ORION Project

The ORION Project was an ONI NavSpecWar program to produce special advanced warfare squads to combat the Insurrection. They became experts in counter-insurgency operations, assassinations, raids, and eliminating high value targets (all considered black operations). ORION Project personnel utilized HEV orbital drops, Hornets, Armed Assault Boats (which were replaced by the HEV), and Pelican dropships to insert into mission areas.

However, due to the money spent of augmenting the soldiers, they were considered too valuable for combat.

Operations
ORION was behind many operations, including:


 * Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE
 * Operation: TANGLEWOOD
 * Operation: TREBUCHET

Known ORION Project personnel

 * Avery Johnson
 * Nolan Byrne (suggested)
 * James Lee
 * Gilly
 * Morales
 * Gladys Wilson
 * Franklin Mendez (possible)
 * Marvin Mobuto (possible)

SPARTAN-I
The participants were referred to as SPARTAN-Is after the birth of stage 2 (referred to as SPARTAN-IIs).

The original Spartan Project was created to test genetic enhancements on volunteers from the armed forces. . These enhancements were the precursors to the enhancements used in the Spartan-II program. The mortality rate for those injected was high, a factor which contributed largely to the failure of the program. Those who survived the injection(s) had a greatly increased rate of mental problems later in life. It is not known at this time how many soldiers participated in this program. However, it is mentioned that there are several offspring known as Spartan 1.1's, some of which may have been chosen for the Spartan-II program.

At least one had a major role in the Human-Covenant War: Avery Johnson. He fought in both the first and last battle of the war, he was the first one to kill a Covenant soldier and landed one of the final blows of the final battle when he shot and damaged the Monitor, allowing Spartan 117 to finally destroy him. He was also the last human killed in the war.

Spartan 1.1
The children of Spartan 1.0s are called Spartan 1.1s, including Janissary James and Kevin Morales. There are sixteen 1.1s. They have much of the same augmentations as their parents, though without the same military training. Some of them tried to create their own army to fight the Covenant, but just as they were about to bring the fight to the Covenant, the Covenant invaded Earth.

Trivia

 * Project Orion was also a spacecraft program in the real world. It was the first engineering design study of spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion. Its supporters felt that it had great potential for space travel, but it lost political approval because of concerns with fallout from its propulsion. The Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 is generally acknowledged to have ended the project.
 * Spartan-I's seem to be the only known Humans to refer to their successors as "Spartan 2.0s" rather than "SPARTAN-IIs."
 * The ORION Project was apparently classified by Section II, as even in 2524 the majority of UNSC personnel had no knowledge about it.
 * It is unknown how Spartan-I's were codenamed or even if they were codenamed at all. It seems unlikely they adopted formalized codenames, given the fact that all known Spartan-I's used their normal names in operational circumstances.