Black Team (Earth-5875)

"Black Team, rock and roll!"

- - Otto-031

Black Team is an unconventional unit of the SPARTAN-II Program who respond directly to the Office of Naval Intelligence unlike other SPARTAN-IIs, who respond to the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command.

Training and formation
After an extensive conversation with Margaret, Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez reunited Black Team and branded them a specialized squad far from the normal chain of command. After undergoing the SPARTAN-II Enhancement Program in 2525, she was officially nominated the leader of Black Team.

First Contact War
By July 14th, 2523, the SPARTAN-IIs started to endure brutal and violent training against members of the UNSC Marine Corps in simulated operations. On March 9th, 2525, the Black Team members underwent the SPARTAN-II Enhancement Program at Medical Facility Endurance. After surviving the augmentation, they attented a classified funeral for the SPARTANs that did not survive the enhancements aboard the UNSC Atlas, in the Lambda Serpentis system. They were subsequently all returned to Reach for their final training phase in the Highland Mountains.

First Contact War
Through the First Contact War, Black Team operated behind enemy lines in covert operations against the Covenant and the few remaining Insurrectionist cells. Among their operations were the destruction of a Covenant citadel and a CCS-class battlecruiser with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon.

Battle of the Rubble
In 2535, Victor and Black Team were sent to the 23 Librae system to destroy a navigational data center in the Outer colony Madrigal after the Covenant's attack and glassing of the planet. There, they discovered the few survivors of the attack were living in the Rubble, an asteroid space station built by the Insurrectionists who helped to evacuate the civilians, orbiting the gas giant Hesiod. A kig-yar fleet led by Reth, seemingly a desertor of the Covenant, had made an alliance with the humans to trade weapons. Secretly, Reth was working under orders of the Prophet of Truth to steal data from the Insurrectionists which would hopefully lead them to the human homeworld and the extermination of humanity. Black Team were then forced to defend the Rubble once the kig-yar betrayed its inhabitants and a Covenant force led by Zealot Thel 'Vadamee invaded the Rubble, and as part of Margaret's plan, they released the limited crew of the UNSC Midsummer Night, including then-Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, briefing them about the situation.

After returning to the Rubble, Margaret planned on cutting the atmosphere out the space station, killing all kig-yar and unggoy onboard. Black Team was able to override the systems of the station's artificial intelligence to depressurize it, killing all Covenant soldiers within the Rubble. Black Team, the surviving civilians and Insurrectionists, as well as the UNSC servicemen, retreated to the Midsummer Night.

After the ship jumped to slipspace and arrived at the 18 Scorpii system one week later, Black Team and Keyes met with Admiral Preston Cole, who gave them command of the UNSC Long Time Coming. The SPARTAN-IIs were later ordered by Dr. Halsey to serve on more missions through enemy lines.

Raid on Verge
On May 7th, 2552, Black Team were sent on a covert mission to destroy a Covenant spire in the colony Verge, which had been occupied by the Covenant. Once they landed on the planet aboard the Long Time Coming, equipped with texture buffers, they moved to the ruins of Ciudad de Arias, where the spire had been built. There, they observed hundreds of yanme'e of various castes being overseen by kig-yar and mgalekgolo. There, Roma-104 found an injured yanme'e. The injured alien was then nicknamed "Hopalong" by Black Team, and with great struggle communicated with them, revealing another route to the spire. Although the SPARTANs were suspicious of a friendly Covenant, they ultimately trusted its suggestion.

The next day, Black Team moved to the spire through a tunnel network, reaching a large cavern and, as ordered by Margaret, they separated. After ten minutes, Maggie ordered the rest of the team to quietly assassinate the guards near the spire and place a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon on it. At the same time, Hopalong stole a device that helped it free its yanme'e brethren, and the alien revealed it had tricked Black Team: the prisoner yanme'e were psychotic prisoners, known as Unmutuals, who were unable of living normally within their hives and were thus forced to manual labor.

They proceeded to attack the SPARTANs, but Roma discovered an intact underground tram. Before they entered the transport, Roma went against Margaret's orders and saved an injured Otto from the yanme'e, while Margaret and Victor prepared the tram to escape. Once all were reunited, Roma detonated the HAVOK nuke, destroying the spire and vaporizing all of the yanme'e. They were able to return to the Coming and escaped from the destroyed colony.

Battle of Line Installation 1-4
"You scared? Aren't you? Why? This is just another day at the office..."

- - Margaret-053 and Otto-031

For three weeks, Black Team traveled aboard the Long Time Coming in cryostasis, placing the ship in remote piloting. Before it arrived on its destination, the Coming was shot down and crashed on the moon LV-1201 on August 1st, 2552. They were automatically awakened from their cryosleep by Iona, the ship's artificial intelligence. The team then got out the crashed ship to investigate a nearby structure and discover if it possessed a breathable atmosphere. However, once they arrived, the SPARTANs were ambushed by a small Covenant file, which had been brought to LV-1201 as well. The two groups were then attacked by massive Sentinels known as Gatherers, which took Margaret and surviving Covenant soldiers to Line Installation 1-4. Once she arrived there, the forerunner Monitor  686 Ebullient Prism appeared and greeted all of those which had been taken by the Gatherers, informing them it would dissect them to find any potential immunity to the xenomorphs.

Maggie was able to free herself later on, alongside the sangheili Reff 'Talamee, and the two were forced to develop an alliance out of necessity. She grabbed the weapon of one of the Gatherers to use it against Ebullient Prism in an attempt to kill it with 'Talamee's help. After they took Prism out for some moments, they ran towards the control room of the installation. When 'Talamee was unable to use it, Margaret moved towards the control room panel and was able to do it. There, she and 'Talamee learned that a Covenant ship, the Clarity of Faith, approached, and thus she attempted to contact Black Team.

Maggie was then slammed into the control room panel by a mgalekgolo and rendered uncounscious. While Reff tried to appeal to his brother, Thon 'Talamee, the Shipmaster of the Clarity of Faith, Thon was unconvinced. He then asked how they were supposed to contact High Charity, to which Reff attempted to convince his brother they should use the weapons they discovered on LV-1201 to destroy the Hierarchs and form their own Covenant. After stating such heresy, Thon attempted to kill Reff, but he was quicker and murdered his brother, only to be vaporized by Prism. Black Team was then able to meet with Maggie again to take down Prism, sending the Monitor to the main weapon of the line installation and destroying it. The SPARTANs then fought against hordes of Covenant and steal a Covenant ship, gaining contact with the UNSC only in October.

Members

 * Margaret-053 - Leader
 * Otto-031
 * Roma-143
 * Victor-101