United Nations Space Command Spartan Corps

"I am your worst nightmare. I have conquered fear, I have come to terms with terror and pain is my best friend. I will come from nowhere, I will dissapear without a trace. My brothers and sisters will lay down their lives for me, as I will for them. I am a UNSC SPARTAN-IV. The first and last line of defence."

- SPARTAN-A044

The SPARTAN-IV Program was first highlighted during a security council meeting at HIGHCOM facility X14 between Major General Alexia Romanov, General Gary Kirsham, Fleet Admiral William Hurtz, Admiral Gareth Boyar and Lieutenant General Joseph Lee in 2596. with a resurgence in Covenant Remnant and Pirate factions, along with the rebellion of two outer colonies worlds and the loss of two more under unknown circumstances, the idea of a new SPARTAN generation was suggested along with military wide rearmament.

History
At first SPARTAN-038 (then under the alias of Eleanor Booth) was approached by Romanov to lead the training and advisment. The other SPARTANS were still participating in OPERATION:SAVIOR and one by one, dropped out at 038's request to help her train the unit. Though at first, a small, elite unit, like the SPARTAN-IIs were envisaged, the Security Council and ONI Section 3 began to envisage a whole regiment of SPARTAN-IVs. The descision was made, over the SPARTANS heads to make a regiment of four batallions, each made of three companies of 200, creating 2400 SPARTANS in total, with 300 more in reserve. To aid in this mammoth undertaking, all surviving members of Beta and Gamma companies of the third generation were hired on as trainers, along with some of ONI's, the Marine's and the Navy's best soldiers and trainers. Along with that, at 038's request, several Sangheili were also hired on, with the blessings of the Sangheili Council.

The one major problem was source of SPARTANS. While, through stringent ONI searching, a estimated 500 children could be gathered who had superior genetic qualities, along with a suspect 600 orphans within the correct age group, to fill in the missing 1000 needed applicants ONI gave money to couples who had both served in the armed forces to literally 'produce' a child for them, along with getting sperm samples from Marines and paying volenteer female members of the armed forces to be artificially impregnanted and procure the needed numbers. These children, once born, were raised at first in ONI hospitals and then ONI funded orphanages, to provide a 'normal' life to prevent potential mental damage or stunting mental growth. With a fake name and backstory, nobody was ever the wiser. Children abducted were replaced by flash clones who would predictably die.

Augmentation
The new program was designed to be as harsh as the SPARTAN-II program, with focus on team work and combat skills. A heavy specification was also placed onto specialization as well, to ensure that the unit could operate as a Marine company in combat. Within seven years they were ready for phase two, augmentations. Using drugs used in previous SPARTAN-III augmentations and new drugs, there was a 99.9% pass rate of SPARTANS. They were injected with Drug 8942-LQ99, A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst, Drug 88005-MX77, a fibroid muscular protien complex that increased muscle density and allowed them to lift three times their own body weight, Drug 88947-OP24, a drug that boosted colour vision and night vision, Drug 87556-UD61, which reduced reaction time along with new drugs, 37895-CT69 which safely facilitates the superconducting fabrication of neural drendites, altering the bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Resulting in a 300 percent increase in reflexes. Increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Also, a catalytic thyroid implant aided in growth and maturity.

MJOLNIR
Following thier augmentations they were equipped with their armour. They recieved the Mark VII MJOLNIR, a enhancement upon the Mark VI. It features a expanded software suite, with heavy intergration of COM technology to allow further intergration into larger marine formations. Also, the energy shileds and liquid metal layer have been improved. One other feature is the intergration of Active Camo fields. Now using Covenant produced Active Camouflage generators or UNSc produced, near invisibility can be created and sustained for longer. Also, shield boosters can also be used. The armour also features clip on points for G-PACKS and G/J-PACKS along with full intergration systems.

Tasks
The SPARTAN-IV program now constructed units that could not only operate in stealth missions, much like the SPARTAN-IIs, along with larger raid missions like the IIIs but also operate as and with infantry formations, providing a effective heavy weight punch.

Fire Team
The base line unit of any SPARTAN-IV force. Made up of three SPARTAN-IVs with a IV Corporal, the unit features at least one designated marksman, making use of the Heavy Battle Rifle 11 Scoped Rifle and the rest armed with Battle Rifle 09 Scoped Rifle or MA6A ICWS w/ M024 Grenade Launcher or M025 Rocket Launcher and one specialist armed with a heavy weapon, such as a M41B MAV/AW, M66 Rocket Propelled Grenades, M556 GL, M23 Grenade Launcher M122 Light Machine Gun, M389B General Purpose Machine Gun, or M899 Light Anti Armour Weapon. They provide mid ranged fire power and the majority of the fighting force of a company.

