After an investigation that has lasted for nearly a decade, a rough catalogue of events and stories surrounding Gamma Company has finally been completed. Due to the extremely classified nature of Gamma Company, we can only provide modest details at-best for the bulk of the information provided here. Very few people in the UNSC, even as of today, know of Gamma Company's existence. And those who do are hesitant to speak of them. By this point in time, many of the company's greatest deeds are distant memories, and people who were around at the time are largely dead or gone by now. Most of what our organization has gathered has come from excruciatingly difficult intelligence report investigations, from interviews and personal testimonies, from documents leaked to us by the retired Admiral Bren J. Shepard, and from cross-referencing clues drawn from various after-action reports.
The result is that the following timeline likely contains errors - not only in specific details, but in the chronological order of events.
2552: The War for the Solar System
The Spartans Make Ready
Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose, head trainer of the Spartan-III program, receives priority alert from Rear Admiral Serin Osman. The alert, though succinct, is a frightening one: In the wake of the Fall of Reach, Earth's location is compromised. Kurt puts Gamma Company into its final phase of training ahead of time. Although their training regimen was particularly vile and harsh prior to that point, it only paled in comparison to the brutalities inflicted on the company afterward.
Rally Toward War
The Gamma Spartans reach the end of their years-long initial training cycle. More than 300, and despite their young age, they are all bred for warfare, combat, and the cold business of bringing death upon the UNSC's enemies. They are hardened, and their only desires are to spill the blood of the enemy, and to die upon the field of battle.
A select number of Gamma Spartans are pulled from the main ranks ahead of time; most of these would disappear into the black ink of obscure UNSC military operations, acting as Headhunters, assassins, and special agents for unheard-of UNSC departments and agencies. The primary bulk of the company is deployed en-masse straightaway to the Solar System, where the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Only teams Saber, Gladius and Katana remain on the company's homeworld Onyx, where they compete against each other for top honors.
Secrets Uncovered
Team Rapier, under command of Satobi-G118, is immediately transferred to the Solar system alongside the bulk of Gamma Company's forces. The fight for the system has already begun by the time of their arrival, and Team Rapier rushes to the war-front on Earth. Satobi deploys his team against multiple high-value Covenant targets as part of the URNA Southwest Campaign, in the hopes of uncovering intel related to recent Covenant excavation attempts in and around Arizona. During the campaign, Team Rapier discovers the location of the brute war-chieftan commanding Arizona's local Covenant military force.
A vicious battle to secure the chieftan's command center ensues. Scores of ODSTs are dropped onto the battlefield in support - and scores of ODSTs are slaughtered in the combat. The cost is great, but the reward is greater. Satobi, after slaying the war chieftan in combat with his personal combat sword Nikata, employs the 5th-generation AI Mirenaus to extract and decipher highly-coded Covenant communication signals from the command center. Aside from the invaluable intel on enemy troop movements, the UNSC attains the first evidence of an emerging civil war spreading through the Covenant, and proof that the high prophets believe Earth contains buried Forerunner artifacts.
Mars Under Siege
Shipmaster Lepidus diverts his task-force to Mars in an effort to curtail UNSC forces located on the rocky world. The task proves unexpectedly difficult; led by Colonel James Ackerson, the UNSC offers stiff resistance in the form of surgical strikes and elaborate ambushes conducted by the planet's local defense garrison and army troopers. Things go worse for Lepidus as a number of ships in his task-force are reduced to scrap and rubble thanks to the efforts of Gamma Company Team Dagger, who perform a number of tactical hit-and-run infiltrations aboard more than 5 Covenant warships. In response, Lepidus sends multiple teams of jiralhanae stalkers to track down and eliminate the Gamma Spartans.
Jovian Defense Campaign
Battles rage across the Jovian colonies. Deadly trench warfare takes place on Ganymede, Io and Europa, where stubborn UNSC defense garrisons are able to engage overconfident Covenant troops in lengthy ground-battles. Their efforts are bolstered when Violet-G200 leads more than four platoons of Gamma Spartans into the fray. The operation proves to be the largest single deployment of Gamma Spartans during the course of the Solar System War; teams are sent to frontlines across the Jovian Moons, and more than a few find themselves present for the dangerous and claustrophobic low-gravity warfare on the Jovian habitat colonies.
Eager, violent and bloodthirsty spartan warriors perform direct assaults on numerous Covenant garrisons. Whole battalions of the aliens are wiped from existence with a ruthless efficiency that breaks their morale. Their armies are routed from battlefields throughout the Jovian Moons, and in response, the jiralhanae fleetmaster attempts to retreat and regroup along the safer side of Jupiter.
