Thomas Raines

Thomas "Tom" Andrew Raines is an Intrasolar Force trainee (cadet) affiliated with the U.S. Military's Intrasolar Force, which is aligned with the Indo-American Alliance. For more information about the Pentagonal Spire please see the Life in the Spire page

Background
His childhood was not that of your average American, rather he spent his childhood (up until the IF recruited him) on the move, never living in one place for long. This was majorly due to his father's "profession" as a gambler. His father, Neil, had used to be an incredible gambler and was well known in the casino world, but after his marriage to Tom's mother, Delilah Nyland, and the birth of Tom, his skills fell into disarray and lead downhill. Tom and Neil, when Tom was younger, used to be awarded free rooms and such from the casinos just for arriving/using the casino. But as Neil's career went downhill, those types of offers became less, and less common, until they were unheard of. This also contributed (if not lead to) to Neil's drinking problem. Because Neil's gambling skills were not at the top of his game, more often than not Neil would lose more money on bets than he had, causing him to be beaten up a lot. This made Tom responsible for paying the bills most days. To collect funds, Tom honed his skills in playing VR games and used treachery, in the form of acting like a noob, to trick arrogant players into betting on a game with him, only to destroy them in whatever game was played. This way of living, while is not very healthy, also meant that they slept in cheap hotel/bar/inn/motel rooms. If Tom was unsuccessful in the days' endeavors it usually meant that he and his dad would be sleeping on benches in some subway station, or park-like the homeless. luckily for Neil, Tom is very good at VR games. Since Tom and Neil didn't have any official residence in which they resided, this made the prospect of schooling for Tom difficult. Tom got his education online, through VR, in a class with other kids either in similar situations or that had no other options, because for various reasons. Tom also admits that because of his father's "mobile" lifestyle, he didn't learn to read until he was enrolled in a virtual school at age 11.

Extended Origins in Catalyst
In the third book of the Insignia Trilogy, S.J. Kincaid dives deeper into Tom's past; In particular the parts about his mother. It is then revealed to us that Delilah didn't leave Tom and Neil, but instead, Neil sold them both to Joseph Vengerov, because of a disorder of some sort that she had—that due to genetics Tom also had—made her random, unreliable, and in constant need of supervision to prevent her from getting herself into trouble. It is also stated that the final straw that leads to Neil giving them to Vengerov was that she took Tom out one day and they burned an entire neighbourhood. But in Neil's defence, Vengerov also told Neil that he was going to "cure" Tom and Delilah. But in reality, Vengerov was planning to use them both as his guinea pigs for illegal Neural Processor Experiments. Vengerov managed to partially succeed by performing the Neural Processor implant surgery on Delilah, and because of the major impact this kind of brain surgery causes in the brain, one's brain needs to adapt to the processor or they will die. This is eventually discovered after these events in that the best candidates for the surgery are teenagers because their brains are evolved enough that surgery won't cause colossal damage, while also young enough to retain the adaptability that all children have. Because this knowledge wasn't available at that time, the procedure induced powerful seizures in Delilah, which the scientists solved by removing bits of her frontal lobe until the seizures stopped. But by the time they had removed enough, there wasn't enough frontal lobe left for her to have any personality left. She is also completely reliant on the Neural Processor to keep her alive, like life-support.

Recruitment
When Tom was recruited to join the IF he was at the Dusty Squanto Casino playing Die, Zombies, Die in VR, when General Marsh leveled an incursion (an incident in which one gamer hacks into another gamers game and challenges them) on Mars where Tom's target was a hydrogen powered tank, he would have to take out or be killed. The most obvious option was to travel across the plane to get to the C29 antitank guns, in a different trench, while under the haze of his iono-sulfuric dispersal rifle. Rather than do that he used the haze to reach the tank and scale it, then used his rifle (which was too weak to take out the tank) to bust the lock on the hatch. Doing this undid the pressure seal on the inside of the tank causing the driver to start to asphyxiate. Rather than just letting the driver asphyxiate Tom used the butt of his rifle to smash the guys head until he died. This was the key factor in why General Marsh recruited Tom, because he was ruthless and had a killer instinct, unlike the usual type of candidate the IF attracted. Tom, once defeating the sim, learned that it was Heather who was behind the incursion under General Marsh. General Marsh then offered Tom a slot to join the IF and Tom accepted.

Special Abilities
Indo-American trainee Thomas Raines and Russo-European Combatant Yaolan are the only two know people to posses a special ability (unnamed) that allows them to interface with any machine not just those designed for neural interfacing. While it was previously unknown to Tom and Yaolan why they had this ability, and what allowed them to interface with anything, in the book Catalyst Joseph Vengerov explains offhandedly to Tom that his neural graft seems to have primed a certain area of his brain just so, allowing him to interface with whatever machine he desires. We also know that Yaolan explains to Tom that because of her facial deformity, she tried everything possible to fix it, including a neural graft, which she has in common with Tom.

The Ghost in the Machine
The title of "Ghost in the Machine" originally belonged to Yaolan (A.K.A. Medusa), but was assumed by Tom, after he sabotaged Yaolan's neural processer, to protect her from Joseph Vengerov. Tom took on the title yet again to become Vengerov's personal slave, and allowing him to destroy all the other companies in the Collation of Multinationals and to remain the sole power in charge. The title was finally passed on, an shared by James Blackburn and Yaolan after Tom's capture, in attempts to thwart Vengerov's power trip. But the title of Ghost in the Machine in the end was given to James Blackburn and honoured his sacrifice of ramming his ship into the drone that was about to kill Tom and Wyatt effectively saving their lives at the cost of his. His sacrifice and memory live on in the statue of him Tom had commissioned in his honour.