SPECWAR/Group Two

Special Warfare Group Two, often abbreviated as SPECWAR/Group Two and nicknamed “The One-Eyed Hounds” is a battalion sized unit of special forces soldiers drawn from the UNSC Marine Corps under the jurisdiction of UNSC’s Naval Special Warfare Command. Responsible for counterinsurgency operations throughout the Outer Colonies during the Insurrection, SPECWAR/Group Two is experienced in combating and engaging in asymmetrical warfare. When the Covenant Empire invaded United Earth Government space SPECWAR/Group Two’s purview was shifted to asymmetrical action against Covenant targets alongside units such as the Asymmetrical Action Group of ONI’s Beta-5 Division. SPECWAR/Group Two was responsible for a number of daring and costly raids against several outlying Covenant installations and supply depots, stalling the enemy’s offense and allowing the beleaguered Outer Colonies a moment of reprieve. SPECWAR/Group Two had also cooperated with the UNSC Army Rangers in organizing resistance movements against occupying Covenant forces, sometimes assisting Insurrectionist factions in their efforts against the Covenant. 
Upon the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War, the SPECWAR/Group Two would be retasked to combat Covenant splinter groups, liaising with Sangheili military officials to cooperate in the elimination of Covenant revanchist or restorationist factions. SPECWAR/Group Two would also serve in eliminating extant and nascent Insurrectionist cells throughout the UEG purview of space, with SPECWAR/Group Two being placed under the Office of Naval Intelligence’s jurisdiction. 
There are unsubstantiated rumors that SPECWAR/Group Two has participated in actions against rogue or otherwise subversive ONI elements.
SPECWAR/Group Two is composed of two companies of special operators and two companies of ODSTs. 
== Unit History ==
Established on January 30th, 2512 in the wake of the nuclear detonation on Mamore, SPECWAR/Group Two was raised from UNSC Marine Corps personnel from units with extensive service records against Insurrectionist targets or defending against Insurrectionist attacks during low intensity conflicts. After further training in marksmanship and concealment, the candidates for the program were educated on concepts of counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, such as the creation of local self defense forces and the employment of traps and misdirection. After nearly two years of preparation, SPECWAR/Group Two would see their first deployment to the world of Mamore, with the goal of suppressing Freedom and Liberation Party activities in the major city of Tanaka in OPERATION: RAPID PROPHET. 
Tanaka was a hotbed of FLP action for several years, which local police units were unable to quell. SPECWAR/Group Two was dispatched to support local security forces in operations against FLP militants in the city limits. SPECWAR/Group Two operators spent weeks training and arming the local security forces with heavy weaponry before engaging in an extensive series of search and destroy operations against FLP militants, engaging in firefights in and around their safehouses in urban centers, often in plain clothes or in Mamorian security force uniforms. After weeks of bitter gun battles in the streets of Tanaka, SPECWAR/Group Two had declared them fully ousted from the city and handed authority of the sector back to Mamorian authorities
Following their operations on Tanaka, SPECWAR/Group Two continued their operations against the FLP on Mamore. OPERATION: RAPID PROPHET would continue for the next five years, with the unit replicating their actions in Tanaka throughout dozens of settlements on the Mamorian frontier, playing a training and advisory role to local militia units in the area and supplementing them during their offensive operations against FLP cells in the area. With local forces trained to a satisfactory degree, SPECWAR/Group Two would resume direct action operations against the FLP, moving to eliminate a particularly stubborn and large cell of FLP fighters by eliminating their commander, Joseph Abernathy, and his command staff. For weeks, the agents of SPECWAR/Group Two had shadowed and tracked his every move, monitoring the movement of personnel and material between Abarnathy’s cell and others on Mamore. With a wealth of intelligence on the cell’s activities, Major Francisco Garay had tasked 2 Company with the elimination of Abernathy, intending to overwhelm his bodyguard unit and kill or capture the Insurrectionist commander. 
On July 30th, 2517, SPECWAR/Group Two agents had gotten word of Abarnathy’s departure from his headquarters to take command of a cell one hundred and twelve kilometers away in the dead of night. They had also reported that Abarnathy was accompanied by a significant escort detachment, with nearly two hundred combatants and several armored technicals. It had quickly become apparent that Abarnathy had intended to move his operations elsewhere. Despite the significant number of Insurrectionist troops, the assault was authorized and 2 Company moved to intercept the convoy. While their initial drop went undetected, 2 Company’s Mask Platoon were spotted by Insurrectionist sharpshooters as they moved through an abandoned town, becoming pinned down by sniper fire. Intending to relieve Mask Platoon, 2 Company had begun their assault in the town, aiming to disable or destroy the Insurrectionist technicals. The resultant firefight had lasted well into the morning, leaving ten SPECWAR/Group Two operators dead and forty two wounded. By the end of the battle, fifty three FLP militants were killed including Joseph Abernathy, twenty six captured, and forty eight wounded. 
