Halo Universe Explained: Part 3 - Spartans

The Spartan Program

If you’ve only played the trilogy of games you probably have a particular view of the Master Chief and of Spartans more generally.  Spartans are noble heroes – super solders designed and created to defend humanity from the Covenant.  They are the futures version of Captain America, only instead of a shield, they sport an entire augmented suit of armor.  Before jumping into the extended fiction I found the Spartans to be pretty bland as hero figures go.  I was wrong.  In fact, it was when I learned of the Spartan Programs true purpose, and learned who the Spartans really were that I realized just how deep the Halo universe was.

So I’ll cut to the chase.   The Spartans were not designed to combat the Covenant.  Instead, they were designed to quickly and mercilessly put down a growing human insurrection that was threatening the United Earth Government's hold on power.  More shockingly, the Spartans you know from the games - Spartans like the Master Chief – were child soldiers.

Before jumping into that we need to discuss a bit more human history leading up to the initiation of the Spartan program. 

By the late 2200s humanity was in bad shape.  The planet was overpopulated and its resources had largely been depleted.  Unrest was growing.  Then in 2291 humanity discovered slipspace travel, which allowed them to travel the Galaxy.  The result was the establishment of earths first galactic colonies on resource rich planets - like the planet Harvest which became the bread basket of the Galaxy.  these new world eased the strain on resources and allowed the population to stabilize.  This was humanity's golden age.

The golden age didn’t last forever.  Toward the late 2400s protest began in what was known as the outer colonies.  The protesters demanded greater autonomy from humanities central government on Earth knaown as the United Earth Government (UEG).  Despite wide public support for protesters and their demands the UEG refused to even negotiate with the protestors.  As a result, the protests turned violent.  Small but costly battles between insurrectionist factions and the UEG's military wing the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) raged across the galaxy.  These "small" battles cost millions of lives, many of them innocent civilians.

As the insurrection grew the UNSC wanted a smaller tactical force that could go behind enemy lines and take out their chains of command – essentially, they wanted assassination squads.

The USNC turned to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) – think the CIA – to develop such a team.  The result  was the Spartan program.  The best and the brightest in active duty military volunteered to undergo intense biological augmentation as well as grueling physical and mental training.  The 165 who adapted to the augmentation and passed the tests became Spartan Is.  The Spartan Is were fairly successful on early missions.  However, it quickly became clear that their abilities did not match expectations - that coupled with the cost of the program result in ONI pulling the plug.

But after the insurrection continued unabated for another 10 years there was renewed interest in the Spartan program.  The Spartan II program would be led by Dr. Catherine Halsey.  Dr. Halsey had studied the Spartan I program and believed she had the key to greater success.  She believed the intensity of the Spartan programs augmentation and training could not be successful if it was implemented on established soldiers – their mental and physical capacities had already been reached.  Instead the program needed to begin with younger subjects.  And by "younger", I mean no older than the age of 6.

The ONI team scoured the human genetic database looking for children with traits that would make them successful Spartans.  A number where identified.  Given the unlikelihood of Parents turning over their 6 years olds to become child soldiers, ONI instead turned to kidnapping.  And to mask the mass disappearance of 100s of 6 year olds, ONI left behind clones of the children so the parents would be none the wiser.  Sadly, these clones were not particularly healthy and all of them died within a few years.  Parents buried what they thought were their children, while unaware that their real children were still alive.

The selected 6 year olds were subject to intense physical and mental training that would be on par with SEAL training in the US military.  The indoctrination was so intense that all of the children would eventually forget details of their past - many would even forget their own names and would have to be assigned a new one.  Many died.  Others were killed when they tried unsuccessfully to escape.  When those who remained reached puberty the physical augmentation program began.  They were also fitted with a weaponized suit of Mjolnir Armor - each suit of armor could cost as much as a mid-size starship.  The results were incredible.  The Spartan IIs stood upward of 8ft tall; they had superhuman strength, agility and intelligence, were master strategists and could learn the most complex weapons systems in seconds.  One Spartan II stood out as the best – John 117 – better known as The Master Chief.

The Spartans were well on their way to eradicating the insurrection when the covenant struck the planet Harvest in the year 2525.  Their attention was diverted to deal with the grave alien threat.  If not for the Spartan program, humanity may not have survived the first Covenant onslaught.  In the year 2552 the Covenant attacked the planet Reach.  Reach was the home and the base of operations for the Spartan program.  When the planet was glassed every Spartan (except one) was killed.  The Master Chief narrowly escapes as the Pillar of Autumn enters slipspace and jumps away from the planet just before the planet is glassed.

While the Covenant war wages on, ONI attempts a third Spartan Program.  The Spartan IIIs were orphans who lost their parents in the Covenant war.  They have been described as Spartan IIs made on the cheap.  Unlike the kids in the Spartan II program, the orphans in the Spartan III program had not been genetically screened, so they were less capable of handling the stress of the training regiment. As a result fewer survived the training, and the ones that did were less mentally stable.  There were even fears that they would eventually go insane. 

After the covenant war ends ONI initiates a Spartan IV program.  There are very few details o the Spartan IVs, but they are expected to play a large role in the trilogy of games that begins with Halo 4.

So keep this in mind the next time you play Halo.  The Spartan that fans have come to know and love as the Master Chief was once a 6 year old ripped away from his parents, forced to go through the equivalent of Navy SEAL training, forced to undergo horribly painful physical augmentation all so UEG leaders could assassinate rebel leaders rather than give into their seemingly reasonable demands.   

Did I mention the Halo universe is deeper and darker than you might think.