The chieftan's efforts are in vain, however, when Violet-G200 foresees the retreat ahead of time and plots a daring mission to board the Covenant flotilla's flagship. In concert with Air Force bases embedded within the sparsely-populated world Callisto, Violet-G200 launches a surprise space-assault that sees more than two dozen Gamma Spartans make it aboard the CAS-class assault carrier False Dereliction of Conviction. After a series of ferocious close-quarters engagements within the heart of the beast, the spartans manage to secure the bridge, though not without losses. They take effective control of the ship by way of the AI Durandal. Violet-G200 orders Durandal to turn the ship's weapons against the rest of the Covenant flotilla, driving them back from Neptune.
Desperate times; desperate measures
Warfare rages across the Solar System. Countless lives are snuffed out, either in defense of the system, or in offense against the system. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance, and the UNSC is grimly aware that defeat spells the effective end of humanity.
Despite Gamma Company's substantial size, the Spartans are stretched to the breaking point. More than a handful of teams are lost in high-risk "suicide" deployments. Among that number is Demarcus-G087 - the last spartan standing of a team of 15 who fell in defense of the planetside Antimatter Missile Launchers on Venus. Demarcus's final transmission is one of defiance and loyalty, reporting his intention to detonate a FURY tactical nuke, and his intention to rendezvous with his brothers and sisters on the other side.
Saint-B312's successor
Prior to his transfer to Noble Team, the legendary Lone Wolf of Beta Company, Saint-B312, was in the process of breaking apart the powerful insurrectionist cell known as the Kazavim Supremacy Order. Without the Lone Wolf, Vice Admiral Bren J. Shepard turns toward Gamma Company for a suitable replacement. Through a number of connections, political allies and favors, the admiral is able to recruit Luxe-G059 - a standout member of the company who was said to have received a number of special training sessions underneath the supervision of the Lone Wolf himself.
Tactical victory
A number of fleet engagements occur within and around the Solar System's asteroid belt. During the fighting, UNSC Air Force Commander Nylo Neddis manages to turn the tide of the battle. Drawing on inspiration from the first known engagement between spartans and the Covenant, Commander Neddis devises a plan to deploy a number of Gamma Spartans onto the more powerful and dangerous enemy vessels. To destroy them from within, where the enemy are most vulnerable.
Using the asteroids as cover, a swarm of YSS-1000 Sabres and F-41C Broadswords emerge from the asteroid belt's hidden Air Force base. The strike-fighters make use of gatling cannons and fusion missiles - not against the Covenant starships, but against the asteroids themselves. Whole rocks are pulverized and atomized. Broken apart like shattered crystal and glass.
The effect is an expansive haze of rocky material and detritus that quickly fills the local battlespace. Crowds the enemy sensors and radar equipment. It allows the UNSC Battleship Night of Debauchery to covertly deploy four teams of Gamma Spartans into the Covenant flotilla. A total of 20 spartans infiltrate four different Covenant command vessels, each team armed with FENRIS warheads.
The Covenant never quite knew what hit them on that day.
The Hell Campaign of Britain
The Hell Campaign drags on across Britain. It ultimately becomes one of the bloodiest conflicts during the Battle for Earth. More than two dozen spartans die in operations to retake the region. Operation: STRIKEZONE - a massive orbital drop deployment to recapture London - sees the death of nearly half the spartans committed to the warfront. Muhammad-G301 is said to have distinguished himself during the campaign.
Bloody Vengeance
Following a string of distress signals from ONI Acquisitions Specialist Carlos Morales, the UNSC finally has the opportunity to send in a cavalry force to rescue the operative.
Carlos had long since gone undercover within the violent extremist group 7 Septer, located far out beyond humanity's fringe systems. The operation was initially meant to last only a few months, after which ONI would retrieve Carlos and bring the operative to safety. But with the Fall of Reach, and the War for the Solar System, the window of opportunity had dwindled to almost nothing.
Gamma Company Team Cutlass arrived on the backwater planet Intherop Prime, only to find that they were too late. Carlos's cover had been blown long before their arrival. The only thing remaining for Team Cutlass to retrieve is a number of severed body parts, and a warning carved into Carlos's skull like some sort of twisted engraving.
Against orders, Team Cutlass takes it upon themselves to destroy 7 Septer and avenge the ONI agent.
Blood flows like rivers as more than two thousand insurgents are slaughtered in direct combat. The spartans decide to send their own message by stringing up the mutilated corpses of 7 Septer's leaders along the terrorist cell's headquarters.
