The modern Spartan program (in contrast to its ancient Greek counterpart) was initiated in 2491, an element of the ORION project. Though not much is known about the first generation of warriors (their training, augmentation, goals, etc.), they were successful enough to garner the necessary consent for a second phase, aptly named SPARTAN II. Under Dr. Halsey, the Spartans would be developed in conjunction with the MJOLNIR armour project, the culmination of a powered exoskeleton technology that had been used for some time by the UNSC, and eventually, by frustrated cargo handlers everywhere. The initial goal of the SPARTAN/MJOLNIR project was to provide a surgical strike team capable of dealing with Human rebellions quickly and efficiently, averting the use of large scale military force, and preventing the tremendous loss of life and civil war that would have inevitably ensued.

A total of 75 children, approximately age six and selected for their specific genetic dispositions (that is, being as close to perfect as science could determine), were "recruited". They were replaced with congenitally defective flash-clones to cover the enlistment, and trained, primarily on and below the surface of Reach, by one Chief Petty Officer Mendez, arguably the best Drill Instructor in the Navy. Their family names, whatever they may have been, were stripped, purged from record, and forever replaced with a 3 digit designation. Their upbringing would be defined not only by gruelling physical routine, but by a comprehensive academic tutelage under Deja, a Class II AI created specifically for the SPARTAN II project.

In March of 2525, on the orbital ONI Medical Facility above Reach, the then 14 year old candidates underwent a series of drastic and inadvisable operations to dramatically enhance their skeletal, muscular, optical, and nervous systems (FoR p.56). Of the original 75, a reported 33 survived the processes; 30 were lost, and 12 irrevocably crippled (though still used by ONI in research and ops planning).

Both before and after their final union with the MJOLNIR armour, the SPARTAN II's, with their overwhelming physical abilities, improvisational skills, and keenness for adversity, handled their operations with a profound efficiency: as of August 27, 2552 they had suffered only 3 KIA's and 1 too wounded to continue active duty, giving them the best record of any UNSC unit. Of course, they were officially listed as MIA, part of ONI Section 2's successful propaganda campaign to boost morale; a program spearheaded by the SPARTAN II's and their glorious triumphs in battle, though strangely silent concerning Humanity's slow and imminent loss of the war against the Covenant.

Since their harrowing escape from Reach and the destruction of nearly 500 Covenant vessels consumed in the explosion of the 30km long Covenant Command Station, Unyielding Hierophant, the arduous task of defending Humanity from the ever gargantuan Covenant fleet, now wise to the Earth's location, has fallen into their "big, green, armoured hands." Let us hope their renewed numbers are up to the job.

More beef to the historical feeding frenzy:

Charles George (georgec2@union.edu) writes:

Just to contribute to the thermopolye thread, the spartans were never "overwhelmed" at Thermopolye, instead they were betrayed, and the Persians were presented with a secret route around the pass. The Spartans ended up out flanked and outnumbered. The theme of betrayal seems to go along well with Halo.

Char

Indeed, it would seem that the Ten Thousand Immortals (so-called because whenever their numbers were depleted in battle, they would be replaced as soon as possible, thus forming an immortal army made of mortal men), Xerxes' own personal guard, were led through the mountains above Thermopylae by a Greek traitor, and they were able to assault the Spartans and their Theban allies from the rear, completely surrounding and killing all of the men from Lakedaimon.

The Covenant can be seen as the Persian army, and the Flood as the Ten Thousand Immortals; unstoppable, innumerable, building their armies from the bodies of their conquered. Here we have yet another metaphor for the ring shape of Halo; the Spartans were encircled, and that was their defeat. Only one of Reach's Spartan II's made it to Halo. But is the battle truly won? The Master Chief certainly feels that there is more fighting to be done.

-Ape Man

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Mark IV, V, VI, or VIII

Noah  (noahb@mac.com) writes:

OK, so Bungie just posted some new stuff on the wonderful Truth and Reconciliation site and among this was the storyboards for the first cutscene. I noticed on the next to the last storyboard something very interesting. On the Master Chief's cryo chamber are stenciled the letters "MK-VIII". This means Mark 8. Not Mark IV like the Marathon cyborg or even Mark V like the Marines occasionally call the Master Chief. So either:

1. This is the official "version number" of the Master Chief and the Marine is wrong
2. This is just an early version of the Halo story and Bungie changed it

Personally I would go with #2 because of all the changes already make in this cutscene.

