User:Doctorkay

The Ackerson Theory

After reading the Halo novels, many people have a suspicion that Colonel Ackerson is up to something. In the Halo Novel "First Strike" there is reference to Colonel Ackerson being apart of a secert project and is in competition with Dr. Halsey's SPARTAN II Program.

Dr. Halsey and Colonel Ackerson are rivals. When the covenant began to invade human systems Dr. Halsey’s Spartans proved to be very capable soldiers and their existence was made public to boost morale. Dr. Halsey’s Spartan project went from being unpopular with Admiralty and the scientific world to suddenly receiving large amounts of popularity. Because of the skyrocketing popularity and sucess of the Spartans Dr. Halsey was given an increase in funding for the SPARTAN program and project MJOLNIR. However, this quote seems to suggest that at least some of UNSC HighCom was funding a secret project that Colonel Ackerson was working on. A project that was on par with the Spartan Program.

Before we talk about what Ackerson may be working on, it would be prudent to speculate on a secret project that Dr, Halsey might be working on.

"But he’d(Admiral Whitcomb) read enough reports of her(Dr. Halsey) “projects” that he’d found it impossible to relate to her. If Half the rumors were true true, she’d been mixed up in very black op from here to Andromeda. He didn’t trust her." QUOTE

One of the reasons that the SPARTAN program was initially unpopular was that it involved the kidnapping of 75 children and making clones from their DNA to disguise the kiddnapping from the Spartans parents. After the children were brought to Reach Military Complex they under went an extremely hazderous training regiment that included performing dangerous augmentations with a serious risk of side affects on the original children.

Here is a list of the augmentations and the possible side affects"

"1. Carbide ceramic ossification: advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable Recommended coverage not to exceed 3% total bone mass because of white blood cell necrosis. Specific risks for pre- and near post pubescent adolescents: Skeletal growth spurts may cause irreparable bone pulverization.

2.Muscular enhancement injections: Protein complex is injected intramuscular to increase tissue density and decrease lactose recovery time Risk: 5 percent of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.

3. Catalytic thyroid implant: Platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal structure and muscle tissues. Risk: rare instances of elephantiasis.

4.Occipital capillary reversal: Submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the subjects retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: Retinal rejection and detachment. Permanent Blindness.

5. Super conducting fibrification of neural dendrites: Alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three hundred percent increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence memory and creativity. Risk: Significant instances of Parkinson's disease and Fletcher's syndrome."

The assume that the book "The Fall of Reach" accurately reflects the side affects for Humans. The book only mentioned a possible risk of death of 5% from a fatal cardiac volume increase.

After reading this analysis of the risks Dr. Halsey tried to destroy the file. This file was also heavily encrypted. Why that was?

Dr. Halsey closed the file. She erased all traces of it—sent Deja, an AI assassitant to Halsey, to track the file pathways all the way back to Hopeful and destroy Admiral Jeromi’s notes and files relative to this incident

After the augmentation propceedures are completed we are told that there are only 33 Spartans that can still fight, 12 with horrible side affects, and 30 dead. Ash Canisters are ejected into space, but the reader never actually see the dead bodies.

A 5% risk of death would mean that about 4 Spartans would die. So why the high death rate? However, what if these Spartans didn’t die, but Dr. Halsey secretly hid them from the UNSC somewhere that wasn’t in USNC controlled Space?

Now, back to Colonel Ackerson. On Page On page 129 of First Strike, we learn that Ackerson has been stealing data from Dr. Halsey's Spartan program. She finds that Colonel Ackerson has a folder called "SIII", which contains some interesting files. The complete medical records of the SPARTAN IIS, including information about childhood vaccinations, their parents, there training, the injuries that they received during the training, and even the details on the augmentations

This may be why the file that Dr. Halsey received was heavily encrypted. She was trying to prevent Ackerson from spying on her. That’s also one of the reasons why she tried (and failed) to erase all records of the file from ever existing.

In addition to the files that I have already mentioned there are DNA profiles on every Spartan. There were extensive files on the old flash cloning techniques that were used to make clones of the kids that were kidnapped to become Spartans so they could send a clone back to the parents. Ackerson was very interested in this part of the Spartan program. He even had the bodies of the clones retrieved so that his team could perform autopsies.