ONI takes note of this aggression and brutality, and begins an in-depth investigation of Gamma Company's psychological training and augmentations.
Clash of Warriors
Covenant communications are intercepted in the Commonwealth of Jamaica. The report is frantic: a Covenant excavation team reports the discovery of a highly-valuable "Great Journey" asset, and requests immediate extraction.
The Covenant sends in a team of dozens of jiralhanae stalkers to retrieve the artifact; the UNSC sends in a spartan counter-strike team led by Pollys-G124 to intercept the artifact.
Pollys-G124 leads her 15-strong spartan team to engage both the stalkers and the excavation team in a protracted battle of wits, skill and ferocity. And the spartans emerge victorious. The cost is broken bones, scarred armor, lost limbs, and a number of lost lives.
All Warfare is Based On Deception
Under orders from Shipmaster Lepidus, more than 60 jiralhanae special-ops stalkers raid the Japanese Cryptobank of Kyoto - their target, the Key of Osanalan. During the Battle of Mars, Lepidus had managed to capture and interrogate Colonel James Ackerson, forcing the human to reveal a number of likely locations of the Key.
The 60 stalkers made their way into the cryptobank. And instead of finding the Key, they found two teams of Gamma Spartans awaiting them. The massacre lasted about a minute, after which the only thing remaining of the stalkers was broken corpses riddled with bullet holes and oddly-twisted bones.
Losses Mount
A Covenant CSO-class supercarrier appears in the Solar System, the massive ship seemingly headed toward Earth to support the invasion. Xane-G025 leads Team Khanda on Operation: KINGSLAYER - a desperate and foolhardy mission to board the vessel and assassinate the suspected prophet aboard it.
The situation proves itself to be overwhelming.
After hours of maddening and violent close-quarters combat, Team Khanda is effectively eliminated. Xane-G025 alone makes it to the bridge, whereupon he reports finding more than two dozen jiralhanae warriors waiting for him. There is no prophet; and for Xane, there is no hope. He is slaughtered mercilessly and dies alone aboard the supercarrier.
But not before having activated his FURY tactical nuke.
Black Operations
The URNA Southwest Campaign nears its end. Multiple Gamma Company teams, headed by Satobi-G118 of Team Rapier, are deployed on assassination ops against dozens of jiralhanae commanders as part of Operation: MARSH FLASH. The campaign ends in a UNSC victory and effectively ends the Covenant military presence within the URNA.
The records of these deployments are heavily classified. Rumors suggest that a number of ODSTs are killed by Gamma Spartans following a dispute between the two groups at Camp Lofcath.
The Enemy of my Enemy
The UNSC Air Force base Calypso, located deep within the South Siberian Mountains, was captured by Covenant forces early on in the Battle for Earth.
Lieutenant Commander Arnold Hood commences an operation to retake the base for the UNSC. Two teams of Gamma Spartans are secretly deployed to the far north of the base, where they spend more than a day crawling to infiltrate Calypso from its least secured edge.
The warriors are met with a surprise - the base, long thought heavily-defended and almost too costly to retake - appears devoid of life. Living, that is. All throughout the base are signs of strife and struggle. Signs of battle. Deadly combat taking place; not between UNSC and Covenant, but between sangheilli and jiralhanae.
Survivors are found at the base's inner command bunker. The team of sangheilli located within offer a brief explanation of the situation. They also offer the spartans both valuable intel and assistance, in exchange for a chance at revenge.
Despite the spartans' initial hesitancy, the event becomes the first known instance of peaceful UNSC-Sangheilli negotiations. The civil war had reached the Solar System.
A Different War for a Different World
Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose engages an unstoppable armada of Covenant forces on the mysterious world Onyx; his only aid being that of Blue Team, as well as Gamma Company Team Saber. It is a protracted engagement, and despite their efforts, the spartans' losses begin to mount. In the face of certain defeat, Kurt Ambrose orders his surviving forces to retreat into the Forerunner shield world, opting to stay behind and hold off the enemy himself.
He manually detonates a pair of FENRIS warheads, killing himself and the entirety of the Covenant army. The survivors of Team Saber and Blue Team are saved by his heroism.
Hunters in the Dark
Lucas-G311 and Deonte-G197 are names known to less than a few, and their actions are known by less than that.
Such as their victory in the Oort Cloud. The headhunter pair, after performing a number of high-risk sabotages against temporary Covenant supply stations at the Solar System's edge, run across a frightening discovery: Covenant communication logs stolen from the enemy on their most recent mission point toward another Covenant fleet arriving in the system. Yet this one, unlike the others which were smaller flotillas, rivals the size of the fleet that obliterated Reach. The language translators describe it as a liberation fleet; a jiralhanae war-fleet, meant to crush both humanity and sangheilli alike in the Solar System.
