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, about Thom's death Thom-A293 was a SPARTAN-III commando who served as a member of the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant War. He was a member of Noble Team until his death on April 22nd, 2552.

Childhood and training
Thom was orphaned in the early years of the Human-Covenant War when the Covenant glassed his homeworld. He was identified as a potential candidate for the first class of the SPARTAN-III program at a young age and, after "volunteering" for the program, was taken to the classified world Onyx for training under Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose and SCPO Franklin Mendez in late 2531. 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, eventually NOBLE Team.

Death
During Battle of Fumirole on April 22, 2552, Thom participated in an operation put together by Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320 to destroy a maintaining position above a city. However, Kat, who carried the Medium Fusion Destructive Device 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 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 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 Catherine-B320 took responsibility for Thom's death, unable to admit that his death was his own fault. 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.

Equipment
Thom wore gray Mark V MJOLNIR armor and a Mark V[B] helmet with an Up-Armor attachment, and FJ/PARA knee guards. During the Covenant attack on Fumirole, he was seen with a portable jump-jet on his back.

Trivia

 * His name and service tag are seemingly a reference to Tom-B292, another SPARTAN-III.
 * In the Deliver Hope trailer, Thom's armor is very similar to SPARTAN-B312's armor before Bungie decided to depict B312 with fully default armor in promotional materials. It is likely that Bungie gave this image to Thom to help associate the image with his successor S-B312.
 * Thom was originally intended to play a larger role in Halo: Reach as a living member of Noble Team, and was described to be "cowboy-like". However, like Rosenda-A344, he was ultimately cut from the game and only mentioned in the Noble Team performance reports as a now-deceased former member.
 * The manner of Thom's death, ensuring the detonation of a bomb within a Covenant ship, is remarkably similar to the deaths of Samuel-034, Jorge-052, and John Forge. However, in Samuel, Jorge, and Forge's cases, they chose to stay behind due to Samuel having to stay in the Covenant ship due to an armor breach and Jorge and Forge having to manually detonate improvised Slipspace drive "bombs", while Thom could not get out of the battlecruiser in time.
 * A concept image of Thom's face bears a remarkable resemblance to Jason Jones, one of the co-founders of Bungie.
 * "Thom" is one of the name options for customized loadouts in Halo: Reach, along with the other members of Noble Team and several SPARTAN-IIs. ''
 * Thom's service tag is a reference to 7 (2+9+3=14=7*2).

List of appearances

 * Remember Reach''
 * Deliver Hope
 * Halo: Reach