Spartans

Summary
The SPARTAN-II program, headed by Dr. Catherine Halsey of ONI, Section 3, and Chief Petty Officer Mendez of the UNSC armed forces, was the program that turned ordinary civilian children into the most capable fighting force that have ever seen battle. Started in 2494 (as an element of the ORION project) and 2517, the children selected for the program were chosen based on their strength, height, weight, and various other criteria on which would serve the SPARTAN-II project best. These children were then taken to Reach where they began their physical training by CPO Mendez at the age of 5-7 years of age. They trained as hard as the Marines, and after two years, they began their treatments for physical augmentation. Some of these augmentations caused some defects though, and a few of the young Spartans did not survive and their brains used to make AIs, others who survived were too badly deformed to serve in battle. Those who did survive, and had no side effects, were augmented further with special growth enhancements.

The Spartans were issued their first MJOLNIR Mark V armor in 2525 and were given their first campaign at the age of about 14 years of age, and have no failed missions to date.

Known Spartans
The indentities of the Spartan's full names have been deleted from the military records. These are the tags of the known Spartans who survived the intitial fall of Reach:


 * John-117


 * Kelly-087


 * Samuel-034


 * Grace-093


 * Vinh-030


 * Frederic-104


 * Li-008


 * William-043


 * Isaac-039


 * Anton-044


 * Linda-058

Although some did perish in their escape from Reach and after the first strike lead by John-117, the last known surviving Spartans are: John-117, Kelly-087, Fred-104, Will-043, and Linda-058. Currently, Kelly-087's status is assumed alive, but her whereabouts are unknown. She is assumed to be in company with Dr. Catherine Halsey.

Section Two of the Office of Naval Intelligence has made a significant effort to keep the reports of Spartan soldier's deaths. This created a strong feeling among the general populace that Spartan's were invincible and could not die. Those that were killed were listed as MIA instead of KIA, and the effort has been largely successful in deceiving the human population.

Note: Fortunately, we cannot assume that every Spartan assumed KIA is actually dead. Notice that many of them dissappeared under dire circumstances. Li-008, Anton-044, Vinh-030, and Joshua-029 are examples. They are assumed dead but the other charachters did not actually witness the spartans die.

Augmentation Procedures
The Spartan augmentation procedures are detailed here. They are as follows:

1. Carbide ceramic ossification: advanced material grafting onto skeletal structure to make bones virtually unbreakable. Recommended coverage not to exceed 3 percent total bone mass because of significant white blood cell necrosis. Specific risk for pre- and near-post pubescent adolescents: skeletal growth spurts may cause irreparable bone pulverization.

2. Muscular enhancement injections: protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Risk: 5 percent of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.

3. Catalytic thyroid implant: platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Risk: rare instances or elephantiasis. Suppressed sexual drive.

4. Occipital capillary reversal: submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of subject’s retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: retinal rejection and detachment. Permanent blindness.

5. Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites: alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three hundred percent increase in subject’s reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Risk: significant instances of Parkinson’s disease and Fletcher’s syndrome.