Halo: The Fall of Reach
The Master Chief: Secret to Success
INTRODUCTION
Halo: The Fall of Reach is a story about the dusk and dawn of a group of genetically modified super soldiers, named Spartans. They could do the impossible, standing at an average height of 2 meters tall and running at over 55 kilometers per hour. But without unification and synergy, they were simply efficient fighters. At the heart of these near-machine soldiers was a leader, John-117, also the Master Chief. With him, they were near invincible. But the Master Chief was nothing spectacular. He was never the best at any field test or IQ test, but the Spartans chose him as their leader. Why? What was so special about John-117? What did the Spartans see in him that the scientists could not predict beneath his genes?
SUMMARY
This story begins with Dr. Halsey searching across the galaxy for the most genetically adept children of humanity for her SPARTAN-II project. Dr. Halsey secretly replaces these children with clones, since their parents would likely oppose this glorified kidnapping scheme. In the first quarter of the book, the young Spartans spend their time in bootcamp, training and learning about teamwork, combat, war history, math, physics and astronomy. These young soldiers also undergo many genetic augmentations to further amplify their abilities. Even though the performance boosts were incredible, more than half of the Spartans died because their bodies could not adapt to the augmentations. Among the survivors was John-117, the leader of the Spartan-IIs. The Spartans prove themselves extremely efficient in combat, especially when the alien force Covenant invades. The Covenant hope to eliminate humanity, though their reasons for it are unknown. During a heated space battle, a Covenant probe latches on to a United Nations Space Command (UNSC) carrier, tracing it back to planet Reach. Reach is alone UNSC’s most fortified planet, holding humanity’s command center, intelligence headquarters, and the larges shipyard of their military force. It is said that Reach is impenetrable, for if it falls, Earth may as well follow. The UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) devises a plan to infiltrate the Covenant hierarchy and capture one of their leaders, in hope to broker a peace treaty in return. The Spartans naturally volunteered for this suicide mission. Moments before they depart for their mission, they receive news that Reach is under attack, and all ships are to return to defend Reach. While the majority of the Spartans are sent on the ground to fend off the Covenant, John-117, now known as the Master Chief, takes two other Spartans on board the wreckage of the carrier Circumference, hoping to destroy navigational data to Earth before the Covenant recovers it. Even though the Master Chief successfully destroys the data, he loses both of his teammates to enemy forces. When he gets back to the ship, The Pillar of Autumn, he finds out that they have lost contact with the planet-side team, presumably killed in action. Learning the fact that he is now the only Spartan left, John is fueled with vengeance and determination to complete his original mission.
THESIS
When asked to comment on the Master Chief, Dr. Halsey, the creator of the Spartan Project, notes, “Then you know he [Master Chief] is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest—and quite possibly the luckiest. And in my opinion, he is the best”(274-275). Dr. Halsey implies that John-117 is the best of the Spartans because he is the luckiest, but the rest of the Spartans selected him as a leader because he lives by three unrivaled cornerstones: Spirit, Survival and Sacrifice. These three traits has time and time again saved Master Chief and his squad mates on the battlefield, giving him success in his missions. All three of these traits were acquired by John from lessons learned early on in his training. These lessons all have lasting effect on John, ultimately making him the best spartan and the only survivor of the Spartan-II Program.
THESIS PARAGRAPH I
The Master Chief commandeers morale as a pilot would a ship. He inspires his teammates. And knowing that the Spartans are near mythological creatures to the rest of the UNSC, he knows how to maintain and raise the morale of the entire military force. When Spartan-034 (Sam) was killed in action on a Covenant ship, the Master Chief reported Sam’s status as Missing-In-Action. This is because a rumor had aroused in the conversations of UNSC troops that the “Spartans never die.” If soldiers found out that Spartans could actually be killed, it would sore the UNSC’s morale. Therefore, as a means to preserve the spirit of military command, the Master Chief reported every Spartan from that point on as Missing-In-Action, never Killed-In-Action, starting a lasting tradition. As a result, Spartans could still cast faith in to the eyes of UNSC soldiers. It is true that it may be a lie, but ignorance is bliss. On a more personally scale, the Master Chief portrays every objective as a game to its team, one that they cannot lose that is. He does not simply command with an iron fist or authority. He raises the stakes above the rank and file, and demonstrates why it is crucial that his team completes the mission. In one of the final evaluations of the Spartan-IIs before they graduated the program, Dr. Halsey asks Chief Mendez, a teacher to the Spartans, whether the augmentations of the Spartans have instabilities, Mendez replies, “None. They work like no team I’ve ever seen before. Damn near telepathic, if you ask me… They improvise and improve and adapt. “And,” he added, “they like it. The tougher the challenge, the harder the fight . . . the better their morale becomes.” (83) The coherence of the Spartans is generated from a near “telepathic” bond between the team and their leader, the Master Chief. To embrace a stronger challenge, the Spartans must “implicitly” trust the Chief’s judgement and orders (235). To gain this trust, the Chief and his team must be extremely confident in each other’s abilities, knowing that they can rely on each other in the heat of the battle.
