SPARTAN-III program
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- "Make the units better with new technology. Make more of them. And make them cheaper."
- — Colonel James Ackerson[1]
The SPARTAN-III program was a top-secret project initiated by the Beta-5 Division of the Office of Naval Intelligence's Section Three in order to produce cheap and expendable supersoldiers to stem the tide of the Covenant's onslaught against the Outer Colonies.[1] In active combat service between 2536 and 2552, the SPARTAN-IIIs turned the tide of several critical battles of the Human-Covenant War. After the war, the remaining SPARTAN-III personnel were given the opportunity to join the newly formed Spartan Operations, supplementing the numbers of the SPARTAN-IVs.[2]
The SPARTAN-III project was both a successor and supplement to the SPARTAN-II program. Created and engineered by Colonel James Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-IIIs were to be the next generation of supersoldiers. Composed primarily of vengeful orphans from fallen colonies,[3] they would be cheaper to arm, train, and produce; being chosen from a wider pool of candidates, they would also be more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They would rely more heavily on teamwork and sheer numbers than advanced technology and equipment to achieve effectiveness.[1]
Purpose
The SPARTAN-II program had been a dazzling success for the UNSC. Tales of Spartan supersoldiers fighting off thousands of Covenant attacks had become the stuff of legend. Unfortunately, there were too few SPARTAN-IIs to turn the tide of the war. Worse, the program's director, Dr. Catherine Halsey, had postponed the training of new SPARTAN-IIs for years due to the specific age selection criteria, despite having candidates who met the genetic requirements.[1]
The SPARTAN-II program also had several problems and deficiencies which overshadowed its success to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Firstly, the high mortality rate of the children during augmentation was counterproductive to the goal of the program. Next, funding the Spartans, including their training and Mjolnir armor, cost as much as a battle group, at least according to Rear Admiral Ned Rich.[1] Third, there were far too few of them for them to turn the tide of the war. Finally, even though the SPARTAN-II program was not formally revealed to the public until 2547,[4] the Spartans and their exploits had already attained a near-legendary status within the UNSC. Even though the Spartans provided huge morale boost to the UNSC, it was a problem for most of the Office of Naval Intelligence. ONI operated in secrecy, and anything that shone light on their operations was seen as detrimental to their efforts.
The SPARTAN-IIIs were designed to be cheap and expendable. Trained in companies of around 300 at a time with a training regimen tougher than that of the SPARTAN-II program,[3] they were ultimately sent on high-risk missions that the UNSC could not accomplish even with the elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.[5] Though the casualty rates of the SPARTAN-IIIs stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, all the operations were strategic successes. They were trading lives for time against the larger and technologically superior Covenant. ONI hoped that in time, enough Spartans would survive to train progressively more future Spartans, swelling the ranks of available supersoldiers from only 30 SPARTAN-IIs in 2531 to roughly 100,000 SPARTAN-IIIs within two decades.[1] However, this ultimately never came to pass due to budgetary restrictions and the SPARTAN-III augmentations being compatible with only a small percentage of the population.[6]
SPARTAN-III companies
Alpha Company
- Main article: SPARTAN-III Alpha Company
On December 27, 2532, the first group of SPARTAN-IIIs, known as Alpha Company, was sent to Onyx to be trained at Camp Currahee. They were led by Kurt Ambrose, a SPARTAN-II who had been abducted by ONI to administer the program. Of the 497 candidates who were conscripted, only 300 became Spartans.[3] This class of Spartans all survived the augmentations and was activated in November of 2536. Their record was at first exemplary, as they saw action at the Mamore, the New Constantinople, and the Bonanza Asteroid Belt. Nine months after activation, Alpha Company was deployed on Operation: PROMETHEUS, a mission to destroy a Covenant shipyard on asteroid K7-49. All Spartans deployed on the mission were killed.[6]
However, Ambrose and Mendez had extracted a number of Spartans from the general population of Alpha Company before Operation: PROMETHEUS. These Spartans were assigned to other units, sometimes within other branches of the military. Many were issued Mjolnir armor. At least seven of these Spartans remained active as of early 2552: Carter-A259, Jun-A266, Emile-A239, and Thom-A293 (all of whom served on NOBLE Team) as well as Rosenda-A344,[7] Hazel-A302, and Kevin-A282.[8]
Beta Company
- Main article: SPARTAN-III Beta Company
