Xray Zulu Squad

Squad Xray Zulu was a team working under a splinter cell branch, Special Reconnaissance and Infiltration Divison(SRID), of the Alliance military, comprised of eight N7 commandos. The squad was notable for being framed and nearly annihilated, during a conspiracy in the decade of 2170-2180 CE.

Post-Formation
In the year 2163, Batarian raiders, assisted by mercenaries and other wanted galactic criminals, began to launch a massive offensive, striking at isolated human institutions located inside the Skyllian Verge, in an attempt to re-posess previously lost territory. These malicious attacks resulted in two outposts being destroyed and three small colonies pillaged and burnt to the ground. Intelligence reports indicate evidence of executions and rape of the women personnel throughout every base and colony attacked.

The Alliance responded very harshly, enacting a new policy to terminate any discovered raider vessel or establishment, with extreme prejudice. The members of the council resolved the new law to be too controversial, significantly in light of a massive war that could tear the galaxy into sides, the Citadel space verse the Terminus Systems.

Outraged that the council vetoed the new policy, the Alliance Navy was tasked by the board committeee to construct a team of elite commandos with a sole purpose, apprehend wanted galactic terrorists and/or criminals who attack or kill human colonies, vessels, or any sort of human territory. The team would be outlined using the Spectres as a model, however still restricted to the law and solely available to humans.

Formation
Xray Zulu was formed in the year 2168 CE, by Admiral Vanner Kreese, the freshly elected Director of Covert Activities for SRID, who had decided to form this elite pack of commandos "to protect and ensure the safety and rights of the human race throughout the bounds of the galaxy."

During the initial construction, Kreese himself filtered through hundreds of files on different men to lead the black ops. group, and the foremost name appeared to be a Commander Jarrod Nash. Kreese dissected Nash's file and learned everything from the man's life, including his famed successful mission to retrieve captured marines from a Batarin prison camp.

Kreese took an instant attraction to Nash's career and made the decision to place him as commander of Xray Zulu. A few days later strings were pulled by Alliance brass and Nash was plucked from his frontline duties and handed over to Kreese. Nash was hesitant at first, but decided to go with his instinct, which reminded him his duty to protect the human race. However, he made a deal with Kreese, and wanted to hand pick his own team.

Kreese allowed him and Nash started to track down multiple soldiers and other commandos he once served with, starting off the list with Lieutenant Commander Markus Braile, and Lieutenant Max Jonas. These two men served with Nash for over ten years and to achieve a well oiled team who depend on one another, these men were key factors.

Nash, along with Kreese, and occasional assistance by Braile and Jonas, began to rifle through hundreds of more files, applying a certain method to their selection. Although Kreese had given freedom to Nash on the selection process, he needed to follow a criteria, mainly espionage training and infiltration/extraction missions were dead give-away's to potential candidates.

After months of endless rummaging through the far ends of the Alliance military, six more recruits had been successfully selected and transferred into the training courses. Kreese in association with Nash developed the intense 10 week training course, which centered on infiltration, mainly disguises and stealth, coupled with system analyzing and sniper school, which demonstrated pin-point accuracy and life dependency in almost every terrain.

Training Courses
Once the members of Zulu had been assembled in a top secret facility, stationed on an outer rim planet, Kreese and Nash gave them a crash course which acted as an introduction into the squad. Nash would lead the men over 20 kilometers through thick marshes, dense jungles, and an endless sea of forests where they would participate in a mock infiltration mission, their primary objective being to destroy a comm relay and sabotaging their water supply.

Once Nash and the others competed the course, Kreese transported them off world to an adjacent system, to an icy planet, pounded by a constant snow storm. Average temperatures usually range from negative 30 Celsius to a high of negative 10 Celsius. The intense survival program begins on this planet where the team will have to salvage parts left from a destroyed ship and construct a method of escape to the planet's moon.

This proved to be one of the hardest points and many members almost died or gave up in frustration, but Nash was able to keep the team collected and calm. They managed to build a small transport ship, just capable of breaking the atmosphere and the crash landed on the moon, which completed stage one of the survival course.

During stage two, Kreese had two teams surround the crash site and capture each commando and take him back to a secure location and lock him inside a small and dark room. The point of the exercise is to demonstrate calmless in increasingly cramped and unknown cirumstances. After hours without food and little water, Kreese released them with nothing but the clothers they had on and map and compass of the surrounding woods, with a sole objective, survive.

However what significantly raised the danger level was that each commando was released individually from separate areas, meaning they had to link up, while also avoiding the life threating indeginous creatures. Hours passed and soon it was night and the commandos were scattered and lost, which discomforted Kreese, who needed positive results to continue the operation.

However Braile saved the team from disaster and contructed a signal which alerted the other members in the area and they found each other within a short amount of time. The team had once again pulled through a tough point in training, next was mastering the sniper rifle along with close quarter combat, and hand to hand combat.

Completion and First Deployment
With the final contingent of training completed, the team graduates and is given time to say goodbye to their families, as the squad would more than likely be stationed on frontline duty for the majority of their service. Nash left behind a twenty-four year old wife and a two year old daughter, while Braile and Jonas left their parents and siblings.

Zulu is deployed to a carrier called SSV Rochester, from where the team desembarked on their week journey to their actual operating ship, a small but extrremely fast and undetectable frigate, called the Astro. For the larger section of their junior months, the team barely saw action, occasionally raiding a drifted batarian ship, which were always riddled with contraband.

However their first noteworthy assignment came a year after their developement. Kreese contacted them directly and had them apprehend a wanted war criminal, a krogan named Baranok Krumtanog, who was wanted on four different planets, including the Citadel and Illium. Baranok, was wanted for various other listings as well, like weapons dealing, drug smuggling, bribery, extortion, and cyber-theft.

Zulu spent weeks rumaging through the galaxy and ended up empty handed. Soon those weeks expired into months, heavy with no results, eventually Kreese decided to pull the plug on the enitre operation. However before the order could be given, Nash stumbled across a miraculous breakthrough. He obtained weapons confiscated from Baranok's stash after a raid, and cross referenced them to manufacturers on the Citadel's watch list. Nash discovered that a weapons industry had been previously investigated on due to charges of consorting with recognized galactic criminals, among the various listings, was Baranok Krumtanog.

Nash and the rest of Zulu infiltrated the industry's headquarters, and captured Zorphar Calum, the turian CEO. The team transported him off world to the Astro, where they interrogated him on the whereabouts of Baranok. However Calum would only talk if a compromise was reached, involving no further invesigations by any security force part of the Citadel. Kreese agreed, and Nash was able to discern the location of a future weapons deal with one of Calum's clients and Baranok.

Nash, along with two members, Lt JG. Ishi Kato and Lt. Zigo Martinez, posed as well-known weapon consumers(Calum's clients) and scheduled a meet to "discuss" future partnership plans. Baranok showed and fell into the trap, and was apprehended by Braile and Jonas after a brief chase. With the successful completion of the mission, Zulu is given a full time operational status and removed from the scrapped list.

X-K992 Operation and Disbandment
Months later, Xray Zulu would be called upon again, this time to infiltrate and relieve the hostile forces who have seiged a mining institution on an astroid. A raider force consisting of some 80 batarians, turians, and humans have attacked a civilian mining operation that supplies the Alliance military with proper resources. However the twist is that element zero is manufactured inside the plant, which classifies the operation as highly sensitive. Although the military correspondents have issued their top priority to the public as rescuing the civilians, in actuality Xray Zulu is tasked with eliminating the enemy forces and perserving the mining structures.

Nash is highly skeptical and reminds Kreese their duty is for the human race and to protect their own kind. However Kreese, who is under hot pressure from brass to assume control over the mining base, along with a future promotion, disregards Nash's pleas. He deploys the team and with no other alternatives, Nash commences with the operation.