Nothing in any previous lore ever indicated her accent. Tanaka is from a colony called Minab. It was glassed by the Covenant while she was still on the planet and had to survive for months in the nuclear winter that followed before being rescued. After being rescued, she joined the Engineering Corps and after advising a captain to search for survivors on a glassed colony in the post war, she was recommended to be invited to the SPARTAN-IV program. Vale served as the Navy's liaison to the Sangheili given her exceptional ability to speak the language after listening to war-time Sangheili transmissions for several months while stranded on a star ship. After participating in Operation: FAR STORM (a joint Sangheili-UNSC mission back to the Ark in 2555 to stop Halo from firing), she scored highly in a war games simulation despite her minimal combat experience, catching the attention of the Spartan branch.