moves to engage the smaller fleet of 15 Covenant capital ships, but Hood orders him to form up around the Cairo and its sister ODPs in the Athens and Malta to protect them, assigns Miranda to get to her own frigate, the UNSC In Amber Clad, and link up with the fleet, and Cortana to man the Cairo MAC gun to cut loose on the Covenant as soon as they come in range.As the Chief aids in the defense of the Cairo, they soon notice that the Covenant were leaving the Malta, before the Malta is suddenly blown apart from a massive explosion from within the heart of the MAC gun. Shortly thereafter, the Athens meets a similar fate, and Cortana realizes that the Covenant must have planted a bomb in those stations to blow them up, so they must have planted one in the Cairo too. As Chief makes his way through the station, he soon rejoins Miranda and Johnson, who were intercepted on the way to In Amber Clad by Covenant. Clearing them out so they can board the frigate, Chief continues onward and soon reaches the shipping area of the station, just as Cortana reports that the boarders have breached the fire control center for the MAC gun and planted their bomb there, but she needs Chief's help to make contact with the detonator. In the meantime, Harper orders his fleet to engage the Covenant fleet as Cortana opens fire with the MAC gun. Just as the Chief reaches the airlock leading to the moving parts of the MAC gun to head for the fire control center, Harper reports that the Covenant CAS-class assault carriers are breaking through and heading for the Cairo. Hood orders Cortana to fire on the first carrier and Harper to focus on the second, but the first carrier passes right by the Cairo and heads for Earth. Chief reaches the fire control center, and after clearing out the Grunts and Elites guarding the bomb, as the second carrier is seen heading towards Earth and passing right by the Cairo, transfers Cortana to his suit and disarms the bomb just in time. Miranda then chimes in that she's in position to attack, but Hood denies her request as she stands no chance against a Covenant CAS-class assault carrier.Dragging the bomb to the elevator, Chief takes it down to the airlock, where he activates the emergency depressurization to suck the bomb out into space and out of the Cairo, grabbing hold of it so he gets sucked out as well. As the second Covenant assault carrier looms below, a Marathon-class cruiser takes a direct hit from its energy projector to protect Chief, before two Longswords make a bombing run to open a gap in the hull for Chief to enter the ship through, ending up in the assault carrier's engine core. Rearming the bomb with Cortana's help, Chief then uses it to springboard out through a gap in the underside of the ship to escape the detonation as the bomb rips the assault carrier to pieces, while he lands safely on the In Amber Clad below, which then heads planet-side to where the first assault carrier was heading, somewhere in the eastern part of Africa and the city of Mombasa, Kenya.
Once In Amber Clad arrives over Mombasa, Chief is sent in with Johnson and several Marines in a trio of Pelicans, with word coming that one of the Covenant High Prophets, their highest-ranking hierarchal leaders, the Prophet of Regret, is on the assault carrier and calling for help. After a UNSC Marine reconnaissance/sniper team warns the Pelicans that their LZ is a hot zone, Johnson decides to still head in, and Hood orders Chief to get aboard the carrier and capture the Prophet of Regret alive. Mombasa is the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land at, and Regret is going to tell them why. Unfortunately, the Pelicans are confronted by a Covenant Scarab, which shoots down one Pelican and causes the second one, carrying Chief and Johnson, to go belly-up and crash. Chief, Johnson, and their Marines survive the crash, and make their way to a spot where they can hold out until help comes.
