Gold Team

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. They actively participated in multiple battles during the successful Operation: SILENT STORM.

Known members

 * Joshua-029 (2526) (Leader during Operation: SILENT STORM) (KIA)
 * Daisy-023 (2526) (During Operation: SILENT STORM) (KIA)
 * Naomi-010 (2526) (During Operation: SILENT STORM) (Active)
 * Grace-093 (2526) (During Operation: SILENT STORM) (KIA)

Radiant Arrow
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 for an extra vehicular boarding action. With a flight of s for cover, the Spartans stealthily approached the alien vessel. 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.

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.

SILENT STORM
A few days later, Gold Team and the rest of the Spartans that had participated in the pervious 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.

During the ten-day voyage through slipspace, the Spartans trained with the ODSTs in the '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.

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. 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. Ultimately, the resident insurgents were defeated and the quarry fell under UNSC control.

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.

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. 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, but this effort was interrupted when a situation with Captain Ascot's flagship was relayed over the task force's command channel. The had been shot down on takeoff, crash-landing back into the quarry some distance away. Crowther was unable to send a unit of his Black Daggers to search for survivors without putting more prowlers at risk. Since they were the only unit available to assist, John decided that he and his Spartans would go for the Starry Night once the transport was loaded. After sending Garvin back to his people and ordering the transport pilot to launch, John had his Spartans move out, much to the concern of Joshua and Kurt-051. Not only would they be disobeying a direct order from Crowther, operating without the support of the task force in such a situation would be very risky.

The twelve Spartans proceeded to the grotto's access vestibule and entered its airlock, sealing the inner hatch. With that, they stepped out into the dense sublimation fog coating the quarry floor. Visibility was so poor that each of the Spartans could barely even see the ends of their rifles, but the flashes of plasma bolts could be seen dancing through the clouds above. John accessed the command channel and requested that he and his teammates receive a waypoint leading to the downed prowler. Crowther quickly responded by asking what he thought he was doing. John stated that they were checking on the status of the Starry Night as they were the only unit that could do so at the moment, carefully choosing his words so that Crowther could deflect blame onto the Spartan if need be. This would make it more likely for Crowther to not stand in the way of their self-assigned mission. While John waited for a response, he signaled Joshua and Kurt to spread out their teams in a hundred-meter-wide search line. Joshua had Gold Team space out on the right of the more tightly-gathered Blue Team, as Green Team spaced out on the left. Doing this, the Spartans would be more likely to find any debris from the Starry Night that might have otherwise been missed in the fog. John also ordered them to advance at a trotting speed, leading them away from the dockyards where Blue Team had engaged insurgents the day before. When Crowther still had not responded, John added over the command channel that they would simply take a look at the crash site and report what they found.

With this reassurance, Crowther acknowledged John's plan, but ordered him to not take action unless immediately warranted. He also informed the Spartans of Biko's naval response to the alien bombardment of Seoba and that Nyeto believed that the small Covenant flotilla would either be in full retreat or destroyed within the hour by the approaching overwhelming force. An inexact waypoint was placed on each of the Spartans' HUDs and John had them adjust course to match the new trajectory. With the fog still as dense as ever, John ordered them all to advance at a full run while keeping their eyes on their feet, since that was all they could see anyway. As they ran, the Emmeline departed from the grotto and flew over the Spartans, churning up the fog and allowing a brief moment of visibility. Through the haze, they could see five Covenant vessels fire towards the transport as it fled toward the horizon.

