Whiskey-04 was an elite group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers who worked under the Office of Naval Intelligence during the Human-Covenant War. Originally formed by former ORION member John Ackton to act as both a backup unit and public liaison for members of Project SIGMA, which remained heavily classified for some time. Whiskey would see action in numerous battles throughout the war, operating as assassins, saboteurs and retrieval agents over the years. Its members were often hand-picked from promising recruits fresh out of ODST training and had the privilege of fighting alongside the Spartans of Sigma Team time and time again, picking up valuable skills from the supersoldiers that even their own elite brethren did not possess.
Though the group persisted for over two and a half decades of war, constantly swapping out new members to replace those killed in action, Whiskey would find itself all but annihilated in the final months of the Human-Covenant War. After taking heavy losses on Reach, Second Sanctum and Earth in late 2552, the decorated ODST unit was dissolved during by the end of the year. After the Human-Covenant War's end, Whiskey-04's sole survivor and final commanding officer Richard Mack Junior chose to name his own Spartan fireteam after the unit, ensuring that its legacy would live on within the Spartan Program for years to come.