Beta Company was approved and its candidates identified immediately after Operation: PROMETHEUS in July 2537.[6] 418 candidates were conscripted and began training circa 2539,[9][10][11][Note 1] and it was from these candidates that the final company of 300 was formed.[9] Disheartened at the loss of Alpha Company, Ambrose used a tougher training program and more thoroughly trained them in unit cohesiveness. Despite their superior training, they were similarly massacred in Operation: TORPEDO in 2545. From the entire company, only two participants survived the battle: Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091.[5]
As with Alpha Company, several members of Beta Company deemed too valuable to be wasted on suicide missions were pulled out of the unit before Operation: TORPEDO. Some of them were initially assigned to non-combat roles as cover, much to Colonel Ackerson's dismay, as he wanted to have all available Spartans in the field. Like the personnel extracted from Alpha Company, they were issued with special equipment such as Mjolnir. These included Catherine-B320 and SPARTAN-B312, both of whom later served on NOBLE Team, as well as SPARTAN-B170.[7]
Gamma Company
- Main article: SPARTAN-III Gamma Company
Gamma Company was trained with the help of the only two SPARTAN-IIIs from Beta Company who survived Operation: TORPEDO: Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. Lieutenant Commander Ambrose regarded Gamma Company as the finest of the SPARTAN-III companies. 330 candidates were selected, on average only six years old, and at Ambrose's request all 330 were approved for graduation. Every one of them survived the augmentation procedures.[12][13] Gamma Company received deployment orders only a few weeks after the Fall of Reach and most left Onyx before the Onyx Conflict occurred.[14] Only fifteen SPARTAN-IIIs of Gamma Company remained on Onyx as they competed for top honors.[15] Following the battle, seven had been killed in action.[16][17][18] Team Saber was the only Gamma Company team to fight alongside the SPARTAN-II unit Blue Team. With the help of their older, more experienced counterparts, they successfully fought off a Covenant attack along with destroying a Sentinel manufacturing facility.[19][18] Ultimately, the surviving SPARTAN-IIIs escaped to the shield world at the core of Onyx.[20]
After the Human-Covenant War, the main body of Gamma Company was integrated into the newly formed Spartan Operations branch, though some members were returned to non-combatant status.[21] The SPARTAN-IIIs on Onyx (having joined Blue Team) were later recovered by the Office of Naval Intelligence. They continued to serve with Blue Team until July 2553, when Admiral Margaret Parangosky decided to reassign the three Gamma Company Spartans into a top-secret "Ferret" unit while officially listing them as KIA to prevent knowledge of their illegal enhancements.[22] The Ferret team later worked with Blue Team again to stop a bioweapon plot.[23] SPARTAN-G059 remained in active service and was deployed on a mission to assassinate Avu Med 'Telcam on January 2558.[24] In around 2557, the Ferrets were declared Missing in action and presumed dead by the UNSC after all contact was lost with them. The Ferrets eventually resurfaced in October 2559 during Operation: WOLFE where it was revealed that they had been working deep undercover in the Keepers of the One Freedom.[25]
Delta Company
- Main article: SPARTAN-III Delta Company
Delta Company was proposed and Camp Currahee was being prepared for the candidates' arrival when the Onyx Conflict began on October 31, 2552.[26] The fate of the company following the loss of Onyx and their would-be trainer Kurt is unknown.[27] Given the subsequent end of the war, Delta Company was likely disbanded.
Non-company teams
In addition to the standard company formations, many SPARTAN-IIIs were withdrawn after training to serve in specialist units. Most of these Spartans served under the operational command of the Navy and the Army,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] though some served in the Marine Corps,[31] and a select few in the Air Force;[35] ONI's Beta-5 Division considered specialist SPARTAN-III teams useful bargaining chips in the internal politics of the United Nations Space Command armed forces, using them to achieve ends relevant to their interests such as securing given branches' leadership support for the program.[36]
Alpha and Beta Companies initially had 497 and 418 candidates, respectively, although only 300 would become Spartans within each company. Of the "washouts" from these companies, most would later become drill instructors for their successors. However, there may still have been a large recruitment pool from which to draw members for specialist teams. At least six Spartans — Emile-A239, Carter-A259, Jun-A266, Thom-A293,[37] Kevin-A282,[8] and Rosenda-A344,[37] were culled from Alpha Company, though the extent of these personnel withdrawals is unknown. Lieutenant Commander Ambrose believed that as much as 1.08% of Beta Company could be folded into base personnel prior to the