Captain Keys switches with Honor Harrington

[Corvus 501]

By act of ROB, Captain Jacob Keys and Admiral Honor Harrington take each other's places in their respective stories. They got grabbed from the moment of their death and where given the chance to fix each other's mistakes after meeting each other, and seeing their respective careers. They both have broad outlines of what to look out for, and certain pitfalls, but they went knowing that their very existence invalidated any predictions.

Having both been through the others navel academies, they have the appropriate background right up to their first ship assignment, which is where they actively take over. In their new lives, they retain some of the advantages of their old bodies. For instance, Honor is still geneganeered, with both her original mods and the empathy she developed later in series, and Cole is roughly on par with a Flood combat form physically, without, you know, the unstoppable plague, or Gravemind thanks to the ROB.

[Simon_Jester]

Could someone provide a rundown of exactly what this Captain Keys character has accomplished in his career, and how, and what challenges he's likely to face? I gather he's from Halo but I don't know anything whatsoever about Halo.

I do have pretty thorough knowledge of Harrington's setting, but that doesn't do me much good here.

[Lord Revan]

I'd say it would be nice if you could do basic breakdown of both the characters as some of us haven't had the chance to read the Honor Harrinton books either so know little to none about her.

[Batman]

Also Honor's still very much alive in-setting so 'grabbed from the moment of their death' puts this somewhere in the future both in and out of universe.
And it's 'naval' academy. While it's somewhat amusing to imagine what a navel academy might be, it's not what Honor went to.

[Corvus 501]

I'd say it would be nice if you could do basic breakdown of both the characters as some of us haven't had the chance to read the Honor Harrinton books either so know little to none about her.

Jacob Keys is a Captain in the United Nations Space Command, the military of the United Earth government, which is the primary governing agency in human space. He repeated does the equivalent of tacking an Iowa class battleship agents a Zumwalt class destroyer, and wins. Repeatedly.

Honor Harrington is the female mix of Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey in space. She comes from Spinx, a heavy gravity world, and is geneganeered to live comfortably there, with reflex, strength, and speed boosts. She's also an empath.

[SilverDragonRed]

Could someone provide a rundown of exactly what this Captain Keys character has accomplished in his career, and how, and what challenges he's likely to face? I gather he's from Halo but I don't know anything whatsoever about Halo.

Keyes list of accomplishments throughout two books and one game:
1) Kidnaps around 100-200 some odd kids for the Spartan-II program while partnered with Dr. Halsey. Reason for being on the mission is he didn't testify against his former CO.
2) Spends a good portion of the Covenant War teaching as an instructor at the Naval Academy.
3) Defended a planet from a Covenant patrol while his ship was on its own. Invented the Keyes Loop manoeuvre during said battle.
4) Participated in a battle over the same damn planet with a fleet under the command of ADM Stanford. The battle was a UNSC victory.
5) Became the CO of Pillar of Autumn shortly afterwards and participated in the Battle of Reach. Ran from the battle after he saw the Covenant was going to win. Might have also been trying to get his suicide mission underway.
6) Was captured by the Covenant on Delta Halo and escaped the Truth and Reconciliation with a great deal of help from Master Chief.
7) Led a squad of marines into a security complex on the Halo installation, and was infected by the Flood. Started developing into a proto-Hivemind onboard the Truth and Reconciliation when Master Chief stabbed him in the brain with a gauntleted fist.

And that is everything that is stated about him in all of his appearances.

[Simon_Jester]

Well...

1) I can't see Honor kidnapping children, she's a pretty Lawful Good type except when you offer her a chance to make a personal sacrifice in order to protect or avenge someone she cares about personally, at which point she always takes it- something of a death wish somewhere in her personality, honestly.

2) She's certainly qualified as a tactical instructor and might well do as good or better a job there than the real Captain Keyes.

3) She's pretty good at shiphandling and last stands, could probably manage this part.

4) Also pretty good at participating in a fleet battle as a captain, Admiral Stanford might be well advised to listen to her.

5) Hard to picture Honor running away from a losing battle; would need more context to judge that. Not clear on what is meant by "suicide mission."

6 and 7) Without knowing the context I have literally no idea if Honor would have gotten captured under the same circumstances Keyes did.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I can't recall if Keyes was involved in the actual kidnapping of the SPARTAN-II children. From what I remember of Fall of Reach he was just the shuttle pilot/assistant while Halsey was observing/evaluating candidates.

The "suicide mission" alluded to was the UNSC plan to use the Pillar of Autumn and her refitted weapons load and the Spartans to capture a Covenant ship, head into their space and kidnap the Prophets (Covenant leaders) and use them to broker an armistice.

As for him being captured on Halo, the situation was his ship being massively outnumbered, damaged and boarded. He ordered the crew to abandon ship then set the ship to land on the ring before he left as well, he was then captured along with the surviving bridge crew.

[Simon_Jester]

Okay, yeah, Honor would do something like that, although I wouldn't put it past her to stay aboard after ordering off the crew and activate a self-destruct or something dramatic like that.

[Corvus 501]

Okay, yeah, Honor would do something like that, although I wouldn't put it past her to stay aboard after ordering off the crew and activate a self-destruct or something dramatic like that.

By landing the ship, Keys provided everyone who escaped from the ship a supply baise. Self destructing would be counterproductive.

[Lord Revan]

Okay, yeah, Honor would do something like that, although I wouldn't put it past her to stay aboard after ordering off the crew and activate a self-destruct or something dramatic like that.

By landing the ship, Keys provided everyone who escaped from the ship a supply baise. Self destructing would be counterproductive.

Actually Keys' intention was to destroy the Pillar of Autumn as the covenant getting their hands on an intact ship was unacceptble, in fact Cortana was surpriced when she heard that the Autumn had survived relatively intact which mean it was never the orginal plan.

[Corvus 501]

Seriously? I've got to re read Fall of Reach.

[Lord Revan]

Seriously? I've got to re read Fall of Reach.

just replay Halo it's right there in the opening level and made clearer when you finally are told that the Autumn survived the crash.

[SpottedKitty]

Could someone provide a rundown of exactly what this Captain Keys character has accomplished in his career, and how, and what challenges he's likely to face? I gather he's from Halo but I don't know anything whatsoever about Halo.

Ah, the little light comes on (about as bright as the one that comes on when you open the fridge door) — I've never played any of the games or read any of the books either, and no-one was saying where he came from.

[Elheru Aran]

It might also help that it's usually spelled Keyes, with two E's...

[Black Admiral]

I can't recall if Keyes was involved in the actual kidnapping of the SPARTAN-II children. From what I remember of Fall of Reach he was just the shuttle pilot/assistant while Halsey was observing/evaluating candidates.

Keyes had no idea what he was actually involved in - his orders being specifically to, "protect [Dr. Halsey] at all costs, pilot [the diplomatic courier Han], and generally stay the hell out of her way" (TFOR, pg. 14), and the overall mission was, for Halsey, examining the 150 potential Spartan-II kids while she picked out the 75 the project was actually going to go forward with - and Halsey specifically reassigned Keyes from the project, despite finding him to be a very useful and skilled assistant, because he was starting to put together at least a little of what he was really involved in.

And, Keyes himself notes in The Flood that, if he'd known what he was actually involved in at the time, he'd have resigned his commission on the spot.