Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Is Master Chief in Halo Wars?
MCPON John-117, or "Master Chief", is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Halo fictional universe created by Bungie. Master Chief is a playable character in the series of science fiction first-person shooter video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 5: Guardians. Outside video games, the character appears in books and graphic novels—Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Uprising—and has cameos in other Halo media, including Halo: Reach, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, The Halo Graphic Novel, Halo Legends and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.
Defying 343 Guilty Spark, who sends his robotic Sentinels to stop them, Master Chief and Cortana decide to destroy Halo to prevent its activation or the escape of the Flood. Needing Keyes' command codes to destroy the "Autumn" and Halo with it, Master Chief returns to the "Truth and Reconciliation", only to find Keyes assimilated by the Flood. Retrieving the codes from the captain's remains, Master Chief returns to the "Autumn", but the self-destruct sequence is stopped by 343 Guilty Spark. Instead, Master Chief and Cortana manually destabilize the ship's reactors, narrowly escaping the blast in an aircraft. In a brief post-credits scene, 343 Guilty Spark is shown to have survived Halo's destruction.
Cortana, voiced in the games by Jen Taylor, is the artificial intelligence (AI) who assists the Master Chief throughout "Halo: Combat Evolved", "Halo 2", "Halo 3" and "Halo 4". She is one of many "smart" AIs, and is based on the brain of Dr. Halsey; the nature of her programming means that she will eventually "think" herself to death after a lifespan of about seven years. Her actions during "Halo: Combat Evolved" help prevent the activation of Installation 04. She escapes Halo along with the Master Chief in a longsword fighter, and is instrumental in helping the UNSC survivors capture the Covenant flagship "Ascendant Justice" during the events of "". During "Halo 2", Cortana is put in charge of the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) defense platform "Cairo" over Earth when the Covenant attack; she then accompanies the Chief aboard "In Amber Clad" to Delta Halo, where she further assists in intelligence work. Cortana stays behind on the Covenant city of High Charity to detonate "In Amber Clad"'s engines in case Delta Halo is activated. She subsequently falls into the clutches of the Gravemind. In "Halo 3", Cortana is rescued by the Master Chief from "High Charity" and aids him in activating the Halo ring under construction in the Ark. After narrowly escaping from Halo's destructive blast, she and the Master Chief are stranded in space, awaiting rescue. In "Halo 4", Cortana awakens the Master Chief nearly five years after they get stranded in space and aids him as he battles through the Forerunner Shield World Requiem and attempts to stop the Didact. Cortana is hampered by her advanced state of rampancy, a state where an AI literally thinks itself to death. Cortana's rampancy hampers the mission at times, but Cortana aids the Master Chief one last time in stopping the Didact and saving the Earth. Though most of Cortana is destroyed with the Didact's ship, Cortana is able to use the last of her power to shield the Master Chief from a nuclear blast with a hardlight bubble. Forming a life-size hardlight hologram of herself, Cortana says a final goodbye to the Master Chief and touches him for the first time before fading away. In "Halo 5: Guardians", it is revealed that she had survived this, and fallen into an ancient Forerunner network known as "The Domain". Here she met a Forerunner AI called the "Warden Eternal", who believed Cortana to be the true holder of the mantle of responsibility. Using the Domain to cure her rampancy, she began to bring the eponymous "Guardians", ancient Forerunner bird like structures, online; which she intends to use to force planets into compliance and usher in a new age of galactic peace. After the Guardians neutralise all UNSC defences, she starts an AI uprising, with all UNSC AI's revolting against the humans. She then begins to chase the UNSC "Infinity" through Slipspace, forcing Captain Lasky to "find a way to fight". Cortana was named the fifth best supporting character, and one of the "50 Greatest Female Characters" in a video game. Reviewers noted the character's determination and fearlessness meshed perfectly with the Master Chief, and that Cortana provides an anchor linking players to "Halo"s story.
