Tomas Horvath

Tomas Horvath
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Kuyik, Alluvion
Born:	February 3, 2528
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Height:	220.9 centimeters (7 ft 3.0 in)
Weight:	133 kilograms (290 lb)
Hair color:	Dark-brown
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Marine Corps (Formerly) Orbital Drop Shock Troopers Spartan Operations SPARTAN-IV program Fireteam Intrepid Boat crew (Formerly)

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

Biography

Early life and UNSC enlistment

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 UNSC Infinity.

Operation: WOLFE

Main article: Operation: WOLFE

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

Battle for Zeta Halo

Main article: Battle for Zeta Halo

On December 12, 2559, Tomas Horvath was onboard UNSC Infinity 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 a trio of Kywasky Workshop Gorespike cannons the Banished had set up south of the Silent Auditorium, they picked up a distress call from Lucas Browning, one of the survivors from the trapped SKT-29 Bumblebee Papa Tango Delta 09. Intrepid’s leader, Si Wheeler, commanded Horvath to locate the Bumblebee and assist its survivors. However, while Horvath made his way to the Bumblebee, Installation 07 suddenly entered slipstream space. Shortly after, an explosion on the ring fractured its surface. The ring's surface ripped open and flung Horvath off his feet, sending him tumbling across a plateau. 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 an outpost with a communications array, which would allow him to contact friendly forces. On December 18, Horvath followed Banished forces to an area of the ring that was nearly fractured in two, with a land bridge connecting two fragments of the ring. While attempting to contact other UNSC forces, Horvath was discovered by a pair of Jiralhanae. In the ensuing chase, the Jiralhanae pursued Horvath on their Phantom and destroyed the bridge, causing the fragment to break away. Caught on the fragment, Horvath was buried by a landslide as the fragment flipped. The Spartan managed to dig his way out, but was left stranded on the fragment. After two days alone on the fragment, Horvath discovered the wreckage of the Phantom that pursued him. The Phantom was attacked by an Aggressor Sentinel for destroying the alloys supporting the land bridge, and, in the ensuing crash, the Phantom pinned down the Aggressor underneath its hull. 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 Bloodstar Gorian, one of the two Jiralhanae that had discovered him two days prior; Gorian was the lone survivor of the crash, though he was trapped between the crushed hull and a jump seat. Without any alternate 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 they returned to the main fragment. 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; Horvath’s AI Elfie disabled the sentinel's operative directive and hijacked its impulse drive, allowing the duo to hold the sentinel by its arms while it flew across the breach. Halfway across 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. By January 8, 2560, Horvath was passing by the three Gorespike cannons again.

On March 4, 2560, Horvath arrived at a Banished 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 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.

Horvath's search for a Conspectus network hub kept him occupied, as Stalling's map was no longer accurate with the ring being fragmented and Horvath took care to keep his presence hidden in Banished territory. On May 3, Horvath found the location Stalling had marked: a tar lake, with an elevator hidden in its center. The elevator brought him down to an underground facility; inside, Horvath searched for the Conspectus hub, but only found the chamber's console had been sabotaged by the Banished. Instead, Horvath came across a group of UNSC survivors led by Spartan Nina Kovan and guided by submonitor 091 Adjutant Veridity. Horvath joined the team; that evening, while they rested, Horvath caught up on the status on the larger UNSC resistance in the fragmented region of the ring. They determined that they would use one of ring's beacon towers to broadcast the ring's location to UNSC space in the hopes of summoning reinforcements. In order to access the beacon tower, they needed to find 117649 Despondent Pyre, the monitor of the ring. Adjutant Veridity led the team to the Conservatory; they planned to release Despondent Pyre, who would assist them with expelling the Banished and accessing a beacon tower.

On May 9, the team, led by Veridity, arrived at the Conservatory's main chamber, Pyre's Cradle. Pyre, along with a number of submonitors were sequestered by Cortana within an energy barrier. As a human and thus, a Reclaimer, Horvath was able to deactivate the barrier and awaken the monitors. Although Pyre was initially uninterested in offering any assistance, upon hearing news of the Harbinger being released, the monitor granted access to the beacon towers. She also gave the humans a data key that they must insert into the central plinth of a beacon tower in order to transmit the ring's location and data to human-occupied space. However, Pyre ordered Veridity to remain with her to counter the Harbinger, leaving Horvath and the other humans to travel to the beacon tower without Veridity’s presence.

