The Halo universe has seen humanity teeter back and forth between utter extinction and reaching a higher state of being. Among these fluctuations are the Spartans, touted as the next step in humanity’s evolution and the human race’s best bet at surviving a dangerous and unforgiving galaxy.
The Spartan program has undergone a number of changes since its inception, allowing the program to become safer and more accessible to the wider populace. Each major revision in the program has been separated into generations, and each generation is notably different from the last.
The Orion Project
The first of humanity’s military super-soldier programs, one that was conducted several times during the mid-24th and late 25th century, the latter more wide scale as a result of anti-government insurrection movements growing in power. Orion would see upwards of 300 military personnel put through the program to modify their eyesight, skeletal structures, respiratory systems, and nervous system, pushing them a notch above peak natural human performance.
While some candidates would develop various medical conditions in the years afterward, many others would respond without issue and maintain the ability to serve in physical capacities for decades longer than the average human being. A notable member, Avery Johnson, was physically in his 50’s, though technically in his 70’s due to multiple extended cryosleep cycles, upon his death at the end of Halo 3.
Spartan-II Program
The Spartan-II program was initiated as a result of increasing political tensions in human space, threatening to spill over into civil war. Headed by Doctor Catherine Halsey, the program would, after the deadline and budget cuts, see 75 pre-selected children kidnapped and indoctrinated into military service, each being pushed to their physical and mental peaks before undergoing rounds of surgical alteration and genetic augmentation. Half would survive or otherwise recover fully and be put into field service; the other half were either crippled or killed by the process.
The successful Spartan-II candidates would strike fear into militarized anti-government cells for a brief time before being upgraded to the Mjolnir armor programs, the Halo series’ signature super-soldier armor. Around the same time is when the Human-Covenant war broke out, and Spartans quickly became morale-boosting propaganda pieces for humanity to tout as the next step of the species’ evolution and their best hope for survival. Few Spartan-IIs survived to see the end of the war, but most are still on active duty to the present day, including the Master Chief.
Spartan-III Program
The Human-Covenant war was going badly for humanity, and Spartan-II’s were extremely expensive and time-consuming to produce. The Spartan-III program was started in secret, without Doctor Halsey’s knowledge, to produce cheaper, disposable super-soldiers at a fraction of the time and price. Instead of carefully selected subjects, the Spartan-IIIs were orphans taken by the UNSC from the ongoing Covenant and Insurrectionist conflicts, and their hatred for enemies of the UNSC was prayed upon and ramped up to break and remold them into killing machines.
Most Spartan-IIIs were used as disposable assets, sent off to die on suicide missions to destroy assets or perform assassinations. Some, either due to their performance or re-allocation of assets, were used more sparingly and would live to see the end of the war, some even being given full Mjolnir armor instead of the lower-cost SPI suits. Of the several hundred Spartan-IIIs, most of the surviving members are from the late-war Gamma company, with many non-Gamma Spartans, including the Noble Team, dying near the end of the war, leaving few survivors.
Spartan-III Gamma’s
A select group of Spartan-IIIs were separated into Gamma company and underwent additional augmentations by their handler, Spartan Kurt-051, with the hope of increasing their effectiveness in combat and their odds of survival compared to regular Spartan-IIIs. These additional treatments were considered highly illegal, even by the UNSC’s lax standards regarding the law, but Gamma company underwent them, and the surviving members carry the scars it left. As of 2573, years after the events of Halo Infinite, over 300 Gamma Company Spartans are still alive.
The additional treatments require a dosage of antipsychotics and anti-mutagens every 12 hours at the earliest, or Gamma Spartans will begin to physically and mentally unwind. They will grow agitated and highly paranoid before succumbing to a full mental breakdown that renders them a threat to themselves and to anyone nearby. Medical implants and heavy backup stocks of these medical dosages, nicknamed ‘Smoothers’, are supplied to all UNSC ships and outposts that Gamma Spartans are assigned to.
Spartan-IV Program
Halo Infinite’s Battle Pass actually breaks a trend of using FOMO to drive engagement.
The current, ongoing revision of the Spartan program as of Cortana’s uprising and the breakdown of the United Earth Government’s military capacity. The Spartan-IVs are one step closer to the realized dream of Spartan-level humans being the new baseline for the next step in humanity’s development. All Spartan-IV candidates are hand-picked members from humanity’s various intelligence and military sectors, allowing the best of humanity’s fighting forces a chance to take the next step into becoming more than they already are.
With the breakdown of communications and control as Cortana rose to power, Spartan-IVs, active and in training, were splintered across the galaxy. Some have maintained active combat roles against Cortana’s forces, the Banished, and opportunistic revolutionaries, while others have taken up support and relief effort roles to protect and evacuate civilians to refugee centers away from the fighting.
