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Gold Team

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Gold Team

Active:

Prior to March 5, 2526[1]

Affiliation:

United Nations Space Command

Branch:

UNSC Navy

Size:

Four

Engagements:

Commanders:

Joshua-029

 

Gold Team was a unit of Spartan-IIs under the operational command of UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. In early 2526, the four-member team was lead by Joshua-029.[1] They actively participated in multiple battles during the successful Operation: SILENT STORM.[2]

Known members[edit]

Operational history[edit]

Radiant Arrow[edit]

Main article: Skirmish over Netherop

On March 5, 2526, Gold Team participated in a mission with Blue and Green Teams to board and capture a Covenant frigate, Radiant Arrow, in orbit over the planet Netherop. John-117 was given operational command of the mission, which had the goal of recovering Covenant technology for the Office of Naval Intelligence to study. To accomplish this, they were deployed from the prowler UNSC Starry Night for an extra vehicular boarding action.[1] With a flight of Elsedda-pattern Banshees for cover, the Spartans stealthily approached the alien vessel.[3] They boarded the frigate via its underslung hangar and eliminated the forces within, all without the rest of crew noticing the incursion. As Blue Team and Green Team pushed further into the alien vessel, John instructed Joshua-029 and Gold Team to collect weapons and corpses to be piled into the Banshees, which were then pushed out into space for the prowlers to recover later. Once that task was completed, Gold Team acted as support for Blue and Green, watching their backs.[4]

As the two forward teams continued on, a sensor operator aboard one of the prowlers "accidentally" broadcast a transmission on the Spartans' SQUADCOM, revealing their presence to the frigate's crew. Unbeknownst to them, the crewman's apparent mistake was part of an insurrectionist plot designed by Lieutenant Commander Hector Nyeto, who intended to get the Spartans killed. Furious at the apparent rookie mistake and the danger that it posed, Daisy-023 threatened to harm the operator responsible if they even made it off of the enemy vessel. With their presence known, Blue and Green Teams split up, with John leading his team to the bridge. Meanwhile, Gold Team was caught in a prolonged firefight with some of the crew. When they had begun to run out of ammo for their own weapons, Naomi-010 was able to quickly figure out how to operate the carbines dropped by their adversaries. John was unable to prevent the frigate's shipmaster from activating a self-destruct sequence, forcing him to order all of his teammates to abandon ship immediately. All of the Spartans made it to safety before the Radiant Arrow detonated.[4]

SILENT STORM[edit]

Main article: Operation: SILENT STORM

A few days later, Gold Team and the rest of the Spartans that had participated in the previous mission were given a new assignment. Operation: SILENT STORM would have them and the ODSTs of the 21st Space Assault Battalion board and destroy Covenant vessels and stations in an attempt to slow their destructive advance through the Outer Colonies. For the duration of the operation, the Spartans would be assigned to Task Force Yama, a veritable fleet of prowlers that would serve as both transport and support. As a Covenant fleet was currently glassing the colony of Etalan, the nearby world of Biko was chosen as the theater for the task force to launch its first attack. Specifically, an abandoned ice quarry on its third moon of Seoba was selected to house the prowlers until the time was right.[5]

During the ten-day voyage through slipspace, the Spartans trained with the ODSTs in the UNSC Vanishing Point's mission preparation hold. In each exercise, the Spartan made short work of the veteran marines until Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson taught them unorthodox strategies that proved to be much more effective against the supersoldiers. After four days of training, Colonel Marmon Crowther had both his ODSTs and the Spartans gather in the vessel's drop hangar to be briefed on the specifics of the operation. Despite their exemplary performance against his ODSTs, Crowther decided that the Spartans would act more as support, rather than leading the operations in their own teams. His plan was to split up the Spartans, with each of the twelve carrying a nuke for a single platoon of Black Daggers. This way, they could destroy many targets in a single battle, but it severely diminished the effectiveness of the Spartans. John-117 expressed his disagreement with Crowther, who admitted his suspicions that they were "just kids" and therefore less reliable than his experienced marines. Daisy broke formation and angled herself at Crowther in a challenging manner. In response, he marched up to her and requested that she tell him her age. John told her to stand down, but she stood her ground and proclaimed that their age did not matter, and that it was their training that made them superior. Crowther replied saying that combat experience matters more than anything.[5]

Seoba[edit]

Main article: Battle of Seoba

When Task Force Yama arrived in the Kolaqoa system on March 18, Colonel Crowther planned to practice the mass deployment of the Spartans and his ODSTs into the Seoban quarry, in an exercise dubbed Operation: ICE DANCE. However, insurrectionist forces were detected in the very same quarry, preparing to stage a coup against Biko's chancellor. Crowther decided that ICE DANCE would proceed as planned, but now with the objective of taking the quarry.[6] An intense battle ensued, with John taking the initiative and leading the way. Blue Team focused on destroying a convoy of Civets moving to repair the rebels' damaged communications relay as the other Spartans—including Gold Team—were engaged elsewhere.[7] Ultimately, the resident insurgents were defeated and the quarry fell under UNSC control.[8]

On March 19, Captain Halima Ascot, commander of Task Force Yama and captain of the Starry Night, held a meeting to discuss the events of the previous day's battle. John was reprimanded for his maverick actions at the start of the battle, and his Spartans' experience was called into question once more. Due to Lieutenant Commander Nyeto's loose lips, the truth about their young ages was revealed to the small group of key personnel present at the meeting. Because of this, Colonel Crowther refused to send the Spartans into battle again, instead ordering them to guard the roughly 300 insurrectionist prisoners that had been captured during the fighting, and prepare them to be sent to Biko to be processed. While this meeting was being held, a Covenant flotilla arrived in-system and began heading for Seoba.[9]

As the task force mobilized to meet the alien vessels, Gold Team and the other Spartans were sent to Subsurface Maintenance Grotto 6M430 where they would direct the captured insurgents onto the Emmeline, a seized Banta-class transport. While the line of prisoners marched onto the vessel, John noticed that a group of them were hiding the presence of an officer, General Harper Garvin of the United Rebel Front. He had the line halt, which Joshua questioned, saying that they needed to get the prisoners headed toward Biko before the Covenant got to Seoba. John pulled Garvin out of the line so that ONI could interrogate him later. He began trying to pry information out of John, b