Editing James Solomon

{{Status|Canon}}
{{Center|''This article is about the [[SPARTAN-II]]. To see other characters with the same name, see [[James]].''}}
{{Character infobox
|variant=Human
|name=James Solomon
|image=[[File:ET-Cover-JamesSolomon.jpg]]
|homeworld=
|birth=c. [[2511]]
|death=[[2559#December|December 15, 2559]]{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET37|ET|Chapter=37}}
|causeofdeath=[[Fail-safe detonation system|Self-destruct]] of his armor{{Ref/Reuse|ET37}}
|parents=
|siblings=
|spouses=
|children=
|species=[[Human]]
|gender=Male
|height=
|mass=
|hair=
|eyes=
|affiliation=*[[UNSC Navy]]
**[[UNSC Special Forces|Naval Special Warfare Command]] {{C|formerly}}
***[[SPARTAN-II program]]
**[[Office of Naval Intelligence]]
|rank=[[Petty Officer, Second Class]]
|sn=S-005{{Ref/Book|Id=enc|Enc11|Page=85}}
|notable=
}}
{{Quote|We all need someone to look out for us. That's how humans are made.|James to [[Chloe Hall]] during their time on [[Boundary]]}}{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET29|ET|Chapter=29}}
'''James Solomon''' (formerly known as '''James-005''') was a [[SPARTAN-II program|SPARTAN-II]] supersoldier in the [[UNSC Navy]], and later a private military contractor working for the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]].{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET9|ET|Chapter=9}} He participated in numerous battles during the [[Human-Covenant War]] as part of [[Blue Team]]. During the [[Fall of Reach]] in August [[2552]], he was presumably killed during an [[EVA]] mission after his [[thruster pack]] was struck by needles from a [[Type-33 needler]] and he was sent spinning away into the vacuum of space. However, James survived and was recovered by ONI and shifted into working for them as a private military contractor under his adopted name James Solomon.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}}

==Biography==
===Early life===
{{Quote|You have been called upon to serve. You will be trained . . . and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of [[Earth]] and all her colonies.|Dr. [[Catherine Halsey]] to the abducted child conscripts.}}
[[File:TFoR-as-Deja.jpg|thumb|300px|left|The children being taught by Déjà.]]
James was a genetically, intellectually, and physically gifted child chosen for the [[SPARTAN-II]] project. He was abducted by the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] and replaced with a [[flash clone]] when he was around six years old. He and seventy-four other children were taken to [[Reach]] in the [[Epsilon Eridani system]]. There, he was trained by the [[dumb AI|"dumb" AI]], [[Déjà]] and [[Chief Petty Officer]] [[Franklin Mendez]], with the two serving as the Spartans' teacher and drill instructor, respectively. In [[2519]], he was taken alongside his fellow trainees to a [[Military Wilderness Training Preserve]] for a mission that required each trainee to be left alone in the woods with a only a single piece of a map. It was up to them to find one another so that they could piece the map together and locate the designated extraction point. After everyone met up with one another, James, [[Fhajad-084]], and [[Linda-058]] were chosen by [[Samuel-034]] to scout the area with at the behest of [[John-117]].<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 48''</ref> The mission was ultimately a success. At another point during training, James and the others traveled to [[Emerald Cove]] for an underwater mission. There, they abandoned Mendez and lived on their own on an island for a few days. By [[2523#July|July 14, 2523]], James and his fellow Spartan-IIs had begun facing the formidable and ruthless [[UNSC Marine Corps]]' [[Tango Company]] in simulated [[War Games|war games]]. At some point prior to that date, members of Tango Company brutally beat James during such an exercise and then claimed he had simply fallen down a flight of stairs in a one-story jail while they were escorting him from one cell to another. It took him an entire week to recover, but the abuse did not break him mentally.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 157-160''</ref> On [[2525#March|March 9, 2525]], James and the rest of the Spartan-II candidates underwent their [[SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures|augmentation procedures]] at [[Medical Facility Endurance]] orbiting Reach. After successfully enduring the procedures, James later attended a military funeral aboard the [[carrier]], the {{UNSCShip|Atlas}}, in the [[Lambda Serpentis system]] for the Spartans who died during the process. Afterwards, they all returned to Reach for their final training phase in the [[Highland Mountains]].