As the Spartans neared the provided waypoint, the fog had lowered to shoulder-height, allowing them to discover that the Starry Night was indeed seemingly intact, but sat atop a large avalanche about seven hundred meters up the quarry wall. Frederic-104 spotted a Covenant intrusion corvette sliding over the rim of the quarry and descending over the prowler. Kelly-087 theorized that they may be trying to recover the Starry Night themselves. Realizing the danger, John declared to his teammates that the mission was no longer a rescue mission. Their primary objective was now to deny the Covenant from recovering the prowler and the data stored within. Joshua acknowledged the directive in an almost cheerful manner and asked John what the plan was. He said he was open to ideas, but that he needed to check with command first. Opening the command channel again, he relayed this information to Crowther, who echoed John's concerns and insisted that they could not let the Covenant take possession of the Starry Night. The vessel's navigation computer and other onboard data devices could reveal the locations of UNSC outposts, entire force deployments, or worse. Crowther asked Nyeto if there was any way that the prowler's nuclear self-destruct system could be remotely activated, to which the lieutenant commander responded in the affirmative. However, there were only three positions that had access to that ability. The first two were the flight commander and wing commander, both of which were roles held by Captain Ascot, who was either dead or unable to be reached aboard the Starry Night. The final person with the ability to remotely detonate the prowler was the captain of the Vanishing Point, which was holding station two planetary orbits out from Seoba. At that distance, it would take nearly an hour for the request to be sent to the cruiser and for the return signal to arrive. By then, the Covenant might already have retrieved sensitive data from the wrecked prowler. Crowther began to reluctantly order the Spartans to prevent the Starry Night ' s capture, but John cut him off, assuring him that they would not fail. The Spartan requested that Task Force Yama assist them by keeping the assaulting corvettes off their backs. Nyeto began to say that their prowlers were not designed for ship-to-ship combat when Crowther interrupted him, promising that they would find a way. Crowther started to tell John to standby for instructions on how to manually activate the prowler's self-destruct, but he reassured the colonel that his Spartans already knew how to activate a nuke.

Just then, a Covenant Ghost appeared out of the fog and began firing at John, who easily killed its Jiralhanae driver with his MA5B's underbarrel grenade launcher. Shortly after that was handled, more Ghosts entered the quarry, so John ordered Gold and Green Teams to deal with them as Blue Team went with him to the prowler. At this point, the looming intrusion corvette had begun deploying EVA-equipped Sangheili, Jiralhanae, and Kig-Yar warriors via gravity lift, with the first already looking for a way inside the ship. Another corvette crested the edge of the quarry, firing its main cannon on the Spartans. A plasma bolt narrowly missed John, and crashed into the fog-filled quarry floor near enough to Gold Team's position. Grace was caught in the blast radius and cried out over SQUADCOM, prompting Joshua to order Daisy to tend to her injured teammate. Before he had even finished giving the order, Daisy affirmed that she was already at Grace's side. With the situation quickly deteriorating and Nyeto's support still setting up, John realized that immediate action was necessary. He ordered Blue Team to simultaneously fire on the avalanche just below the Starry Night with their grenade launchers to cause the vessel to fall to quarry floor and prevent the Covenant from gaining entrance. Despite Fred and Kelly's warnings that such an action could bring the whole slope down on top of them, each member of the team acknowledged and followed his order. As they has feared, the volley of grenades worked a bit too well, bringing the avalanche down on top of all twelve Spartans, but successfully delaying the Covenant in their boarding attempt.

Six of the Spartans became buried under the ice, with Naomi-010 becoming completely incapacitated. John-117 was also buried, but not totally immobilized. While he worked on freeing himself, John gave Fred command of the mission to board and destroy the Starry Night. Fred and two other Spartans boarded the prowler as the available members of Gold and Green Teams coordinated attacks on the seemingly endless stream of enemy ground vehicles, supported by at least three Covenant corvettes. John freed himself from the ice flow and began helping repel would-be boarders while Fred's team prepared the vessel's Fury tactical nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Nyeto's support finally arrived the form of strafing runs that destroyed two of the intrusion corvettes assaulting Gold and Green Teams. At this point, Joshua and Anton-044 decided to assist John, who had just killed two bloodblade-wielding Sangheili. As soon as he dispatched them, two Kig-Yar began firing on him, landing a hit that breached John's armor. Anton provided cover fire, and Joshua assured John that he had a patching kit to fix the breach. Just as the nuke was finished arming, the looming Covenant corvette finally made its move and began lifting the Starry Night up into its hold using its gravity lift. John ordered Fred's team to activate the nuke and flee from the prowler with the survivors, which they did via escape pod. After ordering everyone to clear the blast radius, John led Joshua and Anton away from the prowler, taking cover behind a wrecked Ghost just before the detonation. By this point, Naomi had been extricated from the ice flow, either by her own doing or with help from a teammate. Gold Team and the rest of the Spartans made it to safety, but John still checked on each of them personally after having Joshua patch up the breach in his back armor. Colonel Crowther extracted the Spartans after the nuke's electromagnetic pulse had dissipated. The blast also destroyed the intrusion corvette, and some of the Spartans assisted in the recovery of a starholo from its wreckage. Gold Team, the other Spartans, and the starholo were transported back to the Vanishing Point.