There is also one other file in the S-III folder, and it contains the letters CPOMZ, followed by a 512-character alphanumeric string. Dr. Halsey recognizes the 512 character string to be a star chart reference and her AI says that it is not a location in UNSC controlled space.

They recognize the location, but it isn’t in UNSC controlled space. I think that the CPOMZ is Chief Petty Officer Mendez, who was the Trainer of the SPARTAN IIs. The last we heard of him was leaving to go train a second group of Spartans. I think that this was the truth, but not the entire truth.

If Dr. Halsey did hide 25 Spartans from the rest of the UNSC, they would need to be trained. And who better to train them than Mendez? So he was training another group of Spartans. A group that Dr. Halsey hid.

So where is he training them? Probably at the location of the 512 alphanumeric string that had CPOMZ before it. It is a location in known space, but not UNSC controlled space. My guess is that the string is the location of the rebel asteroid base. It is in known space, but it is controlled by the “rebels” and not by the UNSC.

The Rebel asteriod base was infiltrated by the Master Chief and his squad years before. He captured the leader and placed a marker on the asteroid so it could be found again. However in First Strike neither Admiral Whitcomb or Haverson, who worked for ONI, know anything about the base. It seems that Dr. Halsey and Mendez kept it secret.

These Spartans that Dr. Halsey hid away may have something to do with the secret mission that she and Kelly (one of the original Spartans who Dr. Halsey drugged and kiddnapped in "First Strike") are on.

Returning to the Ackerson’s files, there is a folder called KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN, which contained three files. The first file was the original blueprints of ONI’s underground base on Reach. The second file was transcripts of the debriefing after the battle at Sigma Octanus. The third file was Ackerson’s analysis of the symbols found on the Forerunner stone from the museum on Sigma Octanus IV.

"Ackerson discovered that it was a partial star map.

The stellar reference in the alien artifact was…she did the math in her head—

“I’ll be God damned,” she muttered.

She pulled up star charts and NAV records for confirmation, and checked her math one last time.

No question: It was the Epsilon Eridani system. Here."  [NEED CITIATION}

This was not the first time we have heard that the stone is a starmap. From the Fall of Reach:

She rechecked her calculations. Under the Cole Protocol, they would be jumping away from Earth…but it would not be a totally random heading.

The Master Chief had been right when he said that he recognized the shorthand navigation symbols on the NAV display.

Cortana accessed the Spartans’ mission logs. She sifted through the data, and filed it into a secondary long time storage buffer. When she reviewed the database of his mission reports, Spartan 117 had seen something similar on the covenant vessel he entered in 2525. And again—the symbols almost looked like those on the rock he had extracted from Covenant forced on Sigma Octanus IV. ONI reports on the symbols found in the anomalous rock had defied cryptanalysis.

Keyes’ order to plot a navigation route sparked a connection between this data; she accessed the alien symbols, and rather than compare them with alphabets or hieroglyphics, compared them to star formations

There were some startling similarities—along with a number of differences. Cortana reanalyzed the symbols and accounted for thousands of years of stellar drift. A tenth of a second later she had a match in her charts—86.2 percent.

Interesting. Perhaps the markings in the rock recovered on Sigma Octanus IV were navigation symbols, albeit highly unusual and stylized ones—mathematical symbols as artistic and elegant as Chinese calligraphy.

…

She dumped the coordinates to the NAV controls

…

The Shaw-Fujikawa Translate generators tore a hole in normal space. Ligth boiled around the Pillar of Autumn and she vanished.

…

As the ship rounded the dark side of the gas giant, the object came into full view. It was a ring shaped structure…gigantic.

We also now that the rock is a map to multiple locations from an interview with Eric Nylund. In the interview the following question was asked:

The markings on the Cote d'Azur artifact lead the Covenant to Reach, yet they led Cortana to Halo 04. Are there multiple coordinates or "messages" within one rock?

His answer was

YES. It's an interesting little chunk of stone.

If Ackerson found that rock had one map on it, he may have found out that it had more than one. He learned that there was something buried below the base from the Reach coordinates, and I think that he also found the other objects that the rock was a map to: The Halo rings.