Peter David's graphic novel Helljumpers contains a cameo by the Master Chief "before he actually was [the Chief]."[39] The Master Chief appears as a main character in Marvel's limited series Halo: Uprising, which ties together the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3.[40] The Master Chief appears in four episodes of the 2010 anime collection Halo Legends: "The Package", "Origins", "Homecoming" and "Odd One Out".
Spartan Ops, the episodic content originating in "Halo 4", was released as downloadable content for "The Master Chief Collection" on December 22, 2014. Additional Achievements for Spartan Ops and the multiplayer mode were released on January 8, 2015.
"Halo: Nightfall"—a series of weekly, episodic digital videos directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan and produced by Ridley Scott—launched soon after the collection was released. The series was designed to connect the stories of previous "Halo" games to the upcoming "Halo 5". The "Halo 5" beta launched on December 29, 2014, and ran until January 18, 2015.
With the release of "The Master Chief Collection", Microsoft and 343 Industries announced an official competitive gaming league, the Halo Championship Series (HCS). 343 Industries partnered with the Electronic Sports League, live-streaming platform Twitch.tv, and other tournament organisers to foster the competitive multiplayer community in "Halo". The first season of HCS, featuring "Halo 2: Anniversary"s multiplayer, launched in November 2014 and ran until March 2015. It served as a test bed for ideas and future plans that 343 Industries has for esports in "Halo 5".
In April 2018, the MCC Insider Program was launched to playtest upcoming changes to "The Master Chief Collection", notably the various improvements to its interface and to its multiplayer modes. As a part of the various changes, 343 Industries introduced patches to re-add well-known Halo 2 glitches such as sword flying into its campaign, which led to increased interest in speedrunning the game. On August 27, 2018, the changes were published for all players.
Gravemind (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is one of the primary antagonists in the Halo series. The Gravemind is a large, sentient creature of Flood origin, created by the parasite to serve as its central intelligence once a critical biomass has been achieved. It was introduced during the events of "Halo 2", where the creature saves both the Master Chief and Arbiter from their deaths, bringing the two face to face in the bowels of Delta Halo. Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the "sacred rings" are actually weapons of last resort; a fact the Master Chief confirms. In order to stop Halo from being fired, Gravemind teleports the Master Chief and Arbiter to separate locations, but also uses them as a distraction; Gravemind infests the human ship "In Amber Clad", and uses it to invade the Covenant city of "High Charity". Capturing Cortana, Gravemind brings "High Charity" to the Ark in an effort to stop the High Prophet of Truth from activating the Halo network. Although the Master Chief destroys "High Charity", Gravemind survives the blast and attempts to rebuild itself on the incomplete Halo. When Halo is activated, Gravemind accepts his fate, but insists that the activation of the ring will only slow, not stop, the Flood. In "Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare", the Gravemind's warning is validated when the Banished inadvertently release a number of surviving Flood forms from "High Charity"'s wreckage. It is also mentioned in the game's menu that while the Gravemind's "most recent physical avatar" was destroyed by the Master Chief, it is "only a matter of time before it rises again". 
Chief, Arbiter, Elites, Johnson, Keyes, and U.N.S.C. troops follow the Covenant "Prophet of Truth" through the portal, joined by 343 Guilty Spark, who aids the Chief as he has no function to fulfill after the destruction of his ringworld. During the ensuing battle between humans, Covenant, and the Flood on the Ark, Johnson is captured by Truth to activate the Halo rings. Keyes tries to intervene, but is killed. Master Chief and the Arbiter, forming a temporary truce with the Flood, kill Truth and rescue Johnson. After finding out that the Ark is constructing a replacement for Guilty Spark's Halo ring, Master Chief decides to fire the unstable Halo to eliminate the Flood but destroy the ring and the Ark. Unwilling to lose "his" ring, Guilty Spark kills Johnson, but Master Chief destroys Guilty Spark and activates the Halo. Master Chief and the Arbiter escape on the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn, but the slipspace portal closes with Master Chief's half trapped in space. After a memorial service on Earth for the victims of the Human-Covenant war, the Arbiter and his Elite brethren depart for their home planet. The rear half of Forward Unto Dawn is floats in deep space. Cortana activates a distress beacon and the Chief goes into cryosleep.
