Editing SPARTAN-II training

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[[File:BL Black vs Red.png|right|thumb|350px|Spartan trainees fighting with paintball rounds.]]The key to the [[Spartan-II]]s' seeming invincibility and matchlessness in combat has always been their training, honing their finesse even outside of wearing [[MJOLNIR]] armor, and making them superior in strength, speed, accuracy, reaction times, and intelligence to all other UNSC military personnel.

== The Beginning ==
Between [[2511]] and [[2517]], 150 five to six year old children were selected from near perfect psychological and genetic markers that were set in [[Dr. Halsey]]'s selection protocols. The children were screened for certain genetic markers: strength, agility, even predispositions for aggression and intellect. But due to lack of facilities and funding, only 75 children were chosen for the program. The other half of the 150 original candidates were "weeded out" possibly through chance luck, the single flip of a coin<ref>'''Halo: The Fall of Reach'''</ref>.

Between August 17 and September 23, 2517, the accepted candidates were taken from their homes in the middle of the night, injected with a sedative, and rushed through [[Slipspace]] to [[Reach]], where they were going to be trained. They were only recently brought out of cryosleep when [[Dr. Halsey]] told them that they would be indoctrinated into the UNSCDF to defend [[Earth]] and all her colonies, and that they could not return to their parents, that there would be a great deal of hardship on the road ahead, encouragement, and various other things. The children were then escorted to barracks where they had a meal, and went to bed at around 2330 hours.

== Boot Camp ==
=== September 24, 2517 ===
The [[Spartan-II Program|Spartans]] were rudely awakened early in the morning by [[Franklin Mendez|CPO Franklin Mendez]] and his instructors at 05:30 hours. Mendez ordered them to go to the showers and those who hesitated were hit with an [[Electric Baton]] as "encouragement". After that they went outside and [[Franklin Mendez|CPO Mendez]] ran them through 100 reps of jumping jacks, sit ups, deep squats, knee bends, and leg lifts.

Afterward, Mendez and the instructors jogged them about a mile to [[Déjà]], a "dumb" [[Artificial intelligence|AI]] that taught them a wide variety of lessons, including mathematics, science and history between physical training. Their first lesson was a video of the original Greek [[wikipedia:Spartans|Spartans]] fighting against Persian soldiers at Thermopylae. Then they jogged two miles to the "Playground", a maze in mid-air with a bell at the top, where they were divided into teams of three. The last team to reach the bell at the end would not get supper, as an incentive to win. Though [[John-117]] reached the bell first, his other team-mates were last, forcing them all to do without supper.

===September 25, 2517===
The Spartans were woken, took their showers and did their morning calisthenics and ran a mile to Déjà. Their lesson was about a pack of wolves hunting moose. After the lesson they ran the two miles to the playground, which had been changed and was much more complicated.

===September 26, 2517 - July 11, 2519===
In this time Mendez taught them to strip a trip line, fire a rifle, and treat a chest wound. Mendez's exercises often had a twist to them such as stun mines on the obstacle course, snipers with paint guns during parade drills, and others. They were taught to be strong in body and mind.

===July 12, 2519===
[[File:Highlands05.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Military Wilderness Training Preserve]].]]
Two years later, Mendez took them to the [[Military Wilderness Training Preserve]].

Pieces of paper were distributed, fragments of a map of the local region that had been shredded. They were set down alone to navigate to the marked extraction point and picked up there by an [[D96-TCE Albatross|Albatross]]. They were told that the last one to the extraction point would be left behind and have to walk back.

Instead, however, the Spartans combined their strengths to meet up together at a lake near to the LZ. They discovered a Albatross dropship, as promised, but the occupants were not in uniform and carried live-ammunition weapons. The Spartans lured the men into an ambush, either knocking them out or killing them, and hijacked the Albatross, using Deja to pilot it back to base. John made sure he was last to board the Albatross to make sure that nobody else would have to walk home.

John was made team leader for his planning of the Spartans reaction to the training operation.

===July 14, 2523===
For even more serious training, the Spartan-II's were matched against the formidable [[Tango Company]] in simulated wargames. Still only 12 years old at the time, the Spartans were nevertheless able to continuously beat Tango Company. Eventually, the men of the company resorted to brutality as a form of payback, with "accidents" occurring with Spartans captured in the wargames. Eventually, Tango Company's CO, furious at his men's inability to stop the Spartans, ordered them to use live rounds instead of stun rounds.

===September 11, 2525===
The newly augmented Spartans were transferred to an abandoned Titanium mine on Reach to enhance secrecy and reduce the injury risk to other personnel. Due to the uneven strength, speed, intelligence and accuracy of the Spartans, their trainers were forced to don inadequate powered armor simply to keep up with them. Training missions invariable ended in a victory for the Spartans, with even security cameras neutralized. It is unknown whether the trainers were members of [[Tango Company]] or not. 

==Sources==
<references/>

==Related Pages==
*[[Reach]]
*[[Military Wilderness Training Preserve]]

{{SpartanPrograms}}
[[Category:Spartans]]