We all know that Master Chief is a Spartan super-soldier. He’s genetically engineered with cybernetic enhancements to be the best of the best. There is a lot more history to the Spartan Program than you might not have realised. He’s a Spartan-II, so what happened to the Spartan I’s? What about the Spartan III’s who appeared in Halo Reach? Or the Spartan IV’s that prevalent through Halo 4 and make up Fire team Osiris of Halo 5? This is where we’ll detail the history of the Spartan Project, through inception to the most recent iteration of the Spartans.
In the late 22nd Century of the Halo Universe, the basic concept of the SPARTAN program had begun, with bioengineering protocols being developed for interplanetary war. These protocols were used to make sure humans were stronger and faster than previously thought possible, and was an attempt to make perfect soldiers to crush uprisings, patrol the outer colonies and protect civilian and government populations.
What began was a project dubbed ORION in April of 2321, named after the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. The aim of this project was to increase the effectiveness of the Colonial Military Authorities soldiers in charge of the security of the colonies. This project did fail, however, due to poor results and a lack of funding. The five original test subjects returned to active duty, but died within a year.
In 2491, the Colonial Military Administration in partnership with ONI (The Office of Naval Intelligence) launched the project in secret, with the new goal of ORION to learn from the mistakes of the previous attempt and use the advancements in technology such as bioengineering to create genetically superior and mechanically enhanced super-soldiers. This time, the project was headquartered in one of the many orbital stations around the planet Reach, and the candidates were once again selected from branches of the Special Forces. 165 soldiers passed onto the next phase of the operation.
5 years later, the Secessionist Union executed a series of attacks on Eridanus II, leading to Operation: CHARLEMANGE, the first deployment of ORION Soldiers. The ORION Soldiers scored a decisive victory, and only suffered a single Casualty, and completed the mission without being seen. Though clearly successful, the scientists hoped the abilities of these ORION Soldiers would have been much more effective, and the cost of developing these soldiers was far too high. It was soon discovered that the Colonial Military Administration had been infiltrated by the Secessionist Union, and the project was cancelled. All 165 returned to Active Duty once again. One notable ORION Solider was a Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson, who later on was stationed on The Pillar of Autumn, and was instrumental in helping the Master Chief succeed in destroying the first Halo Ring, as well as The Ark.
By 2506, insurrectionists are becoming a serious concern for the UNSC, and the need for large-scale military operations to fight them becomes more apparent. The SPARTAN-II program is conceived by Dr Catherine Halsey, a member of ONI Section 3, and this project is conceived as a successor to the original ORION project. The project begins in 2517, with many criticisms that it is unethical; it does produce excellent results. For this project, children were recruited from their home planets in the outer-colonies, replaced by clones that are programmed to die of natural causes. They are trained from their young age, and undergo multiple genetic enhancements during their training. It’s soon obvious how effective the project has been, but they’ll soon have to face something far more deadly than the human uprisings they have faced previously.
In 2525, the Human-Covenant War begins, and the SPARTAN-II’s are outfitted with the most advanced armour in human history, the MJOLNIR project, to help defend humanity against the alien threat. While the Covenant Empire continued to progress, the SPARTAN II’s continued to fight the insurrectionists, as they continued to remain a significant threat. The SPARTANS continued to kill off the rebel leaders and engage the Covenant forces, continuing in an endless series of battles for the UNSC. Notable Spartan II’s you should already know. Master Chief, Fred, Linda, and Kelly of Blue Team are thought to be the last SPARTAN-II Survivors, but Jorge, prominent in Halo: Reach, was also a Spartan-II, unlike the rest of Noble Team.
As casualties mount exponentially due to the Human-Covenant War, Colonel James Ackerson develops the SPARTAN-III Program in direct opposition of Halsey and her SPARTAN-II’s, but this project is deemed even more morally questionable than the last. Using the SPARTAN-II as a proof of concept, Akerson designed the III’s to be produced much more quickly, with a lower cost but with lower life expectancy. This program was intended for extremely high risk operations conducted in complete secrecy. Once again, these candidates are children, this time taking from orphanages, as a result of many children losing their homes due to the Covenant Invasion. The Candidates were taking to the planet Onyx and were put under the leadership of Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose. The SPARTAN-III’s are trained, developed and killed, with no other purpose.
The first company of the III’s, Alpha Company, are successful in destroying Covenant and Rebel forces during many battles, however, during their last mission, Operation: PROMETHEUS in 2537, they are all killed in action, despite the operation being deemed a success. Beta Company, trained soon after the loss of Alpha, carried out their first mission in 2545, Operation: TORPEDO, in 2545. This Operation is also deemed a success, but only two of the 300 Spartans survived; those SPARTANS were Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. Tom and Lucy both become the trainers of the third company, Gamma Company. Gamma Company is immediately deployed on missions after their augmentation. As a result of the Battle of Onyx, many SPARTAN-III teams survived, along with Blue Team. Noble Team, were all members of the SPARTAN-III Project.
In 2552, the SPARTAN-IV program was initiated by Admiral Parangosky. Instead of kidnapping children to serve as the members of the Spartan Project, IV’s are all volunteers from different branches of the military. Two SPARTANS, Musa-096 of the SPARTAN-II program, and Jun-A266 of the SPARTAN III’s Alpha Company (who escaped Reach with Dr Halsey), continued the SPARTAN IV Program, recruiting many personnel from different branches of the military.
In addition to all the volunteers of the SPARTAN-IV program, all remaining SPARTAN-III’s were offered to be incorporated into the new branch of Spartans. Those who did not choose to continue their service were moved to non-combatant status. The first class of SPARTAN-IV’s went on Active Duty in 2553, and consisted of 145 individuals. They trained with each other in War Games simulations, in order to be prepared for battle, as they would need time to adjust to their new, and less extreme, genetic augmentations. The Spartans posted on the UNSC Infinity are the SPARTAN-IV branch, though new members, such as Buck (featuring in ODST) were recruited at a later date.
So there you have it, a sum-what brief overview of the Spartan Project. There are more details included in many of the books written within the Halo franchise, and there are many more notable Spartans mentioned here.
Just remember, Spartans never die, they’re just missing in Action.
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Source: Halo Nation
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