I think that it is very likely that Ackerson and some part of ONI knew about the Halos before the Pillar of Autumn (aka PoA) jumped away from Reach and arrived at Alpha Halo.

In the same interview with Eric Nylund that I mentioned above, this question was asked

Why, if Halo is in uncharted space, are the moon and planet known as Basis and Threshold?

His answer was

I'll throw out a clue here: "uncharted" from who's perspective? "Surveyed" by whom?

I believe that is a hint that points toward some Humans(ONI) knowing of Halo before, because it is ONI that charts space. If they knew of Threshold and basis, they probably found Alpha Halo too.

There is even more evidence of ONI knowing about Halo. In the First level of Halo when you are on the bridge of the PoA, you can see that the Halo ring is labeled as Halo, even though they don’t know learn of the name until the level Truth and Reconciliation. So why is the object labeled as Halo?

There is an AI on the Pillar of Autumn that is known as BW-AI. It was mentioned in the Cortana Letters and a series of ship to ship transmission that were on the original Halo website. I believe that this BW-AI is Beowulf, who is an ONI AI. This could explain why the PoA seems to know about Halo.

Now, I'll tell you exactly what was happening on the Halo rings. First, I believe Ackerson was making clones of the Spartan IIs. My reasoning for saying that is that he seemed most interested in that part of the Spartan program, and that the description of the Halo multiplayer map Chiron TL34 (Halo: CE)is:

Spartan CLONE Training Complex.

I believe that this map is located on a Halo. We know that all the other maps are located either on or near a Halo because we can see a Halo ring in the sky, can see Threshold, or the Bungie.net guide to Mulitplayer Maps says that they are on a Halo. The only map that we can't tell is Chiron. However, if you listen to the sounds in the map you can hear a sound that is in two other levels: Assualt on the Control Room and Two Betrayals, which both take place on the same map. The sound that you hear is the pulse generators.

There is another Human training facility on Halo 04, and that is the multiplayer map Wizard. We know this because the description of Wizard on This page says:

Another human training facility.

And then there is the map Rat Race. The description of Rat Race on the Bungie.net guide to Multiplayer Maps is:

An asymmetrical map which involves some human mining into one of Halo's hallway system

It is also interesting that Ackerson had files that called for procurement of digging equipment. The Humans from the PoA did not have time to mine into Halo’s hallway systems. They did not have time or a reason to build training centers. Some other Humans must be behind the mining and the building on training centers. I think that those humans are colonel Ackerson and his men.

I also believe that Colonel Ackerson and his men were on Delta Halo as well. When playing Sacred Icon (Halo 2) right after you deactivate the Containment-Shield and cross the big trench on the platform you are immediately attacked by the flood. At first, nothing about this seemed unusual until I noticed that they were all human flood forms. This is strange because the humans that arrived on In Amber Clad couldn’t have been inside the wall for a long amount of time.

Near the end of the level Regret while you are on one of the gondolas, Miranda tells you that she encountered the shield that protects the library and can’t get any closer. She then goes on to say that she will try to find a way around it. The cutscene at the beginning of Sacred Icon takes place soon after regret is killed. You can also see the humans in one part of Sacred Icon, and they are only a few minutes ahead of you. That all leads me to believe that the Humans have only been inside the wall for a short time.

In Sacred Icon, you can hear a marine say “Proceed to the objective, we will hold out as long as we can.” If you look out one of the windows, you can see a group of humans. This marine was saying he would stay there while the others went for the Index. Then you will see him and the other marines get attacked by Human combat forms. How could there already be human combat forms?

Later on in the Sentinel Wall there are rooms with boxes of human helmets and gas masks. I find this very odd; because I don’t think the team that was trying to remove the Index would want to weigh themselves down with boxes of extra helmets. They would want to stay light and fast, not spend their time carrying around bulky boxes. Also in the level Quarantine Zone there are a lot of large human boxes. It just doesn’t make sense, why would you carry dozens of boxes with you when your mission is to get to the Index and get out as fast as possible?

