Gamma Company

"They’re going to make mistakes. But if they, or the UNSC, don’t get themselves killed, I believe they’re going to turn into some of the finest Spartans we’ve ever seen."

- Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose

Gamma Company was the third and final class of the, a classified initiative by the of  to mass-produce cheap and expendable supersoldiers in response to the increasingly desperate. Identified in early 2544 when they were five years old on average, most of the three hundred and thirty candidates were chosen because they had been orphaned by the Covenant, though more exceptions to this rule existed in Gamma than either of the previous classes. Brought to Onyx in the, a planet which did not officially exist in databases, the recruits received seven years of the most advanced special forces training available before going through the augmentations of  in 2551, spending almost two years afterward recovering and acclimating to their new abilities before the Gammas were deployed in 2552. Instead of operating as a single unit like their predecessors, Gamma Company’s individual teams were distributed between many different theaters over the last months of the Human-Covenant War, with a handful staying behind to compete for top honors being caught in the, some taking part in operations against the , and the majority taking part in the across the planet. The company was never completely reunited, with many teams reassigned to organizations and branches they had fought with on Earth, and many more incorporated into the. While Gamma Company ceased to exist as a unit in 2553, many of its members retained their alphanumerical tags and still proudly referred to themselves as Gammas.

Augmentation
"They’re ready. I hope we are. We’re taking a hell of a risk."

- LCDR Ambrose, aboard the UNSC Hopeful.

Augmentations

 * Main Article: 

While the most intensive phase of augmentation occurred in 2551, the final preparation of Gamma Company's recruits for the process began nine months earlier in May 2550, with Commander Ambrose briefing them on the extent and risk of augmentation and offering them the choice to go through with it, which all three-hundred and thirty candidates accepted. They were introduced to a modified diet which contained several vitamin and mineral supplements to maximize their physical development, in addition to mild growth hormones, artificially inducing puberty in the candidates to accelerate their bodies' growth to full maturity. On February 19th, 2551, Gamma Company was brought aboard the to undergo the chemical augmentation procedures themselves, and required a final recovery phase to heal and adapt to the results which lasted for more than a year.

The augmentations themselves were based upon the procedures performed on their SPARTAN-II predecessors, but with the benefit of more than two and a half decades' worth of advancement making them much safer for the augmentees. Since Alpha Company, the augmentations had been induced chemically rather than surgically, a practice which continued with Gamma. Though the procedures administered to each class prior to Gamma had experienced a high rate of fatal complications, research by Beta Company washout Aspen-B145 was able to finally bring the casualty rate of the SPARTAN Program down to zero percent, with every member of Gamma surviving augmentation. In individual partitions, the candidates were sedated and infused with shock reducers, analgesics, anti-inflammatories, anticoagulants, and pH buffering drugs to stabilize them while the body-altering augmentations took effect, which included: Unknown to all but Lieutenant Commander Ambrose, Colonel Ackerson, and a handful of ONI personnel, however, three additions were made to the drug compounds which modified the brains of Gamma Company's members in direct violation of the ' ban on brain alteration procedures: These additions were secretly pushed for by Ambrose, under the belief that they would provide the Spartans with a better chance of survival. In situations of extreme stress, the Gammas would be able to access a more primal and aggressive part of their brain and call upon boundless reserves of strength and endurance, while ignoring the effects of normally-lethal system-wide shock. The cost at which this came, however, was potentially devastating. Without monthly boosters of cyclodexione and miso-olanzapine, the mutagen would have a negative effect on higher brain function and could potentially be fatal.
 * 8942-LQ99, a carbide ceramic ossification catalyst which hardened the subject's skeletal structure to the point of being virtually unbreakable.
 * 88005-MX77, a fibroid muscular protein complex which increased the density and strength of muscle tissue.
 * 88947-OP24, a retina-inversion stabilizer which significantly improved the eye's sharpness and granted the subject virtually-perfect night vision.
 * 87556-UD61, a drug which reacted with the augmentations' colloidal neural disunification solution to boost reaction time.
 * Cyclodexione-4, a bipolar integration drug.
 * Miso-olanzapine, an anti-psychotic drug.
 * 009762-OO, a non-carcinogenic mutagenic compound which altered critical regions of the brain's frontal lobe.

These consequences have manifested only two known times, and differently in each. The first occurred in the infamous traitor Simon-G294 after his separation from the UNSC, and resulted in the development of an alternate persona which was dubbed "Stray," potentially a side-effect of being denied the bipolar integration drug. The second was in Amber-G330 after her desertion, and irrevocably altered her previous personality and morals to the point of being unrecognizable. In 2558, however, through helping Simon deal with the effects of the mutagen, derelict Spartan Cassandra-G006 developed a drug compound which permanently eliminated the need for boosters in a member of Gamma Company, effectively curing those who acquired it of the condition, though any damage already done was irreparable.

Personnel
Members = Teams = Staff =
 * Officers
 * Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose – Project Leader
 * Lieutenant Commander Fhajad Jalgaonkar - Visiting Instructor
 * Lieutenant Erin Coney – Recruiting Consultant, Intelligence Instructor
 * Enlisted
 * Senior Chief Petty Officer – Head Drill Instructor
 * Petty Officer First Class Jack-050 - Drill Instructor
 * Staff Sergeant Pete Stacker – Drill Instructor
 * Petty Officer Second Class Tom-B292 – Drill Instructor
 * Petty Officer Second Class Lucy-B091 – Drill Instructor
 * Petty Officer Third Class Theodore-A399 – Drill Instructor
 * Hospital Corpsman Aspen-B145 – Medical Officer, Instructor
 * Civilians
 * Doctor – Chief Medical Officer
 * Professor – Child Psychiatrist
 * Artificial Intelligence Deep Winter – Support AI, Educational Instructor

Equipment

 * Developed specifically for the SPARTAN-IIIs, SPI Armor utilized to create an invisibility effect not quite as advanced as Covenant  technology, but also masked the wearer’s infrared signature, which active camo only amplified. The Mark II iteration refined this system and incorporated a camouflaged backpack and pouches while also improving on the liquid nanocrystal ballistics layer and integrated electronic software used for everything from ammunition counters to interior temperature control. While its hardened exterior plates couldn’t take nearly as much punishment as MJOLNIR Armor and lacked their, it was far more resilient than Marine or ODST BDUs. Every member of Gamma Company was trained in Mark II SPI, and while many later advanced to MJOLNIR, it served them all well in its time.
 * A more lightweight, cut-down variant of ’s assault rifle, the MA5K carbine was designed for special operations personnel, capable of single or automatic fire modes and compatible with a wide range of attachments suited to specific situations. The MA5Ks used standard-issue by the SPARTAN-III trainees were modified with photoreactive panels to match the camouflage technology of the SPI Armor, providing them with offensive capabilities while remaining completely undetectable.
 * Iconic as the armor worn by the renowned SPARTAN-IIs, many SPARTAN-IIIs later were granted their own suits of MJOLNIR during or after the Human-Covenant War, as their augmentations placed them among the few strong enough to wear them. Most of the Gammas were given the less-powerful GEN2 armor when they were assimilated into the SPARTAN-IV Program, but others managed to secure more powerful Mark V or even Mark VI armor left over after the deaths of so many Spartans at Reach just a month before the Great War’s end. It had many advantages over SPI, with a reverse-engineered personal energy shield being the most prominent.