Interesting. Not VII? ;)

-mnemesis

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Mendez, and the possibility of more Spartan trainees

Brian Wahl (bkwahl@athenet.net) writes:

I was reading through "The Fall of Reach" for the third time and I came across an odd part in the book regarding Chief Mendez. We all know that Chief Mendez put the first group of Spartans through their training on planet Reach starting in the year 2517. On page 99, Chief Mendez states he is leaving to train a new group of Spartans in the year 2525. On page 101, the book states John 117 never sees Chief Mendez again. Now this brings up some interesting questions.

1. Where did Chief Mendez go to train the new group of Spartans? - The original training took place on Reach. We would assume the new group of Spartans would be trained on Reach also, right? To my knowledge, the book never states where the new group of Spartans were training. My thoughts are that the training could be taking place on Earth. The probability is low, but they could be training there.

2. Why didn't we hear more about the new Spartan training group? - The first group of Spartans trained from 2517 to 2525. That's only 8 years of training. The battle that occurred on Sigma Octanus IV took place in the year 2552. That is 27 years after the first training group left the care of Chief Mendez. Wouldn't we think that there would be at least 3 additional groups of Spartans trained and ready to kick ass if each group completed training in eight years? Another possibility why the new group of Spartans was never talked about is that the funding for future Spartan soldiers were cut off by the Military. Now that does not seem likely given the awesome results that occurred from the first group of Spartans.

3. If Chief Mendez was training the new Spartans on Reach, why didn't John 117 see Chief Mendez or at least hear about Chief Mendez when he went back to Reach to try out the new MJOLNIR suit (with Cortana) in the year 2552? (pg. 246) - Now it is entirely possible that John 117 and Chief Mendez just never crossed paths while John 117 was on Reach. But that seems a little weird since the MJOLNIR suit training with Cortana took place on the same training grounds as he trained in the year 2517. The book even states he rang the same bell as when the original training took place. The other possibility is that Chief Mendez passed away before any other Spartan groups were trained. Now, even if Chief Mendez did pass away, I think the Military would have someone else handle the training of these important soldiers.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this.....It is entirely possible that there are additional Spartans alive and well on Earth. There hasn't been any talk by Bungie of additional Spartans, but it seems the book left this area open for discussion. Plus, I'm not sure how Bungie would incorporate additional Spartans in the game that were not controlled by us, the players.

A well-written and thoroghly documented analysis. Good job! As far as other Spartans are concerned, though, we might have to wait for Halo 2 to see if that particular story element is addressed, unless there's something in the game we've missed? ;-)

-mnemesis

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Old site, good reminder.

petgeibe (petgeibe@email.msn.com) writes:

I've found a website with all the Mjolnir [Mk V] armor stats. The website is located here.

-Finn

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Jesper Nielsen (tf2tiic@hotmail.com) writes:

I can only recall the marines stating that in the book, when they say that the SPARTAN project was a failure and he's the only one left. Now, lets try to analyse this.

First of all, and most importantly, the source. He's a Helljumper, as tough as they come, and as we know, he's certainly not fond of the SPARTAN project. He's stranded, along with his comrades, of a mysterious alien artifact, where they have absolutely NO communication with any other humans. When the POA left Reach, it was in the middle of the battle and as far as I know, we never saw all of the Spartans die. So how would a Helljumper know? It's not like he could get confirmation from Earth, is it? And considering his hate of these bio-manipulated warriors, why would he keep up MC's hope by saying that the Spartans might have survived the battle of Reach? Of course he wouldn't, he would want them to fail!

As far as I know, we are still not sure if any Spartans survived the battle of Reach. Heck, we don't even know if Reach DID get glassed, as the POA and us, the readers, left in the middle of the battle. All I'm trying to say is; nothing is for sure. The events on Halo happened in parallel to events at the Inner and Outer Colonies. All we know is that the Cov. somehow managed to reach Earth (which i think means that they did not glass Reach, but instead used it to find valuable information, and therefore the Spartans might have had to possibility to escape!).

