- "Beta Red may be tough as hell, but I have no idea how long they'll be able to tie up two armor divisions."
- — Lieutenant Jake Chapman[1]
Team Beta, also known as Beta Red, was a splinter team of the SPARTAN-II Red Team of the United Nations Space CommandTemplate:Fact. Beta Red was the largest splinter team of the original Red Team and consisted of eleven SPARTAN-IIs[2]. They were tasked with the defense of the Orbital Defense Platform generators against Covenant attack on Reach. Forced to fall back, Beta Red were redeployed elsewhere by Reach CENTCOM, including civilian evacuation operations, and likely met their deaths as friendly fire casualties.
Battle of Reach
- Main article: Battle of Reach
The majority of the Spartans were formed into Team Beta. Their job was to defend the generators at all costs. To compromise this mission meant the fall of Reach. Not much is known about what Team Beta did during the battle, but they ultimately lost the battle. Most of the generators were destroyed, but not due to any real fault on the Spartans' behalf, but rather due to overwhelming Covenant forces. These Covenant attacks in mass numbers easily overran the few Spartan defenders, allowing the Covenant to destroy the generators that the Spartans were protecting. This dismal failure and complete waste of lives was likely due to inadequate time to set up defensive emplacements, and/or inadequate time to develop an ideal strategy. It may also have been because three Covenant Cruisers broke through and destroyed the generators with their weapons. The nature of the destructions was never specified.
Beta Red fell quickly. They managed to get a transmission to Frederic-104 and the Template:UNSCship, warning them to stay away from the planet because most of the generators had been destroyed, but in a futile attempt, they would attempt to protect the several remaining generatorsTemplate:Fact. Falling back, Beta Red were redeployed by Reach CENTCOM to evacuating civilian population centres by at least August 23rd[3], and eventually deployed by Recon 43 to reinforce UNSC Marine units Gamma 1 and Gamma 5 defending Facility Alpha 331 from two division-strength units of Covenant armoured vehicles, punching hard into the centre of the enemy formation.[4] Dropship Iron Fist was deployed to retrieve Beta Red, but their evacuation was interrupted by the de-cloaking of three Covenant cruisers right above them.[5] Artillery support from the UNSC Majestic was called in to destroy the three cruisers and any surviving Covenant, presumably taking the lives of Beta Red, who had sacrificed their lives to by Gamma 1 and Gamma 5 enough time to evacuate.[6]
The actual fate of Beta Red is left ambiguous. Six MAC rounds were fired at the targets by the Majestic, but Iron Fist had made a last-ditch attempt to evacuate Beta Red. There was no confirmation of whether Iron Fist succeeded or failed, leaving the remote possibility that Beta Red survived.
Known Members
Sources
- ^ Halo: Reach - Boneyard
- ^ Halo: Reach - Countdown:
- "What are eleven Spartans gonna do against thirty thousand Covenant? They're dead men."
- — Gamma 1
- ^ Halo: Reach - New Alexandria:
- "Sir, that true about Gauntlet, Red and Echo Teams assigned to civilian evac ops?"
- — Jun-A266
- ^ Halo: Reach - Countdown:
- "Holy...! <static> You're ain't gonna believe this! Beta Red just punched right up into the guts of that Covie column! Ever see a Spartan go hand to hand with a Wraith? Unbelievable!"
- — Gamma 5
- ^ Halo: Reach - Boardwalk:
- "Iron Fist, This is Gamma 1 Actual. Three Covenant cruisers just dropped out of cloak directly above us, holding at approximately twenty thousand feet traveling due east at approximately three hundred knots, three-zero-zero knots!"
- — Gamma 1
- ^ Halo: Reach - Reflection:
- "Beta Red have gone above and beyond but there's no way out for them, they just bought us our window, now give me the go and I'll finish the job."
- — Alpha 20
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