Though attempts were made to procure a beneficial deal with RKD, the developers of the Hayabusa armor, this proved to still put the project above its limited budget. Though the bulk of these recruits were made up of a much lesser genetic stock than that of the original SPARTAN-IIs, a chosen few were nearly equal to them, and would end up proving their worth in the field much like their predecessors.įinancial difficulties were dealt with by cutting several planned sub-operations of the project from the budget, most notably the development of MJOLNIR suits. In the end, this allowed for the identification of a total of seventy-five candidates, although fifteen of these ended up killed in Covenant attacks on their respective homeworlds before they could be successfully abducted. To counter the recruitment problem, the set genetic parameters were loosened, thus allowing more subjects to be identified – despite the obvious risk that this would increase the loss of recruits in the augmentations procedure.
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However, recruitment and funding proved to be difficult the former because most children of the suitable genetic characteristics had been picked clean by the recruitment/abduction efforts of Class II and Beta Company, the latter conversely because the elements of ONI that backed the project did not have access to the full resources of HIGHCOMM. Out of desperation within certain elements of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the project was approved and head started in 2540. Though initially called Project ARES, most who worked with the project referred to it as Class III of the SPARTAN-II Program. Yet, the demand for Spartans wasn't satisfied in late 2539, Rear Admiral Ned Rich – head of the Delta-4 Division – started to collect funding and gather expert drill instructors and scientists to begin another SPARTAN Project. Thus, Class II of the SPARTAN-II Program and Beta Company for SPARTAN-III were approved in 2537 – though the latter would have to search for viable recruits for some time before finally kicking off training in 2539. With their impressive service records, many in the UNSC's top echelon decided that the Spartans were humanity's best hope of survival, and backed continuations of the programs. With the fall of the outer colonies and the steady loss of more of the inner colonies, the only units found to be able to produce extraordinary success rates in battle against the Covenant were the commandos of Class I SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III Alpha Company.