The SPARTAN-IV Program was initiated by Admiral Margaret Parangosky after the Human-Covenant War. Instead of kidnapping young children to serve as SPARTANs, the IVs are volunteers from different branches of the military. 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 the young children. When the Program was installed, the remaining SPARTAN-III's were offered to be integrated into the SPARTAN-IV Program. The first active SPARTAN-IVs were already active by 2553, as some of them were temporarily assigned to the UNSC Infinity before it was scheduled to launch.
It's bullshit. I can think of no other way to describe it, utter bullshit.
Because ORION really went well the last 2 times humanity tried, right? Because after a few mere months when humanity should be rebuilding, there's suddenly a need to start spending billions on creating an army that isn't even needed...
Have you read Glasslands? The war didn't completely end with Halo 3.
Indeed, there were still factions of the covenant that believed in the great journey. Not to mention that there are still some highly religious factions of the Sangheili that are just waiting for a reason to start a war. The leaders of these factions aren't religious themselves and see that many of the Elites need something to cling to considering they just found out that everything they've been fighting for was a lie.
UNSC shouldve made spartan IVs in the first place. the war with the covenant wouldve ended much faster.
Also ORION/Spartan 1 was adult volunteers with no special armor or genetic enhancements.
Spartan 2 was kids taken from humanities planets before the Covenant even showed up. And they were extremely expensive, but they had the MJOLNIR armor and lots of genetic enhancements. However the enhancements kill almost half of the 70-something "recruits". Master Chief is a Spartan II. So was Jorge from Reach. But there were plenty of others that don't get mentioned in the games.
Spartan 3 was more kids with some genetic enhancements and less expensive and not as good SPI armor (Semi-Powered Infiltration suits). They were made in batches of around 300 and sent on high risk, high reward missions. Most of the 900 Spartan IIIs died long before the war was over. Noble Team (with the exception of Jorge) was composed of S-IIIs.
Spartan 4 sounds like it'll be ORION with MJOLNIR-type armor. Composed of volunteers.
I am not sure how successful it will be given that Haley won't be involved at all. On top of that the genetic enhancements have to be done to people that haven't grown fully.....according to the older books anyway.
I wonder if the story for the Spartan IV will be as simple as a competition against each other to prove they are ready or some such silliness like that.
Don't forget that S-III had biological advancements over the S-II program. It's true that some things they did were cheaper, but not everything. I expect that the S-IV program will build on that progress. Furthermore, we know from the Bear books that the Forerunners had incredibly advanced genetic engineering technology. Seeing as how the UNSC Infinity is already incorporating Forerunner engineering tech, it's not out of the realm of reasonableness that the S-IV program could also be incorporating Forerunner genetic tech. If that is the case, then the S-IVs may not need to be children to be genetically enhanced.
I'm not so sure Halsey won't be involved. At the end of Glasslands, she wasn't in the brig; she was working on a project. Even those who hate her, like Parangosky and Serin, recognize her brilliance; they won't pass her up as a usable resource.
I am not sure I would call them Biological advancements more like experiments. I felt that the controlled mutations that were done to help them where done to help them survive the trama that they went through in training and the missions. Where the S-II had time and proper training the S-III were always trained in a truncated way and thought of as disposable..sort of shove enough of these guys at them and we will win eventually. Just look at the fact that the first 2 groups where just about wiped out on there first mission and most of the 3rd is dead now on Onxy I am not sure if it is true but I have felt the S-II have always been superior....the S-III were even seen as slightly off by the S-II who called them twitchy.
I am not sure they can ever make other spartans as good as the S-II maybe I am just biased for the Master chief.
Another thing to consider is the fact that there were a total of 7 Halo rings to start with, each containing Flood "specimens" that were captured by the Forerunners. And we all know that the Flood is a bigger threat to humanity (and all life for that matter) than The Covenant. Plus the Halo rings themselves could easily destroy all life in the galaxy. Now of course Alpha Halo was destroyed but that still leave 6 Halo rings, each with Flood on board.
So my theory is that the UNSC wanted to create a new breed of super soldiers to track down all of the Halo rings and destroy them, along with the Flood. 343 is planning to make a Halo 4, 5, and 6. This new trilogy will be called the Reclaimer trilogy. And so to supplement my original theory, I think the main focus of this new trilogy will be about The Chief and the new Spartan IVs, tracking down all of the Halo rings and destroying them. I also believe that is why the Chief is called the "Reclaimer", because he will destroy the Flood and restore the Galaxy to the way it was when the Forerunners were still around. I also believe we will finally get to see what the Forerunners looked like.
But all of this is just my opinion so don't flame me if you disagree. It's just a theory.
I don't think they'll destroy the rings, because ONI knows that the Flood is a Precursor-created entity from an extragalactic location. Destroying the rings will destroy our ability to kill the Flood in that way WITHOUT destroying all of the Flood in the universe.
I think a new bad guy could be something like a section of ONI, or maybe all of it, that wants to utilize the rings as weapons, trying to find a way so they wipe out only a certain few sentient species. Likewise, there could be remnants of the Covenant trying for either the same goal, or just being the stupid religious idiots they were before
That is a good idea, it does get sort of monnotoness when it is the same, covnenat then flood sort of pattern. Time for some insurections maybe, that is what the spartans were created for orignally after all.
Halsey named her Spartan project starting with II as both a fresh start from Orion (using a different project name), but also a reference to it (starting it with 'II').
i thought they were named Spartan II's because they were training soldiers from a young age like the Spartans of Greece. A kind of homage to the greatest soldiers of ancient history
I kind of agree. I didn't use to think so, but the way she turned on Halsey is pretty astounding. She reveals that she had ALL this surveillance on the S-II program that Halsey didn't know about, but also claims that she didn't know that she created seventy-five full human clones?? That seems very unlikely. What seems more likely is that she did know, she didn't like it but she approved of it anyway, and now it's convenient for Parangosky to be mad at Halsey as a way of keeping Serin on her side (because Serin is legitimately angry at Halsey).
Parangosky did know about the clones eventually, but she reveals its not untill years later in the project. If you think about it Dr. Halsey is a cold harted monster knowing full well the clones would all die. Look at what it caused, in glasslands a parent of a spartan (Naomi). So angerd by the loss of his wife and child (he blamed on UNSC) he became a insurrectionist. Helping the cause she was working to beat.
Parangosky did know about the clones eventually, but she reveals its not untill years later in the project.
I agree with you that Halsey knew the clones were doomed, and that they were created to keep the project invisible, AND that they eventually caused Naomi's father to become an Innie leader. But the problem with the part I've quoted is that you are assuming that Parangosky is telling Halsey the truth. I do NOT assume that is the case.
Here's why I think she lied: When Parangosky is interrogating Halsey at the end of Glasslands, it's not an executioner's confession just before she has Halsey killed (if it were, THAT would be significantly more credible); instead, she keeps her alive and repurposes her to work on something at 03. Why WOULD she tell her the truth? Parangosky's facing the end of her career and her life; her primary purpose, throughout ALL of Glasslands, is to ensure that Serin can take over for her without any difficulties. That necessitates Parangosky creating as much distance between herself (who Serin worships) and Halsey (who Serin hates), because she wants Serin to follow in her footsteps.
Here's why I think it WAS a lie: "I'm the head of ONI, for God's sake. I've had copies of all of your records for many years." Based on this and the rest of the conversation (and GoO), it's pretty clear that the "many years" period includes the whole of the S-II project. And it's simply NOT believable that Halsey could have created 75 full human clones without that being very obvious in the records.
