Company 0051

Welcome to the Company. Oh yes, that's the helmetless Master Chief. Later shirtless.

Company0051 is a Halo Fan Web Comic written by Jameson9101322. It is hosted on Deviant ART and details the adventures between Master Chief and a company of in-training teenage Marines.

Shortly after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: First Strike, Master Chief and Cortana have been brought to the planet Noiosi for the analysis of a retrieved Covenant data pod. While Cortana is hired to crack it, the decryption proves difficult, until Cortana comes up with the idea of using the reverse-engineered AI network inside John's helmet to simulate a Covenant one. Reluctantly giving up his armor, John stays at the military camp on the planet, unhappy about his forced stay.

Then there are kids. Excitable, inexperienced, and often obnoxious, John is forced to cope with them while he waits for her to finish her work. Eventually, he begins to settle into the campsite, and slowly begins to discover the relationships inside the community of Company 0051.

The webcomic was started in 2007, and is still going strong nearly four years later. It's become a fairly popular series, and encourages an actively participating fandom, which refers to itself affectionately as "The Company." The official series page can be found here.

Tropes used in Company 0051 include:

Action Girl - All the girl soldiers apply, but Sam is a standout, having broken Sergeant Avery's jaw when he tried to cut her ponytail off. She gets off, but Chief reprimands her on this.
All There in the Manual - Supplementary artwork features the stills of the squad of the rest of the company. While none of them occur within the comic, they do give a bigger background on the characters. Additionally, every background character is featured in the company is given a name.
- A full map is included of where all of John's scars are. For some, fascinating. For others, more fascinating.
Art Evolution - Compare here versus 4 years later.
Awesome but Impractical - Grenades taped to dodgeballs. Wouldn't it be easier to just throw the grenade?
Becoming the Mask - It's implied this is what John was to his armor. He refers to the removed helmet as "my face."
- In an inverse example, Maria calls out a bunch of the boys when they continue annoying him at lunch, reminding them "Master Chief" is more than his name, IT'S HIS RANK.
Berserk Button - Do not question the Captain's authority.
Bilingual Bonus - "Noiosi", the name of the planet, means "boring" in Italian. Considering trapped on John feels on a planet with no threats, it's a fitting title.
Bit Character - Ally, originally the counterpart to Sam, appears the least of all the characters now that Sam has risen in prominence. However, it's fitting given she's a much quieter, non-comedic character, and she actually does get one moment in the limelight with the Chief following Maria's confrontation.
Butt Monkey - Poor Carlos...
Captain Ersatz - Let's see, Sam is blond, wears her hair in a ponytail, is headstrong, her favorite color is orange, is in the military, and she's joked about being raised by aliens. Sound familiar?
Cargo Ship - In-universe. The scientist Feldspar gets very attached to the Chief's helmet. The author herself has said they are her favorite couple, and it's one of the 2nd largest of the shippings among fans. John himself appears to be attached to its armor, but less out of "romance" than because he considers it his real body.
Chekhov's Gun - The big hole of recently torn trees leading straight into the forest? It leads to a crashed Covenant fighter, where the pod they're analyzing came from.
Continuity Nod - When finding the crashed Covenant ship, John identifies it as a Seraph-class starfighter.
- John directly cites the Captain as having directly violated Article II, subsection 7 of the Cole Protocol, which directly forbids the retrieval of Covenant artifacts and technology until the available party is certain that the item is can not be tracked.
- The armor the kids get at the end looks very similar to the Marine BDU from Combat Evolved.
Crazy Enough to Work - How many times do the kids during the final battle say this?
Creator Cameo - Jameson herself appears during occasionally in the story and supplementary artwork. Her friends or contest winners may also appear, and even get dialogue!