With little time to spare, the Gamma Spartans quickly make use of artificial data-packets created by the team's AI Ay Pool, with the intention of luring the fleet toward their location through the use of false flag intelligence reports. Lucas and Deonte spend days inside their prowler, hopping from one location in the Oort Cloud to the next, deploying the precious, final few HAVOK nukes in the entirety of the Solar System at each.
The jiralhanae war-fleet, however, is swifter than they'd expected. It materializes into real-space out of nowhere; like ghosts emerging in the dark. Right on top of them. With little time to act, the headhunters send out one final signal from their prowler. Not a communication signal, but a detonation signal.
The resulting explosion obliterates over 90% of the jiralhanae fleet, and leaves a gaping hole in the Oort Cloud filled with lethal radiation. The destruction ultimately proves to be a permanent after-effect, and yet remains off-limits to civilians. Officially, High Command attributed the explosion to a dangerous buildup of deuterium - a substance used by the Covenant for their plasma weaponry. No mention of Lucas nor Deonte's sacrifice exists in any official records of the War for the Solar System.
Fall of the Kazavim Supremacy Order
Luxe-G059 successfully eliminates the bulk of the KSO's command cadre. Without leadership, the once powerful insurrectionist faction succumbs to bitter infighting and petty squabbling. The matter is considered settled, and Luxe-G059 is recalled to UNSC space.
Mars Liberated
Team Dagger, although unable to save Colonel James Ackerson from the clutches of the enemy, achieve a tide-turning victory in the Siege of Mars: after dispatching the jiralhanae stalkers meant to eliminate them, Team Dagger manage to trace the location of Shipmaster Lepidus's secret command facility hidden within the Lomonous Mountains beneath the CCS-class battlecruiser Triumphant Declaration.
A stealth operation ensues, during which Team Dagger distinguishes themselves by infiltrating the base and assassinating Lepidus without ever leaving so much as a trace.
The Shipmaster's death swiftly throws the Covenant forces on Mars into chaos. A final showdown begins on the plains south of Mare Erythraeum, where a massive force of joint UNSC and planetary militia attack the Covenant army head on. Spearheaded by Team Dagger, Operation: DELTA MAX sees the two opposing side clash in open warfare. The climatic battle is brought to a close when Gamma Company reinforcements, headed by Violet-G200, arrive on Mars.
The Classified Anomaly
In the midst of battle out in the refit stations between Mars and the asteroid belt, a platoon of Gamma Spartans are caught off-guard when sudden slipspace ruptures are detected dangerously close to their location. Nearly a full half of the spartans are battling Covenant troops in the zero-gee debris fields surrounding the refit stations when, out of nowhere, High Charity itself emerges like magic.
The sudden appearance of the city sends gravitational shockwaves so violent and uprooting that both Covenant and spartans alike are ripped apart instantly. Those who weren't halt their fighting in awe at the size of the gigantic station. The holy city appeared a sickly, grotesque green in color, as though the entire thing was itself infected with some form of virus. Little do either the spartans or the Covenant know that High Charity is consumed by a Flood infestation.
Just as quickly as it came, the holy city winks out of existence, re-entering slipspace and disappearing once again.
The event is covered-up by UNSC authorities as a new form of experimental Covenant weaponry. The Gamma Spartans killed in its appearance are listed as MIA, and those who survive are effectively silenced on the matter by threat of death, as per the UNSC Wartime Articles of Secrecy.
The Covenant are Broken
By the end of the Solar System War, Covenant holdouts largely remained only on Earth, in regions surrounding New Mombasa, Sierra Leone, Moscow, and in New Delhi. Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood tasks his cousin Arnold Hood with mop-up duty on the planet, whilst he personally oversees the destruction of the remaining Covenant fleet vessels in-system.
Arnold Hood, having been instrumental in forming preliminary ties between the UNSC and the sangheilli, plots a number of missions organized as part of Operation: CRONIUM, utilizing a joint-task force of Gamma Spartans, ODSTs, Marines, Ghost Operatives, and the newly-allied sangheilli under leadership of Shipmaster 'Kalom.
The Covenant forces buckle and break underneath the sheer determination of Lieutenant Commander Hood's task force. Faced against an overwhelming onslaught of might and fury, the last standing Covenant armies shatter like delicate glass, their morale utterly destroyed at the knowledge that their War has been lost. During the course of the campaign, Satobi-G118 is said to have personally bested two jiralhanae War Chieftans in single-combat, putting his blade Nikata to great use during the fighting.