True. We must remember that what was happening on Halo was only a part of the much larger story. I fear that the answer (answer? Do those even apply here? ;-)) will not be known, however, until the release of Halo 2. Speculation, as always, is both encouraged and welcomed.

-mnemesis

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SPARTAN John 117: the first, but so far, not the last

Angus Bradford (saiberdawg@hotmail.com) writes:

I read through the site and saw no mention of this, which doesn't mean in my fever to read the text I might have missed something, so I decided to remind everyone of a fact posted in the book... While I don't have the book here to quote line for line I'd like to point out that the Master Chief might not be the last remaining Spartan... When the Spartans were being briefed by Dr. Halsey and Captain Keys on Reach, she gave a "roll call" if-you-will of the Spartans... Numbering those who died or were disfigured in the augmentation process, but she also said that there were 3 Spartans that wer not able to make it back to Reach due to them being in combat areas too far to be brought back to Reach... Now since the book makes no reference to where they were and I doubt that the Coventant launched an attack against these three such as the attack on Reach... I think it's a very good possibility that they may still be out there...

Since Halo: The Flood was released, we've received more than a few submissions questioning to assertion that the MC is definitely the last SPARTAN. In retrospect, it might be plausible for there to be others somewhere. I do feel certain that Linda was not present during the events of the game, considering that Keyes never mentions her anywhere in HtF, but that doesn't preclude another group of SPARTANs from showing up sometime.

-mnemesis

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Two for the show...

S7N (N.J.R.Jones@brighton.ac.uk) writes:

On The Maw, on the Pillar of Autumn, it is is over 2 km from the reactor room to where you meet Foe Hammer, and an extra 1 km to the Longsword Interceptor. so this means that the Pillar of Autumn is over 3 km long. Fair enough, my point being that MC doesn't need a Warthog to cover all that distance, if the game had make him run as fast as he should!

At the start of FoR it states that the Spartans sprint up a half-kilometer hill in 32 seconds flat [56.25 km/h, uphill]. later on, after they have been augmented and are training in the caves, Mendez says that the Spartans can run at up to bursts of 55 kmph, and that's WITHOUT the Mjolnir suits!

My point in all this is, that the total distance from the reactor to the Interceptor is 3 km, the Master Chief can cover it in under 6 minutes which is the allocated time!

Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to sprint the lengths of Human warships in a...

Well, to keep things simple, if they could keep it up at 55 km/h, the Maw run of roughly 3 km would take only about 3:15; well under time. As Dr. Halsey also said, they were also not yet adjusted to their physiological enhancements and would only become faster. And additionally as Nicholas pointed out, this is without the further augmentation of the Mjolnir suit. Just how fast can a fully prepped Spartan run anyway?

-Finn

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Edward Pang (haesslich@hotmail.com) writes:

al -Ghost- moraleta posted something in his theory about the MJOLNIR armor being able to sensor-cloak itself, by adjusting its thermal emissions level. If he's talking about the raid into the asteroid belt against the rebels, it was NOT Mjolnir armor that Sam, Kelly, Linda, and the Master Chief were using. Their armor in that situation was a form-fitting polymer-based suit which included the thermal masking ability in it, and it was definitely NOT the Mjolnir, which was never stated to have any stealth capabilities whatsoever.

At least, not the Mjolnir Mark II suits. :D

Also, it's stated that the cloaks the Stealth Elites use, at least in "Halo: the Flood", do NOT mask thermal emissions: indeed, they generate them, which was how the Helljumpers and Marines in Alpha base were able to hunt down the Stealths in the Control Room.

Good eye. One wonders if the new armor in Halo 2 will be different with regards to cloaking. If I remember correctly, weren't we originally on a mission that might require some degree of stealth? Would that mission still have any significance?

-mnemesis

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Bryan Gersbeck (cloudrunner58@yahoo.com) writes:

In the book Halo: The Fall of Reach Dr. Halsey says, "Assembled here tonight are all the surviving Spartans save three, who are otherwise engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled." This means that there are three more Spartans. So maybe Master Chief is not the only one left.

