Delta-Red

Delta-Red (also known as Team Delta) was a splinter team of the SPARTAN-II Red Team of the United Nations Space Command. It was made up of six Spartans and four Marines. The Spartans were those who were wounded in the jump from Pelican Bravo 001.

Known members

• Vinh-030
• Isaac-039
• William-043
• Riz-028
• Kai-125
• Vannak-134
• Four Marine survivors of Charlie Company

Operational history

Fall of Reach

Main article: Fall of Reach

The Spartans of Delta-Red were originally assembled at Reach on August 27, 2552, to prepare for Operation: RED FLAG - a planned mission to send the Spartans into Covenant space and kidnap a hierarch, to negotiate the end of the Human-Covenant War. However, the mission was scrubbed before it could begin due to a massive Covenant invasion of the planet that began on August 30. As such, the majority of the Spartans were assigned to Red Team, tasked with deploying to Reach's surface and defending the generator complexes which powered the world's orbital guns. During re-entry, the Spartans' Pelican dropship Bravo 001 was engaged by multiple Seraphs, resulting in the death of its pilot and forcing the Spartans to jump from high-altitude to escape the crash. The impact resulted in the deaths of four Spartans, and the injury of six more. Red Team ultimately linked up with the remains of a UNSC Marine Corps unit, Charlie Company, which had been reduced to just four survivors due to a botched air strike which resulted in massive friendly fire casualties.

After linking up with Charlie Company, Red Team's leader Frederic-104 was contacted by Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, who ordered the Spartans to abandon their objective and head to his position to evacuate him. To accomplish this, Fred divided Red Team into four splinter teams, with Delta-Red formed from the six Spartans injured in the drop, and the four Marine survivors, to undertake the least strenuous tasks. Delta-Red were tasked with taking two Warthogs and heading to CASTLE Base with the aim of securing it for use as a fallback point for the other teams. Ultimately, only three of Delta-Red's Spartans (Vinh-030, Isaac-039, and William-043) managed to make it to CASTLE Base, having become separated from the other Spartans and Marines of the unit. The other Spartans; Kai, Riz, and Vannak, did ultimately survive the Fall of Reach, though their fates remained unknown to Vinh, Isaac, and Will.

They secured a way down to the base's front door, as the elevator had been destroyed but were stuck outside the door until the remainder of Team Alpha used Oly Oly Oxen Free to open the door. Inside they found Dr. Catherine Halsey.

Inside CASTLE Base, Dr. Halsey treated their wounds and sent them on errands for extra armor, prototype weapons, and other items that were there. Soon after, the Covenant started their offensive upon the base and Dr. Halsey was forced to activate Operation: WHITE GLOVE and destroy the base, which forced the team down into the titanium mines below the base. While wandering the mines, Frederic-104 discovered a Forerunner tunnel that led to a massive, twelve story Forerunner cavern which contained a strange Forerunner crystal.

In the massive cavern, the two teams came under attack by the Covenant, causing the team to retreat into a tunnel, which was sealed after two satchel charges went off and Isaac and Vinh disappeared. Some time later, the group was rescued when the tunnel became unblocked by another explosion. On the other side they found John-117, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, Team Gamma and Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Corporal Locklear. After a brief battle with the Covenant, they escaped in a Spirit dropship to the UNSC controlled Ascendant Justice.

Slipspace battle

When the ship jumped into slipspace, the Forerunner crystal found on Reach distorted Slipspace. Several other Covenant cruisers were engulfed in the slipspace bubble and a vicious space battle ensued. Shots from the cruisers disappeared and reappeared in random places and destroyed several of the Covenant ships. On board the Ascendant Justice, several rogue units of Sangheili sabotaged the ships' plasma conduit, forcing the Spartans to perform a dangerous space mission to repair it. When a rogue plasma torpedo hit the dropship, Spartans Anton-044, Li-008 and Petty Officer, Second Class Shiela Polaski were killed. Their ship then dropped out of the bubble and back into normal space.

Operation: FIRST STRIKE

Main article: Operation: FIRST STRIKE

The remnants of Team Delta then proceeded to help John-117 in the carrying out of his well planned Operation: FIRST STRIKE. This involved the Spartans overloading the power core of the Covenant space station Unyielding Hierophant and destroying 500 Covenant capital ships. The operation was going well until the group came under attack by a pack of Jiralhanae and Grace-093 was killed in the attack. The Master Chief overloaded the core and destroyed the ship and almost all of the 500 ships.

Dissolution

With most of the SPARTAN-IIs who had constituted Red Team during the Fall of Reach dead or missing, Will-043, the sole surviving former member of Team Delta would be integrated into Blue Team, consisting of Fred-104 and Linda-058 after John-117 left Earth aboard the UNSC In Amber Clad in pursuit of the Solemn Penance. The new arrangement of Blue Team would then defend Earth over the course of two weeks, before being reassigned to Onyx in early November.

Trivia

Idle dialogue in Halo 4 indicates that at least one of the Charlie Company Marines attached to Delta Red survived the engagement, and ultimately went on to serve aboard UNSC Infinity in the Battle of Requiem.

List of appearances

• Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance)
• Halo: First Strike