With the death of a major figure within the FLP and a sizable number of fighters taken out of action, SPECWAR/Group Two would draw down from Mamore, returning to an advisory role for the next several years, fighting in several smaller scale engagements before being rotated offworld in 2522. In the interim between their operations against the Insurrectionists and the start of the Human-Covenant War, SPECWAR/Group Two would participate in stress tests of experimental equipment developed by ONI Section 3. 
== Human-Covenant War ==
With the outbreak of the Human-Covenant War, SPECWAR/Group Two would be dispatched to gather whatever information they could regarding the alien threat, this was predominantly achieved via surveillance and surreptitious information gathering methods to avoid combat against a superior enemy. By late 2531, SPECWAR/Group Two had compiled a list of persons of interest in the Covenant legions currently on the offensive against the UNSC, among them Jiralhanae War Chieftans and Sangheili Evocati. While striking them behind while they were embarked aboard their flagships, Major Garay had proposed waiting for these officers to take the field before eliminating them.
=== Intel Gathering ===
SPECWAR/Group Two’s work had also proven essential in ONI Section 3’s development of an understanding of Covenant cultural and hierarchical mechanisms, delivering hundreds of observation reports, intercepted data packets, and stolen documents from Covenant forward bases during extensive intelligence gathering operations as the Covenant had pushed further towards the UNSC interior. SPECWAR/Group Two was also responsible for gathering intelligence regarding Covenant armor and weapon systems, armored fighting vehicles, and computing technology with the intent of reverse engineering or suborning or sabotaging it. To this end, SPECWAR/Group Two was issued with a Smart AI, Zansetsu, tasked with coordinating operations and analyzing encountered or recovered Covenant technology. The technical data retrieved by SPECWAR/Group Two would greatly assist ONI’s Reverse Engineering and Prototyping–Xenotechnology department in their understanding of Covenant technology.  
=== OPERATION: NEUTRAL ARCHER ===
With the war very rapidly turning against humanity, SPECWAR/Group Two’s objective was turned from intelligence gathering to direct action against the Covenant. Deployed against the Covenant during the Battle of Jericho VIII with the goal of eliminating personnel and materials key to the Covenant war effort on the world. Alongside units from the Asymmetrical Action Group, SPECWAR/Group Two would take part in OPERATION: NEUTRAL ARCHER, a raid against a Covenant forwards operating base and logistical center, hoping to neutralize a the Sangheli Evocati commanding it, identified as a prominent, well respected, and experienced officer in the Covenant war machine, the death of which would hopefully negatively impact morale and remove a skilled opponent from the board of Jericho VIII. Intending to counter the technological differences with surprise and overwhelming numbers, SPECWAR/Group Two’s 1 and 2 Companies were inserted by foot and by Warthog, taking heavily forested mountain paths en route to the targeted base, with AAG troops following closely behind them. The timing of the raid was to coincide with an offensive by UNSC Army and Marine assets, aiming to draw the attention of the Covenant command staff away from their rear echelons.
SPECWAR/Group Two had made contact with the Covenant base a mere hour after the targeted Evocati had decided to take to the frontlines in the assault against Geofront, the closest UNSC controlled city. Rather than abort the mission, Major Garay had ordered the assault to continue, aiming to destroy the base and kill the members of the Evocati’s command staff who chose to remain behind. The majority of the garrison had left to accompany the assault on Geofront, leaving a force close to a hundred and fifty personnel strong to defend the base. Garay had ordered the armed Warthog complement to open fire upon the base, suppressing the Covenant forces with a barrage of missile battery and gauss cannon fire, inflicting several fatalities on the lances stationed outside the base. The infantry of the AAG and 1 and 2 Companies had then stormed into the base under the covering fire provided by the Warthogs. Forcing their way into the base, the UNSC troops had engaged the remaining garrison at close range, fighting through halls in a bitter series of firefights. Within four hours, the garrison of the base was wiped out, with SPECWAR/Group Two suffering one hundred dead and seventy three wounded operators.
The Evocati of interest would later be killed by a team of SPARTAN-IIs during the Covenant assault on Geofront. 
