By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.
Hate to rain on your parade, OP, but bungie confirmed he died.
Marcus Lehto, creative director: Well, the game's a tragedy overall. We wanted to tell the story of the Spartans sacrificing everything they had, and we thought it would be a cop-out if we didn't really bring it to a true ending with the Spartan that you create and that you fight with through the entire campaign and all the way to the very bitter end. If we didn't actually do the right thing to that character and bring them down with the planet... After they had already succeeded in making sure that one thing that gave humanity any hope was actually saved, (we decided) they were going to go out all gung-ho and guns blazing. It was a crazy, controversial thing within our studio. We had a lot of people who were like, "No, we shouldn't end it that way. We should allow the player to play on and, in their heads, keep living." But we wanted to bring it to a close.
And there wasn't really anything we could do with the end, the demise, of Noble 6 because that leads into the events just prior to Halo 1. It was a great way just to bring everything full circle for the franchise.
*
And for something I noticed... Thel Vadamee [the Arbiter of the original trilogy] is one of the only known Elites to be left handed. The Elite that the scene ends on pulls his sword out with their left hand, and the scene cuts. It perhphaps *could've* been Thel.
Urgh, Thel NEVER SET FOOT ON REACH. He is a Supreme Commander, he spent the whole battle aboard his flagship, the Seeker of Truth. And Lone Wolf takes place about 4 hours after the Autumn flees Reach, there's no possible way Thel could have been groundside.
Common sense, bro... use it!
[Edited on 12.08.2011 9:45 AM PST]