Assault Team
The alternate base unit of SPARTAN-IV forces, this unit utilies Mark VII MJOLNIR/CQB armour, specialising in close combat. Often armed with MA6C w/ M023 Shotguns, M7 sub machine guns, M10 Personal Defence Weapon systems, M90 Shotguns, M108A1 Close Assault Weapon System, M2A Light Assault Rifles, M73D Carbines, M12 Sub Machine Gun or MX4 Light Support Weapon. Often a specialist may carry a M705 Defoliant Projector or a M43 HD Shotgun. They specialise in close range battles and assault. They are usually present for every two Fire Teams, though more may be present depending on the nature of a battle.

Squad
Three teams and a Sergeant. Often made up of two Fire Teams and a Assault team, though more or less of a certain team may be present, depending on the situation.

Specialist Squad
Specialist Squads consist of a number of specialised units. These units are often consistant of the whole squad, such as 'Sniper Squads', Engineer Squads, Heavy Weapon squads, etc though rarely deployed as a whole unit, but more often spread out to where they are needed.

Sniper Team
A Sniper Team consists of two SPARTANS, a spotter and a sniper, most often wielding a Sniper Rifle System 99G-S3 Anti-Material, M1091 Sniper Rifle System 23s or a M-99C Special Application Scoped Rifle and on more rare occasions a Sniper Rifle System 40A-O Anti Material/Anti Vehicle. They often use stealth cloaks,ghillie djustments or Active Camo generators to mask their positions and are clad in MJOLNIR/Scout armour.

Weapons Team
A weapon team is made up of two SPARTANS, a gunner and a loader, using heavy anti infatry or anti vehicle weaponary. They often use M41 SSR MAV/AW, M21 MAV M66 Rocket Propelled Grenades, Sniper Rifle System 40A-O Anti Material/Anti Vehicle, WAV M6 G/GNR, M389B General Purpose Machine Gun or the AIE-486I Heavy Machine Gun. They often use short range weapons to back them up at close range, as their job often entails them getting close.

Engineering Team
A engineering team is made up of two SPARTANS specially trained in combat engineering. While not detailed to build defences, they are trained in mine laying, demolitions, close combat and repair duties, making them effective in the field. Some also use the M12 Specialist Grenade Launcher as well. They are frequently armed with shotguns and PDWS weapons like the M10, M12, M2A LAR and M73D

Recon Team
Recon Teams are the eyes and ears of a Spartan company. Operating in four man teams (the only four man Special Team), they recce ahead of their comrades, marking targets, causing havok, noting enemy troop movements, working in conjunction with engineers, sniper, weapon teams to mark targets or positions and working with conjoined artillery and air units to mark targets. When needed, they will launch diversionary attacks or commando raids before a main force if nessacary. The units use M2A LARs, M73D Carbines, M1091 SRS23, M108A1 CAWS, M10 PDWS, M12 SMG and silencers on most weapons.

Special Purpose Units
Within the IV regiment there were a handful of units that where either part time, being normally in another unit until the time came for them to use their specialism in cobat or simply being a standard unit re equipped for a specialist duty, though the unit usually picked for this had knowledge in this field.

EVA Unit
Sometimes Spartans were called to duty in enviroments such as vacumns, low gravity worlds, high pressure worlds and such so some units received dual training with EVA capabilities. Units were usually trained for deep space, pressure and gravity specialist operations seperately, with a few trained for underwater ops as well. Usually they were armed with MJOLNIR EVA armour, G-PACKs and their own personalised equipment. Units with operating EVA in the field are usually known by EVA *original unit* Team, ie EVA Fire Team.

Jump Unit
Some units, from time to time, were trained to operate G/J-PACKS or G-PACKS and MJOLNIR Jump Armour. This gave them greater tactical felxibility. This was most notably used for airborne drops, air assault missions requiring low level jumps, fighting in dense terrain where a unit such as a assault team could surprise an enemy from above, Fireteam and weapon teams could get to a new firing position, snipers could relocate more easily, recon teams could scope out the area from above and Engineers could drop explosives from the air or get to or away from a demolition site more easily. Jump teams in the field were named the same way as EVA teamns.

Vehicle Team
Within some Units one or a handful of Spartans were very specialised in operating vehicles and when the need arised, they were assigned a vehicle and MJOLNIR Pilot armour. These were rare outside of Bravo Company, where two platoons had roughly half thier men dedicated to this task, with two platoon being specialised in Warthog Assassins and the other Hornets (often with Jump units attached). There is one noted occurance of a unit operating a Fox Ultra Light tank. Usually within a platoon four men will specialise with a vehilce, with his comrades operating or riding shotgun.

