Tomas Horvath

Tomas Horvath is a SPARTAN-IV supersoldier of Fireteam Intrepid in the United Nations Space Command.

Early life
Tomas Horvath was born in Kuyik on Alluvion on February 3, 2528. He grew up hunting in the plains outside Kuyik with his father and his older brothers. In 2542, the Covenant laid siege to Alluvion, and a teenage Horvath fled with his family. Horvath enlisted in the UNSC and was eventually accepted into the ranks of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. However, an equipment failure on his first live jump left him with a shattered spine, but an even stronger resolve. After intense physical therapy programs, Horvath saw the Spartan branch as an opportunity to be reborn, leveraging the program's extensive augmentation suite to become more than he ever dreamed of. Horvath went on to serve as part of Fireteam Intrepid.

Post-War years
Throughout the Post-Covenant War conflicts between 2557 and 2559, Fireteam Intrepid, presumably including Tomas Horvath, had worked alongside John-117 and Blue Team on numerous occasions. They were considered one of the best Spartan outfits on the.

Reach
In October 2559, Fireteam Intrepid, presumably including Horvath, was deployed alongside Fireteam Taurus, assigned to aid Commander Sarah Palmer in securing nuclear weapons in possession of the Viery Militia toward the end of the Battle of New Mohács.

Installation 07
On December 12, 2559, Spartan Tomas Horvath was onboard when it was ambushed by Banished forces upon arrival at Installation 07. As the Infinity fell to the Banished assault, Captain Thomas Lasky was evacuated from the ship, and Spartan Hudson Griffin ordered all Spartans to evacuate. Horvath, along with other members of his fireteam, left the ship on drop pods. Fireteam Intrepid landed in a sector of the ring occupied by the Banished, and entered battle upon landfall.

On the next day, while Fireteam Intrepid made its way to Banished artillery guns, they picked up a distress call from the SKT-29 Bumblebee Papa Tango Delta Zero Nine. Si Wheeler commanded Horvath to locate the Bumblebee and assist its survivors. However, as Horvath contacted Lucas Browning, one of the survivors, Installation 07 suddenly entered slipstream space. The ring's surface ripped open and flung Horvath off his feet, sending him tumbling across a plateau. Shortly after, an explosion on the ring fractured its surface. Amidst the chaos, Horvath lost contact with his fireteam, and his tumble disabled his armor systems, including its motion tracker, active camoflage, and long range communications.

On December 17, Horvath found a small party of Jiralhanae. He followed the party in hopes of being led to a camp or outpost with a communications array, which would allow him to contact friendly forces. On December 18, Horvath followed the Banished forces to an area of the ring that was nearly fractured in two, with a land bridge over a wide chasm. While attempting to contact other UNSC forces, Horvath was discovered by a pair of Jiralhanae. In the ensuing chase, the Jiralhanae chased Horvath on their Phantom and destroyed the bridge, causing the fragment to break away. Horvath was caught on the fragment and was buried by a landslide as the fragment flipped. The Spartan managed to dig his way out, but was left stranded on the ring fragment. After two days alone on the fragment, Horvath discovered the wreckage of the Phantom that was chasing him. The Phantom had been attacked by an Aggressor Sentinel for destroying the alloys supporting the land bridge, and, in the ensuing crash, the Phantom pinned down the Aggressor. Horvath was unable to pull the Aggressor out alone, and opted to explore a nearby Forerunner superstructure, and then finally the Phantom. Inside the Phantom, he found a collection of Forerunner artifacts, weapons, excavation tools, and the Jiralhanae Bloodstar Gorian, the lone survivor of the crash that was trapped between the crushed hull and a jump seat. Without any alternatives means to escape the fragment, Horvath freed Gorian. After a short brawl, the two formed a truce until they could escape the fragment, though both intended to kill the other once done. The two spent four days digging the Aggressor out from under the Phantom in hopes to hijack its impulse drive, then use it to fly across the ring's breach to the main fragment. On December 25, the two had dug out the Aggressor; Elfie disabled the sentinel's operative directive and hijacked its impulse drive, allowing the duo to hold the sentinel by its arm while it flew across the breach. Halfway though the breach, Gorian struck Horvath; the ensuing struggle sent the Aggressor slamming into an embankment, and left Horvath severely wounded with an alloy shard impaled between his intestine and spleen. Gorian, having mentioned he would best Horvath in a fair fight prior, pulled the shard out and promised he would kill Horvath fairly the next time they met. Horvath crawled up the embankment and watched Gorian board Jega 'Rdomnai's Phantom. Horvath was spared by Gorian, who did not notify the accompanying Banished forces of the Spartan's presence.