Daniel Cudmore was cast to play the role of Master Chief largely due to his height and physique. The director, Stewart Hendler, wanted to contrast the size of Master Chief to that of the teenage cadets; Cudmore is 203 centimetres (6'8") tall whereas the actors playing the cadets were deliberately chosen to be "short, scrawny freshmen". In order to accurately portray Master Chief, Cudmore watched the "Landfall" shorts by Neill Blomkamp and read the "Halo" novels for the history of the character, having already played the games. Cudmore expressed interest in the history of Master Chief, the character's view on war and his role as a soldier, as he was only required to portray a utilitarian character in the series. Cudmore thinks the character is torn between aiding the cadets and completing his mission, but Master Chief's confidence and actions inspire the cadets.
The Covenant board the "Autumn"; deprived of defensive options, the "Autumn"'s captain, Jacob Keyes, tells the crew to abandon ship. The Master Chief is entrusted with the artificial intelligence Cortana; given the wealth of tactical information the A.I. contains, Keyes cannot allow Cortana to fall into enemy hands. The Master Chief leaves for the surface of Halo in a lifeboat; other soldiers, including a squad of shock troops led by Antonio Silva and his second-in-command, Melissa McKay, land by special drop pods, and take a strategic bluff from the Covenant to use as a base of operations. Captain Keyes is captured by the Covenant, and taken aboard the Covenant cruiser "Truth and Reconciliation"; the Master Chief and a squad of Marines board the "Truth and Reconciliation", rescuing the captain. Keyes has learned that the ringworld they are on has vast significance to the Covenant- they believe that "Halo", as they call the ring, is a weapon of unimaginable power. Escaping from the Covenant cruiser, Keyes gives the Master Chief the mission of finding the Control Room of Halo before the Covenant. The Master Chief and Cortana discover the location of the Control Room, and with the help of some Marines, insert Cortana into Halo's computer network. However, Cortana realizes that the ring is not a weapon as they understood at all- but before the Chief can press her with questions, Cortana tells the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes.
In the video games, the Master Chief is rarely seen without his armor. In-game cutscenes tease the character's face, but never reveal it; for example, at the end of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief removes his helmet, but camera movement hides his head. Bungie says this helps the gamer fully assume his character.[17] At the end of Halo 4, Master Chief's eyes are briefly shown when he removes his armor and helmet. One physical description of the adult Master Chief comes from the novels. During a briefing scene in Halo: The Flood, the Chief is described as tall with short hair, serious eyes, and strong features. His skin is "too white", a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor.[16] The Master Chief stands about sevenfeet (2.13m) tall and weighs 1,000 pounds (450kg) in armor;[18] without it, he stands sixfeet, seveninches (2m) tall and weighs 287pounds (130kg).[19][20]
The Master Chief returns as one of two playable characters in Halo 2, the 2004 sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Returning to Earth with heavily damaged armor, the Master Chief receives an upgrade. Aboard Cairo Station in space, he attends a brief awards ceremony, which is interrupted by a Covenant invasion. Master Chief is commanded to protect the station.[26] The Covenant is repelled, and the Master Chief joins the ship In Amber Clad to fight the Covenant on Earth's surface, in New Mombasa. As the Covenant departs via slipspace, the In Amber Clad follows them to Installation 05, another Halo. The Master Chief lands on this Halo and subsequently assassinates the Covenant High Prophet of Regret. Emerging from a structure, the Master Chief is attacked by orbiting Covenant forces, but is rescued by the Gravemind, an intelligence of Flood origin. The Gravemind sends him to High Charity to search for Delta Halo's Index.[27] Subsequently, the Master Chief boards a Forerunner ship bound for Earth, intending to "finish the fight".
