Orion Project A.K.A. Spartan-I Program:
Origins:
The beginning of the SPARTAN Program dates back to the 23rd Century, when the newly formed UNSC began developing bioengineering protocols and experimenting with biochemically altering human soldiers. Although these performance enhancing substances were very primitive and nowhere near as effective as the chemicals used to augment the soldiers of the SPARTAN Programs, they did show promise and gave results and serve as the catalyst for future endeavors. Since then, human soldiers have used performance-enhancing equipment for decades.
Expansion and Conflict:
With the formal establishment of the Inner colonies in 2390, mankind's expansion era had begun, and the next century would be an important boom for Humanity. As mankind expanded, the political and military power that the UEG desired to maintain began to diminish, and sentiments of self-rule and political independence spread among the colonists. As the Colonies began to separate themselves from Earth, the UNSC took every step necessary to keep its grip on the Outer Colonies that were developing during this time. By the 2400s, Outer and many Inner colonies soon began to question the often-draconian interference of the UEG in what was originally intended to be a confederation of independently governed worlds.
Orion begins:
The ORION Project, later known as the SPARTAN-I Program, was a Special Operations Force in the UNSC. Administratively, the ORION project was under the control of ONI Section-III, the Special Projects section of ONI's Beta-5 Division. However the SPARTAN-I soldiers themselves were under the operational authority of Naval Special Warfare Command/Naval Special Weapons. The ORION/SPARTAN-I Program was an all volunteer force composed of the best soldiers from the Marine Corps and Special Forces branches of the military, the SPARTAN-Is performed specialized, high-risk operations including: counter-insurgency operations, unconventional warfare, direct action and black operations. The ORION/SPARTAN program was headquartered on one of the many orbital docks on Reach, and in the height of the program had 300 active duty personnel. The members of the ORION/SPARTAN-I program were all augmented soldiers, using new training methods and the latest breakthroughs in biochemical developments. Augmentations to the SPARTAN-I soldiers include muscular enhancement injections, pulmonary respiratory enhancements, retina-inversion injections, and cochlea enhancement tuning. In addition to the physical enhancements, mental augmentations were performed to enhance brain functions including enhanced learning capabilities to allow a subject to learn at a faster and higher rate and enhanced motor skills to improve body movements. The SPARTAN-I training regime was very difficult and included many tests both mental and physical, including work done in the lab. All sixty-five initial volunteers made it through the training and augmentation procedures and were placed on active duty some time after completing their training. After their initial deployment and success funding for training the next group of SPARTAN-Is was approved, and within a few years the SPARTAN-I Program had one-hundred-sixty-five active duty personnel.
Effectiveness and Shortcomings:
As the war against the Insurrectionists continued to escalate, the UNSC stepped up their counter-insurgent activities under Operation: TREBUCHET, created in response to the defector UNSC Marine Colonel Robert Watts. The SPARTAN-Is became a key member in the fight against the rebel attacks across the colonies, taking down insurgents as soon as they cropped up, however as time went on the insurgent attacks became more effective, and insurgent personnel more difficult to root out, and over the ensuing decades, became more organized and difficult to combat.
First Deactivation:
With Civil wars dying down and Insurrectionists going into hiding the program was deactivated and the Spartans reassigned to their original units.
The Relaunch of Orion:
As the civil wars began to reintensify in the Outer and Inner colonies, many of the CMA's resources were taken over by the UNSC and ONI. Using data supplied by ONI, the CMA relaunched ORION in secrecy in response to insurgent attacks in the colonies. The project began in January of 2491 with sixty-five test subjects, after completing their training an additional one-hundred volunteers were accepted into the now dubbed SPARTAN program. The first SPARTAN-I deployment occurred in January of 2496 as part of Operation: CHARLEMAGNE, during this operation the full unit of SPARTAN-Is were deployed to recover the sub-orbital transit station over Eridanus II. This marked the only time a full unit of Spartans were ever deployed in the entire program — they completed their mission with only a single casualty and without being seen. The resulting success of CHARLEMAGNE, and tales of the military deploying advanced super-soldiers were born, this became fuel for a range of conspiracy theories and media speculation. As the legend of the super soldiers continued to grow they gave birth to a new round of propaganda efforts by ONI in the coming decades.
