Tom-B292

Tom-B292
Biographical information
Born:	c. 2533
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Hair:	Black, close-cropped
Eye color:	Dark
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy (formerly) Naval Special Weapons SPARTAN-III program Spartan
Rank:	Petty officer, second class
Service number:	S-B292

Petty Officer, Second Class Tom-B292 is a SPARTAN-III supersoldier of Beta Company and one of the two sole survivors of Operation: TORPEDO along with Lucy-B091. Tom and Lucy served as Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose's senior NCOs and helped train Gamma Company up until the Battle of Onyx in late 2552. After the Human-Covenant War, they were folded into the new Spartan branch.

Biography

Childhood and training

Deep Winter: "Look. What are those two doing now?"

Kurt Ambrose: "I think... the impossible."

— Deep Winter and Lieutenant Ambrose regarding Tom and Lucy during a training exercise

Orphaned by the Covenant when his homeworld was glassed, Tom joined the SPARTAN-III program at age six around 2539 in order to get revenge. He was trained by Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose and Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez for six years. Tom became the leader of Team Foxtrot, one of the organized Beta Company combat teams comprised of Lucy-B091, Adam-B004 and Min-B174. On August 24, 2541, Tom and the rest of Team Foxtrot partook in one of a series of exercises designed to filter out extra candidates the program lacked funds to further train and augment. After most of Foxtrot were incapacitated, leaving only Tom and Lucy, he engineered a plan to appropriate the automated M202 XP machine guns pinning them down and complete the training mission. After they were successful in their designated objective, Tom, Lucy and the rest of the Spartans continued to ambush several waves of their instructors before being forced to stand down by Chief Mendez and Lieutenant Ambrose. However, Ambrose commended Tom and his team for their actions and they were accepted for further phases of training and eventually physical augmentation.

Operation: TORPEDO

Main article: Operation: TORPEDO

When they were only 12 years old, the young Spartans were sent to destroy a Covenant refinery on Pegasi Delta in 2545. As the Spartans faced superior enemy forces, they were wiped out, but Fireteam Foxtrot managed to reach the inside of the refinery. Only Lucy-B091 and Tom-B292 survived the fight, as they jumped out of the facility into a nearby ocean just before its core went critical.

Despite Colonel Ackerson's wish to have Tom for his own private operations, Kurt managed to have him and Lucy assigned to help him train the SPARTAN-III Gamma Company on Onyx alongside himself and Chief Mendez. Tom and Lucy subsequently became Kurt's top adjutants and were instrumental in Gamma Company's training. By early 2551, both held the rank of Petty Officer Second Class. In February 2551 they accompanied Kurt aboard UNSC Hopeful to oversee Gamma Company's augmentations. By this time they had spent significant time in microgravity which was apparent from their gaits.

Battle of Onyx

Main article: Battle of Onyx

"With all due respect, sir, we're not leaving. You'll have to court-martial us."

— Tom announcing his and Lucy's intention to stay at Lieutenant Commander Ambrose's side

When the Battle of Onyx broke out in 2552 and the planet's Sentinels attacked the local UNSC forces, Tom and Lucy were stationed at Camp Currahee. They managed to destroy one of the Forerunner drones before Lieutenant Commander Ambrose and Chief Mendez arrived. After retrieving ordnance and equipment they moved on to El Morro Point and, following several days of guerrilla warfare against the Sentinels, met with Dr. Catherine Halsey and the SPARTAN-IIs of Blue Team. Tom and Lucy subsequently coordinated with Linda-058 to destroy a Sentinel monitoring the area, before the group pushed deeper into the restricted Zone 67, eventually arriving in a massive Forerunner city. Pursued by Covenant forces, they were redirected to destroy a Sentinel manufacturing facility by Zone 67's ONI AI Endless Summer. Operating as an advance team, Tom and Lucy completed a crucial part of the operation, coordinated by Dr. Halsey via the use of local translocation pads and they successfully destroyed the factory.

The Spartans eventually made a stand at the entrance to the shield world in the core room antechamber to prevent the incoming Covenant army from entering the shield world. When ordered by Lieutenant Commander Ambrose to enter the rift to the shield world, he and Lucy refused to leave Kurt's side, with Tom saying that he would be court-martialed before he would leave. Kurt then knocked him out with a blow to the underside of his helmet and ordered Lucy to take the unconscious Spartan with her into the shield world. He and Lucy were the last Spartans to leave the battle, surviving through Kurt's sacrifice.