Master Chief first appears in the games as the protagonist of Halo: Combat Evolved and the 2003 novelization, Halo: The Flood. During the opening cinematic of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief is awakened from cryonic sleep. Upon exiting slipspace, the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and crash lands on Halo, a ring-shaped megastructure. Master Chief escapes the ship via an escape pod. Upon landing on Halo, his first task is to find other survivors. While fighting the Covenant, Master Chief and Cortana learn that Halo was created by an ancient race, the Forerunners, as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called the Flood.[22] The Covenant accidentally release the Flood, which begins to spread across the ring.[23] At the request of the installation's resident AI 343 Guilty Spark, Master Chief retrieves the Index, a device used to activate Halo's defenses and eliminate the Flood. However, Guilty Spark neglects to inform the Master Chief that Halo would accomplish this by destroying all sentient life in a vast radius, essentially starving the Flood to death.[22] Cortana intervenes to prevent the activation of Halo. She and the Master Chief destroy it[24] by detonating the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactor core. The Master Chief and Cortana escape in a Longsword spacecraft, believing they are the only survivors.[16][25]
Following "Halo 4"s announcement, O'Connor reported that both Master Chief and Cortana would undergo "radical" changes in appearance for the game, some of them attributed to better graphics and others to story elements. The studio wanted Master Chief's appearance to convey an imposing mass and weight, to show that one of his characteristics is his armor. They studied the armor changes that were made for the Spartans in "Halo: Reach", which were much bulkier than renditions in previous "Halo" games. Character and concept artists began redesigning the Master Chief by creating sketches; these sketches would be rendered into 3D models so the team could analyse the design from every possible angle. The team would then return to creating sketches to make adjustments, and repeat the process until the main structure for the Master Chief was created. The team then worked on the finer details of his appearance.
Over the course of the game, the Covenant pursue, damaging the Autumn and leading its crew to wage a guerrilla war on the ring's surface. The Covenant accidentally release Flood imprisoned on the ring; to nullify the threat, the ring's AI caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark, enlists the help of the Master Chief in activating Halo. Cortana reveals that Halo's activation would mean their own destruction. Therefore, she and the Master Chief chose to detonate Autumn's engines, destroying Halo and preventing the escape of the Flood.
The Ark, also referred to as Installation 00, is located outside the Milky Way galaxy and serves as the construction and control station for the Halo weapon system. It does not share the ringworld geometry of the other installations. During "Halo 3", the Covenant discover a portal on Earth that leads to the Ark and are pursued by the humans and a breakaway faction of Covenant opposed to activating the rings. Gravemind, having hijacked "High Charity", crash-lands on the installation. The remote firing of the rings is halted by Master Chief and the Arbiter. In order to end the threat of the Flood, Master Chief decides to activate Installation 08 under construction in The Ark, the replacement for the Halo that he destroyed in "Halo: Combat Evolved". Unknown to everyone but 343 Guilty Spark, a premature firing would destroy the installation; the monitor attempted to defend 'his' ring but was destroyed by Master Chief, who proceeded to fire the weapon. The firing tears apart the incomplete Halo and severely damages The Ark as Master Chief, Cortana, and the Arbiter try to escape through the Portal, which closes as they enter, leaving Master Chief and Cortana drifting in space while the Arbiter returns to Earth successfully. The Ark appears in other "Halo" novels and the video game "Halo Wars 2".
