The team of Master Chief and Cortana is almost as iconic as Xbox's flagship first-person shooter franchise Halo, with the duo being paired together during the first entry in the series, and many games since. What helped make the dynamic unique was that for two decades Master Chief was a faceless character, with him never removing his mask in front of the camera, which led to Cortana often being the emotional one despite being an AI. This all changed with the recently released Halo TV series which finally unmasked Master Chief. This article contains spoilers for numerous Halo games and related media.
Cortana has been part of many entries in the Halo franchise, including Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 5, as well as novels and the animated series Halo Legends. Despite the two being such an iconic duo in gaming, it turns out that the pair spent almost no time together throughout the Halo timeline, with them being partnered for mere weeks.
In a Reddit post, a user crunched some numbers and figured out exactly just how much time Master Chief and Cortana have spent together throughout the timeline of the Halo franchise. It turns out, Master Chief and Cortana spent just 49 days together over the course of just under five years that the first four mainline Halo games play out.
Saw this in r/HaloStory, thought I’d share it here. Chief & Cortana only spent 49 days together. from halo
Prior to the events of the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, Master Chief and Cortana first meet each other during the Halo: The Fall of Reach novel on August 29, 2552. Their first encounter saw Cortana helping Master Chief during the exercises to test the MJOLNIR battle armor before the Covenant attacks the planet Reach. Following these events, Master Chief enters cryosleep until the events of Halo: Combat Evolved the following month.
Halo: Combat Evolved takes place over the course of four days, from September 19-22, with Master Chief and Cortana being together on each of the days despite being separated for a brief period. Halo 2 and Halo 3 then take place throughout November and December 2552, with the Human-Covenant War officially ending on December 11 at the end of Halo 3, which finally saw its servers go offline earlier this year.
Following this, Master Chief enters cryosleep once again on the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn ship. Master Chief then stays in cryosleep all the way until July 2557 when he is brought out of it to kick off the events of Halo 4, with Cortana dying three days later. This entire story arc between Master Chief and Cortana has been packaged and released as one collection called the Halo: Master Chief Collection, featuring Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo 4, as well as the prequel game Halo Reach and the spin-off Halo 3: ODST.
Cortana did make an appearance in Halo 5 after it turned out she wasn't dead but was sent into a wormhole that transported her to the Four Runner planet. She also makes an appearance in Halo Infinite, but isn't the Cortana that players have seen in previous games. With the game still being fairly new, and Cortana's appearance playing a large role in the ending of Halo Infinite, it's best to leave that story for another day.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.