On March 20, the six Spartans that had not been confined to the infirmary attended a funeral service for the two-hundred-and-three men and women who lost their lives at Seoba. Held in the command hangar of the Vanishing Point as it sat in a high parabolic orbit around Biko, the ceremony included an honor company of a hundred-and-one enlisted personnel in their dress blues, including the six Spartans and Avery Johnson. After the service, Lieutenant Commander Nyeto—now the de facto commander of Task Force Yama after Ascot's death—approached John-117, who asked if he'd reconsider sidelining them. Nyeto promised that the Spartans would be seeing all the action they could handle for the rest of the operation. However, Crowther again contested this on the basis of them being too young, forcing the lieutenant commander to back down by threatening him with a report to a UNSC board of inquiry. The Black Daggers would board the incoming fleet alone. As everyone left the hangar, Crowther revealed to Johnson that he did not trust Nyeto. He believed that the Spartans were combat-ready, and he was instead sending them on a mission to disrupt Covenant supply lines at Etalan.

Etalan
Gold Team, the other Spartans, Staff Sergeant Johnson, and Dr. Halsey then left the Kolaqoa system aboard the Vanishing Point, with two prowlers trailing them as escort. On March 22, the three ships dropped out of slipspace at Etalan and the Vanishing Point's analysts spent the next four days observing the logistics fleet's movements, trying to discern which vessels should be designated as priority targets. By March 26, they felt confident that four of the fleet's fifteen vessels were equipment freighters carrying spare parts and other materials that would be used to keep the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience operational. At this point, the logistics fleet was seemingly preparing to leave Etalan and regroup with the main force, which was evidenced by the fact that they had begun syncing their orbits and bringing their fusion reactors to full power. Since time was running out, Gold and Green Team were deployed in four S-14 Baselards with the objective of destroying the equipment freighters while Blue Team remained on the Vanishing Point, preparing for their phase of the attack. The four Spartan-manned fighters flew at the center of a formation of twenty total Baselards, and the plan was for the squadron to pierce through the logistics vessels' screen of Banshees and Seraphs, then the eight Spartans would go EV after faking the destruction of their Baselards. To camouflage their approach, their fighters were equipped with pods of chain-linked debris that would deploy upon the crafts' destruction. Then, the Spartans would board the target vessels and plant their HAVOK nukes before fleeing. Due to the high risk involved with performing such maneuvers, both teams were given strict orders to abort the mission if it became apparent that they would not reach their targets.

After Blue Team launched from the Vanishing Point in Banshees they had captured from the Radiant Arrow, they managed to infiltrate a larger formation of Covenant fighters. The next phase of the mission began as Gold Team ejected from their Baselards while Green Team did the same. As planned, the eight Spartans boarded the four equipment freighters, planted their nukes, and abandoned ship before the nukes detonated. The fourth detonation disabled the Banshee formation that Blue Team had infiltrated, forcing them to go EV. Afterwards, when the two escort prowlers moved to extract the Spartans of Gold and Green Teams from orbit over Etalan, their retrieval caused an unintentional diversion that drew attention away from Blue Team as they destroyed the logistics fleet’s "air-skimmers," which had been designated as key targets by Dr. Halsey.

Zhoist
After an attack on the Covenant supply lines that resulted in the destruction of several support vessels, the Spartans eventually acquired the location of Zhoist, a world used by the Covenant as a forward operating base. With a distraction planned by the remaining prowlers of Task Force Yama, the twelve Spartans of Gold, Green, and Blue Teams descended to the planet aboard four of the prowlers. Green and Blue Teams managed to successfully deploy upon an orbital elevator, which carried supplies to the construction ring high above the planet. Gold Team had been split between two prowlers, both of which were chased away by the forces defending the planet.

Using octanitrocubane explosives to destroy several constituent facilities on the orbital ring, the station destabilized and collapsed onto Zhoist, resulting in a mission success. While most of the ODSTs died during the assault, none of the Spartan teams sustained any casualties.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Silent Storm