- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
The Master Chief, originally named John, was born in 2511 and first lived with his family on the human colony planet Eridanus II. Large for his six years of age, and approximately a foot above his school peers, he is described as a typical boy with brown hair, freckles and a gap 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 begin intense physical and psychological training to become SPARTAN-II supersoldiers. They are assigned new identification numbers instead of last names; John becomes known as John-117. Approximately eight years later, John and the other children are biologically and cybernetically augmented and enhanced. These procedures had substantial risks; only John and thirty-two other Spartans survive.
After the Spartans' first successful operation which involved capturing a rogue UNSC officer, John-117 is briefed on the threat posed by the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of alien races, and witnesses 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, they board a Covenant vessel and plant a bomb; John is forced to leave one of his fellow Spartans, his best friend, to die.
In 2552, the Covenant invades the human world of Sigma Octanus and occupies one of its cities, Cote D'Azure. Following a failed Marine assault, John-117 and three teams of Spartans are sent to destroy the Covenant force with a nuclear warhead. After detonating the weapon, the Spartans return to Reach, where the UNSC High Command 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 artificial intelligence (AI) Cortana during a training mission. A massive Covenant armada of 314 ships arrives and begins to destroy the planet, despite the best efforts of the Spartans and other UNSC forces. Aboard the spaceship Pillar of Autumn, Cortana plots a random course of escape. Seemingly the last Spartan alive, the Master Chief enters cryonic sleep along with the Pillar of Autumn's crew.