Commando Team
Commando teams are made up of only the best of the best of the IVs. Only those who have proven themselves through training and throguh combat make it into these, though those with special skills will also be brought on when needed. Most units are infact named after original SPARTAN-II and III units, usually with their original commanding officer at the helm and a select few spartans and IIIs. These are equipped with personalised equipment based on their operation type and operation area. Largely, they are only assembled for the most important engagements and missions. Of all the IVs, only the top 100 have the chance of joining the prestigious units. Quite often they are either made up on a company basis or made up of cross company units, with specialists from a different unit being brought into the team for their expertise that nobody in their company may have.

Platoon
Two squads, one specialist squad, an CO, XO and a first sergeant.

Company
Five Platoons

Battalion
Three Companies.

Regiment
Four Battalions

Training
Every facet of the SPARTAN-II and III training regime was replicated and improved on, right from the random teams to the first exercise of ring the bell, to cross country, cross weapon training, cross enviroment training. SPARTANS learned of stealth, assault, leadership, commando strikes, sniping, assasination, honour, dishonour and true strength from those who trained them, shaping a regiment every bit as powerful as the original SPARTAN-IIs. Three years into their training however, SPARTAN-013 joined the training team, fresh out of an ONI hospital, and despite the advisment of ONI docotrs and pshycologists, immediatly brought on. When he joined on, not only did he pass on his knowledge of engineering and CQC, he had a lesson with every squad, prompting individualism, brotherhood and telling them hisotrical stories of Earth, from the Covenant war through to ancient history. Though frowned upon by some of the higher brass, it was encouraged by Romanov, prompting a extreme uniqueness among SPARTANs, extending to them to take on unique squads and fire teams names and embelems and more specialisation within the SPARTANS. In 2610 the SPARTANS recived their argumentations, with only one death, something sorely morned by the others and where dispatched onto their first mission.

One slight exception are Omega company, who spent larger amounts of time in training due to more general training in all fields. This means that when other teams take casualties, they can adapt more readily to which ever unit they join.

First taste of combat
A clan of Kig-Yar pirates had made a string of bases in the Jaguar Expanse, a region of systems usually dotted with asteroid field and only a single, habitable planet, creating a large smuggling, slavery and piracy trade for themselves and the Remnant in the area. as part of Operation: DEVIANT the SPARTAN-IVs went in first to thier bases, hiding aboard captured Kig-Yar freighters. Gradually, the SPARTANS attack and took all eighteen of their asteroid stations as the navy mopped up thier ships. They carried forth their attack on Kol, the Kig-Yar planet, with half the force going in as advance teams, disabling anti aircraft positions, capturing vital locations, destroying vehicle fuel and ammo dumps and destroying moored ships. After eight hours of absolute chaos, the UNSC Navy arrived in system, in force, and smashed aside the Kig Yar fleets and deployed the remaining half of the SPARTANS as a regular force, backed up by elements of the 21st Panzer Regiment, giving them armoured back up. Within three hours of sustained fighting, the clan piecemeal retreated out system or surrendered to the UNSC. With zero casualties, it was a brilliant pass of the SPARTAN programm. However, their true baptism in fire was yet to come.

Operation: WARDOG
Thier first 'real operation' was OPERATION:WARDOG, a sustained guerilla campaign on Hannibal III, a human colony recently taken by Remnant forces. While the navy was being mustered the SPARTANS began to devise a guerilla warfare plan, even before approached by HIGHCOM. When HIGHCOM prepared to send them there, they showed them their plan. It was bold but simple. Their platoons would be individually dropped onto the surface, across the whole entire surface, by stealth infiltrator ships, along with equipment nessecary for base camps and vehicles for ground operations. From there, they would establish hidden bases deep within enemy terrain and then from there, launch raids up until the UNSC arrived in system. The majority of the units 'dissapeared' into the thick woods of the planet, where they would only make encrypted, 'bounced' comms very rarely to HIGHCOM to report their status. From these positions they would go out on raids, destroying enemy depots, setting garrisons alight and destroying ground positions during the night, then melt into the darkness. These raids where highly succesful, destroying enemy concentrations with near zero casualties. Though one 'odd' raiding method, spearheaded by Bravo Company, with SPARTAN-013 at the head of this method, was using the warthogs they had dropped in with, which were usually for exfiltration or movement between raids, to rapidly assault enemy air fields, destroying their landed Phantoms, Banshees and Seraphs, while a number of other troops would stealthly infiltrate the other segments of the airfield when their guards were dranw out and destroy the waiting aircraft, either through planting bombs on them, 'shooting them up', sabotaging them or in one documented case, destroying the internal electronic systems with brute force before leaving, as did the mounted unit. Up until this point they only took one death along with a few minor injuries.