This has been pointed out to us a number of times in the past (Not to slight Bryan, though. Good eye, Bryan! ;-)), but it bears repeating: There are, quite possibly, other SPARTANs out there. The three mentioned above, certainly, but think again about the remaining members of the squad and where we last heard from them. If there's one thing I've learned from Bungie, it's that if it isn't explicitly stated somewhere, you can't count on it.

-mnemesis

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We are all unique.

We are all individuals.

We very often receive multiple emails on a similar topic. Sometimes, however, they are so similar, you just don't know who to post.

Jeff Poole (dolphin-splash@excite.com) and Alexis J. Lojek (phoenix155@mac.com) and Sean Kelly (entermyinsanity@hotmail.com) write:

After reading this and rethinking about those three SPARTANS and the book, it occurred to me that in the E3 Realtime Demo, Sergeant Banks said, "When I asked for reinforcements, I didn't think they'd send a SPARTAN." I am going to take this as a clear statement that either the SPARTANS weren't all killed off on the ground assault at Reach, or that the second set of SPARTANS trained by Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez (was he a CPO or SCPO?) made it!

Being that the Covenant assault on Earth takes place some time after Reach, word would have circulated if the SPARTANS had been killed. Also, the fact that the Master Chief is simply referred to as a "SPARTAN" rather than "the Master Chief," alludes that there are more than one SPARTAN still alive! If the Sergeant had said instead, "When I asked for reinforcements, I didn't think they'd send you!" then we'd know that there were no more SPARTANS, but from the looks of it, there is another group of SPARTANS out there other than the MC.

"...maybe the last SPARTAN", "for all he knew", "...at least one of them..."

Bungie's gentle way of saying hint-hint, wink-wink, say no more :)

-Finn

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Malia Duncan (gmnkduncan@worldnet.att.net) writes:

Have any of you read "The Fall of Reach?!" Yes, of course you have. In addition to the others, the Spartan James floated off into space with still about 80 minutes of air left...

Ah, James. A large scale battle, ships, debris, SPARTAN ingenuity... Something tells me we haven't seen the last of him yet :)

-Finn

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Miranda. The name certainly is growing on me. Much like I imagine an omni-parasitic organism would if given the chance.

Otto Mossberg (owm109@hotmail.com) writes:

And speaking of other Spartans, I would bet this "Miranda", is another Spartan. There are few I could think of that could strap anything on a Spartans back and shove them into any sort of hole. Unless the Spartan was already unconscious, in which case you'ld still need a fork lift to move thier half-ton bulk.

Also, James could have been picked up by a damaged ship without communications, either Covie or UNSC. On a Covie ship, he would no doubt have been studied for his armor and genetic/biological alterations. Without comm systems on a Covie ship, the Prophet in TF wouldn't have known about it, hence his saying that the rest are belived to be dead. Or the PoA would not find him on thier scans, and could be out of contact with a damaged UNSC ship that had found him.

With a relation to Ackerson's project, Alisdair Newton-Wade (god_holocaust@hotmail.com) adds,

This may explain the mysterious 'Miranda'. A super-soldier of Ackerson's clan would most certainly strap a bomb to the Master Chief's back and shove him down a hole if ordered. However, 'Miranda' isn't a name I would give to a Persian - but then, a Spartan is unlikely to be called John.

As for James, there was some shock at the suggestion that the Chief and his MJOLNIR armour were superior to the Elites and their own. Would the Covenant have qualms about reverse-engineering and assimilating Human technology?

-Finn

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CPOMZ at the 512 with the S-III

TINA WARD (dougward518@optonline.net) writes:

After reading the Halo:First Strike, I found the file "S-III" that Dr. Halsey accessed in Colonel Ackerson's file quite interesting. I think it obviously stands for "Spartan-III" project, but more interesting is "CPOMZ." The "CPO" is an abbreviation used in the Navy for Chief Petty Officer, and it sure seems like "CPOMZ" is abbreviated for Chief Petty Officer Mendez. So he did go to train new spartans, and it would explain why Master Chief never saw Chief Mendez again on Reach; because the "512-character alphanumeric string" that follows "CPOMZ" is a "reference to a star chart" that is "not a destination to any location in UNSC-controlled space." (p130).

