Epimetheus Programme



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"Unless the political situation throughout the Colonies is stabilized (preferably by force), the Government will collapse, and civil war will rip Human society apart."

- Dr. Elias Carver 2491

The Epimetheus Programme was a programme initiated by three ONI Section III figureheads, to covertly mitigate the risks associated with genetically, and surgically, augmenting individuals in an attempt to create supersoldiers. To that end, the three individuals came together, pooled their resources, connections, and funds to create the Epimetheus Programme; a secondary sister project to Orion Project Generation II, that would locate experimental subjects from the destitute masses of Reach, and perform experiments on them involving samples of the genetic and surgical augmentations planned for use by the mainline Spartan Programme itself. Their hope in doing so was that they may be able to garner some useful information, from the way candidates without the predetermined genetic markers would react to the procedures.

For the sake of cataloging a diverse range of data, candidates were selected from ages older and younger than those of the original SII Candidates, as well as chosen based on an absence, rather than the presence, of the genetic markers deemed necessary by Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey. It bears mentioning that the programme never intended to field actual surviving candidates. The failure rates, and risks associated with performing the procedure on unsuitable candidates, were deemed too high to allow for viable surviving candidates.

The programme was never meant to operate beyond three years, at most, and was never meant to perform surgical and genetic augmentations on more than one batch of candidates. The three programme leads never suspected that their actions would have consequences beyond mere data collection, and they considered any potential survivors to be rare, fringe cases, and severely physically handicapped cases at that.

Such considerations proved to be false following the augmentation of fifty initial experimental candidates.

=Background:=

"The Greater Good is neither good nor great. It is merely the maintenance of the status-quo; clinging to the only system we've found so far that works in governing colonies, and offworld territories. By the time the 26th century rolled around, that control, and the system in control, were both beginning to fail.""

- Dr. Charles Monroe, private journal, 2532 (seized by ONI, 2553)

The Office of Naval Intelligence has long stood by its doctrine of seeking out the enemies of Earth, and her colonies, through methods and means that other organisations would decry as immoral. To the Office, the ends justify the means, and the chance to save human lives at the cost of other lives spent in that pursuit is not only morally right to do so, but justifiable in the sense of assets spent vs assets retained. To work in the Office is to be faced with a daily approximation of the Trolley Problem, where—by either action or by inaction—lives will be lost. The goal of every person in the Office of Naval Intelligence is not only to pull that lever with no hesitation, so as to ensure the lowest possible casualty count, but to do so with the confidence to know that what they did was unequivocally the right, and the moral, choice to make.

That mindset is what allowed the Office to operate in its capacity for centuries following the Domus Diaspora, and what still allows it to function as an organisation, and as an intelligence agency. To that end, top officials within ONI not only greenlit the Orion Project, Generation ii, but approved the Epimetheus Programme for provisional operations, performing experiments on candidates deemed by the Office as 'acceptable losses'.

The risks of said operations, inherent to the use of surgical and genetic augmentations, was deemed to be well-within acceptable parameters by both artificial, and organic minds. This was especially true given the potential benefits; these soldiers would stem the tide of Insurrection and rebellion among the Outer Colonies, saving countless lives from inevitable civil war and averting the dissolution of human interstellar civilisation.

=Inception=

"Everyone knew drastic measures were necessary, but no one wanted to commit. Until, of course, she came along to take the fall. If she hadn't, far more corpses would line the tables of the medical wards, and we would've gone into the Great War with far less hope than we had."

- Dr. Charles Monroe, private journal, 2532.

At the turn of the twenty sixth century, the effectiveness of small-scale operations, and elite special forces units, at combating the insurrectionists had already begun to diminish. The Insurrectionist movement quickly became far too large for the UNSC to contain with mere peacekeeping operations. As Insurrectionists became more numerous, more brutal, and more effective, the military's responses consequently become more forceful; the need for large scale military campaigns became more obvious. Civil strife became normalised, and radicalisation of civilian elements at the hand of an increasingly-draconian parent state reached a tipping point.

The Office began re-examining, and cross-referencing studies such as the Carver Report, published in 2491 by Dr. Elias Carver, and came to much the same conclusion as was presented in said reports; if severe force was not used to mitigate the snowballing unrest in the Outer Colonies, then the planets would cede, and human society would be torn apart by conflict and mass-death. The Office vowed to prevent this from happening, by any means necessary.

A host of programmes were greenlit by ONI Brass in an effort to combat the increasingly hostile attitudes of the Outer Colonies. While the UNSC engaged hostile forces with brute force, ONI saw the need for more effective, surgical strikes performed by elite, highly-trained units. However, the effectiveness of standard Special Operations Forces, and subsequent small-scale units, were noticably failing to achieve desired results. This new generation of teams would need to be something else—something new. The Orion Project, Generation II, under Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, was approved, and by 2517, one hundred and fifty (150) suitable candidates were identified for genetic and surgical augmentations.

While the long-term goals of the programme were known to various ONI officials, the extent of the genetic augmentations and surgical procedures these candidates would undergo, was known only to a few. Admiral Abigail Daltona of Section III was one such individual, and correctly assumed that many of the candidates would perish during the procedures, and many more unnecessary deaths would occur among the augmented candidates, unless drastic steps were taken to study the effects of the process on human subjects, before the augmentation procedures were undertaken in the mainline programme.

Admiral Daltona approached Dr. Charles Monroe, of ONI's bioscience research, and presented the idea of working alongside him to experiment with newly-created augmentations, never-before seen or used on human subjects. The Doctor agreed, on the condition that every available measure be taken to increase the chances of survival, and if the opportunity arose, that he and his team would be given a chance to save the life of the subject. The Admiral agreed to these terms, and the two began compiling a report on their proposed project, to submit to the same ONI brass that reviewed and accepted the proposal for Orion Generation II.

=Necessity=

"We are at a tipping point, and all of us here have decided that the cost of doing nothing has become too great. We decided, all of us, that we would do something. Halsey is a visionary, and by all accounts the most brilliant young mind in human space, but even she cannot see all outcomes, and she would rather hide in her lab with her chemicals, injecting apes, as if that would do anything. You asked me what the cost would be, and I ask you what is the cost of doing nothing?"

- Admiral Abigail Daltona, addressing ONI Brass, 2517.

While the initial draft of the proposal for Project Epimetheus was outright rejected, and lambasted by ONI Officials as both a waste of time and lives, the Admiral and the Doctor continued to gather support in the form of colleagues within similar divisions. Dr. Monroe recruited surgeons and technicians trained in the use of automatic surgery units, while the Admiral approached a Major Briggenshaw of Section III for security purposes, as well as for the potential selection of candidates.

With newfound support, and a plan of action that would be compartmentalised in the event of information leak, the trio of head staff attempted once more to present their findings to the top brass. Again, they were refused, until Dr. Monroe drew their attention to an enclosed simulation of critical augmentation failure; a worst-case scenario in which the bodies of the candidates rejected each and every planned surgical or genetic augmentation, and entered into a state of catastrophic cascade failure, resulting in the violent and painful deaths of the candidates. Dr. Monroe warned those gathered that, unless they proceeded to experiment with human trials, so as to better understand the procedure, this fate could very well have befallen each and every single one of the 150 planned Orion Generation II Candidates.

The question was immediately raised by brass of whether or not this very same fate would befall the experimentation subjects themselves, to which no answer was given, aside from a statement on the cost of doing nothing, instead of doing what they could.

Three days later, in October of 2517 the plan for the Epimetheus Project was accepted by ONI officials, and the vetting process for selection of candidates could begin.

=Turmoil=

While the board may have approved the use of a certain number of civilian subjects for trial purposes, they did not authorise the use of Prowlers, transports, nor access to the same records as used by personnel on the Orion II programme, effectively severing the project's access to a majority of the colony worlds outside of the Epsilon-Eridani system, and making them unable to select candidates from off-world.

