Thom-A293

"I'm not gonna lie to you, Lieutenant. You're stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled."

- Commander Carter-A259 to SPARTAN-B312 on replacing Thom on NOBLE Team Thom-A293 was a SPARTAN-III commando and a member of the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant War. He served as a member of Noble Team under the call sign Noble Six until his death on April 22, 2552.

Childhood and training
Thom was born on October 15, 2525, on the colony world of Dwarka. He spent his early life there until the attack on the colony by the Covenant in 2530. During the battle, Jiralhanae forces were dispatched to ransack the planet's residential sectors though Thom was able to join a number of evacuees and escape the planet's glassing aboard a freighter. This freighter eventually made contact with a vessel operated by the Office of Naval Intelligence, at which point Thom "volunteered" for induction into the SPARTAN-III program - having been identified as a potential candidate for the program at a young age. Thom was taken to the classified world Onyx for training under Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose and SCPO Franklin Mendez in late 2532. Thom was identified by Ambrose and Mendez as one of a handful of exceptional specimens within the SPARTAN-III Alpha Company and was extracted from the group before the disastrous Operation: PROMETHEUS. He and a small number of other Spartans were given MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor and were assigned to smaller special operations units and eventually NOBLE Team.

Operation: OFFSET EYE
In December 2551, Thom and the rest of NOBLE were sent to Concord to defend the colony from Covenant invasion. By December 12, a joint effort between the Army Rangers and the Concordian militia had denied the Covenant air superiority, and also drove the invaders from the major cities. Following this, the unusually small number of Covenant warships in orbit had been neutralized by a UNSC strike group. After being rerouted from one of the cities, NOBLE's Pelican was downed in the mountains of the Hinterlands region during a particularly brutal snowstorm. They made their way to the town of Skathi, which was under imminent threat from a contingent of Covenant ground forces. As the others were preparing the citizens of the town for the coming battle, Jun-A266 informed them that a siege platform was leading the charge. Formulating a plan, Kat-B320 had Thom and Rosenda-A344 join her in their M862 Arctic Warthog while the rest of NOBLE stayed in town as a rear guard.

Kat drove their treaded Warthog straight at the approaching convoy, attracting the attention of the Draugr's escort of six s and mortar fire from two s. During the drive, Thom joked about the overconfident nature of Covenant ground forces to deploy into winter environments while bearing their usual multicoloured armour, making them easy pickings for human forces. The Ghosts began to flank the Spartans' Warthog, with Thom supporting the defence of the vehicle from the cargo bed by throwing M9 fragmentation grenades at the attackers. As the Warthog neared one of the Ghosts, Thom leapt to the vehicle and took it for himself. Kat directed him to draw the fire of the Draugr as she and Rosenda prepared to board the siege engine in spectacular fashion. Kat used a nearby rocky outcropping to launch the Warthog into the lower troop bay of the Draugr. Immediately after their vehicle came to a rest, Rosenda launched from her seat and killed multiple Kig-Yar with her combat knife. With the welcome party eliminated, Kat got to work opening the Draugr's forward loading ramp so that Thom could get inside as well. As Rosenda and Thom provided cover, Kat used the siege engine's own focus cannons to obliterate the remaining Ghosts and Wraiths. Knowing that the remaining Covenant infantry would frantically attempt to reclaim the Draugr, Kat reopened the loading ramp and the three Spartans prepared to ambush the boarders.

After dealing with the rest of the infantry, the Spartans brought the Draugr back to the outskirts of Skathi, where a pair of Pelicans would land a few hours later. As some of the others unloaded supplies from the dropships, Rosenda talked with Jorge-052 about what the citizens of the town would do following the battle. She worried that this victory would not last long, and that the Covenant would return with a much more sizable force. Carter-A259 then called them over for a situation update, where he stated that Colonel Urban Holland was sending them to Fumirole, which was expected to be attacked in short order. NOBLE exchanged formal goodbyes and saluted before they boarded their Pelicans—Rosenda in one of the dropships alone, and the rest of NOBLE in the other. Before the Pelicans lifted off, Thom pinged Rosenda on TEAMCOM to wish her luck and to say that he would see her on the other side.

