Bourbon Team

Bourbon Team, more officially styled as BOURBON TEAM, was a fireteam in service with the . Formed out of three teams in 2546, Bourbon Team would fight in many engagements across the 2540s through the against the ever-encroaching menace. Comprised originally of two and three supersoldiers, the team would suffer many losses throughout numerous campaigns and operations, with their rapid operational tempo and skillset in shock-and-awe missions contributing to their heavy casualties. The team would be disbanded in October 2552 during the Battle of Earth, with the last two remaining members forming the base of Fireteam Wizard.
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==Roster==
===Original Composition===
*Lieutenant Commander Nathan-A144
**Specialties: Team Leader, Urban Combat
*Lieutenant Michael-B416
**Specialties: 2IC, Reconnaissance, Close Quarters Combat
*Lieutenant j.g. Connor-B067
**Specialties: Combat Engineer, Demolitions
*Lieutenant j.g. Dana-B134
**Specialties: Marksman, Fieldcraft
*Lieutenant j.g. Victoria-A309
**Specialties: Medic, Electronic Warfare, Pilot
===Additional Members===
*Lieutenant Eric-A250
**Specialties: Marksman, Vehicular Warfare
*Lieutenant j.g. Liz-B246
**Specialties: Electronic Warfare, Urban Combat
==Operational History==
By the time of August 2546, the UNSC was hard-pressed on all fronts by the Covenant. Hundreds of colonies had been lost to the alien onslaught, and seemingly the only practical way to assure a victory was through unconventional warfare, or the intervention of the . Despite the successes of the Spartans, there were too few to make an impact effective enough to change the course of the war, and as such in 2532 a new class of Spartans had begun training on the planet of . 300 orphans of the Human-Covenant War, and candidates of the newly-formed , would train for several years to become some of the UNSC's finest - only to be almost entirely wiped out during the Pyyrhic victory of . Unperturbed by the horrific losses, the (ONI) would commission yet another batch of SPARTAN-IIIs to be trained, and used in yet another catastrophic operation. The Spartans of would arrive on Onyx in 2539, undergoing exercises and training for six years. 
Given their augmentations in 2545, most would remain within the company and conduct anti-Insurrectionist operations on , before being sent on , yet another suicide mission in which only two supersoldiers survived. However, before the operations on Mamore and the ill-fated Operation: TORPEDO, several Spartans would be pulled out of the main company, as had been done with Alpha Company. These Spartans would be trained to operate in pairs, as part of the - these pairs would be dropped onto Covenant-controlled planets to conduct espionage, assassination operations and general guerrilla missions, before being extracted. 
Despite the success of these Headhunter missions, it became obvious that the Spartans were needed more on the frontline than they were behind it, and many of these teams were recalled as a result, and combined to create new Spartan fireteams. Due to this, Headhunter Teams 11, 4 and 10, consisting of Beta Company Spartans of Michael-B416, Connor-B067 and Dana-B134, and Alpha Company's Nathan-A144 and Victoria-A309, would officially be dissolved on the 31st of July 2546, and transferred into the newly-created BOURBON Team. Nathan-A144 was selected as Team Leader, with Michael-B416 serving as 2IC. The team would undergo familiarisation training for three weeks on , before being sent on their first deployment, to the colony of in September. This was considered by the team's handler, Lieutenant Commander Hank Menendez, to be far too short of a training period for the team to be ready for combat, however UNSC overruled the ONI agent - the situation on Sargasso was far too precarious to risk not sending a Spartan team.
==Known Engagements==
Engagement Name 	Role Within Operation 	Operations Begun 	Operations Completed	Notes
 	Civilian Evacuation, Demolitions 	September 2nd, 2546	September 21st, 2546	The Defence of Sargasso was Bourbon Team's first operation together as a fireteam.
 	Asset Retrieval, Civilian Evacuation 	December 5th, 2546 	December 18th, 2546 	Bourbon Team, during the Battle of New Llanelli, would evacuate ONI personnel related to .
Operation: GREY DAWN 	Search & Destroy 	February 9th, 2547 	February 12th, 2547 	Operation: GREY DAWN was Bourbon Team's first mission in the Tirana Campaign, destroying Covenant outposts and command centres on the moon of Hoxha.