While the Orion II project numbers were cut to half of their goal of three hundred subjects, then cut down to half again when the time came to gather the subjects, the candidates left over were not available for testing, as they were deemed too valuable. When a request was made by Admiral Daltona to have access to the rejected candidates, the request was denied, and a subpoena put in place, summoning the three heads of Epimetheus to a hearing with the heads of the ONI review boards. During the hearing, it was ruled that the project would not have access, nor information regarding, the rejected candidates. This decision could not be appealed, and prevented future requests in perpetuity.

Despite the difficulties faced during the selection and vetting process, the project still had access to Reach, and the surrounding Epsilon-Eridani system, including Tribute, Epsilon Eridani IV, Circumstance, Beta Gabriel, Tantalus, and of course Reach. While Beta Gabriel had limited supplies of suitable candidates, due in part to it being a resort world rather than a full-fledged colony world

The decision was made to select candidates from impoverished areas of the planets, typically orphans, or destitute children living with carers on the streets, or living on the edges of society. Acceptable candidates would be those who were already stealing to survive, or turning to a life of petty crime at a young age. Ages of the candidates would be between six to fifteen, so as to form a solid base of reference when stacked against the Orion II candidates, who were all of similar ages to the younger variables. Older candidates were used purely as a reference point, and were not expected to survive the process unharmed.

With the political situation of the project already turning grim, the choice was made to deploy Agents, in secret, among civilian transports and cargo freighters. These Agents would embed themselves in areas of high crime, high poverty, and high rates of homelessness when compared to the surrounding areas. They would seek out candidates of an acceptable age bracket, and of appropriate potential as assets to the project.

Major R. Briggenshaw took it upon himself to personally search for candidates in the Viery territory of Reach, namely, in and around the coastal city of Zvolic, while maintaining a network of Agents and operatives on the surrounding mainland continent of Eposz.

Within seven weeks, thirty two candidates were identified, and a further fifty were vetted and approved up until the end of the following February of 2518.

=Codename:BONOBO=

"The terms I joined your little project on are still in effect, Admiral. If even one life can be saved by my efforts, then I will gladly devote my time and energy towards that goal. One life can make all the difference."

- Dr. Charles Monroe, Januray 15th 2518

While would later apply the augmentative procedure to Bonobo chimps, in a similar effort to gather data on the process, and the many ways it could fail, Epimetheus initiated Codename: BONOBO, named so after the early twentieth century genetic experiments on relatives of mankind in the ape family.

Codename: BONOBO was the name given to the augmentative process itself. A highly-intensive, and invasive, surgical procedure would be needed in order to fully ensure the augmentations would take, and Dr. Monroe matched that intensity to that of the training his medical staff received. Technicians kept their automatic surgical units in top condition, while the surgeons themselves practiced on precision with flash-cloned organs and dummies. Nothing could prepare them for the real thing, but Dr. Monroe trained them nonetheless, in order to give them the maximum possible chance of succeeding.

As the surgical and genetic procedures had only ever been tested on close relatives of the human genome, more research was needed in order to properly safeguard the candidates to potential dangers, many of which were still a relative unknown.

Dr. Monroe, in lieu of not being able to directly perform the procedure himself, began experimenting and researching heavily into the emergency removal of bio-augmentations, and surgical implants, so as to better prepare for the potential necessity of halting and abandoning the procedures if necessary. While the hours he dedicated to this end were impressive, and grueling, he was no less than totally committed to the upholding of his medical tenets, and personal code of ethics.

=Selection=

The selection process included many different variables to take into consideration, when vetting candidates for eventual collection. Chief, and foremost, of these variables, would be the importance of the candidate to be able to disappear without a trace. Those that had no families were priority one, while destitutes and petty criminals with records were secondary choices. It was important to allow a range of diversity in terms of epigenetics; those of various backgrounds were chosen and vetted for medical screening, by Dr. Monroe and his team.

Several candidates exhibited mild signs of malnutrition, or outright starvation. These candidates were still considered, if only for the fact that the data would be valuable for research purposes, on how a body with lower muscle density would react to augmentations. Often times, candidates suffering from moderate-to-severe malnutrition, or deficiencies of multiple vitamins, were excluded from the selection process on the grounds of highly increased dangers. Many within the programme questioned the logistics of this, if they were going to die anyway, what was the point of not selecting them. It took several hours of explanations from Major Briggenshaw that they were not running a daycare, nor were they throwing all caution to the wind and selecting candidates that were guaranteed to die during the augmentations. No singular act of negligence would be responsible, on the part of the selection team, for the candidates deaths during the augmentations. If it was found, via investigation, that the team were in any way negligent in their duties, they would be prosecuted.

Due to the nature of the candidates that were chosen, close observation would be necessary to ensure their safety at all times. However, due to the unfixed nature of their residences, or, indeed, their total lack of permanent residences at times, direct observation was often an impossibility for long periods of time, especially if the candidate did rely on crime to survive, they would naturally be paranoid, and react negatively to any perceived threat of being followed.

Observation
Observation of candidates had to be discrete, and from a distance, with care taken so that the candidates did not realise they were being followed. For the most part, this involved advanced facial recognition equipment, DNA tracking, or even something as simple as a GPS tracker planted on the candidate during a brief period of interaction, either while passing on the street, or by luring the candidate into figuring the Agent for a mark, and being counter-pick-pocketed without their knowledge.

Other methods would be less discrete, undertaken by Agents observing candidates who frequented schools, still, or resided in state-managed orphanages. However, these methods would also pose a unique challenge due to the presence of security measures, staff, and other children who could easily observe a GPS-Tracker being placed onto a candidate, or a surveillance device placed in the room.

As such, these Agents would go on to visit the orphanage multiple times in order to plant multiple trackers or surveillance equipment, as well as to personally visit the candidate, under the guise of potential adoption or social work at the behest of the local council or governing body.

Genetic Markers
While the original Orion-Two programme, as headed by Doctor Halsey, would search for specific genetic markers in their candidates, Epimetheus did not. Partly due to the difficulty of searching for and locating candidates with these markers, and partly due to Epimetheus's nature as a control group experiment. The markers and criteria Halsey searched for in her Orion-Two subjects became a non-existent variable.

As low as the chances were of coming across a candidate with these markers through sheer happenstance, the chances remained non-zero. Care had to be taken by operatives and Agents to avoid the markers entirely, in an inverse of the methods utilised by Halsey and her team of acquisitions Agents. However, due to Epimetheus being disallowed access to colonial records, even for Reach and the surrounding Epsilon-Eridani colony worlds, the act of searching for these markers within chosen potential candidates became exceedingly difficult. Other methods would be implemented in order to test the candidates for the presence of these markers.

These methods included various clandestine means of taking blood, or saliva samples for rudimentary field testing in ONI Mobile Command Centers, implementing enhanced bio-scanning devices during orphanage visits, or even swift on-site swab tests—though this method particularly seldom offered viable, or accurate results.

These methods were typically exceedingly risky, due to the possibility of the candidates discovering ONI's presence, and disappearing from the selective observation process, or officials discovering the process and investigating themselves. Agents pursued by investigators were often disavowed during this time period until such a time as the investigation died down, or they returned for formal debriefing and remedial actions.

Collection
In March of 2518, the candidates would be collected and enlisted into Project: Epimetheus under various guises, from social work to charitable organisations. Those few candidates who were either too cynical, or intelligent, to be fooled by such promises were told a version of the truth; in that they were to be enlisted for reasons that would spearhead the safeguarding of mankind. They were told not of the programme's true goals, but of their role in it. For some, this was enough. For others, it beat starving on the streets for another day.