Death
Thom was later deployed during the Battle of Fumirole on April 22, 2552, in which he participated in an operation put together by Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320 to destroy the, Sanctity of Purification, - which had been maintaining position above a city. However, Kat, who carried the Fury tactical nuclear weapon intended to destroy the Covenant ship, was incapacitated while on her way to the objective by an enemy Banshee.

Thom was the first to arrive to where Kat was laying wounded, picking up the nuke for her and using his jetpack to fly into the battlecruiser's gravity lift. Once inside, he threw the nuke into a crowded hangar and attempted to escape the ship before it went off, without success. The nuke detonated before Thom could safely make it out, destroying the ship and killing him.

Replacement
Both Commander Carter-A259 and Lieutenant Commander Kat-B320 took responsibility for Thom's death, unable to admit that his death was his own decision. The team's commanding officer, Colonel Urban Holland, asserted that Thom died because he chose to attack Covenant forces without waiting for backup. Thom was replaced on Noble Team by SPARTAN-B312 in July 2552, only days prior to the Fall of Reach.

Personality and traits
Thom-A293 served in Noble Team, and was considered to be youthful and humorous individual, who served as the "heart" of Noble Team during his service. Even during high-stakes firefights, he displayed a joking attitude and a penchant for ribbing his fellow teammates. As such, his death hit the remaining members of NOBLE hard, with both Carter and Kat blaming themselves for his death - resulting in his position in the team being something several personnel felt uneasy about replacing only a few weeks later.

Equipment
Thom has been seen employing the Mark V[B] armor with a variety of configurations. During Operation: OFFSET EYE in 2551, Thom employed a CQS48 Bulldog shotgun and his armor have a green-orange colouration. The suit was up-armored with the D0-01-CCR Breaching Kit and a UA/Type O5 attachment. He wore a HAZOP shoulder pad for his left shoulder and a UA/Multi-Threat shoulder pad for his right shoulder. Thom also had a SRT UGPS wrist piece on his wrist, the M10 Tactical Soft Case attached to his thigh, and UA/Type KT knee guards. During the Covenant attack on Fumirole in 2552, Thom's armor had a gray colouration and his helmet was up-armored with the UA/Type B1 attachment, and his legs with the FJ/PARA knee guards. He was also seen with a Series 8 jetpack on his back.

Production notes
Thom was originally intended to play a larger role in Halo: Reach as a member of Noble Team, as a part of the team's original roster of seven members alongside Rosenda-A344. Ultimately, the team was cut down to six members, with Thom being replaced with a custom player character and Rosenda cut from the game entirely. Both Spartans were retained in Halo canon, with Thom's death taking a central role in the Deliver Hope trailer for Reach and Rosenda referenced offhandedly in the Noble Team performance reports as a potential replacement for Emile-A239. During development, Thom was designed to have a "cowboy-like" personality, and concept art produced by Isaac Hannaford depicts him in yellow-orange and blue MJOLNIR armour with a nondescript machine gun. "Thom" remained one of the name options for customized loadouts in Halo: Reach, along with the names of the members of Noble Team and several Spartan-IIs.

While Thom was kept nominally in canon via his depiction in Deliver Hope he remained outside of the spotlight for over a decade except for a brief mention by Catalog confirming his service tag of A293 - something first associated with the license plate Easter eggs in Halo 3: ODST. In ODST, the license plate "KNT 293T" was long assumed to stand for "Thom-293, Noble Team". Catalog confirmed his tag several years later in addition to identifying him as a member of Alpha Company.

Thom was given his first major spotlight since his introduction in Deliver Hope in 2023, in the Noble Intention event for Halo Infinite. The event features an armour kit based on Thom's original concept art (alongside one for Rosenda), with the original concept art colouration as opposed to the grey-white suit depicted in the live action trailer. The Winter Contention short story released to celebrate the event centred on Rosenda and Thom, and fleshed out their characters and history with NOBLE team.

While Thom's appearance in Halo Infinite and Winter Contention is based on his original armour design, both iterations remain fully-canon, with Alex Wakeford later clarifying that they are simply the result of Thom changing his suit between missions.

List of appearances

 * Remember Reach
 * Deliver Hope
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo Infinite
 * Winter Contention