Headhunters (Team)

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For the short story, see Headhunters (Short Story).

"As tools of war, the SPARTAN-IIIs were most often deployed as living fire-and-forget weapons--just point, shoot, and wait for the fireworks. ONI, or on occasion, a highly placed UNSC official, passed along a key Covenant target; the IIIs were then sent in, headfirst, to eliminate the given objective, or inflict as much damage as physically possible in the effort... Success meant a handful or more made it back to base, mission complete; failure, nobody came home."

— Headhunter description.

Headhunters are Spartan-III Special Operations squads comprised of two main teams that are sent on suicide mission to attack high priority Covenant targets. They are tasked to infiltrate heavily fortified enemy encampments, ships, and operation centers completely undetected, with minimal, mission-specific weaponry, and no radio contact or hope for backup or retrieval. Headhunters are normally sent in as preparation for one of two eventualities: a larger, full-scale assault on the target, or as a decoy and distraction for UNSC operations elsewhere. Like all other SPARTAN-IIIs, they are listed as KIA rather than MIA, considering civilians and other soldiers have no knowledge of their existence so the KIA wouldn't affect overall UNSC morale. This secrecy only reinforces the bond amongst the SPARTAN-IIIs, making their teams nearly inseparable and uniform in their tactics and instincts.

Two Headhunter teams participated in a failed mission on an unnamed Covenant moon, with notable members including Jonah and Roland.