Operation: ORBONA
Operation: ORBONA was the name given to the selection process for Epimetheus's candidates and test subjects, as well as the collection process itself once candidates were vetted, which didn't take long. Standard physical condition was expected, but due to the nature of selected candidates, said condition was infeasible for many of them, and steps had to be taken to ensure they reached a proper threshold of health before being subjected to the procedure. To wit, this meant a carefully-controlled regime of exercise and dietary controls, much in the same vein as the mainline Spartan project, and their exercise regime.

The collection process, and thus, Operation: ORBONA, began in mid March of 2018, and was completed during the following month. Two hundred field Agents, as well as thirty two squads of assorted marine, army, and special forces soldiers assisted in quelling some of the more resistant candidates, while Major Briggenshaw himself personally brought in one of the more problematic candidates by himself.

Of the eighty candidates vetted for the subject, fifty were collected by Agents and operatives. A full twenty would resist in some manner. Many of these were destitute orphans, all of which had some experience in escaping from pursuing adults, and a rare number even had rudimentary experience with weapons or explosives. Agent and operative casualties were, thankfully, kept to a minimum, with exposure to dangerous situations kept under control. Eventually, many of these resistant subjects needed to be tranquilised at range. Some allowed themselves to be goaded into discussion, at which point the Agents were able to talk them into coming peacefully after initial resistance.

These fifty candidates were brought to a base on the Eastern side of Reach's Eposz continent, far away from Castle Base, and thus potential prying eyes. The base was specially constructed to house the subjects and guard staff, separate from the main Marine garrison, under the guise of a Section III training base. As the secrecy of the project was paramount, all staff and MPs were vetted beforehand, and made to sign NDAs, as well as agreeing to the terms of limited off-duty surveillance, to minimise the potential of whistleblowers.

=Induction=

Though the candidates were, officially, inducted on March 17th, of 2518, the actual induction of the candidates to the programme would not begin for another five days. These five days were spent giving the candidates thorough medical examinations, updated vaccinations where necessary, strenuous physical tests, and exams for mental acuity. A baseline was gathered on their average state of physical fitness, average nutrition, total health status, their intelligence, and their willingness to cooperate.

As many of the candidates were used to living rough on the streets, some of them even killing for credits as young as seven years old, tensions between candidates were high. A split threatened to occur between the orphanage candidates, and those who had until this time been living on the streets. Escalation occurred, and fights began to break out among the candidates on Day four (4). It was decided then to fully capitalise on methods utilised by the sister-project, and a formal induction ceremony was held.

While the induction process succeeded in fostering a greater sense of unity, many of the candidates from the streets still continued to act anti-social, with mild sociopathic tendencies. Items began to go missing from the base, later found in 'stashes' under some candidates' beds. Frequent searches were carried out to determine whether or not the candidates were hiding other items elsewhere, after a drilled hole was found in the walls of the shower room, filled with single-serving protein bars and crackers.

=Augmentation=

Two weeks after the candidates were collected and interred at the base, and nine (9) days after the induction ceremony, preparations for the augmentation process itself were complete, and on May 19th, 2518, the candidates were led into the surgery chambers.

They received full honours en-route, with personnel lining up alongside the hallways of the surgery center and offering salutes. At midday exactly (12:00 Hours), the candidates were placed under general anaesthesia, and the process of augmentation began, supervised by Doctor Monroe.

Admiral Daltona and Major Briggenshaw both observed the entire procedure from an adjacent room. The surgeries themselves would occupy the next seventeen hours, and neither Doctor Monroe, Major Briggenshaw, nor Admiral Daltona moved from their positions within that time frame.

At thirteen-thirty Hours (13:30 Hours), the first candidate expired on the operation table from a massive hemorrhagic stroke, induced by fatal cardiac volume increase. The UNSC Flag outside was lowered to half-mast with full parade detail at thirteen-forty-five Hours (13:45 Hours). The flag stayed lowered for the entire duration of the surgery, and was lowered once more for the official funeral four weeks later.

Procedure
The procedure began when the candidates were all under the effects of general anaesthesia. The first round of augmentations from 12:00 Hours to 13:00 hours were a series of intramuscular injections, targeting the candidate's muscular network. This procedure would be ongoing as the surgery progressed, and is considered to be the overarching cause of a majority of subject deaths, as various complications arose from both the augmentations themselves, and the use of the muscular enhancements as a long-form inducement.

After the technicians and medical practitioners situated the muscular injections at optimal points around the candidate's bodies, they unanimously agreed to move on to the ceramic skeletal grafts, working from the head down, and targeting each individual bone.

While an initial team were making enhancements to bone structure, a second team worked on two separate augmentations, centred around the candidate's head. Using initial incisions made by the skeletal team, this team would work on the alteration of bioeletrical nerve transduction, IE the neural augmentations, as well as the occipital lobe surgeries to reverse capillary blood flow, and boost blood retention in the cones and rods of the candidate's eyes.

Several candidates experienced retinal detachment, and surgery was halted in an attempt to correct it. Two more subjects experienced massive brain bleeds, and emergency transfusions and clamps were put in place to prevent brain necrosis. Eventually, surgeries were resumed.

Finally, the catalytic thyroid implant was implanted close to the end of the surgery to induce further bone and muscle growth. Many subjects developed elephantiasis and bone pulverization. A massive wave of shock-related deaths occured during this stage, and many subjects were placed in emergency cryostasis.

Belligerents
Many medical practitioners took part in the surgeries themselves, as well as adjacent technicians who worked on automatic surgery units, and machines used to infuse the candidate's muscular systems with chemicals to induce growth. As many records were destroyed either after Reach fell, or when the three project heads went into hiding, the list of exact belligerents is unknown.

The location and interrogation of Doctor Monroe is to be considered priority one, for any and all field teams assigned to the salvage of this project and its information. These individuals that would willingly and knowingly operate on candidates not expected to survive the procedure must be weeded out of the Office, if only due to the potential security risk they pose should the nature of this project become widely-known to the populace at large.

Complex Cryostasis
Emergency cryostasis is reserved for only the most severe of wounds, requiring both an emergency injection of a surfactant, and the drug cytoprethaline, to prevent the formation of ice-crystals, and thus the destruction of the candidate's cells. Both of these chemicals requires both a functioning respiration reaction for the surfactant to form, and a functioning circulatory system for the cytoprethaline to spread. In essence, for seven minutes, the candidate must be kept alive, lest their cells be destroyed by necrosis and ice-crystal formation.

In candidates that experienced heavy hemorrhaging or brain-bleeds, this proved challenging, as the loss of blood volume meant that the injection spread through the body at a much slower rate, and extra dosages had to be used in conjunction with emergency transfusions.

Also present was the risk of already-necrotising cells, which would not benefit from the cytoprethaline injection, and would therefore pose an adjacent risk to other cells should ice crystals form within them. In effect, the presence of dead or dying tissue within the candidate carried the risk of exponential cascade failure, with cells forming in the necrotic tissue, and damaging adjacent healthy tissue, exacerbating the issue entirely.

This process of emergency cryostasis is, at its core, highly costly, time-sensitive, and unreliable. Every candidate—excluding those that died on the operating tables from conditions deemed too catastrophic to salvage—were placed in stasis. Numbering twenty four (24) candidates, the pods were placed on their own dedicated power supply, with multiple redundancies.

Desperation
Operating on a patient within cryostasis is incredibly dangerous, as the subject must be kept at a low-enough temperature to avoid the wake-up cycle of the cryo-pod, but care must also be taken to eliminate cold damage to the instruments, or the doctors performing surgeries themselves. As bleeds can be difficult to source from cursory examination, what with blood flow being reduced to near-zero, any surgeons operating on cryogenically-frozen patients must be incredibly skilled.