KALEIDOSCOPE and Deactivation:
In 2502, Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE, part of the UNSC's greater plan to pacify the entirety of Human-colonized space, was put into action. Many SPARTAN-Is were deployed to take down insurrectionist strongholds, but one of the key goals was to eliminate Jerald Mulkey Ander, the leader of another major insurrectionist faction, the Secessionist Union. Although KALEIDOSCOPE successfully dealt a heavy blow to the insurgents, the overall strategy of KALEIDOSCOPE failed to pacify the colonies. Operation: TANGLEWOOD would be the last operation the SPARTAN-Is participated in, the exact nature of this operation is not known other than that it was to combat insurrectionist forces. in 2506 The SPARTAN-I Program was quietly deactivated and the surviving members reassigned to other special operations units in the field. However these soldiers often exhibited side effects as a result of their augmentations and many members were discharged from the military as a result of mental instabilities. In order to ensure absolute secrecy, the side effects caused by SPARTAN-I augmentations are masked as a disease known as Boren's syndrome, many SPARTAN-Is go on to retire, some eventually have children, but due to their augmentations their children must also be given some form of injections to ensure no defects.
Spartan-II Program:
Origins:
In the years following the deactivation of the ORION Project in 2506 the effectiveness of small special forces in combating the insurrectionists diminished as the Insurrectionist movement became too large for the UNSC to manage. As insurrectionist became more effective and the military's responses consequently become more forceful, the need for large scale military campaigns became more and more obvious. In 2517 the Office of Naval Intelligence began to reexamine the Carver Findings, which had warned of instability in the Outer Colonies years earlier. The report rationalized that the instability would continue to escalate, and unless drastic military measures were taken, would result in a massive war between the inner colonies and the outer colonies. ONI's own projections at that time and up to 2525 concluded the same as Dr. Carver's findings. The SPARTAN-II project was conceived by Dr. Catherine Halsey of ONI Section III's Special Projects Division as the successor to the ORION Project and the best possible solution to end the widespread insurgency that raged throughout UNSC space. The project was created with several goals in mind. The first goal was to create a group of elite soldiers meant to subdue insurrections in their infancy, without substantial military casualties. The second goal was to minimize civilian casualties and avert civil war. The third goal was to substantially reduce the cost of conventional means of pacification.
Halsey's proposal for the project detailed radical changes in many different fields. The first and most controversial was the subjects themselves, who were selected by a gene-candidate pool, and must fit into a certain age restriction protocol. They must also have possessed superior physical and mental attributes. The trainees must be instilled with military value, and the understanding of war; something that cannot be taught to enlisted soldiers. This narrowed the candidates down to children who would be raised and taught in the art of warfare and military values, from a young age. Using such controversial means of creating a soldier meant that the project would have to be carried out in the highest form of secrecy.
Though conventional body armor had protected soldiers for centuries, the SPARTAN-II project's second radical change involved integrating the subject with a new powered exoskeleton device, designed to help keep its user safe and provide a powerful means of combating enemy forces. The drawback of this new armor is its requirement for augmenting the subject, effectively turning the Spartans into human guinea pigs.
Despite the tremendous risk and the unethical means of creating new soldiers, the SPARTAN-II project got the green light by the top brass within the Office of Naval Intelligence, who concluded that the lives that could be saved far outweighed the risks involved. The project was initially granted funding for 300 candidates, though funding was later reduced to half this number. By 2517, 150 suitable candidates had been identified through DNA gathered from the UNSC's civilian vaccination program, though funding had been further reduced to support only half that number. Seventy-five children, all six years old and of both sexes, were kidnapped. In order to preserve the program's secrecy, the children were replaced by flash clones which would die soon thereafter due to numerous medical complications associated with flash-cloning an entire human being.
Training:
The SPARTAN-II candidates after being sedated were taken to the colony world Reach, and began their training under Chief Petty Officer 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. 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, 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, they would go through the toughest part of their training: the biological augmentation procedures, which would kill 30 of the 75 conscripted children and cripple 12 others who would "wash out" of the SPARTAN-II program, going on to join the Office of Naval Intelligence; only 33 survived the procedures with no physiological deformities. The bodies of those candidates who died were placed in cryo-suspension, in the hope that they could some day be resuscitated. At least some of the candidates who were crippled were eventually rehabilitated. Several elements of the candidates' training were kept secret from Halsey that only Professor Agnes and Professor Mike (who worked on the project with her) knew about
Personnel:
Active Duty:
The identities of the Spartans' full names have been deleted from all military records. Only Dr. Halsey has the originals of the secret files that contain the full names of all the Spartans on Reach; unfortunately, the records were destroyed after the planet was Glassed. Although, Unknown to Dr. Halsey, Admiral Margaret Parangosky had made copies of the files. Publicly, only their first names and service tags are known with their current status.
