One Last Stand for NATO

ORION Project Generation II

"Your mistake is seeing SPARTANs as military hardware and killers. Our SPARTANs are humanity's and Faunus' next step--our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them."

— Dr. Pietro Polendina

"You know what we did to create the Spartans. All in the name of the greater good."

— Dr. Catherine Ironwood(Daughter of the late James Ironwood)

The ORION Project Generation II, was part of the SPARTAN Program, an effort to produce elite soldiers through mechanical and biological augmentation. The program would be the first in the series to meld advanced exoskeleton technology with the soldiers' superior physiques.

In the small years between 2040 - 2060 following the US presidential election of November, 2039. The effectiveness of special forces units and Huntsmen at combating the rogue bandits and Grimm had became too large and wide for them to manage. As they became more effective and the military's responses consequently become more forceful, the need for medium scale military campaigns became more and more obvious. The ORION Project Gen II was conceived by both Dr. Pietro Polendina of NATO Section III's Special Projects Division and Dr. Catherine Ironwood of Mantle Section II's Special Projects Division as the successors to the ORION Project and the best possible solution to end the widespread insurgency that raged throughout Remnant. The project was created with several goals in mind. The first was to create a group of elite soldiers meant to subdue insurgency in their infancy, without substantial military casualties. The second goal was to minimize civilian casualties and avert civil war. The third goal was to substantially reduce the cost of conventional means of pacification.

Catherine's proposal for the project detailed radical changes in many different fields. The first and most controversial was the subjects themselves, who were selected by a gene-candidate pool, and fit into a certain age restriction protocol (eight years old to sixteen years old). They also possessed superior physical and mental attributes when compared to other children and teens their age. This narrowed the candidates down to minors who would be raised and taught in the art of warfare and military values from a young age, which cannot be taught to older enlisted personnel. Using such questionable means of creating a soldier meant that the project would have to be carried out under the highest levels of secrecy and authority.

Though conventional body armor had served to protect soldiers for years, the ORION Project Gen II's second radical change involved integrating the subject with a new powered exoskeleton device, designed to help keep its user safe and provide a powerful means of combating enemy forces. The drawback of this new armor is its requirement for augmenting the subject, effectively turning the SPARTANs into super soldiers.

Despite the tremendous risk and the unethical means of creating new soldiers, the ORION Project Gen II got the green light by the top brass, who concluded that the lives that could be saved far outweighed the risks involved. The project was initially granted funding for 300 candidates, though funding was later reduced to half this number. By 2050, 150 suitable candidates had been identified through DNA gathered from a vaccination program, but funding was further reduced to support again, only half that number. A grand total of 75 candidates.

Two of them being Ivar Frank Eksinud-Takahashi and Washington Towson-Takahashi.

Training

"First we taught them how to be silent. Then we taught them how to be Spartans."

— Dr. Catherine Ironwood

The SPARTAN-II candidates, were taken to a facility in Colorado, and began their training under Nobleus Eversor and General of The United States Marine Corps Dustin Walker. To marginalize the civilian lives they had once led, their callsigns were a combination of their first names and numbered service tag, with second names being discarded or classified. The SPARTANs endured a great deal of hardship during their first years of training: they were placed into situations and drills that pushed their abilities to their very limit and beyond. Their hard training was complemented with college-level education, which included mathematics, science, physics, reading, writing, and military tactics. Although their training methodology was tough, even brutal and violent in some aspects, both always instilled discipline, honor, and respect into the SPARTANs. He taught the SPARTANs how to kill, but at the same time he taught them the difference between right and wrong. both trained the SPARTAN's until at a certain age, they would go through the toughest part of their training: the biological augmentation procedures, which would render 12 of the 75 conscripted, who would wash out of the SPARTAN-II program, injured. Additionally, while the procedures were taking place the candidates were unconscious, a state where they should have felt no pain, the Spartans felt enormous pain throughout the process, with each augmentation having its own type of pain. Subsequently, some of those which were adversely affected by the augmentation process went on to join the Task Force SWAT, while others were given an honorable or medical discharge; aside from the 63 which survived the procedures with no physiological deformities. At least some of the candidates who were crippled were eventually rehabilitated. Several elements of the candidates' training were kept secret from Catherine that only Dr. Pietro and General of The United States Army Mihaly Macnamara (who worked on the project with her) knew about.

A list of names for the 63 candidates who survived the augmentation procedures in the ORION Project Generation II:

1) Ivar Frank Eksinud-Takahashi

2) Washington Towson-Takahashi

3) Rei Shimizu

4) Kaito Nakamura

5) Emi Kobayashi

6) Jace Alder

7) Nell Macnamara

8) Remy Valois

9) Caden Mercer

10) Aurora Vega

11) Lucas Chen

12) Freya Bjornsdottir

13) Zara Khan

14) Asher Reyes

15) Isla Rivera

16) Kai O'Brien

17) Nina Vasquez

18) Leif Eriksson

19) Elara Wolfe

20) Dante Russo

21) Selene Li

22) Jaxon Parker

23) Amara Singh

24) Rhys Morgan

25) Mira Patel

26) Atlas Cross

27) Thalia Ocampo

28) Greyson Bennett

29) Talia Sane-Westin

30) Lee Malachite-Avancini

31) Kaia Fujimoto

32) Ryker Sullivan

33) Eris Ramirez

34) Kiera Matthews

35) Declan Wallace

36) Nova Alvarez

37) Ashlyn Tran

38) Aiden Lewis

39) Skylar Brooks

40) Evie Chang

41) Eliana Silva

42) Zephyr Thompson

43) Thea Wright

44) Sterling Fox

45) Seraphina Yu

46) Pho Eksinud

47) Juno Santiago

48) Kaiya L/n

49) Mika Patel

50) Rowan Foster

51) Iris Watson

52) Sebastian Ortiz

53) Lila Jensen

54) Kieran Flynn

55) Sienna Miller

56) Paxton Hayes

57) Adira Gupta

58) Remi Castillo

59) Sloane Harper-Park

60) Aspen Campbell

61) Phoenix Khan-Fernandes

62) Callie Pierce

63) Shiho Nishizumi

This list provides a variety of names for the candidates who successfully underwent the augmentation procedures, showcasing a diverse group of individuals with the potential to become elite soldiers in the SPARTAN-II program.