The Gamma Company of the SPARTAN-III Program is the third company of orphans initiated into the S-III Program. Gamma Company began training on the 2nd June 2543 with many of the orphans being taken directly from the refugee camps after three Outer Colony worlds were razed by the Covenant Empire. Training unofficially ended on 1st September 2552 after news reached Onyx that Reach had been invaded, thirteen days later the majority of Gamma Company had been ordered by Colonel James Ackerson to the Sol System where they faced the Covenant invasion of Earth. Gamma Company was assigned to assist the beleaguered UNSC forces operating in the streets of Berlin and conducting hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare before joining the assault on the Ark, serving as a distraction so MCPO John-117 co