Class I
SPARTAN-010: Naomi - Active as of March 2553. Currently part of Kilo Five.
SPARTAN-058: Linda - Active as of March 2553. Clinically KIA during the Fall of Reach but later resuscitated after the Battle of Installation 04.
SPARTAN-062: Maria - Retirement cut short due Covenant invasion of Earth Reactivated as of November 2552
SPARTAN-087: Kelly - Active as of March 2553
SPARTAN-101: Victor - Active as of August 2552.
SPARTAN-104: Frederic - Active as of March 2552
SPARTAN-137: Carris - Active as of November 2552
SPARTAN-112: Justin - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-037: Randall - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-005: James - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-029: Joshua - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-030: Vinh - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-039: Isaac - Active as of July 2553
SPARTAN-045: Rico - Active as of July 2553
Missing In Action:
SPARTAN-042: Douglas - Last seen aboard UNSC Spirit of Fire after the Battle of Shield 0459 in 2531. Listed as MIA.
SPARTAN-044: Anton - MIA during Slipspace anomaly battle, though assumed KIA due to nearby plasma torpedo detonation.
SPARTAN-047: Keichi - Presumably listed as MIA at Reach. Last seen during the Harvest Campaign.
SPARTAN-117: John - MIA. Last seen aboard the severed aft section of the Charon-class light frigate UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, drifting toward a mysterious planet. Assumed KIA.
SPARTAN-130: Alice - Last seen aboard UNSC Spirit of Fire after the Battle of Shield 0459 in 2531. Listed as MIA.
SPARTAN-120: Mike - MIA with the rest of Gray Team.
SPARTAN-006: Jai - Missing in action with the rest of Gray Team.
SPARTAN-008: Li - Listed as MIA during Slipspace anomaly battle. Assumed KIA due to nearby plasma torpedo detonation.
SPARTAN-111: Adriana - MIA with the rest of Gray Team.
SPARTAN-092: Jerome - Last seen aboard UNSC Spirit of Fire after the Battle of Shield 0459 in 2531. Listed as MIA.
Killed In Action:
SPARTAN-034: Samuel - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA due to destruction of the Covenant ship they had boarded. First to destroy a Covenant ship in a non-ship to ship battle.
SPARTAN-043: William - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA by Hunter pair during the Battle of Onyx
SPARTAN-093: Grace - Listed as MIA. Confirmed KIA during Operation: FIRST STRIKE on Unyielding Hierophant.
SPARTAN-003: Luke callsign Red Fifteen - Listed as MIA. Confirmed KIA during the Fall of Reach.
SPARTAN-065: Sheila - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA during the Battle of Miridem.
SPARTAN- 067: Sara, callsign Beta Red Actual - Listed as MIA. Confirmed KIA during the Fall of Reach.
SPARTAN-059: Malcolm - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA during the Fall of Reach.
SPARTAN-051: Kurt - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA after the detonation of two FENRIS nuclear warheads at the core of Onyx.
SPARTAN-052: Jorge - Listed as MIA, though confirmed KIA after initiating a Slipstream bomb during the Fall of Reach.
Medically Discharged:
These were Spartans who became too wounded to continue active service after failed augmentation procedures. They have been permanently reassigned within the Office of Naval Intelligence, although Dr. Halsey stated that some might make a full recovery with rehab and re-enter service as fully functional Spartans.
SPARTAN-018: Kirk - Discharged. Possible rehab mentioned by Halsey.
SPARTAN-019: Serin - Protege to Admiral Margaret Parangosky, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Did not accept augmentations, ONI operative as of March 2553 in Kilo Five
SPARTAN-075: Cassandra - Discharged due to failures in augmentation procedures, currently residing in the M25L Recovery Station.
SPARTAN-081: René - Discharged. Possible rehab mentioned by Halsey.