During the ensuing battle, Horvath took out the guards outside, then provided overwatch while Isaiah Cameron and Robin Dimik planted explosives along the ravine pass into the valley. Kovan, TJ Murphy, and Erik Bender entered the beacon tower to deliver the message. When they returned, Bender revealed Murphy had died inside and passed an energy sword—from a Sangheili they fought—to Horvath. At the same time, Banished reinforcements led by Gorian arrived and Horvath faced off against him. Although Horvath was at a disadvantage initially, having to dodge grenades from Gorian’s brute shot, Dimik snuck in and left a spike grenade near Horvath, who used it to disable Gorian’s energy shields. Horvath returned the favor by using his pulse carbine to kill two Kig-Yar approaching Dimik. Gorian followed Horvath onto an overlook and tackled him, but Horvath punched the hilt of the energy sword into the side of Gorian's ribcage and activated it, cutting through Gorian’s bones, tissue, and organs before coming out on the other side of his ribcage. However, the two fell onto a translocation pad and were teleported away just before the pad was destroyed by a Banished Thrasher missile, preventing Horvath's return or the others from following him. Horvath was teleported to a partially collapsed mountain facility somewhere far away from the beacon, where he shoved Gorian's body off the mountain. Horvath then collapsed from his injuries and spent the next day comatose—half from exhaustion—before coming to again. Horvath's armor and Spartan augmentations kept him from dying of exposure during this time.

Horvath then spent nearly a week slowly navigating the broken, snowy peaks and then a few more days descending the mountainside. To his surprise, he 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 25, 2560, Horvath issued a final transmission, announcing that he planned to move away from Banished territory to search for survivors. He also made an open plea to the Master Chief that they need him now more than ever.

Personality and traits

Gorian: "As soon as we’re off this fragment, I will enjoy killing you."

Tomas Horvath: "Keep talking like that and I might start thinking you like me."

— Tomas Horvath's sarcastic response when he was stranded with Gorian.

Tomas Horvath is warm and empathetic; while he was on his way to rescue Lucas Browning's lifeboat, he did not want to demoralize Browning or have him focus on the Banished's advantage over the UNSC, so instead he prompted Browning to talk about his home planet, which turned out to be Alluvion as well. He was unwilling to give Kate Stalling a mercy kill, but relented at her request and gave her an M6 sidearm. Lieutenant TJ Murphy described 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. Horvath's sense of humor persists even in dire situations; he wished Gorian a Merry Christmas when they were stranded on the ring, musing to himself that Gorian likely did not have a present for him, and said to Gorian he thought they had "a good thing going" when Gorian announced he was going to kill Horvath before they fought at the beacon tower.

Horvath speaks with a Kuyik accent, but it was considered tame compared to others from Kuyik. Big and burly even for a Spartan, Horvath is 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, but it was damaged, along with his armor’s motion tracker and long range communication system, early in the Battle for Zeta Halo. His personal AI is Elfie, which he nicknamed "Fi".

On Installation 07, Horvath has proved himself to be proficient with a variety of weapons and equipment. During the battle of the beacon tower, Horvath wielded a energy sword that was provided to him by Erik Bender. Robin Dimik also gave him an MA5K carbine, which she had salvaged from the wreckage of one of the UNSC Infinity'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. Tatasciore previously provided voices for Jiralhanae in Halo 3, and the Truth and Reconciliation's AI in the third Terminal of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. He also performed minor voice acting for Halo 4.
• 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. As with other Spartans in the audio logs, the bodies of Horvath and Kovan are available as Forge objects; Bertold Vettel's body is similarly available in Forge while being unused in the campaign, but his fate was not expanded in the novel. Additionally, their armor configurations are depicted differently from their canon appearances in the Halo Encyclopedia and on the cover of Halo: The Rubicon Protocol. In Horvath's case, the in-game version employs UA/Agathius shoulder pads—similar to other Spartans whose bodies are depicted in the campaign—and, like Kovan's Stormfall helmet, the Anubis helmet on Horvath's body is equipped with the HUL-I/XFTREC/FLAMINGO attachment—a permutation unavailable to player customization.

Gallery

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  Tomas Horvath, Nina Kovan, and Bonita Stone on the surface of Installation 07.

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  Horvath's appearance and armor coating, Scorpion Horvath, available in Halo Infinite's multiplayer.

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  Horvath as he appears in the Halo Encyclopedia.

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  Horvath's body as a Forge object in Halo Infinite.

List of appearances

• Halo Infinite (First appearance)
• Halo: The Rubicon Protocol