===Covenant War===
[[File:James.png|thumb|right|150px|James in his [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark IV|Mk. IV armor]] on Sigma Octanus IV.]]
After the [[Covenant]] [[First Battle of Harvest|attack]] on [[Harvest]] and the beginning of the [[Human-Covenant War]], James and the rest of the Spartan-IIs were brought to the [[Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex]], where [[Rear Admiral]] [[Michael Stanforth]] and the AI, [[Beowulf]], briefed them on the emerging Covenant threat. In response, the training of James and the rest of the Spartan-IIs was accelerated, and the Spartans were sent to [[Chi Ceti IV]] in the [[Chi Ceti system]] to receive their new [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor]] from the [[Damascus Materials Testing Facility]] in order to aid in combat against the alien threat.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 121'' (2010)</ref> While en route to Chi Ceti IV aboard the {{Class|Paris|heavy frigate}}, the {{UNSCShip|Commonwealth}}, they were [[Battle of Chi Ceti|attacked]] by the Covenant [[warship]], ''[[Unrelenting]]''.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 127'' (2010)</ref> The ''Commonwealth'' was able to ward off the ''Unrelenting'' and the Spartans were deployed to Chi Ceti IV with Halsey, where they each recieved a set of armor.<ref name="for141">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 141'' (2010)</ref> While the Spartans were returning to the ''Commonwealth'', the ''Unrelenting'' returned and engaged the frigate. To provide aid to the ''Commonwealth'', John had James and the other Spartan-IIs use [[thruster pack]]s to embark towards the ''Unrelenting'' so that they could destroy the warship with [[Anvil-II air-to-surface missile|Anvil-II AS missiles]], though only John, Kelly, and Sam made it aboard.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 147-150'' (2010)</ref>

===Sigma Octanus IV===
{{Quote|Point to team leader: enemy contact. Enemy troops within one hundred meters of my position, ten degrees left.|James to John during the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV]].}}
[[File:James-005.png|thumb|left|175px|James cradles the stump of his arm.]]
On [[2552#July|July 17, 2552]], James and eleven other Spartan-IIs arrived at the human colony of [[Sigma Octanus IV]] in the [[Sigma Octanus system]] with [[Vice Admiral]] Stanforth's [[Battle Group Leviathan|Battle Group ''Leviathan'']] to aid UNSC forces in the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV|ongoing battle]] on and over the planet. Deployed to the remains of [[Alpha Headquarters]] to assist the local marine forces as part of [[Operation: OCEAN BREAKER]], James was assigned to [[Blue Team]]—along with [[Kelly-087]] and [[Frederic-104]]—as "Blue-Four" under the command of John-117; James was given control of the unit's extra COM equipment. After meeting with the [[Corporal Harland's fireteam|surviving marines]] at Alpha Headquarters, Blue Team departed for the city of [[Côte d'Azur]] to investigate unusual Covenant activity and to destroy the city with a [[HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon]], provided no [[civilian]]s remained. The Spartans traveled through a jungle in a slightly staggered single-file line to reach the city, with James in the lead.  Every hundred yards, James signaled the group to halt while he methodically surveyed the area for any sign of the enemy. As the team's scout, when a patrol of ten [[Unggoy]] was sighted James concealed himself at the bottom of a hill and indicated to the rest when it was okay to strike after the rear guard had passed by. When Blue Team finally arrived at Côte d'Azur, the Spartans began scouting Covenant movements throughout the city while [[Red Team]] and [[Green Team]] escorted the city's surviving population to safety.<ref name="for205">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 205-214'' (2010)</ref> As the other Spartans left the city with the civilians, Blue Team infiltrated the Covenant-held [[Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History]] to investigate unusual Covenant activity. Within an accessway that led underneath the museum, James attached a ground-return transceiver to pipes overhead to establish contact with Green Team.

