SPARTAN-III program

"We don't know what they're capable of. Stick with the by-the-book drills and we'll never find out either. But put them in an impossible situation, and maybe they'll surprise us."

- Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose

"Short definition of a Spartan."

- Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez

The SPARTAN-III Program was an Office of Naval Intelligence, Section-III, Beta-5 Division program to produce cheap and expendable super soldiers to fight for the survival of Humanity and the UNSC colonies.

Introduction
The SPARTAN-III Program was the successor and replacement to the Spartan-II Program. Engineered by Colonel Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-III soldiers (S-IIIs) were to be the next generation of super soldiers. Composed primarily of vengeful orphans from fallen colonies, they would be cheaper to arm, train, and produce; chosen from a wider pool of candidates, and more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They would rely on superior battle tactics, teamwork, and stealth rather than technology and equipment, to achieve their effectiveness.

Purpose
The SPARTAN-II program had been a dazzling success for the UNSC. Tales of Spartan super soldiers fighting off thousands of Covenant attacks had become tales of legend. Unfortunately, there were too few Spartan-IIs to turn the tide of the war. Even worse, the director for the program, Dr. Catherine Halsey, had postponed the training of new Spartan-IIs for years due to the extremely specific genetic requirements for the children to be selected (this was one of Ackerson's issues with the program among others).

The SPARTAN-II program also had several problems and deficiencies which overshadowed its success to ONI. Firstly, the high mortality rate of the children during augmentation was counterproductive to the purpose, drive, and ambition of the program. Next, funding the Spartan program, plus their MJOLNIR Armor and training for the Spartans cost as much as a Battle Group, at least according to Captain Rich. Third, there were far too few of them for them to turn the tide of the war. 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 ONI. 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 to 330 at a time, and then sent on suicide missions that the UNSC could not accomplish even with the elite ODSTs. Though the casualty rates of the S-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 technologically superior Covenant Empire. 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 S-III's within ten to twenty years.

Alpha Company

 * Noble Team
 * Emile-A239 - Active as of 2552
 * Carter-A259 - Active as of 2552
 * Jun-A266 - Active as of 2552
 * Team Wolf Pack
 * Jane-A??? - KIA
 * Shane-A??? - KIA
 * Robert-A???- KIA

Beta Company

 * Team Echo - KIA
 * Team Foxtrot
 * Lucy-B091 - Active in Dyson sphere Shield World
 * Min-B174 - KIA
 * Tom-B292 - Active in Dyson sphere Shield World
 * Adam-B004 - KIA
 * Noble Team
 * Kat-B320 - Active as of 2552.
 * "Noble Six" - Active as of 2552.
 * Team India - KIA
 * Team Lima - KIA
 * Team X-ray - KIA
 * Team Romeo – KIA
 * Team Zulu

Gamma Company

 * Team Gladius – KIA - Found deceased after several days of fleeing from Sentinels.
 * Team Katana - Inside of Slipspace Field Pods, the shield world Onyx. Currently traveling with the surviving Spartan IIIs/IIs
 * Team Saber
 * Holly-G003 - KIA
 * Ash-G099 - Active in Shield World.
 * Dante-G188 - KIA
 * Mark-G??? - Active in Shield World.
 * Olivia-G??? - Active in Shield World.

Headhunters

 * Jonah - KIA
 * Roland - KIA
 * Unnamed SPARTAN-III - KIA - Participated in a failed mission on an unnamed Covenant moon
 * Unnamed SPARTAN-III - KIA - Participated in a failed mission on an unnamed Covenant moon

Alpha Company
On December 27, 2531, the first group of Spartan-III's, known as Alpha Company, were sent to Onyx to be trained. Of the 497 candidates conscripted, only 300 became Spartans. 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 insurrection of Mamore, the Battle of New Constantinople, and the Bonanza Asteroid Belt. Nine months after they were activated, they were massacred in Operation: PROMETHEUS. All of the three-hundred Spartans on the mission were killed. The only fire team mentioned for Alpha Company is Team Wolf Pack.

Beta Company
Beta Company was approved right after Operation: PROMETHEUS in 2537. 418 candidates were conscripted 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 along with a tougher training program. Though they were even better trained than the previous Spartans, they were similarly massacred in Operation: TORPEDO in 2545. Only four members from the entire company survived the battle.

