Carter-A259

"In recognition of this, his steadfast resolution, we honor him as commander of Noble."

- Monument to Noble Team

Commander Carter-A259 was a SPARTAN-III commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command, attached to Special Warfare Group Three. Carter was the leader of Noble Team, an elite team of Spartans who fought during the Fall of Reach. His call sign in the team was Noble One.

Childhood and early career
Carter was born in Durban, Biko on August 27, 2520. He was conscripted into the Spartan-III program's Alpha Company in 2531. From early on, he stood out from the rest of the group, and LCDR Kurt-051 and SCPO Franklin Mendez, taking note of his exceptional skill, deemed him too valuable to be wasted on suicide missions. Instead, they extracted Carter from the company along with several other candidates that showed promise. Before the demise of the rest of Alpha Company in Operation: PROMETHEUS, Carter and the other extracted Spartans were assigned to other units, and given more advanced equipment than the mainline SPARTAN-IIIs to make them more efficient in the battlefield.

Later, after the special forces unit Noble Team was formed, Carter became the leader of the team, which then consisted of Catherine-B320 and several other unnamed Spartans. While only Kat and Carter would survive as the remaining members of the original team by 2552, Carter had earned the loyalty of his teammates by leading them out of enough difficult situations.

Later career
On April 22nd, 2552, Carter led Noble Team in an operation put together by LCDR Catherine-B320 to destroy a CCS-class Battlecruiser maintaining position above a city. The operation was successful, but at the cost of Thom-293.

Both Carter and Kat took responsibility over the death of Thom, unable to admit that the death of the SPARTAN was his own fault. Thom was replaced on Noble Team by SPARTAN-B312 a few months later, just prior to the Fall of Reach.

Fall of Reach
Throughout the course of the Fall of Reach, Carter led Noble Team in multiple operations against Covenant forces, such as the investigation of a communications blackout at the Visegrad Relay, a mission which led to the first confrontation with Covenant forces on the planet, the counter-offensive operation on Sword Base, and a large-scale UNSC assault on a Covenant-occupied site and the neutralization of a Covenant tower.

The destruction of the by a Covenant supercarrier after the Battle of Viery prompted Carter and Kat-B320 to review the situation. Recognizing the presence of the supercarrier as a large threat, Noble Team decided to utilize a "non-existent" space vessel and launch a makeshift slipspace bomb at the Covenant vessel. Carter, along with Kat-B320, Jorge-052 and Noble Six, helped UNSC ground forces repel Covenant invaders from a UNSC base, which housed the Sabre launch facility. Noble Team was separated at this point, with Jorge and Six participating in Operation: UPPERCUT with the rest focusing on the groundside.

On August 23, Carter and the remaining members of Noble Team assisted the UNSC in protecting the planet's civilian population from the Covenant. They reunited with Noble Six in New Alexandria and helped in the neutralization of Covenant jammers and evacuation of ONI personnel from the ONI HQ. Not too long after, Noble Team was hailed by its commanding officer and was ordered to destroy Sword Base. The team was forced to enter a radiation bunker to shield themselves from the Covenant's glassing of New Alexandria. However, Kat-B320 was killed en route to the bunker by a Covenant sniper.

Carter, along with the remaining members of Noble Team, proceeded to Sword Base and fought their way into the facility, only to have their directives revised by an unknown UNSC AI. In the facility, they encountered Dr. Halsey once more. Noble Six was urged by the science officer to become the courier of a package and to deliver it safely to the. Using Pelicans as their mode of transportation, Noble Team was split into two; Jun-A266 escorted Dr. Halsey to CASTLE Base while the others headed for the Autumn.

Sometime during the transport of the package to the Autumn, Carter was gravely injured in the Pelican due to an unknown reason. Knowing that the delivery of the package was of the highest priority, he ordered Noble Six and Emile-A239 to drop out of the Pelican and proceed by ground while he diverted the Covenant aerial forces' attention. During the journey groundside, the two SPARTANs encountered a Scarab blocking their path. Carter, still in the Pelican, sacrificed his life by ramming into the behemoth, allowing the two SPARTANs to accomplish their objective. His final orders were, "You're on your own, Noble. Carter out."

Traits and personality
"Spartans never die, Jorge, they're just missing in action."

- Carter-A259

Carter is described as charismatic and reassuring, as well as a born leader, inspiring confidence in those under his command. He is said to be cool under pressure, with laser-like focus, even while maintaining adaptability and flexibility. Carter is also noted as being capable of interacting with non-SPARTAN personnel effectively and efficiently with low-to-no expected stress issues, and is said to be at his best while building a team.

As team commander, his defining trait is his desire to bring his people back alive, but he knows the challenge of losing members of his command. However, he was said to have "minor trust issues" due to the death of Thom-293 under his command; Carter attributes S-293's death to his own "inadequate team preparation" while it was evidently due to enemy action or Thom-293's own lapse in situational awareness. Carrying the guilt over Thom's death may have also been the source of Carter's hesitation to commit to one of the replacements.

Equipment
Carter wore a MJOLNIR Mark V Commando helmet and an Assault/Commando chest piece. He wore a Commando shoulder piece for his left shoulder and a Mk. V shoulder piece for his right shoulder. Carter also had a Tactical/Tacpad wrist piece on his left wrist and FJ/PARA knees guards.

Trivia

 * Carter was voiced by Freddy Bosche.
 * With the rank of Commander, Carter-A259 was the highest ranked SPARTAN.
 * Carter's date of birth made him one of the oldest SPARTAN-IIIs. The majority of the trainees for the first class, Alpha Company, were four, five, and six years old when the project began in 2531; Carter would have been eleven at that time, making him nearly as old when he was conscripted as most other SPARTAN-IIIs were when they graduated from the program.
 * He is the subject of the SPARTAN-III augmentation procedures in the Birth of a Spartan trailer.
 * In the Halo: Reach Video Games Awards trailer, Carter had a shaved head and a lighter skin tone. In the final version of the game, his hair is styled in a high and tight cut and his skin is somewhat darker.
 * Carter's helmet is available as an Avatar Award that is obtained by clearing a campaign mission on Legendary without dying.
 * At 100,000 cR, Carter has the most expensive Firefight voice of all Noble Team members.
 * Carter is the only member of Noble Team who does not work as a duo with Noble Six at some point in the Campaign.
 * Carter's SPARTAN tag, A259, may be a reference to the element Nobelium. Nobelium has a standard atomic mass of 259 and is linguistically similar to Noble, the team that Carter led.
 * For the player to imitate Carter's armor as accurately as is currently possible, they would need to spend 532,000 credits, with the highest ranked armor piece being the MK V right shoulder, requiring Brigadier rank to unlock, and the most expensive being the Gold visor, at 250,000 cR.
 * During the Halo: Reach developer commentary, Martin O'Donnell comments, "There was some sort of relationship between Carter and Kat at some point." The nature of this relationship is unknown.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach
 * Birth of a Spartan
 * Deliver Hope