As all bodily functions cease, including metabolic processes, cell division, and respiratory and cardiac functions, the patient in cryostasis is legally deceased, for all legal purposes. They are considered permanently deceased, should the surgeries continue for thirty days with no discernible improvement, at which point their cryo pod is to be remanded into custody of third parties, and retained elsewhere for future attempts at revival.

For three weeks, many of the deceased candidates existed in this state of cryogenic limbo while the medical practitioners—including Doctor Monroe himself—valliantly attempted to save the lives of the subjects. Unfortunately, many of the subjects could not be revived following the attempts to save them, and their cryogenically-preserved bodies were kept in indefinite stasis, in hopes that one day in the future, medical technology would advance far enough to successfully revive them. Of the twenty four (24) subjects placed in cryostasis, five (5) would be successfully revived. Doctor Monroe worked tirelessly on three out of these five subjects, forgoing meals, rest, or breaks for three weeks straight, often times resting and eating only when absolutely necessary, or when he felt his ability being hampered by sleep deprivation, or hunger.

Subjects Carrie Lones, Camilla Kennedy, and Vladimir Vledichi were successfully saved by Doctor Monroe, as well as two other subjects being worked on by other doctors, these subjects being Annalisse Kleine and Isabelle Fischer.

The remaining nineteen cryogenic stasis pods were turned over to ONI Bio-Science for safekeeping. Their whereabouts today is unknown.

=Survivors=

Out of the fifty subjects that were gathered from the Epsilon-Eridani colonies, only ten would survive the procedure, and only five of those survived the augmentation surgeries themselves, while the other five had to be saved from near-death by emergency cryogenic surgery.

None of the surviving subjects, resuscitated or otherwise, would come through unharmed. Candidate Kleine, for instance, would require daily administration of a vitamin cocktail to offset the metabolic strain of her muscle density consuming twice the nutrients, without this intravenous cocktail, her muscles would rapidly consume themselves, and atrophy.

Candidate Lones would need aggressive antibiotic therapy to avoid acute meningitis, and constant flare-ups were a danger, from several chemical compounds breaching the blood-brain barrier in the meninges and causing potentially-catastrophic damage.

Candidate Kennedy would require an intensive stem-cell therapy immediately following her revival, to repair any strain on her major organ systems caused by the catalytic thyroid implant inducing a massive growth spurt, and thinning her organ walls—namely those of her heart and lungs. She would remain on life support for a further two weeks post-surgery, and would require constant bi-monthly medical examinations to observe the growth rate of her major organs.

An official funeral for the dead was conducted four weeks after the initial surgery, laying the dead to rest, and handing over the cryogenic pods. None of the subjects were in fit state to attend this funeral, and a smaller, unofficial ceremony was held in their barracks once they received their medical discharge papers.

Post-Augment
Major Briggenshaw sequestered himself in his quarters for three days, and did not respond to any official duties nor unofficial calls. He subsisted on a diet of MREs, and spent his time composing various messages to those within ONI Section Three, about the project's status, and the status of that of the candidates. These reports and messages are recorded below, for posterity.

Doctor Monroe was temporarily discharged following the surgeries, owed to his declining health and temporary psychological status. He spent four days starside on an orbital station, writing a single personal journal entry. At the end of the four days he returned base-side, handed the journal over to Admiral Daltona, and told her to burn it. She did so without question, and Doctor Monroe was reinstated as head surgeon and medical practitioner of the project.

The contents of the journal are unavailable, for obvious reasons, however, the salvage of his personal journal from the ruins of the Epimetheus base shed some light on his mental state at the time. Work is ongoing to piece these entries together in a semi-coherent timeline—a difficult task with the damage the entries themselves have sustained.

Admiral Daltona experienced a mild disassociative state, consistent with symptoms of PTSD. Following the augmentation procedures, she was described as 'robotic', with the barest flickers of interest for anything except her duties as project lead. When Major Briggenshaw confined himself to quarters, she brought him meals. When Doctor Monroe was discharged, she signed the temporary leave forms. She later records in personal records that she has no memory of performing either of these actions, and that her memories at that time entirely are 'fuzzy', and disordered.

She only came back to her senses with the return of Doctor Monroe, and the subsequent burning of his journal. Her own thoughts on the matter are recorded below.

Initiation
"All of you here are in a unique position. All of you here made the choice to come here, and be a part of this. All of you decided to be a part of something greater, and as of twelve hours ago, you now have a choice to make again. You can step over this threshold, and become the best soldiers Humanity has ever fielded—heroes in all respects, but you will not be known—or you can choose to leave, and go back to whatever you were before this."

- Major R Briggenshaw addresses the ten surviving SII candidates, July 7th, 2518

On July 7th, 2518, the candidates were officially indoctrinated into the UNSC Defense Force. A speach given by Major Briggenshaw offered them a choice to join officially, or go back to life on the streets. Were it not for the acceptance of Kenendy, Griggs and Lones, it was unlikely the rest of the candidates would have accepted the offer, and would've had to either be terminated, or set loose into Reach's gutter once more.

Given the sometimes extensive connections the candidate shad to the criminal side of the Reach underworld, releasing them was deemed unacceptable.

=Training=

The training of the ten candidates was a brutal regime of maximum calisthenic training, coupled with grueling classwork and hand-to-hand sparring. However, unlike the training of the mainline SIIs, these candidates could not be beaten or disciplined, and nor could they spar with their trainers. Their enhanced abilities made their training all the more ruthless, as their physical conditions had to be maintained. For sixteen hours per day the subjects ran obstacle courses, took lessons on field-stripping equipment, treating wounds, complex mathematical theory, strategy, advanced hand-to-hand combat, and marksmanship.

Every candidate exhibited superhuman reflexes, at a rate unable to be charted. Each candidate exhibited speeds in excess of twenty eight miles per hour (45km/h), even faster during a dead sprint. The unique training regime implemented by drill instructors caused the candidates to rapidly become in tune with their augmentations, with remarkable synergies with one another during training exercises. As they began to mature past their initial stages of youth, they blossomed into combat-ready teenagers, with a level of physical fitness unsurpassed by any human being in history, save for the SIIs in Halsey's programme.

Eventually, the skill level of the candidates plateaued, and extra steps were taken to ensure an even greater level of combat synergy. A complex network of training environments were created beneath the base, with highly advanced augmented-reality suites. This room,dubbed the Sim-Tank, would house many of the Spartans' intensive competitive training simulations, pitting them against one another in order to further augment their considerable skill level.

In time, further devices were added to the Sim-Tank suite, including helmets to project both enemies and battlefields onto the space around them without the need for total environment mapping, Virtual-Intelligence combatants, and TTR rounds in the Spartan's guns. When used in conjunction with training suits and AR Headsets, the candidates could shoot one another with training paint rounds, and dress simulated wounds within the AR environment.

This evolved method of training led to them beginning their most intensive exercise; the Crucible.

Dynamic
Even prior to their official initiation as soldiers, the ten survivors were observed to develop an interesting social dynamic, bound together by mutual feelings of grief and hardship. Initially it was thought to be grief over the loss of their faculties, as by this time many of the candidates were still experiencing debilitating side effects of the augmentation process. This was later found to be untrue, and the candidates were feeling grief for the loss of the other candidates.

This dynamic manifested itself as the hardier candidates taking charge of the group; candidates Kennedy, Lones, and Griggs established a pattern of behaviour, and insisted that the rest of the group followed it. In essence, these three candidates created a routine for the other seven subjects to follow, and were among the first to cross the threshold when invited to by the Major. If even one of them refused, the rest of the group may not have followed.