Shield world and later career

After recovering from Kurt's blow, which left him with a bruise on his chin, Tom joined the rest of the survivors in reconnaissance of the shield world. He accompanied Kelly-087, Olivia-G291, Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez in surveying the area close to the now-inert entrance portal. Later, while Mendez and Halsey were having a discussion about the Spartans, a small Forerunner drone suddenly swooped down on them. Tom was nearest to Halsey and tackled her to the ground to protect her. Before anyone could catch the drone, it flew off.

Shortly afterward, Lucy-B091 disappeared inside a Forerunner structure, and eventually returned with a group of Huragok, which helped the human survivors open communications with the ONI ships outside the shield world. The Huragok also brought the sphere into normal space from its compressed slipspace bubble. The few days the survivors had spent in the shield world amounted for over three months in normal space-time; though they entered the slipspace bubble in early November 2552, they would exit in February 2553. Tom and the other survivors were then taken aboard the UNSC Port Stanley by the ONI team Kilo-Five, and headed to Earth for a debriefing in HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6.

Tom, Lucy, and the former Team Saber members continued to serve within Blue Team despite being offered the chance to integrate into the SPARTAN-IV program.

Conflict on Gao

Main article: Gao conflict

In May of 2553, the Office of Naval Intelligence learned of a Forerunner structure host to an ancilla located within the Montero Cave System on the human Outer Colony of Gao in the Cordoba system. Tom and the rest of Blue Team—Fred, Kelly, Linda, Lucy, Ash, Olivia, and Mark—were attached to ONI's 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion, a research battalion charged with recovering the AI. During their search for the AI, a string of murders began occurring in the cave systems; in July 2553, the UNSC forces on Gao agreed to help Gao's Ministry of Protection with the murders while they covertly located the AI, both parties unaware that the murders were caused by the ancilla.

After another victim had been discovered in the caves, Tom, Lucy, Kelly, and Linda were tasked with escorting the GMoP team and the bagged victim back to the village of Wendosa, while the rest of Blue Team continued to search for the ancilla. Upon arriving at Wendosa on July 4, 2553, the Spartans attempted to deliver the victim to a Pelican dropship for extraction. However, the four Spartans were spotted by members of the Keepers of the One Freedom, a radical Covenant sect that had traveled to Gao in search for the ancilla. The cult's Jiralhanae leader, Castor, believed that the bagged victim aboard the Pelican was actually the ancilla and ordered his forces to attack Wendosa to retrieve the AI. As the Keepers of the One Freedom attacked the village, Tom and the other Spartans helped Charlie Company defend the rest of the research battalion. While the company took a defensive position in Hotel Wendosa, Tom and the Spartans formed a skirmish ring around the hotel, attempting to disrupt enemy formations and prevent a Jiralhanae charge.

Fred, the rest of Blue Team, and Special Inspector Veta Lopis arrived at the village with the captured ancilla to aid the company. Meanwhile, while Kelly and Linda fired explosives at the Keepers from the Wendosa rooftops, Tom and Lucy—armed with heavy machine guns—were helping force the cult's forces back into retreat. When the Jiralhanae attempted to charge at the village, all Spartans of Blue Team worked together to thin their numbers. During the attack, Fred was ordered to return the captured ancilla to Commander Murtag Nelson at the Montero Vitality Clinic. However, while leaving Wendosa in a Falcon, the aircraft was shot down by Keeper fire. The rest of Blue Team regrouped and, with Lopis, traveled to the Falcon's crash site to locate Fred and the AI. The team was assaulted by the Keepers, but they were eventually able to defeat the charging Jiralhanae with the help of the battalion's Alpha Company. Having recovered Fred and the ancilla, the team returned to the Montero Vitality Clinic. However, recently elected President of Gao Arlo Casille declared war on the UNSC forces on the planet and Gao battle-jumpers and Wyverns were ordered to engage the battalion's remaining forces.

As the rest of the unit began retreating from the planet, the Spartans and Lopis traveled to the Wells of Echoes to detonate a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon inside to destroy the Forerunner installation within the Montero Caves, denying the anti-UNSC president access to the installation. Once they retrieved the ancilla and the nuke, Blue Team and Lopis regrouped in the Montero Jungle. Tom and Lucy both drove the two Warthogs, with the rest of the team aboard, to the Well of Echoes. Upon arriving at the Well of Echoes, the team boarded a nearby ONI Owl with Rear Admiral Serin Osman aboard. Mark dropped the nuke into the Well of Echoes and the Owl left the planet as the HAVOK detonated and destroyed the Forerunner installation. As the Owl traveled to the UNSC task force in Gao's orbit, Osman revealed that the Gamma Company Spartan-IIIs were to be reassigned to classified infiltration teams. Despite their initial reluctance to the plan, the Beta Company survivors and the rest of Blue Team gave their "permission", although Tom openly protested to ONI's decision.

