ONI Special Activities Division

After the creation of the and the institution of the, the Office of Naval Intelligence was left without a large quantity of its former Spartan personnel. To compensate for this, CINCONI, Margaret Parangosky, constituted the Office of Naval Intelligence's Special Activities Division. The Division at the time of creation consisted of ONI's remaining Spartan-grade personnel, including surviving IIs and IIIs still under the employ of ONI, as well a Project JAVELIN augmentees. Soon after its ranks began to swell with SPARTAN-IV grade soldiers being created in secret by the Office, who developed the SPARTAN-IV program's augmentations to begin with. Operators are recruited strictly from groups in ONI. All combat capable operatives are eligible for recruitment into the group, but its main source of recruits come from, ONI Black Operations Division, and ONI Covert Operations Division, under the command of and  respectively. Command of the group falls directly under the jurisdiction of CINCONI, but direction can be given to other high ranking members of the Office at CINCONI's discretion.

Origins
After the creation of the Spartan Branch in 2553, the Office of Naval Intelligence lost a majority of its Spartan-grade soldiers as they were relocated to the new branch. In order to compensate for this loss, ONI pulled together the scientists responsible for the development of the SPARTAN-IV's augmentations and used it to augment select ONI personnel to compensate for the departure or previous Spartans. Later on as the funding and resources at ONI's disposal increased, so to did the number of SAD operators. Eventually the number of operators matched that of the deployment onboard the Infinity, and eventually surpassing the Spartan branch in total, occasionally using ONI's influence to redistribute supplied meant for the Branch.

Combat Operations
Since it's instatement in 2553, the Special Activities Division has seen action against resurgent Insurrectionist forces and Covenant Remnant forces mostly on the newly established frontier. They functioned in a mostly covert fashion, sabotaging bases and other strategic targets, and assassinating important High Value Personnel. Members of the unit were responsible for the assassination of URF Colonel Nolan Perkins and his entourage of soldiers in late 2554. In 2555, several teams were deployed to the Sangheili colony of Miraculous Devotion, home of 'Trevas Keep, suspected of assisting and supplying Covenant remnant groups and Insurrectionist factions. The teams fought through the Keep's guards, managing to locate the supposed weapon caches, but letting the Kaidon flee, ironically causing him and his Keep to join the Remnant.

Fighting mostly amongst the newly established frontier colonies, the Spartans of SAD gained an almost mythical like reputation, unmatched except for the tales told about the SPARTAN-IIs during the Insurrection. They were also routinely exposed to Forerunner artifacts as more were constantly located by ONI. This would put them in conflict with fanatical Covenant remnant forces, insurgents looking for ways to grow their power, and even crime lords, looking to gain access to these relics for their own personal gain.

Organization
Like their cousins in the Spartan Branch, personnel in the Special Activities Division operate in fireteam-sized units. Unlike the branch, these teams do not form into Spartan platoons or larger fleet or planet based Spartan Detachments, operating solely as fireteams. These teams only come together during high risk operations, when one team may not be sufficient. Such missions could include elimination of a hostile organization or assassination of an important leader or potential threat.

Another difference between the two organizations is that while the Spartan Branch does not utilize the traditional ranking system, instead referring to members simply as "Spartan" where a rank would normally be applied, SAD uses the traditional naval ranking system, with most members capping at around Senior Chief Petty Officer. This gives SAD personnel authority over Spartan Branch units, much to the ire of said Spartans, who feel like their branch's integrity is being violated, as well as their own command over their respective fireteams. The closest thing to a Spartan Detachment is the hundred strong group onboard the ONI Stealth Cruiser, the UNSC Vegas.

Personnel
During the Human-Covenant War, Spartan deaths were listed as Missing in Action or Wounded in Action. After the war, this practice did not carry over to the Spartan Branch, and the same is true for the Special Activities Division. As the group is quite expansive and the number of personnel classified, there is no way of listing them all below. As such, only prominent members of the unit are mentioned below.

{|class="wikitable sortable" ! style="width:25%" |Name !! Rank !! Age !! Notable Facts !! Status
 * - style="text-align:center; background:#000000;"
 * Elliott Willett
 * Senior Chief Petty Officer
 * 35
 * Leader of Fireteam November-26. Former ONI Security agent, led the defense of ONI Research Station AMBROSIA from Covenant attack in 2552.
 * Alive
 * Honoria Wright
 * Chief Petty Officer
 * 28
 * Stayed behind to enact Cole Protocol while Covenant swarmed ONI Site Delta during the Covenant attack on Earth in 2552.
 * Alive
 * Stayed behind to enact Cole Protocol while Covenant swarmed ONI Site Delta during the Covenant attack on Earth in 2552.
 * Alive