Horvath was unconscious at the embankment for several days; when he woke up, his biomonitors placed him in a semicomatose state for another week or so while the armor's medical systems engaged in the regeneration of his torn insides. Once he started moving, Horvath was kept alive through the armor's emergency high-caloric nutrient supplements until he was able to hunt the gophers and land birds on the ring. The Spartan took out Banished forces whenever the opportunities arose, all the while using data from the crashed Phantom's flight recorder to map the area and locate where the UNSC and Banished would be fighting.

On March 4, 2560, Horvath arrived at an excavation site. Inside a cavern, Horvath found Kate Stalling, a member of the second exploratory expedition force sent to Installation 07 two years prior. Badly mutilated but still alive, Stalling told Horvath of the Conspectus network and the names of her captors, including Gorian. Although Horvath initially refused to perform a mercy kill on her, Stalling insisted and was eventually given one of Horvath's M6 sidearm. Horvath helped Stalling hold the pistol to her chin, and she waited for him to leave the cave before pulling the trigger. Afterwards, Horvath returned to record a map to a Conspectus network hub Stalling had drawn on the cave wall. The Spartan carried Stalling's body out of the cave, and buried her in a place overlooking a body of water. Horvath vowed to locate the Conspectus network hub and send the ring's location to the UNSC, so Stalling's sacrifice would not be in vain.

On May 14, Horvath finally linked up with UNSC forces led by Spartan Nina Kovan and joined their mission to use one of Zeta Halo's beacon towers to broadcast the ring's location to UNSC space in the hopes of summoning reinforcements. During the battle that followed, Horvath took out the guards outside while the rest of the team went inside to deliver their message. When they returned, Banished reinforcements led by Gorian arrived and Horvath faced off against him, ultimately killing the Bloodstar with an energy sword provided to him earlier by Erik Bender. However, the two fell onto a translocation pad and were teleported away just before the pad was destroyed by Banished fire, preventing Horvath's return or the others from following him or discovering his location. Horvath was teleported to a partially collapsed mountain facility somewhere very far from the beacon where he shoved Gorian's body off of the mountain. Horvath then collapsed from his injuries and spent the next day comatose - half from exhaustion - before coming to again. Only Horvath's armor and Spartan augmentations kept from dying of exposure during this time.

Horvath then proceeded to spend nearly a week slowly navigating the broken, snowy peaks and then a few more days descending the mountainside. To his surprise, Horvath found the wreckage of one of the Infinity's shuttles and, although there were no survivors, he recovered a week's worth of water, rations and weapons.

On May 26, 2560, Horvath issued a final transmission, announcing that he would be heading away from Banished territory to search for survivors. Having had no contact with any UNSC personnel, he made an open plea to the Master Chief that they need him now more than ever.

Personality and description
Lieutenant TJ Murphy described Tomas Horvath as a "good-natured troublemaker" and the kind of person you would want to have your back. Horvath himself has admitted that he enjoys creating chaos, especially when it involves larges explosions.

Big and burly even for a Spartan, Horvath was a large presence in any situation. He has wavy dark-brown hair, which grew so long during the Battle for Zeta Halo that he tied it back behind his neck. Also during the conflict, he had grown a beard, adding to his gruff appearance.

Equipment
During the Battle for Zeta Halo, Spartan Horvath wore the Mjolnir GEN3 Mark VII armor and was equipped with the Anubis helmet, UA/Castus shoulder pads, and UA/Type SA knee pads. He carried an active camouflage module, which was damaged early in the Battle for Zeta Halo. His personal AI is Elfie, which he nicknamed "Fi". During the Battle of the Beacon Tower, Horvath wielded a Type-1 energy sword that was provided to him by Erik Bender. He also wielded an MA5K carbine which was given to him by Robin Dimik which she had salvaged from the wreckage of one of the 's lifeboats. However, Dimik only had forty-six rounds left for the weapon and, even with precision shooting to conserve ammo, Horvath ran out of ammunition before the rest of the boat crew rejoined him, forcing Horvath to switch to scavenged Banished weapons. This included a salvaged Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet.

Production notes

 * Tomas Horvath was portrayed by American voice actor Fred Tatasciore, who also lent his voice to the Sangheili Chak 'Lok.
 * Horvath's Mark VII armor coating, Scorpion Horvath, is available in Halo Infinite multiplayer. The coating can be unlocked by accessing the Mjolnir Armory locker northwest of FOB Foxtrot.
 * Tomas Horvath, along with Nina Kovan, was set to be killed in the Halo Infinite audio logs. Kelly Gay, while writing Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, discussed with 343 Industries to cut the audio logs that depicted their deaths, allowing Gay to expand on the fates of the two Spartans in the novel.

List of appearances

 * Halo Infinite
 * Halo: The Rubicon Protocol