=== OPERATION: RED CAUSEWAY ===
SPECWAR/Group Two would recover as much Covenant technology and information as they could before exfiltrating from the base, destroying the installation with X12 charges after they cleared the area and delivered their haul of Covenant technology to the nearest ONI installation in Geofront. Despite the blow SPECWAR/Group Two had dealt to the Covenant legion deployed on the surface of Jericho VIII, the ground battle had begun to turn against the UNSC, with Marine and Army units being pushed back into the city limits after their counterattack stalled and was repelled. With each passing day, the situation around Geofront and on the planet as a whole had grown increasingly untenable and the UNSC had made preparations to retreat from the world, taking with them as many people and materials as possible. SPECWAR/Group Two would be deployed in force to assist in this fighting retreat in OPERATION: RED CAUSEWAY. 
No longer having the resources to mount offensive actions against the Covenant, the UNSC instead had intended to take a heavy toll on the Covenant for every step they took into the cities they conquered. RED CAUSEWAY was, in essence, a massive trap and minelaying operation, seeding hundreds upon hundreds of anti-personnel and anti vehicle mines along the major highways and streets in the cities of Geofront, Tyrell, and New Georgia. Wolf Spider turrets were also deployed in concealed areas in overlapping fields of fire. The cities’ sewer system would also be filled with explosives, collapsing streets as Covenant armor columns or Mgalekgolo pairs attempted to traverse them. City streets were quickly turned into deathtraps for the Covenant invaders, and while such measures would likely not retake the ground the UNSC lost, it would buy them enough time to evacuate a significant portion of these three cities’ population offworld. 
Compounding the Covenant issues would be SPECWAR/Group Two’s troops themselves, waging a short guerrilla campaign against the Covenant as they advanced towards the spaceports and evacuation routes. SPECWAR/Group Two’s operators would funnel the Covenant away from civilian sites and towards their carefully laid traps, pinning lances of Covenant warriors between minefields and the rifles of Group Two. Group Two had also launched strike and fade ambushes upon the Covenant, using the ruined terrain of the cities to conceal their movements, eliminating the commanding officers of lances before vanishing from sight once more. While SPECWAR/Group Two had reported tremendous success in these delaying actions and their actions had saved thousands upon thousands of military and civilian lives from a genocidal enemy, it came at a cost for the One Eyed Hounds. Across the three companies deployed, SPECWAR/Group Two had suffered another one hundred and forty three dead and two hundred and one wounded operators, officially being pulled from frontline duty for the next several years of the Human-Covenant War in order to replenish and retrain their ranks. They would be returned to full strength and ready for redeployment by early 2540, being equipped with newer body armor courtesy of ONI Section 3.
=== OPERATION: ZEPPELIN RAILWAY ===
After being reinforced, SPECWAR/Group Two would return to action against the Covenant as part of OPERATION: ZEPPELIN RAILWAY. This operation would involve the infiltration of the world Pasargadae, which was conquered by the Covenant in 2539. SPECWAR/Group Two would be tasked with the organization of a resistance movement against them, and the evacuation of the population. Pasargadae was a middling colony world with a population in the single digit millions, with a significant number of heavy industry plants. These resources would mark it as a priority target for the Covenant and an invasion fleet had arrived within a month of its detection. While Marines and Army troopers had put up a stiff resistance against the Covenant, holding them off from the city centers for weeks, they would eventually fall to the Covenant orbital superiority. While this was known to be standard operating procedure, the Covenant’s actions after their victory would differ significantly. Rather than glassing Pasargadae, the legion had subjugated and enslaved the population. The military and civilian survivors of the battle were put to work in the foundries and factories of Pasargadae, refitted to produce Covenant weaponry and vehicles. Death was a constant possibility for the remainder of the population, whether it be from disease in the slums they were forced to live in or from a Spike Rifle in the hands of a bored Jiralhanae guard. 
The UNSC was made aware of the situation on Pasargadae by refugees and had made moves to liberate the world from Covenant control. When mobilization of a force to liberate the world was formed in 2543, the battle lines of the war had already pushed far past Pasargadae, making a conventional assault on the world impossible. SPECWAR/Group Two alongside elements from the Asymmetrical Action Group’s Beta-5 Division would be tasked with the covert insertion onto the world. The UNSC had also entertained no illusions about fully bringing the world back under their control and instead intended to make continued operations there too costly to continue. 
