Project INDIGO-II

Project INDIGO-II was a highly classified supersoldier development program of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the successor to Project INDIGO. The goal of the project was to recruit, kidnap or reassign as many SPARTAN-III Commandos as possible into a separate chain of command from the bulk of their brethren, making it very similar to its predecessor project which attempted to do the same for SPARTAN-II Commandos.

Overview
Though the SPARTAN-III Program was approved by some high-ranking ONI members - including Vice Admiral Parangosky, Rear Admiral Rich and Captain Gibson - many others harbored mistrust of the program's maker, Colonel Ackerson, and his intentions with the program. Notable suspicions included fear that Ackerson would use some of the Spartans for private operations, rather than those benefitting mankind as a whole, as well as disapproval for the new supersoldiers' purpose as ill-equipped suicide soldiers. Because of these and many other confidential reasons - such as the discovery of shady dealings between Ackerson and Rich - INDIGO-II was approved alongside the SPARTAN-III Program.

For the duration of the program, INDIGO-II would end up acquiring an alarming number of Spartan-III operatives, through a mix of improper issuing of unfit-for-duty classifications and use of inside help - in some cases by Lieutenant Ambrose and Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez themselves - to faking augmentation failures and performing outright kidnapping of candidates. Possibly one of the larger efforts to carry out the goal of INDIGO-II was HEADHUNTER, approved by Parangosky and managed by DRACULA to create elite-trained pairs of Spartan-IIIs issued with better equipment and carrying out high-risk missions behind enemy lines, fueling its numbers by rotating out promising candidates from the main program in a variety of ways. Other undertakings were less complicated, as in "merely" recruiting teams during or after the augmentation procedures, in most circumstances covered up as deaths caused by the augments, though in some cases 'crippled' candidates relegated to non-combat duties were either still combat-capable (with some arrangements) or were treated to be so by new medical technology or specialized replacement body parts and consequently recruited into INDIGO-II.

While most teams created or recruited by INDIGO-II were initially company-exclusive, IE each team's members were all from the same company, as casualties increased throughout the Human-Covenant War, it became more and more commonplace to merge units - the most notable (but not only) example of this practise being Noble Team. Through the old connections with INDIGO and new ones opened up over time (including projects ARES and MYRMIDON), the project also managed to occasionally acquire operatives of other Spartan programs and projects, such as Jorge-052. Though teamworking difficulties occasionally arose, these mixed units often proved themselves to be very adaptable and versatile teams, even more so in the instances where they were issued equipment on par with the SPARTAN-IIs.

Alpha Company

 * Team Pegasus - Inactive (Survivors reassigned to Noble)
 * Team Mongoose - Inactive (Survivors reassigned to Noble)

Beta Company

 * Team Oscar - Inactive (Survivors reassigned to Noble)

Gamma Company

 * Team Baselard
 * Team Kukri

Headhunters

 * Team Juliet-Three - Inactive (KIA)
 * Team Charlie-One - Inactive (KIA)

Mixed

 * Noble Team - Unknown (Post-Fall of Reach)
 * Royal Team - Inactive
 * Herald Team - Inactive (KIA)
 * Winter Team