And I bet that is where Dr. Halsey headed off to with Kelly.

That Kelly and her altered DNA... what a prankster :P

Chief Petty Officer Mendez and SPARTAN III (or merely Section III) seem like good starting points for these acronyms (although it does seem strange that Mendez should be abbreviated "MZ"; perhaps it is just to spell it out a bit more?).

But questions remain. What does Ackerson have to do with this group and Mendez? Is he spying on them? Are the S-III's HIS project (Halsey seems unaware) or if it does stand for Section III, is this just to further hint at ONI's sly involvments? What could flash clone research portend: a revival of fallen comrades or an "attack of the clones"?

Good eye :)

-Finn

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Jim Rebholz (jrebholz3@comcast.net) writes:

I had read Fall of Reach, and First Strike, and a part of the Chief's armor caught my attention. According to the books, there's a kind of reactive gel sandwiched between the inner and outer layers of the suit. This gel is supposed to be both pressure and temperature sensitive, and able to adjust its properties on the fly. I had recently read a news article about a substance that does just this. It's called magnetorheological fluid. Essentially it's metal particles suspended in an oil or other liquid. When an electrical current is applied the viscosity of the fluid changes almost instantaneously. And it isn't science-fiction or even science-theory. It's in use, and you can find the stuff inside the shock absorbers on the 50th Anniversary Chevrolet Corvette. There it's used to provide a comfortable ride without losing any cornering capability. The military wants to use it to make a bulletproof body armor that's both flexible and impervious.

Yowza. For a little more on magnetorheological fluid properties, see here. The Halo universe gets closer every day...

-mnemesis

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Where have all the SPARTAN I's gone? Long time passing...

Wavehawk (cybertrooper@edsamail.com.ph) writes:

Presumably, these members of the ORION project are not as highly-developed as the SPARTAN II candidates and most likely don't have the same level of enhancements and such (definitely no MJOLNIR Armor)--but they'd still be pretty tough individuals in themselves. Again, I've not read TFoR or the Halo Bible, so I might be mistaken--but obviously, the SPARTAN II project was workign on info garnered from the 'success' of the SPARTAN I project. If SPARTAN I was a success, then that means that there were some of them who survived. Maybe up to this day.

So here's a rampant theory of mine: What if Sgt. Johnson and Chief Mendez are survivng members of the SPARTAN I programme?

Johnson's certainly bad-ass enough (we're talking someone who consistently survives anything tossed at him and even goes toe-to-toe with an elite---WITHOUT the benefit of MJOLNIR armor). Add that to the fact that he has no enmity against the SPARTAN IIs (though this is a minor point).

For Mendez, I'm just going by pure inference--who better to train SPARTAN IIs than a SPARTAN I?

I'm thinking that the first generation of SPARTANs might have been much older (Raw recruits? Volunteers maybe? Who knows?), and that they underwent the first-generation enhancements process. Most probably died in surgery. Others were disfigured (even the SPARTAN II prject makes note of these). The few that survivedprobably lived on to be the toughest hard-core SOBs the human race has ever known--but were still fairly human compared to the SPARTAN II programme.

And it's also possible that the survivors were not necessarily the strongest physically or the oldest/youngest, but those with an uncanny strength of will. The kind of mental toughness common to modern-day Special Forces like the Navy SEALS, Army Special Forces, Marine Force Recon, or the like.

The kind of meanness that Johnson and Mendez are capable of, actually.

From what we know, Mobuto wouldn't be a stranger in their company either... Good thinking :)

-Finn

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Chiron Don't Make Change

Ryan Hunt (disclosedhero@yahoo.com) writes:

Hi story dudes,

Last night I was just running through the multiplayer maps again, and noticed the description of the level Chiron TL-34 which we've all seen a million times before... it said Spartan CLONE training facility.
Now, this could mean only two things:

1) That the Spartan-IIs are clones themselves or,
2) The information Halsey found in First Strike really was the discovery of a new Spartan-cloned team.

ONI or the UNSC or both made those flash clones of the original Spartans in order to quickly hand them back to their parents before too much suspicion arose, but why would they (ONI, UNSC) waste money on a special training facility when they obviously didn't particularly care too much about the flash clones in the first place?