I have gone through Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone and done a count of a the boxes. I found:

7 boxes of boots 4 boxes of gas masks 4 large boxes of something for warthogs 8 boxes of helmets 6 boxes of body armor 13 large boxes of food prep stations 2 large boxes of generators about 10 other boxes

I can understand items like body armor and helmets but 11 food prep stations? It doesn't take that long to move through the Quarantine Zone, and they couldn't have needed to stop to eat 3-4 times. Also, why do they need generators? I think that this shows that there was something else going on in the quarantine zone.

The quarentine zone also features three human stationary emplacements in addition to the cargo. Hamans must have been their first and well dug in by the time the Arbiter enters the library.

Later in the level you hear a voice that says, “Negative ma’am, they are not Covenant.” At first I thought that they were saying that whatever was attacking them(The Flood) was not Covenant but now I’m not so sure. Could he mean that the Flood Forms that are attacking him are not infected Covenant, but something else, maybe humans?

In Quarantine Zone when you are on the moving platform you encounter Human Flood Forms when the humans are only a minute a head of you. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it takes more than one minute to turn into a combat form and move to the location of the second platform.

In the Helljumpers cutscene that plays before the level Delta Halo, you will see that there are several ODST drop pods on the ground before the MC and the first platoon land on Delta Halo. This shows that ODSTs may have been on the surface of Halo before the master chief and the first platoon land on Halo. If these pods had landed only seconds before the MC's as has been suggested the Grunt and Jackal in the Helljumpers cutscene would have been more alert. The grunt would have already been in the turret and there would probably be covenant on the ground near the pod.

Also later on in the mission is what looks like a cave that has been dug out. In it is a dead ODST. To my knowledge, there was no mention of sending ODSTs ahead of the Master Chief. Why was an ODST so far ahead of the other humans?

Now, why would Ackerson need to clone Spartans on a Halo? Couldn't he do it a secure facility on a human planet? My answer is that his plan was not just to clone the Spartans, but to experiment on them, and give them traits of the flood, such as regenerative abilities. The Halo rings would be the perfect place to do this because there are probably plenty of flood samples, there are secure areas designed for containment, and that if something goes wrong the survivors can just abandon the rings and leave the humans the are infected stuck on the rings with no way off.

This would explain the large amount of Human Flood Forms on both Halo 04 and Halo 05. Ackerson was running his experiments when something went wrong or he just didn't do enough research on the Flood and there was a flood outbreak. Maybe it even explains the Juggernaut flood which were left out of the game. They would be Infected Spartan Clones.

So now that we know that Ackerson is making Spartan Clones, we must ask what he plans to do with his private army. Will he give it to the UNSC to defeat the Covenant at Earth? Will he use them for his own purposes so he can take over the UNSC?

In the past I have said(but not really believed) that Ackerson would use his clones to help the Covenant. I no longer believe that. I do however still think it is possible that he has tried to kill the Master Chief twice. The First time was just after the MC had received his mark V armor. Ackerson tries to kill the MC using a squad of ODSTs, Chain Guns, Anti Tank mines, and orders a Jet to fire a Missile at him. The second time is later in The Fall of Reach.

0000 Hours, August 29, 2552 (Military Calendar) / narrow-band point-to-point transmission: origin UNKNOWN; termination: Section Three, Omega secure antenna array, UNSC HQ Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex

PLNB priority Transmission XX087R-XX Encryption code: GAMMA Public Key: N/A From: CODENAME: COALMINER To: CODENAME: SURGEON Subject: PROGRESS REPORT/OPERATION HYPODERMIC Classification EYES ONLY TOP SECRET (SECTION III X-RAY DIRECTIVE)

/file extraction-reconstitution complete/ /start file/

Secure space-dock repair bay. Corvette Circumference undergoing final stealth upgrades. Shipyard records suc- cessfully altered.

Queries detected from transient AI. Operation deemed AT RISK of being uncovered.

As per contingency plan TANGO: ship registration num- bers scrambled; hard isolated from dockside computer network; counterintrusion software implemented; Alpha se- curity protocols enacted onboard. Just as you called it, sir. Don’t worry—as far as the sta- ion computers are concerned, Circumference never even existed.

/end file/ /scramble-destructuion process enabled/

Press ENTER to continue.