Once a Pelican arrives, and Chief takes out a couple of Hunters that smash down the way to the next Pelican crash site from earlier, Chief makes his way through Old Mombasa with his squad of Marines until they meet up with Gunnery Sergeant Stacker at the Hotel Zanzibar with his squad. Making their way to the beach, a Warthog arrives, special delivery from Miranda, and Chief takes the Marines aboard it to clear the beach as they head for the bridge that leads across the channel to New Mombasa.After clearing out several Ghosts and Elites dropped in by Covenant Orbital Insertion Pods, they reach a road tunnel that leads straight to the bridge and fight their way through it, dealing with several Covenant roadblocks along the way, and their Shadow transports trying to regroup. Before that, Cortana was analyzing the Covenant Battle Network and found something interesting...Reaching the bridge and meeting up with two surviving Marines, including a female one, the Scarab that shot down Chief's Pelican earlier is seen advancing down the bridge into New Mombasa. Johnson drops off a Scorpion Tank for Chief to use to fight his way up the bridge and into New Mombasa, dealing with Ghosts, Banshees, Wraiths, and Phantoms as he does so, until reaching the other side, dealing with the Covenant armor waiting at the toll booth, and advancing back into the tunnel until the Scorpion can proceed no further. Joined by the Marines that rode on the Scorpion and two more from a Warthog that joined them, Chief advances into the tunnel on foot, taking out Covenant until arriving back outside, where a Gauss Warthog driven by GySgt. Stacker arrives for Chief to man the turret of, blasting away at Covenant armor until they arrive on a main thoroughfare, where another Warthog, and the Marines that followed Chief and Stacker on foot, advance towards the main building where the command post is located. Once the Wraiths attacking it are eliminated, along with the Ghosts dropped off by a Phantom, two Pelicans arrive with reinforcements, including a Scorpion. Meeting up with Cpl. Perez, who takes them up to meet with the C.O., Sergeant Banks, Chief arrives just before the Scarab does. Despite the Scorpion's firepower, the Scarab is unfazed, and takes out the Scorpion with a single blast, before advancing up the street towards the command post, and climbing right over it, ignoring all the firepower the Marines bring to bear on it with the Warthogs, rockets, and bullets.Following the Scarab around to the back of the building, Chief, Banks, Perez, and another Marine follow it on the catwalks, firing down at the Covenant on the deck until the Scarab is forced to stop at the end of the canal, trapped. Once the Covenant attacking them are eliminated, Chief jumps down onto the Scarab to take out the two Elite pilots, along with the Ultra Elite and the two Ultra Grunts backing them up, though Chief is careful not to enrage the Ultra Elite to where it draws its Energy Sword to cut him to ribbons. Once the Elite pilots are dead, the Scarab collapses, totally disabled, and Chief emerges to see Regret deactivating his gravity lift, planning to flee. Miranda orders Johnson to retrieve Chief and return to her ship, while notifying Hood of Regret's withdrawal. Suspecting he'll try to break for orbit, Hood prepares to send a couple of heavy cruisers to intercept him, but Miranda's bridge crew spot Regret's assault carrier attempting a slipspace jump right over New Mombasa to escape. Miranda warns Hood of the move, and Hood gives her the go-ahead to pursue Regret, getting In Amber Clad as close to the assault carrier as they can before it makes the jump, leaving the resulting EMP from the jump to ravage Mombasa and the Space Elevator.
