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Tom Riley
Biographical information
Nationality	United States
Status	Alive
Family	Brian Riley (father, deceased) Helen Riley (mother) Natalie Riley (wife, deceased) Rachel Riley (daughter)
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Brown
Affiliation and civilian information
Affiliation	Minutemen
Occupation	Fireman, Militantman
Weapon	Fire Axe and almost every weapon seen in Resistance: Burning Skies.
Real-world information
Appears in	Resistance: Burning Skies
Voice	Bryce Johnson
[Source]

Tom Redmond Riley is a New York City firefighter and the main protagonist in Resistance: Burning Skies. A fireman working on Staten Island, Tom was caught in the events of the Chimeran invasion of the American east coast in August 1951.

BiographyEdit

BackgroundEdit

Tom was born to Brian and Helen Riley. He was aspire to becoming a fireman much like his father. On January 18th 1943, his father died from severe burns during in the line of duty. On his will, Brian entrusted his fire axe to Tom before the latter transferred to Engine 174. At a later point, Tom fell in love and married a woman named Natalie and sired their daughter, Rachel.

Resistance: Burning SkiesEdit

Riley was responded to an incident at a power plant on Staten Island, where he first encountered the Chimera, which they originally came from a downed Chimeran ship that crashed into the plant. Riley fought his way through the plant and rescuing fellow fireman Smitty after another fireman, Larson, was killed by a Longlegs. He and Smitty escaped the building, but only to emerge outside and bear witness to the bulk of the Chimeran invasion of New York.

Although bewildered by the invasion and concerned for the safety of his family, Riley was radioed by Central Dispatch and given orders to assist in the evacuation of the city and to reaching the evacuation zone at the Howard Tunnel. He encountered members of the Minutemen, a militia group led by Ellie Martinez, before finally being reunited with his family. However, Riley was shortly separated from his family upon being forced to defend the evacuation zone. Riley and along with the Minutemen discovered an army truck carrying Grey Tech components and their ability in upgrading their weapons. After defending the zone, their location is bombarded by the Chimeran Spire Missiles and releasing Crawlers, Riley managed to escape with the Minutemen.

Forced to tag along with the resistance group, Riley requested Ellie's help in trying to locate his family in which she granted his request by introducing him to Colonel George Amherst, the commander of a naval base in Bayonne, and learned that the refugees (along with his wife and daughter) were relocated to a Protection Camp in Union City. Soon thereafter, the base came under attack by the Chimera. Riley assisted in repelling the Chimera, helping to install the main battery gun to the USS Puerto Rico, and later single-handily killing the Abomination that had emerged from Upper New York Bay. Thereafter, Riley along with Ellie worked for Amherst in discovering the secret behind SRPA's Project Phoenix overseer by its director Richard Gorrell. While en route to SRPA Station Kali on Ellis Island, where Project Phoenix is located, Riley and Ellie witnessed Chimeran ground forces crossing the George Washington Bridge. Ellie requested Amherst for an airstrike on the bridge, but Tom went against it upon seeing a VTOL crashing into the GWB with its passengers still alive. Unfortunately, Ellie had already called the strike and was unable to call it off, Riley rappelled down and managed to rescue the survivors aboard the crashed VTOL. After saving the survivors, Riley along with Ellie were then left stranded on the bridge, and together fought their way to the other end of the GWB and barely escaping the airstrike.

Riley and Ellie continued on their mission to Ellis Island by boat and infiltrated Station Kali, which had already been abandoned and completely overrun by the Chimera. They found Richard Gorrell's film that contains all the information on Project Phoenix and learning that its purpose was to control the Chimera through the mysterious grey tech components. Riley and Ellie traveled to the Union City Protection Camp and discovered that it is already under attacked and the refugees being abducted by the Chimera. After fighting through the camp and destroying a "Spire Beacon" that is attracting the Chimera to the camp, Riley was too late to find his wife and daughter being taken away by Carriers. He and Ellie were then forced to allow themselves to be taken by a Carrier to the source where they have taken the victims.

The couple arrived at Chimeran Tower located in the Appalachian Mountains where the victims were being taken and converted. Riley was forced to split up from Ellie to rescue survivors while the former attempt to find his family. After fighting his way, Riley finally finds Natalie, but unfortunately to discover she has already been infected with the Chimeran Virus. Very reluctantly at his wife's urging, Riley killed her. He later regrouped with Ellie after she has found and rescued Rachel along with a large group of uninfected survivors. Ellie then showed him that Richard Gorrell is controlling the conversion process and using it to create a Leviathan made from human victims. Riley had Ellie evacuated with Rachel before personally confront Gorrel from using his creation. However, Gorrell reawakened the Leviathan but failed to control it, leaving Riley to kill the Leviathan and causing the entire tower to destabilize. As Riley escape, he re-encounter Gorrell and engage into a fight that left Riley to fatally slash his fire axe into Gorrell's neck.

Once reunited with Rachel, Riley bid his farewells to Ellie and leaves alongside his daughter for parts unknown.

TriviaEdit

• Tom Riley is the first playable character that is an ordinary citizen instead of a soldier in the Resistance series.
• He is one of two playable characters to come from the U.S. State of New York (Joseph Capelli being the other one).
• He's the only protagonist who has never been infected with the Chimeran Virus. Unlike James Grayson, he still has regenerating health despite not being infected.
• In the novel Resistance: A Hole in the Sky, there is a minor character named "Tom Riley". However, unlike Riley depicted in Burning Skies, the book's Riley was a former mailman.
• An image of Tom can be seen in the games manual.