James Ackerson’s Spartan-III Soldiers & Differences From Master Chief Explained

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Halo season 2, episode 6, “Onyx”

Halo season 2 has brought the UNSC’s Spartan-III soldiers to live-action. The next series in the Spartan program following Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schrieber) and his fellow Spartan-IIs, there are a few key differences between the two iterations of humanity’s best defense against the alien Covenant. However, there are also some differences in their origins between the core Halo canon and the version seen in the show’s “Silver Timeline”.

As seen in Halo season 2, episode 6, an army of armored Spartan-IIIs are introduced on the secret UNSC world of Onyx. However, these soldiers are brand-new and still need to be trained before they can be effective against the Covenant. To that end, here’s everything to know about the Spartan-III soldiers, their origins in the show compared to the original games, and how they are different from Master Chief and the Spartan-IIs created by Doctor Catherine Halsey.

Spartan-III Soldiers In The Core Halo Canon Explained

The Next Generation of the Spartan Program

In the Halo’s core canon, the Spartan-IIIs were a creation of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Specifically, they were the brainchild of Col. James Ackerson who developed the next iteration of Spartans in secret from the Spartan program’s original director Doctor Catherine Halsey who wouldn’t discover their existence until around the Fall of Reach. Although the Spartan-IIs such as John-117 were seen as a complete success, it was the belief of ONI that there were far too few of them to be effective when it came to giving humanity the ability to meaningfully push back against Covenant forces.

Following Col. Ackerson’s proposal and approval in 2531, the UNSC’s first Spartan-III soldiers known as Alpha Company began training in secret on Onyx at Camp Curahee. Although the majority of Spartan-IIIs wore Semi-Powered Infiltration armor, some were granted the more powerful Mjolnir armor when and if they were pulled to form special units such as Halo: Reach‘s Noble Team. To that end, the number of Spartan-IIIs operating under ONI’s orders quickly began to outnumber the Spartan-IIs, though the Spartan-III program and Gamma Company were disbanded in its official capacity in 2553, approximately one year after Reach.

How The Origins Of The Halo Show’s Spartan-IIIs Are Different

Post-Fall of Reach

There are notable differences between the Spartan-IIIs from the games and books compared the ones who have debuted in Halo season 2 and its “Silver Timeline”. For instance, the Spartan-IIIs in the show are not yet combat-ready even after the Fall of Reach, hence Kai-125’s role who initially agreed to help train Ackerson’s first recruits on Onyx. To that end, Ackerson and ONI are also using the memory of Master Chief to inspire the Spartan-IIIs, even though he’s still alive despite their efforts to bring about the opposite by leaving him and his fellow Spartan-IIs on Reach without their armor.

While the show’s version of Halsey doesn’t seem to know about the Spartan-IIIs either, she’s currently on Onyx as seen in Halo season 2, episode 6. This means it’s only a matter of time before she learns about them, though likely in a more direct way on-screen. Furthermore, the Spartan-IIIs seen thus far are all wearing the traditional SPI armor, and Noble Team was not featured in Halo season 2’s Fall of Reach at all. Combined with the fact that Cortana was taken by the Covenant, it’s unclear if Noble Team exists at all in the “Silver Timeline”.

How Are Spartan-IIIs Different From Master Chief and Spartan-IIs?

Cheaper And Greater Numbers

Just because the Spartan-IIIs are the next generation doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily superior to the Spartan-IIs. To that end, the whole purpose of the Spartan-IIIs was to be a cheaper and more expendable option for the ONI who struggled with the fact that Spartan-IIs were far too few and costly to produce. For one thing, Spartan-IIs carried a large amount of expense due to their various physical augmentations that several recruits wouldn’t even survive.

It also didn’t help that Spartan-IIs had to be carefully selected by Catherine Halsey from childhood based on a strict set of genetic criteria, hence their smaller numbers. Conversely, Spartan-IIIs were recruited from across the various colony worlds, many of them coming from planets the Covenant had invaded and destroyed. To that end, large elements of the Spartan-III training regimens centered around forging the collective desire for vengeance into a more focus military discipline and motivation, one centered on teamwork to achieve victory at any cost.

Furthermore, Spartan-II Mjolnir armor was far more expensive compared to the SPI armor given to the vast majority of the Spartan-IIIs. To that end, the entire idea was to create a new Spartan that was cheaper and far more expendable. This allowed the ONI to produce countless more Spartans, trade more lives for more time against the alien Covenant forces.

As a result, ONI’s intentional recklessness with Spartan-III lives was a key reason why their existence was hidden from Halsey for so long. Despite all the moral dilemmas, she did care about the Spartans she helped create such as Master Chief John-117. As such, ONI’s motivations and purpose behind the Spartan-IIIs creation looks to be the same in the Halo show as well.