== Installation 05 ==
When the assault carrier emerges from the jump, with In Amber Clad and several pieces of buildings and other debris from Mombasa coming out of the portal as well behind it, it is then that Miranda and her crew bear witness to the appearance of Halo Installation 05.After Cortana explains what she remembers from the events on Installation 04 with Captain Keyes to Miranda, she asks Cortana for all the info she has on Installation 04, regardless of UNSC security clearance. Once Regret's carrier is located, Miranda decides that capturing Regret is still top priority to figure out why he came to Earth, then to Installation 05. Chief is assigned to head in first with the Helljumpers/ODSTs to secure an LZ for Johnson to follow with two Pelicans. Once they clear out the Covenant and disable their Shade turrets, Johnson arrives with a Warthog for Chief to use, and also spots a potential landmark where Regret is possibly located. Chief and his surviving ODSTs/Marines head out to find a way to it.Despite the Covenant putting up fierce resistance, especially taking control of a bridge and raising it to stall the humans, Chief, upon being provided with a Scorpion Tank, blasts his way to where he's soon forced to leave the tank behind to continue on foot, soon reaching some ruins where Chief and Cortana have their first run in with Elite Honor Guards, the main protectors of the Prophets of the Covenant. Listening to a hologram of Regret, with Cortana translating what he is saying to English, they learn that Regret plans on activating Installation 05 to accomplish the Covenant's "Great Journey", but knowing he needs the Activation Index to do so, Miranda orders Johnson back to In Amber Clad to head to the Library with her while Chief is given the order to terminate Regret as he is of no further use to them.Making his way to the temple in the middle of the lake where Regret is located, Chief bears witness when the entire Covenant armada and their Holy City, High Charity, arrive overhead, presumably to rescue Regret. Moving quickly inside and facing heavy resistance from Elite Honor Guards and Grunts protecting Regret, Chief is able to get aboard Regret's throne and punch him to death. Unfortunately, this leads to the Covenant fleet deciding to destroy the temple in retaliation, flinging Chief into the lake, where he is dragged further down by some mysterious tentacles.Chief soon awakens to find himself facing the Gravemind, hive mind of the Flood on Installation 05, and he's not alone as he's soon joined by Thel 'Vadam, the former Elite Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice that attacked Reach and followed the Pillar of Autumn to Installation 04, now having become the Arbiter of the Covenant, who immediately recognizes the Chief as the "Demon" that the Covenant hated for destroying Installation 04. As the Gravemind speaks to Chief and 'Vadam, it brings up the Monitor of Installation 05, 2401 Penitent Tangent, and a partially-assimilated Regret to explain the situation about the Halo Rings to them. As 'Vadam listens to the Gravemind explain that the Great Journey that the Covenant seek is a lie, Chief tries to convince him it is the truth.Seeing that 'Vadam needs more convincing, the Gravemind decides to send Chief and the Arbiter to stop the Prophets from activating Installation 05. Chief is sent straight to High Charity, teleporting in right in the middle of the Prophet of Truth's broadcast to the city of having acquired the Index to activate Halo. Spooking a Grunt and arming himself with the Grunt's Needler he dropped in his panic, Chief then proceeds through High Charity, rescuing a few Marines that had been captured and placed in the city's prison, as he chases after Truth and the Brute Chieftain Tartarus to recover the Index. As he does, In Amber Clad suddenly slipspace jumps into the city and crashes into a tower some distance away. In the meantime, Chief notices that civil war has broken out in High Charity as the Elites and Brutes are at each other's throats due to the changing of the guard after Chief killed Regret, putting the Brutes as the new Honor Guards in place of the Elites, infuriating them. By the time the Chief makes it through the Mausoleum of the Arbiter, Cortana picks up Miranda and Johnson's signals, but also Flood emerging from the wreckage of In Amber Clad. By the time Chief reaches the Phantom docking areas, he's too late to stop Truth from escaping towards the center of the city. Speaking to the Prophet of Mercy, who has a Flood Infection Form nibbling at his neck, Chief learns that Truth is heading for Earth to finish what Regret started. After Chief removes the Infection Form and pops it with his armor's shields, killing Mercy, Cortana realizes that the structure in the center of the city is a Forerunner ship. If Truth gets there and launches, he'll lead the Loyalist Covenant under his banner straight to Earth, and the Home Fleet won't stand a chance. When Chief reminds her of Tartarus as he has the Activation Index, Miranda, and Johnson, and can activate Halo, Cortana declares that she'll detonate the engines on In Amber Clad just like how they blew up the Pillar of Autumn to destroy this Halo similar to the last one should that happen. However, Cortana decides to stay in the Covenant network of High Charity to try and stall the launch sequence of the Forerunner ship for as long as she can, but makes it clear she'll have to stay there. Chief will have to go after Truth alone, without her. Once Chief reaches the power conduit leading to the ship, he uses it to get aboard just in time before the ship launches out of High Charity and slipspace jumps to Earth, leaving Cortana behind to watch it depart.