2553 - 2554: Fortifying the Border
The Return
Blue Team and Team Saber are rescued from the Shield World after several months MIA. Team Saber is subsumed into Blue Team underneath command of Fred-104; this becomes the first ever official hybrid unit of Gamma Spartans and Spartan-IIs.
A Monument to Heroes
The Voi Memorial is held. Stories of heroism are told, the deeds of heroes are recounted, and hopeful speeches are given. The ceremony is a long-lasting one, with many speakers and legends alike present, each of them bearing their own grim horrors of the War and its hideous cost of victory.
Despite the thoroughness of the memorial, the Spartan-IIIs are not given recognition. Most of Gamma Company has already been re-deployed; already been thrown into further action against those enemies who yet remain. Only a small few Gamma Spartans remain in the Solar System at this time - most, those who had survived the Solar System War, but were still recovering from grievous injuries sustained in the line of duty.
Physical injuries, as well as psychological ones.
Among the number is Muhammad-G301, who attends the Voi Memorial in secret. The spartan presumably watches the event from the shadows, and none are ever aware of his presence. Files from the medical station Beacon of Liberty suggest Muhammad spent many days in counseling, traveling back and forth to the office of the psychotherapist Dr. William Vosbur.
Insurrectionist Resurgent
Reports filter in from distant colonies and sectors, many of whom hadn't been in contact with the UEG proper for many months, and some, even years. Worlds and space-habitats across the outer colonies have fallen to rebellion. Many of them fall to the United Rebel Front.
As the UNSC turns its attention to these dissidents, preliminary reconnaissance and scouting operations are conducted by Gamma Spartans. Targets of opportunity are identified - rebel leaders, insurrectionist training facilities, munitions and supply bases, military fortresses and habitats, and so on. Several teams of Gamma Spartans are tasked with eliminating these targets.
The Madness
ONI's investigation into Gamma Company bears fruit. Previously hidden documents reveal that, on top of the extreme psychological indoctrination imposed on the Gamma Spartans, Kurt Ambrose outfitted their augmentations with illegal drugs greatly enhancing the company's aggressive behaviors and physical attributes.
The cost is that, aside from being prone to over-aggression and an acute level of ferocity, the Gamma Spartans are constantly at-risk of falling into blinding fits of fury that leaves them hostile toward friend and foe alike. This state is dubbed by the spartans themselves as the 'Madness'.
ONI takes a passive stance on the matter. For the time being. Enhanced 'soother' drugs are issued to each spartan in order to help prevent the onset of the Madness.
The Battle of Summary
Through extensive long-range surveillance ops conducted by Headhunter pairs, the UNSC discovers a URF fortress system located deep beyond the outer-colonies. Housing numerous space stations and asteroid habitats, the star system - known in ancient UEG archives as Summary - is believed to be the primary military staging point for URF forces operating in the Geryon and Horus sectors.
Seizing the opportunity, Battle Group Hoplite, under command of the famed Vice Admiral Bren J. Shepard, is dispatched to the binary-star system to crush the URF. In supreme command of Operation: COLLOSSUS, Admiral Shepard is given great leeway to construct his forces as he sees fit.
As such, the admiral mobilizes the largest UNSC fighting force since the end of the War. Harnessing the strength of dozens of naval warships and Marine assets, Admiral Shepard's battle group is further bolstered by nearly the full might of Gamma Company.
Shepard suspects the coming battle to be a difficult one.
His suspicions are confirmed when, upon arriving in the Summary System, Battle Group Hoplite finds itself in dire straits. The URF had planned for this attack, their commander intentionally goading the UNSC into a battle for control of the system.
Multiple rebel flotillas surround Battle Group Hoplite as it drops out of slipspace. The situation is desperate - until Vice Admiral Shepard devises an emergency tactic, using the advanced mobility afforded by the battle group's Thunder-class gunboats in hit-and-run attacks on rebel vessels. With the gunboats rapidly deploying surgical Spartan teams onto URF ships, the enemy fleets lose cohesion and begin a swift retreat. The situation darkens for the URF when their own vessels begin turning on them, thanks to advanced targeting parameter viruses brought aboard their ships courtesy of the Gamma Spartans.
The battle is a major victory for the UNSC and effectively halts URF operations in the Geryon Sector and the Horus Sector.
The Templar Falls
A rare opportunity presents itself to the UNSC: The leader of the religious extremist faction Order of Hallowed Saints, known simply as the Templar, is located on a backwater planet housing smuggler and mercenary guilds. Under orders of Vice Admiral Shepard, Luxe-G059 is deployed, and the Templar is felled in a raid that also claims the lives of his entire command retinue.