Within the museum, Blue Team discovered that the Covenant were scanning what appeared to be [[Sigma Octanus IV artifact|a simple piece of igneous rock]] and sending the information to a ship in orbit. James and his compatriots quietly eliminated nearby [[Kig-Yar]] patrols inside the museum but then encountered a pair of [[Mgalekgolo]]. The Spartans engaged the creatures but James had his left arm burnt away from the elbow down after being hit with a blast from one's [[assault cannon]].<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 208''</ref> Upon John's orders, Blue Team switched to [[shredder round]]s and fired at the floor beneath the massive aliens. The Spartans managed to make the floor collapse under the Mgalekgolo, causing them to fall into the museum's basement. To finish off the pair, Fred, Kelly, John, and the wounded James pushed a large quartz monolith into the pit, trapping the Mgalekgolo but not killing them. Recovering the rock that the Covenant were scanning, Blue Team left the museum and escaped the city by traveling through Côte d'Azur's sewer systems.<ref name="for231">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 231-241'' (2010)</ref> John helped James make the trip and even carried him after he had collapsed twice and finally slipped into unconsciousness. Upon rendezvousing with the rest of the Spartans and surviving marines, Linda had her team carry him aboard a Pelican. Before they could take off, James regained consciousness and use his remaining hand to salute John, who directed Kelly to administer an [[drugs|analgesic]] that knocked him out once more. They all returned to Stanforth's {{Class|Marathon|heavy cruiser}}, the {{UNSCShip|Leviathan}}, in the planet's orbit.{{Ref/Reuse|for231}} As the battle drew to an end, Battle Group ''Leviathan'' returned to Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system for repairs with the Spartan-IIs aboard.{{Ref/Generic|[[Data Drop]]|Detail=#2}}
[[File:James3.png|thumb|200px|James is sent spinning away from Gamma Station.]]
===The Fall of Reach===
{{Quote|Can—control—They’ve—everywhere—|The last recorded words of James-005, punctuated with static as he drifted away.}}
On [[2552#August|August 27, 2552]] James and twenty-four other Spartan-IIs were gathered at [[FLEETCOM HQ]] on Reach, where they were briefed on [[Operation: RED FLAG]], an [[ONI]] [[operation]] with the objective of capturing a Covenant [[Hierarch]]. On [[2552#August|August 30]], James boarded the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} with the others in preparation for RED FLAG. However, the mission was aborted when an order went out to all ships to defend Reach from the [[Fall of Reach|a massive Covenant assault]] that was underway at the planet. James and Fred were ordered by John to refit a [[D77 Pelican]] by attaching a shaped charge of [[C-12]] to its nose so it could potentially be used to blast into a Covenant vessel that had its shields knocked out. Following this, James was selected by John to come with he and Linda on a mission to sabotage the navigation data on the {{UNSCShip|Circumference}}, a small ONI [[prowler]] docked aboard [[Gamma Station]]. Covenant intrusion software had detected the unsecured database aboard the prowler and three [[Covenant frigate]]s were ''en route'' to take control of it. The three Spartans, designated Blue Team, took the refitted Pelican and crashed it into Gamma Station. As "Blue-Two", James was ordered to police the undetonated explosives as [[Sangheili]] and [[Kig-Yar]] [[ranger]]s were deployed from the frigates near their position. James had almost freed the C-12 rigged to the Pelican's nose when a shower of [[blamite]] needles from a [[Type-33 needler]] struck him and the tank of his [[thruster pack]]. One of the needles that penetrated the tank exploded and the explosion of exhaust from the pack sent James tumbling away from Gamma Station without any means to control his erratic trajectory.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 310''</ref> After John returned to the ''Pillar of Autumn'' he asked Lieutenant [[Hall]] to scan for [[FOF]] tags in the region to no avail.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 329-330''</ref>

===Survival===
James was officially declared [[missing in action]] as per [[ONI Directive 930]] like any other fallen Spartan to perpetuate the myth that Spartans never die. James' body was eventually recovered by a [[patrol tug]] after the surface of Reach had been reduced to ashes and the Covenant had moved on, leaving James as one of tens of thousands of corpses floating in orbit. James was brought by ONI operatives to a facility hidden on the edge of the [[Sol system]] where a handful of scientists managed to revive him. James hung onto a bare few threads of consciousness, drifting in and out of a comatose state and only waking after nearly a full year had passed. By the time that James was even remotely functional, the [[Human-Covenant War]] had ended and James had to learn of the events following the [[Fall of Reach]], such as the [[Battle for Earth]], from ONI.{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET9|ET|Chapter=9}}

===Private military contractor===
[[ONI Section Three]] continued to see James as a useful military asset, but recognized that he fell outside of their previous constraints. Although recorded as [[missing in action]], Section Three made sure that James could no longer function within Naval Special Weapons or even the new [[Spartan Operations|Spartan branch]]. However, this gave ONI an opportunity that they'd never had before and rather than directly facilitate the actions of a Spartan, they offered him the possibility of being a private military contractor doing the jobs that ONI both didn't want to do and couldn't do because of the potential fallout, missions so hazardous and politically risky that ONI had to maintain complete deniability. In this role, James could be selective with his operations, but he was ultimately on his own, with ONI potentially disavowing James if things went sideways. For ONI, this arrangement was politically convenient and administratively affordable as James would assume all of the risks in exchange for being well compensated.  But more than that, he would be doing what he was created for: war. James accepted the deal and officially, James-005 died, and James Solomon was born, becoming known as Big Jim to his handlers.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}}

Over the next several years, operating out of the [[St. Anino]] islands on the [[Far Isle]] colony with the help of the AI [[Lola]], James ran an endless series of black operations that sent him to the darkest and most dangerous parts of the galaxy against enemies both foreign and domestic and sometimes even against allies, whatever was needed to move the strategic ball forward for ONI. In [[2554]], James acquired a {{Class|Winter|prowler}} on the gray market, the ''[[Cataphract]]'', which he modified for his sole use.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}}

