- Shai Hulud
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.
I've seen many threads in this forum proposing the idea of a "class 2" of SPARTAN-IIs that had been somewhat hinted at in the Halo novels and would explain the high classification numbers of Sierra 259 and Sierra 320 from the Reach trailer. While this is a fairly plausible idea and would indeed explain the higher numbers of the assumed-to-be-Spartans from the trailer, I think I found a sort of stick-in-the-mud in Ghosts of Onyx:
From pages 62 - 63:
Ackerson stared at him a moment, then seemed to look through Kurt, past him. "I want you to train the next generation of Spartans."
Kurt blinked, taking in what Ackerson had just said, not quite understanding. "Sir, I was under the impression that Chief Petty Officer Mendez had been reassigned years ago to carry out that mission."
"The effort to train additional SPARTAN-IIs was postponed indefinitely by Dr. Catherine Halsey," Ackerson said. "There were other candidates within the gene pool, but they were out of synch with her age restriction protocols. And with the continuing war, her program funds were . . . diverted."
Kurt had always presumed other Spartans were being trained, that he and his fellows were the first in what would be a long line of Spartans. He'd never considered they might be the first, and the last, of their kind.
So this seems to suggest that there was not a second class of SPARTAN-IIs, or at least that there was going to be one, but it was discontinued. Personally, I would believe this to be the case, but I do understand that there are a few things that give reason to take these words with a grain of salt:
1.) Ackerson could be lying. Given his attitude towards Dr. Halsey and the SPARTAN-II program, this would not be unlikely.
2.) Ackerson could simply not have access to information regarding a second line of SPARTAN-IIs because of his attempts at sabotaging the first class.
3.) Though the novels are pretty close to canon, I'm sure Bungie retains the ability to rewrite what's been written in order to fit their concept of a new game. Judging by the complete lack of a reference to the remaining Spartans before the events of Halo 2 and Ghosts of Onyx in the actually game of Halo 2, I would also not consider this to be unlikely.
Let me know what you folks think. I'd be interested to see counter-arguments.