Luxe's fellow spartans begin calling her the Knight of Gamma Company following this event.
Ancient Enemies at the Gates
Blue Team, comprised also of the remnants of Gamma Company Team Saber, is deployed to the independent colony Gao. Their orders are to investigate rumors of an ancient Forerunner AI active on the world.
Friendly Fire
Gamma Company Team Scimitar, in a series of raids against an upstart Covenant remnant faction known as the Vipers Incessant, runs across an ongoing conflict between the newly-formed Swords of Sanghelios and the Vipers when they finally make it to the arctic world Heskia II.
Unbeknownst to Team Scimitar, the Swords of Sanghelios had laid multiple traps for the Vipers in a barren network facility on the planet. And Team Scimitar unwittingly triggers these traps during an investigation into the facility. A member of the team is killed, the spartan's body being vaporized into blackened nothingness by a series of rigged plasma explosions.
In retaliation, the rest of Team Scimitar conducts an unauthorized assault against both forces on the planet. The attacks are bitter in nature. Savage and horrific. Excessively brutal and cataclysmic. None are spared, and upon returning to UNSC space, ONI covers-up the incident, hiding it from the UNSC at-large and the Swords of Sanghelios themselves.
While the Arbiter assumes the fatalities were inflicted by the Banished, ONI begins drafting up an aggressive list of actions, policies and personnel transfers to stifle the movements of Gamma Company.
A Deadly Encounter
Team Rapier is deployed on a top-secret reconnaissance op to investigate the UNSC light-frigate Haskell. All contact with the vessel had been lost many months ago, during the final days of the War - the last known transmission being that the frigate had been emergency-contacted by the prowler Red Horse and was intending to regroup with it.
Little does Team Rapier know of the history of Red Horse, but they begin finding clues immediately after boarding the Haskell. On arrival to the ship, Satobi-G118 is suspicious of the frigate's lifeless state. He puts his team on high alert on the assumption that it had been boarded by remnant Covenant. But the truth of the matter reveals itself quickly.
The team walks into an ambush laid not by Covenant, but by an enemy far worse: the Flood. Caught off-guard by such an unknown hostile, Satobi is forced to order a hasty retreat. But the cost of the ambush is great.
Nearly all of Team Rapier succumbs to the plague-like infection forms, their bodies and minds undergoing grotesque and utterly horrifying mutations. The once-proud warriors are transformed into mindless monstrosities; left in their place is a sickening parody of the spartans they had once been, their bodies becoming twisted amalgamations of flesh, armor and disease. Satobi is forced to cut down his team, and barely manages to escape the hostile frigate.
The grim experience of facing down the maniacal horrors of the Flood, and having to slay his own team after they fell to the insane creatures, leaves permanent psychological scars on the mind of Satobi.
Lest They Be Forgotten
Cory-G027 organizes an off-the-books candlelight vigil and memorial service on the secretive military world Minister. With backing from Vice Admiral Bren J. Shepard, nearly all living Gamma Spartans are able to maneuver their way onto the world, with the notable exceptions being Luxe-G059 and Cryzen-G144.
For nearly an entire week, the spartans of Gamma Company vanish from the watchful eye of ONI; they spend their time sharing memories and stories of those they've lost. They find comfort and strength among each other against the Madness. Speeches are given in honor of the fallen Gamma Spartans, and to their fallen master, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose.
The event is not entirely sorrowful. It is the first time since graduation that many of them have seen each other, and old friendships are rekindled. Games of grav-ball are played. Goals in basketball matches are scored. Credits are won in poker matches, and war movies are enjoyed at a makeshift theater.
Fate of Gamma Company
Dubbed 'Article 627', a series of personnel transfers and re-assignment orders are rolled out by ONI. The official purpose is to fold Gamma Company into the newly formed Spartan Operations branch of the UNSC. However, ONI's true goal is to repurpose Gamma Company for roles mitigating the risks involved with the Madness, which are deemed highly dangerous.
The practical application of these assignments sees the bulk of Gamma Company transferred into the top-secret Special Tasks Group, abbreviated STG. It is an isolated sub-unit within Spartan Operations underneath the direct command purview of the ONI Department of Colonial Security, headed by Admiral Margaret Parangosky, and later, Admiral Serin Osman.
Included among the personnel rollouts is an official attachment of Luxe-G059, removing her from the military camp of Vice Admiral Shepard and transferring her to the stealth cruiser Inflection Point.