As their training progressed, this coherence and sense of unity only grew stronger, as each of them were put through the same regime, with the same pressures, the same hardships, and experienced similar results from it. They managed to push aside their grief and instead latched on to the one other thing that they could control; their own results, and the results of their comrades surrounding them. They consistently pushed one another to greater feats of strength, speed, or agility, and only ever pushed hard for themselves to reach the same level, thereby creating a feedback loop of self-actualisation.

Most interestingly, the introduction of competitive training elements only further heightened the candidate's unity when off-duty. When placed in a scenario which saw them split into teams, in which only one team could win the exercise, they would become increasingly frantic in order to be the ones to claim that victory. However, rather than present any behaviour seen as inherently toxic to the fabric of the team, the opposite became true, as they could observe one another at their most desperate, and see what each candidate would do for the sake of success, as well as better learn one another's style of combat by being on the receiving end of it.

Education
Candidate class work included a full advanced mathematics course, as well as the introduction of several courses of gravitational theory, spaceflight logistics, and advanced mechanics. Many subjects excelled in one or two areas, while struggling in others. Candidate Fischer had a limited understanding of gravitational theory and logistics of interstellar travel, but a highly sophisticated grasp of mathematical theory.

In many ways, theoretical classwork were the candidates weakest links, and many had to rely on others to get them through the work—pairing up or working in groups, sometimes with all of them collaborating on the same assignment. This allowed the strengths of one candidate to make up for the lackluster skillset of another, and saw the entire group pass their educational courses with relatively high marks.

Graduation
In the summer of 2525, when the candidates each reached around the average age of 14 - 16 years old, they would undertake the Crucible—a long-term, week-long scenario aimed to simulate protracted combat scenarios, with some survival elements.

Candidates were deposited in a heavily wooded area around the base, between two mountain peaks and a valley. They were given rations for one week, and instructed to either make it last, or supplement it with local flora. They were instructed to avoid capture or 'elimination' at the hands of hostile forces, who would be using a mixture of tranquiliser rounds, TTR paint guns, and narq darts. No heavy armour would be present for the exercise, however, other vehicles such as Mongooses or Warthogs would be used for the purpose of transportation. Aircraft would be routinely used to search the forest for signs of the candidates, and three Companies of UNSC Marines would rotate, to constantly pressure the candidates to keep moving.

Whiskey Company, Romeo Company, and Echo Company were used as simulated ‘hostile’ combatants, with orders to search for and eliminate the ten candidates. The goal of the candidates was merely to ‘survive’, while Whiskey, Romeo, and Echo’s objectives were Search & Destroy. Candidates ended up capturing and/or otherwise eliminating a combined thirty eight (38) percent of ‘hostile’ forces from the exercise, as well as infiltrating the base several times for purposes of force recon.

At the end of the exercise, a graduation ceremony was held in private, with the entirety of Whiskey, Romeo and Echo attending. The candidates were given formal naval ranks, and official status as soldiers of the UNSCDF.

Insurrectionist Policing
The first operation undertaken by the Spartans of Epimetheus would be the first strike in a campaign against pirates and insurrectionists operating in the Epsilon Eridani system. Groups of small-scale militias operating out of asteroid bases, or gunrunners making deliveries to forces hostile to the UNSC were prime targets.

A central nexus evolved among these cells and groups known as The Nucleus—a mobile waystation and command hub that served as a focal point, for all black market dealings in the system, and surrounding slipspace highways. ONI knew nothing about it, save that it was a vessel, likely keeping to the outskirts of the system, and rarely sweeping through unless it was to make a rendezvous. The Office of Naval Intelligence Signal Corps played a critical role in the discovery, and tracking of the vessel during the early months of 2525.

The Nucleus' existence was postulated by key UNSC officials operating against the Insurrectionists and armed militias scattered around the system. It was eventually confirmed to exist by embedded Agents within Reach's criminal network.

With data gathered from several key undercover Agents posing as mercenaries and gunrunners, it was discovered that The Nucleus would be making a gravity loop around the local stars to pass close to high orbit of Tribute, then slingshot out of the system once cargo was dropped off, and supplies were restored.

The Signal Corps deployed multiple Prowlers to assist in the tracking of the vessel, and an anomaly was located around the stars of Epsilon-Eridani the following month. While ONI Section II and the UNSC Navy quietly argued over who would lead the charge, and who among them had operational jurisdiction, the project leads of Epimetheus decided to seize the opportunity to field-test their latest assets in a true combat scenario.

It was theorised that the Nucleus was actually en-route through the system from an ad-hoc, wildcat mining station stationed in the Oort cloud around Epsilon-Eridani; possibly even a central hub for similar stations that fueled and funded the piracy and other non-terrestrial criminal activities in the system. The decision was made to use the Nucleus as a transportation vector, rather than treating it in itself as the target.

Epimetheus Agents routinely made excursions into the criminal underbelly of Reach in order to observe candidates for the Epimetheus programme; some invariably made contacts within said network, and used them to their advantage in finding out that the Nucleus made these routine, bi-annual incursions into the colonies' orbital jurisdiction to pick up supplies, and deposit valuable materials.

The ships making supply deliveries to the Nucleus were therefore prime targets for infiltration or tracking. Eventually, Epimetheus approached the Signal Corps for assistance in tracking down likely vessels that could be making a delivery to the Nucleus during its flyby of Tribute.

This caused a massive backlash against both Admiral Daltona, and Major Briggenshaw, as Naval officials and ONI representatives felt that the programme was not honouring the chain of command. As the Epimetheus programme was compartmentalised and secretive, the action taken against the two project leads was minimal, and the operation went ahead with full cooperation between the Signal Corps, Section II, and Naval logistical assets. Eventually, several likely targets were identified, all of them civilian freighter vessels.

In an effort to minimise the risks of exposure, the vessels were racked by naval satellites until the day of the Nucleus' supposed transition through Epsilon-Eridani. Three left prematurely and were ghosted by Prowlers until they prepared for slipspace jumps.

The remaining civilian freighters of interest all disconnected from station umbilicals and groundside dockyards simultaneously, and all save for one left Tribute's orbit. The remaining vessel pitched into a rapid orbit around Tribute and cut much of its power to appear as a sensor ghost. This vessel was tracked by satellites and Prowlers for the duration of its orbit, until a second, unidentified, vessel appeared on an orbital intercept course. The two vessels—one of which was believed to be the Nucleus—were attempting an orbital docking. The UNSC Destroyer Forthright pulsed thrusters and homed in on narrow-band Prowler transmissions from the signal corps, and moved to intercept both vessels.

At the first sign of trouble, the cargo vessel broke off from its planned rendezvous and attempted an escape. The UNSC Forthright fired three warning missiles at a range of one thousand kilometers from the vessel. (1000km)

Two were destroyed by countermeasures from the Nucleus, one hit and disabled the cargo freighter's aft engine, forcing it to stabilise, lest it fall into Tribute's gravity well. The vessel was detained by Signal Corps prowlers, and boarded by Agents. The Forthright continued to pursue the Nucleus, occupying its sensors and firing warning shots of its naval coilgun batteries and archer missiles. While the complex countermeasures of the Nucleus were engaged, a Signal Corps Prowler docked with the Nucleus, and deposited the ten Spartans of Epimetheus onboard.

The UNSC Forthright disengaged to avoid potential damage from Nucleus return fire.

When boarded, the Nucleus appeared empty save for a skeleton crew. The Spartans found that the Nucleus was actually operated by a Smart AI, and the gathered supplies were to fuel the actual central hub station, also operated by a backup 'Dumb'-AI who had been instructed to fire modified civilian-grade nuclear excavation mines at the Nucleus if the Nucleus stopped responding to queries.

When the Spartans discovered this, the immediate executive decision was made to sever the AI's connection will all systems except comms, and force the Nucleus on a collision course with this central station—as the existence of nuclear launch capacities would cause devastating UNSC Naval losses if conventional engagements were attempted.

