Nolan Byrne

Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne is a UNSC Marine and possible SPARTAN-I. He took part in Operation: TREBUCHET with Avery J. Johnson, until he was severely injured by an insurrectionist bomb. Byrne was then reassigned to the planet Harvest to train the local militia with Avery J. Johnson.

Early life
Byrne was born in Ireland, on Earth at some point during the twenty-fifth century. While his life prior to his involvement in the Insurrection is largely unknown, it is known that he was familiar with Avery Johnson before working with him in Operation: TREBUCHET.

Insurrection
During the Insurrection, Byrne participated in Operation: TREBUCHET in 2524 leading Bravo Squad of a platoon of NAVSPECWAR marines alongside Staff Sergeant Avery J. Johnson. Their squads used Hornets to conduct air assaults on multiple targets in efforts to eliminate Rebel bomb-making factories. However, when a rebel (armed with a bomb) was cornered in a Jim Dandy restaurant, Byrne told Johnson to fire a Stanchion Gauss Rifle at an Insurrectionist holding a child hostage. Johnson did not have a clear shot at the rebel, which led to the boy's father tackling the female rebel, who then detonated her explosives, destroying the Jim Dandy restaurant and killing most of the Marines in Byrne's squad plus thirty-eight civilians.

Battle of Harvest
After recovering from his injuries, Byrne was reassigned, along with Johnson, to train the Colonial Militia on Harvest. He had felt great resentment at Johnson's hesitation on Tribute, and picked a fight with him as soon as he arrived on Harvest. Byrne would have killed Johnson if Captain Ponder hadn't intervened. Their actual mission was to create a covert anti-insurgency unit, as revealed by ONI officer Lt. Cdr. al-Cygni, and to lay an ambush on insurgent forces suspected in the disappearances of DCS freighters around Harvest. However, He and Johnson fought four Jackals in the first battle between the UNSC and Covenant,on board the human freighter called This End Up, and they successfully defeated them. Byrne and Johnson (with the rest of the militia of Harvest) were also present at the initial negotiations between the Brutes and the Humans. They also fought Tartarus, Maccabeus and several Grunts. One militia soldier was torn apart by a Grunt, which sparked the firefight. As the conflict heated up, Byrne helped defend Mack's reactor, and in the process was taken hostage by a Jiralhanae and sustained several injuries. He was fortunate enough to live through the battle, and was evacuated with Johnson, Jilan al-Cygni, and the rest of the Colonial Militia in a pod heading from the Tiara. How Byrne participated further in the Human-Covenant War, or even whether or not he survived the conflict, is currently unknown.

Trivia

 * During the First Battle of Harvest, Byrne's call sign was Creeper.
 * He was most likely HEV Orbital Drop qualified given the fact he had the same training as Johnson while in NAVSPECWAR.
 * Byrne is the one of two characters mentioned in the Halo series who is of Irish descent. There was also a Marine who appeared in the non-canon Halo E3 2000 Trailer.
 * Byrne may have been infected by the Flood, because in the Halo 3 mission Floodgate on Legendary with the IWHBYD Skull on Marines may say when they throw a frag grenade "this one's for Byrne!" This leads to speculation that he could have been infected on Installation 05, or even High Charity or Installation 04.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Contact Harvest