Special Operations Officer

''Commando redirects here. For more uses of Commando, please see Commando (disambiguation).''

Special Operations Officer, also informally known as Commandos and as Spec Ops Officer for short, is a Covenant Sangheili rank.

Description
A Special Operations Officer is a position within the Special Operations Divisions of the Covenant, leading groups of Special Operations Commandos into battle against enemies. They are subordinate to Special Operations Commanders and possess a fairly large amount of political and military authority, able to acquisition operations. As such, they are sufficiently high-ranked to have appointed "assistants".

The role of such individual is to lead a squad of lower ranked Special Operations forces, similar to the role of the higher ranking Special Operations Commanders, but the troupe that SpecOps Officers command holds fewer troops than the one commanded by Special Operations Commanders.

It is possible that Usze 'Taham, a playable character in Halo 3's campaign is also a Special Operations Officer. He assists Thel 'Vadam, and can be distinguished from other Special Operations Elites by his armor color, a purple-red rather than the standard purple-black color.

Halo: The Flood
So far, the only identified and branded Special Operations Officer was mentioned firstly in Halo: The Flood. Officer Zuka 'Zamamee was tasked with leading a team to board the Pillar of Autumn and was injured in combat by the Demon. He was evacuated by a group of Unggoy led by Yayap, who more concerned for their own safety than actually saving him. After he recovered, he requested permission to track down and kill the "Demon", believing him to be the greatest threat on Halo. Permission was denied until the UNSC's raid on the Truth and Reconciliation, where the Covenant learned first-hand how effective the "Demon" really was in battle. 'Zamamee was deployed, with the promise of reward for success, and great punishment for failure.

Though his several attempts all failed, in part because of Demon's skill and partly because of pure tactical plans, 'Zamamee continued his attempts, driven by the knowledge that he would be executed for failing to do what he himself suggested. He was killed by the "Demon" while operating a Shade.

Halo: The Flood mentions that a Special Operations Officer is two ranks below that of an Aristocrat, presumed to be a Councilor. This, however, cannot be because that position is held by the Ultra rank. It may be that the Aristocrat was low-ranked or that Special Operations Officer is a rank comparable to an Ultra.

Halo Graphic Novel
Bero 'Kusovai was an Special Operations Officer under Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee. He was infected by the Flood, and killed by 'Vadumee in a final duel aboard the Infinite Succor.