When the UNSC Fleet was finally mustered and entered system, preparing to smash aside the Remnant fleet, the SPARTANS went into their final phase of the plan. Each battallion got their individual tasks. Third Battallion was assigned to attack a number of cross road villages, bridges and mountain passes, take them and hold them against Remnant counter attack until relived. They were also assigned to destroy a number of key bridges to hamper enemy movement in and out of the designated landing zones. Second Battallion was assigned to securing enemy anti aircraft positions and landing zones. Thier engineer teams were at the forefront of this, laying out pioneer landing positions for their dropships and frigates along with destroying enemy AA batteries. First Battallion had one of the more prestigious engagments, with their whole company formed up to take one of the most important locations. When the Remnant took to the world, they forced the survivors into 'prison camps' in the second town on the planet, as the capital was largely destroyed in the primary assault. Though the SPARTANS had observed this position for some time, they were unable to attack or do anything about the regular brutality meeted out on the enslaved humans. Now was their chance. With the majority of their garrisson out on patrol to stop the humans, their reinforcements destroyed in raiding and they vehicles out there seearch for their ghost like enemies or on fire, thier defence was pitiful. After infiltrating the Remnant perimeter en masse, they launched their lighteneing attack from below and above, rappelling for infiltrated buildings, exploding from sewers like rats. Brutes and their Jackal, Grunt and Drone conscripts still remember the sheer destructive force of one 'demon' but now hundreds of them suddenly leapt from the shadows, putting their forces into a whole sale rout. Key objectives, such as landing zones, defensive positions and prisons were taken and held. With the Brutes losing the majority of the interior of the town and only holding the largely useless subrubs and exterior, they spent two hours regrouping and then moved in to re-take their positions. They marched into hundreds of 'kill zones' laced with mines, rockets, machine guns and snipers. Within twenty minutes of their counter attack they suffered 58% casualties and fell back. Ordering their armoured forces to return and attack, they prepared to march in again. Most of those forces never made it back to the town, with them being caught up in ambushes along objectives the other battallions had taken or destroyed by the first wave of UNSC air forces. Of the few that made it back, their heavy units were destroyed and the majority of their fast units, eleven ghosts and five choppers, broke through to the central square, past the measily SPARTAN defence. In a well orchestrated trap, they had box their rapid assault vehicles in, trapping them off from the remaining forces and destroyed them at will. Though this part of the engagment is the least well documented, it is reported that the battallion's Warthogs moved in at this time and attacked, while one SPARTAN, allegedly 013, hijacked a moving chopper and then, along with the warthogs, pushed out of the square and swept up the last of the enemy resistance. During the latter phase of the operation, only three SPARTANS died, while there were several more sever casualties.

Operation: REAPER
While the navy dealt with the majority of the Remnant incursions, the SPARTANs had a new task. Putting down a human rebellion in its infancy. The destruction wrought by the Insurrection taught the UNSC to destroy these rebellions before they managed to spread to the UNSC proper. When the first stages of rebellion began to the world of Harmal began, the UNSC began a media black out and immediatly sent in the SPARTANs to deal with the rebellion. The rebels had made several improvised bases, along with combat vehicles out in the ash wastes of the volcanically active world, which had to be dealt with. They even had a improvised liesure cruiser come warship along with a few 'technicals'. This time round, rather than going for guerilla warfare or all out assaults, the IVs went the road of stealth and assassinations. With infiltartion of major compounds and the assassination or capture of many of their major leaders, along with the sabotage of the fusion generators that powered their bases, the use of 'geo bombs' provided by the Sangheili to cause earth quakes and volcanic eruptions to literally make it seem as if the bases never existed and the sabotage of their warship. During this operation SPARTAN-A044 was actually captured and revealed the nature of the IV project but soon escaped and killed his captors, resulting in the secret not escaping. After two weeks of system wide media black out, blamed on solar storms, it was lifted, with any trace of the rebellion buried under ash and magma.

OPERATION:FIRE/OPERATION:HELLFIRE
"You cut the head off a snake and the body will die. You murder and Prophet and his followers will scatter."

- Ajax-013

Third Battle of Linna
"Hey, whats going on?"

- Sparatan-A044, in response to the Spartans rushing to the briefing building

"The Regiment is being mobilized, our R&R is off, we're being redeployed to Linna!"

- SPARTAN-F102

"Whats going on at Linna?! I'm from Linna!"

- Spartan B-022

"The Colonel isn't saying much but...its just been invaded"

- Spartan-F102

"But Linna is way out in the border in the Carina arm, thats outta the way of the Remnant."

- Spartan-B-022

"Like I said, the colonel ain't saying much excpet its Linna and new contacts are codenamed Necros"

- Spartan-F102