SPARTAN-III program

"Welcome to Blue Spartans, we're going to make a great team."

- Kelly to the surviving Spartan-IIIs

The SPARTAN-III Program was an Office of Naval Intelligence program to produce expendable super soldiers for the survival of Humanity and the UNSC.

Introduction
The SPARTAN-III Program was the successor of the SPARTAN-II program. Engineered by Colonel James Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-III soldiers were to be the next generation of super soldiers, who would be cheaper, less selective, and more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They were to be nearly as effective in their own way, using team based tactics to negate their lack of experience and equipment.

Purpose
The SPARTAN-II program had been a dazzling success for the UNSC. Tales of Spartans fighting and beating the Covenant had become the stuff of legend. Unfortunately, there were too few Spartan-II's to turn the tide of the war. Worse, the program's director, Dr. Catherine Halsey, had postponed the training of new Spartan-IIs for a few years due to the extremely specific genetic requirements for the children to be selected.

The Spartan-II program had several problems which counter-acted its success. First, the high mortality rate of the children during augmentation was counterproductive to the program's purpose. Next, funding the Spartan program, plus their MJOLNIR Armor and training, cost as much as a Battle Group. Thirdly, there were far too few of them, due to the fact that so many had died in battle. Finally, the Spartan-II program had gone public for morale. Even though it was a huge morale boost to the UNSC, it was a problem for most of the ONI. The ONI operated in secrecy, and anything that shone light on their operations was seen as detrimental to their efforts.

The Spartan-III's were designed to be better trained, cheaper, and expendable. They would be trained in companies of 300 at a time, then sent on impossible suicide missions that the UNSC could not accomplish even with the elite ODST's. Though the casualty rates of Spartan-III's stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, all the operations were successes. They were trading lives for time against the larger and more superior Covenant. ONI hoped that in time, enough Spartans would survive to train more and more future Spartans, swelling the ranks of available super soldiers from only thirty Spartan-II's in 2531 to a hundred thousand Spartan-III's within ten years. Unlike the Spartan-II's, composed of abducted children trained at Reach, the Spartan-III's were composed of orphans from Outer Colonies that were glassed and sent to Onyx, a classified and restricted world on the edges of UNSC space. That way, the program would, and forever would remain, secret.

Spartan-III Candidates
Unlike the Spartan-IIs, the Spartan-III children were not conscripted from their homes. The companies of Spartan-III's consisted of children orphaned on worlds that had been glassed by the Covenant. From places such as Jericho VII, Harvest, and Biko, there were an abundance of children available to the program, and virtually every one of them volunteered to take revenge on the Covenant.

This created many behavior issues. Unlike the Spartan-II candidates, the Spartan-III children were violent and aggressive. Often, they would get into bloody and brutal fights over the smallest of issues. Coupled with the mutagen, this made the children as tough as the Brute and Elite warriors they faced in combat.

Spartan-III Training
Not much is known about the Spartan-III training regimen except for that it was extremely rigorous and academically challenging. Along with Kurt and Mendez, they were trained by Drill Instructors.

Alpha Company
Much isn't known about the training of Alpha Company, except for the fact that when the six year-old children arrived at Onyx, they were told to jump out of Pelicans at night. This exercise may have carried on into the following companies training as a tradition.

Beta Company
What is detailed about Beta Company's training was a training exercise to get to a clearing and ring a bell. Team Foxtrot had evaded the patrols of the Drill Instructors but were cut down by automated turrets in the forest. When they took out the turrets, they rang the bell and they got all of the other Spartan-III candidates together to get some revenge on the Drill Instructors. And they did just that. Firing the machine guns, they pelted the DI's and took them captive before Kurt and Mendez said that they had done enough.

Gamma Company
It is known that Gamma Company was the only Spartan-III company to be injected with Drug: 009762-00, otherwise known as the mutagen to alter brain function. In addition to that, as detailed later in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, there was a competition to get top honors which was basically a "kill or be killed" exercise to see which Fireteam was indeed the best Gamma Company Team.

Augmentation Procedures
The Spartan-IIIs underwent bio-enhancement procedures similar to those of the Spartan-IIs, but with higher success rates due to the advances in technology. The rate of survival went up from 44% for the Spartan-II's to 100% for the Spartan-III's. The procedures were referred to as Project CHRYSANTHEMUM. The Spartan-III's were injected with the following drugs:


 * Drug 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
 * Drug 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
 * Drug 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
 * Drug 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.

