Chapter One
March 17th, 2552, Seattle, Earth, ONI Military Hideout;
General Peterson walked up the hallway, and found himself stopped by two armed Guards. He held up his Clearance Card, and the guards saluted. He plugged it into the console in front of him, and placed his hand on the palm scanner. A blue light ran up his hand, and he felt a tingle from the scanner's nano-bot interface. The door clicked green and he strode in.
Before him were some of ONI's brightest Military Strategists, the old wise and gentle General Don Smith, the secretive Major Admiral James Kurt, the fiery Admiral Roxanne Gold, and the young but incredibly smart Corporal Frank Lice.
"General Peterson, how nice of you to join us, please take a seat." Said Smith, and Peterson pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Now to business." Said James Kurt, who, as the most senior of the group, was acting as the leader. "We all know why were here, but just as a refresher, here we go; were losing the war, the Spartan 2s are nearly extinct, and the Spartan 3s are take to long to train to be able to send them off to die on their first mission. Something new is needed, and I believe we may have found it." He gestured to a hologram of a soldier that Peterson instantly recognized, a Spartan 2.
"13 days ago, a new Spartan group finished their training, they are titled Spartan Deltas, and are the first group of what I hope to be many more Spartan units, they shipped out today, and are already on route to set up a listening base to spy on the covenant."
A series of holograms appeared before in front of each person sitting at the table, and Peterson leaned down to look at them.
"Before you are the training reports of the Spartan Deltas, as well as combat value/cost evaluations, and if you would take a moment to look them over, we can proceed with our meeting."
Peterson peered down at the holo-text, and read the reports, and was very impressed by what he saw. This new group had gotten so many things right that the others had gotten wrong, and he nearly burst out laughing when he saw how long it took to train them. Less than seven months!
"General these reports are impressive, but I must ask why you are showing us them, what value does it have to you?" asked Don Smith, and Peterson nodded his head. He too had been wondering about this.
"You ask a good question General, and here is you answer, I am showing these to you to get you to give me funding for the next phase of this Spartan Project, the Spartan Betas."
"Hmm, an interesting proposition Admiral, and though I do see the value of continuing this project, I would like some more details on what kind of fighting force they will be." Said Frank Lice.
"A grand one! They will be compromised of four teams, all color-coded, much like the Spartan Betas, with each team possessing six members. Their fighting prowess will greatly surpass their predecessors, and they will have a much smaller training time. They will be fielded Mark V6 MJOLNIR armor, and will carry newer-top line weapon models. Each team will focus on one particular talent, and will expand on it as much as possible. They will all be selected from the ODST and Marine forces, and will be subjected to the same "Over-Cap" that the Spartan Deltas were. They will also cost far less than any Spartan 2, and they will surve a second purpose, to test new armor. In short, they will expand and improve on everything that the earlier Spartans were, and more."
Peterson thought long and hard about these new spartans over the course of the rest of the meeting, which invovled the ongoing seiges of human planets, and the beefing up of forces in the inner colonies. Many different progects were discussed during the meeting, but in the end, when he was force to pick which of them would receive funding, he chose the Spartan Betas.
So did almost everyone else in the group, as he would learn years later.