Several Gamma Spartans are inducted into ONI's new Ferret Teams - among them are Team Saber, who begin their ONI careers underneath Veta Lopis.
Skirmishes at the Border
A number of combat engagements occur along UNSC borders nearing former Covenant space. Various Covenant remnant factions and rogue armies are encountered across more than a dozen systems. Gamma Spartans are deployed in large numbers to conduct sabotages, raids, interrogations, and intelligence gathering operations. Not much else is known for certain about these engagements, except that the spartans reaped great victories and reportedly crushed more than a dozen upstart factions before they ever had a chance to threaten the UNSC.
Violet-G200 is given commission and promoted to the rank of lieutenant during the course of the skirmishes, officially making her the highest ranking Gamma Spartan and de facto leader of Special Tasks Group.
2555 - 2557: The Lost Years
The Doka Station Incident
A number of Gamma Spartans are aboard Doka Station, located in the Malyde, for rest and resupply. During a night cycle aboard the station, one of the spartans suffers vicious nightmares.
A full team of crewmen aboard Doka Station rush to calm the panicked spartan - to no avail. Under assault of hallucinations and dark memories, the spartan begins shouting a warcry, believing that they are under attack from alien enemies. As such, the spartan slays the crewmen in a frightening tale of horrors, visions, and frantic cries for help.
It isn't until the spartan's fellow team members arrive that the situation is resolved.
The Shadow Warriors
Operating within the mysterious Spartan Operations sub-unit STG, the Gamma Spartans conduct long-lasting shadow wars deep beyond UNSC space. Very little is known of the STG's actions during this time. They engage powerful underworld threats, both alien and human alike, and prevent a number of mercenary coalitions and proxy-wars from spilling over into UEG territory.
A number of direct engagements with Banished forces occur during this time.
Several joint-task force operations are conducted in concert with the Spartan-II's of Team Omega; friendships are formed during the missions.
Many spartans die in the conflicts, their sacrifices going unnoticed by all but the highest echelons of UNSC command.
Pollys-G124, veteran hero of Gamma Company, is listed KIA.
2558-2560: Age of the Created
Knight Takes Bishop
Luxe-G059 is deployed to the world New Llanelli. After fighting through hostile forces of the Abiding Truth, Luxe engages Avu Med Telcam, also known as the Bishop, in a fight to the death. The battle is decisive, and ends with Luxe firing a single round into the skull of the Bishop, killing the sangheilli and dealing a serious blow to the Abiding Truth.
Chance Encounter With A Deadly New Foe
The Gamma Spartans of Team Dagger are dispatched to the Lightsail System in order to investigate a sudden communications blackout at ONI Weapons Testing Site JULO. The spartans quickly discover that the facility has been raided by forces of the Banished. Hoping to prevent the enemy from stealing the valuable weapons and supplies of Site JULO, Team Dagger faces the threat in a short and savage battle.
Among the Banished forces are a number of Silent Shadow, commanded by the notorious Escharum himself. It is through this elite strike-team's efforts that the Banished manage to escape the deadly contest with the Gamma Spartans, but not before suffering losses, including the prized bounty of Site JULO.
Following the incident, ONI begins to speculate as to the cause of the Banished's raiding, and postulates that the renegade faction may be preparing for a major conflict. ONI is unable to pick up the trace of the Banished, and the chance encounter with Escharum is considered an opportunity lost.
Hidden From the Public Eye
A series of clandestine black operations are carried out by the STG against a number of upstart insurrectionist factions along the outer-colony systems of Huro and Garybode.
The operations include kidnappings, assassinations, espionage, and the sabotaging of numerous shipbuilding manufactories. Scores of rebel leadership are either slaughtered wholesale, or disappear completely without a trace. In the Huro System, chaos breaks out on the colony platforms orbiting Huro as cohesion breaks down. Rebel allies turn against each other in bids for power.
Team Dao capitalizes upon this confusion by successfully luring the opposing factions into a deadly conflict aboard a local relay station. The team triggers a cascade detonation of the facilities engines and support drives, slaughtering nearly the entire rebel outbreak in one fell swoop.
The particular brutality of the tactics used by the Gamma Spartans strikes fear into the hearts of the colonists in the sector. ONI seals the records of these engagements as top-classified.
A New War
Mysterious Forerunner warmachines - later identified as Guardians - begin emerging on worlds within UEG-controlled space. Whole planetary systems vanish from UNSC communications logs as the powerful constructs initiate colossal-scale EMP bursts. Outbreaks of promethean warrior-constructs spread in their wake.