== Back to the Battle of Earth ==
Shortly after Chief returns to Earth aboard Truth's Forerunner Dreadnought, Miranda and Johnson find a means to return to Earth from Installation 05 themselves with help from the Arbiter and his Separatist Covenant forces. Once they find Chief in the forests of Africa near Mount Kilimanjaro, and Chief is told that the Arbiter and his Elites are allies of Humanity now, Chief soon fights with the Arbiter and Marines to a rendezvous point to be picked up by a Pelican and taken back to the Crow's Nest, a UNSC base nearby where Miranda is commanding the UNSC forces in the area. Once Chief reunites with the Lt. Commander, she briefs him on what happened in the meantime: Truth's Loyalist Covenant forces have destroyed most of the UNSC Home Fleet under FADM Harper that were not destroyed fighting Regret's smaller fleet, along with who knows how many of the ODPs and their MAC guns defending Earth. Casualties from the resulting terrestrial bombardment have been heavy, but for some reason, Truth concentrated all his forces in the ruins of New Mombasa after it was obliterated by Regret's slipspace jump previously, and no where else. Then, they started digging. As for Installation 05, Miranda, Johnson, and the Arbiter stopped it from activating, but now Truth is looking for something called "The Ark" to trigger all the Halo Installations at once, and if he succeeds, the Rings will kill them all, Humanity, Covenant, every single living being in the galaxy that can be food for the Flood. Nevertheless, contact is established with Lord Hood, and the plan is made to try and make a gap in Truth's anti-air defenses around the Forerunner Dreadnought so Hood can send what ships he still has to try and take the dreadnought out. However, power in the base fails before Hood can finish his orders to the Chief, cutting off the transmission, and Truth appears to taunt the UNSC about how they will be wiped out by him and his forces, by the order of his gods, before the power is restored shortly after he signs off. Realizing they are about to be attacked, Miranda orders the Crow's Nest evacuated, every last Marine and civilian there, wounded or combat effective, are to clear out immediately, with the plan afterwards being to raze the base with pre-planted explosives wired to a larger main bomb on a timer to keep it out of the hands of Truth's forces.
Chief helps clear out the hangar for evacuation, but upon returning to the ops center to see the main bomb, Miranda has already evacuated herself, but left Johnson behind to hold the ops center and arm the bomb. Chief then heads to the barracks to rescue as many Marines as he can there from the Brutes with the Arbiter's help, before heading back to the heliport to evacuate everyone on the Pelicans coming in to pick them up. Unfortunately, Johnson and his Marines were forced from the ops center and the Brutes have disarmed the bomb. Chief is left to head back to the ops center himself and clear out the Brutes inside before rearming the main explosives. Once the bomb is rearmed and the base is wired to blow, Chief evacuates back to the hangar to escape via a service elevator down to the base's vehicle garage leading out to Tsavo Highway, joining up with those Marines who took refuge there and hadn't evacuated yet. Together, they fight their way to the highway and proceed towards the city of Voi, where they can attempt to clear out the Loyalist Covenant AA defenses to open a path for Lord Hood. Once in Voi, they work to take out several AA Wraiths and a main Covenant AA cannon while supported by several factory worker civilians who wanted to help. Once the cannon is down, Hood moves in with three frigates to attack the dreadnought, but it is too late. Truth activates the artifact that the Loyalist fleet had been guarding, creating a massive portal over the area that he flees through as the Arbiter roars in frustration at Truth escaping. Before the UNSC can regroup, a Covenant CCS-class battlecruiser slipspaces in and crashes into the factory complex Chief had just gone through to reach the AA cannon, but from its physical appearance, it was not carrying more Loyalist Covenant aboard...The battlecruiser was infested with the Flood, and now they were moving quickly to assimilate anything in the area that they could infect and turn into more Flood: Brutes, Marines, civilians. Anything that could be mutated into a Flood Combat Form was fair game, dead or alive. Chief is forced to watch some of his own allies get killed and mutated into Flood if he couldn't reach them in time as he backtracked through the area to where the battlecruiser crashed. However, help soon arrives in the form of the Arbiter's fellow Elites led by Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum in several Separatist Covenant CCS-class battlecruisers led by the CAS-class assault carrier and flagship, Shadow of Intent, who sends down support to aid the Arbiter and Chief, with the grim news that High Charity has fallen, and the Flood has evolved as well, as Chief soon discovers when fighting Flood Pure Forms that could mutate into one of three forms: Stalker, Tank, and Ranged, to attack him with. As he continues fighting past the Flood, Miranda and Johnson radio in that the Elites have found Cortana aboard the battlecruiser and tell Chief to find her. When Chief reaches the ship, while the Arbiter and his fellow Elites watch his back, he heads in and finds a Covenant data canister that appears to have Cortana in it, but before he can investigate further, 343 Guilty Spark appears from a Separatist Covenant Phantom to secure it, but Chief still holds a grudge against him for the events back on Installation 04. Nevertheless, once the Monitor explains his situation now and how he only wants to help the Reclaimers at this point, Chief hands over the canister, they board the Phantom, and head back to the Shadow of Intent, while the battlecruisers glass the area to stop the Flood from spreading to the rest of Earth.