In addition, the following drugs were injected into the Spartans of Gamma Company. They were illegal, but Kurt-051 felt that they were necessary for the Spartans to survive in battle.


 * Drug 009762-OO: a mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. It enhances aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury. Negative effects include a loss in rational thinking and tactics. This is counter-balanced by the anti-psychotic and bipolar-integration drugs listed below.


 * Drug 009927-DG: Miso-olanzapine. An anti-psychotic. This drug counters the mutagen's properties.


 * Drug 009127-PX: Cyclodexione-4. A bipolar-integration drug. Counters the mutagen's properties.

SPI Armor
Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor, colloquially called "SPI Armor", was an armor system used by the Spartan-III's. Though more advanced than the ODST Body Suits, it was far less advanced and less powerful than the MJOLNIR Armor used by the Spartan-IIs. Its main benefit was that it was drastically cheaper to produce than the MJOLNIR armor. This armor was designed with an emphasis on stealth rather than raw power. It features special photo-reactive panels that mimic the surrounding textures, effectively being the UNSC equivalent to the Covenant Active Camouflage systems. It has been described as part legionnaire mail, part tactical body armor, and part chameleon.

Operational History
Here is the operational history of the Spartan-III Program, sorted by company.

Alpha Company
On December 27, 2531, the first group of Spartan-III's, known as Alpha Company, was sent to Onyx to be trained. Of the 497 Spartans, only 300 were conscripted. This class of Spartans all survived the augmentations and were activated in November of 2536. Their record was first exemplary, they saw action at the insurrection of Mamore, The Battle of New Constantinople, and the Bonanza Asteroid Belt. Nine months after they went active, however, they were massacred in Operation: PROMETHEUS. None survived the battle. The only Fireteam mentioned for Alpha Company is Team Wolf Pack.


 * Team Wolf Pack
 * Jane-A??? - KIA
 * Shane-A??? - KIA
 * Robert-A???- KIA

Beta Company
Beta Company was approved right after Operation: PROMETHEUS in 2537. 418 candidates were selected in 2539, but only 300 became Spartans. Kurt-051 was disheartened at the loss of his first Spartans, and trained this group in unit cohesiveness, and more intense exercise regimens. Though they were even better trained than the previous Spartans, they were similarly massacred in Operation: TORPEDO in 2545. Only two members from the entire company survived the battle.


 * Team Echo - Decimated
 * Team Foxtrot
 * Adam-B004 - KIA
 * Lucy-B091 - Active on Onyx
 * Min-B174 - KIA
 * Tom-B292 - Active on Onyx
 * Team India - Decimated
 * Team Lima - Decimated
 * Team X-ray - Decimated
 * Team Romeo - Decimated

Gamma Company
Gamma Company was trained with the help of the only two surviving Spartan-III's from Beta company, who were Spartan-B292 and Spartan-B091. Gamma Company was said by Kurt to be the finest of the Spartan-III companies ever. 330 candidates were selected, on average only twelve years old; and at the request of Kurt, all 330 were approved. Every one of them survived the augmentations procdures. Gamma Company received deployment orders only a few weeks after The Battle of Reach, and most left Onyx before the Battle of Onyx. Left on Onyx were only fifteen Spartan-IIIs. By the time the battle was over, seven were killed in action. Gamma Company was the only Spartan-III company to fight with the Spartan-II Blue Team. With the help of their older, more experienced counterparts, they successfuly fought off a Covenant attack along with destroying a Sentinel manufacturing facility. In the end, the surviving Spartan-IIIs had to escape to the Shield World.


 * Team Gladius - Decimated - Found deceased after several days of fleeing from Sentinels.
 * Team Katana - Inside of Slipspace Field Pods
 * Team Saber
 * Holly-G003 - KIA
 * Ash-G099 - Active on Onyx
 * Dante-G188 - KIA
 * Mark-G??? - Active on Onyx
 * Olivia-G??? - Active on Onyx

Delta Company
Delta Company was proposed, and Camp Currahee was being prepared for their arrival when The Battle of Onyx occurred in 2552. With the death of Spartan-051 and the disappearance of SCPO Mendez and Dr. Catherine Halsey, as well as the immediate concerns of The Second Battle of Earth, it is unlikely that Delta Company will ever be trained.

Surviving Spartan-III's

 * Lucy-B091
 * Tom-B292
 * Team Katana
 * Ash-G099
 * Mark
 * Olivia