Gamma Company, now reformed into the STG, is immediately deployed to target sites in order to investigate and quell the threats. Although the Guardians all escape to the Forerunner shield world Genesis, the Gamma Spartans score crushing victories against the leftover promethean forces.
Despite those victories, it is not all celebrations. Whispers spread that Satobi-G118 succumbed to the Madness in the fighting on Ursa IV, and threatened to fire on his own allies.
ONI investigates the incident, but Satobi's fellow spartans keep quiet about it, opting to cover for one their greatest heroes rather than risk losing him to the throes of Naval Intelligence.
Enemy Within
Veta Lopis and Team Saber successfully infiltrate the ranks of the Keepers of the One Freedom.
Pacification
Chaos spreads throughout UEG territory, the likes of which not seen since the days of the Fall of Reach. Cortana issues her ultimatum to the galaxy - and her Guardians are deployed to key systems in order to establish a dictatorial peace under threat of destruction.
Many Gamma Spartans fall in the ensuing battles. On Earth, several teams die in combat against the unstoppable might of a Forerunner Guardian. Included in the casualty reports is Muhammad-G301. Although the circumstances surrounding his death are obscure, details hint that the spartan gave his life in defense of Britain, dying on the battlefields that were once part of the Hell Campaign.
A Losing Battle
With reports of Forerunner Guardians popping up across UEG territory, the STG finds itself stretched thin.
The UNSC's initial strategy is to secure the most strategic colony systems. Gamma teams are divvied between various FLEETCOM sectors and embedded within spec-ops units among a number of defense fleets and garrison forces. However, with the extensive EMP capabilities of the Guardians, bolstered by their unrelenting Promethean armies, the UNSC is unable to achieve any meaningful victories.
Counted among their losses are a number of Gamma Spartans. With their teams frequently cut-off from friendlies and isolated upon losing battlefields, more than a third of the STG is lost.
Included in the casualties is Team Dagger, who are caught in the explosion of a HAVOK tactical nuke that claims their own lives, as well as that of a Guardian and its Promethean host.
Adapt, or Die
Having been caught off-guard by the sudden ruthless onslaught of the Created, Vice Admiral Bren J. Shepard's battle group Hoplite is severely crippled when more than a full half of the fleet is disabled and destroyed during the Battle of New Carthage.
After a daring escape from the system, the admiral soon discovers that UNSC leadership has been effectively broken, with High Command and Fleet Command both having gone into hiding. With no way to contact either, and with no way to contact the forces of the Infinity and her flotilla, Shepard takes it upon himself to begin attempts at regrouping with various UNSC forces and waging a guerilla war against the Created.
His first action is to locate the Gamma Spartans. To do so, Shepard travels to the one location he suspects they may rendezvous: the hidden world of Minister, where the spartans once held a memorial for their fallen brothers and sisters.
The hunch proves accurate; Vice Admiral Shepard successfully locates what remains of STG, as well as a number of other stranded UNSC forces. He is surprised to discover that Luxe-G059 is among the group.
Though the Gamma Spartans had suffered a great many losses in the wake of the Created, over 100 of the warriors still stand. More than enough to help the Vice Admiral combat the Created.
Death of a Hero
Having never fully recovered from the traumatic events aboard the Haskell, and after suffering through many long years of psychological torture, Satobi-G118 commits suicide deep within the bowels of Admiral Shepard's flagship - the heavy cruiser Tower Almighty.
His body is found alone inside a maintenance shaft within the engineering section - the cause of death, a stab wound inflicted by his own sword, the Nikata.
The suicide breaks the morale of even the hardened veteran Gamma Spartans. Satobi had been one of Gamma Company's legendary heroes, and his loss is considered one of the greatest blows the spartans had ever weathered. His personal diary is never opened, instead being sealed within a spare locker on the Tower Almighty. The Nikata is taken by his close friend Violet-G200.
Vice Admiral Shepard holds a memorial service for the spartan, as well as others who had been lost in recent memory. For nearly an entire day, Battle Group Hoplite rests in order to honor the sacrifices and lives lost in the wake of the Created.
2560: Fates Collide
Legends At War
Battle Group Hoplite receives a priority distress alert from coordinates pinpointing to the secret Installation 07. The news is grim: UNSC forces, spearheaded by the legendary UNSC Infinity, suffered a catastrophic defeat in a multi-faceted battle involving both Banished and Created forces.
Escharum himself wields the full strength of the Banished in a war for control of the ring. The surviving UNSC forces, under command of none other than the Master Chief himself, are requesting any and all military aid.
Vice Admiral Bren J. Shepard places Battle Group Hoplite on high alert, and races toward Installation 07 with the surviving Gamma Spartans.