Aboard the flagship, it is revealed that the Cortana in the data canister is just a message Cortana sent them to warn them of the threat of the Gravemind, who is planning to head to Earth with High Charity and a veritable army of Flood behind it. However, she reveals that he doesn't know about the portal Truth opened. On the other side is a way to stop the Flood without firing the other Halo Rings. After Cortana suddenly clutches her head and keels over in pain, whimpering and groaning, pleading for Chief to hurry to the Ark as there isn't much time, the message ends.Entrusting Humanity's fate to Miranda, Johnson, Chief, their Marines, the Arbiter, Rtas 'Vadum, and their Elites, Hood departs to rally what's left of the UNSC to defend Earth to the death if need be, while they travel through the portal with the Elites' fleet to follow Truth and stop him, once and for all.
== Battle of the Ark ==
Upon arriving at the Ark, Installation 00, the first move was to secure an LZ and locate the Ark's Silent Cartographer. Aided by 343 Guilty Spark gaining control of the Sentinels there, they soon locate the Cartographer and find Truth's location in the Citadel, where the Control Room was. While Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum assaults the defensive barrier, Chief, the Arbiter, and Johnson attempt to power down the towers keeping the shield up. Once the towers are disabled, 'Vadum moves in to attack the Citadel directly, but it is then that High Charity arrives and damages the Shadow of Intent, while Gravemind sends down Flood to infest the Ark. Moving quickly against both Covenant and Flood forces, Chief and the Arbiter reach the Citadel, but by this point, Truth, who had captured Johnson earlier, attempts to use him to activate the Ark and thus the Halo Rings. Miranda crashes a Pelican into the room and tries to take out the Brutes herself, but realizing she's outgunned, she prepares to kill Johnson and herself, but hesitates. This proves fatal to her as Truth mercilessly kills her with a Brute Spiker in the back, leaving a demoralized Johnson to willingly activate the Ark and Halo Rings, having lost the will to resist with Miranda's murder. In the meantime, Chief and the Arbiter are met by two Flood Tank Forms, but speaking through them, Gravemind offers a temporary alliance with them to stop Truth. Accepting it, but still wary of Gravemind's true intentions, they advance with the Flood against the last of Truth's Loyalist Covenant forces protecting him, with the Flood infecting and mutating any Brutes into Flood Combat Forms to reinforce their numbers until the way is clear for Chief and the Arbiter to confront Truth. As they arrive, it is clear Truth is already being taken by Gravemind as his face and voice begin to show Flood traits, but while Chief shuts down the Ark and stops the Halo Rings from firing, the Arbiter takes his vengeance and slays Truth before Gravemind can claim him, roaring in victory afterwards. Nevertheless, with the Ark and Halo Rings stopped, Gravemind turns on Chief and the Arbiter and attacks them. Johnson is able to get Miranda's body to safety before she can be infested and mutated into a Flood Combat Form, while Chief and the Arbiter fight their way out to escape themselves, only to be led by an apparition of Cortana to a control panel that reveals that the Ark was in the process of building a new Halo Ring to replace Installation 04, and 343 Guilty Spark knew about it. While the Monitor flies off to see to the preparations to use the new Halo to wipe out Gravemind and the Flood on the Ark, Chief and the Arbiter head back to High Charity to retrieve Cortana, as she still had the Activation Index from the original Installation 04 and had never got rid of it after she and Chief blew up Installation 04 with the Pillar of Autumn.