I'd go out on a limb and say that Ackerson (the guy that stole the genetic information of the Spartans) probably got the DNA of the Spartans that showed extraordinary skill in one task or another, meaning since Kelly was the fastest of the Spartans, he got her speed. Presumably this would also mean that he would get whatever was in Linda's genes that made her the best sniper for the team, and maybe he even got the information in Sam's genes (may he RIP... or not?) that caused him to be the strongest.

Add this up and you can see that we're more than likely going to meeting up with some super-Spartans in Halo 2... but the real question is whether or not these guys will be fighting with us, or against us. Knowing Ackerson's reputation of disdain for the Spartan-IIs, it's certainly not looking good... but at least we have our trusty Mjolnir MK VI battle suits! (I wonder what "level" Guilty Spark would place the MK VI at if the V was 2?)

This clone reference may or may not be of the same ilk as another point brought up concerning this level: If Chiron has teleporters, does that mean that Humanity possesses teleportation technology, or is it merely a matter of gameplay?

Id est, is the name of this Clone Training facility a peak into deeper things, or a mere naming oversight? Hmmm. This one could go either way...

That darn Ackerson...

-Finn

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Sons of Thunder

Josh "LostRock" Bornstein (The1lone2outlaw3@aol.com) writes:

In Mark chapter 3, Jesus appoints the twelve apostles.

verse 17: James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them [Jesus] gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder)

Let's play a game of "Six Degrees of Mjolnir": John and James--Boanerges--Thunder--Thor--Mjolnir! (Don't forget, the Twelve Apostles were appointed to "drive out demons"...or perhaps the Covenant?)

Concerning Halo, I find it odd that John is mentioned in a secondary manner. Perhaps there will be an important role to come for our MIA pal James.

MIA indeed. Now he has to make a comeback! Good eye :)

-Finn

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Some "missing" Spartans still in action?

Andrew Newman (AgentSmith54@carolina.rr.com) writes:

I was reading through your web page and suddenly thought of an alarming possibility; what if more than just the 33 surviving SPARTANs that made it past augmentation actually survived. We all know how shadowy ONI is, maybe they staged the death of several surviving Spartans, for them to be used as even more secret weapons. I know that the SPARTAN II project was secretive to begin with, but maybe some brass at ONI saw a chance for an unstoppable, supposedly dead assassin or bodyguard, and jumped at the opportunity. It is known now that the MC is not the last Spartan, but maybe Ackerson was just corrupt enough to fake the death of one of the super soldiers for a personal assassin or bodyguard or something else.

You're right... the numbers don't quite add up... hmmm...

-Finn

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Sgt. Johnson and the Se7en Spartans

Frylock1989 (Frylock1989@aol.com) writes:

In First Strike, at the end, we learn that there are four surviving spartans,including the MC. Now couple this with the fact that in TFoR, we learn that three other spartans(besides the one in the auditorium thing) are too far away to recall in time, we have a total of 7 (including MC ) surviving spartans. Just an observation. Oh yeah,i think it is possible that bungie could incorperate a 4 person coop mode. I know the trailers point against this, but where would Linda, Fred and Will go?

(P.S. I know that Dr. Halsey took Kelly on some secret op, but for all intents and purposes, we'll call her MIA until we find out what happend to her.)

As Crazy Turkey (crazyturkey@hotmail.com) says, "the combined 'Power of Seven'". Hey, even if it is eight, that many participants in co-op won't hurt many feelings ;)

-Finn

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Kelly: Fast on her feet; slow to recoup.

Uneven_Elephant (nipplesthemonkya@hotmail.com) writes:

I was looking at that interview with the Erics and something about one of their statements was something about Kellly's data file medical records. He said that those were most likely had something to do with the augmentation process. Well i seem to remember that her hair took longer to grow back after the operations. I think there might be a small connection (even though the chances of that a small to none). What do you think?

Page 78 of TFoR contains the reference in question, mentioning that she had taken the longest to recover from surgery and had still to grow back her hair. Not much to be gained in itself, but this could definitely be the foreshadowing of Halsey and Kelly's current escapade...

-Finn