I’ve been doing a lot of studying over the information about the Chief from Halo 4, to Halo 5’s events, trying to piece together the story of what will really be going on with him in the upcoming game. If he has gone berserk like Hunt the Truth claimed, if he is against ONI, or even the UNSC in total, and what his goals are. Sadly I haven’t gone back to evaluate him from the Halo Escalation comics, due embarrassingly enough to my lack of owning them, due to all my money going to saving up for a particular game’s yet announced Xbox bundle…With that said, I know a brief summary of what occurs in Halo: Escalation
“Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity, no matter the cost.”
These are John’s words in the ending of Halo 4, and to me, this means he harbors no ill will to humanity, and as I am willing to bet that 343 doesn’t want to do a 180 with Chief in lore outside of Halo games to alienate and negatively shock lesser fans, I would say it’s worth guessing that Chief will not act as a turncoat to the UNSC. I believe that we whoever was in charge of that murder, was meant to frame Chief for the problem due to one, or all of these problems:
- Spartan II’s acquisition being close to being revealed makes ONI want to eliminate all Spartan II’s before the truth comes out to avoid someone to testify against them.- The few remaining Spartan II’s were made by Dr. Halsey, and with her on the loose, they may be seen as a potential threat in her being eliminated as a problem.My personal bet, is that in some mission in Halo 5, Blue team will cross paths with Halsey, thinking that they are one of the best groups to try to bring her in. Through her, they realize some new objective that will greatly harm ONI in one form or another, or they interfere in Spartan VI’s eliminating Halsey, trying to reacquire her, much like what happened with Palmer and Majestic Team in Halo 4, either way, Blue team could be seen as a liability, or a threat to ONI, requiring them to attempt to hunt the remaining Spartan II’s down quickly.
This would lead to ONI wanting to give reason to why to hunt the Chief down and give them proper time to do so, thus the framing him for the massacre. I believe this theory might also be referenced in Halo 5’s artwork, with Locke standing in a desert over a mirror reflection of Chief, which could mean a few things:
- Locke imitated Chief (highly doubt this from the behavior we have seen from Locke)- Locke is hunting Chief because of someone who LOOKED like him.This also makes me wonder if the two clips we saw of Chief and Locke with pistols pointed at each other are alternate options for what is occurring… Or if since they are shown at different times of day… They are both correct…What if Locke is pointing his gun at the impostor, and with Chief having grown knowledgeable of ONI’s faults, he assaults Locke because he is ONI. You can watch the two videos to see that there is a difference in time of day, and in the state of the Spartan statue.
> This… Is this what you wanted? Is this what you were looking for?
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> Was everything you’ve compromised, everything you’ve done… worth it?
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> Was it? looks up at Spartan statue before looking down at Locke, as if he is finally giving his attention to him
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> You’ve completed mission Spartan Locke… Mine is just beginning…
I believe that you can debate that Chief are asking this questions rhetorically to a few of the following:
- Dr. Halsey in reviving the Spartan Program- ONI and all their cloak and shadow methods (who actually did fund the Spartan Program)- Locke himselfI personally think that for the most part, Locke has shown himself to be a straight arrow guy. I think that he is not the one Chief is asking these questions to… And while I initially thought that Halsey was the one he was addressing… my belief now lies in it is ONI that Chief has shown a growing hatred, or desire to eliminate.