Fighting past the Flood infesting High Charity, Chief and the Arbiter find Cortana in what used to be the Sanctum of the Hierarchs, trapped in a stasis field, possibly done by Gravemind. Chief frees her, and after she shows she still has the Activation Index from Installation 04, he transfers her back into her data chip to slip back into his helmet. On his way out, Cortana has him trigger a meltdown of the reactor to destroy High Charity and Gravemind. Reuniting with the Arbiter, they board a spare Pelican from In Amber Clad and escape, despite attempts by Gravemind to stop them, before High Charity is obliterated.
While the surviving UNSC Marines and other personnel board the Shadow of Intent to return home to Earth with the Elites, Chief, the Arbiter, and Cortana, joined by Johnson with the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn frigate, head for the new Halo's Control Room to activate it, before making a beeline for the portal to return home to Earth. Unfortunately, Gravemind survived the destruction of High Charity and makes a final attempt to rebuild itself on the new Halo with dispatching Flood to attack Chief and the Arbiter before they can get into the Control Room. Johnson arrives to assist, and once the Flood have been eliminated, they hurry inside to meet up with 343 Guilty Spark. However, when Johnson announces that they intend to activate the unfinished Halo to stop Gravemind, which would destroy the Ring due to its incomplete state, the Monitor does the unthinkable and goes rampant, fatally blasting Johnson with its Sentinel Laser before turning it on Chief and the Arbiter, declaring that he will not let them destroy his new Halo Ring, despite the Chief being a Reclaimer and descendant of the Forerunners. However, Johnson recovers long enough to blast the Monitor with his Spartan Laser before handing it to Chief to finish the job. After three more shots, 343 Guilty Spark is damaged beyond repair and explodes, ending its threat once and for all. Nevertheless, Johnson lays dying, and asks Chief for one last favor: Send him out with a bang, before succumbing to his wounds.
There's nothing else Chief or Cortana can do. Cortana somberly and silently activates Halo, and as Johnson's body slides off the platform as it tilts to be vaporized, Chief and Cortana regroup with the Arbiter and head for the Forward Unto Dawn, using Johnson's Warthog to get past the Sentinels and Flood still fighting each other as Halo rips itself apart around them. Reaching the Forward Unto Dawn, Chief guns the Warthog across the gap between the hangar of the frigate and the edge of the platform, crashing it into the hangar. Once aboard, while the Arbiter heads to the bridge, Chief hooks Cortana up to take control of the frigate and start piloting it away from Halo. With the hangar doors still open, both the Warthog and a Scorpion fall out of the hangar and back into space towards Halo, and Chief nearly follows before getting a good grip and pulling himself back to safety, much to a relieved Cortana when she thought she was about to lose him. He quickly plugs her back into his helmet as they brace themselves for whatever happens next.
== End of the Human-Covenant War ==
Several months later, the Arbiter joins FADM Hood as a memorial to those lost in the Human-Covenant War is dedicated on March 3, 2553 on a ridge overlooking the Ark Portal and Mount Kilimanjaro. Among those seen on the memorial include Miranda and Johnson, and carved into the metal under the tribute, "117", along with a medal of the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, in tribute to Master Chief, who is presumed KIA as well. As the Marines perform a three-volley salute with their BR55 Battle Rifles in respect for the fallen, Hood thanks the Arbiter for his loyalty in standing by Chief to the end, but when he admits it is hard to believe that Chief is gone, the Arbiter believes otherwise, repeating what he said when first reuniting with Chief after he returned to Earth, before heading back to the Shadow of Intent to return home to the Elite homeworld of Sanghelios alongside Rtas 'Vadum and all their brethren in the Separatist Covenant fleet.