SPARTAN-084: Fhajad - Discharged, sent to work for ONI. Suffered uncontrollable muscle spasms due to failures in augmentation, current status unknown. Image shown in Halsey's Journal for rehab.
Spartan-III Program:
Origins:
The SPARTAN-III program was both the successor and supplement to the SPARTAN-II program. Created and engineered by Colonel Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-III soldiers 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; being chosen from a wider pool of candidates, they would also be more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They would rely on superior battle tactics, teamwork and sheer numbers rather than advanced technology, special augmentation, 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 the stuff 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.
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 counter-productive to the purpose, drive, and ambition of the program. Next, funding the Spartan program, including their training and MJOLNIR armor, cost as much as a Battle Group, at least according to Rear Admiral Ned 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 to improve morale in 2547. Even though it was a huge morale boost to the UNSC, it was a problem for most of the Office of Naval Intelligence. ONI operated in secrecy, and anything that shone light on their operations was seen as detrimental to their efforts.
The SPARTAN-IIIs 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 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Though the casualty rates of the SPARTAN-IIIs stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, all the operations were strategic 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-IIs in 2531 to a hundred thousand SPARTAN-IIIs within ten to twenty years.
Personnel:
Alpha Company
Kai-A019 - Unknown status; likely killed in Operation: PROMETHEUS
Emile-A239 - Reassigned to Noble Team. Confirmed KIA on Reach after being stabbed with an energy sword.
Carter-A259 - Reassigned to Noble Team. Confirmed KIA on Reach after crashing a Pelican into a Scarab.
Jun-A266 - Reassigned to Noble Team. Unknown Status, last seen escorting Dr. Halsey to Castle Base.
Team Wolf Pack
Jane-A??? - KIA
Shane-A??? - KIA
Robert-A???- KIA
Beta Company
SPARTAN-B170 - Unknown
SPARTAN-B312 - Reassigned to Noble Team. Confirmed KIA on Reach after being overwhelmed and killed by higher ranked Elites.
Catherine-B320 - Reassigned to Noble Team. Confirmed KIA on Reach after being shot in the back of the head by Needle Rifle.
Team Echo - KIA
Team Foxtrot
Adam-B004 - KIA
Lucy-B091 - Active as of March 2553
Min-B174 - KIA
Tom-B292 - Active as of March 2553
Team India - KIA
Team Lima - KIA
Team Romeo - KIA
Team X-ray - MIA
Team Zulu - KIA
Gamma Company
Team Gladius - KIA - Found deceased after several days of fleeing from Sentinels.
Headhunters
Team 1
Jonah - KIA
Roland - KIA
Team 2
Unnamed SPARTAN-III - KIA
Unnamed SPARTAN-III - KIA
Team Katana - Last known to under-go recessivtative surgery after being clinically KIA in Slipspace Field Pods
Team Saber
Holly-G003 - KIA
Ash-G099 - Active as of March 2553.
Dante-G188 - KIA
Mark-G??? - Active as of March 2553
Olivia-G??? - Active as of March 2553.
Unknown company:
Thom-293 - KIA
Rosenda-344- Unknown status
Spartan-IV Program:
Origins:
The SPARTAN-IV Program is the fourth generation of the SPARTAN Program. It consists of members recruited from the UNSC's military who were augmented to be capable of wearing a variant of the MJOLNIR GEN2 armor. This phase was initiated by Admiral Margaret Parangosky after the Human-Covenant War, and some are stationed near the UNSC Infinity in the Oort Cloud.
Similar to the original ORION Project, the SPARTAN-IV Program would only consist of adult volunteers, as opposed to young children (despite their stellar operational record in previous generations of the program). When the program was started, surviving members of previous generations were offered an opportunity to be integrated into it, though it remains unknown how many accepted or declined. The first active SPARTAN-IVs were already deployed as early as 2553 as some of them were temporarily assigned to the UNSC Infinity before it was scheduled to launch.
Augmentation procedures I-IV:
Spartan-II Procedures,introduction:
Human biochemical experiments and enhancement procedures have been apart of society dating back to the 20th century, their gains have attracted widespread attention in the hopes of improving human strength and endurance. Military experimentation of such enhancements has always been limited for the sake of morality and ethical concerns. However as technology improved and as scientists continued to understand the human body, advancements paved the way for the eventual use of body enhancement chemicals. The first bio-engineering protocol was established to help humans adjust to long duration spaceflight and different planetary environmental conditions; and subsequently for interplanetary war. The fruition of such procedures to help create a superior soldier did not solidify until the limited success of the ORION Project which would pave the way for the success of the SPARTAN-II Program.
