Spartan: Difference between revisions

As the Human-Covenant War progressed and casualties mounted exponentially, ONI activated another program that was arguably even more morally questionable than the SPARTAN-II program. Spearheaded by a prominent opponent to Halsey's SPARTAN-II program, [[Colonel]] [[James Ackerson]] establishes the SPARTAN-III Program using the previous program as a proof of concept. Designed to produce supersoldiers more quickly, at a lower cost, and with a lower life expectancy, the SPARTAN-III program is intended for extreme high risk operations conducted at the highest level of secrecy. The SPARTAN-III candidates are once again children, however rather than actually stealing children from their beds, this time the "candidates" are children in their pre- or early teens, recruited from orphanages after the loss of their homes and families from the Covenant invasion, given the opportunity to strike back at the Covenant. The S-III candidates are taken to the planet [[Onyx]] and are under the leadership of SPARTAN-II [[Lieutenant Commander]] [[Kurt-051|Kurt Ambrose]]. Throughout the Human-Covenant War, three companies of SPARTAN-IIIs are trained, deployed and killed. The first company of S-IIIs, [[SPARTAN-III Alpha Company|Alpha Company]], is successful in destroying Covenant and Rebel forces during the battles of [[Mamore]], [[New Constantinople]] and in the [[Bonanza Asteroid Belt]] - their last mission [[Operation: PROMETHEUS]] in [[2537]] is deemed a success, even though all of the Spartans of Alpha Company are killed in action. The second company, [[SPARTAN-III Beta Company|Beta]], is trained soon after the loss of Alpha, their first mission [[Operation: TORPEDO]] in [[2545]] is also deemed a success, however only two Spartans, [[Tom-B292]] and [[Lucy-B091]], survive out of the three hundred soldiers that take part in the operation. Tom and Lucy become trainers for the third company of S-IIIs, [[SPARTAN-III Gamma Company|Gamma Company]]. The third company of SPARTAN-IIIs complete their augmentation and many are deployed on missions elsewhere during the final years of the war, when the [[Shield World]] on Onyx was activated.<ref>'''[[Halo Encyclopedia]]''', page 85</ref> Smaller, highly specialized units consisting of SPARTAN-IIIs also existed - the [[Headhunters]] and [[Noble Team]], the latter so close in effectiveness to SPARTAN-IIs that they recieved SPARTAN-II-grade MJOLNIR armor and had [[Jorge-052|a SPARTAN-II]] as a permanent member. Several teams of Gamma Company survived the [[Battle of Onyx]] and are currently trapped in the Shield World with the other remaining SPARTAN-II survivors except for [[John-117]].