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Master Chief has returned from Requiem and regrouped with his SPARTAN Team, Blue Team. On a mission to Argent Moon to receive important data sill on the station. Once there, Chief receives a "vision" of Cortana and learns that she is on Meridian. After Chief and his team manage to destroy station to prevent the Covenant from claiming it, Chief takes his team off the grid to Meridian in search of Cortana. Once there, they travel under the planet's surface and locate teleporting pads. The team runs into another Spartan fireteam, Osiris, and learn that they are being hunted. Chief defeats Osiris' leader, Spartan Locke, and jump through the next portal. They arrive on the planet Genesis to find that Covenant forces are already there. Chief soon runs into the Warden Eternal, a Forerunner artificial intelligence assigned to defend the Forerunner Domain. Blue Team eventually fought the Warden. After defeating him, Cortana gives Chief instructions on how to find and free her. Chief and his team enter another gateway and are transported to the Domain, the first organics to enter since the ancient Forerunners.
Chief makes his way through the Domain and encounters the Warden Eternal again and after he defeats him, Cortana reveals that she intends on wiping life from the galaxy to start anew, while keeping Chief and Blue Team as her new champions. Chief is then frozen inside a Cryptum until Spartan Locke and his team can come and rescue Blue Team. Unbeknownst to the humans, the Chief's rescue is aided by his old enemy the Didact who, although desiring revenge for the Chief killing him, aided in his rescue as a way of striking at Cortana. The Chief is then taken to Sanghelios and reunited with Dr. Catherine Halsey.
==Stopping Cortana==
A year later, Halsey has Blue Team return to Reach in hunt for some valuable assets kept by Halsey in a cryo vault which hold the key to stopping Cortana. The Spartans and the Infinity's crew come up against the Banished who are in search of a slipspace portal to the Ark on Reach which will allow Atriox to return to the Milky Way galaxy. Blue Team are left severely battered, but succeed in their mission, although Halsey warns the Chief that it won't be easy to pull off what she has in mind.
A few months later, Halsey successfully creates a new AI known as the Weapon to stop Cortana. As a copy of Cortana, she will be able to infiltrate Cortana's security systems and lock the rogue AI down for deletion at which point the Master Chief will transport Cortana back to the Infinity. However, the Infinity is ambushed over Zeta Halo by the Banished, and the Master Chief loses a duel with Atriox himself, being flung out into space and presumed dead by both the Banished and the UNSC.
==Fighting the Banished==
Six months later, the Master Chief is found and rescued by a Pelican dropship piloted by Fernando Esparza. The Master Chief learns that the UNSC has lost badly to the Banished and Zeta Halo is now in unknown space. Unwilling to allow the Banished to have control of a galactic superweapon, the Chief travels to Halo with a reluctant Esparza, retrieves the Weapon - who was supposed to have been deleted when Cortana was destroyed - and battles the Banished for control of the ring. The Chief's return greatly turns the tide against the Banished, especially since the terminally ill Escharum is reinvigorated with the appearance of a worthy foe. The Chief eliminates a number of high-ranking Banished lieutenants and retakes several UNSC bases, rescuing squads of Marines in distress. The Chief also learns of the events surrounding Cortana's destruction from her memories scattered throughout the ring.
Ultimately, things come to a head when, while stopping the Harbinger from repairing the ring, the Chief attempts to delete the Weapon when she is momentarily compromised, putting the Chief and the Weapon at odds with each other. After learning of her true nature as a copy of Cortana, the horrified AI begs the Chief to delete her, but he refuses as the Spartan wants to trust her. With the Weapon's help, the Chief kills both Escharum and the Harbinger and vows to continue fighting the Banished for control of Zeta Halo. He also receives a final message from a remorseful Cortana who apologizes for her actions and urges the Master Chief and his new AI companion - who is revealed to have been saved from deletion by Cortana - to learn from her mistakes.
Category:Synopsis