Tom and Lucy were later assigned to the Spartan branch in August 2553. Their location remained classified following their reassignment.

Return to Onyx

After Gao Tom and Lucy were assigned to a top-secret training grounds aboard a space station as drill instructors for Spartan-IV recruits. On March 29, 2554, while reviewing the new Spartan-IV class an explosion rocked the station causing a loss of gravity and depressurization. Tom contacted Captain Chu to find out what happened, the captain informed him of a rupture in the rec room where Commander Musa had been interrogating someone about a homicide. Initially questioning the homicide, Lucy brought his attention to the window where they saw two men fighting outside in space. Tom recognized one as Rudolf Schein, a Spartan-IV recruit, and the other as Jun-A266. Soon Jun was able to break from Schein's grip and kick off from Schein's chest, sending Schein deeper into space and Jun towards the station. Tom went to the airlock, with a tether and without a suit, attempted to anticipate Jun's path and shot himself out the airlock. He missed at first, and when the tether went taut he attempted to correct himself when he realized Lucy was helping him. As he was correcting Jun managed to get caught in Tom's tether and Lucy was able to pull the both of them in, but not before both he and Jun lost consciousness. Commander Musa later visited Tom and informed him of what had happened. Schein had killed Hideo Wakahisa, a fellow Spartan-IV recruit, and had torn out Wakahisa's translocator. Musa and Jun conducted an investigation which led them to Schein, while interrogating him, Schein detonated a hidden grenade which killed Captain O'Day. After Tom and Lucy had recovered, Musa visited them in their office with Jun and offered them a job working as security at Trevelyan, initially reluctant due to the Sangheili presence there, they eventually accepted.

Soon after arriving back at Trevelyan they ran into Franklin Mendez, who they learned was assigned as head of security for the research settlements. Soon after they met Kasha 'Hilot, a female Sangheili who was working as Mendez's second-in-command of security. While Lucy was hostile toward the Sangheili, Tom attempted to keep things from going too far. When Mendez took Lucy to find transportation, Tom conversed with Kasha for a while about things like how the war went, a soldier overheard her talking about John-117 and became hostile towards Kasha. The soldier blamed Kasha for the Covenant's glassing, claiming she allowed the males to go off and fight. Tom tried to calm the soldier down but he only got angrier at Kasha and began poking her in the chest. She grabbed the soldier's finger, in Tom's opinion showing great restraint, but the soldier head-butted Kasha knocking her down. The soldier then attempted to stab her but Tom stopped him, taking several punches in Kasha's defense. Tom then picked up the soldier and threw him into the latter's group of friends. Mendez arrived firing his pistol into the air and informed the soldiers they would be leaving the shield world. Kasha thanked them for teaching the soldiers a lesson, and was comforted knowing that not all humans there wanted to kill the Sangheili.

Personality and traits

Tom has an unwavering and determined personality and he possesses a strong sense of duty and loyalty. He showed great tenacity and tactical aptitude during Beta Company's training, and he and Lucy-B091 were singled out by CPO Mendez for their toughness. As the leader of Team Foxtrot, Tom was greatly committed to his team and felt immensely fulfilled when they succeeded in their mission. During Operation: TORPEDO, he was determined to complete the objective despite the declaration of the universal "panic code", Omega three, and the unexpected appearance of Covenant reinforcements. While he was close friends with all of his teammates Tom was still able to accept Adam-B004's and Min-B174's deaths and go on without hesitation; conversely, he stubbornly refused to leave Lieutenant Commander Ambrose behind at the end of the Battle of Onyx years later, prompting Kurt to knock him out. Tom later reaffirmed that he would never have let Kurt to fend off the Covenant army on his own and even then he wanted to hold on to the hope that he may have survived.

Tom-B292 shares a bond with Lucy-B091 because of their experiences together. While Tom was affected by Beta Company's demise he was not as thoroughly traumatized as Lucy, who was rendered mute by the shock of her friends dying. Tom continued to reflect on Lucy's last words—"How are you sure we're alive?"—for years to come. Although Lucy remained silent for years, Tom had little difficulty communicating with her. Because of Lucy's inability to speak Tom would often be the one to carry out more complex conversations whenever the two interacted with others, such as making reports or communicating over COM when they were paired together in combat.

Tom has close-cropped black hair and dark eyes. During Gamma Company's training he and Lucy spent so much time in their SPI armor that Kurt recognized them better with the suits on.

List of appearances

• Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (First appearance)
• Halo: Glasslands
• Halo: Last Light
• Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo (Mentioned only)
• Halo: Fractures
  • Lessons Learned