THESIS PARAGRAPH II
Among all the Spartans, Master Chief is the only one left standing because he is a survivalist. After receiving the very news of his squad’s death, “John remembered Chief Mendez’s words—that they had to live and fight another day. He was alive . . . and there was still plenty of fight left in him. And he would win this war—no matter what it took” (386). “Live to fight another day” – that was the crucial lesson John had learnt that would allow him to survive this confrontation. Moreover, John learnt this lesson the hard way when he was still a kid. When the Spartans were still young, all the training was presented to them as a game, even during the genetic augmentation period. Before it began, John asked Dr. Halsey how his team could win. Dr. Halsey answered,“ ‘I’ll tell you how to win, John,’ she whispered. ‘You have to survive’ ”(66). Although he could not comprehend the scale of the message at the time, he understood after the augmentation when more than half of his team died out as a result of the incompatible augmentations. Even though it was none of the team’s fault that they died, John understood that if he wants to win, he has to survive. “Live to fight another day.” (386)
THESIS PARAGRAPH III
The final and hardest lesson for John was learning to sacrifice his teammates. Learning to put the mission before the safety of himself and his squad was extremely hard for him. After all, he has been with his squad since they were five- or six-year-olds. It is hard to send your life long best friend into battle knowing that he would have to die to retrieve a piece of intel or capture a VIP. After a mission where a few of his squad-mates died, John could not understand what went wrong that lead to their deaths. He asked Chief Mendez:
I was Squad Leader. The last mission was therefore my responsibility . . . and members of my squad died. What did I do wrong?”… “A leader must be ready to send the soldiers under his command to their deaths,” Mendez said without turning to face John. “You do this because your duty to the UNSC supersedes your duty to yourself or even your crew.” John … didn’t want to think of his teammates—friends who were like brothers and sisters to him—forever lost. “It is acceptable,” Mendez said, “to spend their lives if necessary.” He finally turned and meet John’s gaze. “It is not acceptable, however, to waste those lives. Do you understand the difference? (70)
At the time, John was still puzzles. Of course, he was still too young to absorb the magnification of what this lesson meant. How is a teenager to decide whether is right to send his friends to death to save a couple hundred thousand people that he has never met? During his second official mission, while on board a Covenant ship, one of his squad mates, Sam, took a bullet on his side, exposing his skin from his armor. If he left the ship, the lack of pressure in space would decompress him to death. Sam said to Kelly, another squad mate, “You’ve got to leave me,” Kelly replied, “No—everyone gets out alive. We don’t leave teammates behind” (148). This was the first time John had to order a teammate to stay behind. Given Sam’s condition, he was to hold his position and defend the bomb until it explodes. John reflected in the moment, thinking to himself, “The Chief [Mendez] had told him he’d have to send men to their deaths. He didn’t tell him it would feel like this” (148). But precisely because of this experience and this crucial lesson, John did not give up when the rest of his friends and squad mates are wiped out. He was prepared to make that decision since Sam died. Sacrifice a few to save billions. Even though the Spartans would prove more useful in combat than those civilians, it was their duty to die for the sake of the mission.
CONCLUSION
The Master Chief is the leader of the Spartans and the only survivor at the end of the Reach Invasion not because he is lucky, but because he inspires, survives and sacrifices when necessary. He may not be the “smartest”, “fastest”, or the “strongest”, but he is the best Spartan (274-275). With these traits, he will be able “live to fight another day” (386) Of course, John-117 and the other Spartans possess a lot of other skills and personalities that allow them to succeed. If a person were to further analyze Halo: The Fall of Reach, they should look at what makes the rest of the Spartans succeed and how their skills complements that of the Master Chief’s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
All parentheses () are pages numbers for the following book.
Nylund, Eric S. Halo : The Fall of Reach. New York: Tor, 2011. Print.
Halo Wikia http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Office_of_Naval_Intelligence_Directive_930