Despite the AI's use of automated defense systems, depressurisation of locales, and an attempt at totally venting the Spartans into space by exposing the Nucleus' cargo bay to a vacuum, the Spartans succeeded in the activation of an AI 'Clamp' system, that heavily limited its functionality in the event of an AI-related emergency.

The flight path of the Nucleus was adjusted by Spartan Vladimir Vledichi—the one most gifted in such matters—and the Spartans prepared to exfil.

When the AI of the Nucleus attempted to warn the station, the station Dumb AI acknowledge the communication as a sign of response. When the Nucleus AI requested the station use missiles to prevent the collision of the vessel, the Dumb AI acknowledged the communication as a sign of response and did nothing.

The Nucleus was safely placed on a collision-course with the station, and all Spartan assets successfully exfiltrated. During a post-op debrief, officials were displeased with the destruction of the station, rather than allowing boarding efforts from Section-II Salvage teams, or the deployment of naval marine attaches. However, the op was called a success, and marked the first of such successes for the ten Spartan assets of Epimetheus.

=Human-Covenant War=

The Human-Covenant war would see the single most dramatic change in the directions of the Epimetheus Programme, as well as the deaths of over half of its staff, and a good portion of their Spartan operatives. Additionally, the programme would have to contend with internal struggles, outside interference, and the unexpected psychological evolution of many of its Spartan personnel.

Contact
The news of first contact with an intelligent alien conglomerate shook the foundations of human society to its core. The revelation that they were also hostile put many into a state of panic. For the Epimetheus Programme, this emotional response presented itself as anger at the destruction of Harvest, and the murder of civilians. Spartan Camilla Kennedy demanded immediate deployment against Covenant forces, which was denied.

The Spartans would experience further denials until 2527, and only after the Spartans of the SII project under Dr Catherine Halsey would receive the final capstone in the Spartan project: MJOLNIR.

MJOLNIR represented a significant leap forward for the Spartans, and became the pinnacle of human exoskeleton engineering. Admiral Daltona, Doctor Monroe, and Major Briggenshaw all immediately pushed for access to armour schematics, components, or backup suits—all of which were denied.

Eventually a requisition for schematics was approved, and the Epimetheus programme began working on modifying the schematics to reduce costs, and contacting various corporations for private manufacturing of these modified suits in small, mass-ordered components to avoid suspicion.

MJOLNIR
While conventional suits of MJOLNIR Powered Armour could not be acquired by the programme for use by its Spartans, permission was given for further manufacturing of armour plates and bodysuits sans the piezoelectric crystalline lithium nibocene polymer. This allowed the proprietary technology of the Spartan Programme to remain a Watershed Division secret, while mitigating the costs necessary for manufacturing suits of MJOLNIR armour, specifically for those outside the operational scope of Orion II. The goal of this retraction was to find suitable low-cost alternatives to the lithum nibocene itself, and thus easily allow maintenance of the armour by those outside ONI's Watershed, further compartmentalising the Epimetheus Programme.

A further modification to the suit came in the form of the total removal of the superconducting memory processor layer, accounting for a majority of the costs of producing the armour. The removal of this feature came with many drawbacks in the production stage, as the Spartans could no longer be expected to support artificial intelligences, nor could they boast the host of electronic suites conducive to team coordination and communication, as well as biomonitoring. They could no longer automatically inject biofoam into wounds, nor could they communicate via narrow-band teamcomms, nor efficiently monitor their surrounding areas with waypoints and tactical scans of the terrain. A greater focus would be placed on the candidates overall reliance on one another, as well as nonstandard forms of communication such as hand signals and body language. All electronic suits within the armour itself were replaced with standard-issue Marine tac-visor suites, implanted in the helmets themselves.

In 2527, the modifications to the Mjolnir suits would be completed, replacing the piezoelectric crystalline layer with a magnetic ferrofluid, able to change shape and amplify force based on incoming electrical stimuli. Much like the crystalline layer of the mainline MJOLNIR suits, this later enhanced the strength of the Spartans, and served as an exoskeleton to allow them to run faster, jump higher, and lift greater weights. However, while the crystalline layer of standard MJOLNIR suits would translate nerve activity straight into movement at a rate impossible to chart, the ferrofluid layer could be seen to be measurably slower, and less effective.

The bulk of the worth of these suits came in the form of its many survivability suites, and a measured improvement in protection given to the programme's soldiers. The acquisition of these modified suits of MJOLNIR allowed the programme to expand its operational capacity to a full wartime focus, and saw the deployment of its soldiers the very same year.

Funding
With the inclusion of suits of MJOLNIR into the programme's budget, the staff necessary to maintain them, and a phasing out of training personnel due to inherent risks involved, the Epimetheus Programme began to see a major fluctuation in its funding, with expenses trickling upwards in scope. While the Spartans themselves would be deployed on missions for much of the time following their acquisition of MJOLNIR, the costs of maintaining the suits themselves would slowly push the Programme into the red. Specialist equipment for the treatment of the Spartans' physical conditions, as well as continued psychiatric support, would also be a major drain on the Programmes limited resources.

Due to the sensitive nature of the programme, the clandestine nature of its operational capacity, and its compartmentalised nature, drastic measures had to be taken to ensure the long-term survivability of the project, and in stepped Doctor Monroe with a proposal.

Using their expansive littany of medical technology, they could begin the distribution of flash--cloned organs to the civilian medical sector. Operating out of shell corporations, the funding necessary to continue Epimetheus's operations would be laundered, and eventually brought back to the project for use, while the cost of producing organs on an industrial-scale would be of no consequence to a military organisation such as Epimetheus, that had the capacity to do so. The demand for the organs and tissues would see an influx of funds that would easily cover the overheads, and all they would need to do would be to keep their hands clean of direct involvement with their shells.

As such, the Doctor would need to operate under pseudonyms, and avoid litigation by openly stating the nature of their produced organs as mass-produced. Any investigation would be stonewalled by ONI red tape.

Initially, Admiral Daltona refused the proposal, due to its underhanded nature, and the presence of pharmaceutical competitors present on Reach. However, eventually the Admiral relented, and the Epimetheus Programme began shipping out specialty organs on an industrial scale to various hospitals, medical centres, or universities across the planet. Many underground dealers also made use of these services, operating as alternatives to lower-class individuals or families, and charging exorbitant interest rates as a result.

The new influx of funding, as well as fresh, renewed connections to the underground of Reach, gave Epimetheus a way to covertly procure items of interest as well as extra overhead funds.

Battle of Icarus
THe Battle of Icarus in July of 2527 marked the first engagement between Spartans of the Epimetheus Programme—who, up until this point, had only ever fought against low-level rebels and crime lords, with the occasional piracy suppression campaign—and the Covenant. In essence, this marked first contact these soldiers had with the alien juggernaut, in an immediate massive planetary invasion of an Outer Colony.

Operation: HAMMERFALL
Operation: HAMMERFALL was an attempt by the UNSC Defense Force of Icarus, and the Icarus Colonial Militia, to stonewall the Covenant invasion of the planet in July of 2527. Spartans Kennedy, Lones, Kleine, and Fischer would be wounded in the line of duty, to varying extents. They would also redline many of their suits of armour, rendering them out of service for the remainder of the year when they returned to Reach. There were no fatalities among the programmes' ten soldiers.

Although the operation saw success in limiting the Covenant advance, the threat of a second invasion never disappeared, and the planet saw a massive exodus of citizens up until the war' end in 2552, at which point the population stabilised once more.

Injuries
Spartan Kennedy suffered a punctured lung and moderate internal bleeding from desiccated blood vessels. Trauma to the liver also occurred from impact following an explosion.