In Chapter 34 we can see the results of what was happening in this message:

Alpha priority channel: To Fleet Admiralty from REACH Space Dock Quartermaster AI-8575 (a.k.a Doppler)/ /triple-encryption time-stamped public key: red rover red rover/ /start file/ IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED Item: Covenant data invasion packets detected penetrating firewell of REACH DOC NET. Counterintrusion software enacted. Resolution: 99.9 percent certainty of neutralization. Item: Initialization of triple-screening protocol discovered corvette Circumference/Bay Gamma-9/ isolated from REACH DOC NET. Item Covenant ships detected on inbound Slipstream vector intersecting Bay Gamma-9 Conclusion Unsecured navigation data on Circumference detected by Covenant forces. Conclusion: VIOLATION OF THE COLE PROTOCOL. IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED. /end file/

Here is what I think was going on. Someone planted the ship and the unsecured NAV database so that it would only be detected by the AI onboard the repair station and the Covenant. The covenant would try to do anything to get there hands on the location of Earth so they would send thousands of soldiers to retrieve the navigational data. The only chance the humans had of securing it would be to send in the Spartans, which would be killed in the confined space with thousands of covenant surrounding them.

The ship was undergoing stealth upgrades so that it would be hard to see when the station was being evacuated. If the ship wasn’t easily visible and it wasn’t in the computer network then it’s nav database would not be removed.

The registration numbers of the ship were scrambled so that it would be hard to trace it back to however is behind the plot. The ship was isolated from the computer network so that the database could not be wiped remotely and so the covenant would have to come and remove it physically. The Counter intrusion software has the same effect, the covenant would have to attack the station its self to get the navigational data.

I believe the person responsible for this was Ackerson. I don't have much proof it is him, but what other male character who works for ONI wants the Spartans dead?

If that isn't enough evidence against Ackerson, there is one more thing he has done.

In First Strike we find out that the covenant were scanning the Halo debris using Human frequencies.

"They're using the same scanning frequencies as our own system," Cortana said in his helmet speaker. "How strange. No mention of this phenomenon in any of the UNSC or ONI files on the covenant.

Later we find out that there is a covenant AI on board the Ascendant Justice, and it is very similar to Cortana.

She almost recognized this code. The patterns were maddeningly familiar.

Small portions of the alien software looked like her. The odds of such a parallel evolution in computer science seemed improbable. It was almost as if it was her code...only copied many times, each with subtle errors introduced by the reapplication process.

I'm guessing that the cause of the covenant using human scanning frequencies was this AI. I would say that the covenant somehow stole a human AI. However, that can't be the case, because of this quote from Eric Nylund.

HSP: Covenant Cruisers scanning with Human frequencies in First Strike: a sign of their technology thievery?

EN: No, actually it is not. It's something else entirely.

Interesting. If the covenant did not steal this AI, then how did the Covanent get it? I think that the AI was given to them--by Colonel Ackerson.

We know that Dr. Halsey let ONI clone her brain so that they could make Cortana. We also know that Ackerson works for ONI. . I don’t think it would be too hard for him to make another clone of Dr. Halsey’s brain and create an AI.

He could “give” them an AI by leaving an AI either on a ship or a Planet, so that when the infiltrated the computer systems they would find it. Why would he give the Covenant an AI? Could it be too gather information about the covenant? To make contact with the covenant leadership? To lure the covenant to a human planet?

I also believe that Ackerson planted some of his clones with Halsey’s Spartan II. The following is from page 240 of The Fall of Reach.

Clustered around him were two dozen other Spartans

That is on August 27, 2552, during the briefing where they learn that there new mission is to capture a prophet. Dr. Halsey says that Three Spartans are too far away to be recalled, three have died in the last decade, and one is too injured to continue active duty. There is also Sam who was killed in 2525. That makes 25 Spartans out of the 33 that survived the Augmentations without serous side affects.

However on Page 7 of First Strike:

27 Spartans braced themselves

Remember that at this time there are 3 Spartans in space. That makes for a total of 30 Spartans. This is on August 30, 2552.

There is also this from page 276 of The Fall of Reach:

The Elevator doors opened. The Primary Storage bay had been converted in barracks for the thirty Spartans

That is also on August 30, 2552. So on August 27 there were 25 Spartans. On August 30th there were 30. So somehow there are 5 more Spartans than there should be. Even of the 3 Spartans that were too far away to be recalled came back and the one that was too injured was healed, one Spartan shouldn’t be alive.