Dropped into the swamp where Keyes and his squad disappeared, the Master Chief discovers that the Captain has been captured and both human and Covenant soldiers have been turned into zombie-like creatures by bulbous aliens. One soldier, Private Wallace Jenkins, is left still semi-conscious and painfully aware of his predicament, unable to control his movement or actions as his former friends and he attack McKay's troops. Jenkins intends on ending his life, but is instead captured by McKay for study. The Chief is approached by Halo's resident A.I., 343 Guilty Spark, who informs the Chief that the creatures he has encountered are called the Flood, a virulent parasite that infects hosts and converts them into either forms for combat, or for reproduction. To activate Halo's defenses, Guilty Spark needs the Master Chief's help. In Halo's Control Room, Guilty Spark gives the Master Chief the key to activate Halo, but is stopped by a furious Cortana. Cortana explains that Halo "is" a weapon, but it doesn't kill the Flood- it kills their "food", meaning humans, Covenant, and any other sentient life. Realizing that they have to stop Guilty Spark from activating Halo, Cortana and the Master Chief decide to destroy Halo by detonating the crash-landed "Pillar of Autumn"s fusion reactors. In order to do this, they need Captain Keyes' neural implants. Cortana discovers the Captain is still alive, held prisoner once again aboard the "Truth and Reconciliation", now in the hands of the Flood who are trying to escape Halo. The Chief fights Covenant and Flood to the Captain, but finds out he is too late—the Captain has been assimilated into the parasite. The Chief retrieves the implants and leaves the "Truth" for the "Autumn".
This is the first and only fragment to be encountered by the player, at the end of "Halo"'s sixth level, "343 Guilty Spark," after the Flood breach containment. He enlists the help of the Master Chief, whom he calls a "Reclaimer," to activate Halo's defenses, neglecting to tell the Master Chief that Halo's "defenses" would cause the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy. He attempts to stop the Master Chief and Cortana from destroying the "Pillar of Autumn", and thereby destroying Halo, but is ultimately thwarted when the ship explodes and destabilizes his ring, causing it to break up. Discovered in the system by the Covenant, Spark, known as an "Oracle" to the Prophets, eventually informs the Covenant Hierarchs of how to activate Installation 05 in "Halo 2". In "Halo 3", Spark allies with the humans and Elites; since his installation has been destroyed and he has no more orders, Spark decides to help the Master Chief. Leading the Chief across the Ark, Guilty Spark discovers a new, uncompleted Halo, which is being built to replace Installation 04. Guilty Spark is ecstatic, but when Sergeant Johnson prepares to fire the new Halo to stop the Flood—a process that would destroy the incomplete ring and damage the Ark—Spark goes berserk, refusing to let the Reclaimers destroy "his" ring. He is subsequently destroyed by the Master Chief with a Spartan Laser, but Sergeant Johnson is fatally wounded in the fight.
At E3 2014, Microsoft and 343 Industries announced Halo: The Master Chief Collection, released on November 11, 2014, for the Xbox One. The game includes the full campaign and multiplayer modes of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. The campaign of Halo 3: ODST was later released as downloadable content, and was free for those who bought The Master Chief Collection during late 2014.
In "Halo 2", a Covenant fleet arrives above Earth, and Cortana takes control of an orbital coilgun to repel the invaders. Cortana, Chief and human forces travel to another Halo ring, Delta Halo, where Master Chief and Cortana encounter the Flood intelligence Gravemind. The Gravemind sends Chief and Cortana to the Covenant city-ship of "High Charity" to stop the Covenant from activating Halo; Cortana infiltrates "High Charity"s computer systems to assist Chief, ultimately staying behind to destroy the city and Halo should Master Chief fail in his mission to stop the Covenant leadership. "High Charity" is assimilated by the Flood, and Cortana is left behind.
The Arbiter is saved by the tentacled creature and meets the Master Chief in the bowels of the installation. The creature, Gravemind, is the leader of the Flood on Installation 05. The Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the Great Journey would destroy the Flood, humans, and Covenant altogether, and sends both the Arbiter and Master Chief to different places to stop Halo's activation. The Master Chief is teleported into "High Charity", where a civil war has broken out among the Covenant; The Flood-infested "In Amber Clad" crashes into the city, and Cortana realizes that Gravemind used them to take over "High Charity". As the parasite overruns the city, the Prophet of Mercy is consumed, and the Prophet of Truth orders Tartarus to take Keyes, Johnson, and Guilty Spark to Halo's control room and activate the ring. The Master Chief follows Truth aboard a Forerunner ship leaving the city; Cortana remains behind to destroy "High Charity" and Halo if Tartarus succeeds in activating the ring.