Spartan Lones suffered fourth degree burns to her face, and required comprehensive skin grafts. Even still, scar tissue would remain due to the high-intensity of plasma burns. She would later develop neuroses based on this scarring.

Spartan Kleine lost the use of her right arm, and viable flash clones could not be produced in time. She would later develop neuroses based around her failure, and her injury.

Spartan Fischer experienced a complex cervical fracture, requiring extensive surgical rebuild of her spinal column, as well as a medical exoskeleton-like system grafted onto her leg bones and pelvis, to assist her ambulations for the next six months of physiotherapy.

Following their injuries in the field, the Spartans spent time patching each other up with limited field options, and biofoam injections around areas of injury. A rapid exfiltration to orbit-capable transport saw the injured Spartans interred in Cryo pods for the duration of their voyage back to Reach.

Suitability
With four of the ten Spartans injured on their first ever operation, the Admiralty board began to question the programme's sustainability, and question whether or not it would get the results necessary for the investment. The Section III Admiralty board called for a meeting with the three project leads—Doctor Monroe refused.

Admiral Daltona and Major Briggenshaw were questioned on the nature of this operation, and the circumstances leading up to the injuries. Upon revealing that the injuries came from a lapse in judgement on the part of PO2 Kennedy, questions were leveled at the programmes leads about their candidates being unfit for military duty following this catastrophic injury.

Eventually, the meeting led to the programme's assets being re-assigned to policing of the Epsilon-Eridani system.

Epsilon-Eridani Policing
The Spartans would be deployed on various peacekeeping duties throughout the system, though these operations would be covert, unassisted patrol missions, seeing little-to-no action in the year the Spartans would be assigned to it. The candidates would report feeling unfulfilled, angry, and punished for a poor dice roll.

Spartan Kennedy would submit formal apologies to the Admiralty board, and requests for reassignment every month; all of which were denied. She reported feeling a sense of inadequacy, now that they had experienced the threat to Humanity firsthand, and found themselves unable to measure up to it.

Politics & Posturing
A rival of the Major's from within ONI Section III, Lieutenant Colonel Avery Jackson, approached the Major with a proposal for an operation. Highly dangerous, it had been rejected three times by the Admiralty Board as a ludicrous waste of resources. If the Major was on board, with ten Spartans at his beck and call, then the board may decide otherwise.

The Major initially refused, until the Lieutenant Colonel revealed that he had already spoken with the Spartans themselves—and all were eager to get off their punishment detail, and back into the War. The Major agreed, Admiral Daltona sent the request to the Admiralty Board, and the operation began in the summer of 2528.

Operation: SUNSTINGER
Operation: SUNSTINGER was an operation aimed at tracking and eliminating key Covenant Field Marshals during the early years of the war, starting in 2528, and continuing in part up until 2535. The Spartans of Epimetheus would be inserted behind enemy lines on freshly-attacked, or occupied worlds that had not been glassed yet, with limited support and extraction options, with the intent of putting an end to high-profile Sangheili combatants.

Notable targets of this period included;


 * Field Marshal Ytras 'Lelamee
 * Field Marshal Vetrio 'Kelalee
 * Field Marshal Lilas 'Edrinee

As the Covenant did not expect attacks to come from worlds already conquered, it was thought that the Covenant would be deprived of valuable leadership relatively easily. Nevertheless, Spartans were chosen for the operation due to the difficulty of insertion and exfiltration, as well as the potential of an entire hostile planet being made aware of enemy assassins; the chosen squad, in essence, had to be fairly self-reliant, resourceful, and able to engage a vastly superior enemy force, should the need arise.

To that effect, the Spartans of Epimetheus were deployed almost as soon as their suits were serviced and improved with new sensor suites, and ONI tracking programs. SUNSTINGER would see the successful termination of several dozen high-ranking Sangheili during the waning years of the 2520's, and the total collapse of half a dozen organised Covenant campaigns across several different worlds, giving the UNSC time to either retaliate, or evacuate.

2530's
The 2530's were a pivotal year in the programme, as it saw the expansion of its Spartan complement, and increasing ONI recognition and observation of its assets. While the Spartans were glad of the reinforcements and the extra work from outside contacts, the project leads became increasingly wary of the heightened outsider presence.

Eventually, this expansion of the programme would be the catalyst of a far more personal conflict.

Infiltration of Soliloquy
Soliloquy was a UNSC Outer Colony attacked in late 2530 by a powerful, unidentified Covenant vessel referenced by Covenant ground troops as the Tenebrous Executor. A highly advanced Covenant warship, the Tenebrous Executor almost single-handedly wiped out the defensive flotilla of UNSC ships around Soliloquy, and deployed a complement of highly-trained Covenant in key surgical strikes across the planet before the UNSC could muster a ready defense.

When the vessel had successfully destroyed much of the UNSC resistance on the planet, it moved in to begin bombardment of major population centres. Evacuation efforts were clumsy, disorganised, and hampered by the Executor itself.

A UNSC response fleet named Battlegroup Indigo arrived in-system three weeks after the initial attack, only to find no trace of the vessel save for a burning planet, and pockets of human survivors that were quickly evacuated. The planet was entirely abandoned following this attack.

In early 2531, the Spartans of Epimetheus were pulled out of their current assignment to track and kill a Covenant Warchief known as Decius, and instead deployed on a mission to Soliloquy to salvage any data they could on the Tenebrous Executor and its whereabouts.

Hunt for the Tenebrous Executor
The hunt for the Tenebrous Executor would occupy much of the early half of the 2530s, and eventually culminate in the destruction of much of Battlegroup Indigo. The Covenant supercruiser itself would also be destroyed by a mass nuclear detonation while assaulting a human city on the planet of Vendicia.

The Second Generation
In the summer of 2530, a Colonel James Ackerson approached Epimetheus heads Admiral Daltona, Major Briggenshaw, and Dr. Monroe about the possibility of enlisting the programme as a testbed for augmentation procedures once again. This time, there would be fifteen candidates of the Admiral's choosing. He would also supply the staff, the resources, and the augmentations so as to limit cross-contamination between Epimetheus and other ONI organisations and programmes, through various shell accounts and associates within various circles. The candidates were from Reach once more, and orphans of various Covenant campaigns across human space.

The major difference between these candidates and those of the previous iteration of the Epimetheus—and indeed even the Spartan—programme, was that these candidates were told the truth right away, about the nature of the project they were participating in, and the small chance of survival they had.

All of the children, when given the opportunity as presented as a way to fight back against the Covenant, agreed unanimously.

Twelve would go on to survive the augmentation procedures, at a success rate of 80%. The Spartan III project as headed by Colonel Ackerson would see a near-total success rate of above ninety percent (90%), partly due to data gathered from the three failed augmentation procedures on less-than-optimal candidates.

Augmentation
The augmentation process for the SIII human trials were considerably less-invasive than the SII augmentations, requiring only an injection of various compounds into the candidate's bloodstream at key points around the body.

Training
Like their predecessors, the training of these twelve candidates would begin after they were already augmented. However, the nature of this training would use the other Spartan candidates of Epimetheus in an effort to impart wisdom, or proper techniques onto this `younger` generation.

Introductions
The two generations of Spartans were formally introduced to one another in 2535, following five years of both intergenerational and solo training.

Interpersonal Dynamic
While the SII Spartans under Spartan Kennedy adjusted to this new influx of operational equals, an interesting interpersonal dynamic began to evolve among them. Candidates across the generations were bonding well, but there was an underlying sense of rivalry that would not be addressed. Eventually, the SIIIs coalesced under Spartan Nathan Chimes, and the SIIs would remain unde rthe jurisdiction of Spartan Kenendy, however, Kennedy's word carried more weight than Spartan Chimes' at times, leading to a resentment between the two.