So how could 5 more Spartans who shouldn’t be alive suddenly appear? The answer is cloning. And Colonel Ackerson has everything he needed to make clones of the Spartan IIs.

In Halo 2 Johnson tells us that how his escape from Halo is “classified.” In Halo First Strike we learn that he had Boren’s Syndrome, which is how he didn’t get infected by the flood. However, there are still gaps in the story, like how he got out of the structure in the swamp and ended up in space with an ODST and a ONI spook. I have an explanation…

Chapter 30 of The fall of Reach is a cryptic message from someone on Gamma station to someone in ONI. It is quoted both here and above:

0000 Hours, August 29, 2552 (Military Calendar) / narrow-band point-to-point transmission: origin UNKNOWN; termination: Section Three, Omega secure antenna array, UNSC HQ Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex

PLNB priority Transmission XX087R-XX Encryption code: GAMMA Public Key: N/A From: CODENAME: COALMINER To: CODENAME: SURGEON Subject: PROGRESS REPORT/OPERATION HYPODERMIC Classification EYES ONLY TOP SECRET (SECTION III X-RAY DIRECTIVE)

/file extraction-reconstitution complete/ /start file/

Secure space-dock repair bay. Corvette Circumference undergoing final stealth upgrades. Shipyard records suc- cessfully altered.

Queries detected from transient AI. Operation deemed AT RISK of being uncovered.

As per contingency plan TANGO: ship registration num- bers scrambled; hard isolated from dockside computer network; counterintrusion software implemented; Alpha se- curity protocols enacted onboard. Just as you called it, sir. Don’t worry—as far as the sta- ion computers are concerned, Circumference never even existed.

/end file/ /scramble-destructuion process enabled/

Press ENTER to continue.

I believe Ackerson received this message. I don't have any real proof, except that the message was sent to ONI, and Ackerson works for them. Also, I think that out of all the characters that we know of, he is the most likely to be receiving this message.

Later on, we find Johnson and 3 other Marines on Gamma station. i think that these Marines are performing Ackerson's work on the Circumference.

I think that shows that Johnson was working for Ackerson.

In First Strike we Find Sergeant Johnson on a Pelican with an ODST and an ONI agent. Where did this Pelican come from? All of the human’s Pelicans from the POA except Echo 419 were aboard the Truth and Reconciliation when it crashed into the ring and was destroyed. We know that banshees shot down Echo 419 shortly before the POA blew up. How did he get on a Pelican when he was supposed to be aboard the Truth and Reconciliation with all other UNSC personal except the chief?

To find out what happened to Johnson in this time we have to listen to the paranoid marine in the level 343 Guilty Spark. Two of the most important quotes are below.

Play dead! That's what I did... played dead. They took the live ones... oh, God, I can still hear them!

When he says “they” he is not referring to Flood. We know this because the Flood also takes dead things. The Gravemind took Regret when he was dead, and in the level Keys Cortana says: Look, in the corners. The Flood are gathering bodies.

So we know that he wasn’t referring to the flood. He must have played dead to avoid being taking by someone else…

Sarge? Mendoza? Bisenti? Oh, God... the things took them... They're gone! Get it? Gone!

This is more proof he is not talking about the Flood. Sarge was not taken by the flood. However, he was taken by someone, or something else. My guess is he was taken by Ackerson’s men.

Here is my idea of what happened to Johnson:

Johnson and a few Marines are fighting the flood when Ackerson's men (probably Spartan IIIs) come into the room and kill the Flood. They then capture the live humans and take them to their base on the ring. Before halo is destroyed, Johnson escapes on a Pelican from their base.

So what does this have to do with Halo 3

I believe that sometime in Halo 3 we will get to see the outcome of Ackerson’s cloning. He is definitely planning something, and with the rest of Earth’s defenses destroyed, it may be time for him to move toward his objective. Whatever that turns out be…

And then there is Dr. Halsey, who has been gone a secret mission. Maybe she will return.

Based off of Theories by Eagle 117 and opogjijijp