SPARTAN-III Program

"Spartans never die? I wish that were so."

- Dr. Halsey

The SPARTAN-III Program was an Office of Naval Intelligence program to construct supersoldiers who would become the third phase of the SPARTAN project.

Introduction
The SPARTAN-III Program was the successor of the less than successful 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 Spartan super soldiers, who would be cheaper, less selective and more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors, but nearly as effective in their own way, if lacking the experience and heavy equipment of the surviving Spartan-II's.

Purpose of Project SPARTAN-III
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 extremely specific requirements for the physical state of children to be conscripted.

Spartan-II had several problems. First, the high mortality rate of the children during augmentation was counterproductive. Second, funding the Spartan program, plus their MJOLNIR Armor and training cost as much as a battle group. Third, there were far too few of them. Fourth, the Spartan-II program had gone public for morale. The publicity made many in ONI unhappy.

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 the UNSC could not accomplish with a legion of troops. Though the death rates of Spartan-III's stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, they were trading lives for time, against the larger and superior Covenant. ONI hoped that in time, enough Spartans would survive to train more and more future Spartans, swelling the ranks of available Spartans 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 and sent to Onyx, a classified and restricted world in UNSC space. That way, their exploits were to be permanently under the radar of the public eye.

Spartan-III Candidates
Unlike Spartan-II, 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 Spartan-II, the Spartan-III children were violent and aggressive. Often times they would just as soon be at each other's throats as they would work as a team. This, coupled with illegal drugs injected into the Spartans during their Spartan augmentations, made the Spartan-III's sometimes as vicious and unstoppable as the Brute warriors they faced in combat.

Spartan-III Training
Not much is known about the Spartan-III's training except for that it was extremely rigorous and acedemically challenging. Kurt was kidnapped by James Ackerson along with Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez to train the Spartan-III's. Along with that, they were given Drill Instructors, most washouts from The Spartan-I Project along with medics and other service personnel.

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 "tradition" may have carried on into Beta's and Gamma's training.

Beta Company
What is detailed about Beta Company's training was a mission 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. Tom and Lucy devised a plan to take out the turrets. When they did that successfuly, 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.

Gamma Company
It is known that Gamma Company was the only Spartan-III company to be injected with the mutagen. In addition to that, as detailed later in Ghosts of Onyx, there was a competition to get top honors which involved each Fireteam setting traps for all the others and "killing" the other fireteams.

Augmentation Procedures
The Spartan-IIIs underwent bio-enhancement procedures similar to those of the Spartan-IIs,but the procedures were referred to as Project: Chrysanthemum. With advances in technology, the survival rate for the Spartan-III candidates were usually 100%, other than the 44% survival rate of the Spartan-IIs. 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.


 * Drug 009762-OO: a mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. 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.
 * Drug 009927-DG: miso-olanzapine. an anti-psychotic. Counters the mutagen's properties.
 * Drug 009127-PX: cyclodexione-4. a bipolar-integration drug. Counters the mutagen's properties.

SPI Armor
The Spartan-IIIs, for thier cheaper purpose, were issued SPI Armor. This armor was more advanced than the Body Suits worn by the ODST's, but it wasn't as effective as the MJOLNIR Armor worn by the Spartan-II's. It consisted of a communications helmet and photo-reactive panels to "cloak" the Spartan-III's.

Alpha Company
On December 27, 2531, the first group of Spartan-III's, 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 in 2537. Most of the Company were never mentioned except for:


 * Team Wolf Pack
 * SPARTAN-A???: Jane - KIA
 * SPARTAN-A???: Shane - KIA
 * SPARTAN-A???: Robert- 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 regimens. Though they were even better trained than the previous Spartans, they were similarly massacred in Operation: TORPEDO in 2545. Most of the Company were never mentioned except for:
 * Team Foxtrot
 * Adam-B004 - KIA
 * Lucy-B091 - Active on Onyx
 * Min-B174 - KIA
 * Tom-B292 - Active on Onyx
 * Team India - All KIA
 * Team X-ray - All KIA
 * Team Romeo - All KIA
 * Team Echo - All KIA
 * Team Lima - All KIA

Gamma Company
Gamma Company was trained with the help of the only two surviving Spartan-III's from Beta company, Spartan-B292 and Spartan-B091 and said by Kurt to be the finest yet. 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 training and augmentations. Gamma Company received deployment orders only a few weeks after The Battle of Reach, and most left Onyx before the Battle of Onyx leaving only fifteen on Onyx when the battle began, of them, seven were killed in action, and eight escaped to Shield World. It was there that Kelly brought them together with the same quote she gave to Kurt when he joined: "Welcome to Blue Spartans, we're going to make a great team."
 * Team Saber
 * Holly-G003 - KIA
 * Ash-G099 - Active on Onyx
 * Dante-G188 - KIA
 * SPARTAN-G???: Mark - Active on Onyx
 * SPARTAN-G???: Olivia - Active on Onyx
 * Team Katana
 * Spartans in Slipspace Field Pods
 * Team Gladius - KIA - Found deceased after several days of fleeing from Sentinels.

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.