John-117 (Master Chief)

Master Chief Petty Officer of the UNSC Navy, John-117 is a SPARTAN-II Commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. With nearly 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the United Nations Space Command and has earned every known medal in the UNSC except the Prisoner of War Medallion. In 2553, John-117 went missing in action after the Battle of Installation 00 when he and the current Arbiter Thel 'Vadam eliminated the Flood threat.

He is more commonly known as, "Spartan" by Thel 'Vadam and Rtas 'Vadum, "Demon" by the Covenant and other Sangheili until the Covenant Civil War, after which the other Sangheili also started to refer to him as "Spartan", "Master Chief" and "Chief" by Humans, and "Reclaimer" by both 343 Guilty Spark and 2401 Penitent Tangent.

Childhood and Spartan Training

Born in about 2511, John lived with his mother and father in Elysium City, on the colony world Eridanus II. It is and has been said that John has brown hair, freckles, and a small gap between his front teeth. In Halo: The Flood, his mother was mentioned as kind and smelled of soap. At the age of six, he was identified by Dr. Halsey as one of 150 preliminary candidates for the SPARTAN-II Program. John was an ideal physical candidate, standing a head taller than his schoolmates, having perfect physical proportions, possessing great strength, exhibiting quick reflexes, and having an aggressive drive for winning. When Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes visited Eridanus II in 2517 to study him, they were impressed with his intellect and his luck. In a final test of his viability as a candidate, he was asked to determine which side an old coin would land on. He watched the coin as it flew in the air and caught it before it could land, correctly stating which side was face-up. Later that same year John, and 74 other six-year-old children were "conscripted", covertly kidnapped from their homes and replaced with Flash Clones, all of which would later die of natural causes to cover up the kidnappings. John along with the other candidates are taken to Reach it is here that Dr. Halsey informs them of the SPARTAN-II program. The next morning John discovers his service tag, stitched into his training uniform, and from now on he is only known as John-117.

John began a new life, training with other Spartans under Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez for eight years he learns history, military strategy, weapons, and physical fitness. He bonded early with Kelly and Sam, who would be the only close friends he would ever have, along with Seargent Johnson.

When the Spartans were eight years old, they were sent on a training mission in which they were dropped over a forest located deep in one of Reach's snow-capped mountain ranges and expected to get safely to their extraction Pelican. The children also had instructions to leave the last child arriving behind, or the punishment would be painful, but John-117 knew that he could not do that. After telling the Spartans where to meet up, the Spartans looked to him as their leader, a role he was initially surprised to be given but took on. When the group came upon the Pelican, it was guarded by armed men. Those men were actually UNSC soldiers, but were not in uniform, and in addition to the fact that the Spartans may have never seen Marines before, therefore mistaken for a hostile threat. John showed early acumen in critical thinking and tactics, not wishing to take it for granted that guards would be friendly toward them. He came up with a plan to take the men down, capture the dropship, and ensure the safe extraction of every team member, as he made sure he was the last person aboard. To do this he ended up hijacking the dropship with the help of Déjà, and beat down the men with stones and many feet, causing severe injuries among the Marines. Chief Mendez was not visibly pleased, as one, John attacked his Marines, and two, no one had been left behind. But both he and Dr Halsey recognized John's initiative, and promoted him to Squad Leader. After this despite the other Spartans rising in rank and at least a couple rising to lead their own teams, he remained the de facto leader of the Spartans.

At the age of 14, John underwent the dangerous process of SPARTAN-II Augmentation Procedures that caused most of the Spartan candidates to die, or be physically disabled. John was one of 33 Spartans who made it through the process unscathed, while the rest who could still operate were sent for jobs in the Office of Naval Intelligence. At only 14 years old, it is said that John had a body of an 18 year old Olympic athlete, the augmentation process gave the Spartans faster reflexes, greater strength, better eyesight and made their bones near unbreakable.

Early Military Career

John-117's first mission was against rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his home world was located. He was shot in the side by live ammo while leading his squad to capture rebel leader Colonel Robert Watts, without heavily injuring him. He received a Purple Heart after this mission.[4]

Three months after the Eridanus mission, John and his Spartans were briefed on the massacre that took place on Harvest shortly after first contact with the Covenant. A short time later, the UNSC Commonwealth, under the command of Captain Wallace, brought the Spartans and Dr. Halsey to the Damascus Testing Facility at Chi Ceti, where they received the MJOLNIR Mark IV Powered Assault Armor. When a Covenant ship attacked the Commonwealth, John and the Spartans took part in their first battle with the Covenant. The Spartans launched with thrusters from a Pelican dropship. Each Spartan carried an Anvil missile with them to destroy a Covenant ship. Only two other Spartans made it to the ship with John: Samuel-034 and Kelly-087. They entered the ship through a hole in its hull, caused by a heavy MAC round from the Commonwealth. They succeeded in completing the mission and destroyed the Covenant ship, but due to a breach in his armor, cause by retaliation fire from Covenant forces, Sam was unable to leave the Covenant ship. Ordered to stay behind and ensure the destruction of the enemy vessel Sam is killed in the ensuing explosion. John is affected profoundly at the loss of one of his friends. This UNSC victory against the Covenant showed John that the Covenant could be beaten, but at a high cost. John and his remaining Spartans would fight the Covenant for the next 27 years, employing the MJOLNIR armor.

John served in over 200 missions against the Covenant, including the Battle of Jericho VII, where he and a handful of Spartans single-handedly killed over a thousand Grunts, and the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, in which John and his Blue Team detonated a HAVOK nuclear warhead to clear the Covenant Army from the city of Côte d'Azur. This was one of only a few UNSC victories against the Covenant. He received every medal the UNSC awards except for the Prisoner of War medal. He is also considered the luckiest and the bravest of the SPARTAN-IIs.

The Battle of Reach, though brief, was of great significance for John. This is where he received the MJOLNIR Mark V armor that had been optimized for his Spartan augmented physiology. The majority of the Spartans went to the planet's surface to protect MAC generators. John, with Linda and James, were sent to a docking station to destroy an unsecured NAV database. If the Covenant obtained the database, they would discover the location of every human world, including Earth; the location of Earth was still a closely guarded secret. The NAV database was destroyed, but Linda and James were ambushed by Covenant Elites; James was lost, and Linda was critically wounded. John saved four other Marines on the station, including Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson. The team returned to the Pillar of Autumn and was placed into cryo sleep as the ship fled Reach and, following the Cole Protocol, went into Slipspace in hopes of leading the Covenant away from Earth.

Quick Stats