Gray Team

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A member of Gray Team on Hesiod.

Gray Team is the designation for a unique team of three SPARTAN-IIs of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Group. They are the most independent and individualistic of the SPARTAN teams, trained to operate for long periods with little control or assistance. They are the only team so far with unique MJOLNIR armor, as their Mark IV suits are gray, as opposed to the olive green standard issue armor.

Gray Team consists of three SPARTAN-II's, Adriana-111, Jai-006 and Mike.

Background

After their abduction and indoctrination into the SPARTAN-II program, most of the SPARTAN-II candidates were able to quickly adjust to their new lives as soldiers. Cooperation, teamwork, and camaraderie were easily integrated into their minds and within five months, they were fully willing to take on their training. The exception were the Spartans who would become Gray Team.

Gray Team is comprised of the SPARTAN candidates who were the most difficult to control. These SPARTANs were loners who tried constantly to escape their training, and resisted indoctrination in any way possible. When these attempts to escape became increasingly costly, with numerous trainers with broken fingers and shattered knee caps and at least one Pelican dropship hijacked and destroyed, the three SPARTANs were formed into their own team, trained separately from the rest.

Unlike the standard SPARTAN teams, Gray Team members are all trained to think and act individually. The team is designed to operate undercover, behind enemy lines with little or no contact or backup from the outside world (their practices bear conspicuous similarities to those of the British SAS and the Australian SASR-especially in terms of Long Range Patrol capability). Their missions focus on interdiction, covertly disrupting enemy operations from the inside and escaping undetected.

Missions

In the 2530s, Gray Team was sent on a secret mission into Covenant space. They were assigned to uphold the Cole Protocol, ensuring that NAV database of every unprotected human ship was purged, so that the Covenant could not find the location of Earth. Their mission focused on locating and infiltrating hidden Insurrectionist bases and removing all NAV data from rebel ships, which would then be unable to find or lead Covenant vessels back into UNSC space. This led to the Battle of the Rubble and their subsequent ownership of an ONI Prowler.

In 2551, Gray Team was sent on another secret mission far out of UNSC space . When Reach was under attack, all surviving SPARTAN-IIs, save Gray Team, fought in its defense. Apparently, the UNSC did not attempt to contact them due to their distance and the time it would take for the message to arrive. But Frederic-104 had pondered their fate once and it was stated that they were MIA for over a year. Due to their deployment in 2551, they were not present the following year to be given the MJOLNIR MK. V, and so would rely on the 26 year-old MK.IV.