UNSC Naval Intelligence Department of Covert Operations

The UNSC Naval Intelligence Department of Covert Operations, colloquially referred to as "Covert Ops", was an undisclosed department of the Directorate of Strategic Intelligence, UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence. A collaboration between the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Special Operations Command, it was a member of Strategic Intelligence's Directorate of Foreign Intelligence.

It was responsible for special activities prosecuted by Naval Intelligence, many of these covert actions that were not legally sanctioned by the United Nations Space Command. Often through subtle paramilitary and political influences, Covert Operations was an infamous puppeteer of galactic politics, "remodeling" planetary and galactic governments through various ambiguous means. Its duties made it the most infamous section of the Directorate of Strategic Intelligence, followed by the Naval Intelligence Office of Special Investigations.

Formerly a classified section underneath the Directorate of Special Intelligence, its jurisdiction was later transferred to the growing and dark Directorate of Strategic Intelligence after the Human-Covenant War.

Lieutenant Commander Wakes was undoubtedly the most famous officer of the Department of Covert Operations, and was almost entirely responsible for the UNSC's victory in the Memory Crisis. Lieutenant Colonel Courtney Archer West and Commander Karen Elizabeth Wakes were notable officers of Covert Ops during the Galactic Era.