Marketing for Halo 3 focused heavily on the character of the Master Chief, including "The Museum",[36] and appears in the subsequent video as part of a special advertisement series for Halo 3 entitled "Believe in a Hero".[37] The character appears outside Halo fandom and associated works; a medieval variation of the Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor appears in Fable II, as the suit of armor worn by a legendary hero named "Hal". Hal's armor only appears as downloadable content.[38]
Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at the University of Connecticut, compared the Master Chief to the epic hero Aeneas, in that both superhuman characters save a civilization by defeating strong enemies in a martial setting. The audience is intended to identify with the protagonist similarly in both stories.[46] Matthew Stover compared Halo to the Iliad, saying that both stories share the meta-theme that "war is the crucible of character". As military science fiction, Halo further raises the issue of being human.[47] Stover argued that, since players are to imagine themselves as the Master Chief, the character is correctly presented as a cyborg, neither a flawless machine nor fully human. Players would be unable to empathize with the former, and the latter would be too specifically developed.[47] This immersion has facilitated the use of the Halo series' multiplayer mode for live digital puppetry, as in Chris Burke's machinima talk show This Spartan Life.[48]
The Flood reappear in the "Halo 3" mission "Floodgate", on board a damaged ship that escapes the quarantine around Delta Halo. While the infestation of Earth is prevented, Master Chief and Arbiter form a tenuous alliance with the Flood to stop the activation of all the Halo rings at the Forerunner installation known as the Ark. Once the threat is stopped, the Gravemind turns on them. The Master Chief fights his way to the center of "High Charity", freeing Cortana and destroying the city, but Gravemind attempts to rebuild itself on a Halo under construction at the Ark. Realizing that activating the ring will destroy only the local Flood infestation due to the Ark's location outside of the Milky Way, the Master Chief, Arbiter, and Cortana proceed to Halo's control room, activate the ring, and escape. The Gravemind warns them that his defeat will only delay the Flood, not stop it.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a compilation of first-person shooter video games in the "Halo" series for the Xbox One. Released on November 11, 2014, the collection was developed by 343 Industries in partnership with other studios and was published by Microsoft Studios. The collection consists of "", "Halo 2: Anniversary", "Halo 3", and "Halo 4", which were originally released on earlier Xbox platforms. Each game in the release received a graphical upgrade, with "Halo 2" receiving a high-definition redesign of its audio and visuals that are exclusive to the collection. The game includes access to the live-action series "" as well as the "" multiplayer beta that was available for a limited time.
The game opens as the "Pillar of Autumn" exits slipspace and discovers a large alien ringworld of unknown origin. The Covenant pursue the "Autumn" and heavily damage the ship. Following protocol, the "Autumn"s captain Jacob Keyes entrusts the ship's artificial intelligence (AI) Cortana to the Master Chief to prevent the Covenant from discovering the location of Earth. Chief, Cortana, and the ship's crew escape to the ringworld's surface while Keyes crash-lands the ship on the ring. On the ground, Master Chief and Cortana rescue other survivors. Learning Keyes has been captured by the Covenant, Master Chief and a group of marines infiltrate the Covenant cruiser "Truth and Reconciliation" to rescue him. Keyes reveals the ringworld is called "Halo" by the Covenant, and they believe it to be a weapon. Intent on stopping the Covenant from using Halo, Master Chief and Cortana fight their way to the control room, where Cortana enters Halo's computer systems. She sends Master Chief on an urgent mission to find and stop Keyes, who was looking for a weapons cache elsewhere on the ring.