Operation: BASKET CASE 	Search & Destroy, Reconnaissance 	March 10th, 2547 	March 12th, 2547 	During Operation: BASKET CASE, Bourbon Team would survey Covenant excavation teams working to uncover on the planet Tirana V.
Raid on the Meka'torre 	Boarding Action, Asset Retrieval 	April 30th, 2547 	May 1st, 2547 	Bourbon Team was tasked by ONI to secure a Forerunner artefact taken by the Covenant from Hoxha to the battlecruiser Meka'torre.
Operation: RED MANSION 	Search & Destroy 	May 7th, 2547 	May 20th, 2547 	Operation: RED MANSION saw Bourbon Team take its first casualty on the planet New Troy, team medic Victoria-A309.
Operation: JULIET 	Reconnaissance 	June 23rd, 2547 	September 30th, 2547	Taking place on the planet Epirus, Operation: JULIET saw Michael-B416 and Connor-B067 return to the planet they had operated on before joining Bourbon Team.
 	Civilian Evacuation, Demolitions 	October 31st, 2547 	November 4th, 2547 	The missions on Skopje saw Bourbon Team return to assisting the evacuation of doomed UNSC colonies, a theme that became consistent as the war went on.
Operation: ORLANDO BREEZE 	Secure & Hold, Orbital Assault 	December 30th, 2547	March 8th, 2548 	One of the UNSC's few offensive operations designated to retake planets from the Covenant, ORLANDO BREEZE saw Bourbon Team and a large UNSC force retake the glassed planet of .
 	Demolitions, Search & Destroy 	August 5th, 2548 	August 9th, 2548 	Bourbon Team's time on Bounty saw them focus mostly on destroying UNSC stockpiles and secret projects that couldn't be moved off-planet in time.
Operation: REDIRECTION 	Reconnaissance, Demolitions 	October 17th, 2548 	November 29th, 2548 	Operation: REDIRECTION took place on the glassed colony of , and successfully disrupted Covenant excavation operations on the planet for sixteen months,
 	Civilian Evacuation 	January 20th, 2549 	January 22nd, 2549 	The Battle of Estuary saw Bourbon Team lose another member, this time team sniper Dana-B134.
 	Civilian Evacuation, Hostage Rescue 	March 7th, 2549 	May 19th, 2549 	Bourbon Team narrowly avoided total destruction during the Siege of the Greydowns, escaping the doomed carrier UNSC Jutland via orbital drop pods.
Operation: ANKLE BITER 	Boarding Action, Asset Retrieval 	May 17th, 2549 	May 18th, 2549 	Operation: ANKLE BITER took place on the hulk of the UNSC Jutland, to recover a smart AI data core and destroy the navigational data centre, in accordance with the .
 	Demolitions, Asset Retrieval 	July 25th, 2549 	July 31st, 2549 	Bourbon Team would join forces with for the raid on Angoulême, Meridian, to destroy documents and equipment left behind by .
Nereid Campaign 	Demolitions, Search & Destroy 	January 19th, 2550 	December 20th, 2550 	The Nereid Campaign was Bourbon Team's longest continuous deployment, with very little periods of rest & recuperation as the Covenant maintained a fast-paced, aggressive operational schedule.
 	Search & Destroy, Secure & Hold 	April 6th, 2551 	June 17th, 2551 	One of the few victories of the UNSC in the late-war period, Bourbon Team's efforts during the battle were invaluable to the survival of the colony.
Operation: GRAND SWEEP 	Garrison Duty, Hostage Rescue 	August 6th, 2551 	July 3rd, 2552 	Bourbon Team spent eleven months on Reach conducting anti-Insurrectionist and security missions, until they rotated into reserve status, replaced by .
Fall of Reach 	Civilian Evacuation, Demolitions, Asset Retrieval, Search & Destroy	July 24th, 2552 	August 30th, 2552 	Bourbon Team would conduct rear-area raids on Covenant supply depots, and evacuate civilians during the Siege of New Alexandria before withdrawing to the Aszod Shipbreaking Yards, having sustained severe casualties.
Earth Sustained Defence Campaign	Reconnaissance, Demolitions, Search & Destroy, Secure & Hold 	October 20th, 2552 	December 3rd, 2552 	After entering the brutal fighting around Cape Town and East Africa, Bourbon Team would be disbanded, and its remaining members integrated into the adhoc Foxtrot Team.