Hector Nyeto

"If General Nyeto had been afraid to fight when he faced the same odds, Gao wouldn't be a free world today."

- Minister Arlo Casille

Hector Nyeto was a human politician and general on the Outer Colony of Gao, notably serving as a President of the Gao Republic. A hero of the Insurrection, Nyeto served as a lieutenant commander in the Office of Naval Intelligence's Prowler Corps, before defecting to aid his homeworld in rebelling against the Unified Earth Government.

Turncoat
At some point during the Insurrection, Hector Nyeto enlisted in the UNSC Navy. Early in his career, Nyeto served in a number of missions with Robert Watts. It was theorized that either Watts or Nyeto radicalized the other to fight on the side of the insurrectionists instead. By 2526, Hector Nyeto was a lieutenant commander in the Office of Naval Intelligence's Prowler Corps, and held command of a unit of four s called Ghost Flight. Over the estimated course of years or even decades, Nyeto quietly replaced the crewmen of all four ships with insurrectionist personnel.

Insurrectionist spy
At least one of Nyeto's prowlers was present during the SPARTAN-IIs' daring mission on March 5, 2526 to board and capture a Covenant frigate as it orbited Netherop. After the Spartans stealthily infiltrated the vessel and made their way to the bridge, one of Nyeto's sensor operators deliberately transmitted over an open communications channel in an effort to kill the Spartans by alerting the Covenant crew, playing it off as an accident. With their cover blown, John-117's Spartans had a much harder time capturing the frigate. When John made it to the bridge, the vessel's shipmaster had already prepared a self-destruct sequence. Despite the Spartan's best efforts, the sequence was activated, forcing him and his compatriots to abandon ship. Although the frigate was destroyed, each of the Spartans were able to escape safely.

Operation: SILENT STORM
A few days later, Lieutenant Commander Nyeto and his flight were assigned to Task Force Yama—a splinter group of Battle Group X-Ray—for the duration of Operation: SILENT STORM, a daring UNSC operation that would see the SPARTAN-IIs and the ODSTs of the 21st Space Assault Battalion boarding Covenant vessels to destroy them from the inside using nuclear weapons. The hope was that this would slow down the Covenant's advance enough that the UNSC would have time to formulate an effective defensive strategy. Upon learning that Dr. Catherine Halsey, mastermind of the SPARTAN-II program, would be assigned to the unit, Nyeto or one of his subordinates outfitted her temporary lab on the with hidden surveillance equipment and software, in an effort to learn crucial information about her supersoldiers. Ghost Flight and the rest of Task Force Yama soon left for the Kolaqoa system and Biko, which was theorized to be the Covenant's next target. An ice quarry on Seoba, one of Biko's three moons, was selected as the staging point for the UNSC's operation there.

Arriving in the Kolaqoa system, Task Force Yama approached Seoba, and Colonel Marmon Crowther of the Black Daggers—the nickname for the 21st Space Assault Battalion—decided that it would be a great time to practice the mass deployment of the Spartans and his ODSTs. However, it was soon discovered that insurgent forces were occupying the quarry. Operation: ICE DANCE was no longer a drill. As the battle began, Nyeto's flagship, the, was assigned to drop off First Platoon from the Black Daggers' Alpha Company, along with John-117, above the ice quarry. Prior to their deployment, the lieutenant commander confronted John and pulled him into a secluded passageway next to the troop bay. Nyeto apologized to John for the "mistake" made by one of his sensor operators during the Spartans' raid on the Radiant Arrow. Then, he furtively steered their conversation toward a rumor he had apparently heard from an associate that the Spartans were trained as children on Reach, and that they were still only in their mid-teens. Although John denied this, his defensiveness only confirmed that Nyeto's information was accurate. Soon after, he ordered his ship to begin the insertion run and launch a missile strike on the insurrectionist relay station when the Ghost Song was fired upon by rebel anti-aircraft bunkers. The missiles damaged but ultimately missed a direct hit on the transmitter, which left it open to be repaired. He ordered his flight to abort the drop, but after John exited the prowler and took out all the hostile emplacements, he was forced to continue with the deployment. His flagship and the other prowlers in Ghost Flight delivered the remnants of Alpha Company to the field, and launched a final salvo against the rebels before pulling out when the was shot down. After the battle concluded and the UNSC had taken the ice quarry, he was summoned by Captain Halima Ascot for a debriefing in the quarry's Assembly Chamber 4L430. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss what went wrong during the operation and what led to Alpha Company's unusually-high casualties. Ultimately, the conversation turned to the Spartans and their qualifications, which led to a discussion about their true ages. With some careful hinting from Nyeto, Colonel Crowther became curious about John's age. As Nyeto began sharing the rumors and evidence he had to suggest that the Spartans were only about fifteen years old, Dr. Halsey all but confirmed the assertion. Now that he had a good reason to do so, Crowther refused to send the Spartans into any of his future battles. After this, the discussion turned to how the insurgents had seemingly prepared for the UNSC's arrival. John suggested that they were waiting for someone else, the Covenant. Just as everyone else began to see the logic in his reasoning, a Covenant flotilla arrived in the system. Nyeto and Ascot immediately rushed back to their ships to prepare for battle.

Later life
By June 2526, he was believed to be hiding in the jungles of Gao, beyond the reach of ONI. Upon his return to Gao, Nyeto served the Gao Ministry of War as a general in the Gao militia and led its forces against the United Nations Space Command and Colonial Military Administration throughout the Insurrection. Nyeto was largely successful in his efforts using his captured prowlers to great effect, though this was mainly due to the UNSC and CMA being spread thin across the Outer Colonies at the time and Gao was only a small part of the war. Regardless, Nyeto's actions helped Gao gain more independence from the Unified Earth Government. During the Insurrection, General Nyeto was also responsible for creating and organizing the Gao battle-jumpers, armored stealth troopers.

At some point, Nyeto served as one of the first fourteen Presidents of the Gao Republic. His legacy was immortalized as a hologram in the People's Collection of Presidential Holographs, located in the Gao Cabinet Chamber in the People's Palace. Nyeto's hologram features him in armor on a fiery hangar deck with a cigar in his mouth as he smirks at the remains of a CMA AV-14 Hornet. The Hector Nyeto Conference Room in the Montero Vitality Center was named after Nyeto.Nyeto's son, Ross, became an accomplished smuggler in the Isbanola sector, using his father's captured prowlers to smuggle arms across the sector. However, the Gao Ministry of War wanted him dead, believing that his smuggling activities were a stain on his father's heroic legacy.

Physical description
Nyeto had a roughly square-shaped face with a bushy black mustache over a heavy-lipped mouth. He also had curly hair.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Last Light
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Silent Storm
 * Halo: Oblivion
 * Halo: Shadows of Reach