Forum:SPARTAN-IIIs in Halo: Reach

I was just reading Ghosts of Onyx and I was wondering if anyone would be able to shed some light on an issue I've got with the plot.

In this book, Dr. Halsey is unaware of the SPARTAN-III program until a significant amount of time after Installation 04's activation and destruction. However, she is seen on Reach interacting with Noble 6, all of which are SPARTAN-IIIs except for Jeorge. Does someone know the timeline of Halsey's knowledge of the SPARTAN-III program or should I just chalk it up to holes in the canon?


 * In her journal, Halsey makes it clear that she had been aware of "other" SPARTANs - though she didn't know they were SPARTAN-IIIs, per se - for nearly a year prior to the Battle of Onyx. She and Kalmiya had snooped around in ONI servers, perused classified documents, et cetera for quite some time. Halsey's suspicions of a new SPARTAN program were solidified when Admiral Jeromi and the Hopeful were called away from their normal post for a week, carrying "carcinogenic", "mutanogenic", and "experimental" drugs: the materials for Gamma Company's augmentations. Of course, Hopeful ' s destination was Onyx.


 * Halsey found out about Noble Team a few days before the Fall of Reach began. She knew that, aside from Jorge, the SPARTANs of Noble Team were not "hers", but she still didn't know that they were SPARTAN-IIIs. When she found the KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN and S-III files on Ackerson's computer in CASTLE Base during the events of First Strike, she realized that "S-III" meant "SPARTAN-III", and that the program wasn't exactly a continuation of her work, but something new - and, because Ackerson and Mendez were involved - something worse. Thus, she became determined to "save" these SPARTANs.


 * To summarize, Halsey's knowledge of the SPARTAN-IIIs has been retconned to some degree. She wasn't oblivious of their existence as Ghosts of Onyx suggests, but her drive to save the S-III's did begin in CASTLE Base, just as the book depicts. In other words, the retcon was handled extremely well. I hope this answers your question. --&quot;Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have.&quot; -Thomas Jefferson 20:53, 27 January 2011 (EST)