Augmentation Procedures, Descriptions/Risks:
Carbide Ceramic Ossification: Advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable. Recommended coverage not to exceed 3% total bone mass because of significant white blood cell necrosis. Specific risk for pre-and near-postpubescent adolescents, skeletal growth spurts may cause irreparable bone pulverization.
Muscular Enhancement Injections: Protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Five percent (5%) of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.
Catalytic Thyroid Implant: Platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Rare instances of Elephantiasis. Suppressed sexual drive.
Occipital Capillary Reversal: Submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the subject's retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Retinal rejection and detatchment. Permanent blindness.
Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites: Alteration of bioeletrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. 300% increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Significant instances of Parkinson's Disease and Fletcher's Syndrome.
Effects:
Although the subject is in a state of unconsciousness, a state of which the subject should not feel any pain, the effects of the augmentation procedures produce excruciating pain. Physiological stress of the augmentations can produce cardiac arrest; in addition to cross-chemical complications that can result in augmentation failure.
Each procedure is marked with their set of unbearable pain, the carbide ceramic ossification is said to feel like the subjects bones are breaking, as if their marrows were made of glass and were being shattered. The catalytic thyroid implant and muscular enhancement injections produce extraordinary pain as if the subject's veins had been injected with napalm, as well as pulsating and the feeling of them being torn out of the subjects skin. The effect of the muscles increasing in density is said to feel like the entire body was on fire mixed with the feeling of plated glass shattering and being worked in the subject's body. The superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites is said to feel like fire is burning along the subject's nerves on their spines.
The side effects of completing the augmentations vary, as the subject's brain relearns how to move his body with faster reflexes and stronger muscles, experiences neurological confusion that include falling over exaggerated reflexes problems holding onto an object or problems grabbing it. The subject can experience bleeding eyes, incredible pain, constant headaches and aches in the bones.
As time goes on successful augmentation subjects side effects diminish either completely or to the point where it is considered mild.
Results:
Only a few months after augmentation procedures the SPARTAN-IIs were noted of being capable of running at speeds exceeding 55 km/h or 34.2 mph. Kelly-087 was capable of running even faster than this speed. Later during the Human-Covenant war while in her Mark V MJOLNIR Armor, Kelly-087s the top speed recorded was 62 km/h or 38.5 mph John-117 has been noted to have briefly ran at around 105 km/h or 65.2 mph during a MJOLNIR MARK V training exercise, however his Achilles tendon was torn because the strain put on his body was unsustainable.
The SPARTAN-IIs are capable of lifting three times their body weight, which is double the normal weight of an average human due to the ceramic bone augmentations, in addition to their increased muscle density. John-117 is noted for using his enhanced strength combined with his skills to kill a Brute with his bare hands during Operation: First Strike. During the fight on Alpha Halo or Instillation-04 John-117 was also able to use his enhanced strength to kill Covenant Elite's with skull breaking punches. During the events on planet Onyx, Will-043 used his enhanced strength to engage a Hunter pair in hand to hand combat, and succeeded in killing one by ripping the worms out of its body. In the same battle, Kelly-087 engaged three Sangheili Major/Spec-Ops Elite's in hand to hand combat, snapping the wrist of one Elite, taking his energy sword, and cutting three Elite's in half with a single swing.
A SPARTAN-II's reaction time while impossible to chart accurately is estimated to be twenty milliseconds, their reaction times are significantly faster in combat situations or with A.I. assistance. The reaction times of the SPARTAN-IIs are so fast that they are able to think, react and see things happen in slow and fast motion - it is dubbed as "SPARTAN Time" by Kelly-087. SPARTAN-IIs are also known for their sharp eyesight being able to virtually see in the dark.
The thirty-three SPARTAN-IIs that are able to accomplish all this are without any serious physiological or mental instabilities.
Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez states after the augmentations that the Spartan will only get better as they adjust to the augmentation. Therefore many of the Spartans attributes have increased through time. These abilities were completely independent of the MJOLNIR armor, which only further augmented the Spartans' unprecedented capabilities. Despite the impressive feats the surviving Spartans performed many of the fourteen year old candidates died or "washed out" as a result of the augmentations. Rather than be buried or cremated their bodies were cryogenically preserved with the hopes of one day reviving these candidates. Experimental rehabilitation programs were performed on more than 80% of the washouts. The result of these programs, however, has yet to be determined. The augmentation procedures performed on the SPARTAN-IIs paved the way for Project CHRYSANTHEMUM and thus to the "disposable" Spartan-III's
Spartan-III/IV Procedures, introductions:
Project: CHRYSANTHEMUM is a set of SPARTAN-III bio-augmentation procedures, similar to those of the SPARTAN-II's. With advances in technology, however, the casualty rate for SPARTAN-III candidates was usually 0%, as opposed to the 56% casualty rate of the SPARTAN-IIs.
Results Drug/Description/Effect:
8942-LQ99 "carbide ceramic ossification catalyst" drug. Skeletons become virtually unbreakable, allowing survival in harder impacts.
88005-MX77 "fibroid muscular protein complex" drug. Increased density of individual's muscles, allowing heavier lifting.
88947-OP24 "retina-inversion stabilizer" drug. Color sharpness is significantly improved upon, and night vision is adapted.
87556-UD61 improve the colloidal neural disunification solution Greatly improves the individual's reaction time, decreasing the time taken to react by 300%. "Spartan time".
Gamma company also received the following in addition to the above.
009127-PX (cyclodexione-4) bipolar integration drug Counters the effects of 009762-OO.
009762-OO Neural-altering non-carcinogenic mutagen. Alters key regions in the individual's frontal lobe. Enhances aggressive response to dangerous levels. Requires regular doses of 009127-PX and 009927-DG to be taken to avoid uncontrollable aggression.
009927-DG miso-olanzapine Counters the psychological effects of 009762-OO.
In Comparison To Spartan-II's:
Spartan-III candidates came from a much wider gene pool than Spartan-II candidates did. Unlike the Spartan-III's, all the Spartan-II candidates possessed "perfect" genes that allowed their augmentations to have the greatest effects. This means that, even though the Spartan-III's received most of the Spartan-II's augmentations (Other than the Catalytic Thyroid Implant, which produced significant gain in muscle mass and strengthened bone structure), the "perfect" genes of the Spartan-II candidates produced superior results.
For example, as stated in Ghosts of Onyx the augmentation that supposedly gave Spartan-II's a 300% boost in reflexes (Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites) in reality caused a 1400% boost in reflexes, due to the genes of the Spartan-II candidates.
An exception to this would be Noble Team. The members of Noble Team, although most were Spartan-III's, possessed the same, or similar, extraordinary genes of the Spartan-II candidates (This, in turn, resulted in superior augmentation effects and superior physical characteristics), and thus were formed into a team and equipped with MJOLNIR armor.
Performance:
Spartan-IIIs were physically inferior to Spartan-II's, however they were still capable of super human feats. During the battle of Pagasi Delta, Tom-B292, 12 years old at the time and equipped only with SPI Armor engaged a Covenant Elite armed with a Plasma Pistol and an Energy sword in hand to hand combat. The Spartan's enhanced reflexes allowed him to dodge a Plasma Pistol bolt and sword swing at point blank range. He then proceeded to throw the Elite to the ground and finish it off with his Assault Rifle. It is also stated that during the battle, Elites and Jackals moved out of cover because they realized that it was suicide to face Spartan's in close quarters.
Spartan-IIIs were also described to have been moving with "speed and reflexes that no Covenant could follow". "They dodged, snapped necks and limbs, and with captured energy swords, they cut through the enemy until the field ran with rivers of gore and blue blood". The 300 or so Spartan-III's faced thousands upon thousands of Covenant, including Covenant air support, and were described to have been winning the battle until 7 Covenant Cruisers emerged as reinforcements.
It was stated by Mendez that as Spartans grew older, they only grew stronger, and faster as their bodies grew accustomed to their augmentations. During the battle on Pegasi Delta, Beta Company ranged from age 7 through 12. If the Spartan-III's lived long enough to mature, their physical abilities would have improved significantly.
Name:Naku G175
