Operation: ARK ANGEL

Operation: ARK ANGEL was a UNSC operation to recover a Forerunner Artefact which was stolen by an Elite Strike Team, commanded by the Field Marshal Zhol' Wamikai, during the Battle of Shadow Base. Operation: ARK ANGEL took place during the Fall of Reach, from August 19 - August 23 2552 and was devised jointly by ONI Section III with support from the UNSC Army. Operation: ARK ANGEL's active personnel consisted of 4 SPARTAN-III Commando's taken from active SPARTAN Commando Teams ECHO and GAUNTLET and were supplemented by Covert Operations SPARTAN-III Headhunter Team HYDRA, creating a patchwork SPARTAN Team, codenamed REAPER, to undertake Operation: ARK ANGEL.

Background
The aim of Operation: ARK ANGEL was to retrieve a Tier One asset relating to ONI Section III's efforts in reverse engineering recovered Covenant and Forerunner technologies. The specific artefact in question was codenamed Pandora's Box, on which the research, experiments and reverse engineering efforts eventually became responsible for the multitude of Forerunner adapted and influenced weaponry onboard the UNSC Infinity.

Following the attack on ONI SHADOW Base and the seizing of Pandora's Box at the hands of the Field Marshal Zhol' Wamikai & his Zealots, ONI Section III and the UNSC Army jointly devised Operation: Ark Angel on August 19th 2552, in an effort to retrieve the Forerunner asset before the Covenant took control of Reach. The SPARTAN-III's that fought during the Battle of SHADOW Base, Bain-G057, Brock-A223 and Kai-A019, were augmented with Xanders-B055 and HeadHunter team HYDRA; Carmen-A007 & Eleanor-A300, to form a single unit named REAPER Team to undertake Operation: Ark Angel. The artefact was kept in the Covenant held areas of New Alexandria until it was transported to a heavily guarded vault on the Covenant SDV-Class Heavy Corvette Faithful Trepidation until its extraction at the hands of REAPER Team on August 23rd. Operation: ARK ANGEL was one of the few UNSC victories during the Fall of Reach and pays testament to the effectiveness of SPARTANs.

History
At 5AM, August 19th, the survivors of GAUNTLET Team, Brock-A223 and Kai-A019, were paired with Bain-G057 and Xanders-B055, SPARTAN-III Commando's kept on rotation for ECHO Team. These 4 SPARTAN-III's, equipped with MJOLNIR-Mk.V/VI formed REAPER Team Alpha. Headhunter's Carmen and Eleanor-A300 formed REAPER Team Bravo. REAPER elements Alpha and Bravo were handled by UNSC Army Colonel McKellar of SPECWAR/Group Three and assisted by ONI Section III Captain Downes.

ONI tracked Pandora's Box to the heart of New Alexandria's southern district, which was under heavy Covenant control. A plan was formulated between Colonel Mckellar and Captain Downes to retrieve the artefact there: REAPER Alpha would infiltrate the Covenant-controlled district and uncover the exact location of Pandora's Box and its defences while REAPER Bravo would covertly take out enemy patrols and lay explosives and EMP charges en route to the target area. All REAPER units would then retrieve Pandora's Box and exfiltrate Covenant-controlled city space via the underground maintenance network beneath the city. Longsword bombers and ODST's were on station to support if necessary, but primary mission parameters were to break in and break out without alerting the bulk of Covenant forces to REAPER's activities. REAPER Team was dispatched immediately, but the plan was quickly complicated by the sheer amount of Covenant activity surrounding the artefact.