KMC Forums - Respect the Master Chief

Master Chief, the famous SPARTAN and protagonist of Halo

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Halo: Fall of Reach

The Master Chief's backstory is never explained in the video games. However, the novel The Fall of Reach, which serves as a prequel to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, reveals much of the character's history. In the Halo universe, this is the Master Chief's first chronological appearance; the book itself was released in 2001 as a companion to Halo. The Master Chief, originally named John, was born in 2511 and spent the first part of his childhood on the human colony planet Eridanus 2, where he lived with his family. John was large for his six years of age, approximately a foot above his school peers. At this age he is described as a typical boy, having brown hair, freckles and a gap in between his two front teeth. In 2517, John and seventy-four other children his age are covertly taken from their homes and replaced with flash clones to hide the kidnapping. The original children are brought to planet Reach, one of the UNSC's headquarters, to train to become SPARTAN-II supersoldiers. On Reach, the children begin intensive physical, mental and psychological training as part of the Spartan program by Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, and are assigned new identification numbers instead of last names; John becomes known as John-117. Approximately eight years later, John, along with the other children, are biologically and cybernetically augmented and enhanced. These procedures had substantial risks, and only John and thirty-two other Spartans survive.

Following the Spartans' first successful operation, John-117 is briefed on the Covenant threat, witnessing the utter devastation wrought by a single ship. The Spartans are first sent to the Damascus Materials Testing Facility on the planet Chi Ceti 4 to retrieve the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor, in the process boarding a Covenant vessel and plant a bomb; John is forced to leave one of his fellow Spartans to die.

In 2552, the same year in which Halo: Combat Evolved begins, the Covenant launch an invasion of the human world of Sigma Octanus and occupies one of the human cities, Cote D'Azure. John-117 and three teams of Spartans are sent in to destroy the Covenant force with a nuclear warhead following a failed Marine assault. While in the city, John and his team discover the Covenant were scanning an ancient stone artifact in the city's museum, and recover it before detonating the nuclear warhead. The Spartans then return to Reach, where the UNSC High Command as has developed a last-ditch plan to capture a Covenant High Prophet, who they hope could be used in order to barter a truce. The Master Chief's armor is upgraded, and he first encounters the A.I. Cortana during a training mission. At the climax of Fall of Reach, the planet Reach is attacked by a massive Covenant armada of 750 ships. Despite the best efforts of the Spartans and other UNSC forces, the Covenant begin to destroy the planet. Knowing Reach is lost, Cortana plots a random course as per the Cole Protocol. The Master Chief, seemingly the last Spartan alive, goes into cryogenic sleep along with the Pillar of Autumn's crew.
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Halo: Combat Evolved

Master Chief's first appearance in the games is as the protagonist in Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo: The Flood, the 2003 novelization of the video game, the Chief is likewise the main character. The Master Chief first appears being awoken from cryosleep during the opening cinematic of Halo: Combat Evolved. Upon coming out of slipspace, the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and crash lands on Halo. Master Chief escapes the ship via a lifeboat. Upon landing on the surface of the ring, his first task is finding survivors from the crash. During the midst of fighting the Covenant, Master Chief and Cortana discover that Halo was created by the Forerunners as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called The Flood. The Flood is accidentally unleashed by the Covenant and begin to spread across the ring. On behalf of the installation's resident A.I. 343 Guilty Spark, the Master Chief retrieves the Index, a device which will activate Halo's defenses and wipe out the Flood. However, Guilty Spark neglects to inform Master Chief that Halo would accomplish this by destroying all sentient life in a vast radius, essentially starving the Flood to death. Cortana intervenes to prevent the activation of Halo, and the Master Chief and A.I. plot to destroy the ringworld, detonating the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactor core to trigger a massive explosion. The Master Chief and Cortana escape in a human fighter, and believe themselves to be the only survivors.
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Halo: First Strike

Halo: First Strike, the 2003 novel by Eric Nylund, picks up the Master Chief's story soon after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and serves as a bridge between the events of Halo and Halo 2. Floating in Halo's debris field, Cortana and the Chief discover there are in fact other human survivors. The Master Chief and fellow soldiers, manage to capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice, and return to Reach to contact Earth's High Command. At Reach, the Master Chief discovers that the Covenant had not eradicated the planet's biosphere in the usual manner, and that a few other Spartans are still alive. The Chief retrieves his fellow soldiers, as well as Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creative genius behind the SPARTAN-II project. The Spartans then attack a massive Covenant command station, the Unyielding Hierophant, preventing a Covenant assault on Earth.
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Halo 2

The Master Chief lands on the surface of Delta Halo.See also: Halo 2
The Master Chief returns as one of two playable characters in Halo 2, the 2004 sequel to the original video game. Upon arriving back on Earth following the events of First Strike, the Master Chief's heavily damaged Mark V MJOLNIR armor is replaced by the newer Mark VI model, recently field-tested by SPARTAN-062 Maria. The Master Chief attends a brief awards ceremony aboard Cairo Station defense platform, which is interrupted by a Covenant invasion force. Master Chief is given the mission of protecting the station. The Covenant are repelled, and the Master Chief links up with In Amber Clad and fights the Covenant at New Mombasa. As the Covenant depart using a slipspace jump within the city, the In Amber Clad follows them to Installation 05 - another Halo. Master Chief and a small squad of ODSTs land on "Delta Halo", and subsequently the Master Chief assassinates the Covenant High Prophet of Regret. Upon emerging from a structure, the Master Chief is fired upon by orbiting Covenant forces, but is rescued by the Gravemind, an intelligence of Flood origin, who sends the Master Chief to High Charity in an attempt to capture Delta Halo's Index. Subsequently, the Master Chief boards a Forerunner ship which heads to Earth.
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Master Chief in Halo 2

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Halo 3

Master Chief is back on Earth, where the Covenant loyalists, led by the Prophet of Truth, have laid waste to most of the planet. Covenant ships are hovering over an excavation site a few miles from the ruins of New Mombasa and have uncovered a large artifact in this site, and Cortana is still the prisoner of Gravemind. The Arbiter, along with the Elites, Hunters, and some of the Grunts have split from the Covenant during the civil war at the end of Halo 2 and formed an alliance with the UNSC. It has been hinted that the Grunts and the Hunters have joined with the Elites, but recent promotional media show that at least some of the Grunts have sided with the Brutes.

The game will not begin right where Halo 2 left off. Instead, the comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising, will bridge the story gap between the ending of Halo 2, and the beginning of Halo 3.
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Master Chief in the infamous Halo 3 trailer

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Master Chief in the CG commercial of Halo 3

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