While James' work was at first liberating for him, over time he understood that he was just being treated as a weapon rather than a soldier and it began to wear him down and James began considering what life might be like if he cut ties with ONI and walked away to find a quiet place to live out the rest of his life. The place that James chose was a small habitable moon that he called [[Suntéreó]]{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}} after the ancient Greek word for preserving something by keeping it close.{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET41|ET|Chapter=41}} James found it in an outdated colonial directory and only Lola knew about besides him,{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}} with the AI wiping all records of Suntéreó's existence from all human records to which she had access, as well as many she formally did not.{{Ref/Reuse|ET41}} However, James eventually realized that despite how burned out and hollowed he felt by the endless series of missions that ONI sent him on, that was what he had been created for, and James simply didn't know how to do anything else.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}}

===Search for the Lithos and death===
[[File:EmptyThroneCoverArtCrop.jpg|thumb|left|250px|James and [[Chloe Hall]] at the [[Lithos]] on [[Boundary]].]]

{{Expand-section}}

==Personality and traits==
{{Quote|I’m good, sir.|James calmly assures John-117 he's okay after they and Linda crashed into Gamma Station.}}
James-005 was known for his calm demeanor and persistence under trying circumstances. He remained mentally fit following the beating he received as a preteen and when he lost his arm he did not even whimper. He was known as someone who never gave up.<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''page 305''</ref> During missions, James had an instinct for walking point. John-117, reflecting on his fellow Spartan-IIs following the destruction of Reach, thought of James as someone who had made a difference in his life. 

==Equipment==
During the end of the war, James wore an [[EOD-class Mjolnir|EOD]] variant of green [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark IV|Mark IV Mjolnir]]. After losing his left forearm, he was promptly provided with a replacement.{{Ref/Note|James' arm was either replaced with a [[artificial limb]] or a flash-cloned replication.}} By the time of the [[Fall of Reach]], James was equipped with the 
[[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark V|Mark V Mjolnir]] which James continued to use in his work as a private military contractor for ONI.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}} Before sacrificing himself, James gave his armor's helmet to [[Chloe Hall]].{{Ref/Reuse|ET37}}

As a private contractor, James utilized a {{Class|Winter|prowler}} that he'd bought on the grey market, the ''[[Cataphract]]'', and modified the ship for his uses, including a [[cryotube]] for "uncooperative" passengers and a [[Brokkr Armor Mechanism]] for removing and putting on his armor.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}} James also utilized a [[Shearwater]] aerodyne{{Ref/Novel|Id=ET5|ET|5}} which James' Prowler had a payload bay for.{{Ref/Reuse|ET9}}

==Trivia==
*In ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' a [[License plate Easter eggs|license plate]] on a [[HuCiv]] [[Genet]]  reads "KPD 005J," a reference to James and his Spartan designation.
*While expanding on the character of James Solomon for ''[[Halo: Empty Throne]]'', [[Jeremy Patenaude]] took significant inspiration from [[Britain|English]]-[[United States of America|American]] actor and rapper [[Wikipedia:Idris Elba|Idris Elba]], even collecting images of him in a folder for reference during the writing process.{{Ref/YouTube|Id=CFL2025|C6i5NL3g-kY|HALO|Canon Fodder LIVE <nowiki>|</nowiki> HaloWC 2025 – Day 2|T=919|D=5|M=12|Y=2025}}
**As he assisted in the production of the novel, [[Alex Wakeford]] came across this folder and asked Patenaude about it. Wakeford and [[Jeff Easterling]] later joked that Patenaude had the folder simply because he really likes Idris Elba.{{Ref/Reuse|CFL2025}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:James8.png|James carries Blue Team's COM equipment on Sigma Octanus IV in ''[[Halo: Fall of Reach]]''.
File:James2.png|James loses his left forearm.
File:James7.png|James is assisted by John-117 after his crippling injury.
File:James6.png|Blue Team on approach to Gamma Station.
File:James5.png|James polices the C-12.{{Ref/Note|The C-12 is erroneously labeled as C-7 in this image.}}
</gallery>

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Halo: First Strike]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' {{Im}}
*''[[Halo: Fall of Reach]]''
**''[[Halo: Fall of Reach - Covenant|Covenant]]''
**''[[Halo: Fall of Reach - Invasion|Invasion]]''
*''[[Halo: Empty Throne]]''

==Notes==
{{Ref/Notes}}

== Sources ==
{{Ref/Sources}}

{{Spartan II}}
[[Category:Human characters]]
[[Category:UNSC Navy enlisted personnel]]
[[Category:Spartan-IIs]]