Gamma Company
Gamma Company was trained with the help of the only two surviving Spartan-IIIs from Beta Company: 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 six years old; and at the request of Kurt, all 330 were approved. Every one of them survived the augmentation procedures. Gamma Company received deployment orders only a few weeks after the First Battle of Reach, and most left Onyx before the Battle of Onyx. Left on Onyx were only fifteen Spartan-IIIs who were competing for top honors. By the time the Battle of Onyx was over, seven had been killed in action. Teams Gladius and Katana were not present in the early stages of the battle, leaving only Team Saber. Team Saber was the only Spartan-III unit 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. In the end, the surviving Spartan-IIIs had to escape to the Shield World.

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 Battle of Earth and the partial destruction of the Onyx Shield World, it is unlikely that Delta Company will ever be trained.

Headhunters
Headhunters are SPARTAN-III Special Operations squad. Only SPARTAN-IIIs that had survived two or more specially assigned training missions would be evaluated. These SPARTAN-IIIs would go onto missions far behind enemy lines and would more than likely be expected to die in combat. They are described as secrets even to their peers, and, once selected, candidates for the program would be separated from their fellow Spartans.

Noble Team
Noble Team is a Special Operations squad of Spartan-IIIs from both Alpha and Beta Companies. Composed of five Spartan-IIIs and an additional Spartan-II. Noble Team specialize in assault missions and combat insertion. So far, they have only been seen in combat in the Battle of Reach. The team is commanded by Carter-A259, with Kat-B320 second in command.

Operational History
The Operational History of the Spartan-III Program has been marked by success and tragedy. Many of the operations undertaken by the soldiers were suicide missions, but were listed as successes by the UNSC.

2536 - 2537

 * SPARTAN-III Alpha Company is activated.
 * SPARTAN-III Alpha Company quells Insurrection at Mamore - Success.
 * The Battle of New Constantinople - Success.
 * Operations in the Bonanza Asteroid Belt – Success.
 * July 27, 2537 - August 2, 2537 - Operation: PROMETHEUS – Success, all participants confirmed KIA
 * Six other successful unnamed battles in which Alpha company participated.

2539

 * Candidates for SPARTAN-III Beta Company is selected.

2545

 * July 3rd, 2545 - Operation: Torpedo – Success, all but three participants confirmed KIA.

2545 – 2552

 * Candidates for Spartan-III Gamma Company are selected.
 * August 30th, 2552 - Noble Team participates in the Battle of Reach.
 * October 31st, 2552 - November 3, 2552 – Battle of Onyx

SPI Armor
Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor, colloquially called "SPI Armor", was a powered armor system used by the Spartan-IIIs. Though far more advanced and far more powerful than the ODST Body Suits, it was 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 featured photo-reactive panels that mimic the surrounding textures, which was developed by UNSC scientists. It has been described as "part legionnaire mail, part tactical body armor, and part chameleon." It lacks the energy shielding of the Mark V and VI MJOLNIR armor designs, and a single "splash" from an enemy plasma weapon melts the suit's photo-reactive panels, rendering its camouflage capabilities useless.

Augmentation Procedures
The Spartan-IIIs underwent enhancement procedures similar to those of the Spartan-IIs, but with higher success rates and much better final results due to the advances in technology. The rate of survival went up from 44% for the Spartan-IIs to 100% for the Spartan-IIIs.

Trivia

 * The naming convention of the SPARTAN-III Companies follows the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc). Each individual SPARTAN-III's identifier becomes A,B or G (Letter of Company), followed by a three-digit number between 001 and 300, such as Ash-G099. This numbering system is very much like that of the SPARTAN-IIs.
 * For some reason, Ash-G099 was referred to as a Private. This may suggest that the SPARTAN-IIIs were actually Marine-esque personnel. Evidence of this includes the use of HEVs like the ODSTs, and their only known combat experience being ground-ops.
 * The number of 300 SPARTAN-III's in both Alpha and Beta companies, who were both massacred but completed their missions and took many of Covenant with them (with the exception of Tom and Lucy in Beta, who survived) is likely a reference to the last stand of the 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae.