SPARTAN-II program: Difference between revisions

The SPARTAN-II candidates after being sedated were taken to the colony world [[Reach]], and began their training under [[Chief Petty Officer]] [[Franklin Mendez]]. To marginalize the civilian lives they had once led, their names became a combination of their given names and a number, with family names being discarded.<ref name="Sybex">'''Sybex Halo PC Strategy Guide''' ''Page 2''</ref> The Spartans endured a great deal of hardship during their first years of training: they were placed into situations and drills that pushed their abilities to their very limit and beyond. Their hard training was complemented with high-level education, which included mathematics, science, history, reading, writing, and military tactics. Although his training methodology was tough, even brutal in some regards, Chief Petty Officer Mendez always instilled discipline, honor, and respect into the Spartans. He taught the Spartans how to kill, but at the same time he taught them the difference between right and wrong. Mendez trained the Spartans until [[2525]] when, at the age of fourteen, the they would go through the toughest part of their training: the [[SPARTAN-II Augmentation Procedures|biological augmentation procedures]], which would kill 30 of the 75 conscripted children and cripple twelve others who would "wash out" of the SPARTAN-II program, going on to join the Office of Naval Intelligence; only 33 survived the procedures without physiological deformities. The bodies of those candidates who "washed out" were either placed in cryo-suspension, in the hope that they could some day be resuscitated; or used cognitive impressing to create "smart" AIs, such as [[Durga]]. At least some of the candidates who were crippled were eventually rehabilitated.<ref name="journal"></ref>