NOBLE Team

"You know as well as I do that we wind up with some that she would have chosen - not just kids unlucky enough to survive a glassing. Orders are still being followed and those Spartans are in the field, but they are armed as SPARTANs - and they are making a difference."

- LCDR Kurt Ambrose to SCPO Franklin Mendez.

Noble Team, sometimes referred to as Team Noble or simply Noble, was a fire-team sized unit of the UNSC Special Warfare Command Group Three, composed mostly of SPARTAN-III supersoldiers and one SPARTAN-II commando as of 2552.

Overview
Noble Team was primarily composed of SPARTAN-IIIs pulled out of their main companies by Kurt-051 and Franklin Mendez before large-scale operations where the companies were mostly wiped out, Operation: PROMETHEUS in the case of Alpha Company and Operation: TORPEDO with Beta Company.

Prior to the Fall of Reach, Noble Team had managed to survive countless battles, always coming back from suicide assignments, but not without a cost: only two members of the original team, Carter and Kat, remained alive by 2552.

Noble Team also operated with non-Spartan military personnel more extensively than other Spartan teams. To grant them more operational freedom when interacting with regular military personnel, the members of Noble Team had been given higher ranks than most of the Spartans by their CO. In 2552, the team was under the command of Colonel Urban Holland of the UNSC Army.

The SPARTAN-IIIs of Noble Team utilized equipment on par with the SPARTAN-IIs, such as the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, which is far more advanced than the cheaper SPI armor worn by the rest of the SPARTAN-IIIs. The team was issued with the Mark V MJOLNIR armor on November 24, 2551. Unlike the mainline SPARTAN-IIs whose armor was fairly uniform in coloration, the members of Noble Team sported a variety of color schemes and field-customized armor variants.

When Reach was deemed lost, and there was no hope of saving it, Noble Team ensured that humanity would have a fighting chance against the Covenant and future enemies by delivering a high priority package to Captain Keyes and making sure the Pillar of Autumn escaped intact with it.

Team composition
Deceased members from the Fall of Reach
 * Commander Carter-A259 (Noble One) - A no-nonsense soldier, Carter served as the leader of Noble Team. Listed MIA. Confirmed KIA during the Fall of Reach.
 * Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320 (Noble Two) - Carter's second-in-command, Kat served as the intelligence specialist. Listed MIA. Confirmed KIA by a Needle Rifle during the Fall of Reach.
 * Warrant Officer Emile-A239 (Noble Four) - A bold and aggressive Spartan, Emile was the assault specialist of the team. Listed MIA. Confirmed KIA by Sangheili warriors during the Fall of Reach.
 * Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052 (Noble Five) - The only Spartan-II on the team, Jorge served as the team's heavy weapons specialist. Listed MIA. KIA during Operation: UPPER CUT.
 * Lieutenant SPARTAN-B312 (Noble Six) - The playable character of Halo: Reach. A new addition to the team, this Spartan's background is mostly unknown. Listed MIA. Confirmed KIA by Sangheili warriors sometime during the Fall of Reach.

Other Spartans were constantly kept on rotation for the team, including SPARTAN-344, who would take Emile's place in the case of a counterinsurgency operation. When one member fell in the line of duty, a new SPARTAN would be brought in as a replacement.

Known former members
 * Thom-293 (Former Noble Six) - Killed on April 22, 2552 and replaced with SPARTAN-B312 immediately prior to the Fall of Reach.

Temporary members
 * Rosenda-344 (Potential Noble Four replacement) - Emile-A239's replacement if another Insurrectionist operation comes up. Her current status is unknown.

Possible living members
 * Warrant Officer Jun-A266 (Noble Three) - A thoughtful and taciturn soldier, Jun served as the sniper of Noble Team. Last seen escorting Dr. Catherine Halsey to CASTLE Base. Jun's current status is unknown, but was known to be alive as of August 29, 2552.

Trivia

 * The flag in the Capture The Flag multiplayer mode in Halo: Reach bears the emblem of Noble Team.
 * The voices of each Noble Team member are usable in Halo: Reach's Firefight mode.
 * McFarlane Toys created an action figure figure known as Noble Seven for Comic Con 2010. Although no such member exists, according to McFarlane, they were allowed by Bungie to create the unique figure.
 * Noble Team was originally supposed to have two more members in Halo: Reach: the "sassy" Rosenda-344 and the "cowboy"-like Thom-293. Both were later reduced to background characters, with Thom being a former member and Rosenda serving as a potential replacement for Emile in a counter-insurgency operation.
 * Including Thom-293, Noble Team is comprised of seven known members.
 * Though the player requires picking up of armor abilities to activate them, the rest of Noble Team do not possess visible equipment on their armor to activate them. For example, in Winter Contingency, all of Noble Team, other than the player, is able to use Sprint for longer periods of time without the armor ability visible on their back. Non-player members of Noble Team can also use Armor Lock indefinetly, though most often it is deactivated once an imminent threat, such as an explosion, is gone. It is also worth noting that Jorge is able to use Armor Lock with his turret, despite the player not being able to do so while wielding a stripped turret.
 * During gameplay, every member of Noble Team other than the player is invincible.
 * On the Noble Team statue in the Legendary Edition, the team is lined up left to right in the order of their deaths. Jun is last, as he does not die in the game. Noble Six is not included as part of the statue.
 * Each member of Noble team seemed to have had a symbolic/ironic death. Carter, being the leader of Noble, died "going down with the ship". Kat, being a communications expert, was killed mid-sentence. Jorge, despite living his whole life on Reach, sacrificed himself for it by dying off-planet. Emile, even though he always had a knife and shotgun ready, died with a sword in his chest. Noble 6, despite being told to "leave the Lone Wolf stuff behind" died exactly that, a lone wolf.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach