An intriguing storyline that’s briefly brought up during Halo Episode 3 is Nora-098 and Planet Mamore. But who is Nora-098? And is Nora or Planet Mamore seen in the games? Here’s everything we know so far about the topic.
This article will have spoilers through episode 3 of Halo.
Nora-098 Is a Spartan Who Died
John Mentions Nora-098 during episode 3, and it was an intriguing callout that is only briefly brought up and then not mentioned again. He talks about how he lost a Spartan, Nora-098, at Planet Mamore but the memory of that doesn’t make him feel anything. He seems bothered by this, and it appears that he is even missing some memories of what happened to Nora.
Once he removes the emotional inhibitor chip, those memories don’t come flooding back and he doesn’t start talking about Nora again. Rather, he faces other emotions that he’s not familiar with. However, it does appear that Nora is going to come up again on the show in the future.
Nora-098 Is Not in the Games
Nora-098 is not in the games. This isn’t surprising, since it’s been made clear that the Halo TV series is a parallel timeline but not the same timeline as the games. So there will be times when it will overlap completely and times it will branch off into a different storyline. We delve into this more in our story here, if you want to look into that.
This means that game and book lore might give us hints about what to expect with Nora-098, but not a complete answer. However, it’s hard to find anything completely on point.
On Halopedia, Spartan-098 redirects to the Grace-093 entry. She was part of the SPARTAN-II project and died in 2552 during Operation First Strike. She boarded a Covenant space station with other Spartans, but they were ambushed when they entered a temple. She was shot in the stomach and died. John activated her self-destruct system, killing 12 Unggoy and four Elites, and felt that she would have appreciated that ending. Is it possible that Nora will be based on Grace?
There’s a second interesting parallel found in fan fiction. Halo Fanon is a Halo Fan Fiction Wiki “dedicated to fiction pertaining to the Halo franchise,” founded in 2007. Halo Fanon has a fan fiction wiki entry for a Spartan-B098, also known as Yuko-098. According to the fan fiction entry, Yuko was an early Spartan II, and one of the only ones that survived augmentation without any bad side effects. She was assigned to the Grey Team, whereas John was on the Blue Team. (He’s on the Silver Team in the TV series and, interestingly enough, the producers have hinted that they may have counterparts in the games. Read more about that here.) Yuko was known for her photographic memory, one of the smartest of the Spartans, but she was also one of the weakest physically. She and two other Spartans were labeled MIA in 2552. (Interestingly, the TV series is set in 2552.)
This is fan fiction, according to the wiki, but it’s interesting how there are some potential parallels with the TV series.
What About Mamore?
According to Master Chief’s memories (or what he has of them, at least) Mamore is the planet where Nora-098 died. At first he talks about Mamore being like the planet in his visions. But then that shifts, when he talks about drawing a second artifact as a kid that’s buried on the planet Eridanus II. That planet is uninhabited, but he once lived there with his parents. UNSC had to quarantine it because of a plague, which means his parents are most likely dead. Halsey and Master Chief are setting out on a mission to visit Eridanus II and look for the second artifact.
But what about Mamore? Mamore isn’t mentioned again in the episode.
But Mamore is definitely part of other Halo lore outside of the TV series. Halopedia has an in-depth page about Mamore, a human colony. Mamore was part of the Insurrection and frequently targeted military and civilians. After two million people were killed, the UNSC increased its presence on the planet. Spartans were used on the planet, including a Spartan-III company that put down an insurrection in 2537. In 2552, according to Halopedia, Spartan-B312 took part in a counter-insurgency on Mamore, which led to that Spartan being added to the Noble Team. However, the entry makes no mention of significant Spartan deaths.
The only official use of the name Nora in Halopedia is referencing an AI that was on the UNSC Persian Gate, so that can’t be related.
It’s possible that Nora-098 is a completely new character, who died trying to put down an insurrection on Mamore, if the TV series chooses to follow that part of the lore. Time will tell.
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