Deadpan Snarker - Chief. Cortana too, and Sam is this while being the...
Defrosting Ice Queen - Sam again, by the Master Chief. And in some ways him by her.
Drill Sergeant Nasty - Subverted. Avery appears to be this at first, but he then starts showing the Chief respect when he shows himself to be faithfully following the rules.
Dude, Not Funny - In-universe. After learning one of John's fellow Spartans was named Sam, Sam jokes that if he's out of the picture she could take the "Sam place" now. He doesn't find it funny.
Electric Torture - Dunny decides to stick his video games card into Master Chief's neck slot and see what happens. The result? It hurts.
Ermine Cape Effect - Deconstructed. Chief does not appreciate being out of his armor.
Mr. Fanservice: Master Chief shirtless. How many times does the author admit she enjoys drawing this? Not to mention all the other boys during their card game.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"- The Captain.
Expy - The Captain bears a surprising amount of resemblance to Captain Keyes from Halo 1. Subverted in that he's actually the villain.
Fan Boy - Every one of the boys is this to Master Chief when he arrives, as well as the authorities to some extent for giving him the VIP lodge. He doesn't appreciate it.
Fantastic Romance - Chief and Cortana, that is, if his choice is back to her and not Sam in the end.
Fan Service - Master Chief shirtless. For the boys, Sam and the other girls get swimsuit posters.
- And Cortana.
First-Name Basis - Everyone of the kids are referred to only by their first name. The exceptions are Carlos Mendez, so he can get a Last Name Ultimatum and Maria Sanchez.
Happily Adopted - Sam enjoys her military upbringing.
It Got Worse - The Captain blows up the compound and tries to steal the Covenant pod, which panics the AI inside, sending a signal prompting a Covenant fleet to invade.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Almost everyone, but Sam, Chief, and Maria are standouts.
Last-Name Basis - Sergeant Avery and Feldspar.
MacGuffin - The pod.
Mama Bear - Maria.
May-December Romance - Sam/Master Chief has a surprisingly large following among the fan community, despite the fact that's she's only a teenager, and John himself is old enough to be her father. While a large amount of their promotional artwork features them together, there is no official word yet from the author.
- Within the story, several of Sam's squadmates accuse her of this when she comes back drunk from the poker game.
Mythology Gag - Sam, when playing her question game with the Chief, jokes that she was raised by aliens.
Negated Moment of Awesome - It's time for the Chief to go Spartan again, because the Covenant have arrived on Noiosi! Time to re-gather his armor, suit up, and... wait... his helmet's been gutted by the scientists and the explosion ended up charring it. He ends up having to use Marine armor.
Not What It Looks Like - Sam comes back from the poker game, drunk, giddy, and accompanied by an older man. Sound suspicious?
Older Than They Look: The kids can seem pretty young, both in look and behavior, but they've all been confirmed by the author to be no younger than eighteen.
Official Couple - Of all the shippings, it's the Cargo Ship: Feldspar and "Helmet".
Oh Crap - Avery when the Covenant invade Noiosi.
One Steve Limit - The comic plays this straight, but later, it was subverted by the Halo canon when it turned out that the name of the Company's Sergeant, Avery, was also the name of a certain other Halo Sergeant...
- Discussed when John tells Sam of his former Spartan teammate, also named Sam. Young Sam jokes that if he's dead, it solves the problem of name confusion. Chief doesn't find it funny.
Only a Flesh Wound - Master Chief gets shot with a Beam Rifle through the shoulder during the Covenant invasion, a weapon that is a one-hit-kill in both the games and the books. He keeps moving anyway, and Sam patches it with biofoam.
Only One Name -

John-117: My name is John. You're probably the last person alive who knows what it is.

—John-117 to Sam.

Pistol-Whipping - Just after the...
Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner -

John-117: For two counts of attempted murder and the violation of UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 Article II subsection 7, I hereby strip you of your command and place you under arrest."

—Master Chief to The Captain.