Many SIIIS deferred to her word on joint operations in the years to come, with Spartan Chimes being given little autonomy, if any at all.

Operation: VIBRANT STAR
Operation: VIBRANT STAR was the first joint operation with all twenty two (22) Spartans of Epimetheus participating, and was a renowned success.

Siege of Aurelius
The Siege of Aurelius saw the Spartans assist in the defense of an entire planet by acting as a force-multiplier, and assassinating high-value targets. Once UNSC Command structure broke down, they themselves coordinated the remaining defense and evacuation of the planet

Battle of the Gauntlet
The Battle of the Gauntlet was an engagement between a small UNSC flotilla, and a band of Kig-Yar mercenaries in the infamous Vijeris Majoris System, infamous for its deadly and oddly-tumultuous asteroid belt, which is routinely thrown around by high-gravity flybys of various planetary bodies in the system.

A heavy industrial mining centre was present in the system, and when a band of Kig-Yar privateers attacked in 2537, it was theorised that a true Covenant invasion of the system was soon to follow. The various mining corporations enlisted the assistance of the UNSC in a bid to evacuate its personnel, and valuably mining machinery to better assist the war effort elsewhere.

The Spartans saw limited deployment on asteroid habitats once more, repelling Kig-Yar boarding parties, and neutralising navigational data as per the Cole Protocol.

Fall of New Harmony
The Fall of New Harmony saw the deployment of the Spartans to assist key civilian evacuation checkpoints, and stonewall the Covenant's pursuit of civilians across the planet.

2540's
The 2540's saw the first death for the programme, and started a chain of events that would lead to the splintering of the programme along its seams in the following decade. As losses began to weigh heavily on the leaders of the Spartan team, many began to lose faith in the project, and call for its dissolution.

Operation: FATE'S FOUNDING
Operation: FATE'S FOUNDING was one of the pivotal operations of the Epimetheus programme during the war. While unimportant to the rest of the Human-Covenant war as a whole, this operation would see the very first Epimetheus death in the field of duty, due to a 'communications error' between Spartan Chimes, and Spartan Kennedy.

The Operation itself dealt with the defense of a pair of fusion power plants at the Sirrod region of the colony world of Verette; power plants that were hooked up to automated defense systems along the outer edge of a major evacuation center at the heart of the Sirrod region. These defenses were preventing Covenant assault by air, and ground, allowing major civilian evacuations almost uncontested, while a UNSC fleet engaged a Covenant flotilla in orbit.

The Spartans split into two groups; Fireteam Sierra Zero, lead by Spartan Kennedy, and Fireteam Sierra One, lead by Spartan Chimes. During a particularly violent firefight in which both Spartan fireteams were being overrun, Spartan Kennedy ordered a retreat from the Bravo Powerplant, and all Spartans to fall back to the Alpha Power Plant. By allowing the Covenant to take one power plant, they could consolidate their efforts in defending the second. The defenses could operate on limited power, and they could detonate the first fusion plant as an area-denial tool to eliminate the occupying covenant force.

Nathan Chimes, however, refused the order to retreat and continued to hold out against what he believed to be a beatable enemy force. By the time the odds became stacked against him, retreat was already impossible. In an effort to cover his comrades, and ensure successful detonation of the plant, Spartan Vledichi opted to stay behind and cover their retreat by luring all Covenant forces into the central compound.

The plan succeeded, and after the remainder of Fireteam Sierra One were at minimum-safe, Spartan Vledichi caused a dead-man's switch detonation of his MJOLNIR's microfusion pack, breaching the containment shielding of the main Fusion reactor of the power plant, and eliminating all Covenant forces within the region.

First Death
The death of Spartan Vledichi caused massive repercussions for the programme's Spartans. Spartan Kennedy saw it as a personal failure, on her part, while the remaining SIIs put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Chimes. Obligated to come to their fireteam leader's defense, the SIIIs put the blame on a variety of other factors, such as poor luck.

Upon their return to Reach, Spartan Chimes began to cast doubt on Spartan Kennedy's leadership abilities to the rest of the Spartans, citing her as too emotional, and prone to lapses of judgement. He also posited the scenario that no one was safe under her command anymore, and this death would only shake the foundations of her ability to lead the team, and he would prove it to them.

Spartan Chimes then approached Spartan Kennedy during a training exercise on the simulation floor, prodding her about the death of Spartan Vledichi. WHen the pair reached the armory, tensions reached a boiling point, and the two began fistfighting.

While Spartan Kennedy won the resultant fight, the rest of the Spartans, reacting to the commotion, arrived at the armory to witness Kennedy pinning Spartan Chimes to the ground, and repeatedly punching him in the face.

This only served to further cast doubt on her ability to lead the team.

After a disciplinary hearing, both Spartans were reprimanded, and the whole group recieved remedial punishment in the form of constant joint-training exercises for the next two months.

The Next Generation
Prior to the Fall of Reach, plans were put in place by Admiral Daltona for a third Generation of Epimetheus trials. Due to the expanded nature of ONI's Spartan experimentations, these Spartan units were to be selected from existed SOF units, hand-selected by top ONI Brass for inclusion in the campaign. Fifteen exceptional individuals, each of them surviving multiple campaigns against Covenant forces, were drafted under the guise of experimental, temporary chemical enhancements. Only when Reach came under attack did the Candidates become aware of the true nature of the experimentation, and all agreed to go through with it when informed of its potentially-dangerous nature. While previous attempts at creating Spartan soldiers with these specific augmentations failed spectacularly, this group would be created with data gathered from the previous trials in mind, leading to a vastly higher success rate among augmentees.

All candidates would go on to survive their augmentations, and perform beyond expected parameters in the battles to come.

Battle of Mars
Following the disastrous generational tensions between the SII & III Epimetheus Spartans and the SIV candidates, the decision was made to split the group. The SIVs (under the command of Troy Inkarr, following the discharge of Evilina Slade), were deployed to Mars to assist the defense of the planet as it came under attack by remnants of Regret's fleet. They would remain on Mars until the end of the war.

Second Battle of Earth
With the Arrival of the Prophet of Truth, and a second Covenant Fleet, the Spartans of Epimetheus still on Earth prepared for a protracted geurilla campaign against Covenant Loyalist forces.

Skirmish at Luna
The Skirmish at Luna saw the Spartans of Epimetheus defend the population of Luna from a small strike force of Loyalist Brutes, operating out of a damaged CCS-Class Battlecruiser, that had become stranded following the UNSC's assault on the Excession at Voi. The Battlecruiser assisted in the creation of a medium-sized outpost, outside of the habitable domes of the Lunar Colony, and began excavation of an unknown artifact beneath the Lunar Soil.

Cleanup
While the UEG administration

=Post-War=

Illicit Activities
=Known Operatives=

The list of known Epimetheus operatives includes administrative staff, ONI field agents, medics, MPs, drill instructors, technicians, the three command staff in charge of running the various departments, and the Spartans themselves.

For brevity's sake, we will include only operatives, as they are of the most concern to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Care has been taken to ensure the names of the subjects are listen alongside their generation, current status, and loyalty to the UEG/UNSC/ONI.

Psych Profiles
A collection of psychological files were produced on the SII and SIII candidates serving in active duty. Of these twenty-two (22) subjects, thirteen (13) have survived into the post-war years, and are considered extremely dangerous. The information contained within these reports should be considered to be out of date, and thus potentially less-useful to the Office. Even so, the potential to know one's enemy is too great, and these profiles should still serve as a source of much-needed information.

Career Service Vitaes
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Generation SIV Service Vitaes
The following CSVs belong to Epimetheus SIV personnel, considered to be loyal to the UEG still, and deployed on operations to hunt down the rogue Epimetheus Spartans, and bring them to justice.