The full force of SPECWAR/Group Two and a trio of SPARTAN-IIIs from Alpha and Beta Companies were orbitally dropped onto Pasargadae on July 8th, 2543, far in the foothills around Pasargadae’s capital city of Cyrus. They had encountered light resistance, eliminating mechanized and foot patrols ordered to guard the region. After handling the patrols, the operators had proceeded to set up their central base of operations, fortifying it with defense turrets and signal jammers. Small teams of operators had then made efforts to link up with the populations within Cyrus, liaising with local leaders in secret and providing them with food, water, and medicine. While a large number of the enslaved peoples of Pasargadae were former soldiers they hadn’t dared to resist the occupation, fearing reprisal attacks by the Covenant. However, with the arrival of additional UNSC forces the resolve of these troopers was quickly strengthened. Intending to analyze and discern the disposition of the enemy, SPECWAR/Group Two had held off on any direct actions, instead teaching partisans means to surreptitiously damage Covenant industrial machinery without it appearing to be sabotage.After a week and a half of preparation, SPECWAR/Group Two commenced their operations in and around Cyrus, splitting into smaller units and sowing chaos in the hinterlands around the capital city. Covenant troops were ambushed, mines were seeded across known patrol paths, and lower level Covenant officers were captured and interrogated. Within nearly two months after starting, the Covenant had feared to go into the foothills of the Waiapolo Mountains outside Cyrus, as it was almost certainly a death sentence. Signal jammers made long and short range communications difficult, and any patrol commanders were prevented from calling in reinforcements or air or artillery assets. What armor the Covenant legion could deploy were stymied by the rough terrain of the foothills, with thick trees and brambles blocking the way of their heaviest armored platforms. While the situation in Cyprus continued to deteriorate for the Covenant stationed there the Jiralhanae War Chieftain leading the occupation, Augustus, had considered orbitally bombarding the foothills in an attempt to flush the UNSC operators out from their hiding place, only to find that the interference from the signal jammers made it near impossible to target the region with any degree of precision. Fearful of destroying their own infrastructure with imprecise bombardment, the cruisers were restricted from using their largest ordnance. 
While the first weeks of OPERATION: ZEPPELIN RAILWAY were a smashing military success, the situation for the civilians had deteriorated as the Covenant had stepped up killings and punishments in retaliation for the strikes, killing hundreds of people accused of supporting the UNSC infiltrators in some way. However, in the chaos of SPECWAR/Group Two’s guerrilla campaign, many hundreds of civilians were able to evacuate from the cities and into the safety of the UNSC’s momentary forward operations base. With Covenant attention pulled from the major cities of Pasargadae, SPECWAR/Group Two commenced the second phase of their plan: the arming and training of a partisan force. 
While a great deal of the surviving population of Pasargadae were military personnel, a lack of armaments and organization prevented them from continuing any meaningful resistance once the battle for the world concluded. SPECWAR/Group Two had provided the partisans with weapons in the form of small arms, high explosives, rocket and missile launchers, and heavy machine guns. While SPECWAR/Group Two predominantly operated in the wilderness of Pasargadae, the task of assisting and organizing a resistance movement within Cyrus was delegated to the SPARTAN-IIIs, using their superhuman physique and advanced equipment to even the odds against the Covenant in urban close quarters. With the Covenant’s attention split between dealing with SPECWAR/Group Two and the SPARTAN led partisan groups, the legion’s resources had become increasingly stretched thin. Augustus had stepped up violence in response, escalating executions and reducing rations in an attempt to break the spirit of the resistance fighters. 
While the primary goal of ZEPPELIN RAILWAY was to destroy Covenant manufacturing infrastructure, another objective was to evacuate the survivors of the battle. The evacuation was to have three elements, between hijacking the DSC-class support ships currently resupplying on Pasargadae, reactivating mothballed freighter vessels in Pasargadae’s shipyards, and awaiting prowler exfiltration.The guerrilla campaign on Pasargadae continued for close to a year, with Augustus refusing the offer of reinforcements so as to not lose face. By early 2544, two of the seven factories had been totally destroyed while another two had been so critically damaged that repairs would take close to half a decade at best possible speed. While these were undoubtedly significant blows to the Covenant’s war machine, it also had resulted in a heavy toll on the civilian populace. By SPECWAR/Group Two’s estimations, approximately ten thousand workers were killed in retribution since the beginning of their operations, and an indeterminate number killed from decreased rations, increased disease and exposure to the elements. While being first hand witness to the atrocities the Jiralhanae led occupation force would have broken the resolve of any lesser unit, SPECWAR/Group Two had continued their work on the world, determined to rescue as many humans as possible. 
Cyrus was the primary focus of SPECWAR/Group Two, and an armed revolt was underway by September 2544. Former military and civilian personnel had taken up arms, killing overseers in bomb attacks or shooting them when they ventured into the urban slums. At least one Jiralhanae chieftain was reportedly killed having his head plunged into a vat of Lekgolo worms by a SPARTAN-III. The urban sprawl and debris from the battle made it difficult for the Covenant to maneuver their armor into the city streets, the few Wraiths and Revenants that did make it into the city were beset by anti-armor teams and mines deployed by the partisans. The events in Cyrus would be replicated throughout the other smaller cities on Pasargadae. With the Covenant occupied with fighting uprisings throughout the city, the evacuations of civilians would commence. At first, what military and civilian officials surviving on Pasargadae were pulled from the cities and taken off world via prowler exfiltration. Following this, a raid on a DSC-class support ship dockyard would result in the extraction of thousands upon thousands of additional civilian and military personnel.
With the possibility of losing his command over the Pasargadae situation, Augustus had taken measures to ensure that the rebellion would be crushed before further damage could be done Augustus himself took the field in Cyrus in 2545 and would single handedly destroy several cells of resistance fighters, using intelligence from turncoat humans who would later be executed. Despite the best efforts of the partisans of Pasargadae, they could not handle the War Chieftain, especially armed with intelligence regarding their locations. It took the intervention of SPECWAR/Group Two and two SPARTAN-III’s before Augustus and his entourage would be dealt with, with a SPARTAN-III killing Augustus with his Gravity Hammer’s blade. After the death of Augustus and several of his potential successors, chaos had broken out within the Covenant ranks, each jockeying for the empty position Augustus left behind. The wider Covenant command no longer entertained the illusion that humanity could be subjugated and mobilized a fleet to glass Pasaragadae. With Pasargadae quickly devolving into total anarchy, SPECWAR/Group Two would mobilize to secure the dockyards on the world with the intent of reactivating the superfreighters and passenger liners, speed was of the essence as the UNSC forces aimed to use the chaos to mask their escape from the world.
By the conclusion of OPERATION: ZEPPELIN RAILWAY in early 2546, approximately one hundred thousand of the nearly one hundred eighty thousand survivors of Covenant occupation on Pasargadae had been evacuated to the Solar System. Throughout the entirety of ZEPPELIN RAILWAY, SPECWAR/Group two had suffered approximately two hundred and forty operators killed and another five hundred and one wounded in action. Pasargadae, once a critical link in the Covenant intended to replace the industry destroyed by the pyrrhic victories of OPERATIONS TORPEDO and PROMETHEUS, was now largely useless to the Covenant. Much of the infrastructure destroyed was time consuming and costly to bring to full operational capacity, and the Pasargadae project was abandoned by the empire. To make matters worse, the power vacuum Augustus’ death created would not be resolved for several years, taking them out of the fight until 2550. Having suffered heavy casualties once again, SPECWAR/Group Two was drawn down, and deployed to protect ONI Section 3 sites on Reach and Mars. When the Covenant made landfall on Earth in 2552, SPECWAR/Group Two would play secondary roles during the Battle of New Mombasa, Philadelphia, and Accra. The companies deployed to ONI and HIGHCOM sites would aim to fortify them from Covenant incursions, turning the tight and confined corridors of these government buildings. SPECWAR/Group Two would clash with Covenant Special Warfare Group units as they attempted to retrieve Forerunner artifacts. Once the war had concluded, SPECWAR/Group Two would be permanently transferred to ONI’s military jurisdiction. 
== Equipment and Armament ==
Like many other UNSC Special Warfare units, SPECWAR/Group Two had access to a variety of technologies developed by the ONI’s Section 3. In the early days of SPECWAR/Group Two, these technologies were designed to support their clandestine actions against Insurrectionist groups. To facilitate plainclothes infiltration of Insurrectionist cells, SPECWAR/Group Two was issued with armored clothing. Inconspicuous enough to avoid undue attention while being durable enough to withstand a rifle round from close range before becoming compromised. During direct action or ‘hot’ operations, SPECWAR/Group Two was issued with the SPW15 Battle Dress Uniform, similar in design and ergonomics to the standard Marine Battle Dress Uniform. The primary difference lies in SPW15’s armor plating, which is designed to scramble motion trackers, later designed to be effective against Covenant motion trackers as well. After the Human-Covenant War, the SPW15 was updated to include full fledged photoreactive panel systems, granting wearers active camouflage. SPECWAR/Group Two operators were also commonly equipped with the ARV16, an augmented reality visor similar in nature to the UNSC Tactical Eyepiece, displaying a standard heads-up display with options for telescopic vision enhancement. ARV16s also display simple squad biometric readouts and infrared sensor data, with squad leader variants also displaying the biometrics of squad members. The ARV16 would also later be updated to be a face covering helmet, including a CBRN respirator suite. Further updates to this variant included a transmission encryption suite, with squad leader versions including architecture for Smart AI. Rumors that Section 3 is attempting to produce an energy shielded variant of the SPW15 are common but unsubstantiated.