- Subverted in that the author wasn't originally intended to have John hit him, but the fans keep clamoring for his takedown so much that she decided to let him do it.
Reasonable Authority Figure - Sergeant Avery, compared to The Captain. The former takes Master Chief's criticism and vouches for him when questioned, the latter betrays them and blows the camp up.
Reluctant Retiree - John -117. He's not actually retired, though, but he is on vacation. Still makes him a...
Retired Badass
Sealed Evil in a Can - The pod they're analyzing holds a Covenant AI.
Sergeant Rock - Avery. By complete accident, he even shares his name with the canon Sergeant Rock!
Scenery Porn - These covers. Worthy of note is that Noiosi has Purple Trees.
Shell-Shocked Veteran - Master Chief does appear to be fine, but its clear that he's dealing with some heavy trauma from his years as a Spartan.
Shown Their Work - Master Chief's appearance is directly based from that of the novels. Some may have spotted Jameson's during one of Bungie's All Stars Contests.
- Everyone in the Company, whether of featured or not, has a name.
- John's scars are given backstory too. He even shows a little sunburn the day after retrieving the Warthog!
Shrug of God - Master Chief's armor resembles the Mark VI, but canonically it's supposed to be the Mark V. The author has admitted it looks like the wrong armor and has at times referred to it as a Mark 5.5.
Sure Why Not - Noiosi was not originally the name of the planet, but rather had no name at all. A fan suggested the name of "Noiosi" which was liked by the author and then accepted as canon.
- The Chief wasn't originally going to strike The Captain, but fans kept clamoring for his beatdown.
- The Covenant fleet was noted to have arrived unusually fast considering most of their Slipspace jump to Human space take at least days or hours. A fan suggested that they were already on patrol in the system, after their AI disappeared, and it was accepted by the author.
The Captain - Yes.
The Lancer - Sam to the Chief. And Ally to Sam and Maria.
The Reveal - Master Chief shows his face. Did you forget that?
- The Captain is the villian.
The Voiceless - Feldspar. Until the invasion.
Tap on the Head - Chief gives it to The Captain. John is out of his Power Armor but it's still a surprise that being a Spartan, he didn't end cracking the guy's skull open.
- Enforced in the community asked for it.
Too Dumb to Live - With the amount of times Dunny ends up ticking the Chief off, whether it be nagging him all the time at dinner, not getting the hint when he says to leave, and even curiously sticking his Tetris game card into the Chief's data chip neck slot, electrocuting him, on their first meeting, it's a wonder John hasn't snapped his neck already. The other squadmates even call Dunny this.
- Carlos too is a contender, having crashed the camp Warthog, and then taking a losing fold during a poker game when he actually had the winning hand. Additionally, Petey asks if he can bluff after he revealed what his hand is.
True Companions - The Company. It's pretty obvious.
Tsundere - Sam starts out as one, but she warms to John. Maria, though is a straighter example. Chief gets told early on that she hates him, but later she reprimands the other boys for constantly annoying him, only to later accuse him of taking advantage of Sam.
24-Hour Armor - Chief admits this is the longest time he's been out his armor since he was a teenager. In an inverse of the trope, unlike the canon, he seems to be able to remove himself without a technician just fine.
Twofer Token Minority - Avery and Feldspar, black or Indian. Carlos and Maria, Latino.
Villainous Breakdown - The Captain blows up the compound, tries to steal the pod, and holds a gun out and tries to shoot whoever stands in his way.
What the Hell, Hero? - John reprimands the camps officers for not enforcing the camp's rules and skirting a lot of the rest. Avery takes it well. The Captain doesn't.
What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids? - Thanks to the bright colorful artwork and regular dose of humor, it's quite a surprise to find the comic regularly goes into topics of drug use, gambling, abuse of authority, accusation of underage relationships, a fair amount of blood, a very painful depiction of electrocution, and shell-shock.
- Well, it IS based on a Mature-rated video game series, so it shouldn't be too surprising.
World of Cardboard Speech -

John-117: As a SPARTAN and a soldier I've been trained to respect authority. It's against my code to strike an senior officer. But what you've done has directly endangered your men and the safety of humanity as a whole. For two counts of attempted murder and the violation of UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 Article II subsection 7